WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED THE LAMENTABLE STATE OF THE DAMNED; THEIR CRIES, THEIR DESIRES IN THEIR DISTRESSES, WITH THE DETERMINATION OF GOD UPON THEM. A GOOD WARNING WORD TO SINNERS, BOTH OLD AND YOUNG, TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION BETIMES, AND TO SEEK, BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, TO AVOID, LEST THEY COME INTO THE SAME PLACE OF TORMENT.
Also, a Brief Discourse touching the profitableness of the Scriptures for our instruction in the way of righteousness, according to the tendency of the said parable.
BY THAT POOR AND CONTEMPTIBLE SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST, JOHN BUNYAN.
'The wicked shall be tuned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.'—Psalm 9:17
'And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.'—Revelation 20:15
London: Printed by Ralph Wood, for M. Wright, at the King's Head in the Old Bailey, 1658.[1]
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR
How awful is that cry of anguish which has reached us from beyond the tomb, even from the infernal realms, and on which Bunyan, with his singular and rare ability, fixes our attention. It is the voice of one who had received his good things in this fleeting life; who had fared sumptuously every day, without providing for eternity, and now cries for a drop of water to cool his parched tongue. Plunged into unutterable, inconceivable, and eternal torments, he pleads that the poor afflicted beggar, who had lain at his gate, might be sent from the dead to warn his relatives, that they might escape, and not aggravate his misery, by upbraiding him as a cause of their destruction, by having neglected to set them a pious example. He knows that there is no hope for his own wretched soul, and expresses no wish that his family should pay for masses to ease his pangs. No, such tomfooleries are limited to this insane world. His poor request is one drop of water, and a warning messenger to his relatives. The answer is most decisive—there is a great, an eternal gulf fixed—none can pass between heaven and hell; and as to your father's house, 'They have Moses and the prophets'; and now it may be added, They have Jesus and his apostles; if they hear not them, 'neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.' No; if Isaiah, with his mighty eloquence, again appeared among mortals, again would his cry be heard, 'Who hath believed our report?' 'What! seek the living among the dead? To the law, and to the testimony, saith God.'
Reader, these are solemn realities. He who came from the unseen world—from the bosom of the Father—reveals them unto us. O! that we may not mistake that voice for thunder, which called upon a trembling world to 'HEAR HIM.'
The rich man personates all the thoughtless and uncoverted who die in their sins, his wealth can neither bribe death nor hell; he is stricken, and descends to misery with the bitter, but unavailing regret of having neglected the great salvation. He had taken no personal, prayerful pains to search the sacred Scriptures for himself; he had disobeyed the gospel, lived in revelry, and carelessness of his soul; he had ploughed iniquity and sown wickedness, and reaps the same. 'By the blast of God he perishes, and is consumed by the breath of his nostrils.' 'They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.'