"This night your soul may be taken from you, and you may be in hell tomorrow." - Ralph Venning (1621-1643)
"As men sow in this seed time they shall reap in that harvest." - Ralph Venning (1621-1643)
These are just 2 of the gems from Ralph Venning's little book, The Sinfulness of Sin. Below are a few more:
"There will be no sleeping in hell."
"'But you only have to repent' says sin, 'God will forgive you.' To this we must say that he who has promised forgiveness to those who repent, has not promised repentance to them that sin."
"They will be in this like the burning bush, which was burnt with fire, but not consumed. As the church was on earth, so sinners will be in hell."
"Most of the past time in the world is lost time, but sinning time, or time spent in sin, is worst than lost, for it must be accounted for."
"To pay so dear a price for so vile a commodity. To pay according to the rate of heaven and be put off with hell."
"Will you be damned? Can you think calmly of going to hell? Have you no pity on your poor soul?"
"Holiness is the Beuty of earth and of heaven. They who jeer and scoff at holiness and rejoice that they are none of the holy ones, might as well make bone fires, ring the bells, and give thanks that they shall never be saved. For if they are not holy, saved they cannot be."
"To pluck out you right eye or cut off your right hand would be a pleasure in comparison to being damned in hell. A burning fever is nothing to burning in hell. Of all the miseries which have been undergone by all men it would be nothing in hell."
"If thunder, lightening, and earthquakes make men afraid and shrink together, what will hell do? If the throbbing of a toothache or gnawing of gout puts men to excruciating pain, what will hell do?"
"When men please themselves with thoughts of their past sins, when they chew the cud and lick their lips after it...then they do the sin over and over again by thinking of it."
"Nebuchadnezzar's furnace was terrible, especially when heated seven times more than usual, yet hell is a worse furnace of fire. Those who do iniquity (who are sin makers by trade), shall be cast into a furnace of fire which shall not devour them, but shall torment them and make them wail and gnash their teeth."
"It is said that thoughts are free. They are indeed free with respect to the world who cannot judge us for them. But God can and will."
"So to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. They who live in sin, however, work out their own damnation, and that many times without fear or trembling. But they will have a great store of these when they come to receive their just doom and damnation. Time is a most precious commodity, for eternity depends upon the moment."
"There will be degrees of torment in hell, although it will be intolerable for all."
"It's as if the sinner should say to the Lord in the Day of Judgment, 'Have mercy on me.'
'Have mercy upon you?' says God. 'No, I will have no mercy upon you. There was a time when you might have had mercy without judgment, but now you shall have judgment without mercy. Depart! Depart!'
If they should then beg and say, 'Lord, if we must depart, let it be from Thy throne of judgment, but not from Thee.'
'No,' says the Lord. 'Depart from me. Depart form my presence, which is joy. Depart, and go to hell!'
'Lord,' they say, 'seeing we must be gone, bless us before we go, that Thy blessing may be upon us.'
'Oh no,' says God, 'Go with a curse. Depart ye cursed.'
'Oh Lord, if we must go from Thee, let us not go into the place of torment, but appoint a place, if not of pleasure, then of ease.'
'No, depart into fire, burning and tormenting flames.'
'Oh Lord, if into fire, let it be only for a little while. For who can dwell in everlasting burning?'
'No! Neither you nor the fire shall know an end. Be gone into everlasting fire.'
'Lord, then let it be long before we go there.'
'No, depart immediately. The sentence shall be immediately put into execution.'
'Oh Lord, let us at least have good company who will pity us, though they cannot help us.'
'No, you shall have none but the tormenting devils. Those whom you obeyed when they were your tempters shall be with you as tormentors.'
What misery sin has brought on man to bring him to hear this dreadful doom."
