What They Said

“Ah, how many poor souls doth this sin kill in the dark, Hos. iv. 6, while they think verily they have good hearts, and are in the ready way to heaven!  This is the murderer that dispatcheth thousands in a silent manner, when (poor hearts !) they suspect nothing, and see not "the hand that mischieves them. You shall find, whatever excuses you have for ignorance, that it is a soul-undoing evil, Isa. xxvii. 21, 2 Thess. i. 8, S Cor. iv. 3.  Ah! would it not have pitied a man's heart to have seen that woful spectacle, when the poor Protestants were shut up a multitude together, in a barn, and a butcher comes, with his inhuman hands warm in human blood, and leads them one by one, blindfold, to a block, where he slew them (poor innocents!) one after another, by the scores, in cold blood?  But how much more should our hearts bleed, to think of the hundreds in great congregations, that ignorance doth butcher in secret, and lead them blind, fold to the block?  Beware this be none of your case ; make no pleas for ignorance: if you spare that sin, know that it will not spare you. Will a man keep a murderer in his bosom?”

Jospeh Alleine