WARNING AGAINST A RETURN TO ANTICHRIST.

Must antichrist be destroyed? Then what mean they who were to

appearance once come out, but now are going thither again.

If it cost Lot's wife dear for but looking hack, shall it not cost

them much dearer that are going back, that are gone back again; and

that after the angel had flown through the midst of heaven,

preaching the gospel to those that dwell on the earth?

They that received the mark of the beast at first, before this angel

came forth, are, when compared with these, excusable. Wherefore they

are not threatened with the smoking wrath that these are.

You dread that which is like to become of them that will be so mad

as to run into a house when fire is put to the gunpowder barrel in

order to its blowing up. Why, thus do they, let their pretended

cause he what it will, that are returning again to Babylon. Are her

plagues pleasant or easy to be borne? Or dost thou think that God is

at play with thee, and that he threateneth but in jest? Her plagues

are death and mourning and famine and fire; are these things to be

overlooked? And they that, as before hinted, shall receive the mark

of the beast in their forehead or in their hand, and shall worship

him, they shall drink the wine of the wrath of God. And will this be

a delightsome draught?

The Riches of Bunyan: Selected from His Works · 第 245 / 283 题