Title:  The Heavenly Footman

Author:  John Bunyan

Release Date:  October 14, 2004 [eBook #13750]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ISO-646-us (us-ASCII)

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       The 8th Chapter of Joshua is referenced in the phrase: 
       “It is taken from that xxth of Joshua”

THE HEAVENLY FOOTMAN

or, A Description of the Man That Gets to Heaven:  with Directions How to Run So As to Obtain

by

JOHN BUNYAN

“So run, that ye may obtain.”—­1 Cor.  IX. 24.

THE AUTHOR’S EPISTLE TO ALL SLOTHFUL AND CARELESS PEOPLE.

Friends,

Solomon saith, that “the desire of the slothful killeth him;” and if so, what will slothfulness itself do to those that entertain it?  The proverb is, “He that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame:”  and this I dare be bold to say, no greater shame can befall a man, than to see that he hath fooled away his soul, and sinned away eternal life.  And I am sure this is the next way to do it; namely, to be slothful; slothful, I say, in the work of salvation.  The vineyard of the slothful man, in reference to the things of this life, is not fuller of briers, nettles, and stinking weeds, than he that is slothful for heaven, hath his heart full of heart-choking and soul-damning sin.

Slothfulness hath these two evils:  first, to neglect the time in which it should be getting heaven; and by that means doth, in the second place, bring in untimely repentance.  I will warrant you, that he who should lose his soul in this world through slothfulness, will have no cause to be glad thereat, when he comes to hell.  Slothfulness is usually accompanied with carelessness; and carelessness is for the most part begotten by senselessness; and senselessness doth again put fresh strength into slothfulness; and by this means the soul is left remediless.  Slothfulness shutteth out Christ; slothfulness shameth the soul.