To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
HOw ruinous a farme hath man taken, in ••aking himselfe? how ••eady is the house eue∣••y day to fall downe,
and how is all the groun•• ouer-spread with weeds•• all the body with diseases? where not onely euery turfe, but euery stone•• beares weeds; not onely euery muscle of the flesh, but euery bone of the bo∣dy, hath some infirmitie•• euery little flint vpon the face of this soile, hath some infectious weede, euery tooth in our head, such a paine, as a constant man is afraid of, and yet ashamed of that feare, of that sense of the paine. How deare, and how of∣••••n
a rent doth Man ••ay for this farme? hee ••ies twice a day, in ••ouble meales, and how ••••tle time he hath to raise 〈◊〉〈◊〉 rent? How many ho∣•••• daies to call him from ••s labour? Euery day is ••alfe-holy day, halfe spent ••n sleepe. What repara∣••ions, and subsidies, and ••ontributions he is put to, ••esides his rent? What ••edicines, besides his di∣••••? and what Inmates ••e is faine to take in, be∣sides ••is owne familie, what infectious diseases,
from other men. Adam might haue had Para∣dise for dressing and kee∣ping it; and then his ren•• was not improued to such a labour, as would haue made his brow sweat; and yet he gaue it ouer; how farre greater a rent doe wee pay for this farme, this body, who pay our selues, who pay the farme it selfe, and can∣not liue vpon it? Nei∣ther is our labour at an end, when wee haue cut downe some weed, as soone as it sprung vp,
corrected some violent ••nd dangerous accident of a disease, which would ••aue destroied speedily; ••or when wee haue pul∣led vp that weed, from the very root, recouered ••ntirely and soundly, from that particular disease; but the whole ground is of an ill na••ure, the whole soile ill disposed; there are ••nclinations, there is a propensnesse to diseases in the body, out of which without any other disor∣der, diseases will grow, and so wee are put to a
continuall labour vpon this farme, to a continu∣all studie of the whole complexion and constitu∣tion of our body. In the distempers and diseases of soiles, sourenesse, drinesse, weeping, any kinde of barrennesse, the remedy and the physicke, is, for a great part, sometimes in themselues; sometime the very situation re∣leeues them, the hanger of a hill, will purge and vent his owne malig∣nant moisture; and the burning of the vpper
••urfe of some ground (as ••ealth from cauterizing) ••uts a new and a vigo∣rous youth into that soile, ••nd there rises a kinde of Phoenix out of the ashes, •• fruitfulnesse out of that which was barren be∣fore, and by that, which is the barrennest of all, ashes. And where the ground cannot giue it ••elfe physicke, yet it re∣ceiues Physicke from o∣ther grounds, from o∣ther soiles, which are not the worse, for ha∣uing contributed that
helpe to them, fro•• Marle in other hils, o•• from slimie sand in othe•• shoares: grounds help themselues, or hurt no other grounds, fro•• whence they receiu•• helpe. But I haue take•• a farme at this hard rent and vpon those heau•••• couenants, that it can af∣ford it selfe no helpe; (no part of my body, if it were cut off, would cure another part; in som•• ca••es it might preserue a sound part, but in no case recouer an infected)
••nd, if my body may haue ••ny Physicke, any Medi∣••ine from another body, one Man from the flesh of another Man (as by Mummy, or any such composition,) it must ••ee from a man that is dead, and not, as in o∣ther soiles, which are ne∣uer the worse for contri∣buting their Marle, or their fat slime to my ground. There is nothing in the same man, to helpe man, nothing in man∣kind to helpe one another, (in this sort, by way of
Physicke) but that hee who ministers the helpe, is in as ill case, as he that receiues it would haue beene, if he had not had it; for hee, from whose body the Physicke comes, is dead. When therefore I tooke this farme, vn∣dertooke this body, I vndertooke to draine, not a marish, but a moat, where there was, not water mingled to offend, but all was water; I vndertooke to perfume dung, where no one part, but all was equally
vnsauory; I vndertooke to make such a thing wholsome, as was not poison by any manifest quality, intense heat, or cold, but poison in the whole substance, and in the specifique forme of it. To cure the s••arpe acci∣dents of diseases, is a great worke; to cure the dis∣ease it selfe, is a greater; but to cure the body, the root, the occasion of dis∣eases, is a worke reser∣ued for the great Physi∣tian, which he doth ne∣••er any other way, but
by glorifying these bodies in the next world.
MY God, my God, what am I put to, when I am put to consi∣der, and put off, the root, the fuell, the occasion of my sicknesse? What Hy∣pocrates, what Galen, could shew mee that in my body? It lies deeper than so; it lies in my soule: And deeper than so; for we may wel con∣sider the body, before the
soule came, before ina∣nimation, to bee without sinne; and the soule b••∣fore it come to the body, before that infection, to be without sinne; sinne is the root, and the fuell of all sicknesse, and yet that which destroies body & soule, is in neither, but in both together; It is in the vnion•• of the body and soule; and, O my God, could I preuent that, or can I dissolue that? The root, and the fuell of my sicknesse, is my sinne, my actuall sinne; but euen
that sinne hath another root, another fuell, origi∣nall sinne; and can I de∣uest that? Wilt thou bid me to separate the leuen, that a lumpe of Dowe hath receiued, or the salt, that the water hath con∣tracted, from the Sea? Dost thou looke, that I should so looke to the fuell, or embers of sinne, that I neuer take fire? The whole world is a pile of fagots, vpō which w••e are laid, and (as though there were no other) we are the bellowes.
Ignorance blowes the fire, He that touched any vncleane thing, though he knew it not, became vn∣cleane, and a sacrifice was required, (therefore a sin imputed) though it were done in ignorance. Igno∣rance blowes this Coale; but thē knowledge much more; for, there are that know thy iudgements, and yet not onely doe, but haue pleasure in others, that doe against them. Nature blowes this Coale; By na∣ture wee are the children of wrath: And the Law
blowes it, thy Apostle, Saint Paul, ••ound, That sinne tooke occasion by the Law, that there∣fore because it is forbid∣den, we do some things. If wee breake the Law, wee sinne; Sinne is the transgression of the Law; And sinne it selfe becomes a Law in our members. Our fathers haue im∣printed the seed, infused a spring of sinne in vs: As a fountaine casteth out her waters, wee cast out our wickednesse; but we haue done worse than our fa∣thers.
We are open to in∣finite tentations, and yet, as though we lacked, we are tempted of our owne lusts. And not satisfied with that, as though we wer•• not powerfull enough, or cunning enough, to demolish, or vndermine our selues, when wee our selues haue no pleasure in the sinne, we sinne for others sakes. When Adam sin∣ned for Eues sake, and Salomon to gratifie his wiues, it was an vxori∣ous sinne: When the Iud∣ges
sinned for Iezabels sake, and Ioab to obey Dauid, it was an ambiti∣ous sinne: When Pilat sinned to humor the peo∣ple, and Herod to giue farther contentment to the Iewes, it was a popular sinne: Any thing serues, to occasion sin, at home, in my bosome, or abroad, in my Marke, and aime; that which I am, and that which I am not, that which I would be, proues coales, and embers, and fuell, and bellowes to sin; and dost thou put me, O
my God, to discharge my selfe, of my selfe, be∣fore I can be well? When ••hou bidst me to put off ••he old Man, doest thou meane, not onely my old habits of actuall sin, but the oldest of all, origi∣nall sinne? When thou biddest me purge out the ••euen, dost thou meane, not only the sowrenesse of mine owne ill contra∣cted customes, but the innate tincture of sin, imprinted by Nature? How shall I doe that which thou requirest,
and not falsifie that which thou hast said, that sin is gone ouer all? But, O my God, I presse thee not, with thine owne text, without thine owne com∣ment; I know that in the state of my body, which is more discernible, than that of my soule, thou dost effigiate my Soule to me. And though no A∣natomist can say, in dis∣secting a body, here lay the coale, the fuell, the occasion of all bodily dis∣eases, but yet a man may haue such a knowledge
of his owne constituti∣on, and bodily inclina∣tion to diseases, as that he may preuent his dan∣ger in a great part: so though wee cannot as∣signe the place of origi∣nall sinne, nor the Nature of it, so exactly, as of a∣ctuall, or by any dili∣gence deuest it, yet ha∣uing washed it in the wa∣ter of thy Baptisme, wee haue not onely so clean∣sed it, that wee may the better look vpon it, and discerne it, but so weak∣ned it, that howsoeuer it
may retaine the former nature, it doth not retaine the former force, and though it may haue the same name, it hath not the same venome.
O Eternall and most gracious God, the God of securitie, and the enemie of securitie too, who wouldest haue vs alwaies sure of thy loue, and yet wouldest haue vs alwaies doing some∣thing
for it, let mee al∣waies so apprehend thee, as present with me, and yet so follow after thee, as though I had not ap∣prehended thee. Thou enlargedst Ezechias lease for fifteene yeeres; Thou renewedst Lazarus his lease, for a time, which we know not: But thou didst neuer so put out any of these fires, as that thou didst not rake vp the embers, and wrap vp a future mortalitie, in that body, which thou hadst then so reprieued.
Thou proceedest no o∣therwise in our soules, O our good, but fearefull God: Thou pardonest no sinne so, as that that sinner can sinne no more; thou makest no man so acceptable, as that thou mak••st him impec∣cable. Though there∣fore it were a diminution of the largenesse, and de∣rogatorie to the fulnesse of thy mercie, to looke backe vpon those sinnes which in a true repen∣tance•• I haue buried in the wounds of ••hy
Sonne, with a iealous or suspicious eie, as though they were now my sinnes, when I had so ••ransferred them vpon ••hy Sonne, as though ••hey could now bee rai∣sed to life againe, to con∣demne mee to death, when they are dead in ••im, who is the fountaine of life, yet were it an ir∣regular anticipation, and an insolent presumption, to think•• that thy present mercie extended to all my future sinnes, or that there were no embers, no
coales of future sinnes left in mee. Temper therefore thy mercie so to my soule, O my God, that I may neither de∣cline to any faintnesse of spirit, in suspecting thy mercie now, to bee lesse hearty, lesse sincere, than it vses to be, to those who are perfitly reconciled to thee, nor presume so of it, as either to thinke this present mercie an an∣tidote against all poisons, and so expose my selfe to tentations, vpon confi∣dence that this thy mer∣cie
shall preserue mee, or that when I doe cast my selfe into new sinnes, I may haue new mercie at any time, because thou didst so easily afford mee this.
Leu. 5.2
Num. 15 22.
Rom. 1.32.
Eph. 2.3.
1 ••o. 3.4.
Rom. 7.23.
Ier. 6.7.
7.26.
Iacob. 1.14.
Gen. 3.6.
1 Reg. 1••.3.
1 Reg. 21
1 Par. 22 3.
Lu••. 23.23.
Act. 12.3.
Eph. 4.22.
1 Cor. 5.7.