An historical anatomy of Christian melancholy, sympathetically set forth, in a threefold state of the soul. 1 Endued with grace, 2 ensnared in sin, 3 troubled in conscience. With a concluding meditation on the fourth verse of the ninth chapter of Saint John. / By Edmund Gregory, sometimes Bachelour of Arts in Trin. Coll. Oxon.

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The AUTHOR'•• Brief Directions To the READER.

LEt me obtain (loving Reader) this favour, that you take notice of these few Directi∣ons in the perusal of this little Book.

First, that the main Rule of my thoughts in the compiling hereof, hath been Experience; I say, The Experience out of divers particu∣lars diligently (according to my poor skill) comprised together into one. And truely if, according to the Philosopher, Experientia est op∣tima Magistra, Eperience be our best Teacher, as also a chief guide in all our Divinity; doubtlesse it is worth the labour seriously to mark it. Yet since that what I have written is not the Experience of all men, but of some (for who is able to finde out all the secresie of but one heart, much more of all hearts?) let it not, I pray, by any means of∣fend you, if you chance to meet with that thing which concurs not with the Experience and Motion

of your own soul; for I intend nothing herein as a positive Do∣ctrine or an absolute Rule: if any thing be generally true in all or most men, be it so; if not in those things which are strange to your soul, let your Discretion be your better Direction: for you must consider, that like an Anatomist I have cut up as well the Brest as the Head, and as well the Belly as the Brest: I have equally let out the foul and deformed parts that are in Man or Mankinde, as well as the fairer and better parts: Here is per∣chance somewhat of all sorts of men, and again something per∣chance which disagrees with most men.

Secondly, for my expressions, I have endeavoured to declare every

particular herein in the fittest and most naturally-agreeing terms (as neer as I could) according to the lively sense of the Truth, concei∣ving a congruity of speech to be the best eloquence; shattering in also now and then an expression in Verse, to the end the serious inten∣tion of your minde may the more pleasantly run on in reading: for though my poor and humble Ver∣ses adde perhaps but little orna∣ment to the matter, yet since they do not at all interrupt the sense nor your thoughts with any long Parenthesis, my hope is they may be delightful in their variety, though they be not in their elegan∣cy. And whereas again I have cast my words into a sympathetical and fellow-feeling Mould, the

cause is, Partly for that mine own experience gives me good reason for it; and partly again, for that I conceive, Nihil humanani à me alie∣num, No humane thing that be∣longs to Mankinde to be so strange unto me, but that I may fitly sympathize and sensibly concur with it. Saint Paul was all things unto all men; to the Jews, a Jew; to the Gentiles, a Gentile; to the sinners, a sinner, that he might work the more effect and comfort in all.

Thirdly, I shal earnestly desire, if your time and ability may conveni∣ently serve, that you will adde your own Experimental Observations hereunto, to the encreasing of this poor Book (if God shall so give

his blessing) into a larger Volume: for I could heartily wish that lear∣ned men would studie Themselves as well as their Books; would more set forward in communicating their Experience, I say, the real Expe∣rience of their Hearts, rather then the Imaginary notions of their Brains, to the publike use, for comfort and encrease of Know∣ledge unto others.

Lastly, whereas I have laboured very much for Brevity, knitting up all things short and close together, to the end I might not be tedious unto you; so that it may be dum brevis esse labore obscurus fio, whilest that I strive to be brief, I become obscure, and the more dark to the apprehension of him that readeth:

My humble Request therefore is, that you would bestowe, if not a repetition, at leastwise the more heed and deliberation in reading: and as Elisha did in reviving the Widows Childe, so let me be∣seech you to take this little Book up into your Chamber or Pri∣vate Room, to spread it before you, and to stretch your self upon it, to apply the inner shape and proportion of your hearts unto it; and so by your Prayers unto God, to desire that you may finde a soul and life in the reading of it, that it may so animate in you, that it be not as a dead and alto∣gether-unprofitable thing, which I also shall ever pray for to the utmost of my power.

And thus for the present I take my leave, remaining

Yours, E. G.