The first Pointe.

FIrst, I am to consider the greiuousnesse of mortall Sinne by comparison, with all the paines, and miseries that are in this life, pondering that it is the cause of these temporall euills, God thereby chastizing it most iustly. For proofe he∣reof; I may runne in Discourse thorough the exte∣riour Goods, which wee call the Goods of Fortu∣ne, and thorough those which belong to the Bo∣dye, of the which Sinne is the Destruction Page  117First, it destroyeth Riches, God depriuing Sinners of them, because they abuse them: as hee spoiled the Egiptians of their Iewells, and the Iebusites, and Cananites of their Countries. Sinne likewise destroyeth Honour, for whosoeuer taketh (as much as lyeth in him) the honour from God, and from his Neighbour, deserueth to loose his owne Ho∣nour. For this, the high Preiste Heli, and his Son∣nes lost the Honour of Preisthood with their life, God saying vnto them, Qui contemnunt me, * erunt ignobiles; They that contemne mee shallbee base. Sinne destroyeth the Scepter, and the Gouernment: For disobedience God tooke from Saul the kingdome that hee had giuen him: And Nabuchodonosor with vaine-glorious boasting lost his also, liuing seuen yeares like a Beaste, God cutting downe that sightly Tree, for that his Sinnes deserued not that hee should stand vpright. And it is a iust Chastize∣ment that hee should neither haue Dignitie, nor Commaunde on Earthe, that subjecteth not him∣selfe to the king of Earthe, and of Heauen: and that hee should haue no preeminence ouer men, who by Sinne makes himselfe like vnto Beastes.

Besides this, Sinne destroyeth the Healthe, God chastizing Sinners with manifoldnesse, and Varie∣tie of Infirmities, and Sores from Heade to Foote. * For hee deserueth not to haue Healthe, that em∣ployeth it to offende him, that gaue it him: and whosoeuer hath his Soule sicke, beeing albe to heale it, is worthy to haue his Bodye sicke, and not to bee able to eure it: as the Lame man that in eight, * and thirty yeares could not bee healed in the Proba∣tiea pond, where others were healed.

Sinne taketh away Content, and Alacritie, cau∣sing a mortall Sadnesse, which dryeth the bones, giueth a Life worse then Deathe itselfe: * Like vnto the Citty that saide, God hath filled mee vvith bit∣ternesse, Page  118and made mee drunke vvith VVormevvod. Or as the miserable king Antiochus that saied: * To hovv much Tribulation, and to vvhat VVaues of Sadnesse am I come, I that vvas merry, and beloued in my kingdome!

Sinne taketh away Life, procuring Deathe by a thousand disastrous meanes: * for the Sinnes of Pharao, and his kingdome, an Angell killed in one night all the first begotten, and another day drowned his Armye of innumerable men. And another Angell in the Campe of Senacherib, * killed one hundred fou∣rescore and fiue thousand men, and many Israelites perished in the Desertes with diuerse straunge kin∣des of Deathe.

Finally Sinne causeth those three terrible euills that were offered to Dauid, to choose one of them in punishment of his Offence, Famine, VVarre, and Pestilence, with the which innumerable men perishe with exceeding greate miserie, and rage. For Sinne likewise come Earthquakes, Tempests at Sea, Delu∣ges, Fiers, Lightenings, Haile, Stormes and other such chastizements: for as Sinne is the Injurie of the vniuersall Creator, all the Creatures are Instru∣ments of his Vengeance.

Then I will applye all this to myselfe, behol∣ding my euills, and miseries, and I shall vnderstand, that they haue all come vpon mee justly for my Sinnes, that I may knowe, and see by Experience, (as Ierem•e saithe) how euill, * and bitter it is to forsake God, and not to feare him. And so from the horrour which I haue of these paines, I shall ex∣tract a horrour of my Sinnes, saying to myselfe: Seeing thou art so much afraide of temporall miseries, * vvhy art thou not afraide of Sinne vvhich is the cause thereof? If thou tremblest at Pouerty, and Dis∣honour, vvhy tremblest thou not at Sinne, from vvhence they both proceede? And if thou flyest the Page  119sicknesse of the bodye, vvhy flyest thou not the sicke∣nesse of the Soule: seeing that endes vvith a tempo∣rall Deathe, but this hath a Deathe euerlasting? O eternall God illuminate mee vvith thy Soueraigne Light, that thorough the feare I conceiue of the euills of the bodye, I may learne to feele the euills of the Soule.