The Devils Banket Described, Dedication 6
TO THE VERIE WORTHY GENTLEman, Mr. Iohn Alleyne, sauing health.
SIR,
I hauehave endeuoured in this short Sermon, to prescribe to these sicke times some spirituall Phisicke. The ground I hauehave receiued from the direction of God: the methode I submit to the correction of man. In this I might erre, in the other I could not. The maine and materiall obiects I hauehave leuelled at, are. 1. to beget in vsus a sense of the sinnes we hauehave done, of the miseries whereby we are vndone. 2. To rebuke our forgetfulnesse of Gods long-since ordained remedie, the true intrinsique Balme of his Gospell. In the sauing vse whereof, wee are (like some Countries blessed with the medicinall benefits of Nature, yet) through nescience or negligence, defectiue to our selues in the application. Inward diseases are as frequent as outward; those by disquiet of minde, as these by disdiet of body. It was a rare age, that had no spirituall plague ranging and raging in it. Ours hath manifold and manifest, vile and vi…ible ones: the VVorld growing at once olde and decayed in nature, lustie and actiue in producing sinnes. VVickednesse is an aged Harlot, yet as pregnant and teeming as euer. It cannot be denied, but that our Iniquities are so palpable, that it is as easie to proue them, as to reproue them. Were our bodies but halfe so diseased, (and yet this yeere hath not fauoured them) as our soules are, a strange and vnheard of mortallitie would ensue. Man is naturally very indulgent to himselfe, but misplaceth his bountie. Hee giues the body so much libertie, that it becomes licentious: but his soule is so prisoned vp in the bonds of corrupt affections, that she cries of him, as that troubled Princesse of her strict keeper, from such a Iaylour good Lord deliuer me. The Flesh is made a Gentleman, the Minde a Beggar. Sicke wee are, yet consult not the Oracles of Heauen for our welfare, nor sollicite the helpe of our great Phisitian Christ. He is our Sauiour, and bare our sicknesses, saith the Prophet: yea,Esa. 53. tooke on him our infirmities. Infirmitates speciei, non indiuidui:Aquin. Infirmities commune to the nature of mankinde, not particularly incident to eueryevery singular person. Those hee tooke on himselfe, that he might know the better to succour vsus in our weaknesse. Heb. 2.1…. and 4.15.As the Queene sung of her selfe in the Poet. Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. It is most perfectly true of our Iesus, that hee learned by his owne sorrowes to pitie ours; though all his sufferance was for our sakes. But how should hee helpe vsus, if wee make not our moane to him? How should we be restored, when Gods sauing Phisicke is vnsought, vnbought, vnapplied? To conuince our neglect, and perswade our better vse of the Gospell, tends this weake labour. To your protection it willingly flies; and would rest it selfe vnderunder your shadow. The God of Peace giuegive you the peace of God, which passeth all vnderstanding; and afford you many ioyes in this life to the end, and in the next his ioy without end.
Yours in the seruices of louelove, THO. ADAMS.