The Godly Mans Journey to Heaven, Treatise 1 · Meditation 4
4. Behold that rare heauenly felicitie, and more then royall magnificence of man made in Adam, and standing in Adam by his God: and with this man his wofull condition, and more then slauish pouertie falling in Adam, and with Adam, from God.
MOurne, mourne, ô my soule! when thou doest remember what I was from my God being created by him in Adam, and what I am now from my father and mother, hauing fallen with them in Adam. Was I not created to the very image of his Maiestie? being so righteous and so perfect, that in my whole minde, heart and will, yea in all the powers of my soule, and members of my bodie, there was sufficiencie of truth, and power, whereby I was able to know my God, to louelove my God and my neighbour, according to that voice of the Law,Mat. 22. 37. 39. Thou shalt louelove the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soule, and with all thy mind, and thou shalt louelove thy neighbour as thy selfe: and that without any diso…der, rebellion, or corruption; and so without any darknesse in the mind, frowardnesse in the will, rebellion in the heart, or corruption in any of the remanent powers of the soule, or members of the bodie. And being thus spiritually beautified, was I not beside this that great Emperour (greater then the Turke, who stileth himselfe the great Emperour) hauing all the foules of the aire, all the fishes of the sea, with all which is here on earth, bound by the very appointment of God to serue me; yea most readily willing (by the force of his Maiesties blessing accompanying me) for to serue me? But alas, ô my soule! as I am now from my parents, hauing fallen in Adam, I am depriued of the Image of that blessed God to the which I was made, and made voide of that righteousnesse wherewith I was then clothed, being shaped and fashioned as Seth the sonne of Adam and Euah was shaped and fashioned. And how was that, ô my soule? Surely in the sinfull image of his sinfull parents: so that now my soule is not simply wounded through sinne,Eph…. 2. 1. but starke dead in sinnes and trespasses. And therefore no wonder that our God (who onelyonly knoweth perfectly what euill sin, alas, hath procured to vsus) spake thus of man:Gen. 6. All the imaginations of mans heart are onelyonly euill continually. And lest any man should hauehave prooued so bold, as to apply that saying onelyonly to those of the first world ouerthrowne by the deluge, it pleased our wise God, ô my soule, a…ter that Noah was brought foorth of the Arke, to replenish the earth againe; to sound ouer againe his former iudgement touching man,Gen. 8. 21. saying, The imagination of mans heart is euill euen from his youth. Oh, ô my soule! when shall we learne to consider rightly that third Chapter written to the Romans, in the which that spirit of truth describing man vntounto vsus as he is out of Christ, and so destitute of the grace of God, proclaimed him to be nothing but a very masse of vile and loathsome corruption. Yea is not this our originall corruption cleared vntounto vsus by the holy Scriptures so sensibly, that as we are acquainted with that good which we cannot possibly do, because of it, so we are informed touching y• euill which we cannot but do by reason of it.1. Cor. 2. 14. The naturall man perceiueth not the things which are of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 2. Cor. 3 5.We are not sufficient of our selues, to think any thing as of our selues. Rom. 7. 18.I find no meanes to performe that which is good. The wisedome of the flesh is enimitie against God, Rom. 8. 7.for it is not subiect vntounto the Law of God, neither indeed can be. Yea, is not holy Paul couched vnderunder the tyrannie of this fearefull originall corruption, wherewith alas we are all infected, ô my soule! compelled to make this confession: I find another law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind, Rom. 7. 23.and leading me captiue vntounto the law of sinne, which is in my members. And after this, bursteth he not forth in this vehement complaint:Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliuer me from this bodie of death? Beside this, ô my soule! is not miserable man thus depriued of all righteousnesse, and corrupted throughout in bodie and soule, made a miserable begger being before so great a Monarch, that he hath not title at all to any of the creatures of God: so that being now out of Christ, the very meate which he eateth, the very clothes which couer his nakednesse, the very aire wherein he breatheth, shall procure his condemnation, although he sinned not otherwayes against his God. But which is most lamentably miserable, ô my soule, not onelyonly is man thus depriued of good, and corrupted with euill, made a miserable begger▪ but a monstrous slaue, yea a slaue vntounto a fearefull slaue, euen to Satan that euill one, who not onelyonly lodgeth,Eph…. 2. 2. but euen worketh in the children of disobedience, fighting against man by these his most fearefull champions, Sinne, the World, Death, and the Graue. Oh, oh, when shall this be seene and perceiued by vsus ô my soule! The sense hereof moued Augustine, not to be ashamed to write thus of himselfe, euen while he was compassed with shame, Vtrinque me concludit pudor, Aug. epist. …o….erubesco scribere quod sum, non audeo pingere quod non sum, odi quod sum, & non sum quod amo. Shame compasseth me on both sides, I blush to write what I am, I dare not paint foorth what I am not, I hate that which I am, and I am not that which I louelove. And againe, Quis igitur ego, & qualis ego? quid non mali ego, aut facta mea, aut si non facta, dicta mea, aut si non dicta mea, voluntas mea fuerit? Who am I then, and of what condition? what euill am I not, or my doings, and if not my doings, yet my words, and if not my words, yet ô what euill hath not my will bene? And therefore making his moane to his God, he can pray most humbly, most ardently out of the sense of his owne miserie, because of sinne:Confes. lib. 9. cap. 2. Parce mihi Domine, ego cadauer putridum, osca vermium, vas foetidum. Spare me ô Lord, euen me who am a rotten carrion, the meate of wormes, and a s…inking filthie vessell. Could this be seene by vsus, ô my soule! sinne should be hated by vsus with an vnfained hatred, Satan should be resisted by vsus, as our onelyonly deadly enemie. We vse to say in a vulgar prouerbe, Burnt barne fire dreadeth: hath not that fierie dragon long ago burnt vsus all, alas, in our first parents? Feele we not euen to this day the fearefull hurt which we receiued by that burning? Yea carrie we not about with vsus (go where we will) the scarres and marks of that burning? Should we not then abhorre to looke vponupon that dragon? to obey any of his counsels, were they neuer so apparently profitable or pleasant? For albeit his coate appeareth now and then to be somewhat friendly, his heart shall remaine alwayes the heart of an irreconcilable foe.