The Marrow of the Oracles of God, Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
Shewing the miserie of life in wicked men.
NOw it followes, that I should breake open the miseries of life; the consideration whereof should abate in vsus this wretched louelove of life.
The miseries of life may bee The miseries of life two wayes considered.two waies considered: for they are of two sorts; either such miseries, as load the life of Nature, or such miseries as doe molest the very life of Grace.The miseries of a naturall life shewed thr…e waves.
The miseries that accompany the naturall life of man, while he remaines in the state of Nature onelyonly, who can recount? I will giuegive but a briefe touch of some heads of them.
First thinke of thy sinnes; and so three dreadfull things may amaze Three dreadfull considerations about sin. 1. Thou art guilty of Adams sin.thy thoughts. For first, thou art guilty of Adams sinne; for by that man, sinne came in vponupon all men; euen the guilt of his sin: Rom. 5. 12. Secondly, thy nature is altogether vile and abominable 2. Thou wast conceiued in sin; which is like a Leprosie hard to cure.from thy birth, thou wast conceiued in sinne, Psal. 51. 5. And this staine and leprosie hangs on fast vponupon thy nature, and cannot be cured but by the blood of Christ only, Heb. 12. 1. And this is seated in all the faculties of thy soule. For in thy Minde, there is Ignorance, Spread ouer thy▪ whole soule▪ or in thy minde.and Impotency to receiue knowledge; and a naturall approouing of euill and errour, rather than the truth and sound doctrine. Those wayes seeme good in thine eyes, which tend vntounto death, 1. Cor. 2. 14. Rom. 8. 7. 2. Cor. 3. 5. Pro. 14. 12. And this thou maiest perceiue by this, that thou art not able to thinke a good thought, but canst goe free, for dayes and weekes, without any holy cogitation; and besides, thy minde is infinitely prone to swarmes of euill thoughts, Gen. 6. 5.
Againe, if thou behold thy An… in thy Conscience.Conscience, it is impure, polluted, without light, or life, or glory in thee; shut vp in a dungeon, excusing thee in many faults, and accusing thee for things are not faults, but in thy conceit: and when it doth accuse thee for sin, it rageth and falleth mad with vnbridled fury and terrors, keeping no bounds of Hope or MercieMercy.
Further, if thou obserue thy And in thy Affections.Affections, they are altogeth…r impotent in that which is good, there is no lust in thee after that which is good; and yet they are all out of order, and prone to cō tinuall, rebellion, against God, ready to be fired by all the enticements of the World, or the Diuell, Gal. 5. 24. Thirdly, vntounto these adde thy innumerable 3 Innumerable Actuall sins.Actuall sinnes, which are more then the haires of thy head; multiplyed daily in thought, affection, word, and deed; the least of them deseruing hell fire for euer: thy sinnes of Infancie, Youth, Old age; sinnes of O…ission and Commission; sinnes in Prosperitie and Aduersitie; sinnes at Home and Abroad; sinnes of Infirmitie and Presumption. If Dauid looking vponupon his sins, could say, They hauehave so compassed me, and taken such hold on mee, that I am not able to looke vp: Oh then, if thou haddest sight and sense, how might'st thou much more cry out of the intolerable burthen of them? and the rather, if thou obserue, that many of thy corruptions reigne tyrannically, and hauehave subdued thy life to their vassalage, so as thou art in continuall slauerie to them.
Thus is thy life infested with these vnspeakeable inordinations: and thus of the first part of thy infelicitie in life.
Secondly, if thou obserue, but The punishments inflicted vponupon wicked men.how God hath auenged himselfe vponupon them, and what yet remaineth vntounto thee, how can thy heart sustaine it selfe? For
1. Thou art a banished man, 1. They are banished from Paradise.exiled from Paradise, and made to liue without hope to returne thither: The best part of the earth thou shalt neuer enioy.
2. The earth is cursed to thee, 2. The earth cursed.and it may bee a wofull spectacle to see all the creatures subiect to vanitie, and smitten with the strokes of God for thy sinne, and groaning daily round about thee.
3. Looke vponupon thy most miserable soule, for there thy minde 3. Their soules in wofull distresse.and conscience liue shut vp with darknesse and horror. The Diuels hauehave within thee strong holds, and liue intrenched in thy thoughts, Ephes. 4. 17. 2. Cor. 10. 5. Thy heart is spiritually dead, and like a stone within thee, Ephes. 2. 1. Ezech. …6. 26.
4. Thy body is wretched 4 And so the…r bodies.through deformities and infirmities, diuersly noisome to thee with paines that grieue thee, either in respect of labour or diseases, vntounto which thou art so prone, and there is no part or ioynt of thee, but is lyable to many kinds of diseases, Deut. 28. 31, 22. Gen. 3. 19. And of the labours of thy life, which is but the least part of thy bodily miseries. Salomon saith, All things are full of labour, who can vtter it? and for that reason, life is but a vanity and vexation, Eccles. 1. 8.
5. If thou looke vponupon thy outward 5. And so their estates in foure respects.estate in the world, with wh…t fearefull frights may thy h…art bee griped? If thou consider.
1. The common, or gen…rall, 1. Commō plagues.or publike plagues (with which God fights against the world) as wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilence and yeerely diseases, inundations of waters, and infinite such like.
2. The particular crosses, with 2. Particula… crosses.which hee vexeth thee in particular, either with losses of thy estate, or the troubles of thy family, Deut. 28. 15, 16. &c.
3. The preterition of God, restraining 3. Neglected of God.many good things from thee, so as thou wantst manie of those blessings of all sorts which yet God doth bestow vponupon others, Esay 56. 1, 2. Ieremie. 5. 25.
4 The cursings of thy blessings; 4 Their blessings cursed.when God blasts the gifts of thy minde, that thou canst not vse them for any contentment of thy life, or makes thy prosperity to be the occasion of thy ruine, Malach. 2. 3. Eccles. 5. 13. This is a sore euill.
Lastly, consider yet further what may fall vponupon thee, in respect of which thou art in daily danger. There are seas of wrath, Fearefull things that may befall them.which hang ouer thy head, Iohn 3. 36. and God may plague thee with the terrors of conscience, like Cain, Gen. 4. 14. or with a reprobate sense, or the spirit of slumber, Rom. 1. 28. Rom. 11. 8. strong illusions, 2 Thess. 2. 11. or such other like dreadfull spirituall iudgements: besides many other fearfull iudgements, which thy h…art is not able to cōceiue of, as painefull diseases in the body, or an vtter ruine in thy estate, or good name: but aboue all other things, the remembrance of the fearefull iudgement of Christ, and the euerlasting paines of hell, with a miserable death, should compell thee to cry out: O men and brethren, what shall I doe to bee saued, and get out of this estate?
But because it is my purpose here chiefly to perswade with godly men and not with naturall men; and because death it selfe is no ease vntounto such men as liue in their sins without repentance, who hauehave reason to loath life, and yet hauehave no cause to louelove death, I passe from them, and come to the life of godly men, and say, they hauehave great reason to loath life, and desire the day of death.