A02265:76
Mystical bedlam, or the world of mad-men. By ThoMystical bedlam, or the vvorld of mad-men. By Tho
Mystical bedlam, or the world of mad-men. By Tho: AdamsMystical bedlam, or the vvorld of mad-men. By Tho: Adams
London: printed by George Purslowe for Clement Knight, 1615
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Here, if we consider the dignity of the vessel, & the filthiness of the evil it holds, or is rather holden of; (for non tam tenet, quam tenetur) the comparison is sufficient to astonish us.
Here, if wee consider the dignity of the vessell, & the filthinesse of the euill it holds, or is rather holden of; (for non tam tenet, quam tenetur) the comparison is sufficient to astonish vs.
Quàm malè conueniunt vas aureum, atrumque venenum! Oh! ingrate, in considerate man! to whom God hath given so good a vessel, and he fills it with so evil sap.1 In a great house there be vessels of honour, and vessels of dishonour; some for better, some for baser uses. The heart is a vessel of honour, sealed, consecrated for a receptacle, for an habitacle of the graces of GOD. Shall we take the member of Christ, 2and make it an harlots; the vessel of God, & make it Satan's? did God infuse into us so noble a part, & shall we infuse into it such ignoble stuff? was fraud, falsehood, malice, mischief, adultery, idolatry, variance, variableness ordained for the heart, or the heart for them? when the seat of holiness is become the seat of hollowness: the house of innocence, the house of impudence: the place of love, the place of lust: the vessel of piety, the vessel of pravity: the throne of God, the court of Satan; the heart is become rather a Jelly, then an heart. Wherein there is a tumultuous, promiscuous, turbulent throng, heaped and amazed together, like a wine-drawers stomach; full of Dutch, French, Spanish, Greek, and many country wines; envy, lust, treason, ambition, avarice, fraud, hypocrisy obsessing it, and by long tenure pleading prescription: that custom, being a second nature, the heart hath lost the name of heart, and is become the nature of that it holds, a lump of evil.
Quàm malè conueniunt vas aureum, atrumque venenum! Oh! ingrate, in considerate man! to whom God hath giuen so good a vessell, and hee filles it with so euill sappe.