A Golden Chain

Timoth. Surely this is a great comfort you give me, God make me thankful for it. And I pray you more plainly show me the state of your life till this hour, that I and all other may take warning by it.

Timoth. Surely this is a great comfort you giue me, God make me thankefull for it. And I pray you more plainly shew me the state of your life till this houre, that I and all other may take warning by it.

Euseb. That which may do good unto other men I will never conceal, though it be to my perpetual shame. As I was conceived and borne in sin, ⟨p. 622⟩so my parents brought me up in ignorance, and never showed me my shame, and misery by Gods law: & lived a long time, even as a man in a dead sleep or trance, and in trueth I lived as though there were neither heaven nor hell, neither God nor devil. And the devil himself (as I now perceive) did often persuade my secure conscience that I was the child of god, & should be saved as well as the best man in the world: and I yielded to his persuasion, and did verily think it: so that when the preacher for wickedness & security denounced Gods judgements and hell fire, I have said unto my neighbours that I hoped I should be saved, and he should go to hell: and when I was asked whether I could keep all the commandments of the law, I said that I could: and being asked whether I never sinned, I said I thought that otherwhiles I did; but for them which were but few, I hoped God would have mercy, and have me excused, and all my neighbours were glad of my company, they spoke well of me, and I was taken for an honest man, when as indeed, before God I was a vile beast, & the child of wrath, inspired with the spirit of the devil continually. Well, after I heard the Law preached, & I saw and remembered many fearful judgements of God upon men, whom I in reason thought were as good men as I, then I began to consider mine own estate, and to perceive my sins, and my cursedness, and upon a time above all other, the curse of the law made me inwardly afraid, and my flesh then began to tremble and quake: then I could not sleep in the night season; I was afraid of every thing. If I were in my house, I thought the house would fall on my head: if abroad, I thought every cranny of the earth would open it self wider and swallow me. I started at every straw and at the moving of a fly: my meat was loathsome unto me, and I thought I was not worthy of so good a creature of God, and that God might justly turn it to my bane: the grief of my heart for my life past made me shed abundance of tears: and upon that I remembered in Davids Psalms, that his tears were his drink, and that he did wet his bed with tears.