A09466:286
A treatise tending unto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of…A treatise tending vnto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of…
A treatise tending unto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of damnation or in the estate of grace and if he be in the first, how he may in time come out of it: if in the second, how he may discern it, and persevere in the same to the end. The points that are handled are set down in the page following.A treatise tending vnto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of damnation or in the estate of grace and if he be in the first, how he may in time come out of it: if in the second, how he maie discerne it, and perseuere in the same to the end. The points that are handled are set downe in the page following.
London: printed by R. Robinson for T. Gubbin, 1590
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.
Timoth. Surely this is a great comfort •ou give me, God make me thankful •or it. And I pray you more plainly show ⟨p. 134⟩me the state of your life till this hour, that I and all other may take warning by it.
Timoth. Surelie this is a great comforte •ou giue mee, God make mee thankefull •or it. And I praie you more plainely shew ⟨p. 134⟩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 & born in sin, so my Parents brought me up in ignorance & never showed me my shame and misery by Gods law: & I lived a long time, even as a man in a dead sleep or trance, and in truth I lived as though there were neither heaven nor hell, neither God nor Devil. And the Devil himself (as now I perceive) did often persuade my secure conscience that I was the child of God, and should be saved as well as the best man in the world: and I yielded to this persuasion, and did verily think it: so that when the preacher for wickedness and 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, marry for them which were but few, I hoped God would have mercy, and have me excused. And all my ⟨p. 135⟩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; afterward I heard the law preached and 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 (that I had heard read in the