Christian meditations upon eight Psalms of the prophet David. Made and newly set forthChristian meditations vpon eight Psalmes of the prophet Dauid. Made and newly set forth

¹Alas poor wretch & most caitiff creature, which art never more reasonless then when thine own blind reason carieth thee, and when thine own too too unruly will doeth drive thee. What way wilt thou choose in this maze of manifold paths, wherein thou wert borne, and through which thou hast wandered vagabondlike till now? Thy first path of infancy, what better name can I give it then brutish simplicity, which fools call Innocency, a way full of foul uncleanness, and an heap of miseries, among which this is one of the greatest, ⟨image 7⟩that the infant can neither foresee miseries coming, nor throughly conceive them being present. From this path whither enteredst thou oh unhappy? Alas, into that wild desert of youth, a desert I say, well tracked and throughly beaten every way, in which nevertheless there was neither right way nor path, and yet notably haunted with most mischievous witches. There found I vanity that old sorceress, & she would needs be my guide, offering me at our first acquaintance a thousand contentations in appearance, but more vain than wind in effect. There did those two wild beasts, Overweening & Ambition, make themselves so tame & familiar with me, as I was by & by at their beck, so far forth as to follow them into a sea that had neither bottom nor ⟨image 7⟩shore, where they did their best to make me dwell still remediless, & all (quoth they) to bring me to the true felicity: in stead whereof I was betrayed into the hands of pleasure, that nice & decked strumpet, and withal the most stinking and dangerous that ever was in the world, enticing and entertaining infinite ways all them which do but look at her, and which more is, she bewitcheth them in such sort with her cup, that suddenly their conscience becometh lulled a sleep, all judgement lost, yea very sense it self astonished, and then love we our woe, & loathe our weal, what is most foul, seems most fair, what is most hurtful, seems most profitable, and that which is most sour, seems most sweet, yea oftentimes it bringeth to foul death