A care-cloth

Reas. 4 Carrie your thoughts a little further,¹ and let them consider of the evils, that will necessarily follow from the absence of these tears. It is certain, that no man can shun the infection of other mens sins, unless he mourn for them; as no mourner is infected, so none but mourners can be free from infection. He that grieves not for a sin that others commit, will easily be induced to commit it himself, if occasion serve, at least he will soon be drawn to like it, and think well enough of it, and then the infection hath taken the heart, and hath possessed the spirits and vital parts, as it were, of his soul, and that is enough to kill a man, though it should be kept from breaking forth in outward action. Some men, by virtue of a good constitution, escape the Plague in the hottest and forest of all plagues, and that also, though they use few or none antidotes or remedies. It is not so with our inward man, in regard of sin: For of so ill a complexion, as it were, and so unsound and healthless a constitution are all our souls, since the defiling of our nature by the first sin of Adam, that any sin almost doth easily, speedily, unavoidably, cleave unto the ⟨p. 224⟩same. The driest Touchwood or Tinder that is, doth not more readily take fire by any little spark, then our souls will catch a sin by bad example. And sin it self is so strong and vehement in the working of it, and withal so deceitful, close, and insinuating, that it doth almost insensibly convey it self into our inward bowels, even almost before we are aware: so that unless we do moisten our selves often, by the tears of godly sorrow for sin; we cannot live amongst others, that do even glow with the fire of it, but we shall also burn and glow for company; neither is there a man under Heaven so sanctified, but he shall become wicked with wicked men, if his soul mourn not for their wickedness. Lot would sure have been unclean in Sodom, if their uncleanness had not vexed his righteous soul. Therefore to prevent a mischief otherwise unpreventable to our selves, namely, the being polluted with other mens faults, let us see it a duty (and follow it) to wash our selves with tears from that pollution.

Reas. 4 CArrie your thoughts a little further,¹ and let them consider of the euils, that will necessarily follow from the absence of these teares. It is certaine, that no man can shun the infection of other mens sins, vnlesse hee mourne for them; as no mourner is infected, so none but mourners can be free from infection. Hee that grieues not for a sinne that others commit, will easily be induced to commit it himselfe, if occasion serue, at least hee will soone bee drawne to like it, and thinke well enough of it, and then the infection hath taken the heart, and hath possessed the spirits and vitall parts, as it were, of his soule, and that is enough to kil a man, though it should bee kept from breaking forth in outward action. Some men, by vertue of a good constitution, escape the Plague in the hottest and forest of all plagues, and that also, though they vse few or none antidotes or remedies. It is not so with our inward man, in regard of sin: For of so ill a complexion, as it were, and so vnsound and healthlesse a constitution are all our soules, since the defiling of our nature by the first sinne of Adam, that any sinne almost doth easily, speedily, vnauoydably, cleaue vnto the