A20760:476
Four treatises tending to dissuade all Christians from four no less heinous then common…Foure treatises tending to disswade all Christians from foure no lesse hainous then common…
Four treatises tending to dissuade all Christians from four no less heinous then common sins; namely, the abuses of swearing, drunkenness, whoredom, and bribery. Wherein the greatness and odiousness of these vices is discovered; and the means and remedies, which may either preserve, or wean men from them, are propounded. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of anger. By John Downame Bachelor in Divinity, and preacher of Gods word.Foure treatises tending to disswade all Christians from foure no lesse hainous then common sinnes; namely, the abuses of swearing, drunkennesse, whoredome, and briberie. Wherein the greatnes and odiousnesse of these vices is discouered; and the meanes and remedies, which may either preserue, or weane men from them, are propounded. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of anger. By Iohn Dovvname Batcheler in Diuinitie, and preacher of Gods word.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for William Welby, 1609
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.
CHAP. I.
THE miserable ruins of our excellent state by creation,1 which were the lamentable effects following the sin of our first parents, and the foul spots of original corruption, which like a contagious leprosy derived from them have infected all their posterity, do not so evidently appear in any part of the body of soul as in the affections, which are so corrupted and disordered that there scarce remains any small relics of their created purity. And hence it is that the heathen Philosophers though they did not perceive how much the bright shining beams of our reason, and the understanding part of the soul, were dimmed and darkened with the ⟨p. 2⟩foggy mists of original sin, but highly extolled with over partial praises, the excellency & perfection of them, yet they plainly discerned the great corruption of our disordered affections, insomuch that some of them being overswayed with too great vehemency of affection in speaking against the affections, have condemned them as simply, and in their own nature evil, and therefore wholly to be abandoned, seeing there was no hope they should be amended: others with a more judicial insight discerning between the things themselves and their corruption, have written whole tractates for the reforming of them, esteeming the chief top and perfection of wisdom to consist in the well governing and ordering of these disordered and tumultuous passions.
THE miserable ruines of our excellent state by creation,1 which were the lamentable effects following the sinne of our first parents, and the foule spots of originall corruption, which like a contagious leprosie deriued from them haue infected all their posteritie, doe not so euidently appeare in any part of the body of soule as in the affections, which are so corrupted and disordered that there scarce remaines any small reliques of their created puritie. And hence it is that the heathen Philosophers though they did not perceiue how much the bright shining beames of our reason, and the vnderstanding part of the soule, were dimmed and darkened with the