A20760:573
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.
1But here the choleric man will allege for himself, that he is hasty by nature, and therefore to be borne with. 2I answer, that we have not this nature by creation, for we were created according to Gods own image, who is slow to anger; but this corruption hath taken hold of us by reason of our original sin; and therefore we are not to excuse one sin by another, but rather earnestly to labour that this pollution may be washed away with the water of Gods spirit, who by his grace doth reform nature. For those who are regenerate by the holy Ghost, though naturally they be as ⟨p. 44⟩ravenous and cruel as the Woolf, and Leopard, they shall be made as mild and innocent as the Lamb and Kid: And though they be as fierce and furious as the Lion or Bear, they shall become as tame and gentle as the Cow or Calf,3 according to the prophecy, Esa. 11.6.7. The Woolf shall lie with the Lamb, and the Leopard shall lie with the Kid; and the Calf, and the Lion, and the fat beasts together, and a little child shall lead them, and the Bear shall feed with the Cow, and their young ones shall lie together: not that regeneration doth take away nature and the affections, but because it doth partly subdue their violence and fury, and partly sanctifieth and reformeth them; so that whereas they were hurtful and pernicious, now they are good and profitable to themselves and others, the quality and the object of them being altered. Their love which was immoderately set on the world and the pleasures of the flesh, is now fixed upon God, their neighbour, and spiritual things. Their ambitious hope which expected nothing but honours and riches, now longeth after the presence of God, and fullness of joy in the heavenly Jerusalem. Their timorous fear whereby they were restrained from doing good, and constrained to do that which was evil, because they would not displease men; is now a notable bridle to curb in their unlawful desires, and a sharp spur to prick them forward in the course of godliness, because they would not offend God: and whereas before it was a corrupt fountain from which nothing did spring but polluted streams of sin, whose descent is into the deep gulf of eternal perdition; now it is become the Wellspring of life, to make us avoid the snares of death,