Remains of that excellent minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Joseph Alleine being a collection…Remaines of that excellent minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Joseph Alleine being a collection…

Ah wretch, what a sight is here! methinks my heart is like the Chambers of Imagery, I can turn me no way, but the loathsome sight and filthy stench of my Corruptions comes up into my Eyes and Nostrils, my pollutions are so •oul, that I cannot tell how to look upon them, and yet so common, so universal, that I cannot look besides them: which way soever I look into my self, I can cast my eye on nothing but the loathsome sight of ⟨p. 311⟩some filthy Ulcer, which makes me filthy in my own eyes, and how much more to the pure eyes of my spotless maker; when I turn my eye inward, and go about from Cell to Cell, I pass from one to the other, and am fain to write, Lord have mercy upon me on every door: Every faculty is as a cage of unclean Birds, and O the noisome lusts that lodge and live within them! I looked into my memory, and O what a Magazine of wickedness was there! weak I find it, and slippery when any good is committed to it: Alas, methinks I am like a narrow mouthed bottle, that takes in but drops when the bounty of Heaven pours down by showers. Though the dew of Heaven distil as the rain, yet how little do I take in? how much is spilt besides? but yet this is not all, there is a leak in my Vessel that lets all that is good run out, only the dregs are left behind. 'Tis little good that I take in amongst a world of evil, and presently my Rudder lets go the good corn, and the chaff is kept behind: Capacious it is to receive, faithful to retain what should be forgotten: well thought I, I will shut up this, but I heard the voice, as to the Prophet of old, speaking to me, turn thine Eyes, and thou shalt see yet greater Abominations then these. Look into thine understanding. But good Lo•d, what a sight have I here? why it is all overspread with Egyptian darkness; yea, much more intolerable, it being not my plague only, but my sin: Alas, how do I grope about in blindness and ignorance, ⟨p. 312⟩and wander in the path of error, and though the light shine in darkness; yet the darkness comprehendeth it not: How mean and shallow is my capacity? so dull that I cannot conceive, nor apprehend the mysteries of Godliness, but am ready to ask with unskilful Nicodemus, what do these things mean? what Riddles are many Gospel truths to my soul? I am apt rather to dispute them, than to believe them; as if I had rather judge of things by the light of reasons candle, than God's Sun: