No sooner come we into the World as Men, or as Christians, by a natural, or supernatural Birth; but thus we are tossed upon a Sea of Troubles, Job 5. 7. Yet Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards. The spark no sooner comes out of the fire, but it flies up naturally; it needs not any external force, help, or guidance, but ascends from a principle in it self: So naturally, so easily, doth trouble rise out of sin. There is radically all the misery, anguish, and trouble in the World, in our corrupt Natures. As the spark lies ⟨p. 2⟩close hid in the coals, so doth misery in sin: Every sin draws a rod after it. And these sorrows and troubles fall not only on the Body, in those breaches, flaws, deformities, pains, aches, diseases to which it is subject, which are but the groans of dying Nature, and its crumbling, by degrees, into dust again; but on all our Employments and Callings also, Gen. 3. 17, 18, 19. These are full of pain, trouble, and disappointment. Hag. 1. 6. We earn Wages, and put it into a Bag with holes, and disquiet our selves in vain; all our Relations full of trouble. The Apostle speaking to those that Marry, saith, 1 Cor. 7. 28. Such shall have trouble in the flesh. Upon which words one glosseth thus: Flesh and Trouble are Married together, whether we Marry or no: But they that are Married, Marry with, and Match into new troubles:1 All Relations have their burdens, as well as their comforts. It were endless to enumerate the sorrows of this kind; and yet the troubles of the Body, are but the body of our troubles: The spirit of the Curse falls upon the spiritual and noblest part of Man. The Soul and Body, like to Ezekiel's Roll, are written full with sorrows, both within and without. So that we make the same report of our lives, when we come to die, that old Jacob made before Pharaoh, Gen. 47. 9. Few and evil have the days of the years of our lives been. For what hath Man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the Sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travel grief, yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night: This is also vanity, Eccles. 2 22, 23.
No sooner come we into the World as Men, or as Christians, by a natural, or supernatural Birth; but thus we are tost upon a Sea of Troubles, Job 5. 7. Yet Man is born to trouble, as the sparks flie upwards. The spark no sooner comes out of the fire, but it flies up naturally; it needs not any external force, help, or guidance, but ascends from a principle in it self: So naturally, so easily, doth trouble rise out of sin. There is radically all the misery, anguish, and trouble in the World, in our corrupt Natures. As the spark lies ⟨p. 2⟩close hid in the coals, so doth misery in sin: Every sin draws a rod after it. And these sorrows and troubles fall not only on the Body, in those breaches, flaws, deformities, pains, aches, diseases to which it is subject, which are but the groans of dying Nature, and its crumbling, by degrees, into dust again; but on all our Imployments and Callings also, Gen. 3. 17, 18, 19. These are full of pain, trouble, and disappointment. Hag. 1. 6. We earn Wages, and put it into a Bag with holes, and disquiet our selves in vain; all our Relations full of trouble. The Apostle speaking to those that Marry, saith, 1 Cor. 7. 28. Such shall have trouble in the flesh. Upon which words one glosseth thus: Flesh and Trouble are Marry'd together, whether we Marry or no: But they that are Marry'd, Marry with, and Match into new troubles:1 All Relations have their burdens, as well as their comforts. It were endless to enumerate the sorrows of this kind; and yet the troubles of the Body, are but the body of our troubles: The spirit of the Curse falls upon the spiritual and noblest part of Man. The Soul and Body, like to Ezekiel's Roll, are written full with sorrows, both within and without. So that we make the same report of our lives, when we come to die, that old Iacob made before Pharaoh, Gen. 47. 9. Few and evil have the days of the years of our lives been. For what hath Man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the Sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travel grief, yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night: This is also vanity, Eccles. 2 22, 23.
- 1See Mr. Whatelie's Care-Cloth
