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The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion
The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native country, and the souls of men.The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native countrey, and the souls of men.
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1691
THE REASONABLENESS OF Personal Reformation, › Chapter 4 › Section 4
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.
SECT. IV.
Sad and doleful therefore are the Laments and Complaints of the Bodies of Drunkards, against the Folly and Tyranny of their Souls; and as just as sad. Let me therefore here act the part of an Advocate for your Bodies, which is a part of your selves, and to which by the Law of Nature you owe Love, Care, and Honour; or rather by a Prosopopaea, let me bring in the Body sighing out its own Complaints in the Ears of its own Soul, and thus bemoaning it self to it.
Oh, my Soul! I have cause to lament the day that ever I was married to such a sottish Fool as thou art, who art destitute both of Wisdom and Love to Rule and Govern me. I may justly resume Job's Lamentation upon thy account, and say with him, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night wherein it was said, there is a man-child conceived. Why died I not from the Womb? Why did I not give up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly? For now should I have lien still and been quiet; I should have slept; then I had been at rest.
Oh, my Soul! I have cause to lament the day that ever I was married to such a sottish Fool as thou art, who art destitute both of Wisdom and Love to Rule and Govern me. I may justly resume Iob's Lamentation upon thy account, and say with him, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night wherein it was said, there is a man-child conceived. Why died I not from the Womb? Why did I not giv• up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly? For now should I have lien still and been quiet; I should have slept; then I had been at rest.