An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters…

Seventhly, Our corruption within us breedeth our trouble and Obs. 7 our undoing. Whence cometh the moth but from the very cloth it self that it eateth out? it is bred there: and this worm it is bred in the wood that it doth consume. A moth shall eat them: it seems to be a proverbial speech amongst the Hebrews, when they would expres• the perishing of any by their own counsels and their own ways; as the Latins have proverbial speeches suitable; Fabrum constringi compedibus quas ipse cuderat, The workman he is fettered with those fetters he makes himself; And so that proverb that we have, to nourish a Snake in a mans own bosom, is as much as a moth shall eat them; that is, what evil cometh to us it is bred within us: that wrath that doth consume us it is that which is bred out of the corruption that is in us. So they say of the black bird, that of the dung that comes from it the lime is made that your fowlers make use of to make their lime-twigs withal; so from our own sins comes our own misery. From the uncleanness ⟨p. 484⟩of a Nation or a particular soul cometh the evil of it; Therefore if we should read the foregoing words (they willingly followed the commandment) according to the old Latin, they followed post sordes, after the filth of Jeroboam, then the elegance of the expression would be more; It was those filthy ways of Jeroboam that caused these moths to be bred. From our uncleanness cometh our consumption?¹ as from the uncleanness of the body many evils are bred, so from the uncleanness of the spirit. Therefore we should be willing to take pains in the work of repentance, yea though it be somewhat troublesome to the flesh, yet better wear out our selves by washing, better wear out clothes a little by the washing of them than to let them rot in the dirt of them: it is true, washing of clothes wears them a little, but if you let them alone in their dirt, that will rot them worse: so the work of repentance may put you to pain and wear you a little, but if you let your hearts alone in the filth of sin, that filth of sin will breed your misery. Take heed of letting any sin alone in your hearts, it will breed a worm (for so this word rottenness signifies a worm) it will breed a worm, the worm of conscience, that may prove the worm that never dieth.

Seventhly, Our corruption within us breedeth our trouble and Obs. 7 our undoing. Whence cometh the moth but from the very cloth it self that it eateth out? it is bred there: and this worm it is bred in the wood that it doth consume. A moth shall eat them: it seems to be a proverbial speech amongst the Hebrews, when they would expres the perishing of any by their own counsels and their own waies; as the Latins have proverbial speeches suitable; Fabrum constringi compedibus quas ipse cuderat, The workman he is fetterd with those fetters he makes himself; And so that proverb that we have, to nourish a Snake in a mans own bosom, is as much as a moth shall eat them; that is, what evil cometh to us it is bred within us: that wrath that doth consume us it is that which is bred out of the corruption that is in us. So they say of the black bird, that of the dung that comes from it the lime is made that your fowlers make use of to make their lime-twigs withal; so from our own sins comes our own misery. From the uncleanness