B02626:310
The plain mans path-way to heaven
The plain mans path-way to heaven wherein every man may clearly see whether he shall be saved or damned. / Set forth dialogue-wise for the better understanding of the simple, by Arthur Dent, preacher of the word of God at South-Shoobery in Essex.
London: printed by Ja. Young for G. Lathum, 1643
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.
Phil. You have very well described unto us the vanity of this life, and that no day is free from one sorrow or other, one grief or other: the which thing our Lord Jesus ratifieth in the reason which he bringeth why men should not distrustfully care for to morrow. For, saith he, sufficient to the day is the evil thereof: Or, as some read it, The day hath enough with his own grief. Wherein he doth plainly show that every day hath his sorrow, ⟨p. 83⟩his evil, his grief, and his thwart. But I pray you proceed further in this point.
Phil. You have very well described unto us the vanity of this life, and that no day is free from one sorrow or other, one griefe or other: the which thing our Lord Jesus ratifieth in the reason which hee bringeth why men should not distrustfully care for to morrow. For, saith hee, sufficient to the day is the evill thereof: Or, as some read it, The day hath enough with his owne griefe. Wherein hee doth plainly shew that every day hath his sorrow, ⟨p. 83⟩his evill, his griefe, and his thwart. But I pray you proceed further in this point.
Theol. This I say further: That when men have swinked & sweat, carked and cared, moiled and turmoiled, drudged and droiled, by night & by day, by sea and by land, with much care and sorrow, much labour and grief, to rake together the things of this life; yet at last all will away again, and we must end where we began. For as Job said,1 Naked we came into the world, and naked we must go out. For even as a wind-mill beateth it self, maketh a great noise, whistleth and whisketh about from day to day all the year long, yet at the years end standeth still where it begun, being not moved one foot backward or forward: soe when men have blustered and blown all that they can, and have even run themselves out of breath, to scrape up the commodities of the earth, yet at last they must (spite of their beards) end where they began; end with nothing as they began with nothing: end with a winding sheet, as they began with swaddling clouts. For what is become of the greatest Monarchs, Kings, Princes, Potentates, and Magnificoes, that ever the World had? Where is Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, Alexander, Caesar, Pompey,