sayth the Prouerbe Let the buyer take heed in this let the seller looke to it Make no marte nor market with Sathan Non benè pro multo libertas venditur auro The heart is ill solde what euer the price be Thirdly for the borrower Lend not thy heart in hope of interest lest thou lose the principall Lend him not any implement in thy house any affection in thy heart but to spare the best vessell to such an abuser is no lesse then mad charity Lastly ware the theefe and let his subtilty excite thy more prouident preuention Many a man keepes his goods safe enough from beggers buyers borrowers yet is met withall by theeues Therefore locke vp this vessell with the Key of faith barre it with resolution against sinne guard it with supervisiting diligence and repose it in the bosom of thy Sauiour There it is safe from all obsidious or insidious oppugnations from the reach of fraud or violence Let it not stray from this home lest like Dinah it be defloured If wee keepe this vessell our selues wee indanger the losse Iacob bought Esau's birth-right Satha stole Adams Paradise whiles the tenure was in their owne hands An Apple beguiled the one a messe of pottage the other Trust not thy heart in thine owne custody but lay it vp in heauen with thy treasure Commit it to Him that is the maker and preseruer of men who will lappe it vp with peace and lay it in a bed of ioy where no aduersary power cā inuade it nor theefe break through to steale it 3. The Liquor this vessel holds is euill Euill is double eyther of Sinne or of Punishment the deseruing and retribution the one of mans owne affecting the other of Gods iust inflicting The former is simpliciter malum simply euill of it owne nature the latter but secundum quid in respect of the sufferer being good in regard of Gods glory as an act of his Iustice. For the Euils of our sufferings as not intended here I pretermit Onely when they come we learne hence how to intertaine them in our opinion as our due rewards in our patience as men as Saints that tribulation may as well produce patience as sinne hath procured tribulation Non sentire mala sua non est hominis non ferre non est viri He that feeles not his miseries sensibly is not a man and he that beares them not couragiously is not a Christian. The iuyce in the heart of the sonnes of men is euill all haue corrupted their wayes Solomon speakes not here in indiuiduo this or that sonne of man but generally with an vniuersall extent the sonnes of men And leauing the plurall with the Possessors by a significant salaecisme he names the vessell in the singular the heart not hearts as if all mankind had cor vnum in vnitate malitiae one heart in the vnity of sinne the matter of the vessell being of one polluted lumpe that euery man that hath an hart hath naturally an euill heart Adam had no sooner by his one sinne slaine his posterity but hee begote a sonne that slew his brother Adam was planted by God a good Vine but his Apostasie made all his children sowre grapes Our nature was sowne good behold wee are come vp euill Through whose default ariseth this badnesse God created this vessell good man poyson'd it in the seasoning And being thus distayned in the tender newnesse seruat odorem testa diu it smels of the olde infection till a new iuyce bee put into it or rather it selfe made new As Dauid prayes Create in me oh Lord a cleane heart and renew a right spirit within me GOD made vs good we haue mar'd ourseluesa nd behold wee call on him to make vs good againe Yea euen the vessel thus recreated is not without a tang of the former corruption Paul confesseth in himselfe a body of Death as well as Dauid a natiue vncleannesse The best graine sends forth that chaffe whereof before the sowing it was purged by the fanne Our contracted euill had been the lesse intolerable if we had not been made so perfectly good Hee that made heauen and earth ayre and fire Sunne and Moone all elements all creatures good surely would not make him euill for whom these good things were made How comes he thus bad Deus hominem fecit homo se interfecit In the words of our Royall Preacher Eccles. 7. Loe this onelie I haue found that God hath made man vpright but they haue sought out many inuentions Man was created happy but hee found out trickes to make himselfe miserable And his misery had been lesse if he had neuer beene so blessed the better wee were we are the worse Like the posterity of some profuse or tainted Progenitour wee may tell of the Lands Lordshippes honours titles that were once ours and then sigh out the song fuimus Troes we haue been blessed If the heart were thus good by creation or is thus good by redemption how can it bee the continent of such euill liquour when by the word of His mouth that neuer erred A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruits I answere that saying must be construed in sensu composito a good tree continuing good cannot produce euill fruites The heart borne of God in quanto renatum est not peccat doth not commit sinne so farre as it is borne of GOD. Yet euen in this vessell whiles it walkes on earth are some droppes of the first poyson And so Dat dulces fons vnus aquas qui et praebet amaras The same fountaine sends forth sweet water and bitter though not at the same place as Saint Iames propounds it But Solomon speakes here of the heart as it is generate or degenerate not as regenerate what it is by nature not by grace as it is from the first Adam not from the second It is thus a vessell of euill Sinne was brewed in it hath brewed it into sinne It is strangely I know not how truely reported of a vessell that changeth some kind of liquour put into it into it selfe as fire transformes the fuell into fire But heere the content doth change the continent as some minerall veynes doe the earth that holdes them This euill iuyce turnes the whole heart into euill as water powred vpon snow turnes it to water The wickednesse of man was so great in the earth that it made euery imagination of the thoughts of his heart onely euill continually Here if wee consider the dignity of the vessell the filthinesse of the euill it holds or is rather holden of for non tam tenet quam tenetur the comparison is sufficient to astonish vs. Quà m malè conueniunt vas aureum atrumque venenum Oh! ingrate in considerate man to whom God hath giuen so good a vessell and hee filles it with so euill sappe In a great house there be vessels of honour and vessels of dishonour some for better
his vngodly imps we leaue those vices our harts are not vessels for such liquour If wee should intertaine thē we giue a kind of warrāt to others imitatiō Whiles Polygamie was restrained within Lamechs dores it did but moderate harm but when it once insinuated into Isaac's family it got strength preuailed with great preiudice The habites of vices whiles they dwel in the harts of Belials children are meerly sins but when they haue room giuē thē in the harts of the sons of God they are sins and examples not simply euill deeds but warrants to euill deedes Especially with such despisers and despiters of goodnes who though they loue embrace and resolue to practise euill yet are glad they may doe it by Patronage and goe to hell by example But how can this euill iuyce in our hearts be perceiued what beames of the Sunne euer pearced into that abstruse and secret pauilion The anatomizing of the heart remaines for the worke of that last and great day Rom 2. 16. As no eye can looke into it so let no reason iudge it But our Sauiour answeres Out of the heart proceede actuall sinnes the water may bee close in the fountaine but will bee discerned issuing out The heart cannot so containe the vnruly affections but like headstrong rebels they wil burst out into actions and works are infallible notes of the hart I say not that works determine a man to damnation or blisse the decree of God orders that but works distinguish of a good or bad man The Saints haue sinned but the greatest part of their conuerted life hath beene holy Indeed wee are all subiect to passions because men but let vs order our passions wel because Christiā men And as the skilful Apothecary makes wholesome potions of noysome poysons by a wise melling and allaying them so let vs meete with the intended hurt of our corruptions and turne it to our good It is not a sufficient commendation of a prince to gouerne peaceable and loyall subiects but to subdue or subuert rebels It is the prayse of a Christian to order refractary and wilde affections more then to manage yeelding and plyable ones As therefore it is a prouident policy in Princes when they haue some in too likely suspition for some plotted faction to keepe them downe and to holde them bare that though they retaine the same minds they shall not haue the same meanes to execute their mischiefes so the rebellious spirites impotency giues most security to his Soueraigne whiles Hee sees afarre off what he would doe but knowes neere at hand that 's certainly hee cannot So let thy heart keepe a straight awfull hand ouer thy passions and affections Vt si moueant non remoueant that if they moue thee they may not remoue thee from thy rest A man then sleepes surely securely when hee knowes not that hee will not but that his enemy cannot hurt him Violent is the force and fury of passions ouerbearing a man to those courses which in his sober and collected sense he would abhorre They haue this power to make him a foole that otherwise is not and him that is a foole to appeare so If in strength thou canst not keep out passion yet in wisdom temper it that if notwithstanding the former it comes to whisper in thine eares thine owne weakenes yet it may be hindered by the latter from diuulging it to thy shame Thou seest how excellent and principall a worke it is to manage the heart which indeed manageth all the rest and is powerfull to the carrying away with it selfe the attendance of all the senses who bee as ready at call and as speedy to execution as any seruant the Centurion had wayting onely for a come goe doe from their leader the Heart The eare will not heare where the heart minds not nor the hand relieue where the heart pitties not nor the tongue prayse where the heart loues not All looke listen attend stay vpon the heart as a Captaine to giue the onset The Philosopher sayth It is not the eye that seeth but the heart so it is not the eares that heare but the heart Indeed it sometimes falleth out that a man heares not a great sound or noyse though it be nigh him The reason is his heart is fixed and busily taken vp in some obiect serious in his imagination though perhaps in it selfe vain the eares like faithfull seruants attending their master the heart lose the act of that auditiue Organ by some suspension till the heart hath done with them and giuen them leaue Curious and rare sights able to rauish some with admiration affect not others whiles they stand as open to their view because their eyes are following the heart and doing him seruice about an other matter Hence our feet stumble in a plain path because our eyes which should bee their guides are sent some other way on the hearts errand Bee then all cleane if thou canst but if that happinesse bee denyed on earth yet let thy heart be clean there is then the more hope of the rest 4. The measure of this vessels infection Full. It hath not aspersion nor imbution but impletion It is not a moderate contamination which admitted into comparison with other turpitudes might be exceeded but a transcendent egregious superlatiue matter to which there can be no accession the vessell is full and more then full what can be One vessel may hold more then another but when all are filled the least is as full as the greatest Now Solomon that was no flatterer because a King himselfe without awe of any mortall Superiour because Seruant to the King of Kings put in trust with the registring of his Oracles tels man plainely that 1. his heart not some lesse principal part 2. is euill not good or inclining to goodnesse 3. nay full of euill to the vtmost dramme it containes This describes Man in a degree further then nature left him if I may so speake for wee were borne euill but haue made our selues full of euill There is time required to this perfecting of sinne and making vp the reprobates damnation Iudgement stayes for the Amorites till their wickednesse becomes full and the Iewes are forborne till they haue fulfilled the measure of their fathers Sinne loued delighted accustomed habituated voluntarily violently perpetrated brings this impletion Indeed man quickly fils this vessell of his owne accord let him alone and he needs no helpe to bring himselfe to hell Whiles Gods preuenting grace dooth not fore-stall nor his calling grace conuert man runs on to destruction as the foole laughing to the stockes He sees euill hee likes it he dares it he does it hee liues in it and his heart like an hydropicke stomacke is not quiet till it bee full Whiles the heart like a Cesterne stands perpetually open and the deuill like a Tankerd-bearer neuer rests fetching water from the conduit of hell to fill it and there is
the true water of Iordan or Poole of Siloam Wash and be cleane Bring your hearts to this Bath yee corrupted Sonnes of men hath God giuen you so precious a Lauer and will you be vncleane still Pray intreat beseech send vp to heauen the cryes of your tongues and hearts for this bloud call vpon the preseruer of men not onely to distill some drops but to wash bathe soake your harts in this bloud Behold the Sonne of God himselfe that shedde this bloud doth intreat God for you the whole Quire of all the Angels Saints in heauen are not wanting Let the meditation of Christs mediation for you giue you encouragement and comfort Happy Sonne of man for whom the Sonne of God supplicates and intercedes What can He request without speed He doth not onely pray for you but euen to you yee sonnes of men Beholde him with the eyes of a Christian faith and hope standing on the battlements of heauen hauing that for his pauement which is our seeling offring his bloud to wash your hearts which he willingly lost for your hearts denying it to none but Wolues Beares and Goates and such reprobate excommunicate apostate spirites that treade it vnder their prophane and luxurious feet esteeming that an vnholy thing wherewith they might haue beene sanctified Come we then come we though sinners if beleeuers and haue our hearts washed 3. All is not done with this vessell when washed Shall wee empty it clense it and so leaue it Did not Satan reenter to the house swept and garnished with seuen worse spirites whiles it was empty Behold then when it is emptied and washed and sweetned it must bee filled againe a vacuity is not allowable It must bee replenished with somewhat eyther euill or good If God bee not present Satan will not be absent When it is euacuated of the works of the flesh it must bee supplyed with the fruits of the Spirit Humility must take vp the roome which pride had in the heart Charitablenesse must steppe into the seate of auarice Loue extrude malice mildnesse anger patience murmuring Sobriety must drie vp the floudes of drunkenesse Continence coole the inflammations of Lust. Peace must quite the head from dissentions Honesty pull off Hypocrisies vizour and Religion put prophanenesse to an irreuocable exile Faith is the hand that must take these Iewels out of Gods treasury to furnish the heart the pipe to conuey the waters of life into these vessels This infusion of goodnesse must follow the effusion of euill God must be let in when Satan is locked out If our former courses and customes like turn'd-away abiects proffer vs their old seruice let vs not know them not own them not giue them intertainement not allow their acquaintance But in a holy pride as now made Courtiers to the King of heauen let vs disdayne the company of our olde play-fellowes opera tenebrarum the works of darknesse Let vs now onely frequent the dore of mercy and the fountaine of grace and let faith a good conscience be neuer out of our society Here 's the supply 4. We haue now done if when our hearts bee thus emptied cleansed supplyed we so keepe them Non minor est virtus c. Nay let me say non minor est gratia For it was Gods preuenting grace that clensed our hearts and it is his subsequent grace that so preserues them That we may truely sing By grace and grace alone All these good works are done Yet haue we not herein a Patent of security and negligence sealed vs as if God would saue vs whiles wee onely stood and look'd on But he that hath this hope purgeth himselfe And wee are charged to keepe and possesse our vessell in sanctification and honour and to liue vnspotted of the world Return not to your former abominations lest your latter end bee worse then your beginning Hath God done so much to make your hearts good and will you frustrate his labours annihilate his fauours vilipend his mercies and reele backe to your former turpitudes God forbid it and the serious deprecation of your owne soules forbid it Yea oh Lord since thou hast dealt so graciously with these frayle vessels of flesh emptied them washed them season'd them supplyed them seale them vp with thy Spirit to the day of redemption and preserue them that the euill one touch them not Grant this Oh Father almighty for thy Christ and our Iesus his sake Amen Mysticall Bedlam OR THE WORLD OF MAD-MEN The second Sermon ECCLESIASTES CAP. 9. VER 3. The heart of the Sonnes of men is full of euill and madnesse is in their heart while they liue and after that they goe to the dead MANS sentence is yet but begunne and you will say a Comma doth not make a perfect Sense Wee are now got to his Colon hauing left his heart full of euill wee come to his madnesse No maruell if when the stomacke is full of strōg wines the head grow drunken The heart being so filled with that pernicious liquor euill becomes drunke with it Sobriety a morall daughter nay Reason the mother is lost he runs mad starke mad This Frenzy possessing not some out-roome but the principall seate the Heart Neyther is it a short madnesse that wee may say of it as the Poet of anger furor breuis est but of long continuance euen during life whiles they liue Other drunkennesse is yet after sleepe sober but this is a perpetuall lunacie Considerable then is 1. the matter 2. the men 3. the time Quid in quo Quamdiu What in whom and how long Madnesse is the matter 2. the place the heart 3. The time whiles they liue The Colon or medium of mans Sentence spends it selfe in the description of A Tenant Madnesse Tenement The Heart Tenure Whiles they liue 1. Madnesse 2. holds the heart 3. during life It is pitty 1. so bad a Tenant 2. hath so long time 3. in so good a house 1. The Tenant Madnesse There is a double madnesse corporall and spirituall The obiect of the former is Reason of the latter Religion That obsesseth the braine this the Heart That expects the helpe of the naturall Physitian this of the Mysticall The difference is this spirituall madnesse may insanire cum ratione cum Religione numquam The morally franticke may be mad with reason neuer with Religion Physitians haue put a difference betwixt Phrenzy and Madnesse imagining madnesse to be onely an infection and perturbation of the formost Cell of the head whereby Imagination is hurt but the Phrenzy to extend further euen to offend the reason and memory and is neuer without a feuer Galen cals it an inflammation of the braines or filmes thereof mixed with a sharpe feuer My purpose needes me not to be curious of this distinction To vnderstand the force of madnesse we must conceiue in the brayne three ventricles as houses assign'd by Physitians for three dwellers Imagination Reason and Memorie
MYSTICAL BEDLAM OR THE WORLD OF Mad-Men BY THO ADAMS 2. TIMOTH 3. 9. Their Madnesse shall be manifest to all men AVGVSTIN de Trinit Lib. 4. cap. 6. Contrarationem nemo sobrius LONDON Printed by George Purslowe for Clement Knight and are to be sold at his shoppe in Paules Church-yard at the Signe of the Holy Lambe 1615. TO THE RIGHT Honourable Sir THOMAS EGERTON Knight Baron of Ellesmere Lord high Chancellor of England one of his Maiesties right Hon. Priuy Counsell the true Patterne of vertue and Patron of good Learning RIght Honourable it is a labor that hath neyther recompence nor thanks to tell them their madnesse that faine would thinke themselues sober Hauing therefore presumed not to trouble the peace but to disquiet the security of our Israel I durst not but aspire to some noble Patronage that might shield both my selfe and labours from the blowes of all maleuolent Censurers In which thoughts I was bolde to center my selfe in your Honour as the indiuiduall point of my refuge wherein I haue beene taught the way by more worthy precedents your Honourable Name hauing long stoode as a communis terminus or Sanctuary of protection to the labours and persons of many Students The vn-erring hand of God hath placed your Lordship in the Seate of Iustice and Chaire of Honour especially if it be true what S. Hieron sayes that Sūma apud Deū nobilitas clarū essevirtutibus wherby you haue power oportunity to whet the edge of vertue with encouragements to giue vice the iust retribution of deserued punishments Happy influences haue beene deriued from you sitting as a Star in the Star-Chamber conscionable mitigations of the Lawes rigour in the Court of Chancery To punish whē you see cause is not more Iustice then Mercy Iustice against the offender Mercy to the Common-wealth Those punishments are no other then actual Physick ministred to the Inheritance Liberty Body to the bettring of the Conscience and sauing of the soule in the day of the Lord Iesus Behold my pen hath but writtē after the originall Copy of your Honors actions desiring rather to learne by your doings how to say then to teach you by my sayings how to do I haue spoken God knowes with what successe to these mad times and he that would bind the franticke though hee loues him angers him The detector of mens much-loued sins needs a Protector that is both good great I am sure my eleciō is happy if it shal please your Honor to cast the eye of acceptance on my weake labors A yong plant may thriue if the Sunne shall warme it with his beames That Sunne of righteousnes that hath sauing health vnder his wings shine for euer on your Lordship who hath been so liberal a fauorer to his Church among the rest to his vnworthiest seruant and Your Honours in all duety and thankefull obseruance bounden THO ADAMS Mysticall Bedlam OR THE WORLD OF MAD-MEN The first Sermon ECCLESIASTES CAP. 9. VER 3. The heart of the Sonnes of men is full of euill and madnesse is in their heart while they liue and after that they goe to the dead THe Subiect of the discourse is Man and the speech of him hath three Poynts defined and confined in the Text. 1. His Comma 2. his Colon 3. his Period 1. Mens harts are full of euill there 's the Comma 2. Madnesse is in their hearts whiles they liue there 's the Colon. 3. whereat not staying after that they goe downe to the dead And there 's their Period The first beginnes the second continues the third concludes their Sentence Here is Mans setting forth his peregrination and his iourneyes end 1. At first putting out His heart is full of euill 2. Madnesse is in his heart all his peregrination whiles they liue 3. His iourneyes end is the Graue He goes to the dead First Man is borne from the wombe as an arrow shotte from the Bow 2. His flight through this ayre is wilde and full of madnesse of indirect courses 3. The Center where he lights is the Graue First his Comma beginnes so harshly that it promiseth no good consequence in the Colon. 2. The Colon is so madde and inordinate that there is smal hope of the Period 3. When both the premises are so faulty the Conclusion can neuer be handsome Wickednes in the first proposition Madnes in the second the Ergo is feareful the conclusion of all is Death So then 1. the beginning of Mans race is full of euill as if hee stumbled at the thresshold 2. The further hee goes the worse Madnes is ioyn'd Tenant in his heart with life 3. At last in his franticke flight not looking to his feet hee drops into the pitte goes downe to the dead To beginne at the vppermost stayre of this graduall descent the Comma of this tripartite sentence giues mans heart for a vessell Wherein obserue 1. The Owners of this vessell men and deriuatiuely the sonnes of men 2. The vessell it selfe is earthen a Potte of Gods making and mans marring the Heart 3. The Liquor it holds is Euill a defectiue priuatiue abortiue thing not instituted but destituted by the absence of originall Goodnes 4 The measure of this vessels pollution with euill liquour It is not said sprinckled not seasoned with a moderate and sparing quantity It hath not an aspersion nor imbution but impletion it is filled to the brimme full of euill Thus at first putting forth we haue Man in his best member corrupted 1. The Owners or Possessors Sonnes of men Adam was called the sonne of God Luk. 3. Enos was the sonne of Seth Seth the sonne of Adam Adam the son of God But all his posterity the sonnes of men wee receyuing from him both flesh and the corruption of flesh yea and of soule too though the substance thereof be inspired of God not traduced from man for the purest soule becomes stain'd and corrupt when it once toucheth the body The sonnes of men This is a deriuatiue and diminutiue speech whereby mans conceit of himselfe is lessened and himselfe lessoned to humility Man as Gods creation left him was a goodly creature an abridgement of heauen and earth an Epitome of God and the world resembling God who is a Spirit in his Soule and the World which is a Body in the composition of his Deus maximus inuisibilium mundus maximus visibilium God the greatest of inuisible natures the World the greatest of visible creatures both brought into the little compasse of Man Now Man is growne lesse and as his body in size his soule in vigour so himselfe in all vertue is abated so that the sonne of man is a phrase of diminution a barre in the Armes of his ancient glory an exception of his derogate and degenerate worth Two instructions may the sonnes of men learne in being called so 1. Their spirituall corruption 2. Their naturall corruptiblenes 1. That corruption and originall prauity which wee haue deriued