The Author to the Reader. If Satan's might and force of sin here seems thy soul to wound, A sovereign salve this book prescribes, Direct to cure it sound. Esteem this salve, and exercise Each day and night the same, So shall your soul well cured be Which sin brought out of frame: Regard it more than worldly wealth, No treasure like to this, No money can buy save to cure▪ Our soul, if this should miss. I. A. Minister and Preacher of God's Word. A SOVEREIGN Salve to cure a sick Soul, infected with the poison of sin. Wherein is Contained, 1 The strength and force of the poison of sin. 2 How man's soul became poisoned? 3 How the soul of man poisoned by sin may be cured, and restored. These parts are all Authentical, and comprised in a most short and Compendious method, briefly to be read, that they may be Effectually Practised. Newly Published by I. A. Minister and Preacher of GOD'S Word. LONDON: Printed by NICHOLAS OKES, and are to be sold by FRANCIS GROVE, dwelling at the sign of the Windmill, near to St. Sepulchers Church. 1624. The Book to the Reader. If I had tongue to speak with voice, Oh then most loud still should I cry, All those that hear me would rejoice, Now for to buy me presently. Each greater book of price more dear Which you may buy, cannot contain Effectual physic which is here, Souls health from sin for to regain, Direction true in me is penned, Rightly to cure thy soul from sin: Have care to use me as thy friend, Now read me through, if thou begin. First, of the strength and force of the poison of sin. TO be plain in words, certain in sense, and short in writing, I will briefly describe the strength of the poison of sin. It is a spiritual poison, The breach of God's Law, 1 joh. 3.4. The which whosoever committeth is of the Devil, 1 john 3.8. Yea, it is the vile, and most damnable thing in the world. The only Noli me tangere, which no man without the displeasure of Almighty GOD, could ever taste, or touch in the least degree. For, Via peccati ingredientes contaminat, progredientes obstinate, egredientes exterminat. Sin in the first entrance defileth, in the progress hardeneth, and at his going out destroyeth. It causeth all those that commit it to dishonour God, to crucify Christ a fresh, and to grieve the Holy Ghost: It makes the Angels to moure, and all God's creatures to groone and sigh under the burden of it, Rom. 8.22. It is the very excrement of the Devil, that old Serpent; the age of it is almost as old as the world: for scarce was there a world, but it was a prisoned world with sin; and almost no sooner was there a man, but he was infected with this poison. And so strong was this poison, even at the first committing of sin, that it made all the world mourn for her mallidy, the which neither Ghiron, Esculapius, nor Apollo could ever heal: No, if all the Angels and men both of heaven and earth were in one, they could never heal it. Our poisoned souls could not be cured without a Mithridate confection of the best blood that ever was in the world, even the most precious blood of Christ jesus, the only begotten Son of God. So this spiritual poison can be nowayes cured, but by a spiritual antidote; this most deadly poison must have the most sovereign antidote; only here is the difference, that as hell giveth the poison, so heaven gives the helps. There is no sin so small, that hath not cost the Son of God even a sea of sorrows. O what a hell (think we) was jesus Christ in for our sins, when he sweat both water and blood, and prayed thrice most fervently to have that bitter cup pace from him? Yea he broke out into this sundering voice, and cried to God his Father. Quare dereliquisti me? Why hath thou forsaken me? Whose bloody sweat came trickling down to the ground Luke 22.44. In the which (no doubt) he felt the force and strength of sin, the wrath of God against it, the justice of God requiring punishment for it, the power of the Law pronouncing condemnation to it; the force of death, the tyranny of Satan, and the torment of hell, which was forcible enough to have drawn streams of tears out of the driest eye that ever was in the head of man, and to have excited a multitude of sorrowful groans out of the hardest heart that ever GOD made. Oh, was the strength of sin so great, that it caused Christ to shed drops of blood for our sins, and cannot we shed forth one tear for the same? Oh, I beseech you, let the horror of it be always fresh in our memory, and the meditation thereof imprinted in our hearts, that we may remember those grievous drops of that most precious blood, which jesus Christ shed for our sakes, for our sins, for our souls, and for our salvation. Let us love him for it, thank him for it, and serve him for it, all the days of our lives. So that our hands may tremble and shake for fear, and our whole body may quake with terror of it, when any evil imagination is hatched in our hearts, or any wicked deed should be acted with our hands, that we may be ever terrified from nourishing sin in our bosom, whose condition is so vile and base. For such is the nature of sin, enter where it will, it is the heart it aims at, and it will not stay until it comes there: because sin and Satan love no venison but the heart, no fowl but the breast, and no fish but the soul. The heart is the throne where sin would reign, and the soul itself is the seat where sin would sit. And therefore, the more sin labours to poison that part, the more should we strive to preserve it. If our heart be God's throne than is he a most vile traitor to God and himself, that suffers sin, God's great enemy, that proud, presumptuous, aspiring Tyrant, to sit in the seat, and tyrannize in the throne of the Sovereign Majesty of Almighty God. Thus we may see, that the very subject and seat of sin is the heart and soul of man, that most glorious and precious part, which God made like to himself, and for the which the Son of God was crucified. And as sin delights to sit and captive both the heart and soul of man, so the longer it reigns there the worse it is; for as in good things the elder the better; so in the evil of sin, the elder the worse, and the more they will grow in number. Ask one of the holiest men, he that had fewest sins; They are more in number (saith he) than the hairs of my head. Oh who can understand his errors? Psalm 40.12. Psal. 19.12. Or who can tell how oft he offendeth? Yea, sin is grown so foul, so great, and is so scattered abroad into so many men's hearts, that S. john saith, Totus mundus in maligno positus est: The whole world lieth plungeth in wickedness. Now to speak more of the evil of sin, it appeareth in three things; First in the deformity. For God doth loath it. Secondly, in the iniquity, For the Devil doth love it. Thirdly, in the general contagious poison and leprosy thereof: (as S. john saith) the whole world is infected therewith. Secondly, how man's soul became infected therewith. At the beginning, God surveying his works with the eyes of his wisdom, after they had passed the hand of his power, his justice pronounced this infallible sentence, Genesis 1.31, Lo they were all very good. How then came it to pass, that man's soul became poisoned? And Christ saith in another place, From the beginning it was not so. Mat. 19.8. Solomon saith, God made man righteous, Eccles. 7.29. The answer whereof our Christian Philosophy showeth us, that our poisoned souls which defile our whole nature came from the fault and fall of Adam; and from the curse of the earth through Adam's transgression. For the Devil, that Roaring Lion, in whom the full perfection of malice lies, knowing how to most hurt, hath poisoned the Fountain, Adam and Eve: & the Fountain once poisoned, than the streams issuing from the same are sure and most certainly infected. The which David confesseth in the person of all regenerate men, I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin hath my mother conceived me, Ps. 51. Thus our spiritual poison came into the soul and body of man by the subtlety of Satan, that arch-enimy of mankind. For he being once an Angel in Heaven, a goodly creature, would needs become a God, and consequently a Creator. Now, a Creator must needs make something, and therefore here we may behold his work; Lo●, it is even sin, for sin is the true creature, and only work of the Devil. And as he is a spirit, so he hath society with the spirits, as bodily creatures have with our bodies. Thirdly, How the soul of man poisoned by sin, may be cured and restored. The soul of man that is poisoned by sin, must begin to be cured in this life, but it cannot be perfected in this life: For whatsoever is begun here in grace, in the life to come shall be perfected in glory. And for this great cure, we ought diligently to observe three things. 1. First, we must know ourselves, what estate we are in, that we may see how we are poisoned. 2. Secondly, we must use the remedy to cure the poison. Thirdly, we must take our medicine in due time. Therefore, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear; and that hath eyes to see, let him see, and diligently observe what salve he must take to cure this poison of sin. The first and principal thing is to take this precept of the philosopher, Nosce teipsum, Know thyself; It is the first thing to be done to this cure, and the beginning of all grace: For in vain is the medicine ministered, where the disease is dissemblingly covered, and kept unknown. Wherefore, whosoever thou been that feelest thyself to be infected with this poisoning sin, and art inwardly touched with any care of thine own salvation, and dost groan with earnest desire to stand in favour again with God; thou must seriously enter into thyself, and make a true survey of thine inward man, that thereby thou mayst know how sin hath poisoned thee both in greatness and danger. For until thou knowest thy sins, and how they have infected thy soul, that thy conscience may be convicted by them, thou canst never be cured. No man can rightly acknowledge his own sins, no man can truly confess his faith, no man can duly use the Sacraments, that doth not first earnestly try and examine his own conscience: That is, throughly to try, narrowly to search, and diligently to prove, who, and what manner of person he is, and in what case he feeleth himself, how deeply his own conscience is poisoned with sin. And withal, to know how, and which way he may come into favour again with God. To the same effect S. Paul saith, Let every man prove his work, Gal. 6.4. And again, Prove yourselves whether you be in the faith, 2. Cor. 12.5. Examine yourselves, and be sorrowful for your sins; not for some sins, but for all sins wherewith you are infected and poisoned: And that not for an hour, nor a day, nor for a week, nor a month; but mourn for your misdeeds, and be sorry for your sins continually, even so long as you live. We must do as the Prophet David did, when he had considered his ways, and found they were evil, He ever after turned his feet unto the testimonies of the Lord. Ps. 119.56 So must every one do, that mindeth to be cured from the poison of his sin; examine his own conscience, and make his heart smart for his sin, by aggravation thereof. The Church of God confesseth not her sins lightly, but with wonderful grief. Dan. 9 Secondly, we must use the remedy to cure the poison of sin. As by nature we hate every thing that hurteth us, how much more by grace should we abhor sin that woundeth us? Amongst all the works of the Devil, there was none so mighty and malicious as the poisoning and destroying the souls of men by sin. So for to cure our souls from this deadly poison, our Saviour jesus Christ, that heavenly Physician, hath accordingly given us a remedy proportionable to our malady, out of his glorious store-house of the holy Scriptures If we will he cured from the poison of sin, we must take Christ, and the virtuous physic he gives us by a lively faith; but we must keep and retain him, and it, by holiness of life. These two, faith and holiness are the two bonds of our union with Christ: Faith brings Christ to us, and holiness keeps him with us, and us with him. If any man (saith Christ) hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will stay with him, and he with me. Thus by faith we take this heavenly Physic, and by holiness we keep it. Wherefore, all those which formerly obeyed sin, if they will be cured from the poison thereof, by faith and holiness of life, they must now withstand it. They which were wont to yield unto it, must now strive against it: they which were wont to delight in it, must now lament it: they which did formerly let sin reign and captive their souls in them, must now reign over it, quench it, and subdue it, and fly from it, as from the most venomous sting of a Serpent. If the filthy and stinking poison of their sins cannot move them, let the shortness and uncertainty of their life's damp them. If the shortness of their lines cannot, let the small number of them that shall be saved fray them. If that cannot, tell Death terrify them. If Death cannot, let the day of judgement shake them. If all these cannot, then will the torments of hell for evermore torment them. Thirdly, we must take our medicine in time. For common experience teacheth us, that Tempus est pretiosum, breve, & irrevocabile, Time is precious, short, and irrevocable, Qui non ost hodiè, cras minús aptus erat, He that is not ready to receive this Heavenly physic to day, will be less ready to morrow. Let us therefore take this time while we have it, for we have no time but this present time; the time past is not ours, it is gone, and cannot be recalled the time to come is not, for being not come, it may be it never shall come: Only the present hour is ours, let us take and make good use of it. So that now, even now is the time to take this wholesome and bravenly physic to purge away our sins; while we are here in this life, the time is in our hands. Now the door is open, but after this life it will be shut. Therefore now while the Gospel shineth, now while Christ calleth, now while he speaketh, now while he kneeketh, let us amend our former lives; let us now therefore hear God's word, let us now obey him, let us make this day our day to return unto God. And although we could never be moved by reading any book heretofore, or by hearing God's word preached hitherto, yet let us now be moved at the last, and with good Ezechias, let us be afraid of Gods threatening, sorrow aforehand, examine our consciences, and mourn for our sins, let us cleanse and purge our hearts and souls from this poison, and let us never drink, nor taste that deadly dregs again. Let us walk no more so inordinately in it, wallow no more in the filthy mire of it, obey no more the lust of it, nor give our members any more to be weapons to fight for it: But with all our power let us oppose it, resist it, and manfully with all our force fight against it. Oh let us shake off our sins, banish them, send our dearest darlings packing, and never pity them, never love them, never be led by them, for they would poison our souls most deadly unto eternal destruction. To conclude, God grant that we may all, and every one of us forsake our sins in time, before it be too late; and as Physicians do heal many sore maladies with sharp medicines: so give grace O eternal and most gracious God, that these my labours (though they seem unsavoury, and sharp to the wicked) may yield such sound and godly Physic, that they may become a salve to cure, and preserve the souls of the godly, in their zeal of thy glory. And furthermore grant O sweet jesus, that it may offer and minister all such spiritual Physic unto the souls infected with the poison of sin, that it may be a means to withdraw them from the same. And that the salve, which is here presented unto such as are sick, and almost past recovery, may work so effectually one them, that it may both strengthen, help, and heal them of that damnable poison, wherewith they are so deadly infected. This GOD grant, without whose help all the labour of man is in vain. And thus both from the poison of sin, and the punishment due for the same, the Lord deliver us all, even for his dear Son Christ jesus his sake, our only Saviour, To whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, glory, praise, power, and dominion, both now, and for ever. Amen. The Author to the Reader. Gentle Reader, I most humbly desire thee, (what so ever thou be) that gatherest any spiritual Physic to cure thy soul's malady out of these my labours to pray unto my Saviour jesus Christ for me, to direct me with his holy Spirit, and give me his grace, to use it to salve and cure my own soul; that as I endeavour to cure thee in words, I may also labour in deeds to raise and preserve myself from all my sins, to the setting forth of God's glory, and the salvation of my own soul, which God grant for his Son jesus Christ his sake, Amen. FINIS.