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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85674	An historical anatomy of Christian melancholy, sympathetically set forth, in a threefold state of the soul. 1 Endued with grace, 2 ensnared in sin, 3 troubled in conscience. With a concluding meditation on the fourth verse of the ninth chapter of Saint John. / By Edmund Gregory, sometimes Bachelour of Arts in Trin. Coll. Oxon.	Gregory, Edmund, b. 1615 or 16.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1646 (1646)	Wing G1885; Thomason E1145_1; ESTC R40271	96,908	160

An HISTORICAL ANATOMY Of CHRISTIAN MELANCHOLY Sympathetically set forth In a threefold state of the soul 1 Endued with Grace 2 Ensnared in Sin 3 Troubled in Conscience With a Concluding MEDITATION On the Fourth Verse of the Ninth Chapter of Saint JOHN By EDMUND GREGORY sometimes Bachelour of Arts in Trin. Coll. Oxon. London Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Prince's Arms in Pauls Church-yard 1646. EDMUNDI GREGORII VERA EFFIGIES AETATIS SUAE AN o TRICESIMO PRIMO AN o 1646. Even now I was not and ere long I must From what thou seest againe returne to Dust. Gaze not on this poor● earthly shade of mine But read the substance which is more Divine W. Marshall sculpsit The AUTHOR'● Brief Directions To the READER LEt me obtain loving Reader this favour that you take notice of these few Directions in the perusal of this little Book First that the main Rule of my thoughts in the compiling hereof hath been Experience I say The Experience out of divers particulars diligently according to my poor skill comprised together into one And truely if according to the Philosopher Experientia est optima Magistra Eperience be our best Teacher as also a chief guide in all our Divinity doubtlesse it is worth the labour seriously to mark it Yet since that what I have written is not the Experience of all men but of some for who is able to finde out all the secresie of but one heart much more of all hearts let it not I pray by any means offend you if you chance to meet with that thing which concurs not with the Experience and Motion of your own soul for I intend nothing herein as a positive Doctrine or an absolute Rule if any thing be generally true in all or most men be it so if not in those things which are strange to your soul let your Discretion be your better Direction for you must consider that like an Anatomist I have cut up as well the Brest as the Head and as well the Belly as the Brest I have equally let out the foul and deformed parts that are in Man or Mankinde as well as the fairer and better parts Here is perchance somewhat of all sorts of men and again something perchance which disagrees with most men Secondly for my expressions I have endeavoured to declare every particular herein in the fittest and most naturally-agreeing terms as neer as I could according to the lively sense of the Truth conceiving a congruity of speech to be the best eloquence shattering in also now and then an expression in Verse to the end the serious intention of your minde may the more pleasantly run on in reading for though my poor and humble Verses adde perhaps but little ornament to the matter yet since they do not at all interrupt the sense nor your thoughts with any long Parenthesis my hope is they may be delightful in their variety though they be not in their elegancy And whereas again I have cast my words into a sympathetical and fellow-feeling Mould the cause is Partly for that mine own experience gives me good reason for it and partly again for that I conceive Nihil humanani à me alienum No humane thing that belongs to Mankinde to be so strange unto me but that I may fitly sympathize and sensibly concur with it Saint Paul was all things unto all men to the Jews a Jew to the Gentiles a Gentile to the sinners a sinner that he might work the more effect and comfort in all Thirdly I shal earnestly desire if your time and ability may conveniently serve that you will adde your own Experimental Observations hereunto to the encreasing of this poor Book if God shall so give his blessing into a larger Volume for I could heartily wish that learned men would studie Themselves as well as their Books would more set forward in communicating their Experience I say the real Experience of their Hearts rather then the Imaginary notions of their Brains to the publike use for comfort and encrease of Knowledge unto others Lastly whereas I have laboured very much for Brevity knitting up all things short and close together to the end I might not be tedious unto you so that it may be dum brevis esse labore obscurus fio whilest that I strive to be brief I become obscure and the more dark to the apprehension of him that readeth My humble Request therefore is that you would bestowe if not a repetition at leastwise the more heed and deliberation in reading and as Elisha did in reviving the Widows Childe so let me beseech you to take this little Book up into your Chamber or Private Room to spread it before you and to stretch your self upon it to apply the inner shape and proportion of your hearts unto it and so by your Prayers unto God to desire that you may finde a soul and life in the reading of it that it may so animate in you that it be not as a dead and altogether-unprofitable thing which I also shall ever pray for to the utmost of my power And thus for the present I take my leave remaining Yours E. G. The Author's POEM to Himself on James 3. 17. IF thou my soul wouldst true Religion see Lo here in brief thou may'st resolved be The Wisdom that descendeth from above Is pure as saith S. Iames and full of Love Mercy and Peace it doth extend to all Without deceit and nothing partial The Head If sin be Folly Madnesse want of Wit The Righteous then are wis● and most discreet Wisedom If Christ our Wisedom came down from on hie All earthly knowledge is but vanitie The Eyes This Wisedom's pure and filleth us with light To trust in him who passeth humane sight Faith This Wisedom's pure and pu●ifi'th the minde From those dark works which make the Conscience blinde The Hands It seek●e● Peace it hateth to contend It 's gentle milde and loving to its friend Charity With it Forgivenesse easily is found In it Compassion doth to all abound The Feet And all this Good it freely doth impart Without a pa●tial p●oud o● grudging heart Good meaning Nor do●h Hypo●●isie these Vertues kill With by resp●cts or a Sinister will Here is Religion's Head its Eyes its Hands Here are those Feet on which it firmly stands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ☞ E Coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy Self Ex tui Scientiâ fit Conscientia JER 17. 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou that knowest the hearts of all men Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the dead were judged of those things which were written in the Books

manacles of unrighteousnesse which do so strongly tie us unto unhappinesse a misery certainly full of all miseries to be so far involv'd therein that we can see no probability to get out and yet lo this is not the utmost it doth not rest here we must yet ●urther entertain a greater unhappinesse for now behold a far more grievous and worse thing for the present hereby happeneth unto us Gods judgement the usual consequence of continuance in fin prepares after so long forbearance to lay siege unto our consciences and the messenger of Satan like a trumpe●er is sent in to summon us beforehand for behold hideous and dismaying thoughts begin to slip into our minde exceedingly to terrifie and strike thorow our unhappie souls the strangenesse of which many times at the first coming of it doth so gastly affright and startle us that our hearts are ready to faint and swoon with the terrour thereof and this this I say for the present out of our unadvis●dnesse and ignorance of the right understanding hereof commonly becomes a greater snare to us to keep us off from Repentance then all our former sins and distempers besides for when perchance we endeavour to settle our thoughts upon Humiliation and are ready to take upon us the examination of our wicked and sinful life as lifting up our thoughts into this Meditation Oh how the time passeth away the daily-consuming torch of our life burneth out apace and shall we continue still in this desolate and deplored condition without due Repentance and reconciliation with God how far are are we from that glorious comfort and most happie state we use to enjoy in the time of grace c. Wher I say When that with serious sighs we in this sort Do our own selves into our selves retort preparing our selves for Repentance and striving to humble our souls before God then forthwith do these hideous and dismaying thoughts or the remembrance of them so utterly discourage and dishearten us that we are fain to leave off again so soon as we have begun For whenas our thoughts should be fill'd with humility and dejection for our sins then are they ready to swarm with nothing but vile and monstrous imaginations Better therefore do we judge it for the most part whilst that we are newly acquainted herewith to let all alone then by that means as we suppose to procure Gods greater wrath and indignation upon us Besides thus we are ready to conjecture with our selves What hope or likelihood is there for us to obtain the favour of that God from whom we are so dangerously separated and whom again we are with such impiety of minde ready to dishonour And so are we beaten off from our poor and weak endeavours Not daring to approach his glorious Name With thoughts that speak nothing but fear and shame Well these hideous glances do perchance ever and anon slip into the imagination and are very terrible and tedious unto us But many times it falls out for a while until we either better understand our selves herein or that God shew forth his power more strongly in us I say it falls out many times that the earnest employment of our minde in the fears cares and desires of other things doth not suffer us so seriously to tend for them or else doth put them out of remembrance again notwithstanding ever and anon they do come into our heads to disturb and terrifie us most wonderfully But specially 't is to be noted that if at any time we go about to read or set our selves diligently upon the work of Repentance then sure they are abundantly present with us and because they are so terrible that we cannot abide them we must therefore needs leave off whatsoever we have took in hand and this we may conceive to be a special policie of the devil to have them chiefly proposed to our phancie at such times to the end if it could be so there might be no time for us to repent in For now methinks at length through a due self-consideration and these manifold checking troubles and inconveniences which so disturb us that we cannot tell which way to turn for them doubtlesse I say we have great longing to be reconciled unto God and we would very fain repent putting our strength really to it did not now these Scar crowes stand in the way to affright us and now in this though not otherwise we can truely repent that we did not repent heretofore that we had not drawn neer unto the Lord whilst he might be found since that in those great water-floods this day of trouble and temptation we cannot come nigh unto him for most deservedly we that have continued so long in our sins for our own pleasure to content our selves must yet continue a while longer to content Gods justice As yet then for all this though the Ax be as it were laid to the root of the tree Gods judgement and vengeance to our evil Consciences yet we cannot leave off the deceitfulnesse of our souls our oppressing policie the vanity of our minde the excusing our sins the swelling and self-conceited folly of our hearts and the like It is to be observed that according to the method in this Book before premised most of us men have some one part or space of our life be it four or five yeers or whatsoever wherein sin hath more full power over us and perhaps doth thus prevail in us with an high hand and setled course and this time above all the rest is the time of sin as being so properly disposed for it that during the continuance thereof we can never attain unto true Repentance for though that we may sometimes superficially fallow up our souls with the Sollow of Humiliation yet do we not so thorowly plow them up as to fit them for the due receiving of that good seed which is able to fructifie into newnesse of life Sure this is not an easie thing A perfect sinner doth not change his hue So quickly turning his old life to new Though we may peradventure many times outwardly scan over the duty of Repentance yet do we not during this time so perfectly repent as thereby to get a full Release from the guilt of sin or such a comfortable and a discharging acquittance to our Consciences as we ought to have and which maketh us chearful and free powerfully to resolve and set on towards amendment of life Well to the matter I say What by one means or other we are yet still scared off from the main hope and help of our souls the comfort of Reconciliation so great is our sinful folly and unability unto good But this all this is but for a taste of inward trouble See what follows the hand of the Almighty doth not leave us so if a man will not turn saith David Psal 7 God will whet his sword he hath bent his bowe and made it ready hitherto there is no turning with us nothing is able to

according to their works Revel 20. 12. Of the Soul endued with Grace THe natural disposition and temper of man being much addicted to Melancholy will be apt in very childhood to make our apprehension lay cares and sadnesse neer our heart to delight our selves in solitarinesse and to spend the time in Soliloquies and private Speculations even so much may nature be enclin'd to these exercises of Contemplation and such fictions of Phancie that many an hour shall we sacrifice to this our genius gladly separating our selves from Company and picking out what time we can spare for this purpose These Contemplations with which our Christian thoughts will be thus aff●cted are chiefly grounded at first on the familiar objects of Sense and raised to some divine and heavenly purpose either shall we be soaring up to the consideration of the glorious magnificence of those more excellent Creatures the Sun the Moon the Stars or hovering lower upon the delightful variety of Beasts of Fowls of Fishes upon the strange diversity of Nations of Countreys and Kingdoms again another while perchance we shall be conversing with God by magnifying his greatnesse as thus O Lord our Governour how excellent is thy Name in all the world thou that hast set thy glory above the heavens or by admiring his mercy as thus Thy mercy O Lord reacheth unto the heavens and thy faithfulnesse unto the clouds or expostulating with him concerning Mankinde as thus Oh remember how short our time is wherefore had thou made all men for nought Our thoughts this way will be usually very deep very serious and earnest and we shall be affected with them to the life insomuch that they will often provoke in us the passion of grief with tears of joy with exceeding cheerfulnesse of minde even according to that pathetical affection of David when he said My lips will be feyn when I sing unto thee and so will my soul c. We shall I say be serious even so serious and entirely bent to those sweet Melancholy thoughts and so affectionately moved with them that we shall scarce ever think our selves truely and really recreated but whilst we are thus meditating on religious matter and exercising our thoughts in such heavenly notions Here lies our Love our Dear and onely One Here 's our life's Joy here 't is and here alone Here I say lie the joy and sweetnesse of our life and that first because nature doth dispose us to a more retired seriousnesse of minde and surely no delight can be s● sweet as that towards which Nature sets her helping hand Secondly for that use and practice in time d● tutor up this sympathy of nature into the grateful facility of an habit and then if the habit of that which agrees not with nature be most times so lovingly married to the affections that it can hardly be left how pleasing must that needs be which concur● with nature Thirdly for that this heavenly object is beyond measure unparallel'd fo● sweetnesse Sweeter as David hath it even then the honey and the honey comb The Meditations of God do many times ravish our narrow souls with unspeakable Comfort and drive us into a extasie of amazement for joy we shall think sometimes to our selves What an happinesse is this that the God of heaven and earth should so familiarly communicate himself to such vile creatures as we that he should grant us such illumination of minde such joy of spirit surely we would not leave it for the whole world and it is better unto us then thousands of gold and silver Well Joy and sorrow do take their turns and there is no perfect happinesse in this life We that were mounted up but now Amongst the Stars to dwell Anon descend as much below Even to the gates of hell As we are raised up I may say with Saint Paul unto this third heaven this more then thrice happie Condition of Joy so is there also given us our fatal portion of misery a thorn in the flesh a thorn of sin which doth as shrewdly prick us with sorrow as ever we were tickled with delight the sowrnesse of Eve's apple will not be put out of our taste be we never so spiritual we cannot but be subject unto sin I say sin and I may say sins too sin as intimating onely some special ones in particular and sins as denoting a multiplicity of them in the general for as for many of us peradventure we are more indifferently prone and subject unto all kindes and sorts of iniquity there is almost no sin no perversenesse and impiety but that we have a strong taste thereof in our souls But most of us I say most of us in particular are troubled with some pricking sin some thorn or other above the rest some naturally-enclin'd enormity of our inner man and these these darling and intimate sins of ours whatsoever they be do always as we may observe in an eminent manner cry down the rest do with more violence haunt us and with more frequency overwhelm us so that we shall hardly long be free from them Ordinary and weakly disposed sins may perhaps be swallowed down with ease but these extraordinary and deep-rooted ones do stick close and fast in the Conscience our other sins for the most part we may pretty well digest in oblivion but this sin this our familiar and bosom-sin is so hearty a sin always with so full a desire and therefore so palpably grosse to our apprehension that it constantly leaves behinde it a Memento of shame to our outward man and the sting of sadnesse to our inner soul When it is past and gone we shall finde our Consciences wounded with dismayednesse and our hearts drooping with grief such sowre sauce hath this seeming pleasure such a sting in the tail hath this flattering Serpent a sting it is which as I say without question we are sufficiently sensible of we can most duely and tenderly feel the hurt it doth us and yet for all that when it comes too it doth so strongly charm and bewitch our reason that all the power that is in us is presently dissolved and we are no way able to withstand it the deceitful bait of pleasure maketh us suddenly to swallow down the Bane and then though like that Book in the Revelation it be sweet in the mouth to commit it yet is it bitter in the belly exceeding bitter even as Wormwood See Prov. 5. 4. Sin doth us no great harm whilst we look to it in time though it bring with it a sadnesse and a sting unto our Consciences yet as long as within three or four days or a week we do vent out this sadnesse into tears with true Compunction and pull out again this sting by the hand of Repentance we feel no danger unto our selves When we are in sin our understanding is as it were in a cloud and our affections cold and dull but the return of Gods favour again will appear unto us as the Sun