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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

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

how it is possible for us to come into Gods favour any more Our wound of Conscience is se deep 't is sure So deep me thinks that it is past all cure Thus we hang in suspense betwixt hope and feare least that it be not possible for us to be saved and then snall we be very earnest and diligent to search out after such books if we can read which handle matter of conscience and to peruse them as perchance Master Greenbam Master Perkins Master Bolton and the like to see whether we can find any likelihood that ever any have been in the like wretched state before us or affected with such trouble and distraction in the same nature and when perchance we do finde but little or nothing whereby to conjecture that others formerly have been in such a case then verily me thinks there is no hopes for us no body was ever in such a desperate danger and therfore we must needs be damned But if peradventure we read or hear of any that have been somwhat neer alike affected as we are whose inward trouble doth resemble the manner and fashion of ours it doth revive us with a little comfort and satisfaction That only doth give us most ease of any thing That and nothing but that doth afford some refreshing to our weary and distressed souls Well having as I say before brought up our sins out of the abisse of long oblivion and as Enders Witch did Samuels person or personated Ghost So having raised up the true representation of these ugly ghosts to our sad remembrance we labour by grieving and sighing for perhaps we can hardly weep at first though we doe much force our selves to it I say by sighing by fasting and prayer to bring our mis-happen and untowardly distempered souls to apply and conforme to some lively penance and sensible remorse for our wretchednesse we do now suffer no difficulty to withdraw us from this necessary work of dejection but do keep our selves at Schoole to it by force for though we do grieve and sorrow not a little for our sins yet still being in this case as we are it seemeth to us not enough it pierceth not to the depth of our offences we must yet do penance in further humiliation this then compulsive and violent urging our selves to sorrow for sin together with the troubled thoughts of our mind and conscience in a while breeds in us perchance a constant custome and habit of sighing so that we shall often ever and anon interrupt our breath with sighs when we are altogether so untoward and out of all order in our minds that we can do nothing else nor pray nor read nor consider nor meditate as we should then shall we force our selves to sigh this we can do and this perchance is all that we can do and this with the continued use thereof doth at length so spend our spirits and dry up the naturall moysture of our bodies that it maketh our countenances for the most part look with a very pale and sorrowfull dejection according to what Salomon saith a merry heart maketh a theerfull countenance so our sorry heart maketh us a sad countenance our beauty is quite gone for very trouble and worne away because of all our iniquities and though for all we are thus unreasonably tortured with these close fretting troubles and such continuall anguish of mind yet a good while upon the first beginning of our trouble it is the nature of us all to strive howsoever to keep it as much as may be very secret and private unto our selves for that we are ashamed and loath that any should be acquainted with what an unhappy case we are in but we shall usually with the grief thereof go about so solicitarily so moopish and look so ill and perchance starvingl● too as if we were drunken or distracted that our friends cannot but observe the unwonted state and behaviour of us Each one may read the story of our case In the sad tokens of a silent face Such earnest trouble and intention of Hannab's mind made old Ely take notice of her as if she had been drunken who answereth No my Lord I am a woman of a sorrowfull spirit And though perchance for a while we shall be loath to give such an answer and tell the truth to our friends or others who are ready to demand what the matter is with us why we look or sigh so what doth a●le us and the like yet in time this grief is so intolerable that it must needs have its vent for strangulat inclusus dolor any grief by its keeping close doth rage the worse Gods heavy hand is so strong upon us there is no concealing of it long the weary and restlesse condition we are in makes us in the end not to care who knows it or to whom it be told so that we might but find any help or ease thereof for perhaps we are so exceedingly tired out with this trouble that there is not so much as the least rest or intermission at all unto our minds neither day nor night whilst we awake we think out whilst we sleep we dream out and we are interrupted with tumblings and tossings even all the night long the mind never ceaseth from its trouble when we are in company let there be what businesse or discourse soever in hand we are amo●ost them as those that are quite stunned and amazed in our sences no otherwise affected then if we did neither see nor hear them our mind being alwaies working and musing upon its inward grief and when we are private by our selves either what through the agony of evill and tormenting thoughts and what with plodding on the heynousnesse of our sins and generall course of our life or by being terrified and dismayed with certain difficult Texts and passages of Scripture our mind and conscience is in a constant agitation at no rest Lo there 's a fin that to the heart doth wound And here 's a thought that strikes us to the ground With s●●ouning fear And then a Text again Buries that soul which those before bad sluin I say when we are in private and so forth for our desolate and sorsaken soul delighteth as David did in the 102. Psalm to sit alone by her self like an Owl that is in the desert or like a Sparrow upon the house top thus being alone toyled in misery and snarld in perplexity that we cannot tell what to do we shall kneel down in our chamber or elswhere and by urging our selves to tears in a while gush out a bundantly in our prayers for though it be difficult for a full grown and middle age to dissolve their grief into tears yet in such cases as this it is usuall and then most of us when once we do thus bring our selves into an use and custome of weeping we do seldome pray at any time without tears desiring to weep often and often in private when we cannot pray as we would for

that our souls may so wisely esteeme the shortnesse of this life that we may never forget this this I say in the Field in our Journey in our Beds at all times and every where while it is day whilst we live that the night that is our death commeth and then no man can work which is the last observeable thing and the effect of the night No man can worke Man goeth forth to his worke and to his labour untill the Evening Vntill the evening no longer we have done in this life whatsoever we shall doe Mors ultima linia rerum Death is the full period of all our Actions there remaines now no more teares of Repentance no more works of Piety no more sacrifice for sinne no more I say no more for ever Phisick comes too late when the party is deceased Actum est we have acted●our parts here whilst we were in this life all now is done the scene is ended Remember my Sonne that thou in thy life time receiveast thy good things that thou hadst then the opportunity to have made thy selfe happy for ever if thou wouldst but what canst thou now give to redeeme thy soul when instead of good workes thou hast nothing but paine and torment instead of the godly sorrow of repentance nothing but the Hellish sorrow of despaire Oh how many millions of years would the miserable soul be glad to work the hardest work that might be invented if it were but possible for her to work out her salvation O how precious would she esteeme those minutes and gather up those crummes of time which she hath here so foolishly neglected and thus me thinks that lamentable voice of the untimely departed soul doth sound this warning peale in our eares All yee that live by me learne to be wise Your precious time at higher worth to prize For ●oe alas my time was past so soone That night was come ere that I thought it noone And now too late unhappy wretch Idearly lament my headlesse f●lly Spes omnium in bot or be molestiarum est admirabile lenimentum Hope saith Drexelius is an excellent refreshing and comfort in all the troubles of this life as long as there is some hope there is some comfort and be our miseries never so great we are here in possibility to have ease of them but after death there is not the least possibility hope or comfort a● all to be expected the Doome is past no man can work all the world is not able to purchase one drop of ease or refreshing any more O that it is too late too late too late to cry for mercy O that the doore is shut and there is no entering in Give me saith one a River of teares to weep before I dye well might he wish it for he knew there was no weeping to any purpose when he was dead O let me weep weep weep and ne're give o're My sins till I have washed cleane away O let me never cease for to implore My Iudge till I come to the Iudgement Day O let us repent now for we cannot repent in that day if ever we meane to doe our selves good now is the time because we cannot worke when the night is come Let us therefore worke while it is day while we have time while we may vvork Obsecro vos O Christiant per vos perquae salutem vestram c. as Drexelius bespake his Auditers so let me bespeake our soules and selves O yee Christian soules yee souls vvhom Christ hath dyed for let me beseech you for your ovvne sake for your salvations sake for your Saviours sake that yee vvould avoid this Shipwrack the danger is certain if we looke not to it in time as long as life lasts our amendment is not too late doe we fall by sin a thousand times we may rise againe by repentance a thousand times We may begin any day any houre to become better But in death no man remembreth thee O Lord and who can give thee thankes in the Grave As David did concerning Bathsheba's Child so whilst life is in us we may weepe and humble our selves by repentance but in death all hope all possibility of recovery is cut off Whilst we have therefore time let us make use of it I say let us take it whilst we have it for time will stay for no man it is but a while that we have to worke one daies labour will make us happy forever our Fathers have had their daies and are gone and now this is our day I say ours if we lose it not our day and portion of time which God hath allotted us to work● out our salvation in Woe is us then if we work not even triplox vae an woe and an Eternall woe We vvould faine depart and be in Heaven O let us do our taske whilst we are on earth To conclude let not the Sun set upon our wrath upon our lust upon our covetuousnesse upon our pride and the like alas what a dismall what a dolefull night must we then expect Let us not be wearv of well doing for in due season we shall reape if we saint not let us now go on in our way towards Heaven weeping and we shall returne with sheaves in our bosome let us so we in teares and we shall reape in joy let us be found so working now in this day of our life that at the night of our death when our Lord and Master Christ Jesus cometh we may partake of that blessednesse which is promised in the Gospel to that Servant who when his Master commeth he sball finde so doing so shall we receive that e●ge boni servi Well done yee good and faithfull servants enter you therefore into your Masters joy Amen Sit gloria Deo in saecula saeculorum A farewell to the Reader ANd now kind Reader thanking you for your patience that hath vouchsafed to peruse over this my unworthy labour I desire you to understand Each mans a little world and my Booke A Land-Skip is this world to overlooke There may you ken the Cedar tops of pride With thorny cares and buskets on each side The fruits of grace there also may you see Like Apples just as they grow on the tree And then again a River meets your eye Of tears for sin and mans sad misery Mountains of Zeal do here and there swell up Even to the Clouds but 't is enough I stop Not presuming to borrow your patience any longer or trouble you with many things only I shall intreate you to take this unum necessar●um this one necessary thing along with you and well to observe it that the way of the Lord may be thus trackt out in the soul of man First the sight of Gods being seriously apprehended strikes into us a reverend feare of his infinite greatnesse this feare casteth us downe before him into a condemning humility of our sinfull wre●chednesse this humility breedeth an admiring love of the abundance of his mercy towards us in his blessings this love maketh us bold to have trust and relyance on him as our help and defence this trust affordeth patience to hold out and endure in all difficulties whatsoever this patience at length crowneth us with hope of Heaven not a foolish hope built on the sand but a strong hope setled with discretion a hope built on such ground which maketh not ashamed not ashamed in life not ashamed in death not ashamed in the day of Iudgement This hope O Lord grant unto you to me and to us all and so preserve it in us for thy mercies sake that it may end at last in the perfect fruition of thine eternall Kingdome there that we may be together for ever untill which most happytime dearly beloved I heartily bid you farewell in longum valete farewell even a long farewell FINIS Imprimatur John Downham 17. Febr. 1645. ERRATA REad most frequently thrust page 10. line 1. the two first lines p. 17. are to be read as verses for holy seam r. holy stem p. 18. l. 10. for his liberality r. this liberality p. 30. l. 3. for the least of which is many of which are p. 30 l. 27. for who giveth us gives us p. 31. l. 15. for minde wind p. 44. l. 16. for honour humour p. 62. l. 31. for shall he shall we p. 64. l. 13. for not as yet as yet p. 82. l. 18. for outward souls untoward souls p. 85. l. 13. for we can can we p. 104. l. 24. for are not a little offended doe not a little offend 105. l. 26. and l. 29. for even ever for Devil the Devill p. 112. l. 24. For the lesser faults I desire your favourable construction Emblematized thus Psal 101. 1