Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

fword-fish and threfher, that fight with the whale: Even our own feas produce creatures of ftrange fhapes, but the commonnefs takes off the wonder.

APPLICATION.

Thus doth the heart of man naturally fwarm and abound with ftrange and monftrous lufts and abominations, Rom. i. 29, 30, 31. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetoufnefs, malicioufnefs, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, "malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, "boafters, inventors of evil things, difobedient to parents, without "understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, im"placable, unmerciful." O what a fwarm is here! and yet there are multitudes more, in the depths of the heart! And it is no wónder, confidering that with this nature, we received the spawn of the blackeft and vileft abominations. This original luft is productive of them all, James i. 14, 15. Which luft, though it be in every man, numerically, different from that of others, yet it is one and the fame Specifically, for fort and kind, in all the children of Adam; even as the reasonable foul, though every man hath his own foul, viz. a foul individually distinct from another man's, yet it is the fame for kind in all men. So that whatever abominations are in the hearts and lives of the vileft Sodomites, and the moft profligate wretches under heaven; there is the fame matter in thy heart out of which they were shaped and formed. In the depths of the heart they are conceived, and thence they crawl out of the eyes, hands, lips, and all the members, Mat. xv. 18, 19. Thofe things (faith Chrift) which proceed "out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and defile a man. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, "fornications, thefts, false witnefs, blafphemies:" even fuch monfters as would make a gracious heart tremble to behold. What are my lufts (faith one*) but fo many toads fpitting of venom, and fpawning of poifon; croaking in my judgment, creeping in my will, and crawling into my affections? The apostle in 1 Cor. v. 1. tells us of a fin, "not to be named;" fo monftrous, that nature itself startles at it: even fuch monfters are generated in the depths of the heart. Whence come evils? was a question that much puzzled the philofophers of old. Now here you may fee whence they come, and where they are begotten.

REFLECTION.

And are there fuch ftrange abominations in the heart of man? Then how is he degenerated from his primitive perfection and glory! His streams were once as clear as crystal, and the fountain of them pure, there was no unclean creature moving in them. What a state

Fuller's, Meditations. p. II.

[ocr errors]

ly fabric was the foul at firft! And what holy inhabitants poffeffed the feveral rooms thereof! But now, as God fpeaks of idumea, Ifa. xxxiv. 11, "The line of confufion is ftreatched out upon it, and "the ftones of emptinefs. The cormorant and bittern poffefs it; "the owl and the raven dwell in it." Yea, as Ifa. xiii. 21, 22. "The wild beafts of the defart lic there; it is full of doleful crea"tures, the fatyrs dance in it, and dragons cry in thofe fometimes "pleafant places." O fad change! how fadly may we look back towards our firft ftate! and take up the words of Job, "O that I were as in months paft, as in the days of my youth; when the Almighty "was yet with me, when I put on righteoufnefs, and it clothed me, "when my glory was frefh in me," Job xxix 2, 4, 5.

Again, think, O my foul, what a miferable condition the unregenerate abide in! Thus fwarmed and over-rum with hellifh lufts, under the dominion and vaffalage of divers lufts, Tit. iii. 3. What a tumultuous fea is fuch a foul: how do thefe lufts rage within them! how do they conteft and fcuffle for the throne! and usually take it by turns: for as all difeafes are contrary to health, yet fome contrary to each other, fo are lufts. Hence poor creatures are hurried on to different kinds of fervitude, according to the nature of that imperious luft that is in the throne; and, like the lunatic, Matth. xvii. are fometimes caft into the water, and fometimes into the fire. Well might the prophet fay, "The wicked is like a troubled fea that cannot reft," Ifa. vii. 20. They have no peace now in the fervice of fin, and lefs fhall they have hereafter, when they receive the wages of fin. "There "is no peace to the wicked, faith my God." They indeed cry Peace, peace; but my God doth not fo. The laft iffue and refult of this is eternal death; no fooner is it delivered of its deceitful pleasures, but prefently it falls in travail again, and brings forth death, Jam. i. 15.

Once more and is the heart fuch a fea, abounding with monftrous abominations? Then ftand astonished, O my foul, at that free grace which hath delivered thee from fo fad a condition; O fall down and kifs the feet of mercy that moved fo freely and feafonably to thy refcue? Let my heart be enlarged abundantly here. Lord, what am I, that I fhould be taken, and others left? Reflect, O my foul, upon the conceptions and burfts of lufts in the days of vanity, which thou now blufheft to own. O what black imaginations, hellish defires, vile affections, are lodged there! Who made me to differ? or, how came I to be thus wonderfully feparated? Surely, it is by thy freegrace, and nothing elfe, that I am what I am; and by that grace I' have efcaped (to mine own aftonifhment) the corruption that is in the world through luft. O that ever the holy God fhould fet his eyes on fuch an one; or caft a look of love towards me, in whom were legions of unclean lufts and abominations.

S

M

THE POEM.

Y foul's the fea, wherein, from day to day,
Sins like Leviathans do fport and play.
Great mafter-lufts, with all the leffer fry,
Therein increase, and strangely multiply.
Yet ftrange it is not, fin fo faft fhould breed,
Since with this nature I receiv'd the feed
And fpawn of ev'ry species, which was shed
Into its caverns first, then nourished

By its own native warmth; which like the fun
Hath quick'ned them, and now abroad they come:
And like the frogs of Egypt creep and crawl
Into the closeft rooms within my foul.

My fancy fwarms, for there they frisk and play,
In dreams by night, and foolish toys by day.
My judgment's clouded by them, and my will
Perverted, every corner they do fill.

As locufts feize on all that's fresh and green,
Unclothe the beauteous spring, and make it seem
Like drooping autumn; fo my foul, that first
As Eden feem'd, now's like a ground that's curst.
Lord purge my ftreams, and kill those lufts that lie.
Within them; if they do not, I muft die.

CHAP. IV.

Seas purge themselves, and caft their filth afbore,
But graceless fouls retain, and fuck in more.

OBSERVATION.

EAS are in a continual motion and agitation, they have their flux and reflux, by which they are kept from putrefaction: like a fountain it cleanses itself, Ifa. Ivii. 20. "It cannot reft, but cafts up "mire and dirt;" whereas lakes and ponds, whose waters are standing, and dead, corrupt and ftink. And it is obferved by feamen, that in the fouthern parts of the world, where the fea is more calm and fettled, it is more corrupt and unfit for ufe; fo is the fea of Sodom, called the dead fea.

APPLICATION.

Thus do regenerate fouls purify themselves, and work out corruption that defiles them, they cannot fuffer it to fettle there, 1 John iii. 3. "He purifieth himself, even as he is pure." "Keepeth himself "that the wicked one toucheth him not," 1 John v. 18. fcil. tantu VOL. V.

Gg

qualitativo, with a qualitative touch, as the loadftone toucheth iron, leaving an impreffion of its nature behind it. They are doves delighting in cleannefs, Ifa. xxxiii. 15. "He defpifeth the gain of oppreffion, he "haketh his hands from holding of bribes, ftoppeth his ears from "hearing blood, and fhutteth his eyes from fecing evil." See how all fenfes and members are guarded againft fin: but it is quite contrary with the wicked; there is no principle of holiness in them to oppofe or expel corruption. It lies in their hearts as mud in a lake or well, which fettles and corrupts more and more. Hence Ezek. xlvii. 11. their hearts are compared to miry or marthy places, which cannot be healed, but are given to falt: the meaning is, that the pureft ftreams of the gofpel, which cleanse others, make them worfe than before, as abundance of rain will a miry place. The reafon is, because it meets with an obftacle in their fouls, fo that it cannot run through them and be glorified, as it doth in gracious fouls. All the means and endeavours used to cleanse them are in vain; all the grace of God they receive in vain," they hold fast deceit, they refuse to "let it go," Jer. viii. 5. Sin is not in them as floating weeds upon the fea, which it strives to expel and purge out, but as fpots in the leopard's fkin, Jer. xiii. 21. or letters fathioned and engraven in the very fubftance of marble or brafs with a pen of iron, and point of a diamond, Jer. xvii. 1. Or ás ivy in an old wall, that hath gotten root in its very entrails. "Wickedness is fweet to their mouths, they roll "it under their tongues," Job xx. 12. No threats nor promises can

divorce them from it.

REFLECTION.

Lord! this is the very frame of my heart, may the graceless foul fay. My corruptions quietly fettle in me, my heart labours not against them: I am a stranger to that conflict which is daily maintained in all the faculties of the regenerate foul. Glorified fouls have no fuch conflict, because grace in them ftands alone, and is perfectly triumphant over all its oppofites; and gracelefs fouls can have no fuch conflict, because in them corruption ftands alone, and hath no other principle to make oppofition to it. And this is my cafe, O Lord! I am full of vain hopes indeed, but had I a living and well-grounded hope to dwell for ever with fo holy a God, I could not but be daily purifying myself. But O! what will the end of this be? I have caufe to tremble at that laft and dreadfuleft curfe in the book of God, Rev. xxii. 11. “Let "him that is filthy be filthy ftill." Is it not as much as if God should fay, Let them alone, I will spend no more rods upon them, no more means fhall be used about them; but I will reckon with them for all together in another world? O my foul! what a difmal reckoning will that be! Ponder with thyfelf in the mean while those terrible and awakening texts, that, if poflible, this fatal iffue may be prevented. See Ifa. i. 5. Hof. iv. 14. Jer. vi. 29, 30. Heb. vi. 8.

M

THE POEM.

Y heart's no fountain, but a standing lake
Of putrid waters; if therein I rake,
By ferious fearch, O! what a noifome fmell,
Like exhalations rifing out of hell;

The ftinking waters pump'd up from the hold,
Are as perfumes to feamen: but my foul
Upon the fame account that they are glad,
(Its long continuance there) is therefore fad.
The fcripture faith, "No foul God's face fhall fee,"
Till from fuch filthy lufts it cleanfed be.
Yet though unclean, it may that way be rid,
As Herculus the Augean ftable did.

Lord turn into my foul that cleanfing blood,
Which from my Saviour's fide flow'd as a flood.
Flow, facred fountain, brim my banks; and flow
Till you have made my foul as white as fnow.

[ocr errors]

CHAP. V

Seamen forefee a danger, and prepare ;
Yet few of greater dangers are aware.

OBSERVATION.

OW watchful and quick-fighted are feamen to prevent dangers! if the wind die away, and then trefh up foutherly or if they fee the fky hazy, they provide for a storm: if by the profpective glafs they know a pyrate at a great diftance, they clear the gun-room, prepare for fight, and bear up, if able to deal with him; if not, they keep close by the wind, make all the fail they can, and bear away. If they fuppofe themselves, by their reckoning, near land, how often do they found? And if upon a coaft with which they are unacquainted, how careful are they to get a pilot that knows, and is acquainted with it?

APPLICATION,

Thus watchful and fufpicious ought we to be in fpiritual concernments. We should study, and be acquainted with Satan's wiles and policy. The apoftle takes it for granted, that Chriftians are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Cor. ii. II. "The ferpent's eye (as one "faith) would do well in the dove's head." The devil is a cunning pyrate, he puts out falfe colours, and ordinarily comes up to the Chriftian in the disguise of a friend.

O the manifold depths and ftratagems of Satan to deftroy fouls!

« AnteriorContinuar »