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A65441
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The present miseries and mischiefs of sin discoursed in a sermon before the late Lord mayor of London at Guild-Hall chappel / by Robert Wensley ...
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Wensley, Robert, 1647-1689.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing W1354; ESTC R11107
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20,486
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39
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judge For God hath given us most dreadful Examples of his Vengeance upon unclean persons in * Gen. 19. 24. Sodom and Gomorra When nothing else would extinguish their Flames of Lust God pours down Showrs of flaming Brimstone upon them and utterly destroys them But tho' no extraordinary Judgment from God should follow this Vice yet he hath made it ordinarily a sufficient Punishment to it self For what with the Filthiness and Folly that accompanies it together with the Loathings and Shame that certainly follow it how doth every Act of this Sin become a Torture to it's silly Votaries The lustful Amnon was sick for love of Tamar but no sooner had he committed Folly with her but he is sick with loathing her * 2 Sam. 13. 15. 16. For the Text tells us He hated her exceedingly so that the Hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the Love wherewith he had loved her And his Actions demonstrate it for he that but just before could not live without her Company cannot now endure her Sight but is glad to use as much Violence to be rid of her as he had before made use of to enjoy her Lastly How is the man of Uncleanness exposed to all sorts of Crimes and Dangers either to gratifie his Paramour or to find Fuel for the unquenchable Fire of his Lust For having hereby consumed his Estate which was it as great as the Indies would be little enough to spend upon this one Lust for as the * Prov. c. 6. 26. wisest of men tells us by means of an Adulterous Woman a man is brought to a Morsel of Bread How is he forced by the worst of means to supply the ever-craving but never satisfied Desires of his Minion or himself In a word so much doth this one Vice besot Mankind that it hath rendred the strongest of men so weak and inconsiderable that he became the Scorn of the meanest of his Enemies It hath rob'd the man after God's own Heart of his Justice and Religion and drew him into the worst and most unnatural of all Sins even Murder it self and to say no more it made a Fool of the wisest of men and rendred him * Josephus Antiquit Judaiâ— as the Jewish Historian tells us contemptible to his own Subjects who had been fam'd and reverenc'd through the World for his former Wisdom But secondly Covetousness is no less dangerous 2. Covetousness and mischievous than the former For if we will believe the Apostle St. Paul he tells us They that will be rich fall into Temptation 1 Tim. c. 6. v. 9. 10. and a Snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown men in Destruction for the love of Money is the Root of all Evil which while some coveted after they have pierced themselves through with many Sorrows And this is fully visible to any one whose Eyes the God of this World hath not blinded For he that hath given up his Soul to Covetousness hath condemned himself to the worst of Punishments that is to a Labour which as it never ceaseth so it is ever vain and fruitless For to satisfie a covetous Mind with Riches is as impossible as to fill a Sieve with Water which empties as fast as it is poured in How doth the man of Covetousness rob himself of all Quiet and Content in enjoying what he hath by his constant and violent Desires after that which he hath not What incessant pains doth he undergo in getting his Wealth How is he macerated with continual Care and Trouble in keeping it How is he wrack'd and tortur'd with the anxious Fears of losing it Or lastly How is he exposed to all Crimes and Dangers in the Pursuit of it and oft times to Death it self if not in the Pursuit of it yet in the parting with it Thus * Josh 7. 20. Ptolomy King of Cyprus having by his Vid. Oliveri not in Valer. Max. p. 778. fig. 5. vast Riches invited the Romans to pillage him not being able to out-live the loss of his Treasure put an end to his miserable Life by a dose of Poyson So truly-may it be said of the covetous man's Gold that it is like Achan's Wedge An accursed thing that too often cleaves his own Heart For if his own restless and insatiable Desires do not execute him oftentimes he meets with Achan's Fate his Theft is discovered and the hand of Justice becomes his Executioner For whoever gives up his Soul to the Love of Money can never be secure from any other Crime tho' he endangers not only himself but sacrifices whole Nations to the God of this World the only Deity that he worships A memorable Example the * Lib. 3. de finibus bon mal Roman Orator gives us of the rich General Crassus who having for no other cause but his own Covetousness waged War against the Parthians lost not only his own Life but the Lives of many of the Roman Legions And when he was slain his Enemies made sport with his Corps and pouring melted Gold into his Mouth they thus justly reproach'd his covetous Life saying Aurum sitisti Aurum bibe Thou hast thirsted after Gold drink now thy Fill of it thereby plainly intimating that there is no other ways to satisfie a covetous man's Mind with Gold but by filling his Mouth full of melted Or. So great a Temptation is the Insatiable Love of Money to all kind of evil that it would be infinite to Relate all the Injustice Murders Treasons Rebellions and Sacriledges that it hath been the cause of But the Poet hath done all this in one question when in Detestation of the horrid Murder of King Priam's Son for the sake of the Gold left for his Maintenance with King Polymnestor his Father in Law he cries out * Virgil Aeneid lib. 3. pag. 374. not Varior fig. 49. Quid non Mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames What Dangers or what Mischiefs are so great to which the wicked Love of Money doth not force Mankind I need add no more than this one Instance out of the Holy Scripture viz. That of Ahab King â— Kings c. 21. of Israel of which we read in the first of Kings c. 21. How did his Covetous Desire of Naboth's Vineyard torment him and rob him of all the Pleasures that a Court or a Crown might else have afforded him How did this plunge him into the worse of Crimes the false Accusation and Murder of his innocent Neighbour And lastly how did that Crime bring utter ruin and Dostruction not only upon himself but his whole Family and Posterity Thirdly Neither is Voluptuousness or the love of Pleasure less Pernicious than the love of Money This is the Natural Parent of all Crimes and Mischiefs To this purpose St. Paul brings in the Lovers of themselves as leading the Van and the Lovers of Pleasures as bringing up the Rear of all Wickedness For describing to
through the Envy of Donatus and his Party because others were preferred before them And how did their Animosities continue to divide them till they lost their Country and Christianity both together and are now so over-run with Heathens that scarcely any Appearance of the Christian Religion is left amongst all the African Churches which were before these Divisions as glorious for their Profession of and constancy in the Christian Faith as any Churches in the whole World What miserable Calamities did the Malice of the Leaders of three Factions or Sects bring upon the Jews when they were besieged in Jerusalem Vid. Josephum de Bill Jud. No less than the sharpest Famine the moâ—â— unnatural Murders the highest Profanations of all things sacred and in a Word the utter desolation of their City and Temple and the final Extirpation of their Government and Religion So that they who were the most glorious People in the World are becomemere Vagabands and the Scum and Derision of all Nations I wish to God we had not too near Examples in the Divisions amongst our selves proceeding from the same Cause and that our Magistrates would take Care to suppress them lest they proceed to the same sad Effects viz. the utter Ruin of the best constituted Church and State in the whole World To add but one Instance more out of common Vid. Livii Decad Histor Rom. History How did the Envy of Hanno and his Faction against Amilcar ruine all the Affairs of Carthage and laid the glorious City in the Dust which otherwise had not fail'd of being the sole Empress of the whole Earth If we look into the Sacred Writings we shall find that Cain's Envy spared not his own Brother but made him become his Murderer And the Envy of Korah and his Company was the cause of the first Schism and Rebellion that we read of even against Moses and Aaron those very persons who by a mighty hand and miraculous Power had delivered them from their Aegyptian Bondage and drew upon themselves the most signal Punishment For God created a new thing and made the Earth divide it self that they might pass down quick into Hell who were the Dividers of Israel What should I add more Lest there should be any Evil too great to be the Effect of this Vice Envy and Pride were the Causes even of Hell it self And this now leads me to take notice of the last irregular Passion which I mentioned that too often proves fatal to it's Followers viz. Fifthly Pride Ambition or the immoderate 5 Pride and Ambition Love of Honors And indeed this may well follow Envy for they are inseparable Companions it being almost impossible for a man to be proud unless he be envious and altogether impossible to be envious unless he be first proud and ambitious and as ambitious and envious men are like Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity so they are no less nearly allied in Misery For as their Sins are much the same so they suffer much the same Punishments Whatsoever Crime Danger or Disease is the effect of Envy may be also reckoned in the number of the miserable tho' natural Consequences of Pride and Ambition For as for publick Calamities what Schisms what Factions what Wars what Rebellions what Desolations ever were in the World in which Ambition had not an hand For as tho' there were no other Cause of these Mischiefs Solomon saith * Only by Pride cometh all Contention Prov. 13. 10. And as for private Mischiefs What Miseries can be so great into which the proud man doth not involve himself and all his Partners If he miss of his Designs in climbing up on high he most commonly breaks his Neck in the Fall But if he prospers a while this encourages him to proceed unto such Crimes the due Sense and Horror of which are enough to break his Heart For from this Crime of Ambition when it hath once got the absolute Dominion over a man as from the Lyon's Den in the Fable we can see no Foot-steps backward but if any man be so silly a Beast to be plung'd into it he seldom or never escapes with Life For if we will believe the Experience of the wisest of men he assures us * That Pride goeth before Destruction Prov. 16. 18. But suppose the utmost that can be thought on for the proud man's advantage viz. that he reacheth his highest Aim and Design and attains by his Crimes the highest honors yet the Crown he hath placed upon his Head by wicked hands tho' it be of pure Gold sits as uneasie upon him as a Crown of the sharpest Thorns and not only wounds his Head but his Heart too with restless Cares and endless Fears For the Sense of his own Perfidiousness makes him so jealous lest all other men should be like himself that he can trust no man and the thoughts of his own Crimes makes him in Cain's Condition to think every man he meets will certainly kill him and these terrible Fears rais'd from without together with the amazing Horrors of his Conscience within him will scarcely let him sleep or eat or enjoy any thing in quiet So that whilst he sits upon a Throne he is really more miserable than he that makes his Bed upon a Dunghil For besides the danger of Treachery from his Friends whose Wickedness he too well knows to have any just cause to trust them and besides the continual Dreads of his own Soul lest the Almighty Providence should overturn him how mortally is he hated and how continually is he baited by his Enemies and pursued even to Death by the best of men whom he hath injured whose very Vertues ingage them for the sake of the publick Safety as well as of their private Security in the most vigorous and bloody Designs against him For most commonly we see it true that ambitious men that cannot be contented with their own state like the proud rebellious Absalom that was hanged by his own hair in which was his main glory are executed by their own Pride For whilst by Schism and Rebellion they pull down the Pillars of the Church and State oft times they bury themselves in the Ruines that they make Of this I need give no other Instance than that of our late miserable Times amongst our selves For what profit had we from all that War and bloodshed amongst us We only brought upon our selves worse than what we fear'd We made our selves Slaves to the basest of men because we could not be contented to be Subjects to the best of Princes and for fear of bringing in Popery we had well nigh destroyed Christianity Nay when the men of Schism and Rebellion were so prosperous that they carried all before them and had in the most barbarous manner murdered the best of Kings and destroyed the best of Churches and not only kill'd but had taken Possession too of all their Power and Estates how did the all-wise and just Providence of