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A80830
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lords assembled in Parliament, upon the fast-day appointed, February 4. 1673/4 By Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford.
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Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing C6974; ESTC R225556
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12,618
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34
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reward We shall be great gainers by all such losses if we bear them patiently It is then the contention and fighting we have within our selves which doth us all the mischief they are our own passions which fight against our reason and these are the enemies that wound our souls which no other enemy can peach Nor do our passions war against our reason only but contend and fight one against another As our body is composed of several elements very opposite as fire and water earth and air so the affections and passions which spring from the body are as disagreeing and cross to each other as these elements and are at perpetual discord As for example The passion of covetousness how doth this force a man to pinch both back and belly to rise early and trot about and though he lie down wearied at night with many turmoiling affairs yet then solicitous care for the morrow forbids him sleep or to take any rest and all this to satisfie his greedy appetite of wealth which he hath no sooner scraped together and hoorded up in his Closet but a clean contrary passion of vain-glory forces open the Closet doors tumbles out the bags for his Neighbour hath built him a fair House richly furnished and he is resolved to out-do him whatever it cost thus Covetousness and Vain-glory war in his own breast Again an amorous lustful passion makes a man flatter and adore some beautiful imperious Dame observing all her freakish humours till at length she growing insolent and desiring to shew her domineering power puts some scornful affront upon him which cuts him to the heart and raises in him a fierce indignation requiring him even to kick out of doors this insulting Creature yet she in spight of all his wrath and fury holds him fast with her amorous hook by the nose like a Bear making him still dance after her pipe Just so the ambition of gaining some honourable and powerful place at Court will make the most haughty aspiring man crouch to and fawn upon all those whom he thinks may be instrumental for the gaining of it be they ever so unworthy in his own estimation yet his eager Ambition will force him to stoop and humble himself to these pitiful Creatures which his proud heart abhors Many more such contradictory passions are perpetually clashing and fighting in the breasts of worldly and wicked men never suffering them to enjoy any peaceful tranquility All this is briefly set forth by our Prophet in the Verse forgoing my Text The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Gregory the great Moralist descants upon this place in a pious meditation adding to this passage of Isaiah that of David Psal 104.26 where he speaks of that great Leviathan taking his pastime in the Sea which Sea he interprets Corda mortalium tumidis cogitationibus fluctuosa and by Leviathan he understands Antiquum hostem qui in eorum lubrica cogitatione natat The various passions which the hearts of carnal men are subject to like furious winds blow where they list without any controul of Grace tossing them up and down like boisterous Waves of the Sea wherein the great Leviathan Satan takes his pastime endeavouring to raise the Tempest and Confusion to the heighth When he first tempts men to sin he turns the lessening end of his Prospective-glass unto their eye representing the greatest horrid Crimes as small harmless Peccadilioes but when he hath raised the mass of their sins to a vast deformed bulk fit to terrifie them then he turns the multiplying end to their affrighted consciences he raises up the mire and dirt thereof as our Prophet saith representing all in as foul and fearful a manner as possible he can never ceasing till he hath overwhelmed them in the depth of despair and this is his masterpiece his chief pastime to see men thus distracted and confounded Miserable wretches made by sin at last such mortal enemies unto themselves as in raging despair to cast themselves body and soul into eternal flames There can be no peace to the wicked who are not at peace with God who have not the assistance of his Divine Grace to repel the furious blasts of Satan God only and his Christ are able to say effectually to the Winds Peace and to the Sea Be still and his Disciples only can obtain this favour at his hands So saith David Psal 85.8 He will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints Be the Storm ever so great and the Vessel ready to sink a word from his Divine powerful mouth composes all Therefore David saith again Psal 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall off end them But the wicked have no share in this and therefore can have no setled peace neither within their own hearts nor one with another which is my third and last division of Peace Peace with others God is as it were the Center of all things from whom innumerable Lines issue forth towards the Circumference of the whole Universe and these Lines the nearer they are to the Center the nearer they draw to each other and in the Center are all conjoyned the farther they draw from the Center the more they are disunited one from another And from hence is that Maxime approved of as well in natural Philosophy as Divinity Omne quod fit unum participatione unius fit unum There can be no unity but by participation of the prime Unity and Entity which is God Ens unum verum bonum Now the wicked man partakes only of Gods Entity but hath no participation of his goodness or unity and therefore cannot be at any unity with himself or with others The same disordered passions which disturb his own peace and quiet disturb the peace of others also and his receding from God the prime Unity is the cause of all division and distraction And on the other side the nearer the godly draw unto God the more they are composed in their own breasts the more at peace and unity with others and in God are all as one This we see verified in that blessed multitude mention'd Acts 4. The whole multitude were of one heart and of one soul Thus it was with the Primitive Christians who drew near unto God but we Christians of this Age as we are more remote in distance of time from Christ so are our hearts far more remote from him and far divided one from another strangely different from those blessed Primitive Christians who were of one heart and one soul Where can you now find a whole Multitude a whole Congregation a whole Family of one heart of one soul alas of as many hearts almost as men Are we then Christians By this shall all men know saith Christ that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Then by this do all men know that we are not Christs Disciples because we love not one another but instead of
rooted up will be our confusion Wherefore our Lamentations for this or that temporal Calamity are very childish In Reason and Religion we should lament the cause not the effect remove the cause the effects presently cease but the cause remaining the effects that is Calamities will follow Not long since we lamented a great Plague that destroyed many thousands that ceased but our sin the cause thereof that remained therefore another Calamity soon followed Then we lamented a great and dreadful Fire which consumed our Capital City that also ceased but Sin still remained Then we lamented a dangerous War when our Enemies sailed up the River so near us that it strook a terror into the hearts of all they likewise are gone our Sin still remains So we go on lamenting one Calamity after another and labouring still with might and main to redress the present Grievance but neglect the Cause Like men in a Feaver pain'd here and pain'd there we toss from side to side to find rest we call for this and that drink to quench our thirst but all in vain the Feaver of Lust still burns in our bowels and till this be cured no ease no rest to be had So that were all things now setled just to our own satisfaction what then Oh then you were happy Can you be so simple Hath God no more Viols of Wrath to pour upon us Cannot he send a Famine And truly methinks it is beginning already A Famine that may make us eat our own Flesh our own Children as it was in Jerusalem and you shall see by and by that our sin is no way short of theirs He may rain down fire and brimstone upon us as he did upon Sodom and Gomorrah and I am sure our Sin very much resembles theirs He may cause the earth to open and swallow us up quick Men Women and Children as he did Corah Dathan and Abiram and without doubt our Rebellion against God is far greater than theirs And thus I might proceed without end for the Viols of God's wrath are as numberless as our sins and whilst these continue expect them to be poured forth I beseech you consider with all submissive reverence who uttered the words of my Text There is no Peace saith my God to the wicked And is he your God also do you believe in him do you trust in him Then I beseech you believe him when he saith There is no peace to the wicked The lusts which war in our members and war against God will certainly bring down Vengeance and Calamities from God And of the three Lusts which I have discoursed of to you the lust of the flesh especially is that which makes war more desperately against God then any other it being more directly opposite to the Spirit of God for as Saint Paul saith Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other As contrary as fire and water they cannot possibly subsist together For as water quencheth the fire so the lust of the flesh quencheth the Spirit of God and never fails to bring in Prophaneness and Atheism as experience hath fully manifested in other Nations and now most evidently in this lewd sinful Nation The same observation was made by Cicero 1700 years ago who in his Book which he wrote De natura Deorum tells us The purer a man is in his life the more he is inclined to a belief of the Godhead and consequently foulness and debauchery of life is the common road to unbelief Wherefore I shall now chiefly insist upon this lust of the flesh not having time to make reflexions upon the other two the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which are grown to a vast excess but the lust of the flesh most horribly exorbitant in both the parts of it Voluptuousness of Diet and Lasciviousness of Body The business of Diet which formerly was the care and talk of Women to their Cooks and Caterers is now become the study and discourse of Men even Gentry and Nobles whose brain is sunk into their guts and so are become very skilful in the belly Science for they have invented many rarities never heard of in former Ages and they are so early ripe in this art that before they have studied Philosophy or Grammar they are Masters in the Art of Cookery A most noble and admirable Science Nor are they less skilful in Drinks than Meats and 't is a thing which adds much to their reputation that there is not a sort of Wine growing in any part of France Germany Spain Italy but they have the particular names thereof far more ready then their Creed or Pater-noster and will entertain you with a score at least at one meal so that even to taste them all will distemper any man used to a sober Diet this is a great study in this Age. As for the study of Plato Aristotle Plutarch Seneca and such tedious non-sense for they afford no delight to any of the five Senses but only fill the brain with airy Fancies these are left to poor dull Servitors in Colledges who are forc'd to trade with these Authors for a livelihood But they whom nature hath stock'd with parts compleat and to whom worthy Ancestors have left a large Estate acquired by eminent Virtue and great industry and consequently to be spent in bestial Luxury no doubt on 't why should not they enjoy themselves please their Palate and fill their paunch with whatever the air the water the earth affords Come let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die Thus having by the lust of Voluptuousness by curious and excessive eating and drinking provoked the lust of Lasciviousness They give themselves up to work all manner of uncleanness with greediness as Saint Paul saith both Fornication and Adultery are not only frequently acted in private but publickly owned St. Paul saith Ephes 5.12 That it was a shame even to speak of those things which were done of them in secret What would he have said had he heard the Actors brag of those things in publick Great Iniquities I confess have been acted in all Ages but certainly never so avowed Men in the dark formerly skulkt into lewd houses and there had their revellings but now men married men in the light bring into their own houses most lewd Strumpets feast and sport with them in the face of the Sun mean while their neglected scorned disconsolate Wives are forc'd to retire to their secret Closets that they be not spectators of these abominations And whoever doth not approve yea and practice such detestable wickedness whoever is not a Devil incarnate is reproacht by these as a devillish Hypocrite For they have so totally quenched the light of the Spirit in this nasty puddle of uncleanness they have so seared their Consciences with burning Lust they have so metamorphosed themselves into lascivious Goats as they have no more belief of God in