Chapter 3: Strange Creatures in the Sea — The Corruption of the Human Heart

Within these smooth-fac'd Seas strange Creatures crawl; But in Man's Heart, far stranger than them all.

OBSERVATION.

IT was an unadvised saying of Plato, Mare nil memorabile producit: The Sea produceth nothing memorable. But surely there is much of the Wisdom, Power, and Goodness of God manifested in those Inhabitants of the Watery Region: Notwithstanding the Seas azure and smiling face, Strange Creatures are bred in its Womb. O Lord (says David) how manifold are your works? In wisdom hast you made them all; the Earth is full of your riches. So is this great and wide Sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great Beasts, Psalm 104. 24, 25. And we read, Lamentations 4:3. of Sea-Monsters, which draw out their Breasts to their young. Pliny and Purchas tell incredible stories about them. About the Tropick of Capricorn, our Sea-men meet with flying Fishes, that have Wings like a Rere-mouse, but of a Silver-color; they fly in flocks like Stares. There are Creatures of very strange Forms and Properties; some resembling a Cow, called by the Spaniards, Manates, by some supposed to be the Seamonster spoken of by Ieremy. In the Rivers of Guiana, Purchas says, there are Fishes that have four Eyes, bearing two above and two beneath the Water when they swim: Some resembling a Toad, and very poisonous. How strange both in shape and property is the Sword-fish and Thrasher, that fight with the Whale? Even our own Seas produce Creatures of strange shapes, but the commonness takes off the wonder.

APPLICATION.

Thus does the heart of Man naturally swarm and abound with strange and monstrous lusts and abominations, Romans 1:29, 30, 31, Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, fuil of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, back-bit[•]rs, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to Parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. O what a swarm is here! and yet there are multitudes more, in the depths of the heart! And it is no wonder, considering that with this Nature, we received the spawn of the blackest and vilest abominations. This original lust is productive to them all, Iam. 1. 14. 15. Which lust, though it be in every Man numerically, different from that of others, yet it is one and the same speciffically, for sort and kind, in all the Children of Adam: even as the reasonable Soul, though every Man has his own Soul, viz a Soul individually distinct from another Man's, yet is it the same for kind in all men. So that whatever abominations are in the hearts and lives of the vilest Sodomites, and most profligate Wretches under Heaven; there is the same matter in your heart out of which they were shaped and formed. In the depths of the heart they are conceived, and from there they crawl out of the eyes, hands, lips, and all the members, Matthew 15:18. 19. Those things (says Christ) 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-witness, blasphemies: Even such Monsters, as would make a gracious heart tremble to behold. What are my Lusts, (says Fuller's Medone) but so many Toads spitting of Venome, tations, p 11. and spawning of Poison; croaking in my Judgment, creeping in my Will, and crawling into my Affecttions? The Apostle in 1 Corinthians 5:1. tells us of a sin, Not to be named; so monstrous, that Nature it self startles at it: Even such Monsters are generated in the depths of the heart. From where comes evils? was a Question that much puzled the Philosphers of old. Now here you may see from where they come, and when they are begotten.

REFLECTION.

And are there such strange abominations in the heart of Man? Then how is he degenerated from his Perfection and Glory! His streams were once as clear as Chrystal, and the Fountain of them pure, there was no unclean Creature moving in them What a stately Fabrick was the Soul at first! And what holy Inhabitants possessed the several rooms thereof! But now (as God speaks of Idumea) Isai. 34. 11. The line of confusion is stretched out upon it, and the stones of emptiness. The Cormorant and Bittern posses it; the Owl and the Raven dwell in it. Indeed, as Isai. 13. 21. 22. The wild beasts of the desert lie there; is is full of doleful creatures, the Satyrs dance in it, and Dragons cry in those sometimes pleasant places. O sad change! how sadly may we look back towards our first state! and take up the words of Job, O that I were as in months past, as in the days of my youth; when the Almighty was yet with me, when I put on righteousness, and it cloathed me; when my glory was fresh in me, Job 29. 2, 4. 5.

Again, think, O my Soul, what a miserable condition the Unregenerate abide in▪ Thus swarmed and over-run with hellish Lusts, [•]nder the dominion and vassalage of divers Lusts, Titus 3:3. What a tumultuous Sea is such a Soul! How do these Lusts rage within them! how do they contest and scuffle for the Throne! and usually take it by turns. For as all Diseases are contrary to health, yet some contrary to each other, so are Lusts. Hence poor Creatures are hurried on to different kinds of servitude, according to the Nature of that imperious Lust that is in the Throne; and like the Lunatick, Mat. 17. are sometimes cast into the Vvater, and somtimes into the Fire. Well might the Prophet say, The wicked is like a troubled Sea that cannot rest. Isai. 57. 20. They have no peace now in the serv ice of sin, and less they shall have hereafter, when they receive the wages of sin. There is no peaec to the wicked, says my God. they indeed cry Peace, peace; but my God does not say so. The last issue and result of this is Eternal Death; no sooner is it delivered of its deceitfull pleasures, but presently it falls in travel again, and brings forth death, Iam. 1, 15.

Once more: And is the Heart such a Sea, abounding with monstrous abominations? then stand astonished, O my Soul, at that Free-grace which has delivered you from so sad a Condition! O fall down, and kiss the feet of Mercy that moved so freely and seasonably to your rescue! Let my heart be enlarged abundantly here. Lord, what am I, that I should be taken, and others left? Reflect, O my Soul, upon the Conceptions and Births of Lusts, in the days of Vanity, which you now blushest to own. O what black imaginations, hellish desires, vile affections, are lodged there! Who made me to differ? Or, how came I to be thus wounderfully separated? Surely, it is by your Free-grace, and nothing else, that I am what I am: And by that Grace I have escaped (to mine own astonishment) the corruption that is in the World through Lust. O that ever the holy God should set his eyes on such an one; or cast a look of love towards me, in whom were Legions of unclean Lusts and Abominations!

THE POEM.

My Soul's the Sea, wherein from day today,

Sins like Leviathans do sport and play.

Great Master-Lusts, with all the lesser fry,

Therein increase. and strangely multiply.

Yet strange it is not, sin so fast should breed,

Since with this Nature I receiv'd the Seed

And Spawn of every Species, which was shed

Into its Caverns first, then nourished

By its own native warmth; which like the Sun,

Has quickned them, and now abroad they come,

And like the Frogs of Egypt creep and crawl

Into the closest Rooms within my Soul.

My Fancy swarms, 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 Locusts seize on all that's fresh and green,

Vncloath the beauteous Spring, and make it seem

Like drooping Autumn; so my Soul, that first

As Eden seem'd, now's like a Ground that's curst.

Lord purge my Streams, and kill those Lusts that lie

Within them; if they do not, I must die.