Undantedness of Courage be abused and are not accompanied with Prudence and Justice that it is a destructive passion to mankinde and to the owners themselves But the good Effects of Valour and Undantedness that is guided by Prudence The good effects of undantedness that is guided by Prudence and Justice and grounded upon Justice are always honorable to their owners and profitable to the publike as it shall be proved by Instances first The undanted courage of David that was then but a young stripling in opposing the rage of the great Champion of the Philistins Goliah who was so presumptuous as to defie the Army of Israel and by consequence God himself 1 Sam. 17.10 was honorable to him and a cause of joy and comfort to all Israel secondly 1 Sam. 14.14 15 16. The undanted courage of Jonathan and of his Armor-Bearer who assailed a whole Garison of the Philistins and put them to rout was honorable to him and was the cause of a great deliverance to all the people of Israel thirdly The undanted courage of Scevola See Livius in the first Decade leb 2. who having attempted to kill the King Porsena killed his Secretary by mistake and having been taken and brought before the King burned his own hands in the flame of a torch with an admirable constancy to insinuate in the said Kings minde that there was three hundred young men more in his Camp that had vowed to kill him as he had essaied to do by which unparallel'd undantedness the King concluded a Peace with the Romans whereby Mutius Scevola obtained great honor and the Roman Commonwealth a great deliverance fourthly See Livius in the first Decade lib. 2. The undanted courage of Horatius Cocles another Roman Citizen who was so valorous as to oppose himself to the whole Army of the said King Porsena See Livius in the first Decade lib. 2. to hinder it from passing over a wooden bridge erected upon the river of Tiber which led into the City of Rome and made the same good till the bridge was broken down behinde him and then threw himself into the river and saved himself by swimming over by which noble action he obtained great honor See Plutarch in Themistocles life and preserved the City of Rome from ruine fifthly the undanted courage of a Greek souldier in the sea-fight that was fought between the Greeks and the Persians near to the Iland of Salamina is worthy of eternal fame for the Galley which he was in having boorded and grappled a Persian Galley the enemies having cut off the iron hooks he set his right hand to hold it and that being cut off he set his left hand and that being also cut off he held the Galley fast with his teeth till his head was cut off from his body sixthly The like undanted courage was seen in a Christian souldier when the City of Vienna was besieged by Soliman the Great Emperor of the Turks for in a great storm that the Turks gave to win a great Bastion or stone Bulwork which lieth next to the Gate that leads to Bressbourgh in Hungaria a Turkish Janisary having climbed the said Bulwork with a Turkish Flag in one of his hands to plant the same at the point of the Bulwork a Christian Souldier grappled with him and flung him and himself from the top of the Bulwork to the bottom of the Ditch and so were both slain chusing rather to sacrifice his life for the preservation of the City then to preserve the same by betraying the trust that was reposed on him See the Turkish History in Solimans life These are the laudable effects of true Valor and of an Undanted courage Fifthly The Spiritual Uses that may be made of this noble Passion of Undantedness may be these First Ephes 6.16 It may serve as a shield to cast back the fiery darts of the temptations of Satan Secondly It may serve as a precious antidote to expel the venome of all maner of Afflictions Tribulations and Persecutions that can befal a Christian in this life specially if it be grounded upon a true confidence in Christ for as the Prophet David saith Psal 56.4 In God I have put my trust I will not fear what flesh can do unto me And certainly if the Undanted courage of men proceed from a true confidence in God they shall never be moved but shall be like the middle region of the Air which is in a perpetual tranquility when the undermost is disturbed by impetuous Storms and Tempest Rom. 8.31 for as Saint Paul saith If God be for us who can be against us Thirdly This Undanted confidence in the mercies of God will comfort a Christian at the hour of death when all other worldly comforts do forsake him for that is the onely perillous time in which men have most need of this Grace of Spiritual Confidence and Undantedness because if Satan that roaring Lyon doth then miss of his prey men are for ever freed of his paws and therefore he doth then most bestir himself and uses the uttermost of his wiles to intrap the weak and sickly souls into his snares Fourthly This undanted Confidence made Shadrach Dan. 3.19 Meshach and Abednego to dispise the burning flames of a Furnace seven times more fierce then it was ordinarily heated and made the Prophet Daniel to contemn the rage of the hunger-bitten Lyons and 7.22 when he was cast into their Den by the malicious envy of the Princes Presidents and Governors of Persia Fifthly By Faith and this undanted Confidence all the ancient Heroes of the old Testament named in the eleventh Chapter of Saint Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 11.26 did suffer with admirable patience those Anguishes of Body and perplexities of the Minde there specified because they had respect unto the recompence of the reward Sixthly This undanted Confidence caused the Apostle Peter and others to despise the threatnings and beating of the High Priest and to rejoyce Acts 5.41 because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his Name And also it made all the Martyrs that suffered in Queen Maries days to bear with admirable patience the greatest torments that could be inflicted upon them It doth then appear by these discourses that an undanted Confidence in God serves as a shield in time of persecution to Gods children and that Valor and an undanted Courage guided by Prudence and grounded upon Justice is always honorable to the owners and profitable to the publike and that rash Undantedness is nothing but meer vanity temerity and vexation of Spirit c. CHAP. XV. Of the vanity of the passion of Fear AS nothing can be so good but it may be abused so nothing can be so evil but good use may be made of it Wine is excellent and good for it hath a natural propriety to rejoyce the heart Psal 104.15 and yet divers men abuse Wine and by the immoderate
men hath been pleased to furnish them with arms to oppose their greatest enemies of which the passion of Cupidity is one of the most implacable for of all the passions it is the harder to be subdued because it is the most successful snare of Satan for the increase of his kingdom of darkness by it sin came first into the world and hath infected like a contagious disease all the race of mankinde For by the eye which is the spring of mens desires Eve seeing the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of good and evil to be beautiful she coveteth the same as it appears by these words Gen. 3.6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave of it also to her husband with her and he did eat and so by her Cupidity and Adams Credulity men have been brought under the bondage of sin Now against this great enemy of mankinde God hath been pleased to arm them with this passion of Flight the great Antagonist of all covetous desires that as he had given men an inclination to desire such things as seemed good to their eyes and phansies they might also have an aversion to fly from such things as seemed to traverse their good and beeing otherwise they might have seen their enemies coming upon them when they had no arms to defend themselves nor power to eschew or fly from their apparent danger and had been inforced to cherish vices and sinful courses because they could not eschew or fly from them and to harbor a Guest whom they abhorred and detested This passion being then so useful to men and specially for the propagation of a godly life give me leave for the better description of it to speak in order of these particulars 1. Of the definition of Flight 2. Of the objects of it 3. Of the causes of it 4. Of its proprieties 5. Of its effects 6. Of the uses of it First Flight or Eschewing is a passion The definition of Flight or aversion that induceth men to avoid or fly from all things that seem to be evil or inconvenient to them or that may traverse their good and annihilate their beeing Flight is the cosen German of Hatred for they have many qualities alike and is incident to the Concupiscible appetite and the violent enemy and great opposite to the passion of Cupidity the spring of all covetous desires But men are to be cautious how they make use of this passion or aversion for otherwise they may flee from such things as are good instead to eschew those things that are evil for such is the depravation of this age that Vertues are called Vices and Vices are varnished over with the names of Vertues and true and sincere Piety is called Hypocrisie and real Hypocrisie is termed godliness and Sanctity They must then be as harmless as Doves Matt. 10.16 and as wise as Serpents to make use of this passion aright and then they will avoid and detest sin as the greatest of all evils and love God the perfection of all good and happiness Secondly The objects of Flight The chiefest objects of this passion are the guilt and punishment which are often taken one for the other some men taking the guilt for the punishment and the punishment for the guilt but guilt is the greater of the two because the punishment is but an effect of the guilt and without guilt there would be no punishment and yet because death is commonly comprized under the punishment for as St. Paul saith Rom 6.23 The wages of sin is death men most commonly strive to avoid and flee from the punishment and with great eagerness pursue the guilt I mean they run chearfully after sin and fly with fear from the punishment and so pervert the use of this passion that was given unto them by their Maker on purpose to flee from sin that draws with Cart-ropes the wrath and judgments of God upon all Nations and particuliar men that impenitently go on in their sins Men commonly fly from Serpents Dragons Lyons and Tygers and from the contagious disease of the Plague but they seldom flee from sin although it be more dangerous and destructive to their souls then any of these things above related can be to their bodies for they can but deprive them of this temporal life but sin without the special grace of God will cast them body and soul into the everlasting flames and therefore let men fly from sin if they intend to make a perfect use of this passion and let them not as our blessed Saviour saith of Fear Flee from them that can kill the body Matt. 10.28 but are not able to kill the soul Thirdly The causes of Flight are so numerous The causes of Flight that they would be over-tedious to relate I wil therefore speak but of some of them first Men if they could would fly from death because death is a most horrid thing specially to the Reprobate and Nature doth hate and eschew all things that may annihilate its beeing secondly Fear is an ordinary cause of Flight for many great Armies have fled upon a panick fear as Titus Livius Records in his Decades but there be Instances for it in the holy Scriptures as it appears 2 Kings Chap. 7. Vers 6. When the Lord made the host of the Assyrians to hear a noise of chariots 2 Kings 7.6 and a noise of horses even the noise of a great host and so raised their siege from Samaria and fled away leaving their tents full of riches and all manner of provisions thirdly The Prophet Ionah fled from the presence of the Lord Jonah 1.3 and Cha. 4.3 not to avoid evil but to commit evil in disobeying the Commandment of the Lord because he knew that God was a gracious and merciful God slow to anger and of great kindness A great weakness in a Prophet to be passionate and angry because God was pleased to be merciful to the Ninevites and a greater infirmity to flee to Tarshish from the Lord because he was assured that God would repent of the evil intended against them upon the sight of their repentance fourthly Absolom fled from the presence of his father King David 2 Sam. 13.28 after he had slain his brother Amnon at a Banquet under colour of love and hospitality and went to Geshur and was there three years till his fathers wrath was appeased fifthly Jeroboam the son of Nebat 1 King 11.40 fled from the presence of Salomon went into Egypt and staid there with Shishak King of Egypt till after Salomons death for Salomon sought to kill Ieroboam because he had been informed that the Prophet Ahijah had anointed him King over Israel sixthly Joseph the supposed father of our blessed Saviour and the Virgin Mary Matth. 2.12 with
Christians have with their gracious God by contemplation meditation or fervent prayers The first is a sudden and violent motion of the heart that causeth a great alteration in the body The definition of Joy See Theuphrast Boju in his Commentaties upon Aristotle Phys fol. 727. proceeding in the opinion of the Moralists from the possession or fight of some object much desired which is really good or reputed to be so by the imagination of men yet it will appear by the proprieties and effects of it that it doth not always come from the possession or injoyment of a beloved object or from an imaginary good but sometimes from relations scurrilous speeches ridiculous postures and deformedobjects for Joy is as I have said before an affection of the minde and is rather infused in the Heart by the Eye and by the Ear then by any of the other three Senses for those are more proper to the passion of Volupty of which Delight or Delectation is a branch however it is the fifth passion incident to the Concupiscible appetite and proceeds from divers causes as it will appear in the next Discourse Secondly The causes of worldly joy are either Publick or Private the Publick proceed commonly from the immediate hand of God or from his favor or by his permission and of these I shall speak in the first place first It was a great cause of publick joy proceeding from the immediate hand of God to the people of Israel presently after their coming out of Egypt to see the sea go back Exod. 14.21 to 31. and make a free passage for their host to pass through the midst of it and when they were all safe come to dry land to see the rowling waves of the sea to turn back and overwhelm Pharoah and all his Army secondly It was a cause of publick Joy when it pleased the Lord to deliver the people of the Iews from that bloody decree obtained by Haman from the great King Ahasuerus against the whole Nation of the Iews Esther 3.4 The causes of publick joy that were scattered through the one hundred and seven and twenty Provinces of the said Kings Dominions for which admirable deliverance the people of Israel made the 15th and 16th day of the moneth Adar days of Thanksgiving and of Feasting and Rejoycing from one generation to the other which were called the days of Purim See the Spanish and Turkish History thirdly It was the cause of publick joy to the Venetians and to all Christendom when God was pleased to give unto the Christian Fleet such a memorable victory over the Turkish Navy at the Battel of Lepantho for which after thanks given to God many days of Feasting and Rejoycing were kept at Venice and other parts of Christendom fourthly See Speed in the life of King James It was an incredible cause of publick joy for England when the Lord was pleased to deliver this Nation from the devillish plot of the Gunpouder Treason for which miraculous deliverance after hearty thanks given to God great Feasting Bond-fires and other expressions of joy were made in London and through the whole Land 1. It was a cause of private joy to the old Patriarch Jacob to hear by the report of his sons that his beloved son Joseph Gen. 45.26 who he thought had been devoured by wild beasts was chief Governor of Egypt and the next man in honor to the King 2. It was a cause of private joy for old Iesse The causes of private joy 1 Sam. 16.12 to see his youngest son David from a Shepherd to be promoted to be King of all Israel and specially to be reputed by God himself to be a man after his own heart 3. It was a cause of private joy for old Mordecay to see his Neece Esther Esther 2.16 from a Captive to be exalted to be the wife of the great King Ahasuerus and the greatest Queen in the world 4. It was a cause of incomprehensible joy to the Virgin Mary and to all mankinde to hear the blessed and glad tidings that the Angel Gabriel brought her from the Lord saying Behold Luke 1.26.46 thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David whereupon the Virgin Mary transported with joy and ravished in spirit sung some dayes after this excellent Song My soul doth magnify the Lord beginning at the fourty sixt Verse of the first Chap. of St. Luke Here was a true and real Cause of Spiritual Joy not onely for the Virgin Mary but also for all the Elected of God who by free grace have part in the merits of Christ By these Instances it appears that these causes of joy did proceed from the seeing and hearing which are the two Senses most proper to the passion of Joy There are divers other Causes of worldly joy which are not so well grounded as these but are most vain and ridiculous and they are these following The joy of private and worldly men suits with their inclinations first The Ambitious will rejoyce in the increase of their honors secondly The Covetous men in the abundance of their riches thirdly The causes of private mens joy The Voluptuous men will rejoyce in the injoyment of their pleasures fourthly The Merchants and Trades-men in the increase of their Trade fifthly The Lawyers in the multiplicity of their Clients and in the discord of their neighbors sixthly The prophane and Libertine in all manner of ridiculous Sports scurrilous Songs lewd Musick Dancing Valting and in lascivious Pictures and Postures and in Chambering Gluttony and Drunkenness and these are the common and ordinary causes of the joy of worldly men Let the Reader judg then whether carnal joy be not meer vanity and vexation of Spirit for the great vanity of it moved Solomon to say I said of laughter Eccles 2.2 it is mad and of mirth what doth it and the very truth is that men transported with immoderate joy are like fools and mad men Thirdly The proprieties of worldly joy are these first Worldly joy is of hot temper secondly It is of a dilative or spreading quality and these two proprieties are the cause that sudden joy doth bereave men of life for when some beloved object or glad tidings are unexpectedly represented to the eyes or ears of men this causeth a violent alteration in all the parts of the body but specially in the heart by means of the hot and dilative quality of this passion of Joy because the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it are with great violence driven from the inward parts to the extremity of the members of the body The proprieties of worldly joy whereby mens hearts are deprived of their natural heat and of their vital spirits and so fall into a swoon
Grief and Sorrow some say it is a passion of the soul proceeding from some sensible loss or displeasure received others say it is a perturbation of the minde and an anguish of the body others that it is a passion afflicting the soul by the apprehension of present and future evils but this last opinion seemeth to be the best The definition of Dolour according to the Bishop of Marseillis pag 302. Dolour is a passion of the soul proceeding from the dislike that men receive from the objects represented to their imagination by their Senses which are averse to their inclinations and irksome to their bodies Moreover It is the last passion incident to the Concupiscible appetite and the root of divers other passions and the great Antagonist of worldly Joy because all carnal Joy doth end in Sorrow there being none so pure but it leaves in the soul a sting of remorse and repentance but Spiritual Sorrow is one of the greatest motives that men have to induce them to beate with fervency the ways of righteousness For godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7.10 saith St. Paul worketh Repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death Secondly There are divers sorts and degrees of Dolour for the very word of Dolour doth signify Anguish Grief and Sorrow and every one of these have their degrees Anguish doth properly signifie the Dolours Pains and Torments of the Body whether they be natural or accidental and Grief doth signify the Dolour of the Minde and Sorrow is an invetered grief of the Minde which is by long continuance turned into an habit of Sorrow The first of these which is Anguish hath a secret reflection to the Sensitive appetite of the soul by means of the communion there is between it and the senses yet the seat of Anguish is in the body or in some of the members of it but the seat of Grief and Sorrow is in the Minde The three different sorts of Dolour and this kinde of Dolour is invisible to the eyes of men because it is intellectual and hath but little reflection to the body except it become excessive in degree but when the grief of the minde is by long continuance turned into an habit of Sorrow then it hath a great influence upon the body for by flow paces and degrees it consumes the body the radical humor and the very marrow in the bones and therefore the inveterate Sorrow is accounted the worst Dolour of the three because it is in a maner incurable for it doth ordinarily reject all remedies that might ease and cure the same as for Anguish and Grief they are easily cured by removing of the cause of them the symtomes of the first being always visible and apparent by the paleness or the high colour of the face by the inflammation of the parts by the distemper of the pulse or by the pains that are felt in any of the members of the body to which remedies may be applied by learned Physitians and as for the grief of the minde which is recent and not yet inveterate the cause being known by such as frequent or are familiar with the grieved and afflicted party such arguments and seasonable consolations may be used that they may stifle this Cockatrice in the shell Thirdly The causes of these three different sorts of Dolour may be reduced to these Heads first To Publick secondly To Private thirdly To Natural fourthly To Accidental 1. The Publick causes of Sorrow should be more sensible to men then any other yet in these days they are not regarded although there never was greater cause first It was a cause of publick sorrow to the People of Israel when they were informed of the cruel and bloody decree that Pharoah King of Egypt had made to cast all their male children into the River Fxodws 1.22 that the Hebrew Nation might by degrees be utterly destroyed secondly It was a great cause of publick sorrow of weeping and lamentation for the whole Nation of the Jews Publick causes of of sorrow when they were advertised that their good and religious King Iosiah had been mortally wounded in the battel 's fought in the Valley of Megiddo against Necho King of Egypt 2 Chron. 35.23 and all their Army routed and defeated thirdly It was a great cause of publick lamentation and sorrow for the people of Israel when they saw before their eyes the Temple of the Lord to be burned the City of Ierusalem to be sacked 2 Chron 36.19 20. and the rest of the people to be carried captives into Babylon by the King Nebuchadnezzar for which great desolation the Prophet Ieremiah did wish that his head were waters Jer. 9.1 and his eyes a fountain of tears that he might weep day and night for the slain of the daughters of his people fourthly It was a great cause of publick sorrow for the people of the Iews that were scattered through the hundred and twenty seven Provinces of the great King Ahasuerus dominions Esther 3.12 13 14 15. when they were informed of the cruel decree that Haman their mortal enemy had obtained to put them their wives and children to the sword for which there was great mourning and lamentations in the said Provinces but specially in the City of Shushan 2. It was a private cause of sorrow to the old Patriarch Iacob when he was informed that his dear and beloved son Ioseph had been slain and devoured by wilde beasts Gen. 37.33 although he was living but had been sold by his brethren out of envy as a slave to the Ishmaelites Merchants that were travelling down into Egypt secondly Private causes of Sorraw It was a cause of private sorrow for King David to hear of the Rape of his daughter Tamar who was ravished by his own son Amnon and again of the murder of the said Amnon committed by his darling son Absolon 2 Sam. 13 14 and 29. in vindication of the Rape of his sister Tamar thirdly It was a cause of private sorrow for King Ieroboam and his Queen to see the best of all their children Abijah their elder son to be taken away by death in the flower of his age and the more because it was by a judgment of God 1 King 14.12 for the Idolatry of Ieroboam fourthly It was a cause of private sorrow for the great Emperor Augustus Cesar that his daughter Iulia by her impudicity was banished and that none of his grand children were thought worthy to succeed him in the Empire because of their vitious miscarriages but was inforced to adopt See Tacitus and Suetonius in his life or elect Tiberius Nero his wives son the worst of men for his Successor in the Empire 3. The causes of dolour of the Minde The causes of Dolour or Sorrow of the Minde may be these first The privation of the injoyment of mens desires may be the cause of their sorrow
inlarge my self upon these particulars 1. On the Definition of this Passion 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Nature and Proprieties of it 4. On the evil and good Effects of it 5. On the Spiritual Use of it First This Passion hath several names some call it Confidence and have good reason for it because it is its unseperable companion others call it Audacity but this terme doth blemish the true Nature of it The definition of the passion of Undantedness for audacious and presumptuous men are held to be under one and the same predicament other call it boldness but this word is often taken for Impudency but the French call it Hardiesse which doth express most properly the nature of it which is Undantedness in the English Tongue And here is the definition of it according to the judgment of the best Moralists Boujou fol. 7 23. Vndantedness saith one is an affection and assurance to eschew an evil and to overcome all the difficulties of it Vndantedness The Bishop of Marseilles in pag. 401. saith another is a Passion of the soul which strengtheneth the same and makes it confident it can overcome the most difficult evils that can befall it in this life and doth also incourage it to prosecute the good that is most difficult to obtain And to this last definition I assent as concerning the same the best of the two for it doth truely express the nature of this passion which is the third passion incident to the Irascible Appetite 2. The Causes of it are many but they may be reduced to these six the two first are Natural the two middlemost accidental and the two last supernatural The first natural cause of undantedness is a hot and moist temper of the body The first Natural cause may be a moist and hot temper of the body for the Naturalists have observed that all such as are of that constitution of body have ordinarily an undanted spirit The Natural reason of it is that this hot and moist temper doth suppress the Melancholick humor and its evil proprieties and effects whereby the blood that is hot and airy an ful ofvital spirits and the bilia that is dry and fiery and the flegm that is cold and moist being thus mixt become of a dilative nature and by the motion of the heart spread themselves into all the utmost parts of the body and inableth the minde to undertake and the body to execute all maner of generous designs be they never so difflcult or perillous The second natural cause of Undantedness may be the largeness of the heart of men for it hath been observed by the Physitians when they have opened the bodies of valiant and undanted spirits that their hearts were larger then the hearts of ordinary men See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and King Xerxes King of Persia having caused the body of Leonidas King of Sparta to be opened partly out of admiration of his valour and in part out of curiosity The second natural cause of undantedness is the largeness of the harts of men to see whether the heart of such an undanted spirit was larger then the hearts of common men he found the same to be as big again and hairy all over a natural propriety incident to such as are of a hot and moist constitution of body to abound in hair The Natural reason why men with larger hearts then others should be addicted to Valour and Undantedness is this that the larger the heart is the morevital spirits it can contain which are the essential causes of Valour and Undantedness and therefore it may very well be that the largeness of the heart is a natural cause of Undantedness That tall and burly men are commonly less valorous then short and middle stastured men Divers men are of opinion that tall and burly bodied men are more addicted to Valour and Undantedness then short and middle-statur'd men but they are mistaken for tall men have smaller hearts then others and are also commonly more faint-hearted then other men and the Naturalists give this reason for it If their hearts say say were proportionable to their body they might have reason to be of that opinion but it is commonly smaller because Nature extended its vertue to the utmost parts deprives the inward parts of it Besides all the vitall spirits reside in the bloud and in the heart and by its motion they are dispersed through all the parts of the body Now the farther distant these parts are from the heart the longer time are the vital spirits a going to quicken and vivifie them and by consequence tall and burlybodied men are fuller of Flesh then of Spirits and less couragious then others It is true that they have a presuming undantedness because of their strength but what is done by strength proceeds from Strength and not from Valour which doth reside in the heart and in the minde and not in the arms and in the sinews And the most valorous and undanted spirits of this Age and of other Ages were for the most part short or at the most of a middle stature Leonidas See Plutarch in Peleopidas life and Peleopidas were but short men and Sir Francis Veere and Sir Francis Drake and the Marshal de Biron and the Marshal Gastion were all short men I conclude then that Valour and undantedness doth reside in the heart and minde and not in the strength of the body and that some of all statures may be valiant and undanted The first accidentall cause may be the innocency of men and the justice of their Cause for as Salomon saith Prov. 28.1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth but the righteous are bold as a a Lyon and it is daily seen that three true men will overcome half a dozen of theeves And when men fight for the preservation of the Liberties of their native Countrey and the lives of their wives and children and all the means they have they fight commonly like Lyons The second accidentall cause of Undantedness may be The relations support or alliances that men have with potent and powerful Princes or States for the confidence they have to be backt and supported by them doth make them undertake with undanted courage difficult and perillous enterprises The two accinentall causes of the undantedness of men for Instance The Hollanders a small Commonwealth being at the first supported by Elizabeth Queen of England and afterwards by Henry the fourth King of France have for many years together undantedly waged war with the great King of Spain and likewise the Kingdom of Sweden a petty Kingdom in comparison of the Empire of Germany being supported by Lewis the 13th King of France hath with an undanted courage waged war many years with the House of Austria See the Histories of Germany England and France Thirdly The first supernatural cause of the undantedness of men may be their zeal to Religion for
hundreds over fifties and over tens to disburden himself of the heavie burthen he had taken upon him to Judge the people of Israel for by this councel he eased Moses and the people and made the Elders of Israel to be sharers with him in the honor of the rule and government of the Commonweal whereby he was much beloved and honored of all the people It was a wise Policy and and a wholsom counsel that the wise g 2 Sam. 20.16 22. woman of Abel gave to her Citizens to cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and to cast it over the wall to Joab for by it she preserved the whole City from sack and ruine that might justly have been destroyed by Joab if they had persisted to be the abbettors of the rebellion of Sheba who received but a just reward for his treachery and rebellion for endeavouring to raise a new War against his lawful Prince the anointed of the Lord. And it was a Councel grounded upon true prudence and policy which was given to h See the French History in the life of Charls the seventh Charls the seventh King of France by his grave and faithful Counsellors of State to conclude a peace with Philip Duke of Burgundy although he should yield into his hands his Favorites who had by his assent murthered the Duke John of Burgundy father to Philip as he was treating a reconciliation with the said King about the murder the said John had committed upon the Duke of Orleance the Kings Uncle for by this counsel the Kingdom of France was preserved from ruine and restored again to its former flourishing condition and the murtherers had but their due deserts it being more just that half a dozen of guilty persons should perish then a whole Kingdom should be undone these Counsellors justly maintaining that these Favorites were not to commit such an act although they had a Warrant from the King Subjects being not bound to obey the commands of their Prince in things that be contrary and forbidden by the Law of God as murder is and so these Counsellors were for ever after much honored of the King and of the whole Kingdom for their wisdom and fidelity It was a wise Counsel grounded upon humanity and sound Policy that the Bishop of i See the History of Spain in Charls the fifth's life Osma gave to the Emperor Charls the fifth after Francis the first King of France became his Prisoner at the battel of Pavia that he should for his own glory and the future good of Spain set the said King of France at free liberty without ransome or capitulations at all and have him conducted with an honorable Train to the Borders of his own Kingdom but this good counsel being traversed by the Machavilian policy of the Duke d'Alva they made a prey of the said King which was the cause after the Kings release of a bloody war that was fatal to the Emperor and the Kingdom of Spain whereby it appears that by Prudence and just Policy men may attain to worldly honors and that Machavilian policy is ever destructive and subject to shame and ignominy For the eighth and the last which is Valour it hath ever been one of the first steps to worldly honors and is a commendable means so mens valor be exercised in the service of their Prince and propagation of the true Protestant Religion and for the desence of the Liberties of their native Countrey for by their valour in such cases they attain to the personal Nobility which is as I have said before the spring of the Nobility of race or descent for the Nobility obtained by valour in any of these three cases is the most honourable Nobility of all neither is it true valor to kill any one in duel but rather an effect of an inconsiderate wrath and of a desperate vindication and a meer murder in the sight of God for true valor appears onely in the Field against an open enemy and not to kill our friends for a word spoken unadvisedly or unawares and it hath been observed that these k Roarers are 〈◊〉 vâ—liant roaring Gallants that make a trade of killing of men for punctillios of honor in duels are commonly cowards and are the first that trust to their spurs in a pitcht Field by which it appears that their valor is rather a raging Passion then a vertuous valor which is always guided by Reason and Judgment Now by these eighth means by which minds most commonly attain to honour in the world the Reader may judge whether there by any probability that worldly honors should afford men any true content sith the means by which they are obtained are subject to so many accidents and are so vain and full of vanity and vexation of spirit For the second branch of this Discourse concerning the persons that deserve to be honoured I will be very brief because all rational men are acquainted with this duty first in the first of S Peter Chap. 2. ver 17. there is a general charge Honor all men love the brotherhood fear God and honor the King and Solomon in his l Prov. 39. Proverbs goes further for we are not onely to fear God but we are also to honor him Honor the Lord saith he with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase and next to God and the King we are to honor our Parents m Exod. 20 12. Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee God to induce men to honour their Parents makes here a precious promise to obedient and respective children the next to our Parents we are to honor civil Magistrates and the Messengers and Ministers of God and next to them the grave and ancient men n Levit. 19.32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the antient and yet who are more despised then old men in this corrupt Age for young men are now preferred to places of Dignity Profit and Trust contrary to former Ages for Solomon by these words As snow in Summer and rain in Harvest so is honor not seemly for a fool intimates that young men are not to be honored with places of Trust in Church or Commonweal because they are for want of experience no better then fools and yet they account themselves generally out of a vain presumption wiser then old men whom they call doting fools for want of the knowledge of this Proverb Before Honor is Humility for were they truly wise they would be humble and not presumptuous for presumption is the companion of Folly besides vertuous learned wise prudent and valiant men are to be honored I distinguish Learning from Prudence and Wisdom because learned men are not always wise nor prudent although Learning is a means to attain to Wisdom but Learning is the theorical part of Wisdom and without a
evill then upon the good except the nature and propriety of them be changed by divine Grace The effects of mens desires As for the effects of mens desires they are as I have said before Good of Evil according to their objects but sith it hath been proved that they are commonly fixed upon evil objects their effects must of necessity be rather evil then good If the honors of this world be their object the fruits and effects of Adhbition is the desolation of Kingdoms the shedding of innocent blood and the miseries that follow civil and intestine wars If their object be the riches of this world their effects are carking cares moiling and toyling and vexation of minde in their acquisition and fears and apprehensions in their keeping and grief and sorrow in the losing of them If the pleasures of this world be their object the effects wil be the wasting of their means the impairing of their health and the indangering of their souls But if the object of their desires be the glory of God then their effects will be comfort in this life and eternal bliss in the life to come The fruition of Gods presence is the onely object that can satisfy the desires of men So that upon the good or bad election of the objects of mens desires depends their happiness or woe in this life and their torment or glory in the life to come It behoveth men therefore to be wary upon what objects they fix their desires sith there is not any thing under the Sun that can satisfy them for if all the excellency of the creatures were abstracted into one yet it could not satisfy the desires of men sich their soul is a spark of the divine essence that can never be free of the anxiety and perturbations of minde that proceed from the inconstancy and restlesness of mens desires till by grace it doth injoy the sight of the glorious presence of God the original Spring of it who is the fulness and perfection of all bliss for that object onely can satisfy the wishes and desires of their souls Fourthly The comforts that Christians may receive in this life of their godly desires are many as it shall appear when I have perswaded them to indevor to banish from their minde the swarms of vain desires that disquiet the tranquillity of their souls which may be done by these means first To hate and abhor all carnal desires for as long as they have a predominancy in their souls it is impossible for them to have a feeling of the comforts proceeding from the spiritual desires for the flesh having the mastery over the spirit it keeps these effects under hatches Allusion upon the 19. Psalm ver 9 10. But if men desire the sear of God and prefer his Statutes and Judgments before the refined gold and hold them sweeter then hony or the hony comb they will by degrees obtain the dominion over their carnal desires The second means is to indevor to obtain a contented minde for discontentedness is the cause of the extravagancy of mens desires But godliness a 1 Tim. 6.6 with contentment saith St. Paul is great gain for the daily discontent of men makes them desire they know not what but when they are contented with their estate and condition in this life Four means to contain mens desires within their limits their desires aspire higher and endeavor to attain to the supream good as the onely object of mens desires The third means is to purifie their hearts for as clean and pure streams cannot proceed from a foul and muddy Spring even so it is impossible that godly desires should spring from the hearts of men except they be purified and sanctified by the Spirit of God for as our blessed Saviour saith b Matth 15.19 Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications c. and these are the effects of mens desires whose hearts are not purified by grace because the Concupiscible appetite resides in the heart and this appetite is the spring or root of all the desires of men The fourth means is for men to set a watchful Centry over their eyes for by the eye men perceive the objects and the objects are the moving cause of mens desires and Cupidities by the eye King David saw the beauty of c 2 Sam. 11. ver 2. Bathshebah by which he was tempted to lust Therefore men must make a covenant with their eyes as Job did d Job 31.1 for they are the windows whereby mens lascivious desires are conveied into their hearts and by these means and the free grace of God men will be able to keep their desires within the limits prescribed in his Word from which wil proceede first Six comforts proceeding from the spiritual desires of men A true and real contentment of minde which cannot be obtained as long as their vain desires do interrupt the peace of their souls for being freed of their extravagant desires of Cupidity They may as St. Paul saith be contented with that they have sith e Heb. 13.5 God hath promised that he will never leave nor forsake them secondly An unspeakable inward joy for being free from the continuall vexation proceeding from the irregularity of their desires whereby they have more liberty to beat the ways of righteousness and make their f 2 Pet. 1.10 calling and election sure from which they were distracted by their worldly desires thirdly A far greater consolation by the familiar communion they will have with their gracious God then they had before At whose right hand saith the Prophet David g Psal 16.11 there are pleasures for evermore fourthly A fervent desire to walk in the ways of righteousnes and to seek the Lord in the night and in the morning as the Prophet Isaiah saith h Isa 26.9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early fifthly A certain assurance that their desires shall be granted sith they have banished their former vain and extravagant desires as Salomon saith i Pro. 10.24 The fear of the wicked shall come upon him but the desire of the righteous shall be granted sixthly A hunger and thirst after righteousness whereby they shall be in love with all righteous duties and be induced to k Psal 1.2 meditate day and night in the Law of God and by their constant habit in the ways of true piety they shal be made partakers of this blessing of our blessed Saviour l Matth. 5 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled viz. with incredible joy and unspeakable comfort It is then apparent that worldly desires are but meere vanity and vexation of spirit and that there is no true comfort but in the Spiritual c. CHAP. IX Of the vanity of the passion of Flight or Eschewing GOd out of his infinite love to
daily the fears and apprehensions of death which is worse then death it self and die for one death a thousand deaths Yet if men will dive into the nature and effects of this passion of Despair without partiality they will finde that good use may be made of it so it doth not attain to that exorbitant and horrid degree of Self-murdering Give me leave therefore to extend my Discourse upon these particulars 1. On the definition of this passion of Despair 2. On the diversity of the Causes of it 3. On the bad and good Effects of it 4. On the Remedies to allay the fury of it There are divers sorts of Despair which may be reduced to these three first Worldly secondly Moral thirdly Spiritual The worldly Despair is nothing else but a conceit of an impossibility in the acquisition of the vain hopes of men as it will appear in the Causes and Effects of that kinde of Despair The definition of the Moral Despair is according to the opinion of the best Moralists as followeth Despair saith Boujou Theophrast Boujou Lord of Beaulieu fol. 723. is a passion of the Soul withdrawing men from some good much desired because it is represented by the Senses to their imagination as impossible to be obtained Senault in his use upon the passions pag. 344. Despair saith Senault is a violent motion of the soul that keeps men aloof from the prosecution of some good in which they see no probability it can be obtained Now this good is not always a real good for the Senses do oftentimes delude the Reason and Judgment of men but suppose it be a real good then it is Vertue it self or some vertuous Object Action or Design which they conceive impossible to be obtained or performed for Moral Hope hath no other object then Vertue or vertuous and generous actions and by consequence Moral Despair must have the same objects The definition of worldly moral and spiritual despair for divers of the ancient Moralists held Self-murdering no Despair as I have given a hint of it in the last Discourse but an action of fortitude and of magnanimity of courage And this Moral Despair is the opposite and great Antagonist of Moral Hope and the second passion incident to the Irascible appetite which doth mitigate the extravagancy of mens Hopes as it will appear in the insuing Discourses yet men often times despair of things in which they imagine impossibilities when there is none as it will appear by these two Instances About sixscore years past it was a thing thought impossible to sail with a ship round about the circuit of the earth and yet Magalen a Portugais See the Spanish and English History and Sir Francis Drake an English man have shown by experience that it was possible to be done secondly In the days of Charls the ninth Henry the third and Henry the fourth Kings of France It was a thing thought impossible to take the City of Rochel by force or by famine and yet the Cardinal de Riche-lieu by the Art of a French Enginere See the French History hath shown by experience it was possible to be done for by a floating bridge that he made over an Arm of the Sea upon which he planted Ordinances and erected two Towers and with a land Army Lewis the thirteenth King of France took that City by famine in less then a year whereupon I conclude that men Despair of things by imagining impossibilities where there is none and this proceeds from want of judgment power or experience for it is daily seen that which seems to be impossible to one man is easie and facile to another Spiritual Despair is nothing else but a distrust of Gods mercy which by the temptation of Satan do intice men to be the murderers of themselves which is the next sin to the sin of the Holy Ghost Secondly The causes of worldly Despair may be these first The death of a beloved party See Bandel in his Tragical Histories Romelio supposing his beloved Mistress Iuliete to be dead when she was but in a swound slew himself upon her body and when she came to her self again she seeing her Sweet-Heart had killed himself for her sake she stabbed her self with his Poynard secondly The infidelity in love is a cause of Despair See Virgils Aeneads Dido Queen of Carthage slew her self because Aeneas a Trojan Prince forsook her and sailed into Italy but if this be a Poeticall Fable hear a true Relation A proper young maiden being secretly betrothed to a young man living here in London who broke his faith and married another whereupon the maiden being transported with Despair poisoned her self and died the next day this hapned within this twelve moneth I could relate a hundred such instances to prove that of all the passions Love being abused or extinguished by death doth sooner then any other thing beget Despair but I pass them over for brevity sake thirdly Avarice is the cause of Despair A Merchant in London of good means having had some losses at sea and having received the tidings of it on the Saturday he being transported with Despair hung himself on the Sunday morning when his servants were at Church and it is a common thing among the Cormorant Farmers when they have Monopolized all the corn of a County into their hands to hang or drown themselves if the next year prove to be a fruitful year fourthly Famine is a cause of Despair 2 Kings 6.29 for in Jehorams days such a famine was in Samaria that two women boiled a childe and did eate the same the mother of the childe out of Despair consenting to it and whosoever will be pleased to read Iosephus will see the horrid actions of some of the Iews committed out of Despair because of the great famine that was at Ierusalem when it was besieged by the Romans fifthly The fear to fall into the hands of a cruel enemy causeth Despair some of the richest of the Saguntines rather then they would fall into the hands of Hanibal and his cruel Carthaginian and Numidian souldiers See Titus Livius in his third Decade lib. 1. pag. 34. did carry all their wealth with their wives and children into their Market place and having made a great heap of their rich moveables they set the fire in it and slew their wives and children and having cast them into the fire they slew themselves afterwards sixtly Shame is a cause of Despair Cleopatra Queen of Egypt being informed that it had been resolved in the Counsel of Augustus Cesar that she should be led as a captive after the triumphant Chariot of the said Emperor when he should make his entry into Rome out of Despair to avoid that shame See Plutarch in Marcus Antonius life she applied two Vipers to her two breasts and so died There are divers other causes of worldly Despair but they are of another nature for they attain not to that
exorbitant degree of Self-murdering but draw men off from their vain hopes and rash enterprises of which I shall have occasion to speak in the Effects of this passion of Despair The Causes of Moral Despair proceed from the fatall events from generous and Martial achievements or from the managing of affairs of State first after the Battel of Cannae that Hanibal won upon the Romans the young Nobility that fled and saved themselves from the rout of it were so transported with Despair that they resolved to fly out of Italy and had done so but for Publius Scipio who hearing of their resolution See Titus Livius in his third Decade lib. 3. came amongst them and after a sharp censure for their pusillanimity made them swear never to forsake him till he had been avenged upon Hanibal for the shame the Romans had received at Cannae And by their means was he elected by the voyce of the People to go as General into Africa to inforce Hanibal by a diversion of war to withdraw his forces out of Italy secondly The Carthaginians were so transported with Fear and Despair after the last overthrow that Scipio gave them not far from Carthage where he routed Hanibal and Iuba King of the Numidians that they lost all hope and courage and made a most shameful peace with the Romans for they did deliver up unto them all their shipping But contrarily after the loss of three famous battels that Hanibal won upon the Romans Hope inflamed their courage and by it from a conquered People they became Conquerors A good caveat for Princes or States to disswade them from Despairing in the dismal events of war but to foment hope in their breast in their greatest disgraces for if Despair creap in mens hearts that hold the Helm of the ship of the Common-wealth See Titus Iavius in his third Decade lib. 3. all goes to wrack thirdly Charls the seventh King of France was for sometime so possessed with Despair by the evil events that his men of war had daily with the English Armies that were under the Command of the Duke of Bedford that he suffered his own and publick affairs to go to ruine till his Concubine La bella Agnes by the perswasion of the French Peers See du Halian in his French History and some of his chiefest and most faithful Commanders of war infused Hope into his heart by saying unto him that she was minded to leave him for she had been told that she should be the Mistress of the most valourous Prince in Christendom and she saw nothing but pusillanimity in him for he did suffer the English to rent his Kingdom in piece-meals This coming from a woman filled the King with indignation and with the hopes that the Pucelle of Orleans as they called her gave him to raise the siege of Orleans that was then besieged by the English he took from that time forward his and the publick affairs to heart and became a valorous Prince fourthly In the beginning of the reign of Henry the fourth King of France the true French Nation was brought into such a plunge of Despair by the conspiracy of the Chatholick league and the association it had with Spain with the general revolt of the greatest Cities in France against their lawful King that had not God filled the heart of Henry the fourth with Hope and undanted valour that Kingdom had been rent and torn in pieces by forraign Princes fifthly Ahitophel fel into such a deep Despair 2 Sam. 27.23 because his Councel was rejected and Hushaies Councel was accepted that he went and put his house in order and then hanged himself sixthly The Cardinal Ximines See the Spanish History in the beginning of the reign of Charls the fifth who was Viceroy in Spain during the minority of the Emperor Charls the fifth died with Sorrow and Despair because his faithful services to the Crown of Spain were rewarded with an ingrateful dismission from the Court and all publick afairs First Apostacy is the cause of spirtual Despair for Saul King of Israel fell into Despair for disobeying the Commandment of the Lord Four causes of spiritual Despair in not cutting off all the Amalekites and for repairing to the Witch of Endor in stead to ask counsel of God and being wounded by the Philistins and his Army routed upon Mount Gilboa 1 Sam. 31.40 he fell upon his sword and killed himself secondly Iudas Iscariot that betraied our blessed Saviour fell into Despair for his Apostacy and disloyalty and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief Priest and Elders and said I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood Mat. 27.3 4. and so went out and hanged himself thirdly Francisco Spira fell into Despair for his Apostacy for having imbraced the Protestant Religion he was by large promises of great preferments seduced to return to Popery but the worm of Conscience did so rack him See the book of Martyrs that he often cried out he was in in hell because the torments of hell as he said could not be greater then those that he did suffer fourthly The persecuting of Gods children is a cause to beget a spiritual Despair in men as you may see at large in a Treatise called The Iudgments of God upon Persecutors Thirdly The worst effect of Self-murdering Despair is that it deprives men of Repentance and by consequence of salvation for Repentance is a gift of the free grace of God neither can men repent when they will Six pernitius effect of De-Despair sith it is not their own gift but Gods and how can they repent when their Understanding and their Will which are the noblest faculties of their soul are perverted and so distempered with this furious passion of Despair that they are rather like mad then rational men and worse then the bruit creatures for none of them will destroy their own kinde much less themselves Repentance is a gift of God and is not at mens disposing and must be attained by prayers and not to be deferred to the hour of death for Self-murdering is an action contrary to the Law of Nature for Nature strives in all its Effects to preserve its own beeing besides it is expresly prohibited by the Law of God that one man should murder another but suppose he do yet if he murder the body of a man he cannot murder his soul but he that murdereth himself doth murder his owne body and his own soul and therefore deserves a far greater punishment then a common murderer secondly This kinde of Despair proceeds from a distrust of Gods mercie and what greater injury can be done to God by man then to distrust of his infinite mercy and to be a wilful rebel to his blessed Commandments thirdly It deprives men of all Reason Judgment Compassion and Humanity for they are more cruel to themselves then their greatest enemies can be to them as it
fear and tempt them 1 Cor. 6.15 To make of the members of Christ the members of a Harlot It is also one of the most prevailing snares of Satan by which he draweth more millions of souls into the Pit of destruction then by any other sin whatsoever And therefore give me leave to enlarge my self upon these particulars 1. Upon the definition of this passion 2. Upon the nature of it 3. Upon the causes why some are more addicted to it then others 4. Upon the evil proprieties of it 5. Upon the pernitious effects of the same 6. Upon the judgements that God doth inflict upon voluptuous men 7. Upon the means or remedies which are to be used to avoid the venome of it 8. And lastly Upon the express prohibition of the same by the Word of God First Volupty is a composed passion of love and desire The definition of Volupty arising from a tickling delight of the senses when men enjoy really or by imagination such objects as seem pleasant to their phansie It is so general that all such as are under the state of Nature are more or less addicted to it Nay the regenerate are sometimes ensnared by it by the temptations of Satan and their original corruptions the difference between them is that the unregenerate by their impenitency die in their sins and the regenerate by the free grace of the sanctifying Spirit of God are awaked out of this spiritual lethargy and by an unfained repentance are converted and reconciled to God Secondly It is of a feminine nature for all such as are overmuch addicted to this passion loose their masculine generosity and become effeminate Hercules did cast off his Club and Lyons skin to vest himself and spin like a woman before Omphale his Mistress And it is daily seen that voluptuous men imitate in their gestures carriage and fashions the Courtizans of these days for they powder their hair wear black patches and paint their Faces as they do It was not then without cause that the ancient Poets did represent volupty under the shape of the old Witch Circe for as she transformed the Passengers who sailed through the Straits of Sicilia into Swine if they listned to her Charms Even so Volupty doth transform into brute beasts rational men if they converse long and let themselves be ensnared by the alluring Charms of Harlots for as Zerubbalel proved it before King Darius the Charms of a beautiful woman are more powerful then strong Wine Esdras 3. from the 14. ver to the 32. or a mighty King Thirdly The Causes why some men are more addicted to this passion then others may be natural accidental or artificial such as are naturally more addicted to it are commonly of a hotter and moister constitution then others and these are of a sanguine complexion for the Bilious are hot and dry the Flegmatick moist and cold and the Melancholike cold and dry which are not so apt to the Venereal delight as the Sanguine The Accidental Causes are The hot Climate where men live for Heat dilates the spirits outwardly and Cold restrains them inwardly And Experience doth shew that the Africans Spaniards and Italians whose Climate is hotter then the Germans Dutch English are the most addicted to Venery And yet they are not so apt to generation as the last because the desire of the reiteration of the Act doth weaken their bodies and doth waste their spirits Idleness Pride and Fulness of bread is also an Accidental Cause why one Nation may be more addicted to Venery then another For this was the Cause why the Sodomites as the Prophet Ezekiel saith were so vitious Ezek. 16.49 and transported with Lust The Artificial Causes are Sophistical meats Delitious Wines and enticing Simples Drugs and Amber-gris over-much used in these days to provoke Men and Women to Lust See Guicciardine in the Emperor Charls the Fifth his Life Guicciardine records that a King of Tunis being at Naples spent five hundred Ducats in enticing Drugs and Amber-gris to dress a Peacock to incite himself and the company that supped with him that night to Lust But these Means are destructive to the Soul and Lives of Men. For Instance the Queen of Arragon gave Ferdinand her Husband an inticing Love-Drink to make him more apt to the Venereal sport See the History of Spain in Ferdinands Life but it cast him into an incurable Consumption which brought him to his grave And Van-Dick an excellent Dutch Painter lost lately his life by these inticing Drugs provoking to Lechery Alass Men are too prone of themselves to sin without Artificial Means to provoke them to it Fourthly The evil Proprieties of this vitious Passion are so numerous that I should be over-tedious to speak of them all and therefore will speak but of some of them First It is insatiable and may be compared to the horsleech to the barren womb and to the Grave for the Desires of Voluptuous men are never satisfied with their carnal Delights their bodies being sooner tyred with the reiteration of the Act then their Lust can be exstinguished For many have been found dead in their Mistresses Armes by endeavoring to satisfy their Lust beyond their Natural Abilities The Reason of it was because overmuch evacuation of the spirits exstinguisheth life Secondly it is as inconstant as the wind for they delight in nothing more then in changes because their judgement is so depraved by the Spirit of uncleanness which besots them that they cannot discern the beauty of one Object from another and do often forsake the most lovely to dote upon the most unworthy and deformed conceiving erroneously that stollen waters are the sweetest Thirdly It hath a Destructive quality for it provoketh men to commit the most abhorred sins that can be named Gen. 12.15 By it the Sodomites were inticed to commit with the very Angels the sin against Nature Gen. 19.5 It moved Pharoah and Abimelech to take away by violence Sarah Abrahams wife Reuben to defile his Fathers bed Gen. 35.22 Gen 34.2 Judg 19 25. Sechem to deflour Dinah The Gibeahnites to abuse brutishly the Levites concubine David to commit Adultery with Bathshebah and to vail his sin to murther Vriah her husband Amnon to ravish his own sister Tamar Sueton. in his Life Augustus to take away by force Livia from her husband Tacitus in his life Caligula to commit Incest with his two Sisters Nero to defile himself with his mother French History Faragonde to murther King Clotair her Husband that she might the more freely enjoy her Paramour English History King Edgar to murther his Favourite to marry his Wife And King Roderick to ravish Duke Godfreys Daughter Spanish History which was the cause of the Conquest of Spain by the Moors And a thousand like abhorred sins which should move Christians to abhor and flee from this most accursed and sinful passion as from a Serpent Fifthly The Effects of
to be the richest Citizen of Rome became so proud and insolent as to dispute and contest for the preheminency with Caesar The sixth propriety of it is That this sordid passion doth encrease by age and is most eager and insatiable when men have one of their feet upon the brim of their grave then when they are in their virility and the strength of their youth Whereas divers other passions as wrath ambition audacity and volupty do diminish by age which pernitious quality should move men to abhor the same sith no passion is more opposite to the tranquillity of the minde then it because when antient men should only have their minde fixed upon the means appointed by God to make their calling and election sure and to attain to that assurance of eternal bliss without which they can have no true peace joy nor content then is it most of all vexed and perplexed with the carking cares to encrease and preserve this Idol of theirs I mean their gold and silver Seventhly The Effects of Avarice are rather more then the Proprieties of it First They who are addicted to the same are never loyal to their Prince nor native Countrey And this moved Philip King of Macedonia to say that no Garison was impregnable See Plutarch in Paulus Emylius Life if a Mule laden with gold could enter thorow the gate of it And the Duke of Memorancy high Constable of France told his King Francis the First See the History of France that the Governour of Metz was the Phenix of that Age for loyalty sith he had been tempted with a great sum of gold by Charls the Fifth Emperour of Germany to deliver that strong hold into his hands But the Governour of Calice in Henry the Fourths dayes was not so faithful for being possessed with Avarice he yielded up that Garrison that is one of the Keyes of France into the Archduke Alberts hands for the sum of thirty thousand Crowns for which disloyalty he and his posterity were degraded of their Nobility The second Effect of Avarice is That it perverteth Justice and Judgement Cambises King of Persia caused one of his Judges to be flead alive See Herodotus in his Life and his skin to be nailed upon the Judgement Seat because he had been seduced by a Bribe to condemn the Innocent And the annihilation of the power of the Roman Decemviri Livie in his 1. Decade hapned because they took Bribes to pervert Justice And the two Sons of Samuel Joel and Abiah who were Judges of Israel 1 Sam. 8.2.3 out of Avarice walked not in the ways of their Father but turned aside after luere took bribes and perverted judgement And this moved Jethro to give this counsel to Moses his Son-in-law to provide out of all the people able men Exod. 18.22 fearing God and hating Avarice to make them Judges over Israel for wheresoever Judges and Magistrates are possessed with Avarice the Laws are trampled under foot and Justice is utterly perverted The third Effect of it is That Avarice doth foment divisions and contentions in all places wheresoever it raigneth 1. It was the Avarice of the Roman Patricians See Livie in his 1. Decade that was the only cause of all the divisions and commotions which hapned and continued for so many years together between themselves and the Plebeians or common people of Rome for Avarice is the mother of Usury Oppression and Extortion The fourth Effect of it is That it maketh Princes and private men as cruel as Lyons and Tygers 1. See the conquest of the West Indies The Avarice of Ferdinando King of Aragon moved him to undertake the discovery of the West Indies and with a barbarous cruelty to cause two or three millious of the poor Indians to be slain with the sword and to be torn in pieces with Mastiffs that his Spanish Subjects might have a freer possession of the gold and silver Mines that are there 2. It moved Philip the second King of Spain to exile out of his Dominions all the Christian Moors that were in Spain See the History of Spain in his Life the number of men women and children who were thus cruelly banished amounting to above three hundred thousand and all to add to his own demains their Lands and Inheritances under a false colour of zeal to Religion 3. It moveth Marriners and Merchants to venture their lives into the furthest and the most cold and hotest Climates of the World to encrease their Wealth many of them losing their lives in the prosecution of it 4. It moveth the most profane and debaucht sort of men to become Rovers and Murtherers upon the Roades and High-wayes to break open Houses and to carry away mens goods by force and violence The fifth Effect of it is That Avarice hath ever been the Incendiary of Civil Wars 1. See Caesars Commentaries and Plutarch in his Life The Avarice of the Plebeian Tribunes of the City of Rome in the days of Caesar was the cause of the Civil Wars which hapned between himself and Pompeys for by the extraordinary bribes he gave to some of them they bought the voyces of the Centuries of the people to make him continue in his Office of Lieutenant-General of the Roman Legions that were in France longer then it was appointed by the Law by which means he attained to such power and reputation that with the same Army which had been given him by the Senate and People to defend and enlarge the demains of the Roman Commonwealth he changed the Government of it and overthrew their Liberties 2. See Guicciardine in his History The Avarice of the chiefest Magistrates and Officers of the Commonwealth of Florence in the dayes of Peter de Medecis was the cause of all the Civil broyls which hapned in that State 3. The extream Avarice mixt with cruelty of the Duke D'Alva Deputy Governour for the King of Spain in the Low-Countreys was the cause of the death of many Nobles and of the miserable end of thirty thousand Protestants he caused to be drowned hanged and slain See the History of the Low-Countreys to confiscate their goods and of the rent of seven of those Provinces from the obedience of the King of Spain 4. The Avarice of the sixteen Zealots who had the Government of the City of Paris in the time of the Catholike League as they called it was the cause of all the Civil Commotions Murthers and Rapines which were committed in Paris See the History of France and in divers other Parts of France The sixth Effect of Avarice is That it endangereth men souls for men who are possessed with this passion care not what indirect courses they take to enrich themselves For he who maketh haste to be rich Prov. 28.20 saith Solomon cannot be innocent Intimating that his many sins and transgressions make him run hazzard to be cast into the Pit of eternal destruction which is confirmed
Christendom But God who derides at the ambition of Princes which do not tend to the execution of his secret will brought all his ambitious designs to nothing for his invincible Navie was beaten and scattered by the English valour and the greatest part of it swallowed up by the roaring Seas And the Catholike League in France was utterly subdued by the activity wisdom and valour of Henry the Fourth their lawfull king See the Netherland History Yet notwithstanding that the Hollanders have deprived him of seven of the Netherland Provinces and the Portuguies from his usurped kingdom of Portugal he hoped still ambitiously to make himself the absolute Monarch of Christendom by the divisions he hath lately fomented in Holland England France Scotland and Ireland by the means of the Machiavellian Principles spread abroad by the Jesuitical Locusts that he hath scattered among these Nations like so many swarms of Bees But I hope God will turn his Counsels into foolishness 2 Sam. 17.14 as he did that of Achitophel and make his unlimited Ambition the cause of his utter annihilation The Second Propriety of Ambition is That it hateth Parity and all Competitors and Equals Numerous Instances might be produced for proof of it but half a dozen shall serve 1. Romulus and Remus brethren having been chosen kings or Governors of the Fugitives that were the first Erectors of the Roman Commonwealth did not raign two years together Livie in his first Decade Lib. 1. but Romulus out of ambition to raign alone slew his brother Remus under colour that he had in derision leaped over the mud wals of the City of Rome 2. Lucius Tarquinius impatient of the long life raign of Servius Tullius his Father-in-Law possessed with an ambitious desire to raign in his stead by the wicked instigations of his wife Tullia Lib. 1. p. 76. threw him down the Senate-Chamber stairs and caused him to be murthered in the streets of Rome and this accursed and abhorred Tullia coming from the Senate in a Chariot with four horses where she had caused her Husband to be proclaimed King caused her Coachman to drive the Chariot over her Fathers body as he lay a dying and goared in his blood in the street And no marvel it was that she who to prosecute her ambitious design had already caused her Husband to murther her own sister and his own brother that was her first Husband would omit to act this unparalleld cruelty towards her Father-in-Law by whose untimely and violent death she came to have the fruition of her accursed ambition See Plutarch in their lives 3. Crassus Pompeius and Caesar having divided the power of the Roman Common-wealth between them Crassus being gone with a great Army into Asia to subdue the Parthians and Caesar with another Army into France and Pompeius with another Army left at Rome to preserve Italy all three of them being excessively ambitious and specially the two last could not be contented with their condition but under-hand aspired to be absolute Monarchs which Caesar after the death of Crassus easily obtained 4. After the death of Caesar Lepidus Marcus Antonius and Augustus Caesar did divide the power of the Roman Empire between them but before seven years came about Augustus Caesar the most ambitious of them became the absolute Monarch of the World by these means first Antonius and Augustus joyned together to deprive Lepidus of his part then Antonius and Augustus came to a second division but ambition being more predominant in Augustus then in Antonius who was addicted to volupty he soon deprived him of his part and became the only Monarch upon earth 5. See Herodian in his Life The Emperour Severus at his death left his two sons Bassianus and Geta equal Heirs of the Roman Empire but Bassianus transported with an unnatural ambition slew his brother Geta before a year came about in his Mothers arms to raign alone 6. Lewis the Twelfth King of France and Ferdinando King of Arragon by a mutual consent did divide the Kingom of Naples between them See the French History in the Life of Lewis the Twelfth But the Spaniard being more ambitious then the French under colour of a Toll paid for Cattel which did really appertain to the French but fained to be the Spaniards Ferdinando's pride and ambition disdaining to have a Competitor or Equal in that Kingdom deprived the French of all he held in the same The third Propriety of ambition is That it is never free from jealousie I mean that which is called the jealousie of State And for proof of it these following instances shall suffice 1. The Emperour Tiberius out of an ill-grounded jealousie that Germanicus his own Nephew who was extreamly beloved of the Senators Souldiers and common People for his vertue valour and noble parts should aspire to the Empire before his death See Tacitus in his Life caused Lucius Piso Governour of Syria to poyson him at a Banquet and then forsook the said Piso being accused and convinced of the Fact and suffered him to be sentenced and executed although he had a warrant under his own hand commanding him to rid him out of the way the which Warrant he durst not produce out of fear the Tyrant would deprive his children of his incredible Riches and yearly Revenews 2. Nero out of the same ambitious jealousie caused young Germanicus the true Heir of the Empire to be poysoned as he sate at his own Table 3. Domitianus out of the like jealousie See Tacitus and Dion in these Empeiors lives caused divers Roman Senators to be slain and was resolved to do the like to the Captain of his Guard and to the best beloved of his Concubines if they had not prevented him by taking away his life to preserve their own 4. Lewis the Eleventh King of France out of an ill-grounded but violent ambitious jealousie that his Brother Charls Duke of Normandy did aspire to the Crown See the History of France and of England caused him to be poysoned secretly by one of his own servants 5. Edward the Fourth King of England by the false impressions that his younger Brother Richard Duke of York had malitiously infused in his heart of this ambitious jealousie caused the Duke of Clarence his brother to be arraigned and drowned in a Butt of Malmsey 6. Richard the Third out of this State jealousie caused the Duke of Buckingham to be beheaded because he conceived him to be as willing then to disthrone him and to set his Crown upon the Earl of Richmonds Head as he had been ready in former times to make him that was an Usurper King of England 7. This ambitious jealousie is so cruel that it makes men trangress the Law of Nature and to put their own sons to death as Herod did Antipater his son See Josephus whereupon Augustus Caesar said ingeniously that it was better to be Herods Swine then his Son See the
Spanish History 8. Philip the Second King of Spain caused Prince Charls his eldest Son to be put to death by the Inquisition of Spain out of an ambitious jealousie that he did aspire to bereave him of his Crown Seventhly The Effects of Ambition are worse then the Proprieties of it for Paracidies Murthers Rebellions Mutations of States Annihilations of Laws intestine and forraign Wars with all the desolations and mischiefs that follow them at the heels are the fruits of mens ambition and of these I will speak in order and by instances confirm the same For the first Andronicus the younger See the History of the Emperor of Constantinople See the Turkish History out of ambition to raign did most cruelly put out the eyes of his Grandfather and famished him to death in Prison 2. Sylimus out of ambition to raign did most unnaturally poyson his Father Bajazeth and flew all his brethren 3. 2 Chron. 2.10 Athaliah out of Ambition to raign slew and destroyed all the Seed-Royal of the House of Judah 4. Richard the Third King of England out of Ambition to raign See the English History caused his two Nephews to be murthered in the Tower and in hope to settle the Crown upon himself and his Posterity he put his Wife to death to marry the Lady Elizabeth his own Niece Incests being accounted no sin by ambitious men So they may as the House of Austria do daily uphold and advance by it their ambitious designs For the Second 2 Sam. 3.27 Joab out of ambition to remain still the Commander in Chief of the men of War murthered perfidiously under colour of friendship Abner and Amasa by stabbing of them under the fifth rib 2. Baasha out of ambition to raign murthered Nadab his Lord and King 1 King 15.27 3. Zimri out of ambition to raign murthered Ela his Lord the Son of Baasha 1 King 16.10 1 King 16.18 4. Omri out of ambition to raign rose up against Zimri and enforced him to burn himself in the Kings Palace For the Third Absolom out of Ambition to raign rebelled against his Father King David 2 Sam 26.21 and did endeavour to deprive him of life from whom he had his being 2. Zedechiah out of ambition to raign as an absolute King rebelled against his benefactor King Nebuchadnezzar 2 King 24.20 which was the cause of his miserable end 3. Otho out of ambition to raign rebelled against Galba who had made him his second favourite See Tacitus 4. Pippin the short out of ambition to raign rebelled against his Lord King Childerick and by force and violence caused him to be shaven as a Monk See the French History and to be shut up into a Monastery For the Fourth The ambition of Nebuchadnezzar was the secondary cause of the destruction of the Assyrian Monarchy And the ambition of Cyrus was the cause of the overthrow of the Babylonian Monarchy And the ambition of Alexander was the cause of the annihilation of the Persian Monarchy And the ambition of the Roman Commanders was the cause of the utter subversion of the Greek Monarchy See Sir Walter Rawleighs History of the World And the ambition of Caesar was the cause of the mutation of the Democratical Government of Rome into a Monarchical And the ambition of the Rulers of the Gauls Goths Visgots Vandals and Lombards of the utter ruine of the Roman Monarchy for they rent the same in pieces as a Kite rends a young chiken I say the secondary Cause for the secret will and Decree of God is the first and efficient cause of all the mutations of States or Monarchies And that is the reason why Saint Paul giveth this charge Rom. 13 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God For the Fifth From the mutations of one kinde of Government to another Government See Plutarch in Caesars Life and Caesar in his Commentaries proceeds annihilation of the antient Laws of either of them It hapned so at Rome upon the change that Caesars ambition brought in that Commonwealth for the ancient Laws were annihilated and new Laws were established and likewise after the coming of William the Conquerour into England the antient Brittain Laws were annulled See Speed in his Historie of England and the Norman Laws confirmed This proverb being not more common then true viz. From new Lords new Laws and this might be proved by divers instances out of the antient and modern Histories but these two alledged will serve for brevity sake For the Sixth Ambition breeds divisions and divisions beget intestine and forraign Wars and from these Wars proceed the mutations of States and Monarchies and from these mutations the Annihilation of antient Laws Now the inseparable companions of forraign and intestine Wars are Atheism Schisms in the Church and a Laodicean luke-warmness in Religion and great effusions of blood injustices oppressions and desolations And all these mischiefs proceed from the exorbitant and irregular ambition of men and therefore I conclude that the passion of ambition is nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit and more destructive to mankinde then any other passion But before I speak of the means which are to be used to restrain the fury of this violent passion give me leave to examine the justice or injustice of the Wars which have been meerly undertaken out of an ambitious desire of vain-glory It is certain that if the actions of the most ambitious Princes and Common-wealths that have from the creation to this day bin upon the Earth were examined without prejudice or partiality that they would be found more injurious then just If men set aside the secret will Decree of God who had ordained from the beginning that these four great Monarchies here spoken of should be so successful in their encrease they would wonder how injustice and oppressions could have such prosperous events I will only speak of the Actions of the Romans and Greeks 1. Because they have been more clearly demonstrated to us by their Authors then the actions of the other two 2. Because the Actions of the Assyrians and Babylonians were guided by a special providence of God for the punishment of the sins of his own People the Jews As for the Actions of the Romans men may clearly see that from their very beginning until the days of Caesar they have for the greater part been unjust oppressive and injurious although they with much cunning and art did palliate them under the cloak of Justice and the right of the Laws of Nations And as for the Civil War undertaken by Caesar against his native Countrey it was voyd of all humanity and Justice and Ambition only gave him the audacity to resolve to enslave under his yoak those to whom he had been a servant for seven years together Nay with that very Army that they had given him and
entrusted into his hands and constantly paid wages to for the enlarging of their limits And as for the invasion of Asia by Alexander It was in the Opinion of the best Polititians a rash and inconsiderate enterprize proceeding rather from Temerity then from prudence or true valor to undertake such a Conquest with an Army of forty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse when Darius had to oppose him twenty times as many more yet because it was decreed in the secret Councel of God that he should be the Head of the third Mornarchy the end of this rash and unjust enterprize proved prosperous and not for the justice of his cause for Darius had never attempted to invade any of his Dominions or done him any injury all the pretext he had was that the former Persian Kings had invaded Greece and to prevent future invasions it was a wise policy to assail and give him work at home A poor excuse or colour of justice for him to deprive Darius of his Life Empire and incredible Treasures which did well deserve this Answer that a Pyrate made unto him See Plutarch in Alexanders Life when he was brought before him to be sentenced to death for his Pyracies at Sea For Alexander having asked him why he did use that base and unlawful trade of Pyracy Out of need said the Pyrate for my Father left me nothing but this small Brigantine to maintain my self my wife and children but thy Father left thee a large Kingdom and incredible Treasures and yet thou usest this trade by the great by depriving Princes of their Kingdoms and Treasures whereas I use it only by retail in taking some sorry Merchants goods consider then which of us two is the greatest Pyrate and which of us deserves the greatest punishment Alexander was so astonished at this Answer considering that he said nothing but the very truth that in lieu to sentence him to death he made him Captain of one of the best Ships he had in his Navie Therefore forraign and intestine Wars are not to be undertaken but upon just grounds otherwise the Authors of them will be answerable at the last day for the life and blood of those who have been slain in them and for appropriating to themselves such Provinces or Kingdoms to which they have neither right nor any just tittle Eighthly The means which are to be used to allay the fury of this passion and to subdue it utterly if it be possibe are these 1. Men are to endevor to attain to a true habit in the grace and vertue of humility for he who is truly humble can never be ambitious because Pride and Ambition are inseparable companions 2. This grace of humility will beget in them a filial fear for men before they be humbled by the consideration of their unworthiness can never attain to this filial fear the fear of God being the beginning of true wisdom And to fear God and to keep his Commandments Eccles 12.13 is saith Solomon the whole duty of a man And those whose are endowed with this filial fear can never be ambitious because they know it to be offensive to God and to men as the criminal effects of this sinful passion here before discribed do witness the same 3. Men are to strive to attain to an habit of true contentedness for such as are contented cannot be ambitious because from the discontentedness of the minde proceed the ambitious desires of men Diogenes had more content with his Tub to shelter him from the injuries of the Meteors of the Ayr and with his wooden dish to eat and drink therein then Alexander had with the Conquest of half the World and the fruition of all the Treasures Pomps and lascivious Volupties of Asia 4. Men are to consider Job 1.21 That naked they came into the World and naked they shall go out of it And that the reward of all their ambitious undertakings will be at the conclusion if they had conquered the whole World but six foot of ground to bury them in 5. Ambitious men are ever to have in their minde this saying of our blessed Saviour For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul 6. If men will needs be ambitious let them be ambitious to excel all others in spiritual Graces and to make their Calling and Election sure That they may at their departure out of this miserable life be made by the merits of Christ Co-heirs with their blessed Saviour of the Kingdom of Heaven and of eternal Glory CHAP. XX. Of the vanity of the passion of Envie CImon the famous general of the Athenian Commonwealth hearing a friend of his highly commending his martial Atchievments Answered That he feared they were not werthy commendation because they were not envied See Plutarch in Cimons life Intimating that in those days the noble and generous actions of the most valorous and vertuous men were the only object of the Athenians Envie But Plutarch in his life giveth sufficient reason why Cimons actions were not envied by the Athenians as the actions of Solon Themistocles Alcibìades and Aristides were in their time for through envie of their vertue they banished them all for ten years viz. because of his extraordinary liberality shewed to the common people for he having great and spacious Demains about the City of Athens relieved the poorer sort with corn when it was dear and every year at Lammas laid open the Gates of his Closing to relieve their Cattel And this liberality of his did quench the fire of Envie stopped the mouths of envions men as conceiving his own prodigality would bring him lower and make him poorer then their own envie could wish or desire Aristides was one of the most just and upright Magistrates that ever was in Athens and for his Justice Prudence Temperance and other rare Vertues was called Aristides the just and by consequence more envyed by the common people then any other Therefore his name being written in the List of such as the people did desire to banish that yeer the day appointed for the collecting of the peoples Votes being come See Plutarch in Aristides life a Country-fellow that could neither write nor read came amongst the rest to give his voyce and because the Athenians gave their Voyces by Tickets he addressed himself to Aristides desiring him to write Aristides name in that Ticket whereupon Aristides astonished demanded of him Whether he knew Aristides and what injury he had done unto him that moved him to desire he should be banished I know him not said the fellow neither hath he done me any injury but I cannot endure to hear him called Aristides the Just whereupon Aristides without disclosing of himself The common object of Envie is goodness and vertue write his name in the Ticket and gave it to the Fellow And was the same day exiled by the major part of the voyces of the people By this