for Lovers Ambitious and Covetous men are cast into strange fits of Melancholy and sorrow if they be deprived of their Love or of the honors and riches they aim at secondly The carking cares that men usually take to increase their means or to preserve their lives and estates is a cause of their sorrow thirdly The fear that many men have to fall into penury is a common cause of their sorrow fourthly The losses of mens goods fame or reputation is a cause of their sorrow because they want the grace of patience and cannot say with Iob Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord nor with the Prophet David I will wash my hands in innocency Psal 26.6 fifthly The loss of Parents Wife Children or intimate Friends is often times the cause of mens sorrow for want of the rememoration of this saying of Salomon Eccles 3.20 All are of the dust and all shall return to dust again sixthly the vain apprehensions that man have of the evil to come is the cause of their sorrow because they rely not upon this gracious promise All things work together for good to them that love God seventhly Rom 8.28 The want of courage in men is the cause of their sorrow because like faint hearted Pilots they give over the Helme of the Ship in a storm I mean the Helme of their Reason whereby they might regulate the distempers of this passion of Sorrow eightly The fears that possess men for the punishment of their sins is a cause of their sorrow whereas they should fear and grieve for the guilt of sin to attain to that spiritual Sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation The Natural causes of the Dolour and Anguish of the body may be these first Long and tedious diseases The natural causes of the Dolour and Anguish of the body as the Stone in the Kidneys or Bladder the Gravel the Strangullion the Gout the Cough and consumption of the Lungs or the Hectick Feaver for all these in continuance of time by the secret communion that the senses have with the sensitive power of the soul do beget in the minde grief and sorrow besides the Dolour and Anguish of the body secondly The Adust or burnt Choler or Bilis gathered in the Mesentery veines which sendeth virulent vapors up into the braine is a natural cause of much sorrow 4. The accidental causes of sorrow The accidentall causes may be these first when men themselves or their Parents Children or intimate Friends do accidentally come to their end by sea or by land as to be murdered upon a Rode or cast away at sea or taken captive by Pyrats or slain by a fall from a horse or lamed by some other accident all these things are causes of sorrow and grief yet none of these natural or accidental causes are or should be sufficient to breed sorrow to mens minde sith nothing happens casually or accidentally but is guided by the hand of the divine Providence to whose blessed will men are obliged to submit themselves and our blessed Saviour doth assure us that the meanest Sparrow or an hair of our head doth not fall to the ground without the permission of our heavenly Father Fourthly The nature and effects of Sorrow are directly contrary to the nature and to the effects of Joy first The nature of Joy is to dilate and spread the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it into the utmost parts of the members of the body but Sorrow being of a cold and dry nature draws the blood and vital spirits from the utmost parts of the body towards the heart to comfort the same secondly Joy is hot and active and by its sudden motion indangers the life of men The natur and the effects of Anguish Grief and Sorrow but Sorrow is cold and slow and comes upon men with leaden feet and never causeth death but by long continuance and lingering diseases except it cast men into despair as it doth oftentimes as it will be shown in the effects of it thirdly Joy is proper and pleasant to Nature and rejoyceth the heart and makes men chearful in their Calling both private and general but Sorrow is adverse and distasteful to Nature and makes men slow and stupid in their particular and general calling fourthly Joy preserveth and increaseth health and lengtheneth mens days and makes them pass their lives with mirth and content but Sorrow impairs mens health and shortens their days and makes their lives to be tedious and irksome In a word moderate Joy is comfort to man and excessive Sorrow is the bane of man And the effects of worldly Sorrow are as bad or rather worse first Sorrow makes men flee the society of men nay the very light of the Sun and all things that may rejoyce and comfort Nature the sight of their dearest friends nay of their wife and children is irksome to men that are possessed with excessive sorrow secondly See the Acts and Monuments or Book of Martyrs If mens Sorrow proceeds from mens Apostacy in Religion it doth commonly cast them into despaire and inflicts upon them in this life the very paines of hell as it doth appear in the life of Francisco Spira thirdly Sorrow tempts carnal men to be rid of it to desperate resolutions as to bereave themselves of life by hanging stabbing and drowning of themselves as it hath lately been seen in this City of London fourthly Sorrow makes men careless to make their calling and election sure and to neglect the means appointed by God for their salvation I mean the hearing of the Word with that attention as they should for their thoughts and cogitations are so fixed upon the object of their sorrow that they minde nothing else for this pernicious passion doth stupifie the most noble faculty of the soul as the Memory the Imagination and the Understanding Divers other effects might be produced but these will suffice to induce men to indeavor to eschew or regulate this dangerous and destructive passion Fifthly The Remedies against the venom of this passion are first Natural secondly Moral thirdly Spiritual The Natural are first to flee as far as men can from the object of their sorrow secondly If mens sorrow proceeds from Natural infirmities they are in the first place to call upon God and then use the Counsel of Physitians for they must not do as Ahaziah King of Israel did 2 Kings 1.2 who being faln from an upper Chamber thorow a Lattess sent to the God of Ekron to know whether he should recover of his disease as too many do in these days who send to Astronomers to know the events of things not to the Physitian 2 Chron. 16.12 as Asa King of Iuda did who being diseased in his feet sent to the Physitian before he had called upon the Lord by prayer for God is the Paramount Physitian and the God of Nature and
yet divers instances may be produced to prove That Avarice doth change into Ambition in mens declining age Martius Crassus p See Plutarch in his life had by a sordid kinde of Avarice attained to the greatest riches of any that we read of and yet out of Envy that he bore to the warlike atchievements of Pompeius and Caesar such an insatiable Ambition or desire of honor possessed him in his declining age That at threescore and three yeers of age he gave away half his estate to the common people of Rome to obtain a general Commission to be Commander in chief of the Roman Legions that were appointed to make war in the furthest parts of Armenia against the Parthians Which insatiable and unseasonable Ambition of his was ingeniously reproved by an old Armenian Knight of whom he did desire to be informed of the condition and distance of the way he was to undergo and power he was to oppose in this Parthian journy saying unto him That it was too great for him to undertake the same in his declining age and that the morning Sun of his age had been fitter for such an enterprise then the setting of it And had Crassus been ruled by this wholesom Counsel he had not by his insatiable desire of honor faln from the highest degree of worldly prosperity to the lowest degree of humane disgrace and misery as he did for by this rash enterprise he was the cause of his own death and of his eldest sons and of the lives of a great part of the bravest Nobility of Rome and of the rout and utter overthrow of his whole Army This is to prove That men in their declining age are fitter for Counsel then for Action and that is the reason that the Roman Senate the Counsel of Areopage and the Senate of Venice have been and are composed of men much advanced in their declining age because their Passions are commonly more moderate their Experience greater their Judgment more solid and their Counsels safer then of those who are in the youth or virility of their age for as Job saith With the ancient should be wisdom and in length of yeers understanding q Job 12.12 Contrarily there have been others in whom the desire of honor hath raigned in their youth and virility as their Noble Martial atchievements do witness who have changed this Ambitious Passion into the Sordid Passion of Avarice in their declining age As may appear by the lives of Vespasiaanus r See Dion and the English and the French Histories of Henry the seventh King of England and of Henry the fourth King of France Howsoever the desire of Wine of Money and the malicious Passion of Envy is more natural and doth commonly increase with age as much as rash Temerity and carnal Delights do diminish by age whereby I conclude That the declining age of men is not free from Vanity For what greater Vanity can there be then to Envy at another mans prosperity or to desire Wine when our head-piece is so weakened by age that it cannot overcome the vapors of it or to desire Money when we have less need of it sith we daily expect to be carried to our Graves Sixthly and Lastly The decrepit age of men begins at seventy and ends when Death strikes them with her Dart which is according to the course of life between fourscore or fourscore and ten For none attains to the days of Methuselah Å¿ Gen. 6.26 or of the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Jacob for God hath shortened the days of men because of their transgressions as it appears Gen. 7.3 My Spirit saith the Lord shall not alwayes strive with man for he also is flesh yet his dayes shall be an hundred and twenty years and the oldest man that hath been known in this age of the world was a Shropshire Husbandman that was brought up to London as a wonder in the days of King James who was said to be one hundred and thirtie three years of age and this long life of his according to the opinion of the learned Physitians did proceed from the simplicity of his meate and drink for as soon as he came to be fed with the dainties of the Court he came to be diseased and suddenly departed this life Plinius and other Naturalists have much troubled themselves to finde out the naturall reasons why mens lives are so short the best reason they give for it is their immoderate diet and the variety of dainties and change of superfluous meats cooked with art inticing men to gluttony and drunkenness for daily experience doth shew that those who live soberly and live upon simple food avoiding slowth and idleness do live commonly longer then such as feed on dainties and use a sedentary life but the chief cause of it is that men do daily increase in sin and it is just with God for the punishment of their sins to shorten their lives sith as the Apostle Paul saith t Rom. 6.23 That the wages of sin is death howsoever the decrepit age of men except it be indowed with free grace and sanctified by the blessed Spirit of God it is the vanity of vanities and the misery of all miseries for the numerous infirmities incident to it and especially if penury doth accompany the same for old age with penury is the greatest affliction that can befal to generous spirits and the greatest tentation of Satan to intice men to despair for if rich men who have all manner of comforts cannot with patience support the infirmities of a decrepit age but murmure as some have done in my hearing that they were weary of their lives of what distemper must the poor aged people be who have no worldly comforts at all but are ready to starve for cold and to famish for want of food therefore tender and compassionated Christians should exercise their charity upon these objects of unparalleld misery as the most acceptable sacrifice they can offer to God and yet all the hearts of most men are so hardened by a just Judgment of God upon this Nation for its transgressions that they can look upon these dying objects of compassion whoperish daily in the streets without pity or reluctation Now for a conclusion and confirmation of the vanity and misery incident to the life of men I will make a short relation of the Maladies incident to every one of the ages of their lives first in their very conception they may be extinguished by ill sents and vapours and by divers accidents of bruises or falls secondly in their infancy by the squincy convulsions measles or the smal pox thirdly in their adolescency by the sword the pleuresie and burning feavers fourthly in their virility by sanguin apoplexies bloudy-flixes and consumptions fifthly in their declining age by the stone and the gout by dropsies paralepsies and flegmtick apoplexies and in the decrepit age by gouts aches cough the retentions of urine the strangullion poverty cold and
conceive them to be the cause of all the burden that are laid upon their backs I mean Lones Subsidies Taxes and Monopolies fifthly The wicked are addicted to Hatred 1 Cor. 4.13 for they hate implacably the Just and the Righteous and hold them as the off-scouring of all things Fifthly the nature and effects of Hatred in the unregenerate are nothing else but murders ruine and desolation first Hatred provoked f Gen. 4.8 Cain to kill his brother Abel and this hatred did proceed from Envie because his sacrifice was rejected of the Lord and the sacrifice of his brother was accepted secondly Hatred provoked Simeon and Levy g Gen. 34.25 26. to murder under the vail of Religion all the Shechemites and to plunder their City thirdly Hatred and the desire of Vengeance provoked h 2. Sam. 13.29 Absolom to murder under colour of friendship and hospitality his brother Amnon at a banquet as he set at table fourthly It was Hatred that provoked men to invent all maner of Weapons to destroy themselves and the devillish Art of making Canons Gunpowder Muskets Calivers Carabines and Pistols whereby the most valiant are as soon slain as the greatest cowards fifthly It was Hatred that provoked men to dive into the bowels of the earth to finde out Mines of Silver and Gold whereby they might execute their hatred spleen and malice and set all the world together by the ears sixthly Hatred hath given men an habit in all maner of impiety who have left by it their natural humanity and are become devouring Lyons and Tigers Nay when open violence cannot serve to execute their hatred they have an art to poyson men in their meat and drink by the smelling of a pair of gloves The Queen of Navarr was poysoned by the smell of a pair of Gloves by the putting on of a shirt or by the drawing off a pair of Boots nay by the very taking of a man by the hand under colour of curtesie as the Genovais Admiral did to the Venetians Admiral after he had been overcome by him at sea In a word Hatred hath been the projector of all the horrid actions of men for it is a passion that deprives men of all Reason Judgment and hath bin the cause of all the woes of men for by the hatred of Satan was our first mother Eve i Gen. 3.6 deluded and by her charms she deluded Adam her husband and so by their transgression sin is come into the world and sin like a contagious disease hath infected the whole race of mankinde Moreover Hatred is of a permanent nature for it is not like Envie or Wrath for Envy declines according as the prosperity of its object doth diminish and Wrath vanisheth into smoak if its fury may have some vent or it may be mitigated For a soft answer turneth away wrath saith Salomon k Pro. 15.1 but Hatred continues from generation to generation and death it self cannot extinguish Hatred Amilcar father to Hanibal out of an inveterate hatred he bore to the Roman Commonwealth See Livius Plutarch made Hanibal to take an Oath a little before his death that he should be to the end of his life a mortal enemy to the Romans and the hatred that Henry the seventh King of England bore to the House of York induced him to make his son Henry the eight to swear as he was upon his bed of death that after his decease that he would cause the Duke of Suffolks head to be cut off that was then his prisoner in the Tower of London as being the last apparent hair of the House of York an Unchristian part saith Montagnes See Montagnes Essais for a Prince to have his heart filled with hatred at his departure out of this world Nay the unparallel'd hatred that was between the two brethren Eteocles and Polinices could not be extinguished after their death for after they had slain one another in a Duel See Garnier in the Tragedy of Antigone or single Combat their bodies being brought together to be burned the fire by an admirable antipathy did cleave of it self into two parts and so divided their bodies that their ashes might not be mixed together and the inveterate hatred that was between the Guelfs and Gibbelins See Guiechardine in the wars of Italy Paulus Jovius in his Tragical Relations did continue from one generation to another But Paulus Jovius relates the most unheard of cruelty proceeding from an inveterated hatred that ever was read of Two Italians having had some bickerings together such a hatred was bred in their hearts that one of them having got his enemie at an advantage made him by threats deny his Saviour promising to save his life if he did it but he had no sooner by imprecations impiously denied him but the other stabbed him through the heart with his Ponyard saying The death of thy body had not been an object worthy of my hatred and vindication except I had also procured the eternal death of thy soul An horrid and unparrallel'd cruelty and a matchless effect of hatred Sixthly Having thus described the evil nature and effects of Hatred I will now come to the use that Christians should make of it I remember to have said in the beginning of this Chapter that this passion of Hatred had not been given to men to abuse it as they do but rather to eschew sin the greatest evil upon earth and that being used as an aversion to fly from sin it would serve for a strong motive to the propagations of a godly life for sin should be the onely object of mens hatred as the efficient cause of all their miseries and why our blessed Saviour out of his tender compassions towards his Elect was willing to suffer the ignominous death of the Cross Matth. 27.35 to redeem them from the guilt and punishment of sin which was eternal death And men cannot by any other means shew themselves grateful and to be sensible of this incompre hensible love of Christ then by having an inveterate hatred against sin and to detest and abhor with all their hearts all sinful courses sith sin is the onely separation wall that bars them from having an intimate and loving familiarity with God for the hatred of sin is the first step to attain to the love of God and without the love of God a true faith in Christ and unfained hatred of sin there is no possibility of salvation hatred against sin being the chiefest ingredient required in a true Repentance and how can men love God that hate their brethren and therefore the blessed Spirit in holy Writ doth so often exhort men to avoid all hatred except it be against sin He that l Ioh 3 14. 1 Ioh. 3.15 loveth not his brother saith St. John abideth in death and whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know no murderer hath eternal life Men must then love God and
the Childe Christ Jesus were commanded by an Angel of God to flee into Egypt for fear that Herod would seek after the young childe to destroy him whereby it appears that the cause of mens flight doth commonly proceed from the fear of death and not to avoid sin But if men to avoid lust would flee from their beloved object Gen. 39.12 as Ioseph did fly from his lewd Mistress out of fear to offend the Lord it were the onely way to quench their lascivious desires for in the passion of true love between parties of unequal degree there is not any better remedy to asswage and extinguish the flames of love then to make the Lovers to absent themselves one from another at a far distance and for some continuance of time for sith the dropping of a gutter doth in continuance of time blot out any characters graven upon a Marble stone there is more probability that the impression of that object of beauty hath made in the imaginaon of men or women wil sooner be worn out with a long absence and it is daily seen that the last object of a beauty drives out of mens mindes the former impressions of another beauty and daily experience doth shew that to appease wrath the onely remedy is to flee from or to eschew the presence of him that is transported with that passion for the cause being taken away the effects cease so the object being removed which did cause the distemper in the soul the passion by degrees doth vanish away Fourthly The proprieties of Flight are as numerous as the causes of it and there is as great a similitude between Hatred and Flight The proprieties of Flight as there is between Love and Desire first it seemeth to fly from evil and doth aim at the good secondly Flight in outward appearance seems to be a coward and yet it is as generous as the Desire for to fly from sin is a greater valour then to fight in the field with a valiant enemy Sith it cannot be denied that he that hath the mastery over his own passions and can mortifie the cupidities of his desires is a greater conquerer then Cesar thirdly As the Desire calls Hope to its aid when it cannot obtain that which is difficult so Flight calls to its aid Fear and Hatred that it may with swifter wings fly from the evil that is overpowerful fourthly As the desire is a sign of indigence poverty and want so Flight is an evidence of Impatiency and Imbecillity and as men obtain by the prosecution of their desires such things as they want so men by flight free themselves of those things they most abhor and detest fifthly The propriety of Desire is to open and dilate the heart to make the same more eager after the prosecution of the good it aims at so Flight shrinks up the heart and debars sin from coming in to it sixthly As men by the means of the Desire injoy and possess the good even so men by the help of Flight preserve themselves from evil In a word Desire and Flight are the two Champions of Love and Hatred Desire and Flight are the two faithful Champions of Love and Hatred for as Love cannot execute any generous achievement without the aid of the Desire so Hatred cannot perform any noble exploit without the help of Flight Fifthly the effects of Flight The effects of Flight tend either to the preservation of the body or of the soul I will then first speak of that of the body and acquaint you that all horrid and terrible things that may procure the annihilation of mens beeing or deprive them from the good they aim at inticeth this passion either to eschew or fly from them 1 Sam. 18.11 and 19.10 It moved David to avoid the Javelin that Saul threw at him with an intent to smite him even to the wall but David fled and escaped again when he was informed by Jonathan that Saul his father did seek after his life then he fled again to Nob to Ahimelech the Priest and divers other times when he was in danger he fled from the presence of Saul and all to preserve his life And St. Paul being at Damascus and hearing that the Jews had set wait for his life and. watched the gates day and night to kill him Act. 9.23 24 the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket preserving his life by his flight It appears then by these two Instances that the effects of Flight tend specially to the preservation of mens beeing and when they fly from sin to the prevention of the danger of their souls for they have no better remedy as it hath been said already to free themselves from lust and from all lascivious desires then to flee from the objects that engender the same But why they fly sooner from the punishment of evil then from the guilt of sin I will hear enlarge my self and intreat the Reader to take notice that it is onely the natural men that do so much abhor the punishment Why men fly from the punishment rather then from the guilt of sin and are so eager to preserve the guilt for the true children of God do more detest the guilt then the punishment for they know the punishment of sin is as inseparable from the guilt as the shadow is from the body and they fear more to offend their gracious God then the punishment of sin but the wicked who have their portion in this life are afraid of the punishment more then of the guilt because their supream good is in this life which punishment seems to interrupt but the children of God carry their Cross and have nothing but disgraces trouble and vexations in this life and expect their supream bliss and happiness will be in the world to come and are confident and assured that the corrections and punishments that God inflicts upon them because of their sins are but so many evidences that their heavenly Father doth love and hath a care of them and so do adore the arm and kisse the hand of God that is pleased to chastise them For whom the Lord loveth saith St. Paul Heb. 12.6 he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth but the wicked murmur at the least corrections they receive from the hand of God and say with the two men that were possessed with evil spirits Matth. 8.29 What have we to do with thee art thou come to torment us before the time for so they injoy the pleasures of this life they care not what will become of them in the world to come being of this minde That one bird in the hand is better then two in the bush But to return from whence this digression brought me one of the chiefest effects of Flight is that it is the protector of Womens and Virgins Chastity and makes yong men free themselves from vitious and debausht company which they
and thirst to obtain by the merits of Christ eternal life Fifthly The spiritual Uses of Fear may be these 1. Men are not only to fear The spiritual uses of fear but also to love God that their fear may not be a servile but a filial fear for the Divel himself fears and trembles at the very name of God yet doth he not love but hate and detest him 2. Men are not only to fear to disobey God but they are also to endevor to do his will and to perform his commandements that they may neither commit sins of commission nor sins of omission for it is not sufficient for them to eschew evill but they must also endeavor to do good 3. Men are not only to fear and to love God but they are also to love and to fear to offend their neighbors that they may fulfill the second Table as well as the first and observe this precept of our blessed Saviour Math. 7.12 Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets 4. Men are not only to love and fear God but they are also to love fear honor and respect his Substitutes or Deputies upon Earth I mean the supream and subordinate Magistrates to whom he hath given the sword of Justice in hand for to preserve the Innocent and to punish the wicked Rom. 13.1 For there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God 5. Men cannot fear God except they fear to commit sin because there is nothing more odious to God then sin and such as fear God do hate and abhor sin for the fear of the Lord doth always precede the hatred of sin as it appears by this saying of Solomon Prov 10 27. â— Fear the Lord and depart from Evil Intimating that men cannot depart from sin before they fear the Lord And how pleasant acceptable this fear is unto God it may be collected by these sayings of the Prophet David Psal 61.5 Thou hast saith he given me the heritage of those that fear thy name meaning that such as fear the Lord have a most excellent Heritage as it is by him confirmed by these words Psal 16.6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly Heritage And in another place he saith that God is the help and shield of those who fear him Again Solomon saith Psal 115.11 The fear of the Lord prolongeth days Prov. 10.27 but the days of the wicked shall be shortned Whereby it appears that such as fear the Lord have most excellent prerogatives 6. The fear of the Lord is the rarest jewel under the Sun for King Solomon after he had shewn in his Book of recantations that all things under the cope of Heaven were but meer vanity and vexation of spirit he concludes That to fear God Eccl. 12.23 and to keep his Commandments is the whole duty of man And I conclude with him that all fears whatsoever except it be the fear of God and the fear of sin are meer vanity and vexation of spirit CHAP. XVI Of the vanity of the passion of Wrath. IN the former Ages of the World They only were accounted generous and of a masculine courage that could with patience endure all manner of injuries and suffer with meekness all kinde of reproaches that were done or said unto them without being moved or distempered with this fiery passion of Wrath as it may appear by these ensuing Instances that have been recorded by the Ancient Authors in the praise and commendation of such Princes and private men See Plutarch in his Trearise against Wrath. that have been endowed with this rare vertue of Fortitude It is recorded that Antigonus King of Macedonia walking one evening thorow his Camp heard some of his Souldiers to curse him bitterly but he with an admirable patience without being moved or distempered pray'd them lovingly to go a little further that the King might not hear them See Sueto mus in Augustus life And the Emperour Augustus Caesar being earnestly entreated by his Son-in-law Tiberius Nero to punish severely the Author of divers scandalous Libels that had been dispersed through the Streets of Rome against him Answered without being moved with anger That the greatest correction he could inflict upon him was to disdain to take notice of his calumnies And King Philip Father to Alexander the Great See Plutarch in Alexander and in Demosthenes lives being entreated by one of his Courtiers to punish severely an Athenian Orator that made him odious to the Greeks by venting in his publike Declamations bitter invectives against him answered without being distempered with wrath It may be said he I have not as yet done him any good as I have done to many others that deserved not so well as he whereupon he sent him a present of two Talents in Gold that made this Nightingal to change his tune to exalt the Liberality and Heroical Vertues of the King as high as the Skie And Philip being informed of it told his Courtier that he was a better Physitian then he to cure the malignancy of evil-tongued men See the French History And Lewis the Twelfth King of France being perswaded by some of his Peers to avenge himself of some affronts and injuries done unto him by some great Officers of the Crown in the dayes of Charls the Tenth his Predecessor when he was onely Duke of Orleans answered with an admirable magnanimity of courage That it was unseemly for a King of France to revenge himself of the injuries done formerly to the Duke of Orleans But in this decrepit Age of the World wherein we live They only are reputed generous and of a manly courage that are addicted to wrath and apt to vindicate themselves for the least offence and injury which are done unto them although it be done unwillingly And this is one of the causes of all the Divisions that reign in this Commonwealth Give me leave therefore to enlarge my discourse upon these particulars to shew you the evil Nature Proprieties and Effects of this furious passion of Wrath. 1. Upon the definition of Wrath. 2. Upon the causes that move Wrath. 3. Upon the Nature and Proprieties of it 4. Upon the evil and good Effects of the same 5. Upon the Remedies of it The Moralists do vary in their Opinions concerning the definition of this Passion Senalt and others maintain it hath an opposite but the Bishop of Marseilles and Theophraste Boujou Lord of Beaulien in his Commentaries upon Aristoles Physicks maintains the contrary to whose Works I refer the Reader for brevity sake To come to the definition it self Wrath saith Boujou Boujou fol. 723. is a Passion intising men to vindicate themselves for some injury received or for having been hindred to attain to some good by them prosecuted and desired Wrath saith Senault
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