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
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
shame and many men in these days come to penury by often changing of Calling or by undertaking such Callings as they never were bred to or by exercising four or five Callings at one and the same time which is a great vanity for that is the cause that Artificers never attain to the perfection of their Art or handy-craft but remain ignorant hudlers in them all It is therefore convenient that men should be constant to one Calling and to take delight in it For godliness with content saith St. Paul c 1 Tim. 6.6 is great gain and without men take delight in their profession they will always be changing till they bring themselves to extream misery Secondly violent and superfluous Pleasures are desructive two ways the first impair mens health and shorten their dayes and the other doth waste and consume their estates how many have lost their lives by the excessive pleasures of Venery in the very act many more by excessive riots of drunkenness and gluttony and others by the violent exercises of Tennis Foot-ball play Leaping Vaulting and running of races some others by swiming The violent and superfluous pleasures and others by drinking in Summer wines cooled in snow and of late years how many have shortned their lives by the excessive use of Tobacco a bewitching herb in the taking of which the poorer sort consume the small means they have and the richer impair their health and fill their brains as full of foot as is the funnel of a chimney by which they deprive themselves of sleep consume their radical humor engender Palsies and apoplexies and go down to the grave before their time whereas if it be used moderately it purgeth the Phlegm prevents the Dropsie and refresheth the spirits It is then apparent that as these violent pleasures impair the body so they wast mens estates for rioting gluttony and drunkenness Tennis and Foot-ball-play running of races and drinking of wine cooled in snow are consumers of the means and estates of men Thirdly the moderate and lawful pleasures are not prohibited in the word of God so they be used with moderation for Christians may boldly take pleasure in a moderate way of all the creatures under the Sun so it be with thanksgiving and after a sanctified manner in all sobriety and temperance 1. They may take delight in the admirable works of God d Psal 136.8 in the contemplation of the light of the Sun in the constant course it observes in the regulating of the seasons of the year and in the increase and declination of its heigth whereby the days are lengthened or shortned In the various mutations of the Moon by whose influence the Tides increase or fall 2. They may delight to see the aspect of the Spring e Psal 8.3 when after a cold Winter the vegetative creatures begin to sprout and when Flora doth revest her self in her glorious apparel clothing the earth with variety of odiferous flowers inameled of divers colours which excel in beauty in the esteem of our blessed Saviour f Math. 6.28 the very glory of King Salomon and in Summer they may delight in the blessing of God upon the labour of the Husbandman and in Harvest upon the incredible increase of the seed and in Winter g Psal 72. â—6 in the consideration of the propriety that God hath given to the vegetative creatures to draw their sap which is their life into their root that it may be kept in the bowels of the earth from the danger of the frost and snow and how by his admirable providence he doth feed the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air in that barren season The moderate and lawful pleasures as well as in havest 3. They may delight in the glorious objects of the green and beautiful medows and in the sweet rivers running along their banks in the numerous herds of cattel feeding in the Valleys and Mountains 4. They may rejoyce in the commerce and trade of rich merchandise that are brought from forraign parts whereby the commonwealth doth flourish and the poor are set at work and all in generall provided of all necessary things for this life 5. They may take delight to see the Artificers Shop-keepers and all others of the poorer sort to prosper and to have vent and utterance for their wares whereby they are enabled to maintain themselves wives children and servants in a decent condition and free from want or penury 6. They may delight and bless the Lord for their health peace and prosperous estate and that they live and move and have a beeing with all necessary things for this life as meat drink and raiment but above all they may laud and praise the Lord for his mercy and the free liberty they have to hear his Word and Gospel preached with zeal and sincerity 7. They may solace themselves in honest recreations as in walking abroad to take the aire in the company of their friends their discourses being h Col. 4 6. seasoned with salt and rather tending to edification then depravation 8. They may sometimes go a hunting hawking fishing shooting bowling but these recreations are to be short and onely for to refresh their spirits after tedious studies and weekly employments and to strengthen their bodies by these laudable exercises and not to make them as some do their daily work for otherwise these honest and laudable recreations would become vitious and destructive to body and soul for nothing ought to be more precious to Christians then Time Fourthly Vicious and unlawful pleasures are the snares of Satan and the harbengers of death and yet they are most in fashion in these days See Plutarch and the English and French History and few or none that are addicted to them will give them any bound or limits It is recorded that Cesar Edward the fourth King of England and Henry the fourth King of France were over-much addicted to Venery and yet those that have written their Lives give them this commendation that they bounded this Passion within certain limits for their Venerian delights did never say they make them neglect any affairs of State or actions of war because saith a modern Author of Cesar Senault in the use of Passions that the Passion of Ambition was more predominate in him then the Passion of Love although the Passion of Love in the opinion of Aristotle and of Senault himself is held to be the most violent Passion of all the other Passions but if men are to be moderated as I have said before in the natural and necessary pleasures there is great reason they should be more temperate in their vitious pleasures sith they are sinful and odious to God and to all vertuous and temperate men and St. Paul i 1 Thes 4.3 would have men to be moderate in their cating and drinking for their healths sake and for conscience sake for the abuse of the creature is prohibited by the
Plutarch in Marcus Antonius Life and Augustus Cesar for which Antonius was advised by an Astrologian that the good Angel of Augustus would at last prevail over his and the great antipathy there was between Socrates and his wife who had lived one with another live Cats and Dogs if the unparallel'd temperance of Socrates had not mitigated their debates And it is seen daily that men hate the company of some other men that never did them wrong nor give them occasion of offence and I have known my self a man and a woman of good means that had such an natural aversion one against the other that they were inforced to live asunder and yet neither of them could shew a just cause from whence this antipathy of affections did proceed There is another sort of Humane Hatred that is accidental but the description of it will be more proper in the next Discourse Thirdly some of the accidentall causes of the Hatred of men are these for they are so numerous that I cannot speak of them all first An inveterate wrath is oftentimes the cause of an everlasting Hatred for when Wrath cannot vindicate it self at the present it becomes an incurable Hatred because Wrath is a suddain and fiery distemper of the Heart which is but like a lightning if it may freely vent it self but if it be restrained in the brest it becomes an irreconcilable Hatred It is a common saying That Cholerick men never sleep upon their anger and that it is but a flash that passeth away but if this Choler hath not some vent it is changed into such a hatred that all the precepts of Philosophy can hardly extinguish the fire of it secondly One of the greatest causes of Hatred is the deniall of Love or more properly of Lust the denial that Joseph gave to his Mistress b Gen. 39.17.20 changed her love to a cruel hatred for she caused him to be cast into a dungeon and in stead of imbracements to be fettered with irons thirdly Self-Love is an ordinary cause of Hatred for such as are possessed with this vanity think themselves never sufficiently respected nor honored and nothing doth sooner engender Hatred in men then misprision fourthly Calumnies and false Reports that blemish a mans Fame and Reputation are cause of an inveterate Hatred for Honor is dearer to some men then their own lives and many have constantly indured all other injuries that have been cast into great distempers by Calumnies which have also bred such a hatred in their hearts that they have shunned all familiarity with men See Plutarch in his Life as it may appear in Tymolions Life fifthly The infidelity of men is often the cause of mens hatred for Confidence and Trust abused is a great motive to Hatred and the reason why Hatred is so predominant in these days is that men are so much addicted to betray the Trust that others have confidently deposed in their hands for like Weather-Cocks they change their friendship upon the lest occasion of their friends disgrace nay Religion it self that should be the greatest link and the strongest bond to knit the fidelity of men together is as subject to mutation and change as the Windes for look as the current of the Times goes these Camelions Religion is according to that which is most in fashion sixthly Jealousies of Hate and jealousies of Love are great provokers to Hatred The jealousies that the Turkish Janisaries did conceive See the Turkish History in his Life that their Emperor Osman would change his Militia and remove the Seat of his Empire from Constantinople to Damasco begot such an implacable hatred in their hearts that they caused him to be strangled in the black Tower of Constantinople The jealousie that Mecaenas had conceived of the inconstancy of his wife did not onely deprive him of sleep for three years together but did also ingender such a hatred in his heart against women that he ever after abhorred the sight of them And that is the reason why the hatred proceeding from the jealousie of Love is held to be the most implacable Fourthly Princes Favorites are addicted to Hatred as it may appear by the carriage of Haman the Agagite towards Mordecai c Esther 3.2 3. because he did not worship him as the other Officers that sate at the King Ahasuerus gate and his hatred was so cruel that conceiving Mordecai to be too base an object for his hatred he made sute to the King that all the Jews living in his Dominions might be destroyed in one day secondly Envious men are always addicted to Hatred and upon the most unjust and ridiculous occasion that can be imagined viz. for the prosperity of their intimate friends or next neighbours whose good and wellfare they are obliged by the Commandments of God to prosecute with all their might and yet the malice and corruption of mens hearts is so vile and so base as to hate those who never injured them for no other reason but because God is pleased to bless them more then they exceeding in malice those murmuring labourers who envied at the goodness and liberality of the Father of the Houshold that sent them into his Vineyard yet they had some colour for their discontent because they had born the burden and heat of the day but these have none at all and therefore their censure will undoubtedly be greater at the last day then that which was given to these Labourers viz. d Matth 20.11 12 13 14.15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own Is thine eye evil because I am good thirdly Effeminate and vicious Princes are addicted to Hatred It is recorded by Dion that as the Emperor Commodus was riding over the stone-bridge that crosseth the River of Tiber at Rome he saw six noble Gentlemen who were discoursing together upon the bridg and having sent for them he inquired of what they discoursed they answered they were talking of the noble Acts and vertuous Parts of his father Mark Aurelius See Dion in his Life whereupon he commanded that they should instantly be cast into the River saying They could not speak well of his father but they thought ill of him Such a hatred did this effeminate and cruel Emperor bear to the Vertue of his deceased father and it is daily seen in this age that the base and profane People doth hate extreamly vertuous and religious men fourthly Ambitious and high Aspiring men are much addicted to Hatred for they hate mortally their competitors and all their abettors witness the irreconcilable hatred that was between Marius and Sylla See Plutarch in their Lives and their adherents and the horrid hatred that was between Antonius Caracalla and his brother Geta See Herodion in their lives that did at last transport Antonius with such rage that he slew his brother in his mothers arms fifthly The common people are addicted to hate the Favorites of Princes because they
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
their brethren and hate sin I hate every false way m Psal 119.104 I hate vain thoughts but I love thy Law saith the Prophet David And again I hate and abhor n Psalm 119.163 lying but thy Law do I love Do I not hate them O Lord o Psal 139.21 22. that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I account them my enemies The fear of the Lord p Pro. 8.13 saith Salomon is to hate evil Pride and arrogancy and the freward mouth do I hate Hate the evil and love the good q Amos 5.15 saith the Prophet Amos. To conclude with the Apostle St. Peter r 1 Pet. 2.1 2. Let us lay aside all malice hatred env e and hypopocrisies and all evil speaking as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby c. CHAP. VIII Of the vanity of the passion of desire AS the billows of the Sea rowl one after another till they break themselves into fome against the clifts or rocks of the adjacent shores even so the desires of men drive away one another till they vanish away into the smok because the objects of their desires are for the greater part but vanity for not one man of a thousand doth fix his desires upon the right object that can satisfie his desires and fill his heart with joy and content and although mens desires be as free as their thoughts for the greatest Tyrants have no power over them yet there is an Eagle eye above who searcheth the reins that knows their desires as well as their thoughts Men should therefore be very cautious in their desires sith they proceed from the concupiscible appetite and are properly called Cupidity and in plain English Coveteousness and how dangerous it is to desire or covet any thing prohibited in the Law of God I leave it to the judgment of the Reader sith in the Interpretation of our blessed Saviour who was the best Interpretor of the Law that ever was upon earth He that coveteth a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her If evil desires then be so criminal men should be very wary how they fix their desires for they have a hand in all their passions Senault in his use of passions pag. 273. either to furnish them with weapons or with strength to afflict them And among all the rest of the passions there is not any which hath more branches proceeding from one and the same root then this passion of Desire for if all the desires of men were limited by their objects the number of passions proceeding from the general passion of Desire would be as numerous as a Swarm of Bees I have already spoken of three of its branches viz. first Of the desire of worldly honors secondly of the desire of worldly riches thirdly Of the desire of worldly pleasures the first being the passion of Ambition the second the passion of Avâ—rice the third the passion of Volupty And now I shall speak of the fourth branch called Cupidity which is of greater concernment then any and therefore give me leave for the better description of it to speak of these particulars in order 1. Of the definition of mens desires 2. Of the two essential causes of them 3. Of their effects and proprieties 4. Of the comfort that proceeds from the spiritual desires First All the desires of men may be reduced to these two heads or comprised under Necessary and Superfluous The Necessary are limited but the Superfluous have no bounds because they cannot be numbred And this is the most approved definition of mens desires Desire is nothing else but a passion that men have to attain to some good which they possess not which they conceive to be convenient for them The Bishop of Marsulles pag. 206. And not withstanding mens desires are commonly fixed upon objects that seem good but are really evil because the Senses delude their Imagination and often-times their Reasion and Judgment Now the passion of Dâ—sire differs not onely from the passion of Love but also from the passion of Delight because Love is the first motion or passion that intice 〈◊〉 to prosecute the good The definition fâ—nens desires whether it be present or absent but the dâ—sire is a passion that enduceth men to prosecute the good that is absent and the passion of Delight is onely a sweet content of the possession of the good See Senault pag. 27. after men have obtained the same Senault saith That the passion of Desire is nothing else but the motion of the soul towards a good which she already loveth but doth not as yet possess whereby it appears that mens desires are ordinarily fixed upon uncertainties and that is the reason why I said formerly they often vanish into smoke Secondly The two most essential causes of mens Desires The impotency of men is a cause of their desires is their Impotency and Discontentedness for God who is Omnipotent hath no Desires and in the fruition of his blessed and glorious presence is the end of mens desires And suppose he had desires yet the end of them would be his own incomprehensible Beauty and Goodness If God doth but Will he hath the injoyment of his Desire as it is apparent in a Gen. 1.3 Genesis And God said or God willed Let there be light and there was light But it is not so with the greatest Monarchs in the world for through their impotency they are inforced to desire and their wishes and desires all are oftentimes rejected by him who is alsufficient to grant them the injoyment of their desires See Plutarch in Aâ—â—randers lite Alexander the Great was the greatest Monarch upon earth and yet his wishes and desires nay the prayers he made to his Idols or imaginary gods for the recovery of his dear and beloved Ephestion were rejected and these desires did manifest his impotency See Suetonius in Augustus life Augustus Cesar was the greatest Monarch in the world he wished and desired that the overthrow given to his Legions in Germany might be vindicated and out of impatiency of the performance of his desire he often like a mad man stamped with his feet upon the ground Crying out Varro Varro give me my Legions again and yet in his life time he did never obtain his desire It appears then that the impotency of men in the most eminent is a cause of their desires The discontentedness of men is a cause of their desires secondly the discontentedness of men in their Station and Calling is the cause of many fond desires for there is not one of a hundred that is contented with his condition because there are but few Diogenes in these days that are contented with a Tub to keep them free from the injuries of the air See Plutarch in his Morals or with a wooden-bowl
this world would imbrace all manner of desperate resolutions and make themselves away to be rid of the continual anguish grief and sorrow they are subject unto in this life And I am perswaded that the want that the Heathen had of this spiritual hope of the eternal joy to come was the cause that so many of them laid violent hands upon themselves for some to be free from the imperious insultations of their mortal enemies or disdaining out of a manly courage to be oblieged for their lives to their clemency have ripped up their own bowels with their swords See Plutarch in Cesar and Catoes lives as Cato did rather then he would fall alive into the hands of Cesar and others to be rid of the excessive grief and sorrow which did rack and torture their souls for the loss of their beloved husbands or intimate friends have drunk Poyson or stifled themselves with burning coals as did Portia for her dear husbands death Martius Brutus See Plutarch in Marcus Brutus life But Christians being supported by this spiritual Hope and with an assurance that all worldly disgraces and afflictions are not for continuance but like unto a vapor arising from the earth which is suddenly annihilated by the beams of the Sun accounts these things unworthy to be regarded in comparison of the eternal joy and glory that is reserved in the highest heavens for such as suffer with patience the crosses and tribulations of this life for righteousness sake This passion being then of great use for all true Christians I will for the better descriptition of it extend my Discourses on these particulars 1. On the Definition of worldly Hope 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Objects of it 4. On its Proprieties 5. On its Effects 6. On the Excellency of spiritual Hope First There are diverse Definitions of Hope some say it is but an expectation of the good The definition of worldly Hope others say It is nothing but a confidence that men have that such things will happen to them which they have conceived in their imagination The Bishop of Marseillis pag. 500. Theophrastus Bojou pag. 723. Others say It is a passion of the soul whereby upon the impression that men have of some future good which is represented to their imagination by the senses as difficult to obtain whereupon they addict themselves to an eager prosecution of it conceiving to be able of themselves to obtain the injoyment of the same Hope saith another is a motion of the soul that inticeth men to expect and seek after a good that is absent in which they see some probability to be obtained and Senault agreeing with these two last Opinions adds that there can be no real hope except there be an apparent possibility it may be obtained Hope is then the first passion incident to the Irascible appetite of great use to men if they fix their hope upon vertuous or religious objects Secondly The causes that beget worldly Hope in the heart of carnal men are these first a continual prosperity in their understandings doth puffe up their hearts with vain and deluding hopes that the same prosperity will still continue and accompany their designs to the end See Plutarch in Pompejus life Pompejus the great was deluded by this hope for relying overmuch in the prosperous events he had formerly had in war having never been foiled by any of his enemies he neglected to raise a sufficient Army to hinder Cesars coming into Italy as he was counselled to do by his intimate friends but hoping on his former prosperous success he said unto them If I do but stamp with my feet upon the ground souldiers will issue out of it in all parts of Italy to side with me against Cesar but this vain hope was the cause of his utter overthrow for he was inforced to forsake Italy to the mercy of Cesar and to fly beyond the seas where his Army was defeated and himself constrained to save his life by shipping into Egypt where he was basely murdered secondly Might and Power doth fill the hearts of carnal men with vain hopes Xerxes King of Persia relying upon his numerous Army of a million of men hoped to over-run Greece See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and to dry up the very rivers with the incredible number of his foot and horse but he was deluded in his hope and in the straits of Thermopilae his whole Host was stopped and foiled by Leonidas King of Sparta who had but three hundred valiant Lacedemonians with him and presently after his invincible Navy was utterly routed by Themistocles by the Island of Salamine and he himself inforced out of fear to fly into Asia with a great part of his Army thirdly Youth Strength and a sanguin Complexion fills the hearts of young Gallants with vain hopes and makes them undertake things that seem impossible See Quintius Curtius in his Alexanders life as Alexander the Great did the Conquest of the greatest part of the world with an inconsiderable Army of fouty thousand foot and twenty thousand horses in comparison of five or six hundred thousand that Darius brought into the field and this passion of Hope was so predominant in him that before he departed out of Greece he gave away to others his Patrimony estate and reserved nothing for himself but the uncertain hope of the conquest of Asia The natural reasons why young strong and sanguin Complexions are more addicted to this passion of Hope then others are Six causes of the worldly Hopes of men first that they abound in spirits for the Sanguin have more blood and spirits then the Cholerick Flegmatick or Melancholick men secondly they have time by their young age to prosecute the injoyment of their hopes thirdly they have strength and activity to overcome all difficulties that seem to bar them from the injoyment of their hopes whereas ancient men are more addicted to the passion of Fear then to Hope Three reasons why young men are more addicted to Hopes then ancient men first Because their natural strength and vital spirits are wasted with age secondly because their long experience hath made them more considerate then young men thirdly because they have one foot in the grave and have not time to prosecute the injoyment of their hopes and are better acquainted with the incertitude of the undertakings of men fourthly Men that are versed in the affairs of the world have their hearts filled with vain hopes because they think nothing impossible unto them by reason that their long experience in the affairs of this world hath drawn them out of the snares of many perplexities fifthly Men that have been divers times in great dangers by Sea and by Land have their hearts filled with Hope when they fall into danger hoping then to avoide the same as they have done formerly sixthly Men of undanted spirits have their hearts filled with vain hopes because the
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
men do commonly fight like Lyons for the preservation of the true Religion as the Protestants have done in Germany and in France who were but a handful in comparison of the Roman Catholikes and yet they have obtained divers famous victories over them And notwithstanding Machiavel out of an Atheistical mpudency doth maintain that the Protestant Religion doth extinguish all true Valour and Undantedness in the heart of men yet divers instances migh t be produced to prove that none are so couragious and undanted as those that are truly religious The two supernatural causes of undantedness for the wicked and prophane do fight but out of despair but true Christians fight out of assurance that they shall prevaile because God takes their part The second supernatural cause of undantedness may be the true eonfidence that men have in the Omnipotency of God who is able by small means nay without means if it pleaseth him to make them obtain unexpected Victories and come off with honor and reputation from the most perilous enterprises they undertake as it shall be proved by instances when I shall speak of the Effects of Undantedness Thirdly The Nature and Proprieties of this Passion of Undantedness will best appear in a comparative way by shewing the differences there are between it and Temerity first undantedness is ever accompanied with Prudence and Justice The nature and proprieties of undantedness described in a comparative way with those of Temerity but Temerity tramples them both under its feet secondly Men of undanted courage never imploy their valour but upon some noble occasion as the defence of their native Countrey or for the increase or glory of it but men transported with Temerity run headlong upon all occasions and will rather shew their valour to murder their dearest friends in a Duel upon some trivial word spoken unadvisedly then to meet the enemy of their Countrey in the Field thirdly Men of undanted courage are cautious in all their undertakings and will not attempt things except they fee some probability they may come off with honor and reputation unless it be in desperate cases that threaten the ruine of their Prince or of their native Country for in such cases they will willingly sacrifice their lives as Leonidas did at the straites of Thermopilae But men transported with temerity will hazard their lives for things of no moment that conâ—… her do them nor their Countrey good fourthly Men truly valorous 〈◊〉 with patience and great magnanimity 〈…〉 and offences that are 〈…〉 their own persons and 〈…〉 of such offences and injuries which blemish the honour of their Prince or Countrey but such as are possessed with temerity vindicate with severity the offences done to themselves and connive at those that are done to their Prince or native Country It hath been a subject of much debate among the Moralists which of these two famous Conquerors viz. Alexander or Cesar See Quintius Curtius in Alexanders life did excel one another in Undantedness of courage the greater part hold that Alexander in his actions had shewn to have more temerity then prudence and true undanted valour and that Cesar in his actions had been more unjust but less temerary and had far excelled Alexander in Valour and Courage first The undertaking of the conquest of Asia by Alexander was more just then Cesars for he undertook to suppress the Persian Monarchy that had ever been a mortall enemy to the Greeks but Cesar undertook to suppress the liberties of his native Country that had raised him to his honors and dignities and had intrusted him with their Armies for their defence and not for their overthrow secondly All the Actions of Cesar but one that was when he commanded the Master of a Ship to cross the sea in a most impetuous storm See Plutarch in Cesars life saying Fear not for thou carriest in thy Ship Cesar and his Fortune which savored over-much of Temerity were guided with much Wisdom and Prudence but all the Actions of Alexander were guided by vaine hopes and his undertakings were rash and temerary for there was no humane probability that an Army of fourty thousand foot and ten thousand horse should be able to encounter and foile two or three millions of men but they were raw and unexperienced souldiers whereas Cesar had to oppose the most expert Commanders and well trained souldiers that were in the world his onely excepted and therefore his undanted courage was far the greater in over-coming of them But some will object How came it then to pass that their actions were so successful and fortunate sith the first were accompanied with Temerity and the second with Injustice It may be answered God in his infinite Wisdom had long before decreed that Alexander should give the last period to the Persian Monarchy Dan. 7.6.7 and be the first Erector of the Grecian Monarchy and Cesar the first Founder of the Roman Monarchy which was to excel in Strength and Power all the former Monarchies and it was Gods Wil and Decree that gave their Temerary and unjust designs such success and not their prudence nor undantedness The evil effects of undantedness when it is abused Fourthly The Effects of Undantedness are of two sorts Evil and Good the evil proceed from the abuse that men make of so noble a Passion but the good are essential and natural to it first As there is nothing so good but may be abused by the corrupt and depraved inclination of men even so this noble Passion whose natural object is Vertue Prudence and Justice is extraordinarily abused by the evil intentions of men who make it the Emissary of their wrath and revenge Gen. 34.26 The undanted courage of Simeon and Levi was by them made the agent and instrument of their cruel revenge upon all the Inhabitants of Shechem and upon Hamar and Shechem the Father and the Son and had not God out of his mercy towards the old Patriarch Jacob been pleased to send a panick fear upon the Cities that were round about them Gen. 35.5 their rash temerity had been the cause of their utter ruine secondly The undanted courage of Joab who was a man of valour from his youth was made by his immoderate ambition the instrument of the two base and horrid murders of Abner 2 Sam. 3.27 2 Sam. 20.9 and of Amasa two more righteous men then he thirdly The undanted courage of Alexander of Marius of Sylla of Cataline and of Cesar was by their ambition made the instrument of the shedding of an ocean of humane blood See the History hf France fourthly The undanted courage of the Duke of Guise and of the Marshal de Biron was made by their excessive ambition the instrument of the desolations that hapned in the civil war of France and of the troubles that hapned in Henry the fourths dayes and of their own distruction and fatall end whereby it appears that if Valour and
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
drinking of it become worse then bruit Beasts because they deprive themselves of Judgment and Reason The Viper is naturally rank poyson and yet the Mithridate and other Antidotes against venoms are composed of it even so this passion of Fear is much abused and made worse then it is although it proceed from an evil spring I mean the weakness and infirmity of men yet God is pleased to make good use of it to convert sinners and to make them prosecute with greater fervency then they would otherwise do the ways of Righteousness Divers conceive Fear to be a Feminine passion and unworthy to be harbored in a Masculine Brest yet it maketh the proudest of men to be cautious and circumspect in their undertakings and clips the wings of their vain hopes and ambitious designes Tacitus saith See Tasitus in the life of Nero. That it serves as a curb to the licentious will of Princes and of all others that are in power and authority and for instance saith That as long as Agrippina the mother of the Emperor Nero lived of whom he stood in fear his actions were not so exorbitantly wicked as after her death but he having like a graceless son deprived her of life took free liberty to commit the greatest impieties that his heart could imagine And Joash King of Juda did the like for as long as Jehojada the high Priest lived whom he feared he seemed to love the Lord but soon after his death he gave himself over to Idolatry and cruelty for like an ungrateful wretch he caused Zechariah 2 Chro. 24.17 22. the son of Jehojada to be slain because he onely delivered unto him the message he had received from the Lord. Divers prefer Love before Fear but there cannot be any true Love without Fear Others say it is better to be feared then beloved but it is better to be equally loved and feared for men without Love endevor to be rid of the object of their Fears But if men be beloved and feared this composure keeps off all danger and begets security and obedience Neither can there be any filial obedience without Love for the obedience that proceeds from Fear is not free Prov. 1.7 and 20.2 but forced The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledg And the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul How much more should men be afraid to provoke Gods wrath by their sins and yet that is one of their least fears for they fear those things which they should not fear and fear not to sin which they should most fear But sith the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and of all saving knowledg which knowledg doth teach men to be afraid of sin which is the greatest evil Give me leave to inlarge my discourse upon these ensuing particulars that you may know to fear nothing but sin 1. On the definition of Fear 2. On the Nature of it 3. On the causes and remedies of mens fears 4. On the evil and good Effects of Fear 5. On the Spirtiual use of Fear The Moralists do vary in opinion Boujou in his Commentaries upon Aristotles Phâ—s lib. 16. cap. 6. concerning the definition of this Passion of Fear Fear saith one is a passion and apprehension of an evil that is to come but near at hand and looked for and unlikely to be avoided Fear saith another The Bishop of Marseille p. 408. is nothing else but a Grief and Dolor of the soul apprehending an evil at hand in which men see little probability it can be eschewed although it aims at the annihilation of their Being or to some dismal disgrace that threatneth their life or estate Yet it will appear by the nature the proprieties and effects of Fear that men are rather transported with Fears of imaginary Evils then of real and that mens fears do but rarely proceed from the annihilation of their Being However it is the fourth passion incident to the irrascible Appetite and the opposite and great Antagonist to the noble passion of Undantedness Secondly The nature of Fear is different from the nature of Joy for Joy dilates the blood and the vital spirits residing in it from the heart to the utmost parts of the body contrarily Fear withdraws the blood from the extreams of the body to the heart because Fear is a cold passion and the heart finding this cold to oppress it withdraws and calls as it were the blood and vital spirits from the further parts of the body to his ayd that by their natural heat he may be revived and cherished And that is the reason why divers men and women have been deprived of life by a sudden fear or fright because this cold passion congealeth the blood about the heart as a great frost congealeth water into Ice but if the Fear be not so violent yet it produceth a great alteration in the body for mens and womens faces will become as white as a cloth and sometimes all their members will tremble as a leaf and the motion proceeding from this alteration is so swift and forcible that women great with-childe miscarry by it nay it doth oftentimes turn the childe in their womb which depriveth the mother and the childe of life But Fear and Dolor have a great resemblance one with the other for they have both this withdrawing quality and are both of an extream cold and dry nature and therefore Fear and Sorrow are compared to the Winter Season and Joy and Delectation to the Spring and Summer in which the vegetative Creatures sprought and spring out their branches leaves flowers and fruits but in Winter time they withdraw their sap which is their life into their Roots as Fear and Sorrow doth draw the blood and vital spirits about the heart that is the essential cause and motion of mens lives Having both one and the same end the vegetatives to preserve themselves from the Frost and Snow and the heart to warm and cherish it self against these cold and frosty passions of Fear and Sorrow Thirdly The causes of mens fears are many and of several natures and by consequence their remedies must be proportionable unto them I will therefore speak first of the causes and to every cause apply the remedy but as I have said a little before mens fears do oftner proceed from imaginary evils then from the real and the worst propriety of this passion of Fear is That it anticipates and creates Fears in the Minde the real effects of which evils oftentimes are not like to trouble such as apprehend them nor their childrens children which kinde of Fear proceeds from a distrust of Gods providence and therefore as odious to God as any other kinde of Fear as it shall be proved when I come to speak of the effects of this passion First Worldly men Fear to loose their honors and dignities Secondly Their treasures and riches Thirdly
Florence was slain in his bed as he waited for the coming of a Gentlewoman he had allured to his lust 16. A Counsellor of the Court of Parliament of Paris slew a Gentleman and his own Wife as they lay abed together for he struck them both thorow the body with a Stiletto as they were upon the very act And from thence went to the Court and without perturbation pleaded the Case under fained names and obtained a definitive sentence of absolution from the said court for the murther by him committed For as Solomon saith Prov. 6.34 Jealousie is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare him in the day of vengeance These instances and many others that might be produced of the judgements of God inflicted upon whole Nations and particular men for the punishment of their lascivious volupties should refrain them from this destructive passion and make them flee from it as from a Serpent induce them to leave no remedies unattempted to mortifie the same But before I come to speak of the moral and spiritual remedies which are to be used to curb or to subdue this sinful passion give me leave to answer an Objection which some Moralists make to palliate the sin of it Voluptie say they is but a venial sin Object and the most innocent Passion of all others for it is the Darling of Nature and all men and women are naturally inclined to Delight neither could they subsist in the midst of so many woes and sorrows to which they are incident if it were not for these natural refreshments that you call Volupties And sith the fire and heat of this passion is cooled or utterly extinguished by old age men need not be so copious in the description of the evil nature proprieties and effects of it Nor so tedious in the manifestation of the remedies that may mortifie the same For Volupty doth not encrease by Age as Avarice and drunkenness doth I answer Answ that in regard of the actual act of Volupty old age may quench the flames of it But as for the intellectual desires I say that old men who have from their youth been addicted to this kinde of Volupty will long as much after that delight as the Avaricious men do after the encrease of their Treasures or the Drunkards after the taste of delicious Wines except they be sanctified both in body and soul by the sanctifying Spirit of Gods Free-grace for old age nor all the precepts of Morality cannot cast out of a mans heart this spirit of uncleanness if once he hath taken possession of it because it is of the same kinde Which goeth not out as our Saviour saith himself but by prayer and fasting Math. 17.21 that is to say by the meer and immediate operation of the sanctifying Spirit of Grace as it shall be proved by Instances and divers Passages of the Word of God when I shall speak of the spiritual remedies which are to be used to mortifie this passion As for the moral remedies that I am now to speak of they are these first men are to endeavor to attain to an habit in these four Vertues or Graces 1. Continency 2. Temperance 3. Fortitude 4. Sanctification Secondly they are to eschew these four splitting rocks or great inticers to all lascivious Volupties 1. Idleness 2. Alluring Objects 3. Suspected places 4. Evil company And in so doing they will undoubtedly by the help of the sanctifying Spirit obtain the victory over this spirit of uncleanness that is the greatest Opposite to the grace of sanctification for there is a greater antipathy between holiness and pollution then there is between fire and watter the Lyon and the Cock the Dog and Cat or between Vice and Vertue These things considered I will begin with those things which are to be eschewed for it were to small purpose to endevor to attain to an habit in these four Graces If men do not eschew the four things above spoken of by which the use of these Graces would be soon annihilated First Idleness is to be eschewed for if mens minds be not bent upon laudable employments they will busie themselves in unlawful things because their spirits are naturally active And as standing waters become loathsome even so men who have no employment become vitious And daily experience sheweth that such as are rich and have no calling are more addicted to Volupties then the meaner sort The Lacedemonians of all the other Greeks were the most active and valorous and the Athenians the most voluptuous because the first were kept under a strict Discipline gold and silver being prohibited in their Common-wealth and all manner of volupties banished and Military Atchievements cherished But the second were rich and by consequence Idle and did nothing as the Apostle S. Paul saith but hear or tell news Act. 17.21 or did employ themselves in all kinde of carnal Volupties Therefore such as will be continent must addict themselves to some lawful calling and are to be diligent in the same Prov. 10.4 For a slothful hand saith Solomon maketh poor but the hand of the diligent maketh rich Fulness of bread and Idleness were the cause saith the Prophet Ezechiel of the abhorred lusts of the Sodomites And for this cause the Emperour Severus made a Decree that all men whatsoever living in the City of Rome should imploy themselves in some lawful calling See Herodian in Severus life and wear upon their Apparel the badges of their profession that all idle persons might be banished out of the Commonwealth because Idleness is the mother of all vices The point might be proved by many instances but two shall serve for brevity sake 1. As long as King David addicted himself to Martial Achievements he never was carryed away by the temptations of Satan to lust after other mens Wives but when he was Idle and walking upon the Leads of his Palace he was ensnared into sin by the beauty of Bathsheba the Wife of Vriah the Hittite 2 Sam. 11.2 2. As long as the Prodigal Son was employed about the mannaging of his Fathers Houshold affairs he carryed himself like a dutiful Son but as soon as he was Idle and had obtained his Portion he wasted the same among Harlots Luk. 15.13 and by riotous living for Satan desireth no better opportunity to tempt men to sin then when they are Idle Secondly alluring Objects are to be eschewed and specially those of the feminine Sexe for many are bewitched by the glances of their eyes and that is the reason why King David after his fall prayed unto God he would be pleased to turn his eyes from beholding vanity Psal 101.3 as conceiving the beauty of women to be the greatest vanity under the Sun for the glances of their eyes are as destructive to mens souls as the glances of the eyes of a Basilisk are to their bodies Prov. 4.25 And that is the cause why Solomon saith Let thine
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
is an effect of Envie for the Envie of Marius against Sylla was the cause of a bloody Civil War And the envie of Pompeius against Caesar was the cause of a greater and the Envie of Francis the First against Charls the Fifth was the cause of the death of a Million of men The fifth effect of Envie is That it begetteth shame and ignominy because envious men cannot excuse nor palliate this Passion of Envie as men can divers other passions The ambitious man will excuse his ambition and will say it is an evidence of his generosity of spirit to aspire to honours and places of Authority that there is none but base-minded men who do affect to live obscurely The covetous man will varnish over his avarice and cloke the same by this passage of S. Paul 1 Tim. 5.8 But if any provide not for his own Family he hath denyed the Faith and is worse then an Infidel The cholerick man will disguise his wrath and perswade men it proceeds from a masculine courage and that there is none but cowards that will suffer injuries and affronts The voluptuous man will disguise his Vices and say this that joy mirth and pleasure are natural to men and will pervert this passage of Solomons Eccles 3.22 I preceive there is nothing better that a man should rejoyce in his own works The timerous man will excuse his pusillanimity and say that Fear is the mother of security and that there is more prudence to be fearful then over-bold The curious man will varnish over his nice curiosity and say it is comely and gentile to be apparrelled a la mode and that none but Clowns will go after the old fashion In a word men have excuses to turn all their vitious passions into Vertues Envie only excepted for they disclaim it and will not own it because it is shameful and ignominious The last evil effect of Envie is That it fils the minds and hearts of men with anguish grief and sorrow for repining and discontent do follow envious men as the Spaniel followeth his Master and the shadow the body See Plutarch in his Morals The Philosopher Anarcharis being demanded by a friend of his why so many men were discontented because they conceive saith he that their Neighbours condition is better then theirs intimating that Envie is the greatest disturber of peace and tranquility of the minde and that they that are addicted to this vile and base passion can never be merry nor joyful And Solomon the Prince of wisdom that was better able then any to judge of the evil nature and pernitious effects of mens passions saith that Envie is worse then Wrath as it appears by these words Wrath is cruel and anger is outragious Prov. 27.4 but who is able to stand before Envie To conclude Envie is not only vanity but a great torment and vexation of Spirit 4. The chief means or remedies against this passion of Envie are prayer The remedies against Envie contentedness charity and self-denial First fervent Prayer to God is a special remedy against this passion for Envie is one of the temptations of Satan which cannot be overcome without God be pleased to give men power to cast them like dirt into his face by the shield of Faith Eph. 6.16 Whereby they may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked Secondly contentedness is an approved remedy against Envie for if men were contented with the condition that God hath been pleased to set them in they would never Envie the prosperity of their Neighbous for this discontent that is so familiar to men proceeds from their cupidity or covetousness which is one of the ingredients of the composure of this passion of Envie and this cupidity is insatiable except men can obtain from God by fervent prayers this excellent grace of contentedness for as S Paul saith Godliness with contentment is great gain 1 Tim 6.6 And were a man the absolute Monarch of the whole World yet without this grace of contentedness his desires would never be satisfied but would envie and long for some other imaginary felicity or greater glory And that is the reason why S. Paul doth exhort the Hebrews to be contented with such things as they had and that their conversation should be without covetousness Let your conversation Heb. 13.50 saith he be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Thirdly Charity is a soveraign remedy against Envie for if men were in charity with all men they would never envie at the prosperity of their Neighbours and the only antidote against Wrath which is another of the ingredients of the composure of this passion of Envie is Charity because men that be endowed with the Grace of Charity bear patiently all manner of injuries For Charity saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 13.4 suffereth long and is kinde Fourthly self-denial is an excellent remedy against Envie for men that deny themselves drive all manner of hatred and Envie from their hearts And hatred is the third ingredient of the composure of this passion of Envie and our blessed Saviour doth tell us that if we will imitate and come after him Mark 8.34 we must deny our selves and take up his cross and follow him To conclude If men would be fervent in prayers to obtain these foresaid Graces they would abhor and detest Envie more then they do the Pestilence and the contagious disease of the Plague for a grain of Envie is able to stain and blemish all the spiritual Graces of a Christian FINIS