passion of Undantedness drives away all fears from their mindes yet these come oftentimes short of their hopes See the French Mercury for Baligny one of the most undanted spirits of the French Nation who had slain in Duel or in single Combat seventeen valiant Gentlemen as any were in France was slain himself in the streets of Paris manfully by another Gentleman who was reputed but a Novice in the feats of Arms. Therefore mens hopes are for the greater part of a deluding Nature if they be not grounded upon Reason and good Probabilities Thirdly The Objects of the Hope of worldly men are these first Honors secondly Riches thirdly Pleasures fourthly Self-ends and Vain-glory for all the hopes of carnal men are fixed upon one of these Objects The vanity and incenstancy of worldly honor and by consequence their hopes must be meer vanity and vexation of spirit first Men that make Honors the Objects of their Hopes will finde them to be grounded upon quick-sand for what is more subject to mutation and change then worldly Honors The Favorites of Princes are compared to Moucherons that grow up in one night Jonah 4.6 7. or to Jonahs Gourd that sprouted and grew to its perfection in one day and by a Worm was withered the next day even so the honors of Favorites are taken away in a moment Esther 4 2. and 7.10 Hamon the Agagite was promoted on a sudden above all the Princes that were with the great King Ahasuerus but he lost in a moment his life and his Honors and suffered an ignominious death for he was hanged on a Gibbet of fifty cubits high Sejanus likewise the Great Favorite of the Emperor Tiberius Nero See Tacitus in Tiberius life was raised to the greatest honors of the Roman Empire but in a moment he was degraded of all his Honors and dragged like a dog thorow the streets of the City of Rome See the French History and of late years the Marquess d'Auere of a Groom was promoted to the greatest Honors of the Crown of France but in an instant he was pistoled by the command of the King Lewis the thirteenth and having been buried in a Church neer to the Kings Palace his body was taken out of the grave by the common people the next day The vanity and mutability of worldly Riches and dragged up and down the streets of the City of Paris and afterwards hacked in pieces burned and his ashes cast into Seine Therefore mens hopes that are fixed upon worldly Honors have a very sandy foundation secondly If mens Hopes be fixed upon Riches they are as ill grounded for what is more fickle then Riches that make themselves wings and flee away Prov 23.5 See Herodotus in the life of Cyrus Cressus King of Lydia lost all his incredible Treasures and his Kingdoms in a day and Crassus the richest Roman that ever was See Plutarch in Crassus life lost his life and his unparallel'd riches by indeavouring to increase them Riches are then a tottering foundation for mens hopes thirdly if mens Hopes be fixed upon worldly pleasures they are of less continuance then the fire of thorns under a Pot for carnal pleasures seem tedious in the continuance The vanity of worldly Pleasures and mens estates will be sooner wasted and their bodies consumed by lothsome diseases then they will besatisfied with carnal pleasures fourthly Although Self-ends and Vaine-glory are the ordinary objects of the Hopes of the most generous spirits yet Vain-glory is but a meer shadow and for Self-ends it is contemptible and base for moral Hope which inticeth men to generous actions cannot be pure if it be not free from Self-ends and vain ostentation The vanity of Self-ends and vain-glory and notwithstanding if the most heroical actions of the ancient and modern Worthies both in Arms and in learning were well examined few will be found that were acted meerly for the love of Vertue or the publique good but were mixt with Self-ends and Vain-glory for the Conquests of Alexander and of Cesar and of a hundred more were to increase their fame and Dominions And the learned Works of Aristotle of Plate of Demosthenes of Cicero of Seneca of Salust and of many more were written as much to perpetuate their memory as for the love of Vertue or of the Publick good Mens Hopes must then have a more excellent object and a more solid foundation then these before related or they will prove to be but meer vanity and vexation of spirit Fourthly The nature and proprieties of this passion of worldly Hope are these first Although all worldly Hope is of an earthly nature because of its corruptible and transitory objects yet it hath a propriety of agility for it is as swift as the thoughts and desire of men for in an instant of time mens Hope may be here in France in Spain in Turky or any where where men have commerce or trading The nature and probabilities of worldly Hopes acquaintance or intimate friends secondly The worldy Hope of men is as inconstant as the Windes for sometimes it is fixed upon Honors other times upon Riches and again upon Pleasures or upon this undertaking or this other design and alters according to mens fancies and imaginations thirdly the worldly Hope of men is ordinarily voide of Prudence for it is extravagant and oftentimes ridiculous because it doth not take his measures and distances aright I mean in fixing their Hopes upon impossibilities which is the reason that so many are deluded in their Hopes divers unreasonable creatures having by a natural sagacity a better aim then they for the Lyons the Tygers the Bares and all other devouring beasts will not set upon any other beast except they see some probability they may master them for if they be too swift or too strong they forbear to set upon them nor the Kite will not offer to ravish the young Chickens if its sees the Hen neer at hand to defend them The wilde beasts by a natural sagacity undertake nothing without probability they may attain nor the Hawk will not fly after the Partridge except it sees that she is within her reach but worldly men for the greater part fix their hopes upon objects wherein there is no probability at all they should attain to the injoyment of them which is against the natural propriety of this passion of Hope for true Hope eschews all impossibilities fourthly The worldly Hopes of men are insatiable as well as their Desires for when they have attained the fruition of one of their Hopes they instantly fix their Hopes upon another object so that the thirst of an Hydropick will be sooner quenched then the worldly hope of men will be satisfied Pyrrhus King of Albania had conceived a vain Hope of the conquest of Italy but his wise and prudent Counsellor Cynias perceiving no probability in this hope of his because the Roman Common-wealth was then powerful
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
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
entrusted into his hands and constantly paid wages to for the enlarging of their limits And as for the invasion of Asia by Alexander It was in the Opinion of the best Polititians a rash and inconsiderate enterprize proceeding rather from Temerity then from prudence or true valor to undertake such a Conquest with an Army of forty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse when Darius had to oppose him twenty times as many more yet because it was decreed in the secret Councel of God that he should be the Head of the third Mornarchy the end of this rash and unjust enterprize proved prosperous and not for the justice of his cause for Darius had never attempted to invade any of his Dominions or done him any injury all the pretext he had was that the former Persian Kings had invaded Greece and to prevent future invasions it was a wise policy to assail and give him work at home A poor excuse or colour of justice for him to deprive Darius of his Life Empire and incredible Treasures which did well deserve this Answer that a Pyrate made unto him See Plutarch in Alexanders Life when he was brought before him to be sentenced to death for his Pyracies at Sea For Alexander having asked him why he did use that base and unlawful trade of Pyracy Out of need said the Pyrate for my Father left me nothing but this small Brigantine to maintain my self my wife and children but thy Father left thee a large Kingdom and incredible Treasures and yet thou usest this trade by the great by depriving Princes of their Kingdoms and Treasures whereas I use it only by retail in taking some sorry Merchants goods consider then which of us two is the greatest Pyrate and which of us deserves the greatest punishment Alexander was so astonished at this Answer considering that he said nothing but the very truth that in lieu to sentence him to death he made him Captain of one of the best Ships he had in his Navie Therefore forraign and intestine Wars are not to be undertaken but upon just grounds otherwise the Authors of them will be answerable at the last day for the life and blood of those who have been slain in them and for appropriating to themselves such Provinces or Kingdoms to which they have neither right nor any just tittle Eighthly The means which are to be used to allay the fury of this passion and to subdue it utterly if it be possibe are these 1. Men are to endevor to attain to a true habit in the grace and vertue of humility for he who is truly humble can never be ambitious because Pride and Ambition are inseparable companions 2. This grace of humility will beget in them a filial fear for men before they be humbled by the consideration of their unworthiness can never attain to this filial fear the fear of God being the beginning of true wisdom And to fear God and to keep his Commandments Eccles 12.13 is saith Solomon the whole duty of a man And those whose are endowed with this filial fear can never be ambitious because they know it to be offensive to God and to men as the criminal effects of this sinful passion here before discribed do witness the same 3. Men are to strive to attain to an habit of true contentedness for such as are contented cannot be ambitious because from the discontentedness of the minde proceed the ambitious desires of men Diogenes had more content with his Tub to shelter him from the injuries of the Meteors of the Ayr and with his wooden dish to eat and drink therein then Alexander had with the Conquest of half the World and the fruition of all the Treasures Pomps and lascivious Volupties of Asia 4. Men are to consider Job 1.21 That naked they came into the World and naked they shall go out of it And that the reward of all their ambitious undertakings will be at the conclusion if they had conquered the whole World but six foot of ground to bury them in 5. Ambitious men are ever to have in their minde this saying of our blessed Saviour For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul 6. If men will needs be ambitious let them be ambitious to excel all others in spiritual Graces and to make their Calling and Election sure That they may at their departure out of this miserable life be made by the merits of Christ Co-heirs with their blessed Saviour of the Kingdom of Heaven and of eternal Glory CHAP. XX. Of the vanity of the passion of Envie CImon the famous general of the Athenian Commonwealth hearing a friend of his highly commending his martial Atchievments Answered That he feared they were not werthy commendation because they were not envied See Plutarch in Cimons life Intimating that in those days the noble and generous actions of the most valorous and vertuous men were the only object of the Athenians Envie But Plutarch in his life giveth sufficient reason why Cimons actions were not envied by the Athenians as the actions of Solon Themistocles Alcibìades and Aristides were in their time for through envie of their vertue they banished them all for ten years viz. because of his extraordinary liberality shewed to the common people for he having great and spacious Demains about the City of Athens relieved the poorer sort with corn when it was dear and every year at Lammas laid open the Gates of his Closing to relieve their Cattel And this liberality of his did quench the fire of Envie stopped the mouths of envions men as conceiving his own prodigality would bring him lower and make him poorer then their own envie could wish or desire Aristides was one of the most just and upright Magistrates that ever was in Athens and for his Justice Prudence Temperance and other rare Vertues was called Aristides the just and by consequence more envyed by the common people then any other Therefore his name being written in the List of such as the people did desire to banish that yeer the day appointed for the collecting of the peoples Votes being come See Plutarch in Aristides life a Country-fellow that could neither write nor read came amongst the rest to give his voyce and because the Athenians gave their Voyces by Tickets he addressed himself to Aristides desiring him to write Aristides name in that Ticket whereupon Aristides astonished demanded of him Whether he knew Aristides and what injury he had done unto him that moved him to desire he should be banished I know him not said the fellow neither hath he done me any injury but I cannot endure to hear him called Aristides the Just whereupon Aristides without disclosing of himself The common object of Envie is goodness and vertue write his name in the Ticket and gave it to the Fellow And was the same day exiled by the major part of the voyces of the people By this
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
will appear by these three insuing effects of Despair fourthly In the time of the civil wars See Plutarch in Syllaes life between Sylla and Marius Sylla besieged Preneste a small but a very strong City of Italy because it had sided with Marius and after a long siege he took the same and commanded that all the Inhabitants should be put to the Sword and the City set on fire onely he charged that his Host and his Family should be preserved because in former time he had shewed him much love and good hospitality so at the first entrance of the Town an Officer with a band of souldiers were sent to this Hosts house to preserve it from plunder but he hearing of Syllaes cruel decree against the City was so transported with Despair that he slew himself saying He would not be obliged for his life to the destroyer of his native Countrey See Plutarch in Cesars life fifthly in the civil war between the Cesarean and the Pompeian faction a Centurion or Captain of Cesar and some thirty common souldiers were taken in a fight and brought before Cornelius Scipio that was then Governor of Africa for the Pompeian party who condemned them all to death the Centurion excepted who seeing the cruelty of Scipio drew out his sword and slew himself in his presence saying He would not be obliged for his life to so cruel an enemy of Cesar sixthly In the war that fell out between the Romans and the Iews in the days of the Emperor Vespasianus See Josephus in the war of the Iews Titus his son laid siege and incompassed Iopata a strong City of the Iews with trenches and a powerful Army and after a long siege and great resistance thirty of the chiefest Magistrates of Iopata seeing no probability that the City could hold out any longer hid themselves in a private Vault into which they conveied victuals for three days before which time the City was taken by a Storm and the greatest part of the people put to the sword and such strickt watch set to the gates that none could escape so that these thirty in the Vault must either yield themselves to the Romans or famish whereupon transported with Despair they resolved rather to kill themselves then to die a lingering death or to yield themselves to the mercy of the Romans a desperate mad and barbarous resolution for the fury of the souldiers being over they had undoubtedly obtained mercy and so they cast lots who should be killed first till there were but two left alive and that was Iosephus and another who abhorring this Self-murdering perswaded his fellow to yield themselves to the Romans to which he consented and having discovered themselves they were brought before Titus who having heard of the merit of Iosephus shewed him mercy and at his intreaty saved the life of his fellow Fourthly The good effects of the passion of Despair may be these first It annihilates and turneth to smoak all the vain and extravagant hopes of men that are fixed upon impossibilities Four good effects of Despair secondly It doth quench the burning flames of love and clips the wings of presumptuous Lovers who fly too high with their desires that would otherwise rack and torment their mindes and make them daily sigh and groan because they could not obtain the enjoyment of that object that is too rare and excellent for their degree but Despair coming on makes them desist from the prosecution of things in which there is no probability they can be obtained thirdly it mitigates the ambitious hopes of Princes who would conceive nothing impossible to them because of their might and power if this faithful counsellor of Despair did not respresent unto them the difficulties there may be to attain to the fruition of their Hope The Emperor Charls the fifth See du Bailys Commentaries in the life of Francis the first King of France being ready to pass out of Italy into France with a very potent Army led by approved Commanders and composed of old and experienced souldiers caused this Army to be ranged in Battel array and when it was Marshalized in the best order it could be according to the Art and Rules of War he sent for a French Noble man that was his Prisoner to ride along with him to view this Army and after they had ridden through the same and viewed all the Squadrons of it The Emperor did ask the Noble man what he conceived of this Army He answered that it was a gallant one and well disciplined I hope said the Emperor to ride with this Army thorow the heart of France without impediment of any moment and come to the very walls of Paris safe Sir said the French Noble man mitigate your Hopes with Despair for I can assure you if you had three such Armies you will not come to Paris before you are well beaten and so it fell out for he went no furthen then Marsellies and there lost thirty thousand of his men and was inforced to raise his siege and to return with shame and dishonor into Italy fourthly As Despair makes men fly and takes away their courage so when it isextream and that there is no hope left for the preservation of their lives it inflames their courage See the English History and du Halian in his French History and makes them fight like Lyons The Black Prince having entred France with an Army of some ten thousand men and taken divers strong holds in Poytou Iohn then King of France came against him with an Army of thirty thousand men the Prince seeing himself over-matched by the means of the Popes Nuncio desired to come to a Treaty and offered to the French King to restore unto him all the strong holds he had taken and to make good the damages he had received so he might peaceably retreat with his Army into Aquitain that did then belong to the Kingdom of England but King Iohn a rash and inconsiderate Prince required greater things which stood not with the Princes honor to grant and so was inforced out of Despair to fight whether he would or no and being an excellent souldier seated his Camp in a high ground full of thorns and bushes which he lined with his Archers and caused in the night time a deep ditch to be cast up about his Camp to break the fury of the French horse the French in the morning in stead to send their foot to make a passage through this ditch sent their horse who falling atop of one another in the ditch were slain by the Archers and the battel of the French disordered whereupon the Prince came upon them with his whole Army and obtained a famous victory and took King Iohn and his youngest son Philip le Hardy that was afterwards Duke of Burgundy prisoners and a great number of the French Nobility which confirms that extream Despair makes men fight like Lyons and that wise Princes are rather to
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
unto him why speakest thou any more of this matter I have said Thou and Ziba divide the Land 2. Wrath begets contention and strife betwixt the cheifest vessels of grace for it wrought such a contention between S. Paul and Barnabas that it made Paul to associate himself with Silas and Barnabas with Mark and so divided one from the other these two famous Instruments of the propagation of the glory of God 3. Wrath enticeth men to cruelty and is often the cause of the ruine and desolation of great and Populous Cities The Emperor Frederick was so transported with wrath by an Affront done by the People of Milan to the Empresse his wife that he caused his Army to sack the City of Milan and to put all the Inhabitants of it to the Sword See the Fcclesiastical history and afterwards to burn the same to the ground And the Duke Charls of Burgundy moved to wrath by an injury done to himself by the Citizens of Dinan See Philip de Commines caused all the Inhabitants to be slain by the Sword and the City to be burned to ashes salt to be sown in the fields of it to make them for ever barren 4. When men are transported with Wrath they have no regard to Father Mother nor Brethren Gen. 4.8 Cain slew his Brother Abel Nero his Mother and Selymus poysoned his Father out of wrath proceeding from ambition So that Wrath is the cause of much Blooshed and unparalleld Evils Miseries and Desolations The good effects of Wrath are these 1. It makes Cowards to become valiant The good Effects of Wrath. for the greatest Coward in the World being transported with Wrath becomes as bold as a Lyon 2. Wrath inciteth Christians to a Godly Indignation when they see the Worship and Glory of God abused and this is the onely commendable effect of Wrath for the which Phineas the Son of Eleazar the Son of Aaron the high Priest obtained this following Blessing of the Lord for having slain Zimri and Cozbi in his wrath proceeding from a fervent Zeal to Gods glory Wherefore the Lord said Behold I give unto him my Covenant of Peace And he shall have it Numb 25.12 13. and his Seed after him even the Covenant of an everlasting Preisthood because he was zealous for his God and made an attonement for the children of Israel 3. The moderate Anger and Wrath of Parents towards their Children and of Masters towards their Servants is oftentimes of great use to keep them in due obedience and to make them more diligent in the performance of their duty 4. The Wrath of God is of great use to bring Impenitent Sinners to repentance For when they hear that his Wrath burns like fire Psal 89.46 and that it is like a whirlwind which turneth upside down the highest mountains it makes them put their hands upon their brests and acknowledge with the penitent Publican Luke 18.10 that they are not worthy to look up to heaven And I am perswaded considering the perverse inclinations of men that more are converted by the apprehension of his Wrath then by the gracious invitations of his Love are Promises yet happy and blessed are they who are drawn near him by his incomprehensible Love in Christ Jesus towards them and that fear more to displease him out of a sincere and filial Love unto him then out of a servile apprehension of his Wrath. To conclude it appears by the Nature Proprieties and Effects of Wrath that it is a passion above all others that men should most endevor to subdue and keep subordinate to Reason And to that end observe these ensuing Remedies that are to be used to hinder this stubborn Passion to obtain the Mastery over Men. Fifthly The Remedies to curb and keep under subjection this ragefull and furious Passion of Wrath may be reduced to these Four heads 1. Four Remedies against the venom of Wrath. Humility 2. Patience 3. Prudence 4. Charity For the First Humility is an excellent Remedy to asswage the fiery rage of Wrath Prov. 15.1 For as Solomon saith A soft Answer turneth away Wrath but grievous words stir up Anger And as fire goeth out of it self if it be not nourished by some Combustible matter so Wrath will vanish into smoak if it be not fomented and encreased by ill Language or by insolent Postures and Misdemeanors Abigail by her humble gesture and gentle speech did suddenly pacify the fiery Wrath of David that had been kindled by the churlishness of Nabal 1 Sam. 25.22 24. and prevented the execution of the rash Decree that David had pronounced against Nabal and all his Family Nay Humility is so powerfull and acceptable to God that it is able to appease his Wrath as it appears by Gods gracious and mercifull Carriage towards King David himself after the commission of the two abhorred sins of Adultery and Murder for he had no sooner acknowledged his sin with an unfained Humility 2. Sam. 12.13 but God was pleased to pardon him the guilt although he inflicted a heavy Punishment upon his Family for it For the Second Patience is an approved Remedy to appease the rage of Wrath as it appears by the Counsel that Athenodorus gave to his Pupill Augustus Caesar whom he knew naturally addicted to Wrath. At the first motion of this Passion said he to him See Sueton. in August life You must endevor to crush this Cockatrice in the shell but if it cannot be break the fury of it by Patience And before you decree any thing in your Anger count upon your fingers ends the four and twenty Letters of the Greek Alphabet For by this small intermission of time your Reason and Judgement will come to it self again that hath been perverted by the fury of this Passion of Wrath. It is Recorded that Plato upon the Relation of an unpleasant Message was something moved with Wrath whereupon he rose from his seat to fetch his staff But another Philosopher seeing it said unto him It is unseemly for you Plato to be thus moved with Wrath as to fetch your staff to beat a Messenger See Plutarch in his Mor. You are deceived said he It was to burb and beat mine own Wrath that began to be Master over my Reason Thirdly Prudence is a soveraign Remedy against Wrath For Solomon saith He that is slow to Wrath Prov. 14.28 is of great understanding but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly Whereby it appears that such as are apt to be transported with immoderate Wrath are like fools or mad men and that there is none truly wise but such as can pacify their Wrath. And that was the reason why Socrates was judged by the Oracle of Apollo to be the wisest man of all the Greeks See Plutar in his Mor. in his Treatise against Wrath. because he could not be moved to Wrath for had not he been patient and prudent he and his wife had
by this saying of S. Paul 1 Tim. 6.9 10. They that will be rich fall into temptations and snares and into many foolish and noisom lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction For the love of money is the root of all evil which while some lusted after they erred from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Eighthly The considerations inducing men to allay the fire of this passion are these 1. They are to consider that nature is contented with a little for some bread and water some Rise Reasons Almonds or Figgs will satisfie the same So that all such as are not nice but sober in their diet and temperate in their drinking will never be enforced to sell their Land to feed their bodies for it is the excess of the superfluous volupties used in these dayes that brings men to penury 2. They are to consider That he who cannot be contented with a little will not be satisfied with all he could desire nothing under the Sun being able to satisfie the desires of men but God only And that is the reason why S. Paul saith 1 Tim. 6.6 That godliness with contentment is great gain for none can be truly contented except he hath the power of godliness in him because the love of God doth suppress all other desires in men It was therefore a wise saying of a Heathen That he who can give bounds to his desires is a greater Conqueror and a richer Monarch then Alexander was See Quintus Curtius in his Life for having conquered one World and having in his possession all the Treasures of Asia which Darius had heaped together yet were not his desires satisfied for he did enquite if there were any more Worlds to satisfie his Ambition and Avarice 3. They are to consider that riches are accounted the gifts of Fortune which is held to be blind therefore it is no wonder if she bestows her gifts upon undeserving men such as were Nabal Sobna and the rich glutton Besides vertuous and Religious men make conscience of their ways and will rather be poor then use indirect and unlawful means to enrich themselves but such as neither fear God nor man stretch their consciences upon the Tenters and conceive no courses unlawful or sinful so they enrich themselves by them 4. They are to consider that Avarice is worse then Prodigality for the profuseness of Prodigal men is not destructive to any but to themselves but the courses used by Avaritious men to enrich themselves are destructive to the whole Commonwealth for all Shop-keepers and Artificers are the better by Prodigals but they are the worse by Avaritious men and specially the poorer sort For they commonly engross or monopolize into their hands all manner of Commodities to sell them dear and principally corn and so like horsleeches suck the very blood of the Poor which makes them to be hated of God and of Men. The consideration of which should move all conscientious men to abhorr Avarice and to endevor by all means to subdue this sinful Passion 5. They are to consider that if they had in their possession all the gold and silver Mines of the West Indies yet they would not adde any thing to their present and future Felicity but rather traverse the first and deprive them of the second Neither can they prolong their Lives an hour nor free their bodyes from any of the numerous Infirmities they are naturally subject unto It is then an absolute Madness for men to tire their bodyes and to waste their spirits by laboring and carking day and night to accumulate some smal heaps of white and yellow Clay that will be of no use unto them at the hour of death Nay they run great hazzard without the mercy of God to lose their own souls in or by the acquisition of them Therefore they should have always this Saying of our Blessed Saviour in their mind Mark 8.36 For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own soul 6. They are to consider that there is a greater difference between the spiritual and temporal riches then there is between Light and Darkness in regard of the superexcellency and duration of the first and the baseness and mutability of the second For spiritual riches are free from all Accidents durable and eternal but the temporal riches are subject to changes and mutations and of no continuance their abode being uncertain men being rich to day and extreme poor to morrow as it appears by the History of Job and of Croesus king of Lydia the one being the richest man of the East and the other the richest Prince in Asia And yet in the revolution of one day Herodotus in Croesus life the last was deprived of his incredible treasures and kingdom and became also the Captive of his mortal Enemy And the first came to be an Object of Poverty and Misery See the Book of Job Ch. 1. and a Subject of Derision and false Imputations to his own wife and intimate freinds It is Recorded that at the sacking or destruction of the City of Thebes by Alexander the Great a Greek Philosopher for his rare parts was permitted to go away with all he had before the rest of the Inhabitants were slain and the city set on fire And being asked as he came out Why he carryed not away his Goods Answered In saving my person I preserve all that may truly be called Riches or Goods meaning his Learning and Vertue Even so if Christians would be as careful to hoard up spiritual riches as they are to heap up gold and silver they should not need to fear the loss of them For Godliness and Holiness that are the spiritual riches of a true Christian are free from all Accidents And this is the reason why our Blessed Saviour doth charge us all To seek first the kingdom of God Math 6.33.34 and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto us And Let us take no thought for to morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evill thereof CHAP. XIX Of the vanity of the passion of Ambition AS it is not the quality but the quantity of wine that is offensive to men So it is the excess and the irregularity of mens ambition that is destructive to mankind for as a little wine rejoyceth the heart so a spark of ambition in the heart of men bends their minds upon generous actions And could they make vertue and holiness the only objects of their Ambition as they do the honour and glory of this world Ambition would prove to be the best and the most commendable passion of men See Plutarch in his Life Themistocles did use to say That the great Trophies of Miltiades did hinder him to take his rest even so if the Faith of Abraham the righteousness of Lot the patience of Job the continency of
Joseph the meekness of Moses the zeal of Phineas the fervency of David and the holiness of our blessed Saviour were the objects of mens ambition ambitious men would carry away the garland and be reputed as the only excellent upon earth Psal 16.3 But to be excessively ambitious after the fading and momentary riches honours and glory of this world or after the conquest of a Mole-hill for the greatest Kingdom in Christendom in comparison of the whole Globe of the World will appear but like a Mole-hill it is a meer vanity Eccles 6.2 and an evil disease Socrates being informed that Alcibiades was proud and ambitions and boasted of the great demains he possessed in Attica a Province of Greece See Plutarch in his Morals of which Athens was the Metropolitan City brought him into a place where there was a Map of the whole Earth and prayed him to shew him where stood his Possessions Alcibiades after an exact view of the same found out at last the Province of Attica which was no bigger then a great pins-head but could not see any sign of his demains whereupon Socrates said unto him Why are you then so proud and ambitious for a thing of so little Continent that it cannot be seen in this Card. Even so Princes and Commonwealths who out of ambition contend for enlargement of their demains will finde at the end when they have shed their subjects blood and exhausted their Treasures that they have only obtained with much ado a small Mole-hill of ground And will be enforced to say See the History of France as Charls the Fifth and Philip the Second Kings of Spain did who through their Ambition had been the cause of the death of a million of men and of the exhausting of all the Treasures that came out of the West Indies which did amount in threescore years to above two hundred millions of Crowns by the Wars they made about the Conquest of France viz. That with all this blood and incredible Treasures they had not won a Foot of ground in France and were further from the Conquest of it then they were the first day of their War And verily if the seventeen Provinces of the Low-Countries were represented in a Map and compared to the whole Globe of the Firmament of the Seas and the Earth they would not seem to be so big as a Mole-hill And yet they have this threescore years and ten been the object of the Ambition of him that stiles himself the greatest King in Christendom And notwithstanding his might and power See the History of the Netherlands and the innumerable lives of men that have been lost and the incredible Treasures that have been exhausted in the Conquest and preservation of them yet hath he been enforced to acknowledge seven of these Provinces to be free-States and at this very hour courts them by his Embassadors to obtain an offensive and defensive League with them For although the Ambition of Princes and Commonwealths have no bounds yet are they bounded by the Lord of Hosts and shall extend no further then he hath Decreed The beginning the encrease the decay and utter annihilation of Empires Monarchies and Commonwealths being wholly at his disposing Notwithstanding the desires of Ambitious men are never satisfied and are alwayes projecting to enlarge their bounds although they are ignorant of Gods will and pleasure therein these ambitious desires of theirs being oftentimes the fore-runners of their ruine and annihilation See Herodotus in his Life Croesus King of Lydia desiring ambitiously to enlarge his dominions made War against Cyrus who deprived him in one day of his Kingdom and of his incredible Treasures And Antiochus the great ambitiously desiring to enlage his Kingdom declared War against the Romans who took from him Armenia See Plutarch in the Lives of Lucullus and Pompeius and confined him beyond the Mount Taurus And because this fiery passion of Ambition is as predominant in all parts of Christendom in these dayes as it hath been in former Ages give me leave to enlarge my self upon these particulars 1. On the definition of this passion 2. On the composure of it 3. On the nature of the same 4. On those who are most addicted to it 5. On the Causes that move men to be Ambitious 6. On the proprieties of the same 7. On the pernitious effects of it 8. On the means to subdue the same First The definition Ambition is nothing but an exorbitant and irregular desire of worldly honour and glory Secondly It is a mixt passion composed of these The composure viz. of Audacity of Hope and Desire 1. Audacity expels the fears that might disswade Ambitious men from undertaking any perilous enterprises 2. Hope infuseth in them a confidence they shall attain to their ends 3. Desire gives them wings to prosecute with indefatigable labour the fruition of that which they aym at Thirdly It is of a fiery restless and insatiable nature 1. It is fiery because such as are more ambitious then others are of a bilious hot and dry constitution 2. It is restless because the bilious humour which is the most predominant in their bodies doth usually ascend up to their brains which makes them active in all their actions and sudden in all their undertakings The nature of Ambition And of this natural constitution were Caesar Henry the Fourth King of France and the last King of Sweden who were all three extraordinarily ambitious 3. It is insatiable because of the great predominancy the passion of desire hath over the other passions of which it is composed nothing being more insatiable then the desires of men Fourthly Those who are most ambitious are commonly of a haughty spirit envious and impatient when they see any other excel them in valor honor glory It was Ambition that moved Alexander to reject the fair offer that Darius King of Persia made unto him of the half of his Kingdom and of his eldest Daughter to be his wife if that would have satisfied his ambition so he might enjoy peaceably the other moity the rest of his days See Quintus Curtius in his Life but this answer of Alexander made unto Darius upon this offer did proceed from a haughty and imperious spirit viz. That as there was but one Sun in the Firmament so there could be but one Monarch upon Earth See Plutarch in Caesars Life And this saying of Caesar did proceed from a haughty and ambitious heart viz. That he would rather be the chiefest Magistrate in a petty City of Italy then the second in the City of Rome And this other that he spake to the Master of a ship in the midst of a storm Fear not saith he For thou dost carry in thy ship Caesar and his Fortune as if the Winde and the Sea had been bound to obey and comply with his ambitious designs But his passion of Sorrow when he wept seeing the Figure of
Alexander cut in Marble standing in the Market place of the City of Cadice in Spain doth evidently manifest that he was of a haughty and ambitious spirit Out of these instances it may then be collected that Ambition is as common to haughty and proud spirits as Avarice is proper and peculiar to vile and base-minded-men Fifthly The causes moving men to be ambitious may be these 1. Self-love 2. Pride 3. Vain-glory. 1. Self-love induceth to prefer their own glory to any thing under the Sun And it is certain that all the heroical Actions of the antient Heathens did rather proceed from self-love then from the love they did bear to Vertue or to their native Countrey And in these days most of the commendable Actions of Magistrates Commanders The causes moving men to be Ambitious and Learned men have a greater reference to this self-love then the glory of God and the Publick good except it be the actions of some special Saints and true children of God 2. Pride raiseth their hearts above the Moon for like proud and ambitious Haman they would have all men bow their knees before them and will be accounted as the Cedars of Libanon and not as the brambles of the Forrest And this Pride makes them aspire to the greatest Offices and Places of the Commonwealth being assured that by these Places and Dignities they will be more honoured then for their own worth Never considering that the steepest Mountains the highest Clifts Towers and Steeples are more subject to be beaten down by the boysterous winds and thunder-claps then the low trees growing in the Valleys And that God doth always exalt the humble and speaketh thus to the proud Though thou exalt thy self as the Eagle Obad. 1.4 and though thou set thy nest among the stars thence will I bring thee down saith the Lord. 3. Vain-glory gives wings to the ambitious men and makes them undertake the most perilous enterprises if they conceive they may obtain in this life the prayse and the applause of men and make their memory famous in the Generations to come This moved the two Decii to throw themselves in the midst of the Enemies Army to save and to give the Victory to the Roman Legions See Livie in his first Decade It moved Martius Curtius to cast himself on Horse-back armed from head to foot into a bottomless Pit to free the City of Rome from the contagion of a consuming Plague It moved Scevola to burn his own hand before King Porsenna in the flame of a lighted Torch to obtain an advantageous Peace for his native Countrey And the ancient Romans knowing what power vain-glory hath over ambitious men did ordain to this purpose three kinde of Triumphs to incite them by these vain shews and the applause and acclamations the common people made at their entring See Livie in his 1.2 and 3. Decade to hazzard their lives in Martial Atchievments the first of these Triumphs excelling in honour the second and the second the last that their valour might be honoured according to the degrees as it did really deserve Whereby it appears that vain-glory hath from the beginning to this day been the only aym of proud and ambitious men Sixthly The proprieties of ambition are numerous but for brevity sake I shall onely speak of three of them The first proprietiy of it is That it hath neither limits nor bounds and this I will prove by three instances that are known to such as are vers'd in ancient and Modern Histories 1. The Ambition of the Democratical Commonwealth of Rome had no bounds although the beginning of it was vile and small it was vile because the first erectors of it were for the greater part Out-laws Fugitives and Vagabonds and it was small because their number did not exceed three thousand before the Sabines joyned with them the first object of their Ambition was the City of Alba See Livie in his 1. Decade Lib. 1. which was destroyed in one day the second was Gabes and the Citizens of them both were joyned with the Romans which did much encrease their number and so by degrees subdued all their neighbouring Princes and Commonwealths then Sicilia was the object of their Ambition then Carthage Spain France England Greece Macedonia and Armenia And when they had in their possession the greatest part of Europe See Caesars Commentaries Asia and Africa then the ambition of Caesar swallowed up them who from a servant became their imperious Lord. Neither was the ambition of their Emperors ever limited for the greater part of them did endevor to enlarge their Monarchy till the days of the Emperor Trajan See Dion and Apian at which time it had the largest extent that it ever had for presently after it began to decay and was annihilated by its own waight as all great Politick Bodies are commonly 2. The Ottoman ambition was never limited to this day At the first it was contained within the Circumference of a Countrey Village their number not above six hundred then they extended the same in the Lesser Asia and then it came over Hellespontus into Greece conquered Constantinople See the Turkish History suppressed the Greek Empire subdued Servia Dalmatia and a great part of Hungaria then Egypt Syria and Armenia with the Iland of Cyprus Rhodes and all the Islands of the Archipelago then they extended the same into Persia but were enforced to give it over because of their Civil Divisions The Janisaries and the Spahis holding at this present the helm of the ship of that great Monarchy for they have of late years placed and displaced to and from the Throne such as pleased and displeased them yet is not their ambition limited for Candia is now the object of it 3. The ambition of the House of Austria was never yet limited 1. In the days of Ferdinando and Isabella they conquered the Kingdom of Grenado See the German and Spanish History and the West Indies and by a wile possessed themselves perfidiously of the Kingdom of Navarr and drove the French out of the Kingdom of Naples and the Dutchy of Milan and having by the Heir of the House of Burgundy obtained the rule of the seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands Charls the Fifth the son of that Heir was chosen Emperor of Germany when he was already King of Spain which Kingdom he left to Philip the Second his son and the Empire of Germany to his brother Ferdinande whom he caused to be chosen by his power in his life time and so ambitiously and cunningly made the Empire of Germany Hereditary to that Family that was formerly elective his son Philip the Second of that name King of Spain following his ambitious steps by the invincible Navie he sent to conquer England See the French and English History and the Catholike League that were his Emissaries to betray into his hands France their native Countrey came very near to be the absolute Monarch of