the mystery of their salvation to get an assurance their calling and u â— Pet. 1.10 election is sure and they are justified by the bloud of Christ shall be saved from x Rom 5.9 wrath through him and are y Rom. 15.16 sanctified by the holy Ghost and of the number who by the preaching of the Gospel have had their eyes opened to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive z Acts 26.18 forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ and that they have received a white stone and in the stone * Revel 2. a new name which no Man knoweth saving he that receiveth it This assurance I say is able to fill a Christians heart with unspeakable pleasures and to ravish his soul into the third heavens where he shall injoy the presence of God in whom is the fulness of joy Psal 16.11 and in his right hand are pleasures for evermore But worldly pleasures vanish away like smoak and are meer vanity and vexation of spirit CHAP. V. Of the vanity of mens passions in general THe next aggravation of the vanity of the lives of men after the former description of the vanity of their desires is the vanity of their passions with the exorbitant care they take for the cure of their bodily diseases and their unparallel'd carelesness of the cure of the maladies of their souls for what greater vanity can there be then to prefer the health of their body that is momentary and nothing but dust to the preservation of the welfare and tranquillity of their immortall souls who are in the esteem of our blessed Saviour a Mar. 8.37 such a precious Jewel that there is nothing under the Sun that for value may be given in exchange for it and yet it is daily seen that if their finger doth but ake or if they have but a quotidian ague that is a wholsom medicine in the Spring they will presently take their bed and send for the best Physitians and will ingenuously declare unto them the symptoms of their disease that they may the better prescribe fit remedies for the cure of it but if their souls be sick by the rageful distempers of their passions which breed storms of preturbations in their soules as the impetuous windes do tempests at sea they make nothing of it neither will they send for a spiritual Physitian that can pour in their festered wounds the Balm of b Jer. 8.22 Gilead and asswage by their grave Counsels the fury of their passions but will rather if any come to visit them unsent for disguise their vicious passions by the names of vertues for they commonly call Ambition a desire of Glory and Avarice a prudent fore-cast and the furious passion of wrath a generosity of courage and so of all the rest and by this concealing and disguishing of their spiritual maladies make them by custome utterly incurable This common vanity of men hath induced divers learned Authors to prescribe in their Writings divers excellent remedies to cure these concealed maladies of the soul but before I speak of the remedies it is fit the Reader should be informed of the essentiall cause of these distempers for as it is impossible for a Physitian to cure the bodily infirmities of his patient before he be acquainted with the nature of them even so it is far more impossible for the Reader to pacifie the fury of his passions before he be informed by these insuing particulars of the cause and nature of them I will therefore speak in order of these things 1. Of the two distinct powers of the soul 2. Of the Concupiscible and Irascible appetite 3. Of the definition of mens passions 4. Of their seat and number 5. Of their original spring 6. Of their evil and good essects First There are two distinct powers in the soul the soul is distinguished into two distinct powers the one is called Rational the other Sensitive the Rational is onely peculiar to men but the Sensitive is common to men and beast See Aristotle in his Phys lib. 16 17. The Rational is a spark of the divine essence and therefore immaterial and immortal but the Sensitive is materiall and earthly and therefore mortal and corruptible and from hence the Christian Philosophy And Senault upon the use of passions doth infer the resurrection of the body because it hath such an affinity with one of the powers of the soul besides the Rational power doth its operations without the aid of the corporal organs but the Sensitive cannot execute its functions without the assistance of the organs of the body and that is the reason why the operations of it are more carnal and those of the Rational more divine and celestial and this made St. Paul c Rom. 7.23 24 25. cry out But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Iesus Christ our Lord so then with the minde I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin Moreover the Rational power of the soul is the spring of all the intellectual faculties of the minde but the Sensitive power is the spring of the senses and of all the affections and passions of men Secondly Because this Sensitive power is distinguished into two distinct appetites viz. the Concupiscible and the Irascible which are properly the faculties that the French call Appetitives which intimates in the English tongue an aptness See Beau-lieu in his Body of Philosophy pa. 721. an instinct or natural inclination inticing men and beast to pursue such objects as seem Good or to fly from such objects that seem to be Evil and the truth is The proprieties of the Concupiscible and Irascible appetites that the propriety of the Concupiscible appetite is to induce men to prosecute the objects that seem simply to be Good or to draw them back from such that seem simply to be Evil who have no appearance in them to be difficult to be obtained or to be avoided and the propriety of the Irascible appetite is to intice men to meet the objects presented by the senses unto them after a short result of the imagination that be not onely simply good or evil but full of difficulties to obtain or to eschew for the seeming good simply See Aristotle in his Physio lib. 16. cap. 3. is the proper object of the Concupiscible appetite because it is pleasant and useful to men or beast and may be obtained without difficulty but the seeming good that is apparently difficult to obtain and the evil that is hard to avoid is the proper object of the Irascible appetite But you are in this place to
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
Solomon saith By the means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread I will prove the point by Instances 1. All the Treasures of Asia did not suffice to defray the excessive volupties of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra 2. All the Revenews of the Roman Empire did not serve to discharge the lascivious riots of the Emperors Caligula Nero Vitellius Domitianus and Heliogabalus 3. All the comings in of the Kingdom of France did not suffice to defray the lascivious volupties of Henry the third King of France for he left the Crown indebted fourscore millions of Crowns although he raised the Subsidies and Imposts of his Realm as much more as they were in his Fathers Reign whereby it may be collected that voluptuous Princes are the greatest Oppressors of their Subjects 4. Daily experience doth shew that many Noble-men Gentlemen and rich Merchants spend and consume their Portion or Patrimony as the Prodigal Son did with Harlots and riotous living 5. Luk. 15.13 It shortneth mens days and makes their lives miserable for none can deny but continency temperance and sobriety doth preserve men in health and doth prolong their lives And without health the greatest Monarch upon the Earth can neither have joy nor content And to that end God was pleased to add health and length of days to those extraordinary gifts he gave unto King Solomon 1 King 3.14 otherwise his Wisdom incomparable Magnificence and incredible riches had not afforded him any true joy or content Besides carnal volupties do not only consume mens Estates and impair their health but it makes also their life miserable and loathsome to themselves for what anguish grief and dolours perplexity and vexation of minde is it to a miserable Patient that is sick of the Venereal disease to see his members rot away by piece-meals and to smell the stinking vapours that proceed from the inward corruption of his body And what vexation is it unto him to see Wife nearest Parents and intimate friends to eschew the very sight of him and forsake him in these anxieties Oh what inward torments doth he feel by the gnawing worm of an awakned conscience which doth rack him day and night by the horrid representations of his former pollutions Oh what unspeakable terror do possess him when he sees and feels the arrows of the Almighty Job 6.4 as Job saith to be in him the venom whereof doth drink up his spirits and the terrours of God fight against him for his former transgressions Christians should then endeavor to mortifie this sinful passion if it were but to preserve their means and lengthen their days But 6. it endangers also their souls for if they continue in their impenitency till the end of their days they run a hazard without the special mercy of God to be deprived for ever of his gracious presence For S. Paul saith in the affirmative sense Heb. 13.4 Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge And by the Levitical Law Levit. 19.10 The Adulterer and Adulteress were both to be put to death yet Christ our Saviour goeth further for he saith Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her Matth. 5.28 hath already committed Adultery with her in his heart Now if the intellectual adulteries and pollutions of the imagination deserve eternal damnation the actual fornications of voluptuous men who take no other delight but in the commission of such scandalous sins must of necessity deserve a greater punishment if any did exceed the torments of Hell The consideration then of the evil nature pernitious proprieties and destructive Effects of this sinful passion should induce Christians to endeavor by all means to crush this Cockatrice in the shell before it getteth the mastery over their reason Otherwise if this evill spirit of uncleanness doth possess the noble faculties of their souls it will require an extraordinary measure of Grace to cast him out and will cost them many sighs groans and floods of penitent tears for this unclean spirit is of the same kinde as our Saviour speaks of which cannot be expelled but by fasting and prayer Math. 17.21 Now if they cannot be induced to this so necessary duty by the reasons moral precepts and strong Arguments before cited let the ensuing judgements of God inflicted upon voluptuous men awake and force them to it Sixthly The judgments of God inflicted upon particular Voluptuous men and whole Nations are so numerous that it would be an endless piece of work to speak of them all I will then make choyce but of some of them Gen. 19.5.24 1. All the Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with Fire and Brimstone righteous Lot and his two Daughters onely excepted for their abhorred Lust and sins against Nature Num. 25.9 2. Twenty four Thousand of the People of Israel were consumed by the Plague for their fornications with the Moabitish women 3. Judg. 20.47 48. All the Tribe of Benjamin Six hundred only excepted were destroyed by the Sword for Patronizing the abhorred Lust of some of the Gibeahnites committed upon the Levites Concubine See Herodotus See the French Hist 4. All the Inhabitants of Ionia were destroyed by Cyrus for their lascivious Volupties 5. All the French that were in Sicilia were murthered in one night by the Sicilians for their uncleanness and fornications committed with the women of that Kingdom See the Hist of Naples 6. A great Borough near unto Putzola in the Kingdom of Naples was in one night overwhelmed by a just judgement of God with fire brimstone and the ashes of a hill near to it for the abhorred Lusts against Nature of the Inhabitants of the same 7. Gen. 34.26 Reuben was deprived of his Birth-right for defiling of his Fathers bed 8. Shechem lost his life for the rape of Dinah 9. Numb 25.8 Zimri was run through the body with a Javelin by Phinehas for his impudent Fornication with a Midianite Lady 10. Eli the High Priest 1 Sam. 4.17 18. and Hophni and Phinehas lost their lives the two last for their pollutions committed with the Israelitish women that came to Shiloh and the first for not reprehending his Sons so severely as he should have done for their lascivious courses 11. 2 Sam. 11.4 King David was severely punished for the Adultery committed with Bathsheba 12. Amnon his Son was killed by the servants of Absolom his Brother for the Rape of his sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13.14.29 And Absolom was slain by the commandment of Joab for having defiled his Fathers Concubines in the sight of the Sun and of all Israel See the Ecclesiastical History See the Millan and Florentine History Pope John the Twelfth was murthered in his bed for his Adultery committed with a Roman Lady 14. One of the Sforza's Duke of Millan was murthered in the Church of S. Steven by a Gentleman for his Adultery committed with his Wife 15. Alexander de Medecis Duke of
Shadrach Dan. 3.20 Meshach and Abednego did endure with admirable Constancy the burning flames of the fiery furnace heated seven times hotter then it was wont to be rather then to worship the golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up 2. By the same Fortitude Daniel did make choyce to be cast alive into the Lyons Den Dan. 6.10 16. rather then to restrain himself from making his Addresses by fervent prayers three times a day to God 3. By it all those Worthies nominated in the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews did suffer with incredible Patience all the torments there specified Heb. 11. 4. See the book of Martyrs By the like Fortitude all the Martyrs in Queen Maries days did suffer with a sweet temper of spirit the fiery Tryal that was inflicted upon them And as it is the propriety of the Christian Fortitude to endure without murmuring all the torments that are inflicted upon them so it is another of its proprieties to endevor to subdue the lascivious Volupties of the flesh believing that he who can overcome his own Passions is a greater Conqueror then Alexander The Heathen do much extoll and boast of the fortitude of Cato See Plutarch in his Life who ripped up his bowels with his own hands rather then he would be beholding to the clemency of Caesar But these murthering resolutions are rather evidences of Pusillanimity then of true Fortitude For a sudden Death is a lesser torment then to continue a long time in anguish and daily tortures Besides the magnanimity of Decius Curius and others did rather proceed from vain glory then from any true fortitude But the Christian fortitude hath no other end then the glory of God and to overcome their sinful Passions Fourthly men are to endevor to attain an habit in the grace of Sanctification as the Seal of their Justification and Regeneration and Redemption And the onely way to obtain the same is by frequent prayers and dayly exercises in Religious duties having ever in their mind these Passages of Scripture Heb. 12.14 For without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 2 Thes 2.12 Because God from the beginning hath chosen you to salvation by the sanctification of the Spirit 1 Thes 4.3 4 5 6. and the faith of truth And that you should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in holiness and honor and not in the lust of Concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God For God hath not called us to uncleanness but unto holiness Now because Sanctification is the crown of all other Christian graces I will here set down the ordinary means whereby the Blessed Spirit doth infuse the same in the hearts of the Elect for all natural men are incapable of it which is commonly done by degrees and not suddenly as their Justification Yet in some it is more sudden and in others more flow according to the activity or remisness of Christians in their exercises of Piety The first Means is That the Blessed Spirit doth move them to be diligent Hearers and Readers of the Word of God Rom. 10.17 For Faith saith S. Paul commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God And none can be Sanctifyed without a Justifying Faith 2. It endows them with the spirit of Prayer and with mortifying Graces whereby they overcome their Original and Actual corruptions 3. It moves them to be cautious in all their ways and to be sensible of the smallest sins and to flee from all appearance or provocation to sin 4. It infuseth in their hearts a strong Aversion to sin 5. It engendreth in them a reverent love and a filial fear which keeps them from sin 6. It doth convince them of all their sins and specially of their bosome sin 7. By this conviction it begets in them an implacable hatred against their Darling sin 8. By this hatred it doth enlighten their Judgement and openeth the eyes of the same whereby the miserable condition they are in by the enormity and multiplicity of their sins is made apparent unto them 9. By the consideration of this misery it induceth them to seek earnestly the means whereby they may be delivered out of it 10. It infuseth in them a constant resolution to return to their heavenly Father and to humble themselves in Sackcloth and Ashes before him 11. It mollifies their hearts and makes them grieve mourn and lament for their sins by which Spiritual Sorrow never to be repented of it begets in them an unfained Repentance 12. And Lastly being by this Cordial Repentance reconciled to God by the merits of the Passion of their Blessed Saviour it begets in them an extream thirst after the living waters of that Fountain which was opened to the house of David Zach. 13.1 and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness And so by a constant perseverance in the ways of Righteousness they attain by degrees to that measure of Sanctification as is required to see the Lord with Joy and Consolation For the most Sanctified man upon Earth cannot attain to a perfect degree of Sanctification as long as he liveth in these tabernacles of clay the perfection of this Grace being reserved for the glorified Saints in Heaven Eighthly to Conclude I admonish all those who earnestly desire to attain to some degree of holiness to suppress betimes the venom of this vitious Passion of Volupty before it turn into an Habit in them For as I have said in my Answer to the Objection of some Moralists the Volupty of the mind doth as much encrease with Age as do the vices of Avarice and Drunkenness as it is confirmed by this Saying of the wise Son of Sirach All bread is sweet to a Whoremonger Eccl. 23.17 he will not leave off till he dye Now to terrifie and induce Voluptuous men to abhor this sin of Uncleanness I have collected these ensuing Passages out of Solomons Proverbs and out of Ecclesiasticus to shew them how Destructive this sin is to their Means Bodies and Souls The lips of a strange woman drop as an hony comb and her mouth is smoother then oyl but her end is as bitter as wormwood and sharper then a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold of hell Prov. 2.3 4 5. Who so committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own soul Prov. 9.32 Stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant but he knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depth of hell Prov. 9.17 18. For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman a deep pit Prov. 23.27 Give not thy soul to a woman to set her foot upon thy substance Eccles 8.2 Meet not with a harlot lest thou fall into her snares Eccles 8.3 Gaze not on a mayd that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her
Christendom But God who derides at the ambition of Princes which do not tend to the execution of his secret will brought all his ambitious designs to nothing for his invincible Navie was beaten and scattered by the English valour and the greatest part of it swallowed up by the roaring Seas And the Catholike League in France was utterly subdued by the activity wisdom and valour of Henry the Fourth their lawfull king See the Netherland History Yet notwithstanding that the Hollanders have deprived him of seven of the Netherland Provinces and the Portuguies from his usurped kingdom of Portugal he hoped still ambitiously to make himself the absolute Monarch of Christendom by the divisions he hath lately fomented in Holland England France Scotland and Ireland by the means of the Machiavellian Principles spread abroad by the Jesuitical Locusts that he hath scattered among these Nations like so many swarms of Bees But I hope God will turn his Counsels into foolishness 2 Sam. 17.14 as he did that of Achitophel and make his unlimited Ambition the cause of his utter annihilation The Second Propriety of Ambition is That it hateth Parity and all Competitors and Equals Numerous Instances might be produced for proof of it but half a dozen shall serve 1. Romulus and Remus brethren having been chosen kings or Governors of the Fugitives that were the first Erectors of the Roman Commonwealth did not raign two years together Livie in his first Decade Lib. 1. but Romulus out of ambition to raign alone slew his brother Remus under colour that he had in derision leaped over the mud wals of the City of Rome 2. Lucius Tarquinius impatient of the long life raign of Servius Tullius his Father-in-Law possessed with an ambitious desire to raign in his stead by the wicked instigations of his wife Tullia Lib. 1. p. 76. threw him down the Senate-Chamber stairs and caused him to be murthered in the streets of Rome and this accursed and abhorred Tullia coming from the Senate in a Chariot with four horses where she had caused her Husband to be proclaimed King caused her Coachman to drive the Chariot over her Fathers body as he lay a dying and goared in his blood in the street And no marvel it was that she who to prosecute her ambitious design had already caused her Husband to murther her own sister and his own brother that was her first Husband would omit to act this unparalleld cruelty towards her father-in-Father-in-Law by whose untimely and violent death she came to have the fruition of her accursed ambition See Plutarch in their lives 3. Crassus Pompeius and Caesar having divided the power of the Roman Common-wealth between them Crassus being gone with a great Army into Asia to subdue the Parthians and Caesar with another Army into France and Pompeius with another Army left at Rome to preserve Italy all three of them being excessively ambitious and specially the two last could not be contented with their condition but under-hand aspired to be absolute Monarchs which Caesar after the death of Crassus easily obtained 4. After the death of Caesar Lepidus Marcus Antonius and Augustus Caesar did divide the power of the Roman Empire between them but before seven years came about Augustus Caesar the most ambitious of them became the absolute Monarch of the World by these means first Antonius and Augustus joyned together to deprive Lepidus of his part then Antonius and Augustus came to a second division but ambition being more predominant in Augustus then in Antonius who was addicted to volupty he soon deprived him of his part and became the only Monarch upon earth 5. See Herodian in his Life The Emperour Severus at his death left his two sons Bassianus and Geta equal Heirs of the Roman Empire but Bassianus transported with an unnatural ambition slew his brother Geta before a year came about in his Mothers arms to raign alone 6. Lewis the Twelfth King of France and Ferdinando King of Arragon by a mutual consent did divide the Kingom of Naples between them See the French History in the Life of Lewis the Twelfth But the Spaniard being more ambitious then the French under colour of a Toll paid for Cattel which did really appertain to the French but fained to be the Spaniards Ferdinando's pride and ambition disdaining to have a Competitor or Equal in that Kingdom deprived the French of all he held in the same The third Propriety of ambition is That it is never free from jealousie I mean that which is called the jealousie of State And for proof of it these following instances shall suffice 1. The Emperour Tiberius out of an ill-grounded jealousie that Germanicus his own Nephew who was extreamly beloved of the Senators Souldiers and common People for his vertue valour and noble parts should aspire to the Empire before his death See Tacitus in his Life caused Lucius Piso Governour of Syria to poyson him at a Banquet and then forsook the said Piso being accused and convinced of the Fact and suffered him to be sentenced and executed although he had a warrant under his own hand commanding him to rid him out of the way the which Warrant he durst not produce out of fear the Tyrant would deprive his children of his incredible Riches and yearly Revenews 2. Nero out of the same ambitious jealousie caused young Germanicus the true Heir of the Empire to be poysoned as he sate at his own Table 3. Domitianus out of the like jealousie See Tacitus and Dion in these Empeiors lives caused divers Roman Senators to be slain and was resolved to do the like to the Captain of his Guard and to the best beloved of his Concubines if they had not prevented him by taking away his life to preserve their own 4. Lewis the Eleventh King of France out of an ill-grounded but violent ambitious jealousie that his Brother Charls Duke of Normandy did aspire to the Crown See the History of France and of England caused him to be poysoned secretly by one of his own servants 5. Edward the Fourth King of England by the false impressions that his younger Brother Richard Duke of York had malitiously infused in his heart of this ambitious jealousie caused the Duke of Clarence his brother to be arraigned and drowned in a Butt of Malmsey 6. Richard the Third out of this State jealousie caused the Duke of Buckingham to be beheaded because he conceived him to be as willing then to disthrone him and to set his Crown upon the Earl of Richmonds Head as he had been ready in former times to make him that was an Usurper King of England 7. This ambitious jealousie is so cruel that it makes men trangress the Law of Nature and to put their own sons to death as Herod did Antipater his son See Josephus whereupon Augustus Caesar said ingeniously that it was better to be Herods Swine then his Son See the