THE VANITY OF THE Lives and Passions OF MEN. Written by D. Papillon Gent. Eccles 1.2 Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity April 9. 1651. Imprimatur John Downame London Printed by Robert White and are to be sold by George Calvert at the Sign of the half-Moon in Wattling-Street near St. Austins Gate 1651. To my beloved Sister Mrs. Chamberlan the Widow Dear Sister AS men usually Dedicate their works to their best beloved or most respected friend so I Dedicate this Treatise unto you who after God have ever been the object of my dearest love and best respects Be pleased then to peruse the same for you will finde comfort in it if you oppose or apply as Antidotes to the passions of Sorrow Way-wardness and Fear incident to old age the passions of Love Hope and Vndauntedness for the love of God will wâ—an your affections from the vanities of this life and give them wings to soar up to heaven to six themselves upon that infinite object of all perfection God himself Psalâ— 6.11 In whose presence is fulness of joy and at his right hand pleasures for evermore Secondly the Christian hope you have to be made by the merits of Christ co-heir with him of the Kingdom of Glory will expel all the sorrows way wardness and discontents proceeding from the crosses and afflictions you are subject unto in this life Lastly your Christian fortitude or undauntedness will annihilate as the beams of the Sun doth the morning dew the fears which may perplex your mind by the apprehension of the dart of death and will make you say with confidence at your departure out of this vayl of Tears Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy Victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And so being confident you will accept this small evidence of my love with the same affection it is presented unto you I commend you to the Lords protection desiring to remaine Dear Sister Your loving Brother David Papillon From London June 1. 1651. To the Reader IF this saying Know thy self were written in mens hearts as it was engraven over the door of the Temple of Apollo at Delphos they would be more careful to regulate their passions for when mens passions are distempered it is impossible for them to know themselves And that is the reason why so many Learned men have lately written upon the use and moderation of mens passions And specially Senault a most Elegant and learned French Author And although his works have lately been translated into English by the Noble Earl of Monmouth yet because they are fitter for Schollers then for the illiterate I have thought it convenient to publish this Treatise for the benefit of meaner capacities In which I have joyned the Scripture-evidences with the principles of Morality For a good education with an habit in the precepts of Morality without the sanctifying graces of the blessed Spirit are not sufficient to regulate the intellectual distempers of mens passions because moral precepts and a good education penetrates no further then the bark and moderates only the distempers of 〈◊〉 â—utward man but a justifying Faith and the grace of sanctification its inseparable companion doth moderate the distempers of the intellectual faculties of the soul as well as those of the corporeal members I mean that by a good education and the principles of Morality a man may attain to a corporeal continency but never to an Intellectual Chastity without the graces of the sanctifying Spirit Therefore such as desire to obtain the mastery over the intellectual and corporeal distempers of their passions are to endevor to attain by fervent prayers from God the graces of the sanctifying Spirit as well as an habite in the Principles of Morality Otherwise they will never obtain the mastery over their passions to make them subordinate to the rules prescribed in the word of God And whereas Senault maintains that men have a Free will to do good or evil and gives over much power to the Principles of Morality I say we have no Free-will to do good except it be given us by the Free grace of God and that the Principles of true Christianity have more power to make men obtain the mastery over their passions then the Principles of Morality can have Be pleased then to accept of these Essays of mine with the same affection as I present them unto you and to account me as really I am Your humble servant in Christ D. Papillon From London June 1. 1651. Errata PAg. 22. l. 1. r. he outbraded him p. 26. l. 15. r. Crown p. 28. l. 1. r. concussion p. 43. l. 1. of Chap. 4. r. there are also p. 132. l 16. r. He that looketh upon a woman p. 135. l. 13. leave out the word all p. 140. l. 12. r. Crassus p. 182 l. 2. r. Charls the eighth p. 193. l. 3. r. July-flowers p. 194. l. 1. r. these p. ibid. l. 14. r. curb p. 205. l. 23. r. Marquis d'Ancre p. 244. l. 15. r. as conceiving the same p. 246. l. 16. r. say they p. 231. l. 3. r. precise p. 236. l. 17. r. these are p. 361. l. 25. r. are rather worse p. 379. l 9. r. induceth men The Contents Chap. 1. The vanity of the lives of Men. Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The vanity of worldly Honors p. 19. Chap. 3. The vanity of worldly Riches p. 43. Chap. 4. The vanity of worldly Pleasures p. 65. Chap. 5. The vanity of mens passions in general p. 81. Chap. 6. The vanity of the passion of Love p. 97. Chap. 7. The vanity of the passion of Hatred p. 115. Chap. 8. The vanity of the passion of Desire p. 131. Chap. 9. The vanity of the passion of Flight p. 147. Chap. 10. The vanity of the passion of worldly Joy p. 162. Chap. 11. The vanity of the passion of worldly Sorrow p. 179. Chap. 12. The vanity of the passion of worldly Hope p. 197. Chap. 13. The vanity of the passion of Despair p. 219. Chap. 14. The vanity of the passion of Vndauntedness p. 241. Chap. 15. The vanity of the passion of Fear p. 261. Chap. 16. The vanity of the passion of Wrath. p. 280. Chap. 17. The vanity of the passion of Volupty p. 299. Chap. 18. The vanity of the passion of Avarice p. 347. Chap. 19. The vanity of the passion of Ambition p. 372. Chap. 20. The vanity of the passion of Envie p. 401. CHAP. I. Of the vanity of the lives of Men. IF the end be the crown of the work the creating of man was the crown of the creation for after God had made man after his own a Gen. 1.27 Image and had infused into him a living soul he rested b Gen. 2.2 on the seventh day from all his works and this ingrateful man who
The enjoyment of their delights and pleasures These three fading and vanishing things are the most common causes of mens fears The remedies against these are First to consider that there are not many noble called 1 Cor. 1.26.28 and that the things which are most despised God hath chosen Prov. 23.5 Secondly That riches certainly make themselves wings they flie away as an Eagle towards heaven Thirdly That pleasures are of no continuance and leave a sting in the conscience at their departure Eccles 2.11 and are but meer vanity and vexation of Spirit Fourthly Men fear Poverty and to prevent the same addict themselves for the greater part to unlawful courses of gain remembring not this wise saying of Solomon Prov. 28 2â— He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent Poverty is no Vice and yet men abhor Poverty more then any Vice nay more then Sin the worst of evils The remedy against Poverty is Contentedness for many beleeve they are poor when they are rich and many think themselves rich when they are poor As Christ said to the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans Because thou sayest I am rich Revel 3.14 and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked Contentedness is a gift and grace of God for if men be never so rich and want that grace they are but poor and miserable and like Cormorants that can never be satisfied This Fear also proceeds from Distrust and the remedy of it is to relie upon Gods providence and on this precept and promise of our blessed Saviour Which of you by taking thought Matth. 6.27 28 29 31 33. can adde one cubit unto his stature and why take ye thought for rayment Consider the Lillies of the field how they grow they toyl not neither do they spin And yet I say unto you That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these And in the 31 33. Verses Therefore take no thought saying What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewith shall we be clothed But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Fifthly Men fear to lose their wives women their husbands Parents their children and children their Parents and one friend another But this Fear proceeds from the want they conceive they will have of their help and assistance The remedy to this Fear is this consideration That all men are mortal and that all are of the dust Eccles 3.20 and all turn to dust again And let not Christians have less constancy then a Heathen to whom tidings being brought Plutarch in his Morals that his onely son was dead he answered I knew he was not begotten to be immortal and to utterly root out this Fear which proceeds from the distrust of the want of their ayd or assistance let men have always in their minde Rom. 8.28 this saying of Saint Paul All things work together for good to them that love God Sixthly Men fear persecutions tribulations and afflictions This Fear proceeds from the infirmity of the flesh and from the pusillanimity of mens mindes and from an antipathy of nature who abhorreth Anguish and Dolor The remedy of this Fear is Fortitude and an undanted Courage with this assurance That by tribulations and crosses God is pleased oftentimes to call his children to repentance and make them more fervent and zealous in the ways of Righteousness As the Prophet David saith Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy word Seventhly Men fear banishment and long imprisonments This Fear also proceeds from want of a Masculine courage for a Heathen could say when he was banished Plutarch in his Morals That the whole world was his Native Countrey The onely remedy against this Fear is Patience and as the prison doth retain mens bodies so it may if they make good use of their banishment and imprisonment refrain them from sin and increase their Moral vertues and Spiritual Graces Acts 16.25 Paul and Silas prayed and sung Psalms and praised God in prison And Sir Walter Rawleigh and La Nove have made themselves famous by the learned Works they have written in prison See Plutarch in their lives And Solon and Cicero did improve their learning and Moral vertues in their exile or banishment Eightly Men fear lingring and tedious Diseases as the Consumption of the Lungs the Hectick Fever and the wasting of the Liver But this Fear proceeds from their natural infirmitie that is impatient of pain for lingring Diseases prepare men for repentance whereas sudden diseases deprive them oftentimes of that Grace The remedy against this Fear is to seek to the Lord before men seek after the Physitians for the issues of life and death are in his hands Ezekiah 2 Kings 20.2 6 7. King of Judah was soon cured of his Mortal disease because he called and prayed unto the Lord with an unfeigned sincerity of heart Ninthly Men fear to fall into a decrepit age A vain and ridiculous Fear sith the oldest man alive doth commonly hope and desire to live a yeer longer It is true that if decrepit age and poverty do meet it may be called The Misery of Miseries for besides the many infirmities that are incident to decrepit age the waywardness common to it is the most insupportable for it maketh all things distastful unto them and being deprived by Poverty of all worldly comforts this aggravates far more the misery of decrepit age The remedy of it is to attend with patience the time appointed by the Lord of the separation of the body and soul and to say with old Simeon Luke 2 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Tenthly and lastly Men are afraid of death and especially the wicked because it deprives them of their honors riches and pleasures the injoyment of which is their Paradise upon Earth and ferries them over to the eternal woes But death is welcom to the children of God for they account death as their deliverer who frees them from the continual miseries and afflictions of this world who are commonly their portion in this life for they are assured that the sting of death hath been taken away and that the redemption of their sins hath been purchased at a dear rate viz. By the sheding of the precious blood of the onely Son of God our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ And therefore defie death and say to her face O death where is thy sting 1 Cor. 15.55 O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Fourthly The Effects of this Passion of Fear are of
yet divers instances may be produced to prove That Avarice doth change into Ambition in mens declining age Martius Crassus p See Plutarch in his life had by a sordid kinde of Avarice attained to the greatest riches of any that we read of and yet out of Envy that he bore to the warlike atchievements of Pompeius and Caesar such an insatiable Ambition or desire of honor possessed him in his declining age That at threescore and three yeers of age he gave away half his estate to the common people of Rome to obtain a general Commission to be Commander in chief of the Roman Legions that were appointed to make war in the furthest parts of Armenia against the Parthians Which insatiable and unseasonable Ambition of his was ingeniously reproved by an old Armenian Knight of whom he did desire to be informed of the condition and distance of the way he was to undergo and power he was to oppose in this Parthian journy saying unto him That it was too great for him to undertake the same in his declining age and that the morning Sun of his age had been fitter for such an enterprise then the setting of it And had Crassus been ruled by this wholesom Counsel he had not by his insatiable desire of honor faln from the highest degree of worldly prosperity to the lowest degree of humane disgrace and misery as he did for by this rash enterprise he was the cause of his own death and of his eldest sons and of the lives of a great part of the bravest Nobility of Rome and of the rout and utter overthrow of his whole Army This is to prove That men in their declining age are fitter for Counsel then for Action and that is the reason that the Roman Senate the Counsel of Areopage and the Senate of Venice have been and are composed of men much advanced in their declining age because their Passions are commonly more moderate their Experience greater their Judgment more solid and their Counsels safer then of those who are in the youth or virility of their age for as Job saith With the ancient should be wisdom and in length of yeers understanding q Job 12.12 Contrarily there have been others in whom the desire of honor hath raigned in their youth and virility as their Noble Martial atchievements do witness who have changed this Ambitious Passion into the Sordid Passion of Avarice in their declining age As may appear by the lives of Vespasiaanus r See Dion and the English and the French Histories of Henry the seventh King of England and of Henry the fourth King of France Howsoever the desire of Wine of Money and the malicious Passion of Envy is more natural and doth commonly increase with age as much as rash Temerity and carnal Delights do diminish by age whereby I conclude That the declining age of men is not free from Vanity For what greater Vanity can there be then to Envy at another mans prosperity or to desire Wine when our head-piece is so weakened by age that it cannot overcome the vapors of it or to desire Money when we have less need of it sith we daily expect to be carried to our Graves Sixthly and Lastly The decrepit age of men begins at seventy and ends when Death strikes them with her Dart which is according to the course of life between fourscore or fourscore and ten For none attains to the days of Methuselah Å¿ Gen. 6.26 or of the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Jacob for God hath shortened the days of men because of their transgressions as it appears Gen. 7.3 My Spirit saith the Lord shall not alwayes strive with man for he also is flesh yet his dayes shall be an hundred and twenty years and the oldest man that hath been known in this age of the world was a Shropshire Husbandman that was brought up to London as a wonder in the days of King James who was said to be one hundred and thirtie three years of age and this long life of his according to the opinion of the learned Physitians did proceed from the simplicity of his meate and drink for as soon as he came to be fed with the dainties of the Court he came to be diseased and suddenly departed this life Plinius and other Naturalists have much troubled themselves to finde out the naturall reasons why mens lives are so short the best reason they give for it is their immoderate diet and the variety of dainties and change of superfluous meats cooked with art inticing men to gluttony and drunkenness for daily experience doth shew that those who live soberly and live upon simple food avoiding slowth and idleness do live commonly longer then such as feed on dainties and use a sedentary life but the chief cause of it is that men do daily increase in sin and it is just with God for the punishment of their sins to shorten their lives sith as the Apostle Paul saith t Rom. 6.23 That the wages of sin is death howsoever the decrepit age of men except it be indowed with free grace and sanctified by the blessed Spirit of God it is the vanity of vanities and the misery of all miseries for the numerous infirmities incident to it and especially if penury doth accompany the same for old age with penury is the greatest affliction that can befal to generous spirits and the greatest tentation of Satan to intice men to despair for if rich men who have all manner of comforts cannot with patience support the infirmities of a decrepit age but murmure as some have done in my hearing that they were weary of their lives of what distemper must the poor aged people be who have no worldly comforts at all but are ready to starve for cold and to famish for want of food therefore tender and compassionated Christians should exercise their charity upon these objects of unparalleld misery as the most acceptable sacrifice they can offer to God and yet all the hearts of most men are so hardened by a just Judgment of God upon this Nation for its transgressions that they can look upon these dying objects of compassion whoperish daily in the streets without pity or reluctation Now for a conclusion and confirmation of the vanity and misery incident to the life of men I will make a short relation of the Maladies incident to every one of the ages of their lives first in their very conception they may be extinguished by ill sents and vapours and by divers accidents of bruises or falls secondly in their infancy by the squincy convulsions measles or the smal pox thirdly in their adolescency by the sword the pleuresie and burning feavers fourthly in their virility by sanguin apoplexies bloudy-flixes and consumptions fifthly in their declining age by the stone and the gout by dropsies paralepsies and flegmtick apoplexies and in the decrepit age by gouts aches cough the retentions of urine the strangullion poverty cold and
conceive them to be the cause of all the burden that are laid upon their backs I mean Lones Subsidies Taxes and Monopolies fifthly The wicked are addicted to Hatred 1 Cor. 4.13 for they hate implacably the Just and the Righteous and hold them as the off-scouring of all things Fifthly the nature and effects of Hatred in the unregenerate are nothing else but murders ruine and desolation first Hatred provoked f Gen. 4.8 Cain to kill his brother Abel and this hatred did proceed from Envie because his sacrifice was rejected of the Lord and the sacrifice of his brother was accepted secondly Hatred provoked Simeon and Levy g Gen. 34.25 26. to murder under the vail of Religion all the Shechemites and to plunder their City thirdly Hatred and the desire of Vengeance provoked h 2. Sam. 13.29 Absolom to murder under colour of friendship and hospitality his brother Amnon at a banquet as he set at table fourthly It was Hatred that provoked men to invent all maner of Weapons to destroy themselves and the devillish Art of making Canons Gunpowder Muskets Calivers Carabines and Pistols whereby the most valiant are as soon slain as the greatest cowards fifthly It was Hatred that provoked men to dive into the bowels of the earth to finde out Mines of Silver and Gold whereby they might execute their hatred spleen and malice and set all the world together by the ears sixthly Hatred hath given men an habit in all maner of impiety who have left by it their natural humanity and are become devouring Lyons and Tigers Nay when open violence cannot serve to execute their hatred they have an art to poyson men in their meat and drink by the smelling of a pair of gloves The Queen of Navarr was poysoned by the smell of a pair of Gloves by the putting on of a shirt or by the drawing off a pair of Boots nay by the very taking of a man by the hand under colour of curtesie as the Genovais Admiral did to the Venetians Admiral after he had been overcome by him at sea In a word Hatred hath been the projector of all the horrid actions of men for it is a passion that deprives men of all Reason Judgment and hath bin the cause of all the woes of men for by the hatred of Satan was our first mother Eve i Gen. 3.6 deluded and by her charms she deluded Adam her husband and so by their transgression sin is come into the world and sin like a contagious disease hath infected the whole race of mankinde Moreover Hatred is of a permanent nature for it is not like Envie or Wrath for Envy declines according as the prosperity of its object doth diminish and Wrath vanisheth into smoak if its fury may have some vent or it may be mitigated For a soft answer turneth away wrath saith Salomon k Pro. 15.1 but Hatred continues from generation to generation and death it self cannot extinguish Hatred Amilcar father to Hanibal out of an inveterate hatred he bore to the Roman Commonwealth See Livius Plutarch made Hanibal to take an Oath a little before his death that he should be to the end of his life a mortal enemy to the Romans and the hatred that Henry the seventh King of England bore to the House of York induced him to make his son Henry the eight to swear as he was upon his bed of death that after his decease that he would cause the Duke of Suffolks head to be cut off that was then his prisoner in the Tower of London as being the last apparent hair of the House of York an Unchristian part saith Montagnes See Montagnes Essais for a Prince to have his heart filled with hatred at his departure out of this world Nay the unparallel'd hatred that was between the two brethren Eteocles and Polinices could not be extinguished after their death for after they had slain one another in a Duel See Garnier in the Tragedy of Antigone or single Combat their bodies being brought together to be burned the fire by an admirable antipathy did cleave of it self into two parts and so divided their bodies that their ashes might not be mixed together and the inveterate hatred that was between the Guelfs and Gibbelins See Guiechardine in the wars of Italy Paulus Jovius in his Tragical Relations did continue from one generation to another But Paulus Jovius relates the most unheard of cruelty proceeding from an inveterated hatred that ever was read of Two Italians having had some bickerings together such a hatred was bred in their hearts that one of them having got his enemie at an advantage made him by threats deny his Saviour promising to save his life if he did it but he had no sooner by imprecations impiously denied him but the other stabbed him through the heart with his Ponyard saying The death of thy body had not been an object worthy of my hatred and vindication except I had also procured the eternal death of thy soul An horrid and unparrallel'd cruelty and a matchless effect of hatred Sixthly Having thus described the evil nature and effects of Hatred I will now come to the use that Christians should make of it I remember to have said in the beginning of this Chapter that this passion of Hatred had not been given to men to abuse it as they do but rather to eschew sin the greatest evil upon earth and that being used as an aversion to fly from sin it would serve for a strong motive to the propagations of a godly life for sin should be the onely object of mens hatred as the efficient cause of all their miseries and why our blessed Saviour out of his tender compassions towards his Elect was willing to suffer the ignominous death of the Cross Matth. 27.35 to redeem them from the guilt and punishment of sin which was eternal death And men cannot by any other means shew themselves grateful and to be sensible of this incompre hensible love of Christ then by having an inveterate hatred against sin and to detest and abhor with all their hearts all sinful courses sith sin is the onely separation wall that bars them from having an intimate and loving familiarity with God for the hatred of sin is the first step to attain to the love of God and without the love of God a true faith in Christ and unfained hatred of sin there is no possibility of salvation hatred against sin being the chiefest ingredient required in a true Repentance and how can men love God that hate their brethren and therefore the blessed Spirit in holy Writ doth so often exhort men to avoid all hatred except it be against sin He that l Ioh 3 14. 1 Ioh. 3.15 loveth not his brother saith St. John abideth in death and whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know no murderer hath eternal life Men must then love God and
and have not the grace to make use of them but famish themselves in the midst of their treasures whereas they might above all other do good to their native Countrey relieve the poor and abound in works of charity whereby it is commonly seen that riches are as a stumbling block to the ways of righteousness and it is confirmed by these words of our Saviour f Mat. 19.23 A rich man shall hardly enter in the kingdom of heaven for rich men are for the greater part so besotted with their riches that their gold and silver is their Idol to whom they sacrifice morning and evening nay day and night the best of their cogitations and thoughts and rather then they will part from them will hazard the salvation of their souls as it may appear by the carriage of the young man spoken of in the Gospel for when our Saviour said unto him g Luke 18.22 23. Go and sell all that thou hast and distribute the same unto the poor and thou shalt have a treasure in heaven and come and follow me he went away saith the Text very sorrowful because he was very rich for their hearts be so glued to the things of this world and their mindes so taken up with carking cares to increase or preserve their riches that they have no time to attend carefully upon the hearing of the Word of God and suppose they frequent as other men do the publique exercises yet their mindes are so bent upon their worldly affairs that they are not attentive to the Word and do not apply it to themselves and so neglect to make their calling and election sure And for Charitie daily experience doth shew that the greater part of them are inferior to others in that excellent grace for they above all others are full of malice envy and vindication and will upon the least offence or unadvised word undo poor men by tedious suits at law to vindicate themselves presumption and pride being as a natural habit to rich men and these are the greatest Antagonists to charity and for their charity towards the poor they are also generally more close-fisted then the middle sort of men for charity is not to be valued by the gift a man that giveth six pence a week to the poor may be more charitable then another that gives five shillings a weeke because that six pence may be more according to the Arithmeticall proportion to his estate then five shillings is to the wealth of a rich man and that was the reason that the two mites that the poor h Mark 12.42 widow did cast into the Treasury was more esteemed of our Saviour then the great gifts that the rich Pharisees did cast in because she gave even all she had and they gave but a small part of their abundance and many of them are so hard-hearted and deprived of all pity compassion and mercy that like the rich Glutton they will suffer the poor Lazarus to famish at their doors rather then they will allow them the crums that fall i Allusion upon Luke 16.21.25 from their tables but it will be said unto them one day Sons remember that in your life time you received your good things and the poor Lazarus evil things but now they are comforted and you are tormented It cannot be denied but there are divers monuments abroad of the Christian charity of many rich Citizens of London but to erect Alms-Houses and Hospitals with ill-gotten goods tending more to Ostentation then to true Charity is an abomination to the Lord and Selymus Emperor of the Turks and one of the greatest tyrants that ever was made conscience of it for k See the Turkish History in Selymus Life Pyrrhus his grand Visier perswading him upon his bed of death to erect a stately Mosque of the moneys that should proceed from the Persian Merchants goods that he had most unjustly confiscated he answered No Pyrrhus this would be an abomination to God and to our great Prophet Mahomet to build a Church and an Hospital with the moneys proceeding from goods that are not justly my own but rather I charge thee they be suddenly restored to their right owners and to rob Peter to give to Paul as many do is a meer impiety rather then charity Can men be so grosly deluded by Satan as to think that it is a satisfactory restitution to erect a sorry Alms-House or Hospital or a Free-School for the relief of the poor and for the education of poor Scholars after they have undone many by Usury Rapines and Oppressions No the restitution to be acceptable to God must be made to the very same parties they have wronged and oppressed or at least to their heires and like Zacheus say l Luke 19.8 Behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore him four fold Mr. Sutton after he had undone by Usury and Forfeitures of Bonds and Morgages many Gentlemen out of a remorse of conscience erected Charter-House Hospital for relief of decaied Gentlemen but it had been a better restitution if he had distributed the moneys it cost among the children of those he had oppressed yet few there are in these days so conscientious as he for they wil make no restitution at all neither in their life time nor after their death True Charity proceeds from a feeling compassion of our poor brethrens present misery and therefore men that are close-fisted to the poor in their life time and great benefactors at their death cannot be accounted true charitable men for they part from their money when they can make no more use of it and by consequence this charity savors more of Ostentation then of true Piety The Magnificence and Christian Charity of Sir Thomas Gressam is then to be commended for as another m Pericles did adorne the City of Athens with stately structures See Plutarch and Thucidides Pericles he did in his life time erect the Royall Exchange for the ornament of the City of London and Gressam Colledg for the propagation of Learning and many Almes-Houses for the relief of the poor and so shewed himself a wise and faithful Steward of those riches that the Lord was pleased to intrust him withall and certainly rich men that do not dispense of their riches after this maner specially if they have no children as he had none without the speciall mercy of God and an unfained and timely repentance they will be cut asunder and have their portion with the unbelievers for it is rather a curse then a blessing to be rich and have not the grace to make use of our riches which is confirmed by this saying of Salomon n Eccles 6.12 There is an evil saith he which I have seen under the Sun and it is common among men A man to whom God hath given riches wealth and honors so that he wanteth nothing for
c 2 Sam. 15.6 stole the hearts of the people of Israel from his father Divers other qualities might be produced which abstract Love from others but these shall serve for this time Sixthly The effects of Love are either Good or Bad according to the end of it for if the end of mens Love be Good the effects of it are always comfortable but if the end of their Love is to satisfie their lust it is always destructive and fatall and so proved the love of d Gen. 34.2 Sechem to Dinah and the love e 2 Sam. 13.14 28. Homers Illiades Livius Decade 1. lib. 2. of Amnon to his sister Tamar and the rape of Helen by Paris was the cause of the ruine of Troy the Rape of Lucretia by Tarquinus was the cause that Rome from a Monarchy fell into a Democracy the violence committed by the f Judg. 19.25 Gibeathites to the Levit's Concubine was the cause of the death of fourty thousand Israelites and almost of the utter ruine of the whole Tribe of Benjamin and the love of Antonius to Cleopatra was the cause of their lamentable end but sith a volume would not contain all the examples that might be produced of the evil effects of lust varnished over with the name of Love I will now speak of the effects of true Love first See Plutarch in the two young Graccus lives The love of Tiberius Graccus towards his vertuous wife Cornelia was such as he slew the male Serpeut and spared the femall on purpose that he might save her life by the loss of his own secondly The love of Antonio Perez's wife to him was such as she ventured her own life to save his See the Spainsh History in the raign of Philip the second thirdly The love of Portia daughter to famous Cato and wife to Martius Brutus was so vehement and passionate that being informed of his death at the battell of Philippi See Bâ—utus life in Appian she smothered her self by casting a handful of burning coles into her mouth fourthly The love of Artemisa Queen of Caria towards her beloved husband Mausolus was so violent that being dead See Plutarchs Morals it could not suffer his body to have any other grave then her own bowels for she caused the same to be burned and drank a portion of his ashes at every meal in commemoration of their constant love See the Italian History fifthly The love of an Italian Gentleman to his betrothed Mistress is to be commended for hearing she had been taken at sea by some Pirats of Tunis and sold for a Slave he went over into Africa and redeemed her with an incredible sum of money sixthly The incredible love and fidelity of Damon and Pythias two Sicilian Noble men is to be admired for Dionysius the Elder King or Tyrant of Syracuse having upon some jealousie of state caused Damon to be cast into prison and to be condemned to death Damon presented a petition unto him desiring to have leave for eight days to go into the Countrey to set his houshold in order See old Dionisius life promising to return Dionysius granted the same upon this condition that some other Noble man of his means and degree should bail him body for body and life for life and should remain in durance untill the day appointed for his return Pythias his intimate friend bailed him of his free accord and yeelds himself prisoner in Damons stead but the day being come and almost the hour appointed at hand and Damon not appearing Dionysius began to deride Pythias for his credulity of the constancy of his friend yet before the hour went out Damon came in and presented himself to the King desiring his friend might be discharged at whose love fidelity and constancy Dionysius was so astonished that he set them both at liberty and required to be accepted for the third of their society yet all these admirable effects of Love are as much inferior to the Love of God towards man as the finite is inferior to the infinite as it will appear by the insuing Discourse Seventhly The Love of God towards men is altogether incomprehensible as it will appear by these expressions of the blessed Spirit For God saith St. Iohn g Ioh. 3.6 so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life and Christ saith himself h Ioh. 10.10 That he is the good Shepherd who hath given his life for his sheep And St. Iohn saith i 1 Ioh 4 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Beloved let us love one another for love cometh of God and every man that loveth is born of God he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another no man hath seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world These words of St. Iohn and divers others to the later end of this Chapter do confirm the Point that Gods Love is the Adamant stone that draweth our love to him and that we cannot of our selves love him before he be pleased to love us Eighthly As for the love of man towards God it comes infinitely short of Gods love towards them for if any love God it is a gift of his free grace and God hath loved his elect before the creation of the world and St. Paul a Rom. 9.13 doth give us a clear instance for it Rom. 9.13 For God saith he loved Jacob and hated Esau from their mothers womb and the heart of b 1 Sam. 13.14 David was framed after Gods own heart and that is the reason why this holy man hath such rare expressions in his Psalms of his unfained love towards God And to confirm the choise and election of Gods faithful ones we have divers instances of it in his Word for Moses c Numb 16.5 was a chosen servant of the Lord as it appears by these words Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him And Aaron d Deut. 18.5 was a chosen servant of the Lord as appears Deut. 18.5 And Cyrus King of Persia e Isai 44.28 was a chosen servant of the Lord to execute his will as it appears Isai 44.28 And St. Paul f Act. 9.15 was a chosen vessel of the Lord as it appears Act 9.15 But
or if this motion be over-fierce and violent it doth extinguish their life as the snuff of a Candle goeth out when it hath no more tallow to sustain its light Now the heart who is the efficient cause of life being thus deprived of heat loseth its motion upon which depends the life of men for the beating of the heart gives life and motion to all the members of the body and is congealed and frozen to death by this sudden motion and privation as water is congealed into Ice by a great frost and this may be confirmed by another violent action of men of which many are yet living that were eye-witnesses to it Two English Foot-men running a race for a great wager from London to Kingston did by their swift and violent running so drive their blood and vital spirits from the heart to the extreamest parts of their bodies that their faces looked as black as their hats one of them obtained the victory and out-ran the other about twenty yards and being joyful of his gain and honor presumed over-much of his strength and did not use the means to preserve himself as the other did who was much more distempered then he whereby his blood and vital spirits in stead of returning to the heart were congealed in the extream parts of his body by taking cold which did deprive him of life within few hours after but the other putting on his apparel and covering himself with a warm cloak prayed two of his fellows to walk him up and down till his blood and vital spirits were setled again about his heart A remarkable Relation and by this means he was as well the next morning as ever he was before now the motion of the blood being more violent by the inward distemper of the fiery passion of Joy then it can be by the motion of a long-continued race it must by consequence be more dangerous and mortal then the other thirdly As the immoderate Joy hath dangerous proprieties the moderate joy hath many good for moderate joy preserves and increaseth the health of the body fourthly It giveth a seemly and loving aspect and a fresh colour to the face fifthly It makes mens company and conversation more pleasant and acceptable to all other men sixthly It makes men more chearful in their particular and general calling and pass their days through this vale of Tears with more alacrity and content Fourthly The effects of immoderate Joy would be incredible The effects of immoderate joy See Livius in his third Decade li. 3. if they had not been recorded by approved and faithful Authors first A Roman Lady saith Livius died with joy at the sight of her son whom she conceived to have been slain at the battell of Cannae secondly The Author of the Turkish History Records See the Turkish History in the life of Achmath that Sinna Basha had but one son of great valour who was taken prisoner in a sea fight by a Venetian Galley whereupon tidings were brought to Sinna his father that he had been slain in that fight because he had been wounded but by the care of the Captain of the Galley who hoped to receive a great ransom for him he did recover and his wounds were cured and it hapned some days after before the Venetian Galley could carry him to shore that it was taken at sea by Cicala Basha a great friend of the above-said Sinnae who finding this prisoner of note in the Venetian Galley was exceedingly joyful as knowing how grateful a present it would be to his friend and therefore after he had apparelled him with rich vestures he sent him in a well-appointed Galley and with an honorable train to his father Sinna that had lately been made grand Visier by Achmath Emperor of the Turks who was then at Caffa upon the black sea but this yong man was no sooner come into his sight but Sinna transported with joy fell dead at his sons feet whereby it appears that he who had the power to bear with admirable constancy the tidings of the death of his onely son had not the power to moderate the joy that he did receive by his unexpected return thirdly Theophrastus Boujou records the names and means of a dozen more at least who have died suddenly by the violent distemper of immoderate joy some by honors received others for seeing their mortal enemy ly wallowing in his own blood See Boujou in his Commentary upon Aristotle lib. 19. ca. 39. fol. 835. ready to give up the Ghost and others by looking upon Pictures which by their ugly features inforced them to such an immoderate laughter as it did deprive them of life others for being victorious in the Olympian Sports and others in the field as it is recorded of Epamonides and of the Duke of Roan who died rather for joy of two great victories obtained against their enemies in two pitcht battels then by their wounds Fifthly The bad and good use of this passion of Joy doth onely consist in the not regulating or in the regulating of it for if Joy be let in to the soul by degrees the sting and venom of it is changed into an Antidote and doth rather comfort Nature then destroy it for as it is dangerous to open the Floud-gates of a river suddenly The bad and good use of worldly joy and all at once for fear the violence of the water break down the banks and pull up the foundation of the sluce even so it is dangerous to let in into the soul all at once the swift currant of good or evil tidings therefore if Cicala Basha had only at the first sent word to the Visier Sinna that he had happily rescued his son and that as soon as his wounds should be cured he would send him back unto him in an honorable condition this had undoubtedly prevented the death of this old man but the sudden and unexpected sight of his son whom he thought to have been dead caused so violent a perturbation in his minde and so great an alteration in the vital faculties of his body that his natural strength being then in his declining age was overcome with it and his life utterly extinguished as the light of a candle is by a violent blast of winde But the Duke of Medina Coeli who was General for Philip the second King of Spain See the Spanish History in Philip the seconds life of the invincible Armado as they termed it that came against England in the Year 1588. did deal more prudently with his Prince for his ship being the first that arrived into Spain after the utter rout of this great Navy he sent a discreet Messenger unto him to inform him that some part of his Navy had miscarried by foul weather and that himself had been driven back by a storm and eight days after he sent another messenger to the King informing him of the particulars and some days after came in person to give him
for Lovers Ambitious and Covetous men are cast into strange fits of Melancholy and sorrow if they be deprived of their Love or of the honors and riches they aim at secondly The carking cares that men usually take to increase their means or to preserve their lives and estates is a cause of their sorrow thirdly The fear that many men have to fall into penury is a common cause of their sorrow fourthly The losses of mens goods fame or reputation is a cause of their sorrow because they want the grace of patience and cannot say with Iob Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord nor with the Prophet David I will wash my hands in innocency Psal 26.6 fifthly The loss of Parents Wife Children or intimate Friends is often times the cause of mens sorrow for want of the rememoration of this saying of Salomon Eccles 3.20 All are of the dust and all shall return to dust again sixthly the vain apprehensions that man have of the evil to come is the cause of their sorrow because they rely not upon this gracious promise All things work together for good to them that love God seventhly Rom 8.28 The want of courage in men is the cause of their sorrow because like faint hearted Pilots they give over the Helme of the Ship in a storm I mean the Helme of their Reason whereby they might regulate the distempers of this passion of Sorrow eightly The fears that possess men for the punishment of their sins is a cause of their sorrow whereas they should fear and grieve for the guilt of sin to attain to that spiritual Sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation The Natural causes of the Dolour and Anguish of the body may be these first Long and tedious diseases The natural causes of the Dolour and Anguish of the body as the Stone in the Kidneys or Bladder the Gravel the Strangullion the Gout the Cough and consumption of the Lungs or the Hectick Feaver for all these in continuance of time by the secret communion that the senses have with the sensitive power of the soul do beget in the minde grief and sorrow besides the Dolour and Anguish of the body secondly The Adust or burnt Choler or Bilis gathered in the Mesentery veines which sendeth virulent vapors up into the braine is a natural cause of much sorrow 4. The accidental causes of sorrow The accidentall causes may be these first when men themselves or their Parents Children or intimate Friends do accidentally come to their end by sea or by land as to be murdered upon a Rode or cast away at sea or taken captive by Pyrats or slain by a fall from a horse or lamed by some other accident all these things are causes of sorrow and grief yet none of these natural or accidental causes are or should be sufficient to breed sorrow to mens minde sith nothing happens casually or accidentally but is guided by the hand of the divine Providence to whose blessed will men are obliged to submit themselves and our blessed Saviour doth assure us that the meanest Sparrow or an hair of our head doth not fall to the ground without the permission of our heavenly Father Fourthly The nature and effects of Sorrow are directly contrary to the nature and to the effects of Joy first The nature of Joy is to dilate and spread the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it into the utmost parts of the members of the body but Sorrow being of a cold and dry nature draws the blood and vital spirits from the utmost parts of the body towards the heart to comfort the same secondly Joy is hot and active and by its sudden motion indangers the life of men The natur and the effects of Anguish Grief and Sorrow but Sorrow is cold and slow and comes upon men with leaden feet and never causeth death but by long continuance and lingering diseases except it cast men into despair as it doth oftentimes as it will be shown in the effects of it thirdly Joy is proper and pleasant to Nature and rejoyceth the heart and makes men chearful in their Calling both private and general but Sorrow is adverse and distasteful to Nature and makes men slow and stupid in their particular and general calling fourthly Joy preserveth and increaseth health and lengtheneth mens days and makes them pass their lives with mirth and content but Sorrow impairs mens health and shortens their days and makes their lives to be tedious and irksome In a word moderate Joy is comfort to man and excessive Sorrow is the bane of man And the effects of worldly Sorrow are as bad or rather worse first Sorrow makes men flee the society of men nay the very light of the Sun and all things that may rejoyce and comfort Nature the sight of their dearest friends nay of their wife and children is irksome to men that are possessed with excessive sorrow secondly See the Acts and Monuments or Book of Martyrs If mens Sorrow proceeds from mens Apostacy in Religion it doth commonly cast them into despaire and inflicts upon them in this life the very paines of hell as it doth appear in the life of Francisco Spira thirdly Sorrow tempts carnal men to be rid of it to desperate resolutions as to bereave themselves of life by hanging stabbing and drowning of themselves as it hath lately been seen in this City of London fourthly Sorrow makes men careless to make their calling and election sure and to neglect the means appointed by God for their salvation I mean the hearing of the Word with that attention as they should for their thoughts and cogitations are so fixed upon the object of their sorrow that they minde nothing else for this pernicious passion doth stupifie the most noble faculty of the soul as the Memory the Imagination and the Understanding Divers other effects might be produced but these will suffice to induce men to indeavor to eschew or regulate this dangerous and destructive passion Fifthly The Remedies against the venom of this passion are first Natural secondly Moral thirdly Spiritual The Natural are first to flee as far as men can from the object of their sorrow secondly If mens sorrow proceeds from Natural infirmities they are in the first place to call upon God and then use the Counsel of Physitians for they must not do as Ahaziah King of Israel did 2 Kings 1.2 who being faln from an upper Chamber thorow a Lattess sent to the God of Ekron to know whether he should recover of his disease as too many do in these days who send to Astronomers to know the events of things not to the Physitian 2 Chron. 16.12 as Asa King of Iuda did who being diseased in his feet sent to the Physitian before he had called upon the Lord by prayer for God is the Paramount Physitian and the God of Nature and
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
Moses was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharoahs daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the recompence of reward And were it not for this Spiritual Hope the true Christians should be more miserable then the profane nay more then the bruit beast for the portion of the children of God in this life is most commonly nothing but affliction grief and sorrow tribulations persecutions reproaches and ignominy whereas the wicked flourish in this world like green Bay trees Psal 37.39 and injoy all the delights and pleasures of this life because they make no conscience to sin but the true children of God hate and abhor sin and are conscious to commit the least sins therefore without this hope which doth uphold and comfort them their race through this vale of tears would be tedious and irksome unto them for as Salomon saith Hope deferred maketh the heart sick Prov. 13.12 but when the desire cometh it is the tree of life The first effect of spiritual Hope is that it breeds in the hearts of men such a fortitude and confidence that it expelleth all fears from their souls and makes them say with the Prophet David Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved secondly Hope engendreth joy in the hearts of the Elect and this joy is so constant and permanent that it never forsakes them in their greatest perplexities nay at the very hour of death when all worldly comforts forsake them this joy chears up their hearts and makes them say with the Prophet David Psal 16.9 10. My heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hel neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption thirdly Hope breeds patience and makes Christians suffer patiently the greatest torments that the cruellest tyrants can inflict upon them Rom. 5.3 4 5. For we glory saith S. Paul in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed in our hearts by the holy Ghost that is given us fourthly Hope gives life to all our Christian and religious Duties as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 9.10 He that ploweth should plow in Hope and he that thresheth in hope shall be partaker of his hope Hope is one of the best defensive Arms of a Christian to oppose the fiery darts and the temptations of Satan as the Apostle St. Paul saith Putting on the breast-plate of faith and love 1 Thes 5.8 and for an helmet the hope of salvation sixthly Hope is like a sure Anker to all afflicted Christians in the midst of the impetuous storms of persecution as the Apostle St. Paul saith Heb. 6.18.19 That by two immutable things in which it was impossibile for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us which hope we have as an Anker both sure and stedfast seventhly Hope doth mitigate and sweetens all kinde of afflictions that befall to the children of God in this life Colos 1.5 whether they be perplexities of the minde or anguishes of the body eighthly All such as confide and hope in Christ shall never be ashamed nor confounded c. CHAP. XIII Of the vanity of the passion of Despair NOthing can be more hateful and odious unto God who hath been pleased to create men after his own Image then when they distrust of his mercies and fall into despair for in the second of the first Table of his Commandments he doth exalt himself his Mercies above his Justice Deut. 5.9.10 in these words For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquitie of the father unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandements Yet the Stoicks the most presumptuous Sect of all the ancient Philosophers honor the passion of despair above all other passions for Seneca one of the greatest Champions of it doth exalt the criminal and abhorred act of Cato of Vtica who ripped up his own bowels with his own hands See Plutarch in the life of Cato because he would not be obliged to the clemency of Cesar for his life as the most heroical action that ever was acted See Tacitus in the life of Nero. And notwithstanding Seneca himself was strucken with a certain fear and horror when the messenger that was sent unto him from Nero told him that it was the Emperors pleasure that he should make choise of what manner of death he would for die he must whereupon seeing there was no other remedy he made as they say of necessity Vertue and commanded his servant to heat a Stove and caused his veines to be opened as he was in the Stews that he might depart this life with the lest torment and anguish that might be out of fear that his Stoick constancy should have failed him at his need That the Academick Sect was the best of all the Heathen Philosophers But the Academicks another Sect of the Heathen Philosophers maintain that it is rather a Pusillanimity then a true fortitude of courage for men to lay violent hands upon themselves to be free of the greatest evil that can befall them in this life and this opinion doth best agree with the principles of the Protestant Religion for he that doth with constancy and patience endure the greatest evils torments and anguishes of the body that can be inflicted upon him by the cruellest Tyrants That true constancy and fortitude is more visibly seen in the bearing of evils with patience then by laying violent hands upon our selves and the grief and sorrow of minde which may proceed from the shame reproaches and ignominy that is done by them to his person in the publick view of the world hath a far higher degree of fortitude and manly courrge then they who to prevent the foresaid evils torments and anguishes or shame and ignominy lay violent hands upon themselves because the longer the Dolour continues the greater is the constancy and fortitude of men that endure the same and it is daily seen that the pains of violent deaths are of no continuance And this was the reason why the Emperor Tiberius Nero See Tacitus in Tiberius life one of the most cruel Tyrants that ever lived upon earth did prolong the lives of those he most hated by keeping of them in dungeons with bread and water for many years together saying to his friends that desired to know the reason of it because they shall said he feel
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
drinking of it become worse then bruit Beasts because they deprive themselves of Judgment and Reason The Viper is naturally rank poyson and yet the Mithridate and other Antidotes against venoms are composed of it even so this passion of Fear is much abused and made worse then it is although it proceed from an evil spring I mean the weakness and infirmity of men yet God is pleased to make good use of it to convert sinners and to make them prosecute with greater fervency then they would otherwise do the ways of Righteousness Divers conceive Fear to be a Feminine passion and unworthy to be harbored in a Masculine Brest yet it maketh the proudest of men to be cautious and circumspect in their undertakings and clips the wings of their vain hopes and ambitious designes Tacitus saith See Tasitus in the life of Nero. That it serves as a curb to the licentious will of Princes and of all others that are in power and authority and for instance saith That as long as Agrippina the mother of the Emperor Nero lived of whom he stood in fear his actions were not so exorbitantly wicked as after her death but he having like a graceless son deprived her of life took free liberty to commit the greatest impieties that his heart could imagine And Joash King of Juda did the like for as long as Jehojada the high Priest lived whom he feared he seemed to love the Lord but soon after his death he gave himself over to Idolatry and cruelty for like an ungrateful wretch he caused Zechariah 2 Chro. 24.17 22. the son of Jehojada to be slain because he onely delivered unto him the message he had received from the Lord. Divers prefer Love before Fear but there cannot be any true Love without Fear Others say it is better to be feared then beloved but it is better to be equally loved and feared for men without Love endevor to be rid of the object of their Fears But if men be beloved and feared this composure keeps off all danger and begets security and obedience Neither can there be any filial obedience without Love for the obedience that proceeds from Fear is not free Prov. 1.7 and 20.2 but forced The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledg And the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul How much more should men be afraid to provoke Gods wrath by their sins and yet that is one of their least fears for they fear those things which they should not fear and fear not to sin which they should most fear But sith the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and of all saving knowledg which knowledg doth teach men to be afraid of sin which is the greatest evil Give me leave to inlarge my discourse upon these ensuing particulars that you may know to fear nothing but sin 1. On the definition of Fear 2. On the Nature of it 3. On the causes and remedies of mens fears 4. On the evil and good Effects of Fear 5. On the Spirtiual use of Fear The Moralists do vary in opinion Boujou in his Commentaries upon Aristotles Phâ—s lib. 16. cap. 6. concerning the definition of this Passion of Fear Fear saith one is a passion and apprehension of an evil that is to come but near at hand and looked for and unlikely to be avoided Fear saith another The Bishop of Marseille p. 408. is nothing else but a Grief and Dolor of the soul apprehending an evil at hand in which men see little probability it can be eschewed although it aims at the annihilation of their Being or to some dismal disgrace that threatneth their life or estate Yet it will appear by the nature the proprieties and effects of Fear that men are rather transported with Fears of imaginary Evils then of real and that mens fears do but rarely proceed from the annihilation of their Being However it is the fourth passion incident to the irrascible Appetite and the opposite and great Antagonist to the noble passion of Undantedness Secondly The nature of Fear is different from the nature of Joy for Joy dilates the blood and the vital spirits residing in it from the heart to the utmost parts of the body contrarily Fear withdraws the blood from the extreams of the body to the heart because Fear is a cold passion and the heart finding this cold to oppress it withdraws and calls as it were the blood and vital spirits from the further parts of the body to his ayd that by their natural heat he may be revived and cherished And that is the reason why divers men and women have been deprived of life by a sudden fear or fright because this cold passion congealeth the blood about the heart as a great frost congealeth water into Ice but if the Fear be not so violent yet it produceth a great alteration in the body for mens and womens faces will become as white as a cloth and sometimes all their members will tremble as a leaf and the motion proceeding from this alteration is so swift and forcible that women great with-childe miscarry by it nay it doth oftentimes turn the childe in their womb which depriveth the mother and the childe of life But Fear and Dolor have a great resemblance one with the other for they have both this withdrawing quality and are both of an extream cold and dry nature and therefore Fear and Sorrow are compared to the Winter Season and Joy and Delectation to the Spring and Summer in which the vegetative Creatures sprought and spring out their branches leaves flowers and fruits but in Winter time they withdraw their sap which is their life into their Roots as Fear and Sorrow doth draw the blood and vital spirits about the heart that is the essential cause and motion of mens lives Having both one and the same end the vegetatives to preserve themselves from the Frost and Snow and the heart to warm and cherish it self against these cold and frosty passions of Fear and Sorrow Thirdly The causes of mens fears are many and of several natures and by consequence their remedies must be proportionable unto them I will therefore speak first of the causes and to every cause apply the remedy but as I have said a little before mens fears do oftner proceed from imaginary evils then from the real and the worst propriety of this passion of Fear is That it anticipates and creates Fears in the Minde the real effects of which evils oftentimes are not like to trouble such as apprehend them nor their childrens children which kinde of Fear proceeds from a distrust of Gods providence and therefore as odious to God as any other kinde of Fear as it shall be proved when I come to speak of the effects of this passion First Worldly men Fear to loose their honors and dignities Secondly Their treasures and riches Thirdly
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-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
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