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
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
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
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
the mystery of their salvation to get an assurance their calling and u â— Pet. 1.10 election is sure and they are justified by the bloud of Christ shall be saved from x Rom 5.9 wrath through him and are y Rom. 15.16 sanctified by the holy Ghost and of the number who by the preaching of the Gospel have had their eyes opened to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive z Acts 26.18 forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ and that they have received a white stone and in the stone * Revel 2. a new name which no Man knoweth saving he that receiveth it This assurance I say is able to fill a Christians heart with unspeakable pleasures and to ravish his soul into the third heavens where he shall injoy the presence of God in whom is the fulness of joy Psal 16.11 and in his right hand are pleasures for evermore But worldly pleasures vanish away like smoak and are meer vanity and vexation of spirit CHAP. V. Of the vanity of mens passions in general THe next aggravation of the vanity of the lives of men after the former description of the vanity of their desires is the vanity of their passions with the exorbitant care they take for the cure of their bodily diseases and their unparallel'd carelesness of the cure of the maladies of their souls for what greater vanity can there be then to prefer the health of their body that is momentary and nothing but dust to the preservation of the welfare and tranquillity of their immortall souls who are in the esteem of our blessed Saviour a Mar. 8.37 such a precious Jewel that there is nothing under the Sun that for value may be given in exchange for it and yet it is daily seen that if their finger doth but ake or if they have but a quotidian ague that is a wholsom medicine in the Spring they will presently take their bed and send for the best Physitians and will ingenuously declare unto them the symptoms of their disease that they may the better prescribe fit remedies for the cure of it but if their souls be sick by the rageful distempers of their passions which breed storms of preturbations in their soules as the impetuous windes do tempests at sea they make nothing of it neither will they send for a spiritual Physitian that can pour in their festered wounds the Balm of b Jer. 8.22 Gilead and asswage by their grave Counsels the fury of their passions but will rather if any come to visit them unsent for disguise their vicious passions by the names of vertues for they commonly call Ambition a desire of Glory and Avarice a prudent fore-cast and the furious passion of wrath a generosity of courage and so of all the rest and by this concealing and disguishing of their spiritual maladies make them by custome utterly incurable This common vanity of men hath induced divers learned Authors to prescribe in their Writings divers excellent remedies to cure these concealed maladies of the soul but before I speak of the remedies it is fit the Reader should be informed of the essentiall cause of these distempers for as it is impossible for a Physitian to cure the bodily infirmities of his patient before he be acquainted with the nature of them even so it is far more impossible for the Reader to pacifie the fury of his passions before he be informed by these insuing particulars of the cause and nature of them I will therefore speak in order of these things 1. Of the two distinct powers of the soul 2. Of the Concupiscible and Irascible appetite 3. Of the definition of mens passions 4. Of their seat and number 5. Of their original spring 6. Of their evil and good essects First There are two distinct powers in the soul the soul is distinguished into two distinct powers the one is called Rational the other Sensitive the Rational is onely peculiar to men but the Sensitive is common to men and beast See Aristotle in his Phys lib. 16 17. The Rational is a spark of the divine essence and therefore immaterial and immortal but the Sensitive is materiall and earthly and therefore mortal and corruptible and from hence the Christian Philosophy And Senault upon the use of passions doth infer the resurrection of the body because it hath such an affinity with one of the powers of the soul besides the Rational power doth its operations without the aid of the corporal organs but the Sensitive cannot execute its functions without the assistance of the organs of the body and that is the reason why the operations of it are more carnal and those of the Rational more divine and celestial and this made St. Paul c Rom. 7.23 24 25. cry out But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Iesus Christ our Lord so then with the minde I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin Moreover the Rational power of the soul is the spring of all the intellectual faculties of the minde but the Sensitive power is the spring of the senses and of all the affections and passions of men Secondly Because this Sensitive power is distinguished into two distinct appetites viz. the Concupiscible and the Irascible which are properly the faculties that the French call Appetitives which intimates in the English tongue an aptness See Beau-lieu in his Body of Philosophy pa. 721. an instinct or natural inclination inticing men and beast to pursue such objects as seem Good or to fly from such objects that seem to be Evil and the truth is The proprieties of the Concupiscible and Irascible appetites that the propriety of the Concupiscible appetite is to induce men to prosecute the objects that seem simply to be Good or to draw them back from such that seem simply to be Evil who have no appearance in them to be difficult to be obtained or to be avoided and the propriety of the Irascible appetite is to intice men to meet the objects presented by the senses unto them after a short result of the imagination that be not onely simply good or evil but full of difficulties to obtain or to eschew for the seeming good simply See Aristotle in his Physio lib. 16. cap. 3. is the proper object of the Concupiscible appetite because it is pleasant and useful to men or beast and may be obtained without difficulty but the seeming good that is apparently difficult to obtain and the evil that is hard to avoid is the proper object of the Irascible appetite But you are in this place to
conceive them to be the cause of all the burden that are laid upon their backs I mean Lones Subsidies Taxes and Monopolies fifthly The wicked are addicted to Hatred 1 Cor. 4.13 for they hate implacably the Just and the Righteous and hold them as the off-scouring of all things Fifthly the nature and effects of Hatred in the unregenerate are nothing else but murders ruine and desolation first Hatred provoked f Gen. 4.8 Cain to kill his brother Abel and this hatred did proceed from Envie because his sacrifice was rejected of the Lord and the sacrifice of his brother was accepted secondly Hatred provoked Simeon and Levy g Gen. 34.25 26. to murder under the vail of Religion all the Shechemites and to plunder their City thirdly Hatred and the desire of Vengeance provoked h 2. Sam. 13.29 Absolom to murder under colour of friendship and hospitality his brother Amnon at a banquet as he set at table fourthly It was Hatred that provoked men to invent all maner of Weapons to destroy themselves and the devillish Art of making Canons Gunpowder Muskets Calivers Carabines and Pistols whereby the most valiant are as soon slain as the greatest cowards fifthly It was Hatred that provoked men to dive into the bowels of the earth to finde out Mines of Silver and Gold whereby they might execute their hatred spleen and malice and set all the world together by the ears sixthly Hatred hath given men an habit in all maner of impiety who have left by it their natural humanity and are become devouring Lyons and Tigers Nay when open violence cannot serve to execute their hatred they have an art to poyson men in their meat and drink by the smelling of a pair of gloves The Queen of Navarr was poysoned by the smell of a pair of Gloves by the putting on of a shirt or by the drawing off a pair of Boots nay by the very taking of a man by the hand under colour of curtesie as the Genovais Admiral did to the Venetians Admiral after he had been overcome by him at sea In a word Hatred hath been the projector of all the horrid actions of men for it is a passion that deprives men of all Reason Judgment and hath bin the cause of all the woes of men for by the hatred of Satan was our first mother Eve i Gen. 3.6 deluded and by her charms she deluded Adam her husband and so by their transgression sin is come into the world and sin like a contagious disease hath infected the whole race of mankinde Moreover Hatred is of a permanent nature for it is not like Envie or Wrath for Envy declines according as the prosperity of its object doth diminish and Wrath vanisheth into smoak if its fury may have some vent or it may be mitigated For a soft answer turneth away wrath saith Salomon k Pro. 15.1 but Hatred continues from generation to generation and death it self cannot extinguish Hatred Amilcar father to Hanibal out of an inveterate hatred he bore to the Roman Commonwealth See Livius Plutarch made Hanibal to take an Oath a little before his death that he should be to the end of his life a mortal enemy to the Romans and the hatred that Henry the seventh King of England bore to the House of York induced him to make his son Henry the eight to swear as he was upon his bed of death that after his decease that he would cause the Duke of Suffolks head to be cut off that was then his prisoner in the Tower of London as being the last apparent hair of the House of York an Unchristian part saith Montagnes See Montagnes Essais for a Prince to have his heart filled with hatred at his departure out of this world Nay the unparallel'd hatred that was between the two brethren Eteocles and Polinices could not be extinguished after their death for after they had slain one another in a Duel See Garnier in the Tragedy of Antigone or single Combat their bodies being brought together to be burned the fire by an admirable antipathy did cleave of it self into two parts and so divided their bodies that their ashes might not be mixed together and the inveterate hatred that was between the Guelfs and Gibbelins See Guiechardine in the wars of Italy Paulus Jovius in his Tragical Relations did continue from one generation to another But Paulus Jovius relates the most unheard of cruelty proceeding from an inveterated hatred that ever was read of Two Italians having had some bickerings together such a hatred was bred in their hearts that one of them having got his enemie at an advantage made him by threats deny his Saviour promising to save his life if he did it but he had no sooner by imprecations impiously denied him but the other stabbed him through the heart with his Ponyard saying The death of thy body had not been an object worthy of my hatred and vindication except I had also procured the eternal death of thy soul An horrid and unparrallel'd cruelty and a matchless effect of hatred Sixthly Having thus described the evil nature and effects of Hatred I will now come to the use that Christians should make of it I remember to have said in the beginning of this Chapter that this passion of Hatred had not been given to men to abuse it as they do but rather to eschew sin the greatest evil upon earth and that being used as an aversion to fly from sin it would serve for a strong motive to the propagations of a godly life for sin should be the onely object of mens hatred as the efficient cause of all their miseries and why our blessed Saviour out of his tender compassions towards his Elect was willing to suffer the ignominous death of the Cross Matth. 27.35 to redeem them from the guilt and punishment of sin which was eternal death And men cannot by any other means shew themselves grateful and to be sensible of this incompre hensible love of Christ then by having an inveterate hatred against sin and to detest and abhor with all their hearts all sinful courses sith sin is the onely separation wall that bars them from having an intimate and loving familiarity with God for the hatred of sin is the first step to attain to the love of God and without the love of God a true faith in Christ and unfained hatred of sin there is no possibility of salvation hatred against sin being the chiefest ingredient required in a true Repentance and how can men love God that hate their brethren and therefore the blessed Spirit in holy Writ doth so often exhort men to avoid all hatred except it be against sin He that l Ioh 3 14. 1 Ioh. 3.15 loveth not his brother saith St. John abideth in death and whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know no murderer hath eternal life Men must then love God and
men hath been pleased to furnish them with arms to oppose their greatest enemies of which the passion of Cupidity is one of the most implacable for of all the passions it is the harder to be subdued because it is the most successful snare of Satan for the increase of his kingdom of darkness by it sin came first into the world and hath infected like a contagious disease all the race of mankinde For by the eye which is the spring of mens desires Eve seeing the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of good and evil to be beautiful she coveteth the same as it appears by these words Gen. 3.6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave of it also to her husband with her and he did eat and so by her Cupidity and Adams Credulity men have been brought under the bondage of sin Now against this great enemy of mankinde God hath been pleased to arm them with this passion of Flight the great Antagonist of all covetous desires that as he had given men an inclination to desire such things as seemed good to their eyes and phansies they might also have an aversion to fly from such things as seemed to traverse their good and beeing otherwise they might have seen their enemies coming upon them when they had no arms to defend themselves nor power to eschew or fly from their apparent danger and had been inforced to cherish vices and sinful courses because they could not eschew or fly from them and to harbor a Guest whom they abhorred and detested This passion being then so useful to men and specially for the propagation of a godly life give me leave for the better description of it to speak in order of these particulars 1. Of the definition of Flight 2. Of the objects of it 3. Of the causes of it 4. Of its proprieties 5. Of its effects 6. Of the uses of it First Flight or Eschewing is a passion The definition of Flight or aversion that induceth men to avoid or fly from all things that seem to be evil or inconvenient to them or that may traverse their good and annihilate their beeing Flight is the cosen German of Hatred for they have many qualities alike and is incident to the Concupiscible appetite and the violent enemy and great opposite to the passion of Cupidity the spring of all covetous desires But men are to be cautious how they make use of this passion or aversion for otherwise they may flee from such things as are good instead to eschew those things that are evil for such is the depravation of this age that Vertues are called Vices and Vices are varnished over with the names of Vertues and true and sincere Piety is called Hypocrisie and real Hypocrisie is termed godliness and Sanctity They must then be as harmless as Doves Matt. 10.16 and as wise as Serpents to make use of this passion aright and then they will avoid and detest sin as the greatest of all evils and love God the perfection of all good and happiness Secondly The objects of Flight The chiefest objects of this passion are the guilt and punishment which are often taken one for the other some men taking the guilt for the punishment and the punishment for the guilt but guilt is the greater of the two because the punishment is but an effect of the guilt and without guilt there would be no punishment and yet because death is commonly comprized under the punishment for as St. Paul saith Rom 6.23 The wages of sin is death men most commonly strive to avoid and flee from the punishment and with great eagerness pursue the guilt I mean they run chearfully after sin and fly with fear from the punishment and so pervert the use of this passion that was given unto them by their Maker on purpose to flee from sin that draws with Cart-ropes the wrath and judgments of God upon all Nations and particuliar men that impenitently go on in their sins Men commonly fly from Serpents Dragons Lyons and Tygers and from the contagious disease of the Plague but they seldom flee from sin although it be more dangerous and destructive to their souls then any of these things above related can be to their bodies for they can but deprive them of this temporal life but sin without the special grace of God will cast them body and soul into the everlasting flames and therefore let men fly from sin if they intend to make a perfect use of this passion and let them not as our blessed Saviour saith of Fear Flee from them that can kill the body Matt. 10.28 but are not able to kill the soul Thirdly The causes of Flight are so numerous The causes of Flight that they would be over-tedious to relate I wil therefore speak but of some of them first Men if they could would fly from death because death is a most horrid thing specially to the Reprobate and Nature doth hate and eschew all things that may annihilate its beeing secondly Fear is an ordinary cause of Flight for many great Armies have fled upon a panick fear as Titus Livius Records in his Decades but there be Instances for it in the holy Scriptures as it appears 2 Kings Chap. 7. Vers 6. When the Lord made the host of the Assyrians to hear a noise of chariots 2 Kings 7.6 and a noise of horses even the noise of a great host and so raised their siege from Samaria and fled away leaving their tents full of riches and all manner of provisions thirdly The Prophet Ionah fled from the presence of the Lord Jonah 1.3 and Cha. 4.3 not to avoid evil but to commit evil in disobeying the Commandment of the Lord because he knew that God was a gracious and merciful God slow to anger and of great kindness A great weakness in a Prophet to be passionate and angry because God was pleased to be merciful to the Ninevites and a greater infirmity to flee to Tarshish from the Lord because he was assured that God would repent of the evil intended against them upon the sight of their repentance fourthly Absolom fled from the presence of his father King David 2 Sam. 13.28 after he had slain his brother Amnon at a Banquet under colour of love and hospitality and went to Geshur and was there three years till his fathers wrath was appeased fifthly Jeroboam the son of Nebat 1 King 11.40 fled from the presence of Salomon went into Egypt and staid there with Shishak King of Egypt till after Salomons death for Salomon sought to kill Ieroboam because he had been informed that the Prophet Ahijah had anointed him King over Israel sixthly Joseph the supposed father of our blessed Saviour and the Virgin Mary Matth. 2.12 with
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