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A28313
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The nature and mischief of envy a sermon preach'd before the Queen, Aug. 20, 1693 / by Jonathan Blagrave ...
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Blagrave, Jonathan, 1652-1698.
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1693
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Wing B3110; ESTC R12893
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14,097
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30
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and unruly of all the Passions to be indeed the very worst of all the Diseases of Man's Mind That we may the better avoid it in our selves beware of it in others and use proper Remedies to cure it either in our selves or others I shall First Endeavour to give a just Description of it that we may perfectly know it Secondly Particularly set forth the usual mischievous Effects of it that we may the more hate and avoid it And Thirdly Propose such Remedies as will effectually cure it that so we may apply them as we see occasion And 1. To know what Envy is we shall find if we consider it That it is a Displeasure or Trouble arising in a Man's mind from the sight or knowledge of another Person 's prosperity of whatsoever sort that Prosperity be whether it consist in Reputation Honour Riches or any other like advantage which causeth a man to hate the Person whose Prosperity he beholds and to wish and contrive and endeavour what he can to lessen if not to ruine that Person And this commonly arises on the sight of the Prosperity of Inferiours or Equals Men are Envious when they see such as they accounted much their Inferiours begin to draw near them Or those they accounted scarce their Equals get above them And therefore Envy frequently breeds amongst Relations near Neighbours or men of a like sort Men Envy that to others which they think themselves as well or better to deserve They seldom envy Things that are far out of their Reach or Persons that are very much above them As for Instance a Peasant or a mean Man never thinks of Envying the Greatness of Noblemen or Princes But Nobles are envied by such as come near them and Monarchs only by those of the same High Station and that by the way gives an Advantage of peace and quiet to a Government that is under One since if he takes care of his own Affairs none can envy his Actions Whereas where many Govern and the Governours are almost upon the Level with the Subject Envy creates endless strife and contention But I say Envy is amongst them that at least think themselves of equal Merit and Pretensions And therefore we may observe in History That the Course which Wise Rulers have always taken to prevent this mischief hath been with great Care to proportion Favour to Merit And tho' this hath not been always able to do it because men are very partial Judges of their own merit and some will ever be envious yet this they found the best Expedient to keep ENVY from being propagated or growing to a mischievous Height for if Envious men can do so much hurt when they only take an occasion How much more will be in their power when great Occasions are given them There is indeed a Commotion that arises in Mens Hearts upon the like occasion of seeing the Prosperity or Honour of another which they think themselves as capable of that is very different from Envy and is term'd by the Moralists Emulation is that Vertue which St. Paul exhorts to in those words Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works Heb. 10.24 Which doth not like Envy covet the Reward but the work too and which hath always this great Difference to distinguish it from Envy or those Carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are ill Translated Emulations in the 5 th of the Gal. that these are always joyn'd with Hatred and evil-Will whereas the virtuous Emulation always creates Love and Esteem of the persons whom we see in Honour and Prosperity and a Desire to imitate them that by a like Industry and Virtue we may come to the same advantages We have a lively Instance of the difference of these two Qualities in Saul and Jonathan upon the very same occasion of David's killing Goliah Saul we see envied him for that great Action and therefore hated and sought to destroy him but Jonathan on the contrary emulated his Vertue and therefore lov'd and admir'd the man and desired to make him his Friend and yet the Fame that David got by this Action was no more nay rather less opposite to the Interest of Saul whom David was never like to hurt than it was to the Interest of Jonathan the Heir of his Father's Crown There is then a wide Difference between noble Emulation and wicked Envy the One of which ought to be rooted out and the other cherish'd and cultivated as much as is possible because it is the Spring and Rise of all Noble and Worthy Actions and that on which all good Example works and no great Genius was ever yet found without a great deal of Emulation Plutarch in his Lives gives us two Notable Examples of the powerful working of Emulation in the hearts of two Famous Captains Themistocles among the Greeks and Caesar among the Romans He relates that Themistocles complain'd to his Friends that the Victory of Miltiades wou'd not suffer him to sleep And Caesar when he read the Actions of Alexander wept to think he was past his Age before he had done any thing memorable These great Men had no ill Will to the persons they emulated nor did they go about to lessen but rather magnify'd their Deeds and never griev'd that others did well but that they had not done the like themselves Such a Gallant Emulation we often read of in the Histories of our Ancestors and cannot but wish that the same Noble Spirit might revive again when there is so much occasion for it and these want not some great and eminent Examples to kindle it For how much more honourable were it for men to emulate one another in valiant Actions for the Defence of their Country than to spend their time in the little Intriegues of envy Emulation is a Great a Noble Virtue but Envy a poor and a sneaking Vice A Vice that always sculks hides it self For tho' men are sometimes so wicked as to boast and glory in other Vices yet no man will own himself to be envious which shews it to be an Infamous Quality in the eyes of all Men. A Man is afraid to be found in it asham'd to own it And therefore an envious man uses great Art to hide and colour his envy and to make it look like something else Sometimes he disguises it under a Mighty pretended Zeal for the Truth sometimes under a great Love for the publick Good and Welfare sometimes under a Charitable Concern and great Tenderness for the Good or Credit of his Neighbour whom he seems to pity whilst he disparages and if you will believe Men's pretences there is not a man living that has the least Envy in him And yet if we enquire into the certain marks and undoubted symptoms of this Vice we shall hardly find any man wholly free from it for if a man is griev'd or troubled when he hears of another's good Success if he finds any Delight in his mind
The Nature and Mischief of Envy A SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN Aug. 20. 1693. BY JONATHAN BLAGRAVE D.D. Sub-Almoner and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their MAJESTIES Publish'd by Her Majesties Command LONDON Printed for John Southby at the Harrow in Cornhill and Sold by R. Taylor near Stationers-hall 1693. PROV xxvii iv Latter part of the Verse Who is able to stand before Envy The whole Verse runs thus Wrath is Cruel and Anger is Outragious But who is able to stand before Envy AND in these Words the Wise Man designs to set forth the great Evil of Envy to shew us how violent and mischievous a Passion it is and to that end he compares it with two very exorbitant commotions of Mans mind with Wrath and with Anger or FVRY for so it should rather have been Translated the word in the Original implying the highest degree or utmost transport of Anger Now a man that is in Wrath or Anger against any one forgets all kindness to that person he will no longer be govern'd by any law of Love or Charity in any of his Actions towards him Therefore sayes the Wise man Wrath is Cruel all Kindness is lost in an angry or wrathful mans heart And yet perhaps such an one will not do a manifest wrong or injustice to the person he is Angry with But then when Anger rises to a great excess it is rightly term'd Fury and one that is possess'd with it is a Mad-man for the time He hath no regard to Right or Wrong he cares not what injury or mischief he doth and therefore sayes the wise man Fury is Outragious And yet worse than either of these more unkind and uncharitable more unjust more violent and much more mischievous than either of them is Envy There is neither any goodness nor yet any strength that is a sufficient guard against it For First There is no mans Innocency no mans Vertue that can secure him from the direful strokes of Envy Nay many times the more Innocent the more Religious useful and beneficial a man is in his place and station Envy encreases the more against him The Reputation Dignity or Profit such a man gains by his good Qualities inflames the hearts of the Envious and makes them contrive and act all they can for his Ruine When there were but two Brothers in the world and there must be the strongest and most engaging Tie between them both of natural Affection and Love of Society yet Envy broke through all this and made one of them inhumanly Murder the other and that for no other reason but because Abel for the goodness and sincerity of his heart was more approv'd of by God than Cain This example of the violent and outragious cruelty and injustice of Envy we have in the beginning of the World we have another like it in the beginning of Gods chusing him a peculiar Church There we find Esau would have killed his Brother for no other reason but because Jacob valued being the Father of the Faithful more than profane Esau did and so God determin'd to have his Church in Jacob's off-spring And in that very off-spring we have presently a strange instance of the blind and inexorable cruelty of Envy in the Patriarchs otherwise good men who for no other reason but because God had in Visions reveal'd his favour to Joseph and his Father lov'd him set themselves in the most bitter manner against the poor innocent child and had no compassion on him when They saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought them they wou'd have kill'd him The greatest pity they cou'd shew him was to sell their Brother to be a slave to Infidels as St. Stephen sayes Acts 7.9 The Patriarchs mov'd with Envy sold Joseph into Egypt We have likewise a Signal Instance in the History of Saul and David of the great Injustice and Vile Ingratitude of Envy For certainly never was Master better serv'd than Saul was by David never did one man receive greater Benefits from another For first the man whom the whole Host of Israel fear'd was slain by David the Kings Enemies were often discomfited and destroyd by David Saul himself was frequently refresh'd and comforted by him when he lay under the heavy oppression of a Melancholly and an Evil Spirit His life also was divers times sav'd and preserv'd by him David had married his Daughter and was his son's friend He never had done the least Injury either to him or his but shew'n all kindness to the House of Saul and yet Saul looking upon him with an Envious Eye 1 Sam. 18.9 continually with great eagerness hunted after his life to destroy it But the greatest instance of all of the most wicked Injustice and baseness of Envy is in the Envy of the Scribes and Pharisees against our Saviour who was purely Envied for the Reputation of his goodness and nothing else for he neither had nor sought any earthly Title or Riches neither cou'd they accuse him of any sin And yet for Envy as Pilate himself cou'd see They deliver'd him up to the most cruel and shameful Death And as there is no Innocency so clear no Goodness so perfect that can preserve a Man from the soul Reproaches the malicious Contrivances and the ruining practices of Envy So Secondly There is no Man so great or powerful or of so secure an Estate or Fortune but the Violence of Envy hath been capable of overthrowing him Sometimes a private Envy hath been able to do it but a common Envy hath seldom fail'd of accomplishing any Mans ruine We have many Instances in Sacred Writ of Great Men destroy'd by Envy as Abner Captain of the Host of Israel and Amasa Captain of the Host of Judah both of them as David observ'd better Men than Joab who through Envy slew them And in Civil History in the History of all Common-wealths we find innumerable Examples of Great and Mighty Men that have been overthrown and destroy'd purely by Envy Nay we have Instances even of Princes themselves when they have thought their Honour oblig'd them to stand between their Favourites and a general Envy that have fallen together with them There is no standing before a Common Envy there is nothing to be done but to get out of the way of it unless a Man will bravely resolve to become a Sacrifice for Truth and the Common Good For 't is to no purpose for a Man to stand on his Innocency to plead his Merit to seek to oblige or gain favour to oppose strength or interest in this Case A Common Envy like an Hurricane or impetuous Torrent overturns and carries all before it at least it doth so for a time till the Truth of things comes to be known by some woful experience so that the Wise Man may well ask this Question in my Text Who is able to stand before Envy Having thus given you a Tast of the Evil Nature of Envy whereby we may perceive it to be the most violent