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 World Having thus spoken of the Disturbance of Church and State that is given by Envy I need say nothing of that Trouble and Vexation that flood of Evil speaking of Evil surmising the multitude of Feuds and Quarrels that Envy begets in every little Neighbourhood in every private Family since mens too common experience of this to their Cost will sufficiently excuse me from enlarging upon this Point and indeed we have no Relation in History Sacred or Civil of the private Affairs of any Family but we find therein some dreadful Marks of Envy And to what end is all this Mischief done by Envious Men What do they get by it There is certainly a great deal of Labour in contriving in prosecuting and yet hiding Envious Designs There is much pain and anguish to the Envious Man not only from a sense of the Guilt of his Sin but in the Sin it self besides the punishment he must expect hereafter which can be no other than what is inflicted upon the Devils his Sin being the same with theirs Envy is also its own Punishment a Punishment so great that when a man becomes extreamly Envious it even pines him away it wastes his flesh consumes his bones eats his very heart so that no man can find a greater Torment for a very Envious Man than he inflicts upon himself And what profit I say hath he for all this pain His Envy is not only a discouragement to Worthy Men in the doing of their Duty when they find so much ill-will for their pains but is also an hinderance to himself from treading in their steps and taking the same Course to Vertue and the Rewards of it For when he has reproach'd others he is asham'd and too proud to imitate them for which Reason Job charges the Envious with folly as well as wickedness saying Envy slayeth the silly one But suppose a Crafty Envy may sometime obtain its purpose and pull down the man aim'd at 't is but seldom that the Person whose Envy chiefly procur'd this has the fortune to step into his Place or if he does the Envy that he propagated against his Predecessor often becomes as troublesome to himself when he arrives at the same station and so the Envious Man is very good at overturning or destroying any thing but at building or settling of nothing But since Envy is such a Plague to all the Earth such a Disturbance to Society such a Breeder of Discontent and Faction in the State such a never-ceasing Cause of Schism and Division in the Church It is a Wonder some Man may say that the good Providence of God endures Envious Men upon the face of the Earth that the Divine Justice does not as it did once in the Case of the Envious Levites send them all down quick to those evil Spirits whom they so nearly resemble and not suffer them to trouble this earth any longer But this is an Objection to be made by such as do not understand or consider the state of this present Life We ought to know that this is an imperfect State wherein evil must be mixt with good of which there can be a perfect separation onely in the future Life that it is as it were the state of Infancy to good Men who must be bred up here as Children in a School for the state of Perfection and therefore here they must pass through many Tryals and difficult Methods of Discipline and Improvement amongst which the Envy both of Men and Devils as 't is manag'd by the Wise Providence of God who can bring good out of evil may very well be reckon'd for one For First All Men are very apprehensive of shame and disgrace to which the Envious stand ready and are watchful to expose men on any fault or miscarriage and this doubtless keeps many Persons from being so bad as otherwise they would be Again The best Men are but weak and frail and the snares of the Devil manifold so that by avoiding one sin we often run into another and the most perfect Men on earth if they do not erre on the left hand yet are apt to erre on the right to fall into some unreasonable extreme or other And good Men when they have attain'd to any excellency are apt to be puft up with some degree of Vanity and in some sort to despise and contemn others and to become more remiss in their own Duties And these Faults though they cannot see in themselves and the kindness of their Friends makes them overlook them and perhaps Flatterers may commend as Vertues yet the quick sight of the Envious presently discovers them and they blow them up into great Crimes and blaze them abroad so that Men themselves can be no longer ignorant of their faults And again Though the Envious do often Calumniate the best Men yet they never directly Calumniate them for their Vertues but they find out some fault or at least some appearance or probability of a fault to Calumniate withal As we read in the First of Job the Devil when he could not find any disobedience to charge Job with charg'd him with worldly and self-ends in his obedience So Envious Men who are the Devil 's most apt Scholars never plainly reproach a Man for his Piety Justice or Charity Prudence or Diligence Temperance or Fortitude though it be for the Reputation and Rewards of these that they envy him but they will charge him with Vain glory or Hypocrisie or Self-endedness or the like And if they can find the least Colour of any of these Vices they take this for a Discovery and magnifie it to the uttermost So that in effect Envious Men are the most curious and exact Censors of Manners they keep the World in a great deal of Awe and are oftentimes our truest Friends to discover to us those faults which otherwise we should have over-look'd They make us circumspect in every Action and I believe a great many may say by experience That the Envy of their Enemies though it is no thank to them hath contributed more to the Reformation and the perfecting of their Manners than all the kindness of their Friends This good use and profit of Envy though in it self a very wicked thing and dwelling only in the most wicked hearts the All-wise and Over-ruling Providence of God doth make and every wise and good Man ought to make this Advantage of others Envy he ought to grow the more careful and circumspect in all his ways and so to profit thereby But because the generality of the World are not wise and the best Men on earth are but imperfectly so therefore when Envious Men raise slanders contrive evil devices against those they Envy the Persons envyed are apt to retort them to render evil for evil and the standers-by take part with the one side or the other according as their Envy or other Passions incline them and so Quarrels are inflam'd Parties are form'd and it often ends in War
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