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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
(1693)
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Wing B3110; ESTC R12893
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14,097
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30
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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
and Confusion The best way then to prevent so much Mischief as Envy usually brings into the World is to use what means we can to cure this evil Disease in Mens Minds which is the Last Enquiry What are the proper Remedies for this Disease And there are Four sufficient and effectual Remedies if we will but carefully seek and Apply them The First is A Right Apprehension of the Nature of the things of this World a true Vnderstanding of the Value of them The Second A Due Submission to the Will of God in all things The Third A True Humility And the Fourth A Christian Charity 1. Then A true understanding of the Nature and the Value of the things of this present world will be a powerfull Remedy against Envy For indeed when Vertuous and Worthy men are envied it is not for their Vertue but it is for those worldly Advantages which they get by it As for Vertue it self 't is in every mans power He may have it if he will go to the Cost But those Advantages which are the Rewards of it are commonly in the Power of others And men do not grieve for want of that which it is in their own power to have but for want of that which it is in the power of others to give This is plain in the Instance I mention'd of Cain's envying his Brother for God told him that he need not be cast down since he might do well and be accepted But he had no mind to do well and yet he had a Mind to be Accepted and to have the Benefit of it so that he envyed not his Brother's Goodness which he might have had if he pleas'd but he envied God's Acceptance of him and the Blessings that were like to follow thereupon So likewise in that other memorable Instance of the Envy of Saul gainst David Saul envyed not David's Courage in venturing to go against Goliah for that he might have had himself he might have gone against that Champion then or afterwards against any of his Gygantick Bretheren but Saul envyed the praise that David got by this when the Women celebrated his Valour in their Songs saying Saul hath slain his Thousands but David his Ten Thousands He was very willing that David shou'd have the Fighting but he wou'd fain have had the praise Now besides that it is most unjust that the work and the reward shou'd be seperated or that they should desire the one that have no mind to the other I say besides this if men wou'd but enquire what there is in popular praise in worldly Wealth or Greatness they wou'd find them so unfit and improper to give true Content or Satisfaction to man's Mind so uncertain also for they do not alwayes happen to those that best deserve them and if it be our hap to obtain them they can be ours but so little a while that a wise man wou'd hardly spend one anxious or solicitous thought about them much less torment his mind with so grievous and sore a passion as Envy is for them Especially when that more substantial good of doing well and performing our Duty and what becomes us in all Circumstances is always within our Reach and Power the Grace of God waiting continually to assist us therein and this besides the unconceivable Comfort every good and generous mind must feel therein will entitle us to Rewards that are not empty uncertain and transitory but unspeakably Happy and Eternal The 2. Remedy against Envy is a dutiful Submission to the will and pleasure of God by whose providence all things here below are order'd and dispos'd If we consider how much it is our duty to submit to him whose all things are and even we our selves and he cannot but have a just Title to do whatsoever he will with his own we can never have an evil or an envious Eye at the Prosperity of any of our Brethren For even this is wholly the Gift of God So the Scripture saith The Lord maketh rich and maketh poor he lifteth up and casteth down and How dares man then by his Envy censure the Actions of his Maker or say unto God What doest thou He hath wise Reasons for all his Doings tho' we sometimes are not able to find them out We know not the meaning of His Providence oftentimes and why then shou'd we presume to judge it For we cannot as Solomon says in the 9. of Eccles. ver 1. Judge either of God's Love or Hatred by the things that are before us by the disposal of worldly Advantages for worldly Goods are not always Blessings and God may in Judgment and Anger suffer some to be rich and great in this Moment of Life whilst others whom he loves better may be mean and despis'd Even according to Natural Reason and the Judgment of the Philosophers those that are term'd the good things of this World are not good in themselves but as they are us'd A wise and good Man will be sure to use them well and he were an ill Man that would envy him any thing But Riches or Honours heap'd upon a fool or a wicked man are rather a Mischief than a Benefit to him They make him but more remarkably foolish they greaten and shew his faults more advantageously and in a clearer light they also blow up and inflame his Lusts and Passions For either they lead him into Pride and Vanity Ryot and Excess and so there is a quick dispatch both of the Man and his Fortune together or else Covetousness seizeth him and renders all his Substance useless to him and fear of losing what he has keeps him always in anxiety Now who would envy a man in such a state of misery This may cure Envy in the worst natur'd man living How much more if we consider what the end of all this is like to be God may suffer wicked men to prosper in this World to fill up the measure of their Iniquities or they having plac'd their happiness in earthly things he may in Judgment make them all their portion as Abraham told Dives they had been his God may suffer them as Job speaks ch 21. v. 13. To spend their days in wealth and in a moment to go down into the Grave Nay below the Grave to a Place as David tells us Psal 33.19 where they are consum'd with Terrors And is this a Condition to be envyed Who can envy a moments folly that must end in never-ceasing Torment and Misery 3. Humility is also an Effectual Remedy against Envy For Envy arises from Pride Self love and Self-conceit and a man is never envious who has humble thoughts of himself He that looks carefully into his own Infirmities and Failings will have but little heart to be ambitious or envious or to censure others he will find it so necessary to judge himself that he will never think of judging his Neighbour and seeing plainly how much weakness he himself might be lyable to if he were in place