is an effect of Envie for the Envie of Marius against Sylla was the cause of a bloody Civil War And the envie of Pompeius against Caesar was the cause of a greater and the Envie of Francis the First against Charls the Fifth was the cause of the death of a Million of men The fifth effect of Envie is That it begetteth shame and ignominy because envious men cannot excuse nor palliate this Passion of Envie as men can divers other passions The ambitious man will excuse his ambition and will say it is an evidence of his generosity of spirit to aspire to honours and places of Authority that there is none but base-minded men who do affect to live obscurely The covetous man will varnish over his avarice and cloke the same by this passage of S. Paul 1 Tim. 5.8 But if any provide not for his own Family he hath denyed the Faith and is worse then an Infidel The cholerick man will disguise his wrath and perswade men it proceeds from a masculine courage and that there is none but cowards that will suffer injuries and affronts The voluptuous man will disguise his Vices and say this that joy mirth and pleasure are natural to men and will pervert this passage of Solomons Eccles 3.22 I preceive there is nothing better that a man should rejoyce in his own works The timerous man will excuse his pusillanimity and say that Fear is the mother of security and that there is more prudence to be fearful then over-bold The curious man will varnish over his nice curiosity and say it is comely and gentile to be apparrelled a la mode and that none but Clowns will go after the old fashion In a word men have excuses to turn all their vitious passions into Vertues Envie only excepted for they disclaim it and will not own it because it is shameful and ignominious The last evil effect of Envie is That it fils the minds and hearts of men with anguish grief and sorrow for repining and discontent do follow envious men as the Spaniel followeth his Master and the shadow the body See Plutarch in his Morals The Philosopher Anarcharis being demanded by a friend of his why so many men were discontented because they conceive saith he that their Neighbours condition is better then theirs intimating that Envie is the greatest disturber of peace and tranquility of the minde and that they that are addicted to this vile and base passion can never be merry nor joyful And Solomon the Prince of wisdom that was better able then any to judge of the evil nature and pernitious effects of mens passions saith that Envie is worse then Wrath as it appears by these words Wrath is cruel and anger is outragious Prov. 27.4 but who is able to stand before Envie To conclude Envie is not only vanity but a great torment and vexation of Spirit 4. The chief means or remedies against this passion of Envie are prayer The remedies against Envie contentedness charity and self-denial First fervent Prayer to God is a special remedy against this passion for Envie is one of the temptations of Satan which cannot be overcome without God be pleased to give men power to cast them like dirt into his face by the shield of Faith Eph. 6.16 Whereby they may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked Secondly contentedness is an approved remedy against Envie for if men were contented with the condition that God hath been pleased to set them in they would never Envie the prosperity of their Neighbous for this discontent that is so familiar to men proceeds from their cupidity or covetousness which is one of the ingredients of the composure of this passion of Envie and this cupidity is insatiable except men can obtain from God by fervent prayers this excellent grace of contentedness for as S Paul saith Godliness with contentment is great gain 1 Tim 6.6 And were a man the absolute Monarch of the whole World yet without this grace of contentedness his desires would never be satisfied but would envie and long for some other imaginary felicity or greater glory And that is the reason why S. Paul doth exhort the Hebrews to be contented with such things as they had and that their conversation should be without covetousness Let your conversation Heb. 13.50 saith he be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Thirdly Charity is a soveraign remedy against Envie for if men were in charity with all men they would never envie at the prosperity of their Neighbours and the only antidote against Wrath which is another of the ingredients of the composure of this passion of Envie is Charity because men that be endowed with the Grace of Charity bear patiently all manner of injuries For Charity saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 13.4 suffereth long and is kinde Fourthly self-denial is an excellent remedy against Envie for men that deny themselves drive all manner of hatred and Envie from their hearts And hatred is the third ingredient of the composure of this passion of Envie and our blessed Saviour doth tell us that if we will imitate and come after him Mark 8.34 we must deny our selves and take up his cross and follow him To conclude If men would be fervent in prayers to obtain these foresaid Graces they would abhor and detest Envie more then they do the Pestilence and the contagious disease of the Plague for a grain of Envie is able to stain and blemish all the spiritual Graces of a Christian FINIS
Parents towards them and this indulgency and fond love of Parents is the cause of two evils first that the children come to a shameful end secondly that their Parents hoary heads go down with sorrow to the grave and Solomon confirms the same The rod and k Prov. 29.15.17 reproof give wisdom but a childe left to himself bringeth his mother to shame and in the 17. vers Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest yea he shall give delight unto thy soul This Infancy of man is then but meer vanity for the first five years of it is but imbecillity the second five but puerility and the last five nothing but malice obstinacy and disobedience so that according to their good or bad education they become a blessing or a curse to their Parents Thirdly the adolescency or youth of man begins at 15 years of age and ends at thirty the greater part of it is spent under the restraint of their Tutors or Masters and by consequence freed from cares and curbed from vices if their Tutors or Masters discharge their duty but if they do not they commonly become so vicious that without the speciall grace of God they can never be recalled and continue prophane and unthrifty all their dayes And therefore Tutors and Masters who neglect their duty and are too indulgent towards their Pupils or Servants are the cause of their overthrow and will be called to a strict account for it before the Tribunal of God The remisness or indulgency of i 1 Sam. 2.2.3 and 3.17.18 Ely towards his two sons Hophny and Phineas drew a great judgment of God upon him and upon them both and the Pupils and Servants that reject the sharp reprehensions and corrections of their Tutors or Masters aggravate their own guilt and acquit their Tutors and Masters for they do not shew themselves onely disobedient to them but also to God for St. Paul chargeth them m Ephe. 6.5.9 Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ And ye masters do the same things unto them forbearing threatnings knowing that your master also is in Heaven neither is there respect of persons with him But when young men are freed from the subjection of their Tutors and Masters and have as it were the Bridle cast over their necks they run as fiercely after the pleasures delights and vanities of the flesh as untamed Colts run from their riders when they have cast them down and without Gods special grace miscarry in their race as it is confirmed by Solomon who in derision of their folly saith Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment n Eccles 11.9 The reason why in this age men are more addicted to their pleasure then in any other is Because their Passions are more predominant in them and experience doth shew That from twenty five yeers to thirty five yeers of age men are by the strength of their bodies the abundance and hear of their blood in which doth reside the vital spirits fitter for great enterprises where they may shew their courage and valor then at any other season and that the Passions of Love and Ambition are more violent in them then in any other age For the Adolescency of men is compared to the Spring their Maturity or Virility to the Summer their Declination to the Autumn or Harvest and their decrepit age to Winter the most irksome time of the yeer But as it is the most pleasant and precious age of men so is it the most dangerous for more are carried away with death in this age then in any other because of the distemper and excessive riots of young men which beget burning Feavers Pleurisies Sanguine Apoplexies and divers loathsom Diseases that sends them to their Grave before their time And as their Passions are more turbulent in that age so are their Actions more irregular Young men being most addicted to Vindication Spleen Indignation Wrath Rapines and Oppressions then others and as fickle and inconstant as the wind fit to undertake and active to execute but rash and inconsiderate for want of a rational solidity of Judgment In a word As this age of man hath many rare Prerogatives over the others so it is subject to great inconveniencies and fuller of vanity then any Fourthly The maturity of mans age begins at Thirty and continues till Fourty five In this age mens mindes are commonly full of the cares of this world they have wives children and servants to care for and as their families increase so doth their toyl and their cares The vices or sins of their youth are rather changed then forsaken their delights and pleasures are changed to Envy or Avarice their desires are now bent to attain to honor and riches and to out-go their neighbors in all things but in Vertue or a Godly life their thoughts flie high and are bent only upon Machavilian policies that they may by them over-reach their Brethren by false lights by falsifications of Wares by distinctions and equivocations and as for Religion they use it onely as a baite to deceive men and are more unsatiable after gain and money then the Horse-Leeches are after blood They account this saying of Solomon a Paradox He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase He that trusteth in his riches shall fall but the righteous shall flourish as a branch o Eccles 10.5 6 7 8. And so either by right or wrong they will become rich and honorable at least in shew according to the world but not really according to God for in his sight they are the most vile the poorest and the most despised Creatures under the Sun for they never take into consideration this saying of our blessed Saviour What availeth if a man getteth all the world and loose his own soul This virility of man is then but vanity and not inferior in Vices to Adolescency but they are not so visible to the eyes of men but as odious to the eyes of God Fiftly The declination of mens lives begins at fourty five yeers and continues till seventy This age of man is as much subject to Envy and Avarice as the former age is to Ambition and carking cares whereby it appears that mens Passions and Sins do rather change then forsake them for volupty and carnal delights to which young men are most addicted in their Adolescency doth change in their declining age to Envy and Avarice and sometimes their Avarice doth change to Ambition a Passion more incident to the virility or mature age of men then to old age
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
hunger and divers other casualities so that I may boldly conclude with Salomon that the lives of naturall and unregenerate men and women are meer vanity and vexation of spirit c. CHAP. II. Of the vanity of worldly honors AS the end of the Creation of man was the glory of his Creator even so the end of the lives of men should be the increase of the glory of their Maker but the lives of the greater part of them have no other end then the honors riches and pleasures of this world and therefore to shew you more perfectly the vanity of mens lives of which I have made a short Narration in the former Chapter I conceive it needfull to describe unto you in these three Chapters following the vanity of their desires before I come to speak of their Passions for the desires of honors riches and pleasures are the three deities they adore and to whom they sacrifice morning and evening their best thoughts and these for their unparallel'd vanity may be called the vanity of vanities I will then begin with the desires of worldly honors which are either spiritual or temporal the spiritual are free from vanity because they are supernatural and full of true joy and comfort but the temporal honors are but a meer conceit and shadow a vapour without substance and subsistance and yet the most powerful charm of Satan whereby he lulls men asleep in the Paradise of fools to cast them when they are awake into the bottomless pit of eternal woe for had not Satan held them to be the strongest of his temptations he had not reserved them for his last battery against the constancy of our blessed Saviour as it appears in the fourth of Matthew vers 8 9. a Mat. 4 8.9 Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high monntain and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said unto him All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Yet although this roaring Cannon of his could not prevail against this invincible Rock it doth prevail with many thousands in these dayes whom he deludes by the glorious glistering of worldly honors and doth falsely suggest in their mindes that they are the supream good in which doth consist their bliss and felicity and makes them venter their bodies and souls to injoy and possess them But to inlighten the eyes of these Monopolists of honors I will here set out the vanities of worldly honors in their lively colours that they may avoid this dangerous snare of Satan and be induced to indeavor to attain unto the spiritual honors that will fill their souls with unspeakable joys and comforts And to this end I will shew in the first place the vanity of the means whereby men usually attain to worldly honors which for brevity sake I will reduce to these first by Descent secondly by Strength thirdly by Beauty fourthly by Riches fifthly by Favors sixthly by Learning seventhly by Prudence eightly by Valour Secondly I will shew to whom honor is truly due and Lastly I will give a hint of the excellency and of the joy and comfort that men may injoy from spirituall honors For the first Such as are nobly descended Descent of race is the first means to attain to worldly honors are honorable by their birth so they degenerate not from the vertues and valour of their Ancestors for if they do they are baser then the Plebeians because they have a great advantage over them to attain to the true personal honor for b See Charon in his Wisdom Cap. 59. Nature doth always endeavor to return to its first principle and that is the reason why the reply that Marius made to a vicious Patrician who out-braved him because of his Plebeian descent is somuch commended My c See Plutarch in Marius life nobility saith he begins with me and thine ends with thee and it is certainly more honorable to be the spring of a noble race then the end of it therefore personal nobility is reputed to be more noble then that of descent except the persons thus descended do equal or excel their Ancestors in vertue and valour and when it is so they are to have the precedency before a new started Moucheron that is the first of his race that hath obtained by his personal vertues and valour the honor to be a Gentleman But what cause have men to boast or vant or conceive themselves honorable because of their descent except they be vertuous and valourous themselves for it is a ridiculous vanity to vant of the gifts that were never our own and did belong to other men and yet it is a common vanity much in fashion in these days among our Gentlemen to vant of their Ancestors vertues and valour when themselves are effeminate and vicious in their maners lives and conversations Besides what have men worthy to vant and boast of for they were formed out of the dust of the d Gen. 2 7. ground and to dust they shall return again and if any hath any singular parts above another they are the immediat gifts of God It is therefore a meer vanity for men to think they should be honored for their descent sith the meanest Plebeian will be found to be the cosen german to the greatest Monarch of the world as the Emperor e See the Antiquities of Germany Maximilians fool told him when he saw him over curious to seek out the pedegree of the Nobility of the House of Austria which for Antiquity is much inferior to that of divers other Princes of Christendom Leave off my Liege saith he these vain curiosities for if you seek any longer you will finde at last that I am your cosen german For the second Strength is the second means to attain to honor concerning strength of body divers have attained to honor by their strength especially if they have made use of it against the enemies of God and of their Native Country for Sampson for his strength was chose Judg and Governor of Israel the first essay of his incredible strength was when he rent a yong f Judg. 14.6 Lyon as if he would have rent a Kid the second when he g Judg. 15.15 slew with a new jaw bone of an Ass a thousand men the third when he carried away upon his shoulders the gates of Gaza to the top of a hill that is before Hebron and the last when he to avenge himself upon the Philistins for the h Judg. 16.3 loss of his eyes took hold upon the two middle Pillars upon which the house stood and so pulled down the same upon their heads and slew more of the Philistims at his death then he had done in his life time i Judg. 16.19.20 And divers Worthies attained to great honor by their strength and valour as it may be seen in 23 Chap. of the 2. of Samuel k 2
Christians have with their gracious God by contemplation meditation or fervent prayers The first is a sudden and violent motion of the heart that causeth a great alteration in the body The definition of Joy See Theuphrast Boju in his Commentaties upon Aristotle Phys fol. 727. proceeding in the opinion of the Moralists from the possession or fight of some object much desired which is really good or reputed to be so by the imagination of men yet it will appear by the proprieties and effects of it that it doth not always come from the possession or injoyment of a beloved object or from an imaginary good but sometimes from relations scurrilous speeches ridiculous postures and deformedobjects for Joy is as I have said before an affection of the minde and is rather infused in the Heart by the Eye and by the Ear then by any of the other three Senses for those are more proper to the passion of Volupty of which Delight or Delectation is a branch however it is the fifth passion incident to the Concupiscible appetite and proceeds from divers causes as it will appear in the next Discourse Secondly The causes of worldly joy are either Publick or Private the Publick proceed commonly from the immediate hand of God or from his favor or by his permission and of these I shall speak in the first place first It was a great cause of publick joy proceeding from the immediate hand of God to the people of Israel presently after their coming out of Egypt to see the sea go back Exod. 14.21 to 31. and make a free passage for their host to pass through the midst of it and when they were all safe come to dry land to see the rowling waves of the sea to turn back and overwhelm Pharoah and all his Army secondly It was a cause of publick Joy when it pleased the Lord to deliver the people of the Iews from that bloody decree obtained by Haman from the great King Ahasuerus against the whole Nation of the Iews Esther 3.4 The causes of publick joy that were scattered through the one hundred and seven and twenty Provinces of the said Kings Dominions for which admirable deliverance the people of Israel made the 15th and 16th day of the moneth Adar days of Thanksgiving and of Feasting and Rejoycing from one generation to the other which were called the days of Purim See the Spanish and Turkish History thirdly It was the cause of publick joy to the Venetians and to all Christendom when God was pleased to give unto the Christian Fleet such a memorable victory over the Turkish Navy at the Battel of Lepantho for which after thanks given to God many days of Feasting and Rejoycing were kept at Venice and other parts of Christendom fourthly See Speed in the life of King James It was an incredible cause of publick joy for England when the Lord was pleased to deliver this Nation from the devillish plot of the Gunpouder Treason for which miraculous deliverance after hearty thanks given to God great Feasting Bond-fires and other expressions of joy were made in London and through the whole Land 1. It was a cause of private joy to the old Patriarch Jacob to hear by the report of his sons that his beloved son Joseph Gen. 45.26 who he thought had been devoured by wild beasts was chief Governor of Egypt and the next man in honor to the King 2. It was a cause of private joy for old Iesse The causes of private joy 1 Sam. 16.12 to see his youngest son David from a Shepherd to be promoted to be King of all Israel and specially to be reputed by God himself to be a man after his own heart 3. It was a cause of private joy for old Mordecay to see his Neece Esther Esther 2.16 from a Captive to be exalted to be the wife of the great King Ahasuerus and the greatest Queen in the world 4. It was a cause of incomprehensible joy to the Virgin Mary and to all mankinde to hear the blessed and glad tidings that the Angel Gabriel brought her from the Lord saying Behold Luke 1.26.46 thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David whereupon the Virgin Mary transported with joy and ravished in spirit sung some dayes after this excellent Song My soul doth magnify the Lord beginning at the fourty sixt Verse of the first Chap. of St. Luke Here was a true and real Cause of Spiritual Joy not onely for the Virgin Mary but also for all the Elected of God who by free grace have part in the merits of Christ By these Instances it appears that these causes of joy did proceed from the seeing and hearing which are the two Senses most proper to the passion of Joy There are divers other Causes of worldly joy which are not so well grounded as these but are most vain and ridiculous and they are these following The joy of private and worldly men suits with their inclinations first The Ambitious will rejoyce in the increase of their honors secondly The Covetous men in the abundance of their riches thirdly The causes of private mens joy The Voluptuous men will rejoyce in the injoyment of their pleasures fourthly The Merchants and Trades-men in the increase of their Trade fifthly The Lawyers in the multiplicity of their Clients and in the discord of their neighbors sixthly The prophane and Libertine in all manner of ridiculous Sports scurrilous Songs lewd Musick Dancing Valting and in lascivious Pictures and Postures and in Chambering Gluttony and Drunkenness and these are the common and ordinary causes of the joy of worldly men Let the Reader judg then whether carnal joy be not meer vanity and vexation of Spirit for the great vanity of it moved Solomon to say I said of laughter Eccles 2.2 it is mad and of mirth what doth it and the very truth is that men transported with immoderate joy are like fools and mad men Thirdly The proprieties of worldly joy are these first Worldly joy is of hot temper secondly It is of a dilative or spreading quality and these two proprieties are the cause that sudden joy doth bereave men of life for when some beloved object or glad tidings are unexpectedly represented to the eyes or ears of men this causeth a violent alteration in all the parts of the body but specially in the heart by means of the hot and dilative quality of this passion of Joy because the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it are with great violence driven from the inward parts to the extremity of the members of the body The proprieties of worldly joy whereby mens hearts are deprived of their natural heat and of their vital spirits and so fall into a swoon
neither the Art of men nor the hidden Vertues of drugs and Simples are of any effect without his blessing thirdly the change of Air from bad to good and the pleasent prospects of green Medows corn Fields beautiful Gardens The natural remedies against Sorrow and odiferuos Flowers rejoycing the Senses are remedies against Sorrow fourthly Honest and godly Company and moderate Exercises as Walking Shooting and Bowling divert and drive away Sorrow fifthly wholsom Diet and broath with Chickens and Mutton Borage Buglos Marigolds and yellow Flowers with a cup or two of Claret Wine with Sugar are excellent remedies against Grief and Sorrow The Moral remedies are Fortitude Temperance Constancy and Patience for the use and practice of these Vertues are special antidotes against the venom of Sorrow I do not allow of the Stoicks Constancy The moral remedies against Sorrow who would have their wise men to be insensible of anguish in the midst of the greatest torments nor to be sad for the loss of Parents Wife Children or intimate Friends for this is rather a brutish stupidity then a true constancy Neither do I approve of an extream dejectedness or excessive sorrow for the loss or deprivation of any thing that is dear unto men but of a moderate demonstration of the sinsibility required by Humanity and Christianity of such a loss for such as are truly wise are never transported with excessive Joy nor with extream Sorrow for any thing which befalleth them in prosperity or in adversity the medium temper being to be preferred before any extream as for Fortitude Temperance and Constancy I must acknowledg the Heathen have out-gone in their Vertues the Christians in these days The Pagans have out-gone the Christians in Moral Vertues as it may appear by the lives and actions of divers of them as of Aristides Phocion Epamonides Scevola Regulus Fabricius and Cato but for true Patience Christians have out-gone them as it may appear in the Book of Martyrs Now because Patience is not onely a moral Vertue but also a divine Grace I will speak of it in the next Discourse because Sixthly The Remedies I am to speak of have a coherence with the use of Spiritual Sorrow and the chiefest are these first Humility secondly Fortitude thirdly Patience for the pride of mens hearts is the essential cause of all their sorrows the other causes being but branches of it The spiritual remedies against Sorrow as the of loss Parents Wife Children intimate Friends Goods Riches Honor Reputation and the Anguish and Paines of their natural infirmities Now if men endevor to obtain from God by fervent prayer these three graces they will be able to regulate their greatest sorrows first If they acknowledg with all humility that all things they have are the immediate gift of God they will have no occasion to be grieved or to be sorrowful when God who was and is the giver of them all is pleased to take them away And for instance let the Humility Fortitude and Patience of Job be their Patern and President Job 1. he lost his dear children all his goods and riches by four casual accidents as men call them and besides Job 2. the immediate hand of God was upon him to try and prove his patience for besides the sore Boiles that were upon his body his wife and intimate friends that should have comforted him did aggravate his grief nay as he saith himself Job 6.4 The Arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me and yet Satan with all his temptations nor by these losses and bodily anguishes could never induce him to murmur against the Lord nor cast him in a pit of excessive Sorrow being always supported by the confidence he had in the mercies of God and in the assurance that his Redeemer liveth Job 29.25 and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth besides Humility makes men to be contented in any condition but Pride makes men fret and grieve for the want of superfluous things secondly Fortitude makes men cast away all timerous fears that beget sorrow for men are apt to grieve and sorrow for imaginary evils that they apprehend will come upon them although there is no probability they should befal them as much as for those which they suffer The spiritual use of Sorrow Moreover in Dolour and Anguish of the body Fortitude gives men courage and makes them to regard them no more then a Flea-bite Lastly Patience mixt with Hope suffers all Griefs Anguishes sorrows afflictions tribulations and persecutions as things that be of no continuance for it teacheth men to know That weeping a Psal 30.5 may indure for a night but joy cometh in the morning and that the sufferings of this present time b Rom. 8.18 are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us The first Use is that men should not grieve nor be sorrowful for any thing but for sin for sin indangereth the soul which is more worth then all that a man hath nay men must not onely be sorrowful for sin but they must c Zach. 12.10 mourn for sin as one mourneth for his onely son Nay men must not onely mourn for their sins but their sins d Psal 51.3 must ever be before them that they may say with the Prophet David Hide thy e Psal 51.9 face from my sins and blot out mine iniquities and they must continually pray Wash me f Psal 51.2 throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin then shal all worldly sorrow be bah shed away and their mourning shal be turned into joy and they be made partakers of this blessing promised by our blessed Saviour Blessed are they that g Matt. 5.4 mourn for they shall be comforted It appears then by these Discourses that worldly Sorrow is meer vanity and vexation of Spirit and that godly Sorrow is an introduction to a godly life and by consequence to Salvation c. CHAP. XII Of the vanity of the passion of worldly Hope IF the greatest evil is nothing else but the privation of the greatest good how miserable should the lives of men be in their tedious Pilgrimage through this vale of Tears if they were deprived of Spiritual Hope sith it is their greatest Comforter and their chiefest Cordial against the anxieties of their minde and the anguish of their bodies under the burden of which their hearts would faint if they were not supported and comforted by this Hope And in this as much as in any thing is the incomprehensible wisdom of God visibly seen that he hath been pleased to store men with Antidotes against all kinde of venoms and evils that might be destructive to them and to their beeing for were it not for this passion of Hope men upon the lest disgraces afflictions tribulations and persecutions of
passion of Undantedness drives away all fears from their mindes yet these come oftentimes short of their hopes See the French Mercury for Baligny one of the most undanted spirits of the French Nation who had slain in Duel or in single Combat seventeen valiant Gentlemen as any were in France was slain himself in the streets of Paris manfully by another Gentleman who was reputed but a Novice in the feats of Arms. Therefore mens hopes are for the greater part of a deluding Nature if they be not grounded upon Reason and good Probabilities Thirdly The Objects of the Hope of worldly men are these first Honors secondly Riches thirdly Pleasures fourthly Self-ends and Vain-glory for all the hopes of carnal men are fixed upon one of these Objects The vanity and incenstancy of worldly honor and by consequence their hopes must be meer vanity and vexation of spirit first Men that make Honors the Objects of their Hopes will finde them to be grounded upon quick-sand for what is more subject to mutation and change then worldly Honors The Favorites of Princes are compared to Moucherons that grow up in one night Jonah 4.6 7. or to Jonahs Gourd that sprouted and grew to its perfection in one day and by a Worm was withered the next day even so the honors of Favorites are taken away in a moment Esther 4 2. and 7.10 Hamon the Agagite was promoted on a sudden above all the Princes that were with the great King Ahasuerus but he lost in a moment his life and his Honors and suffered an ignominious death for he was hanged on a Gibbet of fifty cubits high Sejanus likewise the Great Favorite of the Emperor Tiberius Nero See Tacitus in Tiberius life was raised to the greatest honors of the Roman Empire but in a moment he was degraded of all his Honors and dragged like a dog thorow the streets of the City of Rome See the French History and of late years the Marquess d'Auere of a Groom was promoted to the greatest Honors of the Crown of France but in an instant he was pistoled by the command of the King Lewis the thirteenth and having been buried in a Church neer to the Kings Palace his body was taken out of the grave by the common people the next day The vanity and mutability of worldly Riches and dragged up and down the streets of the City of Paris and afterwards hacked in pieces burned and his ashes cast into Seine Therefore mens hopes that are fixed upon worldly Honors have a very sandy foundation secondly If mens Hopes be fixed upon Riches they are as ill grounded for what is more fickle then Riches that make themselves wings and flee away Prov 23.5 See Herodotus in the life of Cyrus Cressus King of Lydia lost all his incredible Treasures and his Kingdoms in a day and Crassus the richest Roman that ever was See Plutarch in Crassus life lost his life and his unparallel'd riches by indeavouring to increase them Riches are then a tottering foundation for mens hopes thirdly if mens Hopes be fixed upon worldly pleasures they are of less continuance then the fire of thorns under a Pot for carnal pleasures seem tedious in the continuance The vanity of worldly Pleasures and mens estates will be sooner wasted and their bodies consumed by lothsome diseases then they will besatisfied with carnal pleasures fourthly Although Self-ends and Vaine-glory are the ordinary objects of the Hopes of the most generous spirits yet Vain-glory is but a meer shadow and for Self-ends it is contemptible and base for moral Hope which inticeth men to generous actions cannot be pure if it be not free from Self-ends and vain ostentation The vanity of Self-ends and vain-glory and notwithstanding if the most heroical actions of the ancient and modern Worthies both in Arms and in learning were well examined few will be found that were acted meerly for the love of Vertue or the publique good but were mixt with Self-ends and Vain-glory for the Conquests of Alexander and of Cesar and of a hundred more were to increase their fame and Dominions And the learned Works of Aristotle of Plate of Demosthenes of Cicero of Seneca of Salust and of many more were written as much to perpetuate their memory as for the love of Vertue or of the Publick good Mens Hopes must then have a more excellent object and a more solid foundation then these before related or they will prove to be but meer vanity and vexation of spirit Fourthly The nature and proprieties of this passion of worldly Hope are these first Although all worldly Hope is of an earthly nature because of its corruptible and transitory objects yet it hath a propriety of agility for it is as swift as the thoughts and desire of men for in an instant of time mens Hope may be here in France in Spain in Turky or any where where men have commerce or trading The nature and probabilities of worldly Hopes acquaintance or intimate friends secondly The worldy Hope of men is as inconstant as the Windes for sometimes it is fixed upon Honors other times upon Riches and again upon Pleasures or upon this undertaking or this other design and alters according to mens fancies and imaginations thirdly the worldly Hope of men is ordinarily voide of Prudence for it is extravagant and oftentimes ridiculous because it doth not take his measures and distances aright I mean in fixing their Hopes upon impossibilities which is the reason that so many are deluded in their Hopes divers unreasonable creatures having by a natural sagacity a better aim then they for the Lyons the Tygers the Bares and all other devouring beasts will not set upon any other beast except they see some probability they may master them for if they be too swift or too strong they forbear to set upon them nor the Kite will not offer to ravish the young Chickens if its sees the Hen neer at hand to defend them The wilde beasts by a natural sagacity undertake nothing without probability they may attain nor the Hawk will not fly after the Partridge except it sees that she is within her reach but worldly men for the greater part fix their hopes upon objects wherein there is no probability at all they should attain to the injoyment of them which is against the natural propriety of this passion of Hope for true Hope eschews all impossibilities fourthly The worldly Hopes of men are insatiable as well as their Desires for when they have attained the fruition of one of their Hopes they instantly fix their Hopes upon another object so that the thirst of an Hydropick will be sooner quenched then the worldly hope of men will be satisfied Pyrrhus King of Albania had conceived a vain Hope of the conquest of Italy but his wise and prudent Counsellor Cynias perceiving no probability in this hope of his because the Roman Common-wealth was then powerful
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
lived like dogs and cats but he with an admirable patience did bear with her Infirmities and waywardness It is Recorded that Diogenes the Cynick being told that the Athenians jeered him for his rustical and uncivil deportments let them jeer saith he for they may doe it long enough before they can cast me into a Passion of Wrath. Fourthly Charity is a most excellent Remedy against Wrath 1 Cor. 13.7 for as S. Paul saith Charity beareth all things beleiveth all things hopeth all things endureth all things so if men be endowed with this Superlative Grace of Charity they will not be moved nor transported with Wrath against their Brethren But the want of Charity one towards another is the Cause that men are filled with Malice Envy and Wrath. For Charity suffereth long and is kinde Charity envyeth not 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly thinketh no evil Rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth These are the noble and gracious Effects of Charity which S. Paul sets out so fully and elegantly to make men in love with Charity as the cheifest of all Spiritual Graces as it appears in the last Verse of this Chapter And now abideth Faith 1 Cor. 13.13 Hope Charity these Three but the greatest of These is Charity Men therefore should earnestly endevor to obtain of God by fervent prayers this excellent Grace of Charity For without it all other Graces are without life and of no validity as S. Paul doth witness the same from the beginning of this Chapter to the latter end And I am verily perswaded that the want of Charity is the cause of all the Divisions and Contentions that reign in this Commonwealth and why men are so apt to Vindication and Wrath Which the Heathen Philosophers did abhor and detest as the most ragefull and furious Passion of all others fitter for brute and cruel beasts as Lyons and Tygers then for Rational men and specially for Christians who have before their eys for a special President the admirable Patience and unparalleld Meekness of our Blessed Saviour to make them hate and detest Anger Choler and Wrath for the Lord saith the Prophet Isaiah hath layd on him the iniquities of us all Isal 53.6 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before her Shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth The Event Issue and Accomplishment of this Prophesy is clearly expressed in the 27. Chapter of S. Matthew where you may see how the Jews spit in his face set a crown of thorns upon his head put upon him a scarlet robe and gave him a reed in his right hand and in derision bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying Mat. 27.28 29 30. Hail king of the Jews And yet for all these injuries shameful reproaches and unparalleld ignominies he never opened his mouth to give them a bad word far from being possessed with the least appearance or motion of Anger Choler and Wrath. This Example should induce Christians to abhor and eschew this vile Passion of Wrath more then the Contagious disease of the Plague It appears then by this Discourse that Wrath is not only vanity but an extream vexation of spirit CHAP. XVII Of the vanity of the passion of Volupty HAving thus described the Nature Proprieties and Effects of the eleven general Passions of men I now come to speak of some of the mixt or composed And will give the preheminency to Volupty Avarice and Ambition as the most predominant Passions of this Age For although I have given a hint of them in the second third and fourth Chapters of this Treatise under the notion of the pleasures riches and honours of this life yet I conceive it convenient to speak of them more fully in this place for if men would but endeavour to allay the fury of these three Passions the boistrous storms of our Civil Distractions would suddenly be changed into a calm of Peace Sith the distemper of them hath ever been from the beginning of the Creation to this day the chiefest Incendiary of all the Civil broils and mutations which have happened in the World as it will appear in the description of their pernitious Effects There are divers sorts of Volupties yet they may be reduced under these three heads 1. The Spiritual 2. The Natural 3. The Carnal The first is super-excellent the second harmless the third sinful The Spiritual proceeds from the delight the Saints take in the hearing of Gods Word and in the meditating in his * Psal 1.2 Law day and night And in their prayers and other exercises of religious duties or in the contemplation of the admirable works of the Creation and how they have been preserved in their first being for so many years together by his Wisdom and Divine Providence But specially in the consideration of the incomprehensible love of God towards mankinde manifested by the sending of his only beloved Son into the World to redeem his Elect from eternal death The Natural proceeds from a delight men take when they eat being hungry when they drink when they are athirst sleep when they have watched and rest when they are weary and from divers other such refreshments of Nature The Carnal proceeds from a tickling delight of the five senses for every one of them have their peculiar volupty as it appears by the proprieties of their organs The Eyes take delight in beautiful objects the Ears in melody the Nose in odoriferous odors the Pallate in delitious Wines and the Members in wanton feelings Now when any of these delights of the senses becomes disordinate it is called a carnal volupty whereby it is apparent that our five senses are the original springs of all carnal volupties which are innumerable But the volupty I intend to speak of is a mixt delight composed of two of the most lascivious senses viz. of the seeing and feeling called lust or lechery And by consequence the most sinful of any if it be refractory to the Rules set down in the Word of God This passion is more pleasant then any other to our corrupt nature for delight is the darling of nature and dolour her mortal enemies and the more pleasing it is to the flesh the harder it is to overcome For the flesh saith S. Paul lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and as these are contrary one to another so are their operations For the fruits of the Spirit are joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith holiness c. But the works of the flesh are adulteries fornications and uncleaness c. This Antipathy should then move Christians to endeavour to overcome this passion as the greatest Antagonist against the grace of sanctification for if it getteth the mastery over their reason it will deprive them of their love and filial
it are rather worse then better 1. It deprives men of Reason and Understanding for Sampson a Nazarite from his Mothers womb and a Judge and Deliverer of Israel was so besotted by the charms and lascivious allurements of Dalilah Judg. 13.6 that he revealed a secret unto her in the concealing of which did consist the safety of his own life and of his native Countrey 2. Solomon the wisest Prince that ever lived upon Earth 1 King 3.12 was by the allurements of his Wives and Concubines turned away from the Lord and offered Sacrifices to their Idols 3. Marcus Antonius a valiant Commander of the Romans who never had been foiled in all his Martial Archivements before he was infatuated by the alluring charms of Cleopatra was so deprived of understanding that at the Battel of Antrium when he had the better of the day he fled away Plutarch in his life to follow her that carryed his heart away and by the fond love of a woman lost his life and the Empire Charls the Seventh King of France was so besotted by the lascivious embracements of La-belle Agnes his Concubine The French History that he neglected all the Civil and Military Affairs of his Kingdom to Court and dally the time away with her and had lost utterly his Kingdom by this passion of Volupty if his Mistress that was of a generous spirit had not rouzed him out of his lascivious dumps saying thus unto him I was foretold in my youth saith she that I should be one day the love and Mistress of the greatest and most valorous Prince in Christendom But it appears by your carriage that I am the love of the most effeminate Prince in Europe for you suffer the English Nation to rent your Kingdom into piece-meals and in lieu to be King of France you are through your pusillanimity become the petty King of Bourges for shame rouze up your spirits and let not a Forraign Nation deprive you of Life and Crown These taunting reproaches coming from a woman that was dearer unto him then his own life did so enlighten his understanding and inflame his courage that he instantly undertook to relieve Orleance that was then besieged by the English And after he had enforced them to raise their Siege he drove them by degrees out of all they held in France Calice only excepted 2. It deprives the dearest childern of God for some time of the love and favour of their heavenly Father As it doth appear in the lives of King David and of Solomon his Son 2 Sam. 11.2.3 for David by the lascivious embracements of Bathsheba was cast into a spiritual Lethargy for a whole year together and deprived of the sweet communion he had formerly with his gracious God so that in lieu to be penitent for his sin of Adultery Vers 13. he committed one after another two other abhorred sins for to palliate the first he caused his Servants to allure Vriah to drunkenness that his understanding being depraved by the vapors of the Wine he might return home and lie with his Wife but this wile failing he caused him to be murthered by the sword of the children of Ammon yet was his understanding so stupified by this bewitching spirit of uncleanness that he had dyed in his sins if God out of his infinite mercy had not sent the Prophet Nathan unto him 2 Sam. 12.1 to rouze him out of this mortal spiritual slumber 1 King 3.11 12. And King Solomon lay many years in such a deadly spiritual lethargy that he was utterly insensible of his gross Idolatries and abhorred Fornications for in number of Wives and Concubines he did excel all the Turkish Emperours and had perished in his sins if God out of his accustomed mercy towards his Elect had not out of Free-grace given him the gift of an unfained repentance as it appears by his Book of Ecclesiastes written after his conversion 3. It deprives men of all true content and over-whelms them with grief and sorrows for in what condition soever voluptuous men finde themselves they neither take pleasure nor content except their minde be alwayes bent upon the means that can make them attain to the fruition of their carnal delights for in them they erroneously conceive doth consist their supream felicity whereas the termination of the pleasures of the flesh is ever the beginning of misery and wo And therefore Aristotle to disswade his Disciples from carnal volupties told them that they were like the Mer-maids who are extraordinarily beautiful above water for their face is round and fair their hair as yellow as gold their eyes of a loving dark gray their mouth small their lips as red as Coral their teeth as white as snow their breast as round as an apple and their arms hands shoulders back flanks as white as Alabaster but their tail is like the tail of a great Serpent frightful full of teeth and mortal venom Even so carnal volupties are delightful to mens corrupt nature and seem to be sweeter then honey and the honey comb at the first enjoyment of them but at their adieu they are bitterer then gall and more loathsome then the snuff of a candle and for one dram of carnal delight they over-whelm their Clients with anguish and sorrow and make them shed rivers of penitent tears whensoever God is pleased to give them the gift of an unfained repentance Besides all true joy and content doth consist in the favour and love of God and in the assurance he doth infuse in the hearts of his Elect by his blessed Spirit that they are justified and reconciled unto him by the sufferings blood and passion of Christ his only Son our most gracious Saviour and this love favour and assurance is permanent and eternal but the joy and content proceeding from carnal volupties are for continuance like a fire of Thorns under a Pot or like the morning dew which vanisheth away at the rising of the Sun for the least blast of dolor and affliction doth suddenly make the very remembrance of carnal pleasures vanish away like smoak moreover the very conceits imaginations and deportments of voluptuous men are meer vanity and vexation of minde for their paradise upon Earth is to be always musing upon the beauty comliness and perfections of their Mistress Nay some are so infatuated by the spirit of uncleanness which doth possess them that they do Idolize their picture kiss their dressings and other things they wear nay the very ground they tread upon And can there be any real content in these absurd vanities mad and foolish deportments surely no for these vain phansies whereon they fix their minds divert their thoughts from being diligent Hearers of the Word of God and careful observers of his Ordinances from which they might reap true content 4. It deprives men of their means for Princes Noble-men Gentlemen Merchants and Artificers who are given to volupties do commonly fall into penury for as
Florence was slain in his bed as he waited for the coming of a Gentlewoman he had allured to his lust 16. A Counsellor of the Court of Parliament of Paris slew a Gentleman and his own Wife as they lay abed together for he struck them both thorow the body with a Stiletto as they were upon the very act And from thence went to the Court and without perturbation pleaded the Case under fained names and obtained a definitive sentence of absolution from the said court for the murther by him committed For as Solomon saith Prov. 6.34 Jealousie is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare him in the day of vengeance These instances and many others that might be produced of the judgements of God inflicted upon whole Nations and particular men for the punishment of their lascivious volupties should refrain them from this destructive passion and make them flee from it as from a Serpent induce them to leave no remedies unattempted to mortifie the same But before I come to speak of the moral and spiritual remedies which are to be used to curb or to subdue this sinful passion give me leave to answer an Objection which some Moralists make to palliate the sin of it Voluptie say they is but a venial sin Object and the most innocent Passion of all others for it is the Darling of Nature and all men and women are naturally inclined to Delight neither could they subsist in the midst of so many woes and sorrows to which they are incident if it were not for these natural refreshments that you call Volupties And sith the fire and heat of this passion is cooled or utterly extinguished by old age men need not be so copious in the description of the evil nature proprieties and effects of it Nor so tedious in the manifestation of the remedies that may mortifie the same For Volupty doth not encrease by Age as Avarice and drunkenness doth I answer Answ that in regard of the actual act of Volupty old age may quench the flames of it But as for the intellectual desires I say that old men who have from their youth been addicted to this kinde of Volupty will long as much after that delight as the Avaricious men do after the encrease of their Treasures or the Drunkards after the taste of delicious Wines except they be sanctified both in body and soul by the sanctifying Spirit of Gods Free-grace for old age nor all the precepts of Morality cannot cast out of a mans heart this spirit of uncleanness if once he hath taken possession of it because it is of the same kinde Which goeth not out as our Saviour saith himself but by prayer and fasting Math. 17.21 that is to say by the meer and immediate operation of the sanctifying Spirit of Grace as it shall be proved by Instances and divers Passages of the Word of God when I shall speak of the spiritual remedies which are to be used to mortifie this passion As for the moral remedies that I am now to speak of they are these first men are to endeavor to attain to an habit in these four Vertues or Graces 1. Continency 2. Temperance 3. Fortitude 4. Sanctification Secondly they are to eschew these four splitting rocks or great inticers to all lascivious Volupties 1. Idleness 2. Alluring Objects 3. Suspected places 4. Evil company And in so doing they will undoubtedly by the help of the sanctifying Spirit obtain the victory over this spirit of uncleanness that is the greatest Opposite to the grace of sanctification for there is a greater antipathy between holiness and pollution then there is between fire and watter the Lyon and the Cock the Dog and Cat or between Vice and Vertue These things considered I will begin with those things which are to be eschewed for it were to small purpose to endevor to attain to an habit in these four Graces If men do not eschew the four things above spoken of by which the use of these Graces would be soon annihilated First Idleness is to be eschewed for if mens minds be not bent upon laudable employments they will busie themselves in unlawful things because their spirits are naturally active And as standing waters become loathsome even so men who have no employment become vitious And daily experience sheweth that such as are rich and have no calling are more addicted to Volupties then the meaner sort The Lacedemonians of all the other Greeks were the most active and valorous and the Athenians the most voluptuous because the first were kept under a strict Discipline gold and silver being prohibited in their Common-wealth and all manner of volupties banished and Military Atchievements cherished But the second were rich and by consequence Idle and did nothing as the Apostle S. Paul saith but hear or tell news Act. 17.21 or did employ themselves in all kinde of carnal Volupties Therefore such as will be continent must addict themselves to some lawful calling and are to be diligent in the same Prov. 10.4 For a slothful hand saith Solomon maketh poor but the hand of the diligent maketh rich Fulness of bread and Idleness were the cause saith the Prophet Ezechiel of the abhorred lusts of the Sodomites And for this cause the Emperour Severus made a Decree that all men whatsoever living in the City of Rome should imploy themselves in some lawful calling See Herodian in Severus life and wear upon their Apparel the badges of their profession that all idle persons might be banished out of the Commonwealth because Idleness is the mother of all vices The point might be proved by many instances but two shall serve for brevity sake 1. As long as King David addicted himself to Martial Achievements he never was carryed away by the temptations of Satan to lust after other mens Wives but when he was Idle and walking upon the Leads of his Palace he was ensnared into sin by the beauty of Bathsheba the Wife of Vriah the Hittite 2 Sam. 11.2 2. As long as the Prodigal Son was employed about the mannaging of his Fathers Houshold affairs he carryed himself like a dutiful Son but as soon as he was Idle and had obtained his Portion he wasted the same among Harlots Luk. 15.13 and by riotous living for Satan desireth no better opportunity to tempt men to sin then when they are Idle Secondly alluring Objects are to be eschewed and specially those of the feminine Sexe for many are bewitched by the glances of their eyes and that is the reason why King David after his fall prayed unto God he would be pleased to turn his eyes from beholding vanity Psal 101.3 as conceiving the beauty of women to be the greatest vanity under the Sun for the glances of their eyes are as destructive to mens souls as the glances of the eyes of a Basilisk are to their bodies Prov. 4.25 And that is the cause why Solomon saith Let thine
intellectual Adultery of the heart committed in the Matrimonial Bed which is as odious to God although it be not censurable by men because it is invisible as the actual Adultery with a strange woman This should move all true Christians who through a filial fear are timerous to offend God to be cautious of their ways that they be not ensnared by their deceitful hearts and the temptations of Satan in this kinde of Adultery or if they be that they may unfainedly repent of it before death part their soul from their body otherwise without the special mercies of God their souls may run as much hazard by this sort of Adultery as by the actual Secondly men are to endevor to attain to an habit in Temperance and Sobriety vertues or graces opposite to the vices of gluttony drunkenness two of the greatest provokers to Lust These are also distinguished by corporeal and Intellectual The corporal Temperance may be acquired by Moral Precepts but the Intellectual is an immediate gift of the Sanctifying Spirit of grace and cannot be obtained but by Prayer for God is the only giver of it And it is properly called Meekness of spirit and the inseparable companion of the grace of sanctification The proprieties and effects of which are apparently seen in the carriage and replies of Job Moses Ely David and Hezekiah 1. When the Messengers came suddenly after one another to acquaint Job of the loss of all he had and of the death of his Children he replyed with an admirable meekness of spirit Job 1.21 The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. 2. Moses with the like meekness did patiently endure the false and offensive reproaches of his own brother and sister Numb 12.3 for the which he is called by the Holy Ghost the meekest man upon earth 3. Eli with the same meekness of spirit answered the Prophet Samuel when hd had acquainted him of the will of the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 concerning the death of his two sons and the casting off of his Posterity from the High-Priests office it is the Lord let him do what seemeth good unto him 4. When King David heard the bitter Curses of Shimei for the which Abishai would have slain him he answered with the like meckness of spirit 2 Sam. 16.9 10. Let him curse because the Lord hath sayd unto him curse David who shal then say Wherefore hast thou done so 5. When the Prophet Isaiah was sent to King Hezekiah to denounce the heavy judgement of God against Jerusalem and his posterity he answered with the like meekness of spirit Isal 39.8 The word of the Lord is good which thou hast spoken Whereby it appears that the temperance of the minde is a great curb to bridle the violence of the Passions of men for the Answer that Joseph gave to his lewd Mistress when she tempted him to lie with her did proceed from the same root and from the filial fear he had of God Gen. 39.8 9. Begold my Master knoweth not what he hath in the house but hath committed all he hath into my hands there is none greater in the house then I neither hath he kept any thing from mee but only thee because thou art his wife How then can I do this great wickedness and so sin against God But such is the depravation of this age that I have heard some Voluptuous men call continent Joseph a very Sot for having rejected the lascivious Summons of his Mistress and neglected through a Puerile Fear the Time Place and Opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of her embracements As for the Corporeal Temperance and Sobriety the Heathens have also excelled most of the Christians of these days in that noble vertue as it shall appear by these Instances 1. King Cyrus being demanded by his Steward Where and What he pleased to have for his Supper Answered I will sup by the River-side and have only for my Diet Bread and Salt for Drink we shall have enough out of the River 2. The Queen of Caria having sent to Alexander the rarest Cooks that were in Asia he sent them back unto her with this Message that he had no need of Cooks as long as he did observe the Precepts of his Tutor Leonides who had charged him to exercise his body in the Morning in running of Races on foot or in the mannaging of his War horse to give him a stomack to his Dinner and to walk two or three miles in the Evening to have an Appetite to his Supper 3. Phocion one of the Governors of the Athenian Commonwealth was found at Dinner by the Embassador that Alexander sent to him with a Present of ten Talents with one single dish of meat See Plutarch in his Life and having demanded of the Embassador the reason why Alexander did send him such a Present he answered Only for your integrity vertue Let him leave me so said Phocion for this Gold will make me unjust and vitious and so with thanks sent the present back to Alexander 4. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus See Livy in his 1. Decade Dictator of the Roman Commonwealth was found at Dinner with a small piece of meat and a dish of Turnips by the Embassadors of the Samnites that were sent unto him with a great sum of Gold to induce him to shew them favor in the obtaining of a Peace which they required of the Roman Senate Whereupon Cincinnatus shewing them the frugality of his Diet said unto them Tell the Samnites that he that can be contented with such Fare needs no Gold and therefore carry it back for if their request be just they shall have my favor without it There are evidences of the Temperance of the ancient Persians Greeks and Romans concerning the passions of Avarice and Volupty But as soon as the Persians by Cambises and the Greeks by Alcibiades and the Romans by Lucullus were allured to desire riches and pleasures See Herodotus in Cambises Life they became the most covetous and voluptuous Nations of the World and all their former Vertues were turned into Vices Therefore I conclude that Temperance and Sobriety are the inseparable companions of Continency and sanctification And that Riches Gluttony and Drunkness are the greatest Provokers to lust and carnal Volupties And this Passage of S. Paul doth confirm the same They that sleep saith he 1 Thes 5 7 6. sleep in the night and they that are drunken are drunken in the night But let us which are of the day be sober Therefore let us not sleep but let us watch and be sober Intimating that none are more fit to attain to holyness then those who are temperate and sober And none more adverse then drunkards and voluptuous men Thirdly men are to endevor to attain to an habit in Fortitude called by some a vertue but when it is accompanied with Faith it is a grace of the sanctifying Spirit 1. By it
extraordinarily violent in all its operations It is also of an insatiable and sordid nature by the means of the passion of desire that hath an insatiable proprietie and is most base because this desire hath no other object then the excrements of the Earth Avarice is of a violent insatiable and feminine nature for Gold is nothing but a yellow and Silver nothing but a white clay calcinated and refined by the beams of the Sun by a long continuance of time It is likewise of a timerous quality by the means of the passion of fear that is of a feminine nature so by the mixture of these ill-qualified ingredients Avarice is one of the most base passions incident to men Fourthly These kinde of men are most commonly addicted to it 1. Low and base minded men 2. Old men are more addicted to it then the young 3. Those who have in their youth been riotous and prodigal are much inclined to it when they become ancient 4. Such as have been in great want in their youth become avaritious when they are old out of fear to fall into the like straits For the first all generous spirits disdain to be avaritious for their thoughts soar higher then the excrements of the Earth whereas the low-minded are like the Swine who never rise nor lift up their eyes to Heaven but are still fixed and routing with their snout in the muck-hils of the Earth See Plutarch and Dion in their Lives I mean by using all vile and base means to enrich themselves as Crassus and Vespasian did Secondly the antient are more addicted to Avarice then young men and this proceeds of fear and from the experience they have of the mutability of all worldly things besides they consider their weakness disabilities of body to labor as they did in their youth therefore hoard up what they can against the day of need hope being then utterly extinguisht in their breast by the cold blast of timerous fears which doth possess decrepit aged men yet this consideration that they have one of their feet upon the brink of their Grave should induce them to make use of the blessings of God sith they have but short time to live and less need of them then younger men Thirdly such as have lavished their means by profuse prodigalities fall when they are recalled from these courses from one extream to another and from great Prodigals become great Usurers avaritious Misers Fourthly Princes who in their youth were of a generous spirit yet having been brought by mutation of state into great wants and necessities become when they are antient out of fear to fall again into the same straits extreamly avaritious and prone to hoard up Treasures as it appears by the Lives of Peter de Medecis Duke of Florence See Guicciardine and the English and French Histories in their Lives and by Henry the Seventh King of England and Henry the Fourth King of France Fifthly The causes moving men to affect Avarice may be these 1. A base distruct of the providence of God suggested in their hearts by Satan through want of Faith to believe these precepts of our blessed Saviour * Math. 6 25 26 27 28 29 30. Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on Is not the life more then meat and the body more then rayment Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not better then they Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature And why take you thought for raiment consider the Lilies of the Field how they grow they toil not neither do they Spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little Faith 2. This diffidence doth beget in them a faint-hearted fear to fall into poverty if they scrape and heap not by hook and crook some heaps of Gold or Silver for although poverty of it self be innocent yet in these depraved days it is held criminal and the greatest vice and misery upon earth Prov. 14.20 For the poor saith Solomon is hated even of his neighbour Notwithstanding saith he in another place Prov. 19 1. Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity then the rich that is perverse in his ways 3. Because none are regarded in this age but the rich yet rich men without wisdom and piety should be no more regarded then fools for as snow in Summer Allusion upon Prov. 26.1 and as rain in Harvest comes unseasonably even so honour is as unseemly to rich men that want understanding It was an ingenuous comparison of a modern Author who said that a wise vertuous and religious poor man was like a good horse with a leather Saddle on his back and a vitious profane and foolish rich man like a Jade that had an embroydred Saddle on his back Men respecting in these days more the rich and gay apparel of men then their worth and vertue 4. Because they may enjoy by riches all carnal volupties from which the poorer sort are debarred by their poverty 5. Because they erroneously conceive that riches make them have many friends but they are commonly Sycophants and Table-friends for all such whose friendship is grounded upon riches and not upon the vertue and merites of the party are time-servers and of a base and mercenary spirit and as fickle in their love and friendship as the wind and at the least blast of disgrace or adversity forsake them These two instances shall prove the point Haman the great Favourite of King Ahashuerus had many friends who bowed their knees daily before him when he had the favour of the King but as soon as his wrath was kindled against him they acquainted the King he had erected a Gibet of fifty Cubits high to hang up Mordecai the preserver of the Kings life Esth 7.9 10. and were the first upon the Kings command who cast a Cloke upon his face offered to hang up Haman upon the same Gibet See Sejanus Life 2. Sejanus the beloved Favourite of the Emperour Tiberius had many friends as long as he was graced by the Emperour for he was more courted by the Senators and men of War then Tiberius himself but they all forsook him when he fell into disgrace and were more eager and active then any to draw his body through the kennels of the Streets of Rome Whereby it appears that the rich mens friends are like a broken bow or a bruised reed 6. Because they falsly believe that riches will rescue them out of many dangers but they are deceived for the smaller
by this saying of S. Paul 1 Tim. 6.9 10. They that will be rich fall into temptations and snares and into many foolish and noisom lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction For the love of money is the root of all evil which while some lusted after they erred from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Eighthly The considerations inducing men to allay the fire of this passion are these 1. They are to consider that nature is contented with a little for some bread and water some Rise Reasons Almonds or Figgs will satisfie the same So that all such as are not nice but sober in their diet and temperate in their drinking will never be enforced to sell their Land to feed their bodies for it is the excess of the superfluous volupties used in these dayes that brings men to penury 2. They are to consider That he who cannot be contented with a little will not be satisfied with all he could desire nothing under the Sun being able to satisfie the desires of men but God only And that is the reason why S. Paul saith 1 Tim. 6.6 That godliness with contentment is great gain for none can be truly contented except he hath the power of godliness in him because the love of God doth suppress all other desires in men It was therefore a wise saying of a Heathen That he who can give bounds to his desires is a greater Conqueror and a richer Monarch then Alexander was See Quintus Curtius in his Life for having conquered one World and having in his possession all the Treasures of Asia which Darius had heaped together yet were not his desires satisfied for he did enquite if there were any more Worlds to satisfie his Ambition and Avarice 3. They are to consider that riches are accounted the gifts of Fortune which is held to be blind therefore it is no wonder if she bestows her gifts upon undeserving men such as were Nabal Sobna and the rich glutton Besides vertuous and Religious men make conscience of their ways and will rather be poor then use indirect and unlawful means to enrich themselves but such as neither fear God nor man stretch their consciences upon the Tenters and conceive no courses unlawful or sinful so they enrich themselves by them 4. They are to consider that Avarice is worse then Prodigality for the profuseness of Prodigal men is not destructive to any but to themselves but the courses used by Avaritious men to enrich themselves are destructive to the whole Commonwealth for all Shop-keepers and Artificers are the better by Prodigals but they are the worse by Avaritious men and specially the poorer sort For they commonly engross or monopolize into their hands all manner of Commodities to sell them dear and principally corn and so like horsleeches suck the very blood of the Poor which makes them to be hated of God and of Men. The consideration of which should move all conscientious men to abhorr Avarice and to endevor by all means to subdue this sinful Passion 5. They are to consider that if they had in their possession all the gold and silver Mines of the West Indies yet they would not adde any thing to their present and future Felicity but rather traverse the first and deprive them of the second Neither can they prolong their Lives an hour nor free their bodyes from any of the numerous Infirmities they are naturally subject unto It is then an absolute Madness for men to tire their bodyes and to waste their spirits by laboring and carking day and night to accumulate some smal heaps of white and yellow Clay that will be of no use unto them at the hour of death Nay they run great hazzard without the mercy of God to lose their own souls in or by the acquisition of them Therefore they should have always this Saying of our Blessed Saviour in their mind Mark 8.36 For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own soul 6. They are to consider that there is a greater difference between the spiritual and temporal riches then there is between Light and Darkness in regard of the superexcellency and duration of the first and the baseness and mutability of the second For spiritual riches are free from all Accidents durable and eternal but the temporal riches are subject to changes and mutations and of no continuance their abode being uncertain men being rich to day and extreme poor to morrow as it appears by the History of Job and of Croesus king of Lydia the one being the richest man of the East and the other the richest Prince in Asia And yet in the revolution of one day Herodotus in Croesus life the last was deprived of his incredible treasures and kingdom and became also the Captive of his mortal Enemy And the first came to be an Object of Poverty and Misery See the Book of Job Ch. 1. and a Subject of Derision and false Imputations to his own wife and intimate freinds It is Recorded that at the sacking or destruction of the City of Thebes by Alexander the Great a Greek Philosopher for his rare parts was permitted to go away with all he had before the rest of the Inhabitants were slain and the city set on fire And being asked as he came out Why he carryed not away his Goods Answered In saving my person I preserve all that may truly be called Riches or Goods meaning his Learning and Vertue Even so if Christians would be as careful to hoard up spiritual riches as they are to heap up gold and silver they should not need to fear the loss of them For Godliness and Holiness that are the spiritual riches of a true Christian are free from all Accidents And this is the reason why our Blessed Saviour doth charge us all To seek first the kingdom of God Math 6.33.34 and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto us And Let us take no thought for to morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evill thereof CHAP. XIX Of the vanity of the passion of Ambition AS it is not the quality but the quantity of wine that is offensive to men So it is the excess and the irregularity of mens ambition that is destructive to mankind for as a little wine rejoyceth the heart so a spark of ambition in the heart of men bends their minds upon generous actions And could they make vertue and holiness the only objects of their Ambition as they do the honour and glory of this world Ambition would prove to be the best and the most commendable passion of men See Plutarch in his Life Themistocles did use to say That the great Trophies of Miltiades did hinder him to take his rest even so if the Faith of Abraham the righteousness of Lot the patience of Job the continency of
evill then upon the good except the nature and propriety of them be changed by divine Grace The effects of mens desires As for the effects of mens desires they are as I have said before Good of Evil according to their objects but sith it hath been proved that they are commonly fixed upon evil objects their effects must of necessity be rather evil then good If the honors of this world be their object the fruits and effects of Adhbition is the desolation of Kingdoms the shedding of innocent blood and the miseries that follow civil and intestine wars If their object be the riches of this world their effects are carking cares moiling and toyling and vexation of minde in their acquisition and fears and apprehensions in their keeping and grief and sorrow in the losing of them If the pleasures of this world be their object the effects wil be the wasting of their means the impairing of their health and the indangering of their souls But if the object of their desires be the glory of God then their effects will be comfort in this life and eternal bliss in the life to come The fruition of Gods presence is the onely object that can satisfy the desires of men So that upon the good or bad election of the objects of mens desires depends their happiness or woe in this life and their torment or glory in the life to come It behoveth men therefore to be wary upon what objects they fix their desires sith there is not any thing under the Sun that can satisfy them for if all the excellency of the creatures were abstracted into one yet it could not satisfy the desires of men sich their soul is a spark of the divine essence that can never be free of the anxiety and perturbations of minde that proceed from the inconstancy and restlesness of mens desires till by grace it doth injoy the sight of the glorious presence of God the original Spring of it who is the fulness and perfection of all bliss for that object onely can satisfy the wishes and desires of their souls Fourthly The comforts that Christians may receive in this life of their godly desires are many as it shall appear when I have perswaded them to indevor to banish from their minde the swarms of vain desires that disquiet the tranquillity of their souls which may be done by these means first To hate and abhor all carnal desires for as long as they have a predominancy in their souls it is impossible for them to have a feeling of the comforts proceeding from the spiritual desires for the flesh having the mastery over the spirit it keeps these effects under hatches Allusion upon the 19. Psalm ver 9 10. But if men desire the sear of God and prefer his Statutes and Judgments before the refined gold and hold them sweeter then hony or the hony comb they will by degrees obtain the dominion over their carnal desires The second means is to indevor to obtain a contented minde for discontentedness is the cause of the extravagancy of mens desires But godliness a 1 Tim. 6.6 with contentment saith St. Paul is great gain for the daily discontent of men makes them desire they know not what but when they are contented with their estate and condition in this life Four means to contain mens desires within their limits their desires aspire higher and endeavor to attain to the supream good as the onely object of mens desires The third means is to purifie their hearts for as clean and pure streams cannot proceed from a foul and muddy Spring even so it is impossible that godly desires should spring from the hearts of men except they be purified and sanctified by the Spirit of God for as our blessed Saviour saith b Matth 15.19 Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications c. and these are the effects of mens desires whose hearts are not purified by grace because the Concupiscible appetite resides in the heart and this appetite is the spring or root of all the desires of men The fourth means is for men to set a watchful Centry over their eyes for by the eye men perceive the objects and the objects are the moving cause of mens desires and Cupidities by the eye King David saw the beauty of c 2 Sam. 11. ver 2. Bathshebah by which he was tempted to lust Therefore men must make a covenant with their eyes as Job did d Job 31.1 for they are the windows whereby mens lascivious desires are conveied into their hearts and by these means and the free grace of God men will be able to keep their desires within the limits prescribed in his Word from which wil proceede first Six comforts proceeding from the spiritual desires of men A true and real contentment of minde which cannot be obtained as long as their vain desires do interrupt the peace of their souls for being freed of their extravagant desires of Cupidity They may as St. Paul saith be contented with that they have sith e Heb. 13.5 God hath promised that he will never leave nor forsake them secondly An unspeakable inward joy for being free from the continuall vexation proceeding from the irregularity of their desires whereby they have more liberty to beat the ways of righteousness and make their f 2 Pet. 1.10 calling and election sure from which they were distracted by their worldly desires thirdly A far greater consolation by the familiar communion they will have with their gracious God then they had before At whose right hand saith the Prophet David g Psal 16.11 there are pleasures for evermore fourthly A fervent desire to walk in the ways of righteousnes and to seek the Lord in the night and in the morning as the Prophet Isaiah saith h Isa 26.9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early fifthly A certain assurance that their desires shall be granted sith they have banished their former vain and extravagant desires as Salomon saith i Pro. 10.24 The fear of the wicked shall come upon him but the desire of the righteous shall be granted sixthly A hunger and thirst after righteousness whereby they shall be in love with all righteous duties and be induced to k Psal 1.2 meditate day and night in the Law of God and by their constant habit in the ways of true piety they shal be made partakers of this blessing of our blessed Saviour l Matth. 5 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled viz. with incredible joy and unspeakable comfort It is then apparent that worldly desires are but meere vanity and vexation of spirit and that there is no true comfort but in the Spiritual c. CHAP. IX Of the vanity of the passion of Flight or Eschewing GOd out of his infinite love to
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