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
take notice once for all That the objects that the senses represent to mens phansies or imaginations are not always really good nor really evil because the judgments of men are oftentimes deluded by the senses who varnish over the good with evil and the evil with good and that is the reason why this phrase of seeming good or seeming evil is used so often in these Discourses Thirdly The definition of passion according to Aristotle and the Bishop of Maâ—seilles Passions argues imperfection in the subject and a distemper in the sensitive power of the soul and here is the definition of the general words of Passions Passion is nothing but a motion of the sensitive appetite proceeding from the apprehension of a reall or seeming good or evil which begets an alteration in the body against the law of Nature Mens passions are born with them and therefore cannot be utterly extinguished neither by an habit of moral Vertue nor by Grace but their sury may be allaid and their distemper regulated they never arise but there is an apparent alteration of the body as it is noted in the desinition above related and this alteration proceeds after this maner the objects having been represented to the imagination by the senses if it conceives them to be good the concupiscible appetite doth intice men to prosecute these objects and having obtained their desire there proceeds from the injoyment of it a passion of joy and delight which dilates the blood with the vital spirits that reside in it to the extreamest part of the body and the heart being deprived of some of his natural heat makes an alteration in the body that is apparently seen in the face which hath by it a more pleasant aspect and a more ruddy complexion then ordinary but if this delight or joy be violent and come unexpectedly it makes a contrary alteration in the face for then it becomes pale and the body falls into a swound That mens passions cause varieties of changes and alterations in the body and sometimes deprives the party of life because the suddain violence of the passion hath driven all the blood and vital spirits from the heart and so for want of heat the life is extinguished Contrarily if the objects procure a passion of fear then the blood and the vital spirits resident in it with-draw from the extream parts of the body and ascend up to the heart to comsort the same and stir up the passion of undantedness to oppose this fear but in the mean time this irregular motion of the heart and the running of the blood causeth an apparent alteration in the body for the face and all the members of the body lose their natural complexion and become pale the knees feet and hands trembling as if the party had the dead-palsey Nay if this passion be violent and happen unexpectedly it will deprive the party of life for it will bring up such a superfluous current of blood and vital spirits about the heart that it will be smothered by it as it shall be proved by divers instances in convenient time and place But some will object How can the powers of the soul sympathize thus with the accidents that happen to the body I answer that it is by the communication that is between the Sensitive power of the soul and the organs of the body as it appears in the passions of Delight and Dolour for if a man injoy any pleasure the sensitive power of the soul hath her part of this delight likewise if his body be racked the sensitive power of his soul suffers her part of the torments for the body and the soul is but one individual the body without a soul being but a lump of clay the one being the matter and the other the form or the the body is the Bulk of the ship and the soul the Helm that guideth the same Fourthly That the heart is the seat of mens passions according to Aristotle in his Physiogn lib. 16. the passions of men are seated in the heart because it is the seat of the Sensitive power from which they are derived and this is the opinion of Aristotle and other ancient and modern Authors yet divers are of another judgment some would have the seat of them to be in the liver others in the gall others in the spleen but because the reasons arguments they use to prove their opinion have been confuted for erronious I will not trouble you with them specially sith our blessed Saviour doth confirm by these words d Matth. 7.21 that they are seated in the heart For from within out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders c. And these are the effects of mens passions nay And of Beau-Lieu in his Body of Philosophy pa. 722 723. daily experience confirms the point by the carriage of young children who are addicted to envy vindication wrath and divers other passions before they be able by their rational power to distinguish the good from the evil because the rational power that is seated in the Understanding doth increase by age but the Sensitive power is bred with us and therefore the heart is the true seat of the passions affections and inclinations of men As for the number of the passions of men it is uncertain for they may be multiplied by the limitation of their objects as the windes have been of late for at the first they were but four the East North West and South and then they were multiplied to eight and afterwards to sixteen and then to two and thirty and of late they have been multiplied to threescore and four as for the passions Aristotle was of opinion that there was but one general passion and that was Love Others said there were but two and they were Delight and Dolour others said there were but four and they were Ioy Sorrow Hope and Fear and this opinion was grounded upon reason for whatsoever men act or undertake they delight grieve fear or hope That there is eleven general passions But Beau-lieu and the Bishop of Marseilles maintain there are eleven general passions but Senault a modern Author hath made them up twelve to make the passions of the Irascible appetite equall with those of the Concupiscible appetite and so hath brought in remisness which in the two former Authors opinions nor in mine can be no general passion because it is mixt or composed of Love and Compassion and these are the eleven general passions and the six of the Concupiscible appetite shall have the precedency First Love Secondly Hatred Thirdly Desire Fourthly Flight or Eschewing Fifthly Ioy. Sixthly Dolour or Sorrow and these are the five of the Irascible appetite First Fear Secondly Vndauntedness or Boldness Thirdly Hope Fourthly Despair Fifthly Wrath or Choler And here followeth their definition according to Beau-Lieu The definition of these eleven passions according to Beau-Lieu pag. 723. which I conceive to be the best First
are to flee from as from a contagious Air or from the sight of a Serpent for ill company are Satans Panders and the corrupters of youth and as men cannot handle Pitch without soiling their hands so young folk cannot haunt ill company without they blemish their reputation and defile their maners nor remain in their innocency for they are the Schools of Sin and sin draws the wrath of God upon men from whose wrath it is impossible to flee as the Prophet David saith Whether shall I go from thy Spirit Psal 139.7 8 9 10. or whether shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there If I make my bed in bell behold thou 〈◊〉 there If I take the wings of the morning and dwel in the utmost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me Now sith it is so that sin draws upon men the wrath of God that cannot be eschewed nor avoided because it is a consuming fire For a fire saith Moses is kindled in his anger Deut. 32.22 and shall burn unto the lowest hell and shall consume the earth and set on fire the foundations of the mountains how careful should they then be to eschew and fly from sin Sixthly The use that men should make of this passion of Flight should be to flee from all appearance of evil as well as from sin and not transfer their own sins upon others as Adam did upon Eve The woman saith he to the Lord Gen. 3.12 whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the Tree and I did eat Much less to charge and accuse men of sins of which they are most guilty themselves for this kinde of sin is altogether in fashion in these days neither must men make conscience of one sin and make none of another some will make scruple to swear but they will make no account to lye a hundred times in a day so they may with these lyes delude their brethren and attain to their own ends Others will forbear to eat Fish upon a Friday but will make no account of drabbing and whoring others will flee from one sin and will run eagerly after another In a word there never was an age more addicted to painting then this for the most notorious sins are so varnished and painted over that men take Vices for Vertues And that is the reason why I said in the beginning of this Chapter that men should be cautious how they make use of this passion for fear they flee from the good in lieu to eschew the evil or get an habit of aversion against the good in stead to have it against the evil but if this passion of Flight be applied against its right object it will prove to be of great efficacy to the propagation of a godly life for it is impossible to love and affect the good unfainedly before men have obtained a strong aversion against the evil and therefore to attain to that blessed condition that the Prophet David speaks of in the first Psalm they must flee from all maner of conversation with the wicked Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly Psal 1.1 2. nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night Pro. 4.18 And Salomon secondeth him thus Enter not in the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men avoid it and pass not by it turn from it and pass away This triple gradation of Salomon sheweth with a great Emphasie how necessary it is for men to flee from the conversation of wicked men and from all appearance of sin and yet there are too many that add sin to sin and so fall under this censure of the Prophet Isaiah Isai 31.3 Wo to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take counsel but not of me and that cover with a covering but not of my Spirit that they may add sin to sin To conclude It is apparent that the passion of Flight except it be to flee from sin is but vanity for Gods wrath can over-take and finde out as it hath been shewed impenitent sinners wheresoever they flee CHAP. X. Of the vanity of the passion of worldly joy AS Laughter is an expression of Joy so Weeping is an evidence of Sorrow but these two proprieties are onely peculiar to mankinde because the Ape that seemeth to laugh doth but grin and the Crocodile that seemeth to weep doth but mone for Joy and Sorrow are affections of the minde and therefore the unreasonable creatures are incapable of them Notwithstanding some Moralists conceive that the passion of Joy and the passion of Delight which the French call Delectation is but one and the same passion which cannot certainly be because Delight is common to men and beast so is not Joy for Delight proceeds from the pleasures of the Senses and Joy from the contentedness of the minde and our blessed Saviour while he was upon earth shewed that these affections did reside in him as it may appear by these words Joh. 15.11 These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be ful this confirms his affection of Joy and these will verifie his affection of Sorrow Ioh. 11.33 34. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled and said Where have ye laid him They say unto him Lord come and see Iesus wept Now Christ being the purity it self it is impossible he should have had any affections proceeding from the Senses And therefore it is certain that Joy and Delight are two distinct passions This sweet and comfortable passion of Joy was given to the reasonable creatures by their gracious and merciful Creator for to sweeten and temper the bitterness of their Sorrows that come upon them as thick as a storm of Hail under the burden of which they would undoubtedly have fainted if God had not been pleased to afford them this cordial of Joy for although Joy be pleasant to Nature yet it is a meer stranger to it but Sorrow which she abhors is her constant guest and for one dram of joy that men have in their life time they have a pound of Sorrow yet because Joy is the comforter of mens lives for without it they could not subsist observe for your better information of the qualities of it these particulars 1. The definition of Joy 2. The causes of it 3. The proprieties of it 4. Its effects 5. The bad and good use of it 6. The excellency of spiritual Joy First There are two different sorts of Joy the one is Worldly and the other Spiritual the last is a rapture or ravishment of the Soul by an intimate familiarity that true
for Lovers Ambitious and Covetous men are cast into strange fits of Melancholy and sorrow if they be deprived of their Love or of the honors and riches they aim at secondly The carking cares that men usually take to increase their means or to preserve their lives and estates is a cause of their sorrow thirdly The fear that many men have to fall into penury is a common cause of their sorrow fourthly The losses of mens goods fame or reputation is a cause of their sorrow because they want the grace of patience and cannot say with Iob Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord nor with the Prophet David I will wash my hands in innocency Psal 26.6 fifthly The loss of Parents Wife Children or intimate Friends is often times the cause of mens sorrow for want of the rememoration of this saying of Salomon Eccles 3.20 All are of the dust and all shall return to dust again sixthly the vain apprehensions that man have of the evil to come is the cause of their sorrow because they rely not upon this gracious promise All things work together for good to them that love God seventhly Rom 8.28 The want of courage in men is the cause of their sorrow because like faint hearted Pilots they give over the Helme of the Ship in a storm I mean the Helme of their Reason whereby they might regulate the distempers of this passion of Sorrow eightly The fears that possess men for the punishment of their sins is a cause of their sorrow whereas they should fear and grieve for the guilt of sin to attain to that spiritual Sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation The Natural causes of the Dolour and Anguish of the body may be these first Long and tedious diseases The natural causes of the Dolour and Anguish of the body as the Stone in the Kidneys or Bladder the Gravel the Strangullion the Gout the Cough and consumption of the Lungs or the Hectick Feaver for all these in continuance of time by the secret communion that the senses have with the sensitive power of the soul do beget in the minde grief and sorrow besides the Dolour and Anguish of the body secondly The Adust or burnt Choler or Bilis gathered in the Mesentery veines which sendeth virulent vapors up into the braine is a natural cause of much sorrow 4. The accidental causes of sorrow The accidentall causes may be these first when men themselves or their Parents Children or intimate Friends do accidentally come to their end by sea or by land as to be murdered upon a Rode or cast away at sea or taken captive by Pyrats or slain by a fall from a horse or lamed by some other accident all these things are causes of sorrow and grief yet none of these natural or accidental causes are or should be sufficient to breed sorrow to mens minde sith nothing happens casually or accidentally but is guided by the hand of the divine Providence to whose blessed will men are obliged to submit themselves and our blessed Saviour doth assure us that the meanest Sparrow or an hair of our head doth not fall to the ground without the permission of our heavenly Father Fourthly The nature and effects of Sorrow are directly contrary to the nature and to the effects of Joy first The nature of Joy is to dilate and spread the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it into the utmost parts of the members of the body but Sorrow being of a cold and dry nature draws the blood and vital spirits from the utmost parts of the body towards the heart to comfort the same secondly Joy is hot and active and by its sudden motion indangers the life of men The natur and the effects of Anguish Grief and Sorrow but Sorrow is cold and slow and comes upon men with leaden feet and never causeth death but by long continuance and lingering diseases except it cast men into despair as it doth oftentimes as it will be shown in the effects of it thirdly Joy is proper and pleasant to Nature and rejoyceth the heart and makes men chearful in their Calling both private and general but Sorrow is adverse and distasteful to Nature and makes men slow and stupid in their particular and general calling fourthly Joy preserveth and increaseth health and lengtheneth mens days and makes them pass their lives with mirth and content but Sorrow impairs mens health and shortens their days and makes their lives to be tedious and irksome In a word moderate Joy is comfort to man and excessive Sorrow is the bane of man And the effects of worldly Sorrow are as bad or rather worse first Sorrow makes men flee the society of men nay the very light of the Sun and all things that may rejoyce and comfort Nature the sight of their dearest friends nay of their wife and children is irksome to men that are possessed with excessive sorrow secondly See the Acts and Monuments or Book of Martyrs If mens Sorrow proceeds from mens Apostacy in Religion it doth commonly cast them into despaire and inflicts upon them in this life the very paines of hell as it doth appear in the life of Francisco Spira thirdly Sorrow tempts carnal men to be rid of it to desperate resolutions as to bereave themselves of life by hanging stabbing and drowning of themselves as it hath lately been seen in this City of London fourthly Sorrow makes men careless to make their calling and election sure and to neglect the means appointed by God for their salvation I mean the hearing of the Word with that attention as they should for their thoughts and cogitations are so fixed upon the object of their sorrow that they minde nothing else for this pernicious passion doth stupifie the most noble faculty of the soul as the Memory the Imagination and the Understanding Divers other effects might be produced but these will suffice to induce men to indeavor to eschew or regulate this dangerous and destructive passion Fifthly The Remedies against the venom of this passion are first Natural secondly Moral thirdly Spiritual The Natural are first to flee as far as men can from the object of their sorrow secondly If mens sorrow proceeds from Natural infirmities they are in the first place to call upon God and then use the Counsel of Physitians for they must not do as Ahaziah King of Israel did 2 Kings 1.2 who being faln from an upper Chamber thorow a Lattess sent to the God of Ekron to know whether he should recover of his disease as too many do in these days who send to Astronomers to know the events of things not to the Physitian 2 Chron. 16.12 as Asa King of Iuda did who being diseased in his feet sent to the Physitian before he had called upon the Lord by prayer for God is the Paramount Physitian and the God of Nature and
this world would imbrace all manner of desperate resolutions and make themselves away to be rid of the continual anguish grief and sorrow they are subject unto in this life And I am perswaded that the want that the Heathen had of this spiritual hope of the eternal joy to come was the cause that so many of them laid violent hands upon themselves for some to be free from the imperious insultations of their mortal enemies or disdaining out of a manly courage to be oblieged for their lives to their clemency have ripped up their own bowels with their swords See Plutarch in Cesar and Catoes lives as Cato did rather then he would fall alive into the hands of Cesar and others to be rid of the excessive grief and sorrow which did rack and torture their souls for the loss of their beloved husbands or intimate friends have drunk Poyson or stifled themselves with burning coals as did Portia for her dear husbands death Martius Brutus See Plutarch in Marcus Brutus life But Christians being supported by this spiritual Hope and with an assurance that all worldly disgraces and afflictions are not for continuance but like unto a vapor arising from the earth which is suddenly annihilated by the beams of the Sun accounts these things unworthy to be regarded in comparison of the eternal joy and glory that is reserved in the highest heavens for such as suffer with patience the crosses and tribulations of this life for righteousness sake This passion being then of great use for all true Christians I will for the better descriptition of it extend my Discourses on these particulars 1. On the Definition of worldly Hope 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Objects of it 4. On its Proprieties 5. On its Effects 6. On the Excellency of spiritual Hope First There are diverse Definitions of Hope some say it is but an expectation of the good The definition of worldly Hope others say It is nothing but a confidence that men have that such things will happen to them which they have conceived in their imagination The Bishop of Marseillis pag. 500. Theophrastus Bojou pag. 723. Others say It is a passion of the soul whereby upon the impression that men have of some future good which is represented to their imagination by the senses as difficult to obtain whereupon they addict themselves to an eager prosecution of it conceiving to be able of themselves to obtain the injoyment of the same Hope saith another is a motion of the soul that inticeth men to expect and seek after a good that is absent in which they see some probability to be obtained and Senault agreeing with these two last Opinions adds that there can be no real hope except there be an apparent possibility it may be obtained Hope is then the first passion incident to the Irascible appetite of great use to men if they fix their hope upon vertuous or religious objects Secondly The causes that beget worldly Hope in the heart of carnal men are these first a continual prosperity in their understandings doth puffe up their hearts with vain and deluding hopes that the same prosperity will still continue and accompany their designs to the end See Plutarch in Pompejus life Pompejus the great was deluded by this hope for relying overmuch in the prosperous events he had formerly had in war having never been foiled by any of his enemies he neglected to raise a sufficient Army to hinder Cesars coming into Italy as he was counselled to do by his intimate friends but hoping on his former prosperous success he said unto them If I do but stamp with my feet upon the ground souldiers will issue out of it in all parts of Italy to side with me against Cesar but this vain hope was the cause of his utter overthrow for he was inforced to forsake Italy to the mercy of Cesar and to fly beyond the seas where his Army was defeated and himself constrained to save his life by shipping into Egypt where he was basely murdered secondly Might and Power doth fill the hearts of carnal men with vain hopes Xerxes King of Persia relying upon his numerous Army of a million of men hoped to over-run Greece See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and to dry up the very rivers with the incredible number of his foot and horse but he was deluded in his hope and in the straits of Thermopilae his whole Host was stopped and foiled by Leonidas King of Sparta who had but three hundred valiant Lacedemonians with him and presently after his invincible Navy was utterly routed by Themistocles by the Island of Salamine and he himself inforced out of fear to fly into Asia with a great part of his Army thirdly Youth Strength and a sanguin Complexion fills the hearts of young Gallants with vain hopes and makes them undertake things that seem impossible See Quintius Curtius in his Alexanders life as Alexander the Great did the Conquest of the greatest part of the world with an inconsiderable Army of fouty thousand foot and twenty thousand horses in comparison of five or six hundred thousand that Darius brought into the field and this passion of Hope was so predominant in him that before he departed out of Greece he gave away to others his Patrimony estate and reserved nothing for himself but the uncertain hope of the conquest of Asia The natural reasons why young strong and sanguin Complexions are more addicted to this passion of Hope then others are Six causes of the worldly Hopes of men first that they abound in spirits for the Sanguin have more blood and spirits then the Cholerick Flegmatick or Melancholick men secondly they have time by their young age to prosecute the injoyment of their hopes thirdly they have strength and activity to overcome all difficulties that seem to bar them from the injoyment of their hopes whereas ancient men are more addicted to the passion of Fear then to Hope Three reasons why young men are more addicted to Hopes then ancient men first Because their natural strength and vital spirits are wasted with age secondly because their long experience hath made them more considerate then young men thirdly because they have one foot in the grave and have not time to prosecute the injoyment of their hopes and are better acquainted with the incertitude of the undertakings of men fourthly Men that are versed in the affairs of the world have their hearts filled with vain hopes because they think nothing impossible unto them by reason that their long experience in the affairs of this world hath drawn them out of the snares of many perplexities fifthly Men that have been divers times in great dangers by Sea and by Land have their hearts filled with Hope when they fall into danger hoping then to avoide the same as they have done formerly sixthly Men of undanted spirits have their hearts filled with vain hopes because the
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