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
THE VANITY OF THE Lives and Passions OF MEN. Written by D. Papillon Gent. Eccles 1.2 Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity April 9. 1651. Imprimatur John Downame London Printed by Robert White and are to be sold by George Calvert at the Sign of the half-Moon in Wattling-Street near St. Austins Gate 1651. To my beloved Sister Mrs. Chamberlan the Widow Dear Sister AS men usually Dedicate their works to their best beloved or most respected friend so I Dedicate this Treatise unto you who after God have ever been the object of my dearest love and best respects Be pleased then to peruse the same for you will finde comfort in it if you oppose or apply as Antidotes to the passions of Sorrow Way-wardness and Fear incident to old age the passions of Love Hope and Vndauntedness for the love of God will wâ—an your affections from the vanities of this life and give them wings to soar up to heaven to six themselves upon that infinite object of all perfection God himself Psalâ— 6.11 In whose presence is fulness of joy and at his right hand pleasures for evermore Secondly the Christian hope you have to be made by the merits of Christ co-heir with him of the Kingdom of Glory will expel all the sorrows way wardness and discontents proceeding from the crosses and afflictions you are subject unto in this life Lastly your Christian fortitude or undauntedness will annihilate as the beams of the Sun doth the morning dew the fears which may perplex your mind by the apprehension of the dart of death and will make you say with confidence at your departure out of this vayl of Tears Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy Victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And so being confident you will accept this small evidence of my love with the same affection it is presented unto you I commend you to the Lords protection desiring to remaine Dear Sister Your loving Brother David Papillon From London June 1. 1651. To the Reader IF this saying Know thy self were written in mens hearts as it was engraven over the door of the Temple of Apollo at Delphos they would be more careful to regulate their passions for when mens passions are distempered it is impossible for them to know themselves And that is the reason why so many Learned men have lately written upon the use and moderation of mens passions And specially Senault a most Elegant and learned French Author And although his works have lately been translated into English by the Noble Earl of Monmouth yet because they are fitter for Schollers then for the illiterate I have thought it convenient to publish this Treatise for the benefit of meaner capacities In which I have joyned the Scripture-evidences with the principles of Morality For a good education with an habit in the precepts of Morality without the sanctifying graces of the blessed Spirit are not sufficient to regulate the intellectual distempers of mens passions because moral precepts and a good education penetrates no further then the bark and moderates only the distempers of 〈◊〉 â—utward man but a justifying Faith and the grace of sanctification its inseparable companion doth moderate the distempers of the intellectual faculties of the soul as well as those of the corporeal members I mean that by a good education and the principles of Morality a man may attain to a corporeal continency but never to an Intellectual Chastity without the graces of the sanctifying Spirit Therefore such as desire to obtain the mastery over the intellectual and corporeal distempers of their passions are to endevor to attain by fervent prayers from God the graces of the sanctifying Spirit as well as an habite in the Principles of Morality Otherwise they will never obtain the mastery over their passions to make them subordinate to the rules prescribed in the word of God And whereas Senault maintains that men have a Free will to do good or evil and gives over much power to the Principles of Morality I say we have no Free-will to do good except it be given us by the Free grace of God and that the Principles of true Christianity have more power to make men obtain the mastery over their passions then the Principles of Morality can have Be pleased then to accept of these Essays of mine with the same affection as I present them unto you and to account me as really I am Your humble servant in Christ D. Papillon From London June 1. 1651. Errata PAg. 22. l. 1. r. he outbraded him p. 26. l. 15. r. Crown p. 28. l. 1. r. concussion p. 43. l. 1. of Chap. 4. r. there are also p. 132. l 16. r. He that looketh upon a woman p. 135. l. 13. leave out the word all p. 140. l. 12. r. Crassus p. 182 l. 2. r. Charls the eighth p. 193. l. 3. r. July-flowers p. 194. l. 1. r. these p. ibid. l. 14. r. curb p. 205. l. 23. r. Marquis d'Ancre p. 244. l. 15. r. as conceiving the same p. 246. l. 16. r. say they p. 231. l. 3. r. precise p. 236. l. 17. r. these are p. 361. l. 25. r. are rather worse p. 379. l 9. r. induceth men The Contents Chap. 1. The vanity of the lives of Men. Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The vanity of worldly Honors p. 19. Chap. 3. The vanity of worldly Riches p. 43. Chap. 4. The vanity of worldly Pleasures p. 65. Chap. 5. The vanity of mens passions in general p. 81. Chap. 6. The vanity of the passion of Love p. 97. Chap. 7. The vanity of the passion of Hatred p. 115. Chap. 8. The vanity of the passion of Desire p. 131. Chap. 9. The vanity of the passion of Flight p. 147. Chap. 10. The vanity of the passion of worldly Joy p. 162. Chap. 11. The vanity of the passion of worldly Sorrow p. 179. Chap. 12. The vanity of the passion of worldly Hope p. 197. Chap. 13. The vanity of the passion of Despair p. 219. Chap. 14. The vanity of the passion of Vndauntedness p. 241. Chap. 15. The vanity of the passion of Fear p. 261. Chap. 16. The vanity of the passion of Wrath. p. 280. Chap. 17. The vanity of the passion of Volupty p. 299. Chap. 18. The vanity of the passion of Avarice p. 347. Chap. 19. The vanity of the passion of Ambition p. 372. Chap. 20. The vanity of the passion of Envie p. 401. CHAP. I. Of the vanity of the lives of Men. IF the end be the crown of the work the creating of man was the crown of the creation for after God had made man after his own a Gen. 1.27 Image and had infused into him a living soul he rested b Gen. 2.2 on the seventh day from all his works and this ingrateful man who
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
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
power of the Concupiscible appetite to make the children of God commit such sins as the Prophet David and St. Peter did but it was because God was pleased to give them over to themselves to make them know that the perseverance in grace is a free gift of his neither is it in the power of the Irascible appetite to infuse such a continency as was found in Joseph nor such an unparallel'd undantedness as was in Shadrach Meshach Abednigo and in Daniel but it was the blessed Spirit of God that did infuse in their hearts that admirable fortitude c. CHAP. VI. Of the vanity of the passion of love AS after a hard winter the Sun is not onely seen to give a new life to all the Vegetative Sensitive and rational Creatures upon earth but also by the heat of his beams to penetrate the very bowels of the earth for to purifie the insensible creatures from their dross as the silver gold and precious stones even so after mens passions have by their natural commotions clouded their mindes with a Winter of anxiety and sorrow supernatural Love doth not onely revive their Spirits but doth also purifie them from the dross that these perturbations had left behinde them in their souls Love being then the most noble passion of men it is fit it should have the precedency in these Discourses sith without love all humane society should be extinguished and by it men deprived of all content and comfort in this life for the greatest comfort that men can attain to in this vale of Tears is to have a constant friend or a faithful consort in whose brest they may confide their greatest secrets and be partaker with them of their prosperity honor and glory or sympathize with them in their afflictions and miseries It is recorded that Fpamonides the Commander in Chief of the Thebanes a man as free from vain-glory as any one we read of did not glory in any thing but in this See Plutarch in his Moâ—is that his father was living when he won three famous battels against the Lacedemonians that were then held for their valour to be invincible regarding more the content and honor that his father whom he loved intirely should receive of it then his own and certainly the greatest fruit that men can receive of their prosperity is when their friends rejoyce and partake of it and the greatest comfort they can have in their afflictions is when they are assured to have friends that sympathize with their miseries Now the passion of Love being of such concernment I will for the better description of it speak in order of these particulars first of the definition of Love secondly of the essentiall cause of Love thirdly of the variety or kinds of Love fourthly of the end or interest of mens Love fifthly of the qualities required in men for to obtain Love sixthly of the good and bad effects of Love seventhly of the Love of God towards men eighthly of the Love of men to God First Love is nothing else but to wish good to another not for mens own interest Definition of love according to Aristotle and Senault but for the good and merit of the party beloved to whom men are to procure all the good and content that shall be in their power Upon which definition observe these four Particulars first that Love doth ever unite the Heart and Will of men to the party beloved And therefore the ancients said commonly that Alexander and Ephestion had but one soul in two distinct bodies because their joy and glory sorrow or disgrace was mutuall to them both secondly Mens love is not to be grounded upon the pleasure or profit they may receive by them they seem to love for it can be no love except their love be grounded upon the vertues and merits of the party beloved thirdly Lovers are to wish and procure the good and honor of their beloved and to require nothing of them but what they may do with honor and equity fourthly The goods and lives of men are to be at the disposing of the party beloved Honor Religion and Loyalty onely excepted for true friendship doth not oblige men to blemish their honor rack their conscience nor to betray their Prince at the request of their beloved because these requests are beyond the bounds of love which is only to be confined within the limits of Vertue See Plutarch in his Moralls and therefore the ancient Moralist highly commends this saying of a Heathen who said to his friend who did require him to perjure himself I am saith he thy friend untill the Altar and the like answer was given to Charls Duke of Burbon See Du Belay Commentaries when he did intreate his noble friends to side with him against his and their natural Prince Francis the first King of France Secondly The cause of Love is conceived by some to be a sympathy or natural inclination that inticeth men to love one man before another for it is often seen that when a man comes in the company of other men he never had seen before he will affect one of that company more then any of the rest which proceeds say they from a sympathy of affections that is between these two men Others conceive that the cause of Love doth consist in the influence of the Planets and for proof of their Opinions say that the love of Achilles to Patroclus See Homer See Quintius Curtius and of Alexander to the Amazon Queen was because they were born under one and the same Planet Others conceive the cause of Love to be the intimate conversation and familiarity of the parties which by an habit and custom begets love between them Others conceive that the goodness and beauty of the object is the cause of love and with these I concur in Opinion for God who is the Beauty and Goodness it self is certainly the essential cause of true love Thirdly All sorts of love may be comprised under natural and supernatural the natural hath divers branches that may all be reduced under the love of Interest and the love of Friendship of which I shall speak hereafter when I have set forth the Opinion of those who maintain there is five severall sorts of Love first the love of the innanimate creatures secondly the love of the sensitive creatures thirdly the love of the rational creatures fourthly the love of Angels fifthly the love of God first The love of the innanimate creatures is apparent in the prosecution of the perfection of their beeing the light ones ascending upwards and the heavy ones descending downwards as to their center secondly The love of the sensitive creatures is an impression wrought by the senses in their imagination by the objects it conceives to beuseful unto them which begetteth a desire to injoy them and this passion is not onely incident to the bruit creatures but also to the rational who are overcome by the sensitive appetite
thirdly The love of the reasonable creatures should be guided by Reason because it is inlightned by the Understanding the seat of the rational power of the soul but because the Sensitive power doth oftentimes get the mastery it straies from its right end that is properly to endeavor to attain to the supream good the very end why men were created but since Adams fall men are carried away by the violence of their passions to greater inconveniencies and dangers then they which ride upon untamed Colts their love being no more a temperate motion of their Will but an effect of their passions fourthly The love of Angels doth far excel the love of men because they are the blessed Spirits attending day and night before the Throne of God to execute his Will and Pleausure and specially to protect his Elect now as the onely object of their love is God who is the perfection of Beauty and Goodness their love must of necessity be more excellent then the love of the reasonable creatures fifthly The love of God towards mankinde for excellency is so superlative over the love of men and Angels that it will admit of no comparison his beeing infinite and theirs finite and therefore I will desist to speak of it at this present for the Love I am to speak of is the love of Interest and the love of Friendship Fourthly The end and Interest of mens Love is of a large extent for many do seem to love such that can prefer them to the injoyment of honors riches and pleasures but the Love grounded upon these sandy foundations is but a fained and mercenary love Sejanus the Favorite of the Emperor See Tacitus Suetonius and Dion Tiberius was adored as the morning Sun is by the Indians by the greatest Senators and men of war of the Empire as long as he was in favor and could prefer his Clients to places of honor or gain but as soon as he fell in disgrace they became his greatest persecutors Haman the Favorite of King Ahasuerus was worshipped by the Officers that sate at the Kings gate Mordecai onely excepted but when he fell into disgrace these very Officers informed the King that he had erected a gibbit of fifty cubits to hang up a Esther 3.2 and 7.9 Mordecai upon which information the King commanded they should instantly hang Haman upon the same gibbit and having readily performed this command the said men pillaged his house and rich moveables If Love be grounded upon Beauty it cannot be of any continuance what is more subject to accidents then Beauty the Measles the small Pox or old Age will disfigure the greatest Beauty But the love of true friendship having no other object then the vertue and merit of the beloved party remaineth permenant and rather increaseth then diminisheth by age But some will object Many in these days that profess to be our greatest friends are our greatest enemies how shall we then be able to distinguish these counterfeit friends from the reall They may be discerned by these evidences first if they rejoyce when thou rejoycest and mourn when thou mournest not in shew but in heart secondly If they are as serviceable in thy adversity as in thy prosperity for if they respect thee in prosperity and reject thee in thy poverty they are but fained friends thirdly If they are as easily invited to a simple Meal as to a great Banquet for there are too many Table-friends in these days if they love those thou lovest and hate those thou hatest for otherwise their affections do not sympathize with thine and there can be no true love where an antipathy of affections raigns fifthly If the defamation of thy honor or good name be as tender unto them as it is to thee and whether they will be as apt to vindicate the same when opportunity serve as thou wilt for otherwise thou canst not be dear unto them who make no account of thy infamy sixthly If they take in good part thy reproofs and acknowledg them to proceed from thy love to them rather then from a censorious austerity many other Evidences might be given but these shall serve for brevity sake Fifthly the qualities required in men to obtain Love are numerous for Aristotle in his Phys makes mention of fifteen and yet there be many more but Piety Vertue Goodness and Beauty are four of the principal first Piety draws the love of God as the Adamant stone draws the Needle and such as are honored with the love of God are blessed and need not fear the hatred of men For if God be with us who shall be against us secondly Vertue is such a Jewel that all men and women that are endowed with Vertue are never without lovers nay their very enemies love them Tilligny for his rare Vertues was rescued from death by his greatest enemies at the massacre of Paris thirdly See the French History in the life of Charis the ninth Goodness is a dependency of Piety and Vertue for goodness is to them as the shadow is to the body and therefore it is never without lovers fourthly Beauty although it be but a fading gift of Nature hath notwithstanding more lovers then any of the former for men are bewitched by the raies of Beauty the comliness and beauty of Absolom insnared the love of David unto him and although he had neither Piety nor Vertue it made him cry out b Sam. 18.33 O Absolom Absolom Absolom my son would to God I had died for thee fifthly such as execute unpartial Justice are beloved of all men as Aristides and Fabritius sixthly Valour makes men to be beloved if they imploy the same for to free their Native Countrey from oppression as Jepthy and Gedion seventhly Liberal men are beloved as Mecaenas was of all the learned men of his time eighthly Grateful men are beloved for ingratitude is abhorred of God and men for the very bruit beasts are grateful to their benefactors witness the gratitude of the Lyon towards the Roman Slave who saved his life for curing of his paw See Livius in his 1. Decade ninthly Peace-makers are beloved as Mamercus was for reconciling the People with the Patricians tenthly Godly and Religious men that constantly stand to their Principles are beloved as Athanasius for although he was exiled divers times yet was he ever protected and found friends wheresoever he came eleventhly Merciful men are beloved See the History of France as Cesar was for his clemency twelfthly The cherishers of Learning are beloved as was Francis the first King of France thirteenthly Men of a sweet pleasant and complying conversation are beloved as Ephestion was of Alexander fourteenthly Men free from dissimulation who speak what they think to be good for their native Country are beloved See Tacitus as Tracia was in Vespasians days fifteenthly Men love courteous and serviceable men that are ready to befriend them upon all occasions and by this Absolom
the Lord said unto him Go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name fore the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel Now this incomparable love of God towards St. Paul in converting of him to become from a persecutor one of the greatest instruments of Gods glory that ever was did kindle in his brest such a flame of fervent love towards God g Phil. 1.23 that he often desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ and wished h Rom. 9 3. himself accursed from Christ for the increase of Gods glory confirming our blessed Saviours saying i Luke 7.47 For he loveth much to whom much is forgiven as appeared by Mary Magdalen And the Prophet David k 2 Sam. 12.13 who after the pardon of his two abhorred sins of Adultery and Murder did so fervently love God that all his delight was to meditate l Psal 1.1 2. day and night in his Law and to magnifie his love towards him m Psal 18.1 Psal 116.12 as it appears in the 18. Psaim ver 1. I will love thee O Lord my strength and in Psal 116. ver 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce and my supplications because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live To conclude Carnal love is but vanity and vexation of spirit but the love of God towards man and the love of man towards God doth fill their hearts with joy and comfort for t in this life and will crown their soul with eternal glory in the life to come CHAP. VII Of the vanity of the passion of Hatred THis Passion is the opposite of Love and yet without Love and it nature could not be perfect nor the world subsist for if the divine Providence were not pleased to make use of the Natural aversion that is between the Elements this universal Fabrick of the World would soon return to its first Chaos And without this passion of Hatred men might justly complain of Nature to have onely given them an inclination to pursue the good and not an aversion to eschew the evil Divers men conceive this passion to be the greatest Antagonist of mankinde and repute it as a Monster in Nature but it is out of ignorance and for want of divine knowledg for all the handy works of God were created perfectly good as the blessed Spirit doth confirm it by these words And God saw every thing that he had made a Gen. 1.31 and behold it was very good but since the fall and disobedience of Adam men have abused the good that was in the creatures and by a pernitious transmutation have made those which were created for their good to be the Agents of their corrupt inclinations And would they make use of Hatred for the end it was created they would finde it a most useful passion for the propagation of a godly life as it will appear at the end of this Chapter but for the better description of this passion I intreate the Reader to observe these insuing particulars as they are set in order 1. The definition of Hatred 2. How many sorts there are 3. The Causes of it 4. Who are most addicted to it 5. The nature and bad effects of it 6. The use that may be made of it First for the better description of the nature of this passion I will set down divers definitions of it according to the different opinions of the best Authors Hatred is an aversion and a detestation or horror that men have against all such things as they conceive in their imagination to be contrary to their good and opposite to their content The Bishop of Marseilles pag. 175. Or Hatred is a detestation or horror of the sensitive appetite against such things as it conceives to be hurtful and distastful to the Senses and to its content or destructive to its Beeing even as the Hatred or antipathy there is naturally between the Sheep and the Woolf. As Love saith another is a certain sympathy of the Sensitive appetite with such things as are sutable and convenient to Nature even so Hatred is an antipathy of the Sensitive appetite against such things as are distastful to the Senses or contrary to mens good or destructive to their Beeing And as Love is of two sorts viz. The first True Love and Amity Theophrast Boju in his Commentaries upon Aristotles Phys called the love of Friendship Secondly Vicious Love called Lust so there is two sorts of Hatred viz. The hatred of Detestation or Horror secondly the hatred of Enmity the last being far inferior to the former for to detest and abhor is the highest degree of Hatred Senault saith That Hatred is nothing else but a meer aversion in us from whatsoever is contrary unto us or an antipathy of our appetite to a subject which displeaseth it Senault pag. 244. all which definitions come neer unto one and the same sense Secondly The Moralists are of opinion there is four sorts of Hatred first The Vegetative secondly The Brute thirdly The Melancholick fourthly the Humane but the Divines add to these four the Spiritual Hatred of which I shall speak towards the later end of this Chapter first The Vegetative is apparent in the Plants as between the Cabbage and the Vine and between the Oak and the Ivy secondly The Brute is to be seen between the Sheep and the Woolf between the Cock and the Lyon and between the Basilisk the Panther and Mankinde See Plinius in his Natural History for the Naturalists say That if a man see a Basilisk that the Basilisk dies by the glance of his eyes but if the Basilisk see the man first he falls down dead And it is Recorded that the Panther doth so detest and abhor man out of a natural hatred that the Hunters that seek after him do commonly set the Picture of a man against an Oak and behinde it their snares to catch him for he hath no sooner discovered this Picture but with a fierce violence he runs towards it and so is insnared and taken thirdly The Melancholick Hatred is not naturall but accidental for it doth proceede from an Adust or burned Choler residing in the blood but specially in the Mesentery veines who cast ill and virulent vapors up to the brain that begets Chimaeraes and strange phansies that makes men sometimes abhor their Parents nay their Wives and children and this Melancholy begets such a hatred in Timon the Athenian against mankinde See Plutarch in his Morals that he caused Gibbets to be erected and set up in his Garden and proclaimed through the streets of the City That whosoever would come and hang themselves they might fourthly The Humane and Natural Hatred proceeds from an antipathy of Affections that is between some men and between men and women as the extraordinary antipathy which was between the affections of Mark Antonius See
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
an account of his Journey whereby he did prevent the evil effects that such a loss might have caused by a sudden impression in his Princes heart therefore the mitigation of the violence of the passions of Joy and Sorrow is of great use whereas if they be not moderated they are dangerous and destructive It may then be collected by these discourses that worldly joy is but meer vanity and vexation of spirit for as Job saith The triumphing of the wicked is short Job 20.5 and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment The Spiritual Joy doth as much excel the worldly Joy as the Light doth Darkness it ravisheth the soul and fills it with unspeakable pleasures the nature of it is incomprehensible neither can the superlative excellency of it be expressed nor described by the Tongue nor Pen of men for our blessed Saviour himself saith St. Paul a Heb. 12 2. For the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame and is set down at the right hand of God and for and by that joy all the Martyrs have despised the burning flames nay some have kissed the stakes where they were to be burned and their greatest torments seemed unto them when they were upon the torturing racks as if they had been upon a bed of roses The excellent effects of spiritual joy This joy is the true Or-potabily which can as Physitians feign cure all diseases for if a Christian hath but a grain of this joy the greatest torments and the greatest persecutions that ever were invented and exercised by the cruel and blood-thirsty Tyrants will not dant them but they will bear them with an incredible fortitude of spirit And St. Paul to manifest the excellency of spiritual joy saith in the fourteenth Chapter and the seventeenth Verse of his Epistle to the Romans That in b Rom. 14.17 righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost doth consist the Kingdom of God And in all his Salutations and Wishes to the Churches and Saints he conjoyns Joy with Peace c Rom. 15.13 Now the God of Hope fill you with all joy and Peace in believing And St. Iohn in his first Epistle Chap. 1. and verse 4. making a relation of the excellent Mysteries of eternal life manifested by the coming and incarnation of Christ concludes with these words And these things write we unto you that d 1 Joh. 1.4 your Ioy may be full intimating that mens joy cannot be ful nor perfect but in the meditation of the Mysteries of their salvation And St. Peter in his first Epistle Chap. 1. vers 8. speaking of the triall of the faith of the true children of God saith Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now you see him not e 1 Pet. 1.8 yet beleeving ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Sufficient proofs that mens chiefest joy doth consist in a true faith in Christ and in the delight they take in the reading and meditating on the Law of God And that is the reason that the Prophet David breaks out in this expression Be glad in the Lord f Psal 32.11 and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart for this spiritual joy is onely peculiar to the true children of God impenitent sinners being incapable of it and therefore the Prophet David after his grievous sins of Adultery and Murder feeling that this excellent joy was departed from him doth earnestly intreat the Lord in the 51. Psalm to make him hear joy and g Psal 51.8 gladness that the bones which thou hast broken saith he may rejoyce And after a heavy burden of sorrow that he had carried in a penitent way for these abovesaid transgressions which had in a maner broken his bones and dried up the marrow that was in them he breakes out again with this expression Restore h Psa 51.12 unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit To conclude Blessed are those who prefer the good and wellfare of i Psal 137.6 Ierusalem above their chiefest joy and unhappy are they that make worldly joy that is nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit their supream good c. CHAP. XI Of the vanity of the passion of Dolour or Sorrow SOme Moralists are of opinion that Adam in the state of Innocency was free from this passion of Dolour and that it was after his Fall inflicted upon him as a punishment for his disobedience against his Maker because this passion is so common to men that it followeth them at the heeles as the Spaniel doth his Master their lives being but a continual succession of anguish grief and sorrow from their very Cradle to their Grave Which unparallel'd misery could not consist say they with that blessed condition in which man was created at the first yet I rather conceive that all the passions that are at this present incident to men were in our first father in the time of his innocency and that God was pleased then to give him the power and ability to keep them obedient and subordinate to his Will and Reason which power was taken away from him for his apostacy and presumptuous rebellion against the special charge and * Gen. 3.6 7. command given unto him by his Creator and was not onely deprived of this power but also of that royal Prerogative that God had given him over the beasts of the Field the fowls of the Air and the fishes of the Sea so that ever since his Fall his seed hath had enemies within and without to punish and correct them for the transgression of their first Parents and their own actual sins against their gratious God who had created all things perfectly a Gen. 1.25 good and submitted the most fierce and cruel beasts of the Field the devouring fowls of the Air and the monsters of the Sea to be subject and subordinate to the will of man But he having first of all rebelled against his Maker his own passions and the bruit creatures by the just judgment of God have also b Gen. 3.18 shaken off the obedience and respect they did ow unto him yet the unreasonable creatures are his meanest enemies for by that small spark of knowledg and divine Power and Majesty that is left in him he doth daily finde out means to curb their fury and rage but wants power and ability to regulate the exorbitant distemper of his own passions of all which Dolour is one of the most irksome Now for the better description of it I will speak of these particulars in order 1. Of the definition of Dolour 2. Of the different sorts of it 3. Of the causes of it 4. Of its nature and effects 5. Of the remedies of it 6. Of the use of spiritual sorrow First The Moralists are of different opinions concerning the definition of this passion of Dolour under which is comprised Anguish
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
make golden bridges for their enemies to retreat then by despair to enforce them to fight To conclude Despair is a dangerous passion and Self-murdering Despair is to be abhorred of Christians for it doth not onely destroy the body but it doth also cast mens souls into the pit of eternal wo. There is also another sort of Despair which I have not as yet spoken of which proceeds from natural infirmities as from burning Feavers Frenzies and Madness but the evil effects which proceed from these are rather to be imputed to keepers of the Patients then to themselves or to the fury of the disease and therefore cannot come within the compass of Self murder The Remedies against which horrid sin are contained in the insuing Discourse Fifthly Six remedies against Despair The Remedies to prevent the evil and most pernicious effects of this dangerous passion of Despair which is one of the strongest temptations of Satan may be these and such other passages of Scripture a Psal 5.2 Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray for constant and fervent prayers are able to cast back this temptation like filth in Satans face and to obtain of the Lord these supernatural graces whereby Christians will be inabled to defie and overcome Despair first Faith as a shield wherewith men shall be able saith St. Paul to quench all the fiery b Ephes 6.16 darts of the wicked And to say with Iob in the greatest tribulations that can befall them in this life Though he slay me yet will I c Job 13.15 trust in him secondly Repentance for it is a pretious Antitode against the venom of Despair What had become of St. Peter for denying his Lord and Master three times before the Cock d Matth. 26.75 crowed once if by the bitter tears of Repentance he had not obtained mercy Nay the very temporal and fained Repentance of Ahab King of Israel moved God to transfer or remove the execution of his wrath e 1 Kings 21.27 28 29. from him to his children And it is conceived by the best Divines that if Iudas who betraied our blessed Saviour had repented of his horrid sin he had not faln into f Matt. 27.5 despair for the compassions of the Lord are incomprehensible and his mercies are infinite as it appears by his towards Manasseh g 2 Chron. 33.12 13. King of Iudah who had committed all the wickedness that could be imagined by the hearts of men for he caused the Prophet Isaiah to suffer a most cruel death by sawing his body in the midst with a Saw and he turned aside from the Lord to commit Idolatry and caused his son to pass through the fire and dealt with Familiar Spirits and made the streets of Ierusalem to overflow with the innocent blood he caused to be spilt and yet when he humbled himself by an unfained Repentance before the Lord God was so gracious as to shew him mercy and from a miserable Captive he restored him to his royall dignity thirdly Patience is a special remedy against Despair for it preserved Job in the midst of his greatest temptation nay when his wife that should have been his greatest comforter said unto him Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse h Job 2.9 10. God and die He answered with an admirable meekness of Spirit Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh What Shal we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil And this onely consideration That all things work for good to them that i Rom. 8.28 love God should keep men from Despair when they are in a maner overwhelmed with the greatest afflictions that can befall them in this life fourthly Confidence in God is an excellent remedy against Despair for such as trust in the Lord may say with the Prophet David I will not k Tsal 3.6 be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me fifthly Hope is a powerful remedy against Despair for if men say with the Prophet David The Lord is my Rock l Psal 18.2 and my Fortress and my Deliverer for my m Psal 39.7 hope is in thee sixthly Fortitude is an excellent remedy against Despair for it is able to dash and overcome all the evil apprehensions that beget Despair and check mens pusillanimity with these words of the Prophet David Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou n Psal 42.11 disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God By these and the like passages of Scripture men may prevent the dangerous effect of Despair Nay draw unspeakable comforts out of the very Causes that beget Despair which passion is full of vanity and vexation of spirit c. CHAP. XIV Of the vanity of the passion of Vndantedness IF Diamonds were as common as Pipples and Vertues as natural to men as Vices they would not be so precious nor valued at so high a rate as they are in these days for it is the rarity of things more then their goodness that makes them to be esteemed among men for Instance Bread is the only staff of mans life and the best food that Nature hath appointed for his subsistence and yet because it is common it is little regarded for Beggers will hardly give men thanks if they give them nothing but dry bread But this passion I am to speak of is not onely rare sith one man among one hundred is not indowed with it but also good and excellent and therefore the more to be esteemed and valued of men as a rare and precious Jewel By it mens hopes are attained all fears expelled and despair suppressed and were it not a Passion I should call it a Vertue because of the resemblance it hath with Fortitude For Undantedness is the Spring of all true Valour and manly courage and by it all the generous actions that have been acted since the Creation till this day have had their beeing and successful end And therefore most judiciously and properly placed by the Moralists after Despair and before Fear to mitigate by the excellent proprieties of it the evil qualities of the two others for were it not for this passion men would be diverted from undertaking any noble design by Fear and Despair who have a natural propriety to withdraw the vitall spirits into the Center of the body which hinders the natural faculties to do and execute their functions and makes men timerous and remiss to undertake any noble action but Undantedness causeth the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it to dilate themselves to the utmost parts of the members of the Body and so gives them life and vigor and makes men apt and fit to undertake and execute all noble enterprizes Now for the better description of this noble Passion I will
drinking of it become worse then bruit Beasts because they deprive themselves of Judgment and Reason The Viper is naturally rank poyson and yet the Mithridate and other Antidotes against venoms are composed of it even so this passion of Fear is much abused and made worse then it is although it proceed from an evil spring I mean the weakness and infirmity of men yet God is pleased to make good use of it to convert sinners and to make them prosecute with greater fervency then they would otherwise do the ways of Righteousness Divers conceive Fear to be a Feminine passion and unworthy to be harbored in a Masculine Brest yet it maketh the proudest of men to be cautious and circumspect in their undertakings and clips the wings of their vain hopes and ambitious designes Tacitus saith See Tasitus in the life of Nero. That it serves as a curb to the licentious will of Princes and of all others that are in power and authority and for instance saith That as long as Agrippina the mother of the Emperor Nero lived of whom he stood in fear his actions were not so exorbitantly wicked as after her death but he having like a graceless son deprived her of life took free liberty to commit the greatest impieties that his heart could imagine And Joash King of Juda did the like for as long as Jehojada the high Priest lived whom he feared he seemed to love the Lord but soon after his death he gave himself over to Idolatry and cruelty for like an ungrateful wretch he caused Zechariah 2 Chro. 24.17 22. the son of Jehojada to be slain because he onely delivered unto him the message he had received from the Lord. Divers prefer Love before Fear but there cannot be any true Love without Fear Others say it is better to be feared then beloved but it is better to be equally loved and feared for men without Love endevor to be rid of the object of their Fears But if men be beloved and feared this composure keeps off all danger and begets security and obedience Neither can there be any filial obedience without Love for the obedience that proceeds from Fear is not free Prov. 1.7 and 20.2 but forced The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledg And the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul How much more should men be afraid to provoke Gods wrath by their sins and yet that is one of their least fears for they fear those things which they should not fear and fear not to sin which they should most fear But sith the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and of all saving knowledg which knowledg doth teach men to be afraid of sin which is the greatest evil Give me leave to inlarge my discourse upon these ensuing particulars that you may know to fear nothing but sin 1. On the definition of Fear 2. On the Nature of it 3. On the causes and remedies of mens fears 4. On the evil and good Effects of Fear 5. On the Spirtiual use of Fear The Moralists do vary in opinion Boujou in his Commentaries upon Aristotles Phâ—s lib. 16. cap. 6. concerning the definition of this Passion of Fear Fear saith one is a passion and apprehension of an evil that is to come but near at hand and looked for and unlikely to be avoided Fear saith another The Bishop of Marseille p. 408. is nothing else but a Grief and Dolor of the soul apprehending an evil at hand in which men see little probability it can be eschewed although it aims at the annihilation of their Being or to some dismal disgrace that threatneth their life or estate Yet it will appear by the nature the proprieties and effects of Fear that men are rather transported with Fears of imaginary Evils then of real and that mens fears do but rarely proceed from the annihilation of their Being However it is the fourth passion incident to the irrascible Appetite and the opposite and great Antagonist to the noble passion of Undantedness Secondly The nature of Fear is different from the nature of Joy for Joy dilates the blood and the vital spirits residing in it from the heart to the utmost parts of the body contrarily Fear withdraws the blood from the extreams of the body to the heart because Fear is a cold passion and the heart finding this cold to oppress it withdraws and calls as it were the blood and vital spirits from the further parts of the body to his ayd that by their natural heat he may be revived and cherished And that is the reason why divers men and women have been deprived of life by a sudden fear or fright because this cold passion congealeth the blood about the heart as a great frost congealeth water into Ice but if the Fear be not so violent yet it produceth a great alteration in the body for mens and womens faces will become as white as a cloth and sometimes all their members will tremble as a leaf and the motion proceeding from this alteration is so swift and forcible that women great with-childe miscarry by it nay it doth oftentimes turn the childe in their womb which depriveth the mother and the childe of life But Fear and Dolor have a great resemblance one with the other for they have both this withdrawing quality and are both of an extream cold and dry nature and therefore Fear and Sorrow are compared to the Winter Season and Joy and Delectation to the Spring and Summer in which the vegetative Creatures sprought and spring out their branches leaves flowers and fruits but in Winter time they withdraw their sap which is their life into their Roots as Fear and Sorrow doth draw the blood and vital spirits about the heart that is the essential cause and motion of mens lives Having both one and the same end the vegetatives to preserve themselves from the Frost and Snow and the heart to warm and cherish it self against these cold and frosty passions of Fear and Sorrow Thirdly The causes of mens fears are many and of several natures and by consequence their remedies must be proportionable unto them I will therefore speak first of the causes and to every cause apply the remedy but as I have said a little before mens fears do oftner proceed from imaginary evils then from the real and the worst propriety of this passion of Fear is That it anticipates and creates Fears in the Minde the real effects of which evils oftentimes are not like to trouble such as apprehend them nor their childrens children which kinde of Fear proceeds from a distrust of Gods providence and therefore as odious to God as any other kinde of Fear as it shall be proved when I come to speak of the effects of this passion First Worldly men Fear to loose their honors and dignities Secondly Their treasures and riches Thirdly
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
Solomon saith By the means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread I will prove the point by Instances 1. All the Treasures of Asia did not suffice to defray the excessive volupties of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra 2. All the Revenews of the Roman Empire did not serve to discharge the lascivious riots of the Emperors Caligula Nero Vitellius Domitianus and Heliogabalus 3. All the comings in of the Kingdom of France did not suffice to defray the lascivious volupties of Henry the third King of France for he left the Crown indebted fourscore millions of Crowns although he raised the Subsidies and Imposts of his Realm as much more as they were in his Fathers Reign whereby it may be collected that voluptuous Princes are the greatest Oppressors of their Subjects 4. Daily experience doth shew that many Noble-men Gentlemen and rich Merchants spend and consume their Portion or Patrimony as the Prodigal Son did with Harlots and riotous living 5. Luk. 15.13 It shortneth mens days and makes their lives miserable for none can deny but continency temperance and sobriety doth preserve men in health and doth prolong their lives And without health the greatest Monarch upon the Earth can neither have joy nor content And to that end God was pleased to add health and length of days to those extraordinary gifts he gave unto King Solomon 1 King 3.14 otherwise his Wisdom incomparable Magnificence and incredible riches had not afforded him any true joy or content Besides carnal volupties do not only consume mens Estates and impair their health but it makes also their life miserable and loathsome to themselves for what anguish grief and dolours perplexity and vexation of minde is it to a miserable Patient that is sick of the Venereal disease to see his members rot away by piece-meals and to smell the stinking vapours that proceed from the inward corruption of his body And what vexation is it unto him to see Wife nearest Parents and intimate friends to eschew the very sight of him and forsake him in these anxieties Oh what inward torments doth he feel by the gnawing worm of an awakned conscience which doth rack him day and night by the horrid representations of his former pollutions Oh what unspeakable terror do possess him when he sees and feels the arrows of the Almighty Job 6.4 as Job saith to be in him the venom whereof doth drink up his spirits and the terrours of God fight against him for his former transgressions Christians should then endeavor to mortifie this sinful passion if it were but to preserve their means and lengthen their days But 6. it endangers also their souls for if they continue in their impenitency till the end of their days they run a hazard without the special mercy of God to be deprived for ever of his gracious presence For S. Paul saith in the affirmative sense Heb. 13.4 Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge And by the Levitical Law Levit. 19.10 The Adulterer and Adulteress were both to be put to death yet Christ our Saviour goeth further for he saith Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her Matth. 5.28 hath already committed Adultery with her in his heart Now if the intellectual adulteries and pollutions of the imagination deserve eternal damnation the actual fornications of voluptuous men who take no other delight but in the commission of such scandalous sins must of necessity deserve a greater punishment if any did exceed the torments of Hell The consideration then of the evil nature pernitious proprieties and destructive Effects of this sinful passion should induce Christians to endeavor by all means to crush this Cockatrice in the shell before it getteth the mastery over their reason Otherwise if this evill spirit of uncleanness doth possess the noble faculties of their souls it will require an extraordinary measure of Grace to cast him out and will cost them many sighs groans and floods of penitent tears for this unclean spirit is of the same kinde as our Saviour speaks of which cannot be expelled but by fasting and prayer Math. 17.21 Now if they cannot be induced to this so necessary duty by the reasons moral precepts and strong Arguments before cited let the ensuing judgements of God inflicted upon voluptuous men awake and force them to it Sixthly The judgments of God inflicted upon particular Voluptuous men and whole Nations are so numerous that it would be an endless piece of work to speak of them all I will then make choyce but of some of them Gen. 19.5.24 1. All the Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with Fire and Brimstone righteous Lot and his two Daughters onely excepted for their abhorred Lust and sins against Nature Num. 25.9 2. Twenty four Thousand of the People of Israel were consumed by the Plague for their fornications with the Moabitish women 3. Judg. 20.47 48. All the Tribe of Benjamin Six hundred only excepted were destroyed by the Sword for Patronizing the abhorred Lust of some of the Gibeahnites committed upon the Levites Concubine See Herodotus See the French Hist 4. All the Inhabitants of Ionia were destroyed by Cyrus for their lascivious Volupties 5. All the French that were in Sicilia were murthered in one night by the Sicilians for their uncleanness and fornications committed with the women of that Kingdom See the Hist of Naples 6. A great Borough near unto Putzola in the Kingdom of Naples was in one night overwhelmed by a just judgement of God with fire brimstone and the ashes of a hill near to it for the abhorred Lusts against Nature of the Inhabitants of the same 7. Gen. 34.26 Reuben was deprived of his Birth-right for defiling of his Fathers bed 8. Shechem lost his life for the rape of Dinah 9. Numb 25.8 Zimri was run through the body with a Javelin by Phinehas for his impudent Fornication with a Midianite Lady 10. Eli the High Priest 1 Sam. 4.17 18. and Hophni and Phinehas lost their lives the two last for their pollutions committed with the Israelitish women that came to Shiloh and the first for not reprehending his Sons so severely as he should have done for their lascivious courses 11. 2 Sam. 11.4 King David was severely punished for the Adultery committed with Bathsheba 12. Amnon his Son was killed by the servants of Absolom his Brother for the Rape of his sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13.14.29 And Absolom was slain by the commandment of Joab for having defiled his Fathers Concubines in the sight of the Sun and of all Israel See the Ecclesiastical History See the Millan and Florentine History Pope John the Twelfth was murthered in his bed for his Adultery committed with a Roman Lady 14. One of the Sforza's Duke of Millan was murthered in the Church of S. Steven by a Gentleman for his Adultery committed with his Wife 15. Alexander de Medecis Duke of
Joseph the meekness of Moses the zeal of Phineas the fervency of David and the holiness of our blessed Saviour were the objects of mens ambition ambitious men would carry away the garland and be reputed as the only excellent upon earth Psal 16.3 But to be excessively ambitious after the fading and momentary riches honours and glory of this world or after the conquest of a Mole-hill for the greatest Kingdom in Christendom in comparison of the whole Globe of the World will appear but like a Mole-hill it is a meer vanity Eccles 6.2 and an evil disease Socrates being informed that Alcibiades was proud and ambitions and boasted of the great demains he possessed in Attica a Province of Greece See Plutarch in his Morals of which Athens was the Metropolitan City brought him into a place where there was a Map of the whole Earth and prayed him to shew him where stood his Possessions Alcibiades after an exact view of the same found out at last the Province of Attica which was no bigger then a great pins-head but could not see any sign of his demains whereupon Socrates said unto him Why are you then so proud and ambitious for a thing of so little Continent that it cannot be seen in this Card. Even so Princes and Commonwealths who out of ambition contend for enlargement of their demains will finde at the end when they have shed their subjects blood and exhausted their Treasures that they have only obtained with much ado a small Mole-hill of ground And will be enforced to say See the History of France as Charls the Fifth and Philip the Second Kings of Spain did who through their Ambition had been the cause of the death of a million of men and of the exhausting of all the Treasures that came out of the West Indies which did amount in threescore years to above two hundred millions of Crowns by the Wars they made about the Conquest of France viz. That with all this blood and incredible Treasures they had not won a Foot of ground in France and were further from the Conquest of it then they were the first day of their War And verily if the seventeen Provinces of the Low-Countries were represented in a Map and compared to the whole Globe of the Firmament of the Seas and the Earth they would not seem to be so big as a Mole-hill And yet they have this threescore years and ten been the object of the Ambition of him that stiles himself the greatest King in Christendom And notwithstanding his might and power See the History of the Netherlands and the innumerable lives of men that have been lost and the incredible Treasures that have been exhausted in the Conquest and preservation of them yet hath he been enforced to acknowledge seven of these Provinces to be free-States and at this very hour courts them by his Embassadors to obtain an offensive and defensive League with them For although the Ambition of Princes and Commonwealths have no bounds yet are they bounded by the Lord of Hosts and shall extend no further then he hath Decreed The beginning the encrease the decay and utter annihilation of Empires Monarchies and Commonwealths being wholly at his disposing Notwithstanding the desires of Ambitious men are never satisfied and are alwayes projecting to enlarge their bounds although they are ignorant of Gods will and pleasure therein these ambitious desires of theirs being oftentimes the fore-runners of their ruine and annihilation See Herodotus in his Life Croesus King of Lydia desiring ambitiously to enlarge his dominions made War against Cyrus who deprived him in one day of his Kingdom and of his incredible Treasures And Antiochus the great ambitiously desiring to enlage his Kingdom declared War against the Romans who took from him Armenia See Plutarch in the Lives of Lucullus and Pompeius and confined him beyond the Mount Taurus And because this fiery passion of Ambition is as predominant in all parts of Christendom in these dayes as it hath been in former Ages give me leave to enlarge my self upon these particulars 1. On the definition of this passion 2. On the composure of it 3. On the nature of the same 4. On those who are most addicted to it 5. On the Causes that move men to be Ambitious 6. On the proprieties of the same 7. On the pernitious effects of it 8. On the means to subdue the same First The definition Ambition is nothing but an exorbitant and irregular desire of worldly honour and glory Secondly It is a mixt passion composed of these The composure viz. of Audacity of Hope and Desire 1. Audacity expels the fears that might disswade Ambitious men from undertaking any perilous enterprises 2. Hope infuseth in them a confidence they shall attain to their ends 3. Desire gives them wings to prosecute with indefatigable labour the fruition of that which they aym at Thirdly It is of a fiery restless and insatiable nature 1. It is fiery because such as are more ambitious then others are of a bilious hot and dry constitution 2. It is restless because the bilious humour which is the most predominant in their bodies doth usually ascend up to their brains which makes them active in all their actions and sudden in all their undertakings The nature of Ambition And of this natural constitution were Caesar Henry the Fourth King of France and the last King of Sweden who were all three extraordinarily ambitious 3. It is insatiable because of the great predominancy the passion of desire hath over the other passions of which it is composed nothing being more insatiable then the desires of men Fourthly Those who are most ambitious are commonly of a haughty spirit envious and impatient when they see any other excel them in valor honor glory It was Ambition that moved Alexander to reject the fair offer that Darius King of Persia made unto him of the half of his Kingdom and of his eldest Daughter to be his wife if that would have satisfied his ambition so he might enjoy peaceably the other moity the rest of his days See Quintus Curtius in his Life but this answer of Alexander made unto Darius upon this offer did proceed from a haughty and imperious spirit viz. That as there was but one Sun in the Firmament so there could be but one Monarch upon Earth See Plutarch in Caesars Life And this saying of Caesar did proceed from a haughty and ambitious heart viz. That he would rather be the chiefest Magistrate in a petty City of Italy then the second in the City of Rome And this other that he spake to the Master of a ship in the midst of a storm Fear not saith he For thou dost carry in thy ship Caesar and his Fortune as if the Winde and the Sea had been bound to obey and comply with his ambitious designs But his passion of Sorrow when he wept seeing the Figure of
Spanish History 8. Philip the Second King of Spain caused Prince Charls his eldest Son to be put to death by the Inquisition of Spain out of an ambitious jealousie that he did aspire to bereave him of his Crown Seventhly The Effects of Ambition are worse then the Proprieties of it for Paracidies Murthers Rebellions Mutations of States Annihilations of Laws intestine and forraign Wars with all the desolations and mischiefs that follow them at the heels are the fruits of mens ambition and of these I will speak in order and by instances confirm the same For the first Andronicus the younger See the History of the Emperor of Constantinople See the Turkish History out of ambition to raign did most cruelly put out the eyes of his Grandfather and famished him to death in Prison 2. Sylimus out of ambition to raign did most unnaturally poyson his Father Bajazeth and flew all his brethren 3. 2 Chron. 2.10 Athaliah out of Ambition to raign slew and destroyed all the Seed-Royal of the House of Judah 4. Richard the Third King of England out of Ambition to raign See the English History caused his two Nephews to be murthered in the Tower and in hope to settle the Crown upon himself and his Posterity he put his Wife to death to marry the Lady Elizabeth his own Niece Incests being accounted no sin by ambitious men So they may as the House of Austria do daily uphold and advance by it their ambitious designs For the Second 2 Sam. 3.27 Joab out of ambition to remain still the Commander in Chief of the men of War murthered perfidiously under colour of friendship Abner and Amasa by stabbing of them under the fifth rib 2. Baasha out of ambition to raign murthered Nadab his Lord and King 1 King 15.27 3. Zimri out of ambition to raign murthered Ela his Lord the Son of Baasha 1 King 16.10 1 King 16.18 4. Omri out of ambition to raign rose up against Zimri and enforced him to burn himself in the Kings Palace For the Third Absolom out of Ambition to raign rebelled against his Father King David 2 Sam 26.21 and did endeavour to deprive him of life from whom he had his being 2. Zedechiah out of ambition to raign as an absolute King rebelled against his benefactor King Nebuchadnezzar 2 King 24.20 which was the cause of his miserable end 3. Otho out of ambition to raign rebelled against Galba who had made him his second favourite See Tacitus 4. Pippin the short out of ambition to raign rebelled against his Lord King Childerick and by force and violence caused him to be shaven as a Monk See the French History and to be shut up into a Monastery For the Fourth The ambition of Nebuchadnezzar was the secondary cause of the destruction of the Assyrian Monarchy And the ambition of Cyrus was the cause of the overthrow of the Babylonian Monarchy And the ambition of Alexander was the cause of the annihilation of the Persian Monarchy And the ambition of the Roman Commanders was the cause of the utter subversion of the Greek Monarchy See Sir Walter Rawleighs History of the World And the ambition of Caesar was the cause of the mutation of the Democratical Government of Rome into a Monarchical And the ambition of the Rulers of the Gauls Goths Visgots Vandals and Lombards of the utter ruine of the Roman Monarchy for they rent the same in pieces as a Kite rends a young chiken I say the secondary Cause for the secret will and Decree of God is the first and efficient cause of all the mutations of States or Monarchies And that is the reason why Saint Paul giveth this charge Rom. 13 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God For the Fifth From the mutations of one kinde of Government to another Government See Plutarch in Caesars Life and Caesar in his Commentaries proceeds annihilation of the antient Laws of either of them It hapned so at Rome upon the change that Caesars ambition brought in that Commonwealth for the ancient Laws were annihilated and new Laws were established and likewise after the coming of William the Conquerour into England the antient Brittain Laws were annulled See Speed in his Historie of England and the Norman Laws confirmed This proverb being not more common then true viz. From new Lords new Laws and this might be proved by divers instances out of the antient and modern Histories but these two alledged will serve for brevity sake For the Sixth Ambition breeds divisions and divisions beget intestine and forraign Wars and from these Wars proceed the mutations of States and Monarchies and from these mutations the Annihilation of antient Laws Now the inseparable companions of forraign and intestine Wars are Atheism Schisms in the Church and a Laodicean luke-warmness in Religion and great effusions of blood injustices oppressions and desolations And all these mischiefs proceed from the exorbitant and irregular ambition of men and therefore I conclude that the passion of ambition is nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit and more destructive to mankinde then any other passion But before I speak of the means which are to be used to restrain the fury of this violent passion give me leave to examine the justice or injustice of the Wars which have been meerly undertaken out of an ambitious desire of vain-glory It is certain that if the actions of the most ambitious Princes and Common-wealths that have from the creation to this day bin upon the Earth were examined without prejudice or partiality that they would be found more injurious then just If men set aside the secret will Decree of God who had ordained from the beginning that these four great Monarchies here spoken of should be so successful in their encrease they would wonder how injustice and oppressions could have such prosperous events I will only speak of the Actions of the Romans and Greeks 1. Because they have been more clearly demonstrated to us by their Authors then the actions of the other two 2. Because the Actions of the Assyrians and Babylonians were guided by a special providence of God for the punishment of the sins of his own People the Jews As for the Actions of the Romans men may clearly see that from their very beginning until the days of Caesar they have for the greater part been unjust oppressive and injurious although they with much cunning and art did palliate them under the cloak of Justice and the right of the Laws of Nations And as for the Civil War undertaken by Caesar against his native Countrey it was voyd of all humanity and Justice and Ambition only gave him the audacity to resolve to enslave under his yoak those to whom he had been a servant for seven years together Nay with that very Army that they had given him and
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
Alexander cut in Marble standing in the Market place of the City of Cadice in Spain doth evidently manifest that he was of a haughty and ambitious spirit Out of these instances it may then be collected that Ambition is as common to haughty and proud spirits as Avarice is proper and peculiar to vile and base-minded-men Fifthly The causes moving men to be ambitious may be these 1. Self-love 2. Pride 3. Vain-glory. 1. Self-love induceth to prefer their own glory to any thing under the Sun And it is certain that all the heroical Actions of the antient Heathens did rather proceed from self-love then from the love they did bear to Vertue or to their native Countrey And in these days most of the commendable Actions of Magistrates Commanders The causes moving men to be Ambitious and Learned men have a greater reference to this self-love then the glory of God and the Publick good except it be the actions of some special Saints and true children of God 2. Pride raiseth their hearts above the Moon for like proud and ambitious Haman they would have all men bow their knees before them and will be accounted as the Cedars of Libanon and not as the brambles of the Forrest And this Pride makes them aspire to the greatest Offices and Places of the Commonwealth being assured that by these Places and Dignities they will be more honoured then for their own worth Never considering that the steepest Mountains the highest Clifts Towers and Steeples are more subject to be beaten down by the boysterous winds and thunder-claps then the low trees growing in the Valleys And that God doth always exalt the humble and speaketh thus to the proud Though thou exalt thy self as the Eagle Obad. 1.4 and though thou set thy nest among the stars thence will I bring thee down saith the Lord. 3. Vain-glory gives wings to the ambitious men and makes them undertake the most perilous enterprises if they conceive they may obtain in this life the prayse and the applause of men and make their memory famous in the Generations to come This moved the two Decii to throw themselves in the midst of the Enemies Army to save and to give the Victory to the Roman Legions See Livie in his first Decade It moved Martius Curtius to cast himself on Horse-back armed from head to foot into a bottomless Pit to free the City of Rome from the contagion of a consuming Plague It moved Scevola to burn his own hand before King Porsenna in the flame of a lighted Torch to obtain an advantageous Peace for his native Countrey And the ancient Romans knowing what power vain-glory hath over ambitious men did ordain to this purpose three kinde of Triumphs to incite them by these vain shews and the applause and acclamations the common people made at their entring See Livie in his 1.2 and 3. Decade to hazzard their lives in Martial Atchievments the first of these Triumphs excelling in honour the second and the second the last that their valour might be honoured according to the degrees as it did really deserve Whereby it appears that vain-glory hath from the beginning to this day been the only aym of proud and ambitious men Sixthly The proprieties of ambition are numerous but for brevity sake I shall onely speak of three of them The first proprietiy of it is That it hath neither limits nor bounds and this I will prove by three instances that are known to such as are vers'd in ancient and Modern Histories 1. The Ambition of the Democratical Commonwealth of Rome had no bounds although the beginning of it was vile and small it was vile because the first erectors of it were for the greater part Out-laws Fugitives and Vagabonds and it was small because their number did not exceed three thousand before the Sabines joyned with them the first object of their Ambition was the City of Alba See Livie in his 1. Decade Lib. 1. which was destroyed in one day the second was Gabes and the Citizens of them both were joyned with the Romans which did much encrease their number and so by degrees subdued all their neighbouring Princes and Commonwealths then Sicilia was the object of their Ambition then Carthage Spain France England Greece Macedonia and Armenia And when they had in their possession the greatest part of Europe See Caesars Commentaries Asia and Africa then the ambition of Caesar swallowed up them who from a servant became their imperious Lord. Neither was the ambition of their Emperors ever limited for the greater part of them did endevor to enlarge their Monarchy till the days of the Emperor Trajan See Dion and Apian at which time it had the largest extent that it ever had for presently after it began to decay and was annihilated by its own waight as all great Politick Bodies are commonly 2. The Ottoman ambition was never limited to this day At the first it was contained within the Circumference of a Countrey Village their number not above six hundred then they extended the same in the Lesser Asia and then it came over Hellespontus into Greece conquered Constantinople See the Turkish History suppressed the Greek Empire subdued Servia Dalmatia and a great part of Hungaria then Egypt Syria and Armenia with the Iland of Cyprus Rhodes and all the Islands of the Archipelago then they extended the same into Persia but were enforced to give it over because of their Civil Divisions The Janisaries and the Spahis holding at this present the helm of the ship of that great Monarchy for they have of late years placed and displaced to and from the Throne such as pleased and displeased them yet is not their ambition limited for Candia is now the object of it 3. The ambition of the House of Austria was never yet limited 1. In the days of Ferdinando and Isabella they conquered the Kingdom of Grenado See the German and Spanish History and the West Indies and by a wile possessed themselves perfidiously of the Kingdom of Navarr and drove the French out of the Kingdom of Naples and the Dutchy of Milan and having by the Heir of the House of Burgundy obtained the rule of the seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands Charls the Fifth the son of that Heir was chosen Emperor of Germany when he was already King of Spain which Kingdom he left to Philip the Second his son and the Empire of Germany to his brother Ferdinande whom he caused to be chosen by his power in his life time and so ambitiously and cunningly made the Empire of Germany Hereditary to that Family that was formerly elective his son Philip the Second of that name King of Spain following his ambitious steps by the invincible Navie he sent to conquer England See the French and English History and the Catholike League that were his Emissaries to betray into his hands France their native Countrey came very near to be the absolute Monarch of