extraordinarily violent in all its operations It is also of an insatiable and sordid nature by the means of the passion of desire that hath an insatiable proprietie and is most base because this desire hath no other object then the excrements of the Earth Avarice is of a violent insatiable and feminine nature for Gold is nothing but a yellow and Silver nothing but a white clay calcinated and refined by the beams of the Sun by a long continuance of time It is likewise of a timerous quality by the means of the passion of fear that is of a feminine nature so by the mixture of these ill-qualified ingredients Avarice is one of the most base passions incident to men Fourthly These kinde of men are most commonly addicted to it 1. Low and base minded men 2. Old men are more addicted to it then the young 3. Those who have in their youth been riotous and prodigal are much inclined to it when they become ancient 4. Such as have been in great want in their youth become avaritious when they are old out of fear to fall into the like straits For the first all generous spirits disdain to be avaritious for their thoughts soar higher then the excrements of the Earth whereas the low-minded are like the Swine who never rise nor lift up their eyes to Heaven but are still fixed and routing with their snout in the muck-hils of the Earth See Plutarch and Dion in their Lives I mean by using all vile and base means to enrich themselves as Crassus and Vespasian did Secondly the antient are more addicted to Avarice then young men and this proceeds of fear and from the experience they have of the mutability of all worldly things besides they consider their weakness disabilities of body to labor as they did in their youth therefore hoard up what they can against the day of need hope being then utterly extinguisht in their breast by the cold blast of timerous fears which doth possess decrepit aged men yet this consideration that they have one of their feet upon the brink of their Grave should induce them to make use of the blessings of God sith they have but short time to live and less need of them then younger men Thirdly such as have lavished their means by profuse prodigalities fall when they are recalled from these courses from one extream to another and from great Prodigals become great Usurers avaritious Misers Fourthly Princes who in their youth were of a generous spirit yet having been brought by mutation of state into great wants and necessities become when they are antient out of fear to fall again into the same straits extreamly avaritious and prone to hoard up Treasures as it appears by the Lives of Peter de Medecis Duke of Florence See Guicciardine and the English and French Histories in their Lives and by Henry the Seventh King of England and Henry the Fourth King of France Fifthly The causes moving men to affect Avarice may be these 1. A base distruct of the providence of God suggested in their hearts by Satan through want of Faith to believe these precepts of our blessed Saviour * Math. 6 25 26 27 28 29 30. Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on Is not the life more then meat and the body more then rayment Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not better then they Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature And why take you thought for raiment consider the Lilies of the Field how they grow they toil not neither do they Spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little Faith 2. This diffidence doth beget in them a faint-hearted fear to fall into poverty if they scrape and heap not by hook and crook some heaps of Gold or Silver for although poverty of it self be innocent yet in these depraved days it is held criminal and the greatest vice and misery upon earth Prov. 14.20 For the poor saith Solomon is hated even of his neighbour Notwithstanding saith he in another place Prov. 19 1. Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity then the rich that is perverse in his ways 3. Because none are regarded in this age but the rich yet rich men without wisdom and piety should be no more regarded then fools for as snow in Summer Allusion upon Prov. 26.1 and as rain in Harvest comes unseasonably even so honour is as unseemly to rich men that want understanding It was an ingenuous comparison of a modern Author who said that a wise vertuous and religious poor man was like a good horse with a leather Saddle on his back and a vitious profane and foolish rich man like a Jade that had an embroydred Saddle on his back Men respecting in these days more the rich and gay apparel of men then their worth and vertue 4. Because they may enjoy by riches all carnal volupties from which the poorer sort are debarred by their poverty 5. Because they erroneously conceive that riches make them have many friends but they are commonly Sycophants and Table-friends for all such whose friendship is grounded upon riches and not upon the vertue and merites of the party are time-servers and of a base and mercenary spirit and as fickle in their love and friendship as the wind and at the least blast of disgrace or adversity forsake them These two instances shall prove the point Haman the great Favourite of King Ahashuerus had many friends who bowed their knees daily before him when he had the favour of the King but as soon as his wrath was kindled against him they acquainted the King he had erected a Gibet of fifty Cubits high to hang up Mordecai the preserver of the Kings life Esth 7.9 10. and were the first upon the Kings command who cast a Cloke upon his face offered to hang up Haman upon the same Gibet See Sejanus Life 2. Sejanus the beloved Favourite of the Emperour Tiberius had many friends as long as he was graced by the Emperour for he was more courted by the Senators and men of War then Tiberius himself but they all forsook him when he fell into disgrace and were more eager and active then any to draw his body through the kennels of the Streets of Rome Whereby it appears that the rich mens friends are like a broken bow or a bruised reed 6. Because they falsly believe that riches will rescue them out of many dangers but they are deceived for the smaller
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
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