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A90884
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The vanity of the lives and passions of men. Written by D. Papillon, Gent.
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Papillon, David, 1581-1655?
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1651
(1651)
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Wing P304; Thomason E1222_1; ESTC R211044
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181,604
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424
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The enjoyment of their delights and pleasures These three fading and vanishing things are the most common causes of mens fears The remedies against these are First to consider that there are not many noble called 1 Cor. 1.26.28 and that the things which are most despised God hath chosen Prov. 23.5 Secondly That riches certainly make themselves wings they flie away as an Eagle towards heaven Thirdly That pleasures are of no continuance and leave a sting in the conscience at their departure Eccles 2.11 and are but meer vanity and vexation of Spirit Fourthly Men fear Poverty and to prevent the same addict themselves for the greater part to unlawful courses of gain remembring not this wise saying of Solomon Prov. 28 2â— He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent Poverty is no Vice and yet men abhor Poverty more then any Vice nay more then Sin the worst of evils The remedy against Poverty is Contentedness for many beleeve they are poor when they are rich and many think themselves rich when they are poor As Christ said to the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans Because thou sayest I am rich Revel 3.14 and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked Contentedness is a gift and grace of God for if men be never so rich and want that grace they are but poor and miserable and like Cormorants that can never be satisfied This Fear also proceeds from Distrust and the remedy of it is to relie upon Gods providence and on this precept and promise of our blessed Saviour Which of you by taking thought Matth. 6.27 28 29 31 33. can adde one cubit unto his stature and why take ye thought for rayment Consider the Lillies of the field how they grow they toyl not neither do they spin And yet I say unto you That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these And in the 31 33. Verses Therefore take no thought saying What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewith shall we be clothed But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Fifthly Men fear to lose their wives women their husbands Parents their children and children their Parents and one friend another But this Fear proceeds from the want they conceive they will have of their help and assistance The remedy to this Fear is this consideration That all men are mortal and that all are of the dust Eccles 3.20 and all turn to dust again And let not Christians have less constancy then a Heathen to whom tidings being brought Plutarch in his Morals that his onely son was dead he answered I knew he was not begotten to be immortal and to utterly root out this Fear which proceeds from the distrust of the want of their ayd or assistance let men have always in their minde Rom. 8.28 this saying of Saint Paul All things work together for good to them that love God Sixthly Men fear persecutions tribulations and afflictions This Fear proceeds from the infirmity of the flesh and from the pusillanimity of mens mindes and from an antipathy of nature who abhorreth Anguish and Dolor The remedy of this Fear is Fortitude and an undanted Courage with this assurance That by tribulations and crosses God is pleased oftentimes to call his children to repentance and make them more fervent and zealous in the ways of Righteousness As the Prophet David saith Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy word Seventhly Men fear banishment and long imprisonments This Fear also proceeds from want of a Masculine courage for a Heathen could say when he was banished Plutarch in his Morals That the whole world was his Native Countrey The onely remedy against this Fear is Patience and as the prison doth retain mens bodies so it may if they make good use of their banishment and imprisonment refrain them from sin and increase their Moral vertues and Spiritual Graces Acts 16.25 Paul and Silas prayed and sung Psalms and praised God in prison And Sir Walter Rawleigh and La Nove have made themselves famous by the learned Works they have written in prison See Plutarch in their lives And Solon and Cicero did improve their learning and Moral vertues in their exile or banishment Eightly Men fear lingring and tedious Diseases as the Consumption of the Lungs the Hectick Fever and the wasting of the Liver But this Fear proceeds from their natural infirmitie that is impatient of pain for lingring Diseases prepare men for repentance whereas sudden diseases deprive them oftentimes of that Grace The remedy against this Fear is to seek to the Lord before men seek after the Physitians for the issues of life and death are in his hands Ezekiah 2 Kings 20.2 6 7. King of Judah was soon cured of his Mortal disease because he called and prayed unto the Lord with an unfeigned sincerity of heart Ninthly Men fear to fall into a decrepit age A vain and ridiculous Fear sith the oldest man alive doth commonly hope and desire to live a yeer longer It is true that if decrepit age and poverty do meet it may be called The Misery of Miseries for besides the many infirmities that are incident to decrepit age the waywardness common to it is the most insupportable for it maketh all things distastful unto them and being deprived by Poverty of all worldly comforts this aggravates far more the misery of decrepit age The remedy of it is to attend with patience the time appointed by the Lord of the separation of the body and soul and to say with old Simeon Luke 2 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Tenthly and lastly Men are afraid of death and especially the wicked because it deprives them of their honors riches and pleasures the injoyment of which is their Paradise upon Earth and ferries them over to the eternal woes But death is welcom to the children of God for they account death as their deliverer who frees them from the continual miseries and afflictions of this world who are commonly their portion in this life for they are assured that the sting of death hath been taken away and that the redemption of their sins hath been purchased at a dear rate viz. By the sheding of the precious blood of the onely Son of God our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ And therefore defie death and say to her face O death where is thy sting 1 Cor. 15.55 O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Fourthly The Effects of this Passion of Fear are of
Christendom But God who derides at the ambition of Princes which do not tend to the execution of his secret will brought all his ambitious designs to nothing for his invincible Navie was beaten and scattered by the English valour and the greatest part of it swallowed up by the roaring Seas And the Catholike League in France was utterly subdued by the activity wisdom and valour of Henry the Fourth their lawfull king See the Netherland History Yet notwithstanding that the Hollanders have deprived him of seven of the Netherland Provinces and the Portuguies from his usurped kingdom of Portugal he hoped still ambitiously to make himself the absolute Monarch of Christendom by the divisions he hath lately fomented in Holland England France Scotland and Ireland by the means of the Machiavellian Principles spread abroad by the Jesuitical Locusts that he hath scattered among these Nations like so many swarms of Bees But I hope God will turn his Counsels into foolishness 2 Sam. 17.14 as he did that of Achitophel and make his unlimited Ambition the cause of his utter annihilation The Second Propriety of Ambition is That it hateth Parity and all Competitors and Equals Numerous Instances might be produced for proof of it but half a dozen shall serve 1. Romulus and Remus brethren having been chosen kings or Governors of the Fugitives that were the first Erectors of the Roman Commonwealth did not raign two years together Livie in his first Decade Lib. 1. but Romulus out of ambition to raign alone slew his brother Remus under colour that he had in derision leaped over the mud wals of the City of Rome 2. Lucius Tarquinius impatient of the long life raign of Servius Tullius his Father-in-Law possessed with an ambitious desire to raign in his stead by the wicked instigations of his wife Tullia Lib. 1. p. 76. threw him down the Senate-Chamber stairs and caused him to be murthered in the streets of Rome and this accursed and abhorred Tullia coming from the Senate in a Chariot with four horses where she had caused her Husband to be proclaimed King caused her Coachman to drive the Chariot over her Fathers body as he lay a dying and goared in his blood in the street And no marvel it was that she who to prosecute her ambitious design had already caused her Husband to murther her own sister and his own brother that was her first Husband would omit to act this unparalleld cruelty towards her Father-in-Law by whose untimely and violent death she came to have the fruition of her accursed ambition See Plutarch in their lives 3. Crassus Pompeius and Caesar having divided the power of the Roman Common-wealth between them Crassus being gone with a great Army into Asia to subdue the Parthians and Caesar with another Army into France and Pompeius with another Army left at Rome to preserve Italy all three of them being excessively ambitious and specially the two last could not be contented with their condition but under-hand aspired to be absolute Monarchs which Caesar after the death of Crassus easily obtained 4. After the death of Caesar Lepidus Marcus Antonius and Augustus Caesar did divide the power of the Roman Empire between them but before seven years came about Augustus Caesar the most ambitious of them became the absolute Monarch of the World by these means first Antonius and Augustus joyned together to deprive Lepidus of his part then Antonius and Augustus came to a second division but ambition being more predominant in Augustus then in Antonius who was addicted to volupty he soon deprived him of his part and became the only Monarch upon earth 5. See Herodian in his Life The Emperour Severus at his death left his two sons Bassianus and Geta equal Heirs of the Roman Empire but Bassianus transported with an unnatural ambition slew his brother Geta before a year came about in his Mothers arms to raign alone 6. Lewis the Twelfth King of France and Ferdinando King of Arragon by a mutual consent did divide the Kingom of Naples between them See the French History in the Life of Lewis the Twelfth But the Spaniard being more ambitious then the French under colour of a Toll paid for Cattel which did really appertain to the French but fained to be the Spaniards Ferdinando's pride and ambition disdaining to have a Competitor or Equal in that Kingdom deprived the French of all he held in the same The third Propriety of ambition is That it is never free from jealousie I mean that which is called the jealousie of State And for proof of it these following instances shall suffice 1. The Emperour Tiberius out of an ill-grounded jealousie that Germanicus his own Nephew who was extreamly beloved of the Senators Souldiers and common People for his vertue valour and noble parts should aspire to the Empire before his death See Tacitus in his Life caused Lucius Piso Governour of Syria to poyson him at a Banquet and then forsook the said Piso being accused and convinced of the Fact and suffered him to be sentenced and executed although he had a warrant under his own hand commanding him to rid him out of the way the which Warrant he durst not produce out of fear the Tyrant would deprive his children of his incredible Riches and yearly Revenews 2. Nero out of the same ambitious jealousie caused young Germanicus the true Heir of the Empire to be poysoned as he sate at his own Table 3. Domitianus out of the like jealousie See Tacitus and Dion in these Empeiors lives caused divers Roman Senators to be slain and was resolved to do the like to the Captain of his Guard and to the best beloved of his Concubines if they had not prevented him by taking away his life to preserve their own 4. Lewis the Eleventh King of France out of an ill-grounded but violent ambitious jealousie that his Brother Charls Duke of Normandy did aspire to the Crown See the History of France and of England caused him to be poysoned secretly by one of his own servants 5. Edward the Fourth King of England by the false impressions that his younger Brother Richard Duke of York had malitiously infused in his heart of this ambitious jealousie caused the Duke of Clarence his brother to be arraigned and drowned in a Butt of Malmsey 6. Richard the Third out of this State jealousie caused the Duke of Buckingham to be beheaded because he conceived him to be as willing then to disthrone him and to set his Crown upon the Earl of Richmonds Head as he had been ready in former times to make him that was an Usurper King of England 7. This ambitious jealousie is so cruel that it makes men trangress the Law of Nature and to put their own sons to death as Herod did Antipater his son See Josephus whereupon Augustus Caesar said ingeniously that it was better to be Herods Swine then his Son See the