will appear by these three insuing effects of Despair fourthly In the time of the civil wars See Plutarch in Syllaes life between Sylla and Marius Sylla besieged Preneste a small but a very strong City of Italy because it had sided with Marius and after a long siege he took the same and commanded that all the Inhabitants should be put to the Sword and the City set on fire onely he charged that his Host and his Family should be preserved because in former time he had shewed him much love and good hospitality so at the first entrance of the Town an Officer with a band of souldiers were sent to this Hosts house to preserve it from plunder but he hearing of Syllaes cruel decree against the City was so transported with Despair that he slew himself saying He would not be obliged for his life to the destroyer of his native Countrey See Plutarch in Cesars life fifthly in the civil war between the Cesarean and the Pompeian faction a Centurion or Captain of Cesar and some thirty common souldiers were taken in a fight and brought before Cornelius Scipio that was then Governor of Africa for the Pompeian party who condemned them all to death the Centurion excepted who seeing the cruelty of Scipio drew out his sword and slew himself in his presence saying He would not be obliged for his life to so cruel an enemy of Cesar sixthly In the war that fell out between the Romans and the Iews in the days of the Emperor Vespasianus See Josephus in the war of the Iews Titus his son laid siege and incompassed Iopata a strong City of the Iews with trenches and a powerful Army and after a long siege and great resistance thirty of the chiefest Magistrates of Iopata seeing no probability that the City could hold out any longer hid themselves in a private Vault into which they conveied victuals for three days before which time the City was taken by a Storm and the greatest part of the people put to the sword and such strickt watch set to the gates that none could escape so that these thirty in the Vault must either yield themselves to the Romans or famish whereupon transported with Despair they resolved rather to kill themselves then to die a lingering death or to yield themselves to the mercy of the Romans a desperate mad and barbarous resolution for the fury of the souldiers being over they had undoubtedly obtained mercy and so they cast lots who should be killed first till there were but two left alive and that was Iosephus and another who abhorring this Self-murdering perswaded his fellow to yield themselves to the Romans to which he consented and having discovered themselves they were brought before Titus who having heard of the merit of Iosephus shewed him mercy and at his intreaty saved the life of his fellow Fourthly The good effects of the passion of Despair may be these first It annihilates and turneth to smoak all the vain and extravagant hopes of men that are fixed upon impossibilities Four good effects of Despair secondly It doth quench the burning flames of love and clips the wings of presumptuous Lovers who fly too high with their desires that would otherwise rack and torment their mindes and make them daily sigh and groan because they could not obtain the enjoyment of that object that is too rare and excellent for their degree but Despair coming on makes them desist from the prosecution of things in which there is no probability they can be obtained thirdly it mitigates the ambitious hopes of Princes who would conceive nothing impossible to them because of their might and power if this faithful counsellor of Despair did not respresent unto them the difficulties there may be to attain to the fruition of their Hope The Emperor Charls the fifth See du Bailys Commentaries in the life of Francis the first King of France being ready to pass out of Italy into France with a very potent Army led by approved Commanders and composed of old and experienced souldiers caused this Army to be ranged in Battel array and when it was Marshalized in the best order it could be according to the Art and Rules of War he sent for a French Noble man that was his Prisoner to ride along with him to view this Army and after they had ridden through the same and viewed all the Squadrons of it The Emperor did ask the Noble man what he conceived of this Army He answered that it was a gallant one and well disciplined I hope said the Emperor to ride with this Army thorow the heart of France without impediment of any moment and come to the very walls of Paris safe Sir said the French Noble man mitigate your Hopes with Despair for I can assure you if you had three such Armies you will not come to Paris before you are well beaten and so it fell out for he went no furthen then Marsellies and there lost thirty thousand of his men and was inforced to raise his siege and to return with shame and dishonor into Italy fourthly As Despair makes men fly and takes away their courage so when it isextream and that there is no hope left for the preservation of their lives it inflames their courage See the English History and du Halian in his French History and makes them fight like Lyons The Black Prince having entred France with an Army of some ten thousand men and taken divers strong holds in Poytou Iohn then King of France came against him with an Army of thirty thousand men the Prince seeing himself over-matched by the means of the Popes Nuncio desired to come to a Treaty and offered to the French King to restore unto him all the strong holds he had taken and to make good the damages he had received so he might peaceably retreat with his Army into Aquitain that did then belong to the Kingdom of England but King Iohn a rash and inconsiderate Prince required greater things which stood not with the Princes honor to grant and so was inforced out of Despair to fight whether he would or no and being an excellent souldier seated his Camp in a high ground full of thorns and bushes which he lined with his Archers and caused in the night time a deep ditch to be cast up about his Camp to break the fury of the French horse the French in the morning in stead to send their foot to make a passage through this ditch sent their horse who falling atop of one another in the ditch were slain by the Archers and the battel of the French disordered whereupon the Prince came upon them with his whole Army and obtained a famous victory and took King Iohn and his youngest son Philip le Hardy that was afterwards Duke of Burgundy prisoners and a great number of the French Nobility which confirms that extream Despair makes men fight like Lyons and that wise Princes are rather to
inlarge my self upon these particulars 1. On the Definition of this Passion 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Nature and Proprieties of it 4. On the evil and good Effects of it 5. On the Spiritual Use of it First This Passion hath several names some call it Confidence and have good reason for it because it is its unseperable companion others call it Audacity but this terme doth blemish the true Nature of it The definition of the passion of Undantedness for audacious and presumptuous men are held to be under one and the same predicament other call it boldness but this word is often taken for Impudency but the French call it Hardiesse which doth express most properly the nature of it which is Undantedness in the English Tongue And here is the definition of it according to the judgment of the best Moralists Boujou fol. 7 23. Vndantedness saith one is an affection and assurance to eschew an evil and to overcome all the difficulties of it Vndantedness The Bishop of Marseilles in pag. 401. saith another is a Passion of the soul which strengtheneth the same and makes it confident it can overcome the most difficult evils that can befall it in this life and doth also incourage it to prosecute the good that is most difficult to obtain And to this last definition I assent as concerning the same the best of the two for it doth truely express the nature of this passion which is the third passion incident to the Irascible Appetite 2. The Causes of it are many but they may be reduced to these six the two first are Natural the two middlemost accidental and the two last supernatural The first natural cause of undantedness is a hot and moist temper of the body The first Natural cause may be a moist and hot temper of the body for the Naturalists have observed that all such as are of that constitution of body have ordinarily an undanted spirit The Natural reason of it is that this hot and moist temper doth suppress the Melancholick humor and its evil proprieties and effects whereby the blood that is hot and airy an ful ofvital spirits and the bilia that is dry and fiery and the flegm that is cold and moist being thus mixt become of a dilative nature and by the motion of the heart spread themselves into all the utmost parts of the body and inableth the minde to undertake and the body to execute all maner of generous designs be they never so difflcult or perillous The second natural cause of Undantedness may be the largeness of the heart of men for it hath been observed by the Physitians when they have opened the bodies of valiant and undanted spirits that their hearts were larger then the hearts of ordinary men See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and King Xerxes King of Persia having caused the body of Leonidas King of Sparta to be opened partly out of admiration of his valour and in part out of curiosity The second natural cause of undantedness is the largeness of the harts of men to see whether the heart of such an undanted spirit was larger then the hearts of common men he found the same to be as big again and hairy all over a natural propriety incident to such as are of a hot and moist constitution of body to abound in hair The Natural reason why men with larger hearts then others should be addicted to Valour and Undantedness is this that the larger the heart is the morevital spirits it can contain which are the essential causes of Valour and Undantedness and therefore it may very well be that the largeness of the heart is a natural cause of Undantedness That tall and burly men are commonly less valorous then short and middle stastured men Divers men are of opinion that tall and burly bodied men are more addicted to Valour and Undantedness then short and middle-statur'd men but they are mistaken for tall men have smaller hearts then others and are also commonly more faint-hearted then other men and the Naturalists give this reason for it If their hearts say say were proportionable to their body they might have reason to be of that opinion but it is commonly smaller because Nature extended its vertue to the utmost parts deprives the inward parts of it Besides all the vitall spirits reside in the bloud and in the heart and by its motion they are dispersed through all the parts of the body Now the farther distant these parts are from the heart the longer time are the vital spirits a going to quicken and vivifie them and by consequence tall and burlybodied men are fuller of Flesh then of Spirits and less couragious then others It is true that they have a presuming undantedness because of their strength but what is done by strength proceeds from Strength and not from Valour which doth reside in the heart and in the minde and not in the arms and in the sinews And the most valorous and undanted spirits of this Age and of other Ages were for the most part short or at the most of a middle stature Leonidas See Plutarch in Peleopidas life and Peleopidas were but short men and Sir Francis Veere and Sir Francis Drake and the Marshal de Biron and the Marshal Gastion were all short men I conclude then that Valour and undantedness doth reside in the heart and minde and not in the strength of the body and that some of all statures may be valiant and undanted The first accidentall cause may be the innocency of men and the justice of their Cause for as Salomon saith Prov. 28.1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth but the righteous are bold as a a Lyon and it is daily seen that three true men will overcome half a dozen of theeves And when men fight for the preservation of the Liberties of their native Countrey and the lives of their wives and children and all the means they have they fight commonly like Lyons The second accidentall cause of Undantedness may be The relations support or alliances that men have with potent and powerful Princes or States for the confidence they have to be backt and supported by them doth make them undertake with undanted courage difficult and perillous enterprises The two accinentall causes of the undantedness of men for Instance The Hollanders a small Commonwealth being at the first supported by Elizabeth Queen of England and afterwards by Henry the fourth King of France have for many years together undantedly waged war with the great King of Spain and likewise the Kingdom of Sweden a petty Kingdom in comparison of the Empire of Germany being supported by Lewis the 13th King of France hath with an undanted courage waged war many years with the House of Austria See the Histories of Germany England and France Thirdly The first supernatural cause of the undantedness of men may be their zeal to Religion for
two sorts viz. Evil and Good The first evil effect of it is The evil effects of Fear That it dants the courage of men and makes valiant Souldiers become cowards and this is called a Panick Fear The Greek and Roman Histories are full of instances to prove it which I will pass over for brevity sake and will onely relate this ensuing See Philip de Commines in the War of the Publike good for so it was called or the battel de Monlebery recorded by Philip de Commines In the beginning of the reign of Lewis the eleventh King of France the Duke Charls of Burgundy and the discontented Officers of the Crown of France joyned with him raised a great Army and came neer to Paris against the said King who hearing of their approach came against them with another great Army and having both pitched their Camp within a mile one of another with a resalution to give battel the next day it fell out to be a misty morning and certain Troops of Horse being on both sides sent out to discover the intentions of both Armies they saw as they imagined a great range of Lanciers standing on a high ground the Bourgonians conceiving they came towards them and the French imagining they came towards their Camp and so transported both with a Panick fear they fled as hard as they could drive towards their Camp and raised a fearful alarm saying The enemies were at hand and so put both Armies into a strange confusion but when the Sun had dispersed the mist it was apparently seen that these imaginary Lanciers were but Tysels growing upon a long high bank And the two Armies being mixt the French having the better another Panick fear came amongst the French Horse Fear begets cruelty in effeminate Princes by a false rumor that the King was slain that made them flee as if all had been lost and had not the King suddenly shewed himself the French Army had utterly been routed Secondly Fear begets cruelty in the hearts of effeminate Princes for it hath been observed that Pusillanimity is ever accompanied with Fear The effeminate Emperors of Rome have all been addicted to this passion of Fear See Tacitus Dion Herodian and Suetonius Caligula did usually hide himself under a bed out of fear when it Thundred and Lightned and Nero Domitianus Commodus and Heliogabalus were afraid if men did but whisper together and they were all more cruel then Tygers or Cannibals Thirdly Fear hath no regard to consanguinity Tiberius Nero out of fear destroyed by one means or other all his nearest kinsmen See Tacitus in the Life of Nero. and caused the valorous and noble Germanicus his Nephew to be poysoned by Piso And Lewis the Eleventh King of France caused his own Brother Charls Duke of Normandy to be poysoned out of Fear See the History of France and of England and so did Richard the Third his two hopeful Nephews And out of reason of State or more properly out of Fear The elder sons of the Ottoman Family have for these many years caused their younger Brothers to be strangled Fourthly Fear doth in admirable Effects go beyond Nature for a Secretary of the State of Florence being over night condemned to die was so transported with the Fear of death that out of the violent apprehension of it the hair of his head and beard See the Florentine History which was as black as a Crow became before the morning as white as snow Lastly Fear is the cousen german of dispair for it makes men to eschew the shame of a publike death to lay violent hands on themselves For Hannibal rather then he would suffer to be made a publike spectacle of shame to the Romans poysoned himself And Cardinal Wolsey rather then he would lose his head upon Tower-Hill did the like and died in Leicester Abbey The good Effects of Fear may be these First Six good Effects of the Passion of Fear If it were not for the Fear of the punishments appointed by the Laws of the Land to chastise the misdemeanors of men the Rodes and High-ways would be so full of Thieves and Murtherers that honest men should not be able to go from one Town to another Secondly If it were not for Fear Laws and Magistrates would be trampled under feet and all manner of Obedience Reverence and respect would be banished Joane would be as good as my Lady and Jack-Straw would be as good as my Lord Mayor the Foot-man as good as his Lord and the Servant as good as his Master but Fear of correction makes every one to give honor to whom honor is due and to know his Rank and Degree Thirdly If it were not for Fear rash and timerary men would fix their hopes beyond the Stars and would think nothing impossible unto them but fear clips their wings and makes them to be more considerate Fourthly Fear is the only Antidote against the venome of presumption and were it not for Fear this world could not subsist for there never was an Age so full of Phaetons and Icarus's as this that would with their waxed wings flee to Heaven or burn the Earth by the guiding of Phoebus Chariot if Fear did not restrain them Fifthly Fear is the faithful Counsellor of great Politicians and States-men who would otherwise vaunt themselves as the great Mathematician Archimedes did to remove the World or turn it up-side down if he could finde out a solide Foundation to plant his Mathematical Instruments to set all the World together by the ears to make their Prince the only Monarch of the Earth by the means of their deep Machiavilian Policies but Fear whispers them in the ear that Policy hath ever been and ever shall be subordinate to Destiny and that the secret Decrees of God shall come to pass in despite of them and will turn their Wisdom and Policy into foolishness Sixthly As fear of temporal punishment is a Curbe to restrain open and gross Sinners from criminal offences so the Fear of eternal punishment is a strong motive to withdraw civil men from their secret sins for let civil men be as private in their sins as they can yet the All-seeing Eye of God and their own Conscience are witnesses of their sin so that their Conscience which is their Accuser doth infuse into their minde this Fear of eternal punishment whereby they are as much restrained from their secret sins as the gross Sinners are by the Fear of temporal punishment And as the hope of the recompence of reward doth draw many into the way of righteousness so the Fear of eternal punishment doth enforce many to forsake sin and to turn unfainedly unto God for Sinners must be first humbled and brought low by the terror of the Law before they can unfainedly embrace the gracious Promises of the Gospel I do therefore conclude that spiritual Fear joyned with spiritual hope are effectual means to beget in Christians a hunger
eyes look right before thee intimating that to look aside upon a beautiful woman is a sign of a lascivious eye but to look on her straight is a token of an innocent eye And it is most certain that of all the five senses the Eye doth more then any other encrease the Kingdom of darkness because they are the windows whereby all unclean thoughts enter into the soul from which do proceed all the actual and intellectual Fornications and Adulteries and that is the reason why our blessed Saviour doth charge us to pluck out our right eye if it doth offend Math. 5 29. meaning we should mortifie the lust of our eye rather then be cast into Hell for as S. John saith 1 Joh 2.16 17 18. The lust of the eyes is not of the Father but of the world and the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Thirdly All suspected places where men may be allured to lust are to be eschewed 1. The Schools of love as the Italians call them 2. Publick meetings 3. Enterludes 4. Court-Revels For in all these men do finde alluring Objects to commit sin and when opportunity time and place meet together men or women must have a great measure of Grace to refrain them from sin As for the 1. Solomon discribes elegantly in these words the alluring charms of the Mistresses of the Schools of love Prov. 7.10 13 14 15 16 17 18. 27. Behold there met him a woman in the habit of a Harlot and subtile of heart so she caught him and kissed him and with an impudent face said unto him I have peace-offerings with me this day have I payd my vows Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face and I have found thee I have deckt my bed with coverings of Tapestry with carved work with fine linnen of Egypt I have perfumed my bed with Myrrhe Aloes and Cinamon Come let us take our fill of love until the morning let us solace our selves in loves c. But the conclusion of it is Her house is the way to Hell going down to the chambers of death For the 2. Dinah by rambling abroad to see the publike Sports was Ravished by Shechem the Prince of the Land For the 3. Enterludes Playes and Comoedies are the very Seminaries of all uncleanness and the Aretin postures that are there seen with the lascivious Dances and Discourses do inflame and intice men and women to Lust For the 4. Court-Revels and Masks have been the overthrow or loss of many womens chastity See the History of England and France Edward the Third and Edward the Fourth Kings of England and Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth Kings of France were all of them allured to lust by the beautiful Objects they saw in their Court-Masks Fourthly All evil Company is to be eschewed for in them lyeth an insensible venom the Effects of which do not appear suddenly but in continuance of time it will shew it self visibly in the life and conversation of men and women for young men that fall into evil company will at the first be ashamed of it but after they have frequented them they wil delight in it then they will palliate and excuse them and lastly they will patronize and maintain them And become as vitious profane and debaucht as the worst of them and therefore as he that toucheth Pitch shall be defiled with it Eccles 13.1 even so such as haunt evil company will at last be infected with their vices Besides it is a dishonour to converse with evil company for if men were as righteous as Lot Who was saith Peter 1 Pet. 2.7 8. vexed from day to day with the unlawful and ahhorred sins of the Sodomites yet will he be reputed as vitious as they by this common Proverb That birds of a feather do ever flock together Now I come to the four Vertues or Graces which are to be obtained to mortifie and subdue this sinful passion of Volupty First men are to endeavor by fervent prayers to obtain from God the Grace of Continency which is distinguished by corporeal and intellectual the first is common to natural men as well as to the children of God but the second is onely peculiar to the true Elect because it is an immediate gift of the sanctifying Spirit of Grace to such as are regenerated by a justifying Faith for by Faith men are justified and afterwards sanctified for all things which are done without Faith cannot Rom. 14.23 saith S. Paul be acceptable unto God contrarily they are an abomination unto him The Heathens have excelled in the corporeal continency most of the Christians of these days as it may appear by the carriage of Alexander the Great towards the two Daughters of King Darius See Plutarch and Livy in their lives and of Publius Scipio towards a Spanish Lady that was his Captive but none of them could ever attain to the intellectual continency because they were out of the Covenant of Grace and by consequence incapable of a justifying Faith And among those who were under the Convenant of Grace the number was small that were truly continent or had the gift of the corporeal and intellectual continency except it were Isaac Joseph and S. Paul for all the other Patriarks were addicted to Polygamy The corporeal continency may proceed from natural causes as from a defect of Nature as the Eunuchs or it may be obtained by the precepts of Morality and a good education But the intellectual cannot be acquired because it is a supernatural Grace of the sanctifying Spirit except it be by frequent and fervent prayers to God who is the only giver of it And certainly by the want of this Grace of intellectual continency many of the most precious Christians of these days commit Adultery in the cohabitation with their own Wives of which they seldom repent Which doth induce me to enlarge my self upon this point Christ our blessed Saviour who was the best Interpreter of the Law that ever was upon Earth doth tell us plainly Math. 5.18 That whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart Now this lust proceeds from the eyes 1 Joh. 2.17 and the lust of the eyes saith S. John is not of the Father but of the world and the eyes convey the same into the heart and from the heart saith our Saviour proceed evil thoughts Math. 15.19 murthers adulteries fornications c. So many looking upon a woman with lascivious eyes make such an impression in their imagination of her beauty or comeliness which is suggested to their phansie by their senses and the temptations of Satan to excel the beauty or comeliness of their Wives that in the very cohabitation with them their mind is wholly bent upon this forraign object and not upon the same they embrace and this is a plain
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
conceive them to be the cause of all the burden that are laid upon their backs I mean Lones Subsidies Taxes and Monopolies fifthly The wicked are addicted to Hatred 1 Cor. 4.13 for they hate implacably the Just and the Righteous and hold them as the off-scouring of all things Fifthly the nature and effects of Hatred in the unregenerate are nothing else but murders ruine and desolation first Hatred provoked f Gen. 4.8 Cain to kill his brother Abel and this hatred did proceed from Envie because his sacrifice was rejected of the Lord and the sacrifice of his brother was accepted secondly Hatred provoked Simeon and Levy g Gen. 34.25 26. to murder under the vail of Religion all the Shechemites and to plunder their City thirdly Hatred and the desire of Vengeance provoked h 2. Sam. 13.29 Absolom to murder under colour of friendship and hospitality his brother Amnon at a banquet as he set at table fourthly It was Hatred that provoked men to invent all maner of Weapons to destroy themselves and the devillish Art of making Canons Gunpowder Muskets Calivers Carabines and Pistols whereby the most valiant are as soon slain as the greatest cowards fifthly It was Hatred that provoked men to dive into the bowels of the earth to finde out Mines of Silver and Gold whereby they might execute their hatred spleen and malice and set all the world together by the ears sixthly Hatred hath given men an habit in all maner of impiety who have left by it their natural humanity and are become devouring Lyons and Tigers Nay when open violence cannot serve to execute their hatred they have an art to poyson men in their meat and drink by the smelling of a pair of gloves The Queen of Navarr was poysoned by the smell of a pair of Gloves by the putting on of a shirt or by the drawing off a pair of Boots nay by the very taking of a man by the hand under colour of curtesie as the Genovais Admiral did to the Venetians Admiral after he had been overcome by him at sea In a word Hatred hath been the projector of all the horrid actions of men for it is a passion that deprives men of all Reason Judgment and hath bin the cause of all the woes of men for by the hatred of Satan was our first mother Eve i Gen. 3.6 deluded and by her charms she deluded Adam her husband and so by their transgression sin is come into the world and sin like a contagious disease hath infected the whole race of mankinde Moreover Hatred is of a permanent nature for it is not like Envie or Wrath for Envy declines according as the prosperity of its object doth diminish and Wrath vanisheth into smoak if its fury may have some vent or it may be mitigated For a soft answer turneth away wrath saith Salomon k Pro. 15.1 but Hatred continues from generation to generation and death it self cannot extinguish Hatred Amilcar father to Hanibal out of an inveterate hatred he bore to the Roman Commonwealth See Livius Plutarch made Hanibal to take an Oath a little before his death that he should be to the end of his life a mortal enemy to the Romans and the hatred that Henry the seventh King of England bore to the House of York induced him to make his son Henry the eight to swear as he was upon his bed of death that after his decease that he would cause the Duke of Suffolks head to be cut off that was then his prisoner in the Tower of London as being the last apparent hair of the House of York an Unchristian part saith Montagnes See Montagnes Essais for a Prince to have his heart filled with hatred at his departure out of this world Nay the unparallel'd hatred that was between the two brethren Eteocles and Polinices could not be extinguished after their death for after they had slain one another in a Duel See Garnier in the Tragedy of Antigone or single Combat their bodies being brought together to be burned the fire by an admirable antipathy did cleave of it self into two parts and so divided their bodies that their ashes might not be mixed together and the inveterate hatred that was between the Guelfs and Gibbelins See Guiechardine in the wars of Italy Paulus Jovius in his Tragical Relations did continue from one generation to another But Paulus Jovius relates the most unheard of cruelty proceeding from an inveterated hatred that ever was read of Two Italians having had some bickerings together such a hatred was bred in their hearts that one of them having got his enemie at an advantage made him by threats deny his Saviour promising to save his life if he did it but he had no sooner by imprecations impiously denied him but the other stabbed him through the heart with his Ponyard saying The death of thy body had not been an object worthy of my hatred and vindication except I had also procured the eternal death of thy soul An horrid and unparrallel'd cruelty and a matchless effect of hatred Sixthly Having thus described the evil nature and effects of Hatred I will now come to the use that Christians should make of it I remember to have said in the beginning of this Chapter that this passion of Hatred had not been given to men to abuse it as they do but rather to eschew sin the greatest evil upon earth and that being used as an aversion to fly from sin it would serve for a strong motive to the propagations of a godly life for sin should be the onely object of mens hatred as the efficient cause of all their miseries and why our blessed Saviour out of his tender compassions towards his Elect was willing to suffer the ignominous death of the Cross Matth. 27.35 to redeem them from the guilt and punishment of sin which was eternal death And men cannot by any other means shew themselves grateful and to be sensible of this incompre hensible love of Christ then by having an inveterate hatred against sin and to detest and abhor with all their hearts all sinful courses sith sin is the onely separation wall that bars them from having an intimate and loving familiarity with God for the hatred of sin is the first step to attain to the love of God and without the love of God a true faith in Christ and unfained hatred of sin there is no possibility of salvation hatred against sin being the chiefest ingredient required in a true Repentance and how can men love God that hate their brethren and therefore the blessed Spirit in holy Writ doth so often exhort men to avoid all hatred except it be against sin He that l Ioh 3 14. 1 Ioh. 3.15 loveth not his brother saith St. John abideth in death and whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know no murderer hath eternal life Men must then love God and
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