even from the beginning and so continued through all succeeding Ages it was betwixt the two first Brothers for we reade Genesis 4. 5. Because God accepted Abels offering and despised that of Cain He was exceeding wroth and his countenance fell down among strangers Because Isaac had flockes of sheep and heards of cattell and a mighty houshold Therefore the Philistims had envie at him insomuch that they stopped and filled up with earth all the wells which his fathers servants digged in his father Abrahams time c. Betwixt Sisters When Raechel saw that she bare Iaacob no children she envyed her Sister and said unto her husband Give me children or I die In Iosephs brethren who when they saw that their father Iacob loved him more then them they hated him and could not speake peaceably unto him and when he dreamed a dreame and told it his brethren the Text saith they hated him the more Against which you shall reade Levit. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart but thou shalt plainly rebuke thy neighbour and suffer him not to sinne Thou shalt not avenge nor be mindfull of wrong against the children of thy people but shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe I am the Lord. We finde in the twelfth of Numbers that when Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses because he had married a woman of Ethiopia the Lord was therefore angry with them and immediately Miriam was strook with a Leprosie white as snow Saul envyed David because the Virgines in their songs and dances gave to him but the honour of killing thousands and to David ten thousands In Eliab the brother of David who when he spake unto the men that stood with him and said What shall be done to him that killeth this Philistime meaning Goliah and taketh away the shame from Israel c. Eliab this hearing was very angry with David and said Why camest thou downe hither and with whom whom hast thou left those few sheepe in the Wildernesse I know the pride and the malice of thine heart that thou art come downe to see the battaile in Sanballat and Tobias who envyed and hindered the building of the Temple as you may reade in Nehemiah In the Princes and Officers of Darius Dan. 6. 4. who sought an occasion against him concerning the Kingdome but they could finde no fault for he was so faithfull that no blame could bee found in him Come to the New Testament or Gospell In the Pharisees Mat 9. 11. who said to the Disciples of Jesus Why eateth your Master with Publicans and Sinners Again Luke 19. 39. Then some of the Pharisees said unto him Master rebuke thy Disciples In the Disciples of Iohn Mat. 9. 14. Then came the Disciples of Iohn to him saying Why doe we and the Pharisees fast often but thy Disciples fast not In the chiefe Priests and Scribes Matth. 21. 15. Who when they saw the marvels that hee did and the children crying in the Temple Hosanna to the sonne of David they disdained In the Jewes who when they were gathered together and Pilat said unto them Whether will you that I let loose unto you Barabbas or Iesus which is called Christ They said Barabbas In the brother of the Prodigall Luke 15. 25. Now the elder brother was in the field and when hee came neare unto the house and heard musicke and dancing he called to one of his servants and asked what these things meant and hee said unto him thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fat Calfe because he hath received him safe and sound then hee was angry and would not goe in therefore came his father out and intreated him c. In the High Priests and Pharisees Iohn 11. 47. who gathered a Counsell and said What shall we doe for this man doth many miracles if we let him thus alone all men will beleeve in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and the Nation Then Caiphas the High Priest stood up and said Ye perceive nothing at all nor doe you consider that it is expedient for us that one man die for the people and the rest perish not In the Rulers Elders and Scribes Acts 5. 17. Then the chiefe Priest rose up and all that were with him which was the sect of the Sadduces and were full of indignation and laid hands on the Apostles and put them in the common prison c. And thus you see how envy hath beene in all ages and most fitting it is that I first shew you the nature and condition of the sinne before I come to the judgements inflicted upon it This Envy shooteth at others and woundeth her selfe Lyons are knowne by their clawes Ravens by their feathers Cocks by their spuâ—res and envious Men by their manners who like Syrian dogges barke at the starres and spurne at what they cannot reach and is like lightning which in the duskiest myst or darkest fogge will plainliest appeare Envy is the daughter of pride the mother of slaughter and strage the innovator of sedition and the perpetuall tormentor of vertue She is moreover the slime and impostume of the soule a daily corrasive to him in whom she abideth a venome a poyson a Mercury or quicksilver which consumeth the flesh and dryes up the bones and of vices it is said Envy to be the most generall Pride the greatest and Lust the foulest The envyed man doth many times forget but the envious man doth never spare to prosecute and as griefe or paine is a disease of the body so malice is the malady of the soule It is a meere slave to its owne affections and is found alwayes to waite at Vertues elbow Alanus de Plancta naturae with great elegancy saith thus To the envious man anothers prosperity is his adversity their adversity his prosperity At their mirth they are sad and in their sorrow they rejoyce They imagine their owne riches to subsist in other mens poverty and their poverty to be in other mens riches The serenity of their neighbours fame they endeavour either by detraction to eclipse or by silence to conceale Inglorious Envy striveth to deface the glory of wisedome then which no monster more monstrous no dammage more dammageous no torment more torturous no sinne more contagious of blindnesse it is the abysse the spurre to contention the sting of corruption the motions whereof are adversaries to humane tranquillity of mundane temptations the instigators and inciters of a labouring minde the vigilant enemies and of common peace and amity the combustuous disturbers We reade Proverb 17. A seditious person seeketh onely evill and a cruell messenger shall be sent against him He that rewardeth evill for good evill shall not depart from his house The froward heart findeth no good and he that hath a naughty tongue falleth into evill And Prov. 28. A man with a wicked or envious eye hasteth to riches and knoweth not that poverty shall come upon him Wisdom 1.
annihilating and undoing of whole families and housholds at once I have heard of one of those earth-wormes who dying of a suddaine appoplex his Executors with his wife desired to have his body dissected and opened that they might know certainly of what disease he died one giving out one cause a second another and to satisfie that doubt when the Surgeon came to use his Art and had searcht him thorowly he found all his entrayles in good order onely his heart was wanting at which all the spectators were amazed and almost stupified as holding it to be prodigious till at length one of the neighbours pleasantly conceited and being well acquainted with his having disposition you had best said he to looke for his heart in his great bar'd chest for there it was ever in his life and why not now in his death which though jestingly spoke the Executors tooke in earnest and causing the chest to be opened they found it panting upon his treasure This whether true or no yet sure I am that it is a just taxation conferred upon Extortioners and Usurers Doctor Melander puts me in minde of another of the like if not worse condition who being borne towards his grave was interposed by a devout man who by reason of his cruell and abhominable extortions denied him the right of Christian buriall which seeing they could not obtaine as of custome and president they I meane his wife and friends offered a large summe of money to have him buried if it were but in any corner of the Church-yard but the Pastor would be neither moved by prayers or bribes but alleadging that he who lived his whole life-time worse then any Turke Heathen or Infidell ought not in death to have those solemne rights belonging to a Christian and therefore stopt his eares to whatsoever they could alleadge in his behalfe at length after long debating the matter it was concluded betwixt the two parties that a Cart and two Oxen should be provided and the Coffin to be put into the Cart and to what place soever the Beasts should carry him without guide there should his place of buriall be well the Oxen were put into the Cart and the body in it who went their way of their owne accord out at the Townes end and then forward just to the common execution place where they made a stand and could not by any violence been compelled any further and there his grave was digged and he buried a place due to all that generation of vipers Sic Deus eventu mirando ostendit in orbe Vsurae quantum sit scelus atque nephas God by the event thus shewes them what to trust What base use is how perjur'd and unjust I will onely adde a third from the before-named Author who if possible exceeding the other in his foenatory exactions fell into an extreame agony of sicknesse which grew desperate and mortall so that there was no helpe to be expected from Physitians or others but that needs he must die which his wife perceiving came weeping unto him and humbly besought him to make his Will and as to provide a place for his soule in Heaven so withall to settle his estate upon earth to which he seemed very unwilling but upon her great importunity hee called for pen inke and pape and writ with his owne hand as followeth Imprimis I bequeath my soule to the Devill who as in life he ever had it in keeping so in death it is fit that he and hee onely should take it to his charge which his wife hearing shee grew greatly astonished and besought him that since hee had no care of himselfe that hee would have some respect of her by knowing what shee should trust to after his death when straitway he writ farther And thou wife also shalt goe with me to Hell who hast beene conscious of all my fraudulencies crafts and cozenages being partly to maintaine thy pride and gay cloathes and hast made me rob the Orphant of his coat and the Widdow of her garment to helpe thy superfluity Then she thinking him distracted and quite out of his senses sent presently to the Parson of the Parish to give him some ghostly instructions for his soules health adding in the conclusion that he hoped he would not forget him in his Will at which words he tooke pen and writ againe as followeth Item and thou O Parson shalt beare us company to the infernall torments below for knowing of all my wicked and injust proceedings thou wast so farre from reproving them that thou didst rather smooth me up in my sinnes and connive at my delinquencies onely to be welcome at my house and eate fat bits at my table for such are the just judgments denounced against us His moritur dictis subito Vir Pastor Vxor Abrepti ardentes ad Phlegetontis aquas Thus Englished This said the Man the Parson Wife all three Died and were borne to Hell immediately Salomon saith Prov. 11. 3. The uprightnesse of the Iust shall guide them but the frowardnesse of the Transgressors shall destroy them Riches availe not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse delivereth from death And of the hatefulnesse and contemptible estimation of usury amongst good men we may reade Cato Major in the Proem to his booke De re Rustica thus Majores nostri fic habuere it a in Legibus posuert Furem dupli condemnari Faeneratâ—â—em quadrupli Our Ancestors held this position and put it amongst their Lawes that the mulct or penalty imposed on a Theefe should be double but of an Usurer foure fold And Cicero Offic. lib. 2. hath these words When it was demanded of Cato Major what was most conducent and necessary in a private family he answered To feed well being askt what was the second he said To feed well and enough being askt what was the third he replyed To be well cloathed being askt the fourth he returned answer To plow and till the earth lastly being askt what it was to be an Usurer he replyed Even so much as to be a Murderer They that will be further satisfied concerning this Argument I referre them to Mart. Schipperus in speculo vitae anlicae ad Tomum Germanicum sextum D. Lutheri D. Musculum in Psalm 15. Benedict Aretius in Problem Iohannes Fulgent Baptist. in Psalm 15. And Gorhardus Lorichius Hadumarius in Institutione Catholiea c. CHAP. VI. Gods Iudgements against Lust. THis sinne is by some defined to be a lascivious petulancie an inordinate use of pleasures and delights or an over-doing prosusenesse either in curiosity of apparrell or superfluity in feasting others call it a concupiscence of proving unlawfull pleasures a desire of copulation above measure or against reason it is also a solution or dissolving into voluptuousnesse and by the Law of God is condemned as Marke 7. 21. For from within even out of the heart of men proceed evill thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousnesse wickednesse deceit uncleannesse a wicked
death of Marius for commanding his body to be burnt he sprinkled and threw his ashes into the river Anien after all which and many more his bloody executions he was strook by the hand of God with the lowsie disease so that his living body crawled with vermin in so much that before his death his houshold servants were almost stifled with the stench of his carcase such or the like are the terrible judgements of God against these proud Nimrods mighty Giants and great hunters of the earth to day in their pride and pontificalibus glorying in their oppressions and persecutions and to morrow worse than any carrion of beast stinking in the grave their memories being as hatefull to the hearing as their corrupt putrefaction to the smell I have hitherto spoken of cruell and bloody Tyrants let me treat a little of Ire or Wrath it self for they are sinonima's since all these are but siens growing from that stocke Anger and power meeting in one breast are more violent than any thunderbolt wrath and revenge take from man the mercy of God destroying and quenching that Grace which he hath before-time given Anger consisteth in habit and disposition but Ire and Wrath indeed and effect Hasty and froward speeches beget Anger Anger being kindled begets Wrath Wrath seeketh greedily after Revenge and Revenge is never satisfied without blood which blood is never shed without just vengeance from Heaven as may be made apparant by many pregnant examples For instance Clâ—tarius smothering in his breast the seeds of ranker and malice for the space of ten yeares against Galterus Rhothomanges when that most holy day cald the Parasceve in which our blessed Saviour suffered death for all mankind slew him as he was at his devotion upon his knees in an holy Chappell in Paris for so the French Chronicles report who for that horrid act was after fearfully punished in himselfe and his issue The like hath often happened in the Temples of Italy betwixt that imbestuous faction of the Guelfs and the Gibbelines who made no conscience of person or place but in the time of divine Service have pistolled one another in their pewes as they were kneeling at their prayers when the Church hath been full of drawn swords to the disturbing of the whole Congregation making no more reverence of the place than a slaughter-house or shambles upon whose but cheries God inflicted such vengeance that the one party quite destroyed the other till they were mutually cut off and utterly extinguished Such is the irreligious boldnesse of some that I heard a Scotishman of note soon after King Iames came into the Land speak in the company of prime Gentlemen after this manner Such a one killed my brother and I could not meet him in seven yeares after but at length espying him in the Church on a Sabbath-day my fury could not contain it selfe but even where he sate I shot him with my pistoll and slew him and the arrant puritans saith he would have excomunicated me for nothing else but for killing him who had before killed my brother But though men make slite of these atheisticall and sacrilegious butcheries that God who made man after his own Image and all men of one and the selfesame earth and clay will not let them escape his fearfull and terrible judgements Neither have the holy Fathers the Popes been altogether free of this sin of Ire and implacability for we reade in their own Chronicles that upon the day when the Sacra Cineritia were celebrated that was upon Ash-wednesday in which is used great solemnity when the great Presbiters and Cardinals according to the custome came to kneel to Pope Boniface to receive the ashes he took the ashes and vessell in which they were contained and in great rage flung them in the face of Prochetus Archbishop of Genoa with whom he was at oddes and hated him exceedingly and changing his words of exhortation and benediction he violently brake out into this language Remember O thou man that thou art of the faction of the Gebelines and with those Gibelines thou shalt die for he was of that party and enemy to the Guelfs whom the Pope favoured Stephanus Sextus because Formosus upon his death-bed would not set his hand to his election who was Pope before him when he came to be instated in the Papacy he commanded him to be plucked out of his sepulcher and buried in the Church-yard causing his fingers first to be cut off and so basely dismembred him being dead for refusing to subscribe for him being alive With the like malevolent hatred also did Sergius the third prosecute the same Formosus who again commanded his body to be taken out of the second Grave and brought it into the Forum or publike Rialto when the head was cut from the body and cast into the river Tiber and this he did to insinuate into the favour of Lotharius King of France to whom Formosus living was in great opposition Divers other examples of the like malitious nature I could extract out of their Annals and those remembrancers who have writ the lives of the Popes which for brevity sake I omit but am confident withall that these evil presidents from the Clergy whose light should shine to others have been a great encouragement to the Laity to offend in the like who for the most part paterne their actions be they good or evill by their teachers and instructers Mahometes Otomanus the Grand Seignior missing but two Cucumers out of his Garden in his returne home after solacing himselfe abroad he in his rage slew two of his Catamites with his own hands being young boyes of choice feature and beauty And Commodus was of that fiery indignation that when he came into the Bath to wash himselfe and found it somewhat more hot than usuall he commanded the Bath-keeper to be thrown into the fornace and there burnt to ashes And Quintus Metellus was of such a testy and cholericke disposition that having lived some yeares as Consul and Proconsull in Spain when he heard by the decree of the Senate of Rome Pompeius whom he much hated was to succeed him in his command and soveraignty his anger grew so violent that he diminished his army and made all the Magazine of Grain and provision of victuall a spoil and prey to the souldiers he caused all the Bowes and Arrowes in the Army to be broken and knapt asunder forbidding the Horses and Elephants to have their ordinary and customed food and fare not leaving him at his arrivall any one thing of any moment wherewith he might succour or relieve either himselfe or his Army Prâ—merus a domesticke servant of Archelaus King of Macedonia with such an intestine hatred persecuted Euripides that one night he watched him when he came late from supper with the King and in the way let loose fierce Mastiffes upon him by which he was most miserably torne to pieces Such also was the grounded and inveterate hare of the
he will take you away with thornes and your posterity with fish-hookes Micah 2. 2. And they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppresse a man and his house even man and his heritage therefore thus saith the Lord. Behold against this family have I devised a plague whereout ye shall not plucke your neckes and you sh all not go so proudly for this time is evill Again 3. 11. The heads thereof judge for rewards and the priests thereof teach for hire and the prophets thereof prophesie for money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord amongst us no 〈◊〉 can come upon us therefore shall Sion for your sakes he plowed as 〈◊〉 field and Ierusalem shall be an heaâ— and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest Hab. 2 9. Ho he that coveteth an evill covetousnesse to his house that he may set his nest on high to escape from the power of evill Thou hast consulted shame to thine own house by destroying many people and hast sinned against thine own soul for the stone shal 〈…〉 out of the wall and the beame out of the timber shall answer it We unto him that buildeth a town with blood and erecteth a city by iniquity 2 Mach. 10. 20. Now they that were with Simon being led with covetousnesse were intreated for money through certain of those that were in the castle and took seventy thousand drac 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of them escape but when it was told Machubeus what was done he called the governours of the people together and accused those men that they had sold their brethren for money and let their enemies go so he slew them when they 〈◊〉 convict of treason and won the two castles Eccles. 4. 8. There is one alone and there a not a second which hath neither son nor brother yet is there no end of all his travell neither can his eye be satisfied with riches neither doth he thinke for whom do I travell and defraud my soul of pleasure this also is vanity and this is an evill travell Again 5. 9. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver and he that loveth riches shall not enjoy the fruits thereof where goods increase they are increased that eat them and what goods commeth to the owners but the beholding thereof with their eyes the sleep of him that travelleth is sweet whether he eat little or much but the satiety of the rich will not suffer him 〈◊〉 sleep There is an evill sicknes that I have seen under the sun to wit riches reservâ—â— to the owners thereof for their evill and their riches vanish by evill travell 〈◊〉 he begetteth a son and in his hand is nothing I conclude with that of Zephan 1. 18. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousie for he shall make a speedy riddance even of all them that dwell in the land And thus far the Scriptures against this horrid vice of Covetousnesse I come to the Fathers Saint Augustine De verbo Domins useth these words What is this avidity of concupiscence without measure when even beasts themselves observe a mediocrity they onely prey when they are an hungred but cease to spoil when they are satisfied onely the avarice of the rich is insatiable it alwayes rages and is never sated it neither feareth God nor reverenceth man it spareth not the father nor acknowledgeth the mother it regardeth nor brother nor childe but breaketh covenant with a friend it oppresseth the widdow invadeth the orphant distresseth the poor and is prone to bring false witnesses and what a madnesse is it to desire death for life and in seeking to finde gold to lose Heaven And Saint Ambrose in his Sermons thus It is all one for him that hath to take from him that wants and when thou hast and canst to deny relief to the indigent and needy it is the bread of the hungry that thou deteinest the cloathing of the naked that thou keepest backe the money that thou hidest in the earth is the redemption of the captive and know thou robbest so many of those goods as it is in thy power to confer upon the miserable when thou denyest to succour them Those fortunes and those riches are not a mans owne which he cannot carry with him onely mercy and charity forsake not a man in his death Saint Hierome saith To a covetous man that is as much wanting which he hath as what he hath not because hee rather desires to have what hee wants or is still in feare to lose what he hath who whilest in adversity he hopes for prosperity in prosperity hee feares adversity And in another place The covetous man burnes here with the heat of concupiscence and shall burne after in the fire of Gehenna If hee see one more potent then himselfe he suspects an oppressor If one inferiour hee feares a thiefe and such are most unhappy who really suffer whatsoever they shall but feare to suffer Huge lib. de Clar. useth these words There be foure things in the possessing of goods and riches to be observed namely that lawfull things we doe not acquire injustly or being injustly acquired we doe not strive to injoy them unlawfully that we strive not to possesse much though lawfully nor things justly got defend unlawfully for either evilly to acquire or badly to use what is acquired what is lawfull makes unlawfull for to possesse much hath some alliance to avarice and commonly it happens what is too much lov'd is ill defended I conclude with Gregory in one of his Homilies Every avaritious man from drinke doth multiply thirst because when he hath once injoyed what he before coveted he is not therewith satisfied but hath the greater inclination to cover more But from the Fathers I come to Ethnick History and first I will give you the appellation of some rich men Cacilius Camidius was of that infinite estate that though he had lost a great part of his riches in the civill warres of Rome yet at his death he left foure thousand domestick servants and retainers in his stables he had an hundred and threescore horses three thousand and sixe hundred oxen and of other head of cattle two hundred fifty and seaven thousand and pecuniis numeratis that is in ready coyne sixe hundred thousand pound weight who also gave to be expended upon his Funerall eleven thousand Sestertii Marcus Crassus would not allow any man to be called a rich man who was not able out of his private coffers to maintaine a Legion of Souldiers for a yeare the annuall revenue of his fields and grounds arrable and pasture amounted to fiftie hundred thousand crownes of gold Neither did this suffice him saith Pliny but he was ambitious to winne and possesse all the gold of the Parthians
9. Inquisition shall be made for the thoughts of the ungodly and the sound of the words shall come unto God for the correction of his iniquities Therefore beware of murmuring which profiteth nothing and refraine thy tongue from slander for there is no word so secret that shall goe for nought and the mouth that speaketh lyes slayeth the soule It is the counsell of the Wise man Eate not the bread of him that is envious or hath an evill eye neither desire his d 〈…〉 meates for as though he thought it in his heart bee will say Eate and drinke but his heart is not with thee thou sh 〈…〉 t vomit the â—arselâ— that thou hast 〈◊〉 and thou shalt lose thy sweet words c. The booke of Wisdome 〈◊〉 us that through Envy of the Devill came death into the world and they that hold of his side prove it therefore let us be advised by Saint Peter who in the second chapter of his first Epistle saith Wherefore laying aside all malitiousnesse and all guile and dissimulation and envy and evill speaking as new borne babes desire that sincere milke of the Word that yee may grow thereby c. But from the discovery of the foulenesse of the sinne I come now to shew what severall judgements have beene inflicted upon it And first to search forraine Histories before we come to fearefull and tragicall Examples moderne and domestick of our owne that the one may the better illustrate and set off the other I begin with that incestuous brood of Thebes the two brothers Eteocles and Polynices whose father Oedipus ignorant of his owne naturall parents and having first most unfortunately slaine his owne father and after retyring himselfe to Thebes by the solution of Sphinxes riddle married with his owne mother Iocasta neither of them knowing their proximity in bloud and by that match swayed the Kingdome together with those two before-named sonnes and two daughters Antigone and Ismene which he had by her But at length having knowledge of that incestuous match made with his mother he in griefe thereof with his nayles pulled out his owne eyes and she in despaire strangled her selfe after which the Kingdome falling to the two brothers They first agreed to raigne monethly and then yearely by turnes but soone after there grew such malitious envy betwixt them that whatsoever the one did in his regency the other when the power came into his hands utterly abrogated and disanull'd making new lawes to the former quite contrary which also lasted but a moneth for then the succeeder paid the resigner in his owne coyne Upon this grew faction and divers partisans on either side some favouring the one and some affecting the other in the end from threatnings and braves it came to battaile and blowes in which the two brothers encountering hand to hand in a single duell they interchangably slew one another whose envy in life was so irreconcilable and invererate that it appeared after their deaths for their two bodies being brought to be burnt in one funerall pile the very flame was seene to divide it selfe and burne in two parts suting to their opposite soules and contrary conditions Another Example of Gods Judgements against Envy Greece affordeth us Perseus the sonne of Philip King of Macedon but not that Philip who was father to Alexander the Great hee had an elder brother whose name was Demetrius a man of most approved honesty and imitable condition whose knowne vertues his younger brother of a malevolent and cumbred spirit much envying framed a most scandalous and detracting inditement against him pretending that he had privately insidiated his fathers life and Kingdom and sold them both unto his enemies the Romans of which by suborned witnesses he had made such proofe and bribing to that purpose prevailed so farre that he was convented convicted and condemned and most innocently suffered the rigout of the Law by having his head strooke off But the King having had notice of these barbarous and injust proceedings surprised with excesse of griefe died not long after and this malicious fratricide succeeded in the Kingdome who now having all things answerable to his own desires thinking Macedonia too narrow a limit for his unbounded ambition he in great presumption not onely opposed but invaded the Roman Empire whose envy and detraction against his brother God thus punished He drew him with all his puissant Army neare unto the river of Danubius where being encountred by the Roman Consul Aemilius he and his whole hoast were cut to pieces and utterly ruined insomuch that the power of the Macedonians being utterly confounded it became after subject and tributary to the Roman Empire and thus his defamatory destruction conspired against another fell upon his owne head and is still registred to his perpetuall shame and inflamy It is reported of the Roman Emperour Caligula who was a man of infinite vices that he never spared man in his rage not woman in his lust to whom sisters and strangers were alike he was so infected with this vice of envy that in contempt of the most noble families in Rome from the Torquati hee tooke the honour of wearing golden chains from the Cinâ—innats so called for their crisped and curled looks he tooke their haire and caused them to be shorne to the skull and so of others besides from 〈◊〉 Pompeâ—â—s he caused the denomination of Great to be taken away and Aesius Proculeus a very beautifull young man because hee was for feature and favour preferred before him he caused to be murdered for which and other like vices hee was deposed from the Imperiall purple and put to a most base wretched and ignoble death Antoninus and Geta were the two sonnes of the Emperour Severus betwixt whom he divided the Empire after his death To Antoninus was all Europe allotted and whole Asia was the possession and patrimony of Geta. Bizantium kept a great Garrison of Souldiers for Antoninus and Caloedon a Citie of Bythinia was the place of strength to which Geta trusted besides the two great Cities of Antioch and Alexandria were the Royall and Kingly feats for Geta and Mauritania and Numidia for Antoninus who was of a dangerous and divelish nature but Geta of a very curteous and affable temperature for which he was the more envyed by the Elder and his attrocities and inhumanities as much disaffected by the younger By which mutuall enmity those glorious victories which Severâ—s atchieved and after by concord and peace enjoyed to the great advancement of the Empire were now almost wholly ruined The Empresse their mother fore-seeing some great and eminent disaster gave them often very matron and pious admonitions exhorting them to unity and concord but her indulgent and wholesome counsell nothing prevailed with them for daily their discord hatred and bloudy practises increased and the one was so jealous of the other that they durst not eate nor drinke together for feare of poyson In this mutuall feare they continued till at the
eye backbiting pride foolishnesse all these evils come from within and defile a man c. Rom. 13. 12. The night is past and the day is at hand let us therefore cast away the workes of darknesse and let us put on the armour of light so that we walke honestly as in the day not in gluttony and drunkennesse neither in chambering and wantonnesse c. Corinth 2. 12. 21. I feare least when I come againe my God shall abase me amongst you and I shall bewaile many of them which have sinned already and have not repented them of the uncleannesse and fornication and wantonnesse which they have committed Ephes. 4. 19. Which being past feeling have given themselves unto wantonnesse and to worke all uncleannesse 2 Peter 2. 18. For in speaking swelling words of vanity they beguile with wantonnesse through the lusts of the flesh them that were cleane escaped from those which were wrapped in errour promising them liberty and are themselves the servants of corruption And againe 1 Peter 4. 3. For it is sufficient that we have spent the time past of our life after the lusts of the Gentiles walking in wantonnesse lust drunkennesse in gluttony drinking and abhominable Idolatry wherein it seemeth to them strange that you runne not with them into the same excesse of riot therefore speake they evill of you c. There is also Fornicatio differing in some kinde from the former and this includeth all unlawfull copulation or illicite congression in any tye of wedlock consanguinity affinity order religion or vow and this is twofould spirituall and corporall or carnall that spirituall is meere Idolatry so hatefull to God and so often forbid in the holy Text which is attended by infidelity and every hurtfull superstition It includes also the lust of the eye with the consent of the minde according to that Text Whosoever shall looke upon a woman and lust after her c. All uncleane pollution is called carnall fornication and that which is called simplex or simple is Soluti cum soluta and a most mortall sinne and provoketh the wrath of the Lord Deut. 22. 23. If a maid be betrothed to an husband and a man finde her in the Towne and lie with her then you shall bring them both out unto the gates of the same Citie and shall stone them with stones to death the maide because she cryed not being in the Citie and the man because he humbled his neighbours wife so thou shalt put away evill from among you Eccles. 19. 2. Wine and women leade wise men out of the way and put men of understanding to reproofe and hee that accompanieth adulterers shall become impotent rottennesse and wormes shall have him to heritage and he that is bold shall be taken away and be made an example Jerem. 6. and 7. How should I spare thee for this thy children have forsaken me and sworne by them that are no gods Though I fed them full yet they committed adultery and assembled themselves by companies in the harlots houses they rose up in the morning like fed horses for every one neighed after his neighbours wife shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soule be avenged on such a Nation as this Hosea 4. 10. For they shall eate and not have enough they shall commit adultery and shall not increase because they have left off to take heed of the Lord wheredome and wine and new wine take away thine heart Againe Vers. 14. I will not visit your daughters when they are harlots nor their spouses when they are whores for they themselves are separated with harlots and sacrifice with whores therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall 1 Cor. 6. The fornicatour shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven Hebr. 3. Nor the fornicatours and adulterers Adulterium or Adultery the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrews Ninph and it is twofold Spirituall and Carnall that which is called spirituall is metaphoricall including every sin committed by a Christian man because every Christian soul is contracted to Christ the Husband That which is called carnall is either simple or single when but the one party is married or double when both are in the matrimoniall or conjugall tie and all of these are condemned in the holy Text Gen. 20. 3. God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said unto him Behold thou art but dead because of the woman Sarah whom thou hast taken for she is a mans wife Now then deliver the man his wife again for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee that thou mayst live but if thou deliver her not again be sure that thou shalt die the death even thou and all that thou hast Lev. 20. 10. And the man that committeth adultery with another mans wife because he hath committed adultery with another mans wife the adulterer and the adulteresse shall die the death Lev. 5. 20. But if thou hast turned from thine husband and so art defiled and some man hath lien with thee besides thine husband then the Priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing and the Priest shall say unto the woman The Lord make thee to be accursed and detestable for the oath among the people and the Lord cause thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell Verse 28. When ye have made her drinke the water if she be defiled and have transgressed against her husband then shall the cursedwater turned into bitternesse enter into her and her belly shall swell and herthigh shall rot and the woman shall be accursed amongst the people Prov. 32. He that committeth adultery with a woman is destitute of understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own soul he shall finde a wound and dishonour and his reproach shall never be put away Again 30. 18. There be three things hid from me yea four that I know not The way of an Eagle in the air the way of a Serpent upon a stone the way of a ship in the midst of the sea and the way of a man with a maid Such is the way also of an adulterous woman she eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith I have not committed iniquity Eccles. 23. 22. And thus shall it go with every wife that leaveth her husband and getteth inheritance by another for first she hath disobeyed the law of the most High and secondly she hath trespassed against her own husband and thirdly she hath played the where in adultery and gotten her children by another man she shall be brought into the congregation and examination shall be made of her children her children shall not take root and her branches shall bring no fruit a shamefull reproach shall she leave and her reproach shall not be put out c. Wisd. 3. 16. The children of adulterers shall not be partakers of the holy things and the seed of the wicked shall be rooted out and though they live long yet shall they be