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
shame and many men in these days come to penury by often changing of Calling or by undertaking such Callings as they never were bred to or by exercising four or five Callings at one and the same time which is a great vanity for that is the cause that Artificers never attain to the perfection of their Art or handy-craft but remain ignorant hudlers in them all It is therefore convenient that men should be constant to one Calling and to take delight in it For godliness with content saith St. Paul c 1 Tim. 6.6 is great gain and without men take delight in their profession they will always be changing till they bring themselves to extream misery Secondly violent and superfluous Pleasures are desructive two ways the first impair mens health and shorten their dayes and the other doth waste and consume their estates how many have lost their lives by the excessive pleasures of Venery in the very act many more by excessive riots of drunkenness and gluttony and others by the violent exercises of Tennis Foot-ball play Leaping Vaulting and running of races some others by swiming The violent and superfluous pleasures and others by drinking in Summer wines cooled in snow and of late years how many have shortned their lives by the excessive use of Tobacco a bewitching herb in the taking of which the poorer sort consume the small means they have and the richer impair their health and fill their brains as full of foot as is the funnel of a chimney by which they deprive themselves of sleep consume their radical humor engender Palsies and apoplexies and go down to the grave before their time whereas if it be used moderately it purgeth the Phlegm prevents the Dropsie and refresheth the spirits It is then apparent that as these violent pleasures impair the body so they wast mens estates for rioting gluttony and drunkenness Tennis and Foot-ball-play running of races and drinking of wine cooled in snow are consumers of the means and estates of men Thirdly the moderate and lawful pleasures are not prohibited in the word of God so they be used with moderation for Christians may boldly take pleasure in a moderate way of all the creatures under the Sun so it be with thanksgiving and after a sanctified manner in all sobriety and temperance 1. They may take delight in the admirable works of God d Psal 136.8 in the contemplation of the light of the Sun in the constant course it observes in the regulating of the seasons of the year and in the increase and declination of its heigth whereby the days are lengthened or shortned In the various mutations of the Moon by whose influence the Tides increase or fall 2. They may delight to see the aspect of the Spring e Psal 8.3 when after a cold Winter the vegetative creatures begin to sprout and when Flora doth revest her self in her glorious apparel clothing the earth with variety of odiferous flowers inameled of divers colours which excel in beauty in the esteem of our blessed Saviour f Math. 6.28 the very glory of King Salomon and in Summer they may delight in the blessing of God upon the labour of the Husbandman and in Harvest upon the incredible increase of the seed and in Winter g Psal 72. â—6 in the consideration of the propriety that God hath given to the vegetative creatures to draw their sap which is their life into their root that it may be kept in the bowels of the earth from the danger of the frost and snow and how by his admirable providence he doth feed the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air in that barren season The moderate and lawful pleasures as well as in havest 3. They may delight in the glorious objects of the green and beautiful medows and in the sweet rivers running along their banks in the numerous herds of cattel feeding in the Valleys and Mountains 4. They may rejoyce in the commerce and trade of rich merchandise that are brought from forraign parts whereby the commonwealth doth flourish and the poor are set at work and all in generall provided of all necessary things for this life 5. They may take delight to see the Artificers Shop-keepers and all others of the poorer sort to prosper and to have vent and utterance for their wares whereby they are enabled to maintain themselves wives children and servants in a decent condition and free from want or penury 6. They may delight and bless the Lord for their health peace and prosperous estate and that they live and move and have a beeing with all necessary things for this life as meat drink and raiment but above all they may laud and praise the Lord for his mercy and the free liberty they have to hear his Word and Gospel preached with zeal and sincerity 7. They may solace themselves in honest recreations as in walking abroad to take the aire in the company of their friends their discourses being h Col. 4 6. seasoned with salt and rather tending to edification then depravation 8. They may sometimes go a hunting hawking fishing shooting bowling but these recreations are to be short and onely for to refresh their spirits after tedious studies and weekly employments and to strengthen their bodies by these laudable exercises and not to make them as some do their daily work for otherwise these honest and laudable recreations would become vitious and destructive to body and soul for nothing ought to be more precious to Christians then Time Fourthly Vicious and unlawful pleasures are the snares of Satan and the harbengers of death and yet they are most in fashion in these days See Plutarch and the English and French History and few or none that are addicted to them will give them any bound or limits It is recorded that Cesar Edward the fourth King of England and Henry the fourth King of France were over-much addicted to Venery and yet those that have written their Lives give them this commendation that they bounded this Passion within certain limits for their Venerian delights did never say they make them neglect any affairs of State or actions of war because saith a modern Author of Cesar Senault in the use of Passions that the Passion of Ambition was more predominate in him then the Passion of Love although the Passion of Love in the opinion of Aristotle and of Senault himself is held to be the most violent Passion of all the other Passions but if men are to be moderated as I have said before in the natural and necessary pleasures there is great reason they should be more temperate in their vitious pleasures sith they are sinful and odious to God and to all vertuous and temperate men and St. Paul i 1 Thes 4.3 would have men to be moderate in their cating and drinking for their healths sake and for conscience sake for the abuse of the creature is prohibited by the
or if this motion be over-fierce and violent it doth extinguish their life as the snuff of a Candle goeth out when it hath no more tallow to sustain its light Now the heart who is the efficient cause of life being thus deprived of heat loseth its motion upon which depends the life of men for the beating of the heart gives life and motion to all the members of the body and is congealed and frozen to death by this sudden motion and privation as water is congealed into Ice by a great frost and this may be confirmed by another violent action of men of which many are yet living that were eye-witnesses to it Two English Foot-men running a race for a great wager from London to Kingston did by their swift and violent running so drive their blood and vital spirits from the heart to the extreamest parts of their bodies that their faces looked as black as their hats one of them obtained the victory and out-ran the other about twenty yards and being joyful of his gain and honor presumed over-much of his strength and did not use the means to preserve himself as the other did who was much more distempered then he whereby his blood and vital spirits in stead of returning to the heart were congealed in the extream parts of his body by taking cold which did deprive him of life within few hours after but the other putting on his apparel and covering himself with a warm cloak prayed two of his fellows to walk him up and down till his blood and vital spirits were setled again about his heart A remarkable Relation and by this means he was as well the next morning as ever he was before now the motion of the blood being more violent by the inward distemper of the fiery passion of Joy then it can be by the motion of a long-continued race it must by consequence be more dangerous and mortal then the other thirdly As the immoderate Joy hath dangerous proprieties the moderate joy hath many good for moderate joy preserves and increaseth the health of the body fourthly It giveth a seemly and loving aspect and a fresh colour to the face fifthly It makes mens company and conversation more pleasant and acceptable to all other men sixthly It makes men more chearful in their particular and general calling and pass their days through this vale of Tears with more alacrity and content Fourthly The effects of immoderate Joy would be incredible The effects of immoderate joy See Livius in his third Decade li. 3. if they had not been recorded by approved and faithful Authors first A Roman Lady saith Livius died with joy at the sight of her son whom she conceived to have been slain at the battell of Cannae secondly The Author of the Turkish History Records See the Turkish History in the life of Achmath that Sinna Basha had but one son of great valour who was taken prisoner in a sea fight by a Venetian Galley whereupon tidings were brought to Sinna his father that he had been slain in that fight because he had been wounded but by the care of the Captain of the Galley who hoped to receive a great ransom for him he did recover and his wounds were cured and it hapned some days after before the Venetian Galley could carry him to shore that it was taken at sea by Cicala Basha a great friend of the above-said Sinnae who finding this prisoner of note in the Venetian Galley was exceedingly joyful as knowing how grateful a present it would be to his friend and therefore after he had apparelled him with rich vestures he sent him in a well-appointed Galley and with an honorable train to his father Sinna that had lately been made grand Visier by Achmath Emperor of the Turks who was then at Caffa upon the black sea but this yong man was no sooner come into his sight but Sinna transported with joy fell dead at his sons feet whereby it appears that he who had the power to bear with admirable constancy the tidings of the death of his onely son had not the power to moderate the joy that he did receive by his unexpected return thirdly Theophrastus Boujou records the names and means of a dozen more at least who have died suddenly by the violent distemper of immoderate joy some by honors received others for seeing their mortal enemy ly wallowing in his own blood See Boujou in his Commentary upon Aristotle lib. 19. ca. 39. fol. 835. ready to give up the Ghost and others by looking upon Pictures which by their ugly features inforced them to such an immoderate laughter as it did deprive them of life others for being victorious in the Olympian Sports and others in the field as it is recorded of Epamonides and of the Duke of Roan who died rather for joy of two great victories obtained against their enemies in two pitcht battels then by their wounds Fifthly The bad and good use of this passion of Joy doth onely consist in the not regulating or in the regulating of it for if Joy be let in to the soul by degrees the sting and venom of it is changed into an Antidote and doth rather comfort Nature then destroy it for as it is dangerous to open the Floud-gates of a river suddenly The bad and good use of worldly joy and all at once for fear the violence of the water break down the banks and pull up the foundation of the sluce even so it is dangerous to let in into the soul all at once the swift currant of good or evil tidings therefore if Cicala Basha had only at the first sent word to the Visier Sinna that he had happily rescued his son and that as soon as his wounds should be cured he would send him back unto him in an honorable condition this had undoubtedly prevented the death of this old man but the sudden and unexpected sight of his son whom he thought to have been dead caused so violent a perturbation in his minde and so great an alteration in the vital faculties of his body that his natural strength being then in his declining age was overcome with it and his life utterly extinguished as the light of a candle is by a violent blast of winde But the Duke of Medina Coeli who was General for Philip the second King of Spain See the Spanish History in Philip the seconds life of the invincible Armado as they termed it that came against England in the Year 1588. did deal more prudently with his Prince for his ship being the first that arrived into Spain after the utter rout of this great Navy he sent a discreet Messenger unto him to inform him that some part of his Navy had miscarried by foul weather and that himself had been driven back by a storm and eight days after he sent another messenger to the King informing him of the particulars and some days after came in person to give him
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
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
yet divers instances may be produced to prove That Avarice doth change into Ambition in mens declining age Martius Crassus p See Plutarch in his life had by a sordid kinde of Avarice attained to the greatest riches of any that we read of and yet out of Envy that he bore to the warlike atchievements of Pompeius and Caesar such an insatiable Ambition or desire of honor possessed him in his declining age That at threescore and three yeers of age he gave away half his estate to the common people of Rome to obtain a general Commission to be Commander in chief of the Roman Legions that were appointed to make war in the furthest parts of Armenia against the Parthians Which insatiable and unseasonable Ambition of his was ingeniously reproved by an old Armenian Knight of whom he did desire to be informed of the condition and distance of the way he was to undergo and power he was to oppose in this Parthian journy saying unto him That it was too great for him to undertake the same in his declining age and that the morning Sun of his age had been fitter for such an enterprise then the setting of it And had Crassus been ruled by this wholesom Counsel he had not by his insatiable desire of honor faln from the highest degree of worldly prosperity to the lowest degree of humane disgrace and misery as he did for by this rash enterprise he was the cause of his own death and of his eldest sons and of the lives of a great part of the bravest Nobility of Rome and of the rout and utter overthrow of his whole Army This is to prove That men in their declining age are fitter for Counsel then for Action and that is the reason that the Roman Senate the Counsel of Areopage and the Senate of Venice have been and are composed of men much advanced in their declining age because their Passions are commonly more moderate their Experience greater their Judgment more solid and their Counsels safer then of those who are in the youth or virility of their age for as Job saith With the ancient should be wisdom and in length of yeers understanding q Job 12.12 Contrarily there have been others in whom the desire of honor hath raigned in their youth and virility as their Noble Martial atchievements do witness who have changed this Ambitious Passion into the Sordid Passion of Avarice in their declining age As may appear by the lives of Vespasiaanus r See Dion and the English and the French Histories of Henry the seventh King of England and of Henry the fourth King of France Howsoever the desire of Wine of Money and the malicious Passion of Envy is more natural and doth commonly increase with age as much as rash Temerity and carnal Delights do diminish by age whereby I conclude That the declining age of men is not free from Vanity For what greater Vanity can there be then to Envy at another mans prosperity or to desire Wine when our head-piece is so weakened by age that it cannot overcome the vapors of it or to desire Money when we have less need of it sith we daily expect to be carried to our Graves Sixthly and Lastly The decrepit age of men begins at seventy and ends when Death strikes them with her Dart which is according to the course of life between fourscore or fourscore and ten For none attains to the days of Methuselah Å¿ Gen. 6.26 or of the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Jacob for God hath shortened the days of men because of their transgressions as it appears Gen. 7.3 My Spirit saith the Lord shall not alwayes strive with man for he also is flesh yet his dayes shall be an hundred and twenty years and the oldest man that hath been known in this age of the world was a Shropshire Husbandman that was brought up to London as a wonder in the days of King James who was said to be one hundred and thirtie three years of age and this long life of his according to the opinion of the learned Physitians did proceed from the simplicity of his meate and drink for as soon as he came to be fed with the dainties of the Court he came to be diseased and suddenly departed this life Plinius and other Naturalists have much troubled themselves to finde out the naturall reasons why mens lives are so short the best reason they give for it is their immoderate diet and the variety of dainties and change of superfluous meats cooked with art inticing men to gluttony and drunkenness for daily experience doth shew that those who live soberly and live upon simple food avoiding slowth and idleness do live commonly longer then such as feed on dainties and use a sedentary life but the chief cause of it is that men do daily increase in sin and it is just with God for the punishment of their sins to shorten their lives sith as the Apostle Paul saith t Rom. 6.23 That the wages of sin is death howsoever the decrepit age of men except it be indowed with free grace and sanctified by the blessed Spirit of God it is the vanity of vanities and the misery of all miseries for the numerous infirmities incident to it and especially if penury doth accompany the same for old age with penury is the greatest affliction that can befal to generous spirits and the greatest tentation of Satan to intice men to despair for if rich men who have all manner of comforts cannot with patience support the infirmities of a decrepit age but murmure as some have done in my hearing that they were weary of their lives of what distemper must the poor aged people be who have no worldly comforts at all but are ready to starve for cold and to famish for want of food therefore tender and compassionated Christians should exercise their charity upon these objects of unparalleld misery as the most acceptable sacrifice they can offer to God and yet all the hearts of most men are so hardened by a just Judgment of God upon this Nation for its transgressions that they can look upon these dying objects of compassion whoperish daily in the streets without pity or reluctation Now for a conclusion and confirmation of the vanity and misery incident to the life of men I will make a short relation of the Maladies incident to every one of the ages of their lives first in their very conception they may be extinguished by ill sents and vapours and by divers accidents of bruises or falls secondly in their infancy by the squincy convulsions measles or the smal pox thirdly in their adolescency by the sword the pleuresie and burning feavers fourthly in their virility by sanguin apoplexies bloudy-flixes and consumptions fifthly in their declining age by the stone and the gout by dropsies paralepsies and flegmtick apoplexies and in the decrepit age by gouts aches cough the retentions of urine the strangullion poverty cold and
men hath been pleased to furnish them with arms to oppose their greatest enemies of which the passion of Cupidity is one of the most implacable for of all the passions it is the harder to be subdued because it is the most successful snare of Satan for the increase of his kingdom of darkness by it sin came first into the world and hath infected like a contagious disease all the race of mankinde For by the eye which is the spring of mens desires Eve seeing the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of good and evil to be beautiful she coveteth the same as it appears by these words Gen. 3.6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave of it also to her husband with her and he did eat and so by her Cupidity and Adams Credulity men have been brought under the bondage of sin Now against this great enemy of mankinde God hath been pleased to arm them with this passion of Flight the great Antagonist of all covetous desires that as he had given men an inclination to desire such things as seemed good to their eyes and phansies they might also have an aversion to fly from such things as seemed to traverse their good and beeing otherwise they might have seen their enemies coming upon them when they had no arms to defend themselves nor power to eschew or fly from their apparent danger and had been inforced to cherish vices and sinful courses because they could not eschew or fly from them and to harbor a Guest whom they abhorred and detested This passion being then so useful to men and specially for the propagation of a godly life give me leave for the better description of it to speak in order of these particulars 1. Of the definition of Flight 2. Of the objects of it 3. Of the causes of it 4. Of its proprieties 5. Of its effects 6. Of the uses of it First Flight or Eschewing is a passion The definition of Flight or aversion that induceth men to avoid or fly from all things that seem to be evil or inconvenient to them or that may traverse their good and annihilate their beeing Flight is the cosen German of Hatred for they have many qualities alike and is incident to the Concupiscible appetite and the violent enemy and great opposite to the passion of Cupidity the spring of all covetous desires But men are to be cautious how they make use of this passion or aversion for otherwise they may flee from such things as are good instead to eschew those things that are evil for such is the depravation of this age that Vertues are called Vices and Vices are varnished over with the names of Vertues and true and sincere Piety is called Hypocrisie and real Hypocrisie is termed godliness and Sanctity They must then be as harmless as Doves Matt. 10.16 and as wise as Serpents to make use of this passion aright and then they will avoid and detest sin as the greatest of all evils and love God the perfection of all good and happiness Secondly The objects of Flight The chiefest objects of this passion are the guilt and punishment which are often taken one for the other some men taking the guilt for the punishment and the punishment for the guilt but guilt is the greater of the two because the punishment is but an effect of the guilt and without guilt there would be no punishment and yet because death is commonly comprized under the punishment for as St. Paul saith Rom 6.23 The wages of sin is death men most commonly strive to avoid and flee from the punishment and with great eagerness pursue the guilt I mean they run chearfully after sin and fly with fear from the punishment and so pervert the use of this passion that was given unto them by their Maker on purpose to flee from sin that draws with Cart-ropes the wrath and judgments of God upon all Nations and particuliar men that impenitently go on in their sins Men commonly fly from Serpents Dragons Lyons and Tygers and from the contagious disease of the Plague but they seldom flee from sin although it be more dangerous and destructive to their souls then any of these things above related can be to their bodies for they can but deprive them of this temporal life but sin without the special grace of God will cast them body and soul into the everlasting flames and therefore let men fly from sin if they intend to make a perfect use of this passion and let them not as our blessed Saviour saith of Fear Flee from them that can kill the body Matt. 10.28 but are not able to kill the soul Thirdly The causes of Flight are so numerous The causes of Flight that they would be over-tedious to relate I wil therefore speak but of some of them first Men if they could would fly from death because death is a most horrid thing specially to the Reprobate and Nature doth hate and eschew all things that may annihilate its beeing secondly Fear is an ordinary cause of Flight for many great Armies have fled upon a panick fear as Titus Livius Records in his Decades but there be Instances for it in the holy Scriptures as it appears 2 Kings Chap. 7. Vers 6. When the Lord made the host of the Assyrians to hear a noise of chariots 2 Kings 7.6 and a noise of horses even the noise of a great host and so raised their siege from Samaria and fled away leaving their tents full of riches and all manner of provisions thirdly The Prophet Ionah fled from the presence of the Lord Jonah 1.3 and Cha. 4.3 not to avoid evil but to commit evil in disobeying the Commandment of the Lord because he knew that God was a gracious and merciful God slow to anger and of great kindness A great weakness in a Prophet to be passionate and angry because God was pleased to be merciful to the Ninevites and a greater infirmity to flee to Tarshish from the Lord because he was assured that God would repent of the evil intended against them upon the sight of their repentance fourthly Absolom fled from the presence of his father King David 2 Sam. 13.28 after he had slain his brother Amnon at a Banquet under colour of love and hospitality and went to Geshur and was there three years till his fathers wrath was appeased fifthly Jeroboam the son of Nebat 1 King 11.40 fled from the presence of Salomon went into Egypt and staid there with Shishak King of Egypt till after Salomons death for Salomon sought to kill Ieroboam because he had been informed that the Prophet Ahijah had anointed him King over Israel sixthly Joseph the supposed father of our blessed Saviour and the Virgin Mary Matth. 2.12 with
daily the fears and apprehensions of death which is worse then death it self and die for one death a thousand deaths Yet if men will dive into the nature and effects of this passion of Despair without partiality they will finde that good use may be made of it so it doth not attain to that exorbitant and horrid degree of Self-murdering Give me leave therefore to extend my Discourse upon these particulars 1. On the definition of this passion of Despair 2. On the diversity of the Causes of it 3. On the bad and good Effects of it 4. On the Remedies to allay the fury of it There are divers sorts of Despair which may be reduced to these three first Worldly secondly Moral thirdly Spiritual The worldly Despair is nothing else but a conceit of an impossibility in the acquisition of the vain hopes of men as it will appear in the Causes and Effects of that kinde of Despair The definition of the Moral Despair is according to the opinion of the best Moralists as followeth Despair saith Boujou Theophrast Boujou Lord of Beaulieu fol. 723. is a passion of the Soul withdrawing men from some good much desired because it is represented by the Senses to their imagination as impossible to be obtained Senault in his use upon the passions pag. 344. Despair saith Senault is a violent motion of the soul that keeps men aloof from the prosecution of some good in which they see no probability it can be obtained Now this good is not always a real good for the Senses do oftentimes delude the Reason and Judgment of men but suppose it be a real good then it is Vertue it self or some vertuous Object Action or Design which they conceive impossible to be obtained or performed for Moral Hope hath no other object then Vertue or vertuous and generous actions and by consequence Moral Despair must have the same objects The definition of worldly moral and spiritual despair for divers of the ancient Moralists held Self-murdering no Despair as I have given a hint of it in the last Discourse but an action of fortitude and of magnanimity of courage And this Moral Despair is the opposite and great Antagonist of Moral Hope and the second passion incident to the Irascible appetite which doth mitigate the extravagancy of mens Hopes as it will appear in the insuing Discourses yet men often times despair of things in which they imagine impossibilities when there is none as it will appear by these two Instances About sixscore years past it was a thing thought impossible to sail with a ship round about the circuit of the earth and yet Magalen a Portugais See the Spanish and English History and Sir Francis Drake an English man have shown by experience that it was possible to be done secondly In the days of Charls the ninth Henry the third and Henry the fourth Kings of France It was a thing thought impossible to take the City of Rochel by force or by famine and yet the Cardinal de Riche-lieu by the Art of a French Enginere See the French History hath shown by experience it was possible to be done for by a floating bridge that he made over an Arm of the Sea upon which he planted Ordinances and erected two Towers and with a land Army Lewis the thirteenth King of France took that City by famine in less then a year whereupon I conclude that men Despair of things by imagining impossibilities where there is none and this proceeds from want of judgment power or experience for it is daily seen that which seems to be impossible to one man is easie and facile to another Spiritual Despair is nothing else but a distrust of Gods mercy which by the temptation of Satan do intice men to be the murderers of themselves which is the next sin to the sin of the Holy Ghost Secondly The causes of worldly Despair may be these first The death of a beloved party See Bandel in his Tragical Histories Romelio supposing his beloved Mistress Iuliete to be dead when she was but in a swound slew himself upon her body and when she came to her self again she seeing her Sweet-Heart had killed himself for her sake she stabbed her self with his Poynard secondly The infidelity in love is a cause of Despair See Virgils Aeneads Dido Queen of Carthage slew her self because Aeneas a Trojan Prince forsook her and sailed into Italy but if this be a Poeticall Fable hear a true Relation A proper young maiden being secretly betrothed to a young man living here in London who broke his faith and married another whereupon the maiden being transported with Despair poisoned her self and died the next day this hapned within this twelve moneth I could relate a hundred such instances to prove that of all the passions Love being abused or extinguished by death doth sooner then any other thing beget Despair but I pass them over for brevity sake thirdly Avarice is the cause of Despair A Merchant in London of good means having had some losses at sea and having received the tidings of it on the Saturday he being transported with Despair hung himself on the Sunday morning when his servants were at Church and it is a common thing among the Cormorant Farmers when they have Monopolized all the corn of a County into their hands to hang or drown themselves if the next year prove to be a fruitful year fourthly Famine is a cause of Despair 2 Kings 6.29 for in Jehorams days such a famine was in Samaria that two women boiled a childe and did eate the same the mother of the childe out of Despair consenting to it and whosoever will be pleased to read Iosephus will see the horrid actions of some of the Iews committed out of Despair because of the great famine that was at Ierusalem when it was besieged by the Romans fifthly The fear to fall into the hands of a cruel enemy causeth Despair some of the richest of the Saguntines rather then they would fall into the hands of Hanibal and his cruel Carthaginian and Numidian souldiers See Titus Livius in his third Decade lib. 1. pag. 34. did carry all their wealth with their wives and children into their Market place and having made a great heap of their rich moveables they set the fire in it and slew their wives and children and having cast them into the fire they slew themselves afterwards sixtly Shame is a cause of Despair Cleopatra Queen of Egypt being informed that it had been resolved in the Counsel of Augustus Cesar that she should be led as a captive after the triumphant Chariot of the said Emperor when he should make his entry into Rome out of Despair to avoid that shame See Plutarch in Marcus Antonius life she applied two Vipers to her two breasts and so died There are divers other causes of worldly Despair but they are of another nature for they attain not to that
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
it are rather worse then better 1. It deprives men of Reason and Understanding for Sampson a Nazarite from his Mothers womb and a Judge and Deliverer of Israel was so besotted by the charms and lascivious allurements of Dalilah Judg. 13.6 that he revealed a secret unto her in the concealing of which did consist the safety of his own life and of his native Countrey 2. Solomon the wisest Prince that ever lived upon Earth 1 King 3.12 was by the allurements of his Wives and Concubines turned away from the Lord and offered Sacrifices to their Idols 3. Marcus Antonius a valiant Commander of the Romans who never had been foiled in all his Martial Archivements before he was infatuated by the alluring charms of Cleopatra was so deprived of understanding that at the Battel of Antrium when he had the better of the day he fled away Plutarch in his life to follow her that carryed his heart away and by the fond love of a woman lost his life and the Empire Charls the Seventh King of France was so besotted by the lascivious embracements of La-belle Agnes his Concubine The French History that he neglected all the Civil and Military Affairs of his Kingdom to Court and dally the time away with her and had lost utterly his Kingdom by this passion of Volupty if his Mistress that was of a generous spirit had not rouzed him out of his lascivious dumps saying thus unto him I was foretold in my youth saith she that I should be one day the love and Mistress of the greatest and most valorous Prince in Christendom But it appears by your carriage that I am the love of the most effeminate Prince in Europe for you suffer the English Nation to rent your Kingdom into piece-meals and in lieu to be King of France you are through your pusillanimity become the petty King of Bourges for shame rouze up your spirits and let not a Forraign Nation deprive you of Life and Crown These taunting reproaches coming from a woman that was dearer unto him then his own life did so enlighten his understanding and inflame his courage that he instantly undertook to relieve Orleance that was then besieged by the English And after he had enforced them to raise their Siege he drove them by degrees out of all they held in France Calice only excepted 2. It deprives the dearest childern of God for some time of the love and favour of their heavenly Father As it doth appear in the lives of King David and of Solomon his Son 2 Sam. 11.2.3 for David by the lascivious embracements of Bathsheba was cast into a spiritual Lethargy for a whole year together and deprived of the sweet communion he had formerly with his gracious God so that in lieu to be penitent for his sin of Adultery Vers 13. he committed one after another two other abhorred sins for to palliate the first he caused his Servants to allure Vriah to drunkenness that his understanding being depraved by the vapors of the Wine he might return home and lie with his Wife but this wile failing he caused him to be murthered by the sword of the children of Ammon yet was his understanding so stupified by this bewitching spirit of uncleanness that he had dyed in his sins if God out of his infinite mercy had not sent the Prophet Nathan unto him 2 Sam. 12.1 to rouze him out of this mortal spiritual slumber 1 King 3.11 12. And King Solomon lay many years in such a deadly spiritual lethargy that he was utterly insensible of his gross Idolatries and abhorred Fornications for in number of Wives and Concubines he did excel all the Turkish Emperours and had perished in his sins if God out of his accustomed mercy towards his Elect had not out of Free-grace given him the gift of an unfained repentance as it appears by his Book of Ecclesiastes written after his conversion 3. It deprives men of all true content and over-whelms them with grief and sorrows for in what condition soever voluptuous men finde themselves they neither take pleasure nor content except their minde be alwayes bent upon the means that can make them attain to the fruition of their carnal delights for in them they erroneously conceive doth consist their supream felicity whereas the termination of the pleasures of the flesh is ever the beginning of misery and wo And therefore Aristotle to disswade his Disciples from carnal volupties told them that they were like the Mer-maids who are extraordinarily beautiful above water for their face is round and fair their hair as yellow as gold their eyes of a loving dark gray their mouth small their lips as red as Coral their teeth as white as snow their breast as round as an apple and their arms hands shoulders back flanks as white as Alabaster but their tail is like the tail of a great Serpent frightful full of teeth and mortal venom Even so carnal volupties are delightful to mens corrupt nature and seem to be sweeter then honey and the honey comb at the first enjoyment of them but at their adieu they are bitterer then gall and more loathsome then the snuff of a candle and for one dram of carnal delight they over-whelm their Clients with anguish and sorrow and make them shed rivers of penitent tears whensoever God is pleased to give them the gift of an unfained repentance Besides all true joy and content doth consist in the favour and love of God and in the assurance he doth infuse in the hearts of his Elect by his blessed Spirit that they are justified and reconciled unto him by the sufferings blood and passion of Christ his only Son our most gracious Saviour and this love favour and assurance is permanent and eternal but the joy and content proceeding from carnal volupties are for continuance like a fire of Thorns under a Pot or like the morning dew which vanisheth away at the rising of the Sun for the least blast of dolor and affliction doth suddenly make the very remembrance of carnal pleasures vanish away like smoak moreover the very conceits imaginations and deportments of voluptuous men are meer vanity and vexation of minde for their paradise upon Earth is to be always musing upon the beauty comliness and perfections of their Mistress Nay some are so infatuated by the spirit of uncleanness which doth possess them that they do Idolize their picture kiss their dressings and other things they wear nay the very ground they tread upon And can there be any real content in these absurd vanities mad and foolish deportments surely no for these vain phansies whereon they fix their minds divert their thoughts from being diligent Hearers of the Word of God and careful observers of his Ordinances from which they might reap true content 4. It deprives men of their means for Princes Noble-men Gentlemen Merchants and Artificers who are given to volupties do commonly fall into penury for as
Joseph the meekness of Moses the zeal of Phineas the fervency of David and the holiness of our blessed Saviour were the objects of mens ambition ambitious men would carry away the garland and be reputed as the only excellent upon earth Psal 16.3 But to be excessively ambitious after the fading and momentary riches honours and glory of this world or after the conquest of a Mole-hill for the greatest Kingdom in Christendom in comparison of the whole Globe of the World will appear but like a Mole-hill it is a meer vanity Eccles 6.2 and an evil disease Socrates being informed that Alcibiades was proud and ambitions and boasted of the great demains he possessed in Attica a Province of Greece See Plutarch in his Morals of which Athens was the Metropolitan City brought him into a place where there was a Map of the whole Earth and prayed him to shew him where stood his Possessions Alcibiades after an exact view of the same found out at last the Province of Attica which was no bigger then a great pins-head but could not see any sign of his demains whereupon Socrates said unto him Why are you then so proud and ambitious for a thing of so little Continent that it cannot be seen in this Card. Even so Princes and Commonwealths who out of ambition contend for enlargement of their demains will finde at the end when they have shed their subjects blood and exhausted their Treasures that they have only obtained with much ado a small Mole-hill of ground And will be enforced to say See the History of France as Charls the Fifth and Philip the Second Kings of Spain did who through their Ambition had been the cause of the death of a million of men and of the exhausting of all the Treasures that came out of the West Indies which did amount in threescore years to above two hundred millions of Crowns by the Wars they made about the Conquest of France viz. That with all this blood and incredible Treasures they had not won a Foot of ground in France and were further from the Conquest of it then they were the first day of their War And verily if the seventeen Provinces of the Low-Countries were represented in a Map and compared to the whole Globe of the Firmament of the Seas and the Earth they would not seem to be so big as a Mole-hill And yet they have this threescore years and ten been the object of the Ambition of him that stiles himself the greatest King in Christendom And notwithstanding his might and power See the History of the Netherlands and the innumerable lives of men that have been lost and the incredible Treasures that have been exhausted in the Conquest and preservation of them yet hath he been enforced to acknowledge seven of these Provinces to be free-States and at this very hour courts them by his Embassadors to obtain an offensive and defensive League with them For although the Ambition of Princes and Commonwealths have no bounds yet are they bounded by the Lord of Hosts and shall extend no further then he hath Decreed The beginning the encrease the decay and utter annihilation of Empires Monarchies and Commonwealths being wholly at his disposing Notwithstanding the desires of Ambitious men are never satisfied and are alwayes projecting to enlarge their bounds although they are ignorant of Gods will and pleasure therein these ambitious desires of theirs being oftentimes the fore-runners of their ruine and annihilation See Herodotus in his Life Croesus King of Lydia desiring ambitiously to enlarge his dominions made War against Cyrus who deprived him in one day of his Kingdom and of his incredible Treasures And Antiochus the great ambitiously desiring to enlage his Kingdom declared War against the Romans who took from him Armenia See Plutarch in the Lives of Lucullus and Pompeius and confined him beyond the Mount Taurus And because this fiery passion of Ambition is as predominant in all parts of Christendom in these dayes as it hath been in former Ages give me leave to enlarge my self upon these particulars 1. On the definition of this passion 2. On the composure of it 3. On the nature of the same 4. On those who are most addicted to it 5. On the Causes that move men to be Ambitious 6. On the proprieties of the same 7. On the pernitious effects of it 8. On the means to subdue the same First The definition Ambition is nothing but an exorbitant and irregular desire of worldly honour and glory Secondly It is a mixt passion composed of these The composure viz. of Audacity of Hope and Desire 1. Audacity expels the fears that might disswade Ambitious men from undertaking any perilous enterprises 2. Hope infuseth in them a confidence they shall attain to their ends 3. Desire gives them wings to prosecute with indefatigable labour the fruition of that which they aym at Thirdly It is of a fiery restless and insatiable nature 1. It is fiery because such as are more ambitious then others are of a bilious hot and dry constitution 2. It is restless because the bilious humour which is the most predominant in their bodies doth usually ascend up to their brains which makes them active in all their actions and sudden in all their undertakings The nature of Ambition And of this natural constitution were Caesar Henry the Fourth King of France and the last King of Sweden who were all three extraordinarily ambitious 3. It is insatiable because of the great predominancy the passion of desire hath over the other passions of which it is composed nothing being more insatiable then the desires of men Fourthly Those who are most ambitious are commonly of a haughty spirit envious and impatient when they see any other excel them in valor honor glory It was Ambition that moved Alexander to reject the fair offer that Darius King of Persia made unto him of the half of his Kingdom and of his eldest Daughter to be his wife if that would have satisfied his ambition so he might enjoy peaceably the other moity the rest of his days See Quintus Curtius in his Life but this answer of Alexander made unto Darius upon this offer did proceed from a haughty and imperious spirit viz. That as there was but one Sun in the Firmament so there could be but one Monarch upon Earth See Plutarch in Caesars Life And this saying of Caesar did proceed from a haughty and ambitious heart viz. That he would rather be the chiefest Magistrate in a petty City of Italy then the second in the City of Rome And this other that he spake to the Master of a ship in the midst of a storm Fear not saith he For thou dost carry in thy ship Caesar and his Fortune as if the Winde and the Sea had been bound to obey and comply with his ambitious designs But his passion of Sorrow when he wept seeing the Figure of