hundreds over fifties and over tens to disburden himself of the heavie burthen he had taken upon him to Judge the people of Israel for by this councel he eased Moses and the people and made the Elders of Israel to be sharers with him in the honor of the rule and government of the Commonweal whereby he was much beloved and honored of all the people It was a wise Policy and and a wholsom counsel that the wise g 2 Sam. 20.16 22. woman of Abel gave to her Citizens to cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and to cast it over the wall to Joab for by it she preserved the whole City from sack and ruine that might justly have been destroyed by Joab if they had persisted to be the abbettors of the rebellion of Sheba who received but a just reward for his treachery and rebellion for endeavouring to raise a new War against his lawful Prince the anointed of the Lord. And it was a Councel grounded upon true prudence and policy which was given to h See the French History in the life of Charls the seventh Charls the seventh King of France by his grave and faithful Counsellors of State to conclude a peace with Philip Duke of Burgundy although he should yield into his hands his Favorites who had by his assent murthered the Duke John of Burgundy father to Philip as he was treating a reconciliation with the said King about the murder the said John had committed upon the Duke of Orleance the Kings Uncle for by this counsel the Kingdom of France was preserved from ruine and restored again to its former flourishing condition and the murtherers had but their due deserts it being more just that half a dozen of guilty persons should perish then a whole Kingdom should be undone these Counsellors justly maintaining that these Favorites were not to commit such an act although they had a Warrant from the King Subjects being not bound to obey the commands of their Prince in things that be contrary and forbidden by the Law of God as murder is and so these Counsellors were for ever after much honored of the King and of the whole Kingdom for their wisdom and fidelity It was a wise Counsel grounded upon humanity and sound Policy that the Bishop of i See the History of Spain in Charls the fifth's life Osma gave to the Emperor Charls the fifth after Francis the first King of France became his Prisoner at the battel of Pavia that he should for his own glory and the future good of Spain set the said King of France at free liberty without ransome or capitulations at all and have him conducted with an honorable Train to the Borders of his own Kingdom but this good counsel being traversed by the Machavilian policy of the Duke d'Alva they made a prey of the said King which was the cause after the Kings release of a bloody war that was fatal to the Emperor and the Kingdom of Spain whereby it appears that by Prudence and just Policy men may attain to worldly honors and that Machavilian policy is ever destructive and subject to shame and ignominy For the eighth and the last which is Valour it hath ever been one of the first steps to worldly honors and is a commendable means so mens valor be exercised in the service of their Prince and propagation of the true Protestant Religion and for the desence of the Liberties of their native Countrey for by their valour in such cases they attain to the personal Nobility which is as I have said before the spring of the Nobility of race or descent for the Nobility obtained by valour in any of these three cases is the most honourable Nobility of all neither is it true valor to kill any one in duel but rather an effect of an inconsiderate wrath and of a desperate vindication and a meer murder in the sight of God for true valor appears onely in the Field against an open enemy and not to kill our friends for a word spoken unadvisedly or unawares and it hath been observed that these k Roarers are 〈◊〉 vâ—liant roaring Gallants that make a trade of killing of men for punctillios of honor in duels are commonly cowards and are the first that trust to their spurs in a pitcht Field by which it appears that their valor is rather a raging Passion then a vertuous valor which is always guided by Reason and Judgment Now by these eighth means by which minds most commonly attain to honour in the world the Reader may judge whether there by any probability that worldly honors should afford men any true content sith the means by which they are obtained are subject to so many accidents and are so vain and full of vanity and vexation of spirit For the second branch of this Discourse concerning the persons that deserve to be honoured I will be very brief because all rational men are acquainted with this duty first in the first of S Peter Chap. 2. ver 17. there is a general charge Honor all men love the brotherhood fear God and honor the King and Solomon in his l Prov. 39. Proverbs goes further for we are not onely to fear God but we are also to honor him Honor the Lord saith he with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase and next to God and the King we are to honor our Parents m Exod. 20 12. Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee God to induce men to honour their Parents makes here a precious promise to obedient and respective children the next to our Parents we are to honor civil Magistrates and the Messengers and Ministers of God and next to them the grave and ancient men n Levit. 19.32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the antient and yet who are more despised then old men in this corrupt Age for young men are now preferred to places of Dignity Profit and Trust contrary to former Ages for Solomon by these words As snow in Summer and rain in Harvest so is honor not seemly for a fool intimates that young men are not to be honored with places of Trust in Church or Commonweal because they are for want of experience no better then fools and yet they account themselves generally out of a vain presumption wiser then old men whom they call doting fools for want of the knowledge of this Proverb Before Honor is Humility for were they truly wise they would be humble and not presumptuous for presumption is the companion of Folly besides vertuous learned wise prudent and valiant men are to be honored I distinguish Learning from Prudence and Wisdom because learned men are not always wise nor prudent although Learning is a means to attain to Wisdom but Learning is the theorical part of Wisdom and without a
exorbitant degree of Self-murdering but draw men off from their vain hopes and rash enterprises of which I shall have occasion to speak in the Effects of this passion of Despair The Causes of Moral Despair proceed from the fatall events from generous and Martial achievements or from the managing of affairs of State first after the Battel of Cannae that Hanibal won upon the Romans the young Nobility that fled and saved themselves from the rout of it were so transported with Despair that they resolved to fly out of Italy and had done so but for Publius Scipio who hearing of their resolution See Titus Livius in his third Decade lib. 3. came amongst them and after a sharp censure for their pusillanimity made them swear never to forsake him till he had been avenged upon Hanibal for the shame the Romans had received at Cannae And by their means was he elected by the voyce of the People to go as General into Africa to inforce Hanibal by a diversion of war to withdraw his forces out of Italy secondly The Carthaginians were so transported with Fear and Despair after the last overthrow that Scipio gave them not far from Carthage where he routed Hanibal and Iuba King of the Numidians that they lost all hope and courage and made a most shameful peace with the Romans for they did deliver up unto them all their shipping But contrarily after the loss of three famous battels that Hanibal won upon the Romans Hope inflamed their courage and by it from a conquered People they became Conquerors A good caveat for Princes or States to disswade them from Despairing in the dismal events of war but to foment hope in their breast in their greatest disgraces for if Despair creap in mens hearts that hold the Helm of the ship of the Common-wealth See Titus Iavius in his third Decade lib. 3. all goes to wrack thirdly Charls the seventh King of France was for sometime so possessed with Despair by the evil events that his men of war had daily with the English Armies that were under the Command of the Duke of Bedford that he suffered his own and publick affairs to go to ruine till his Concubine La bella Agnes by the perswasion of the French Peers See du Halian in his French History and some of his chiefest and most faithful Commanders of war infused Hope into his heart by saying unto him that she was minded to leave him for she had been told that she should be the Mistress of the most valourous Prince in Christendom and she saw nothing but pusillanimity in him for he did suffer the English to rent his Kingdom in piece-meals This coming from a woman filled the King with indignation and with the hopes that the Pucelle of Orleans as they called her gave him to raise the siege of Orleans that was then besieged by the English he took from that time forward his and the publick affairs to heart and became a valorous Prince fourthly In the beginning of the reign of Henry the fourth King of France the true French Nation was brought into such a plunge of Despair by the conspiracy of the Chatholick league and the association it had with Spain with the general revolt of the greatest Cities in France against their lawful King that had not God filled the heart of Henry the fourth with Hope and undanted valour that Kingdom had been rent and torn in pieces by forraign Princes fifthly Ahitophel fel into such a deep Despair 2 Sam. 27.23 because his Councel was rejected and Hushaies Councel was accepted that he went and put his house in order and then hanged himself sixthly The Cardinal Ximines See the Spanish History in the beginning of the reign of Charls the fifth who was Viceroy in Spain during the minority of the Emperor Charls the fifth died with Sorrow and Despair because his faithful services to the Crown of Spain were rewarded with an ingrateful dismission from the Court and all publick afairs First Apostacy is the cause of spirtual Despair for Saul King of Israel fell into Despair for disobeying the Commandment of the Lord Four causes of spiritual Despair in not cutting off all the Amalekites and for repairing to the Witch of Endor in stead to ask counsel of God and being wounded by the Philistins and his Army routed upon Mount Gilboa 1 Sam. 31.40 he fell upon his sword and killed himself secondly Iudas Iscariot that betraied our blessed Saviour fell into Despair for his Apostacy and disloyalty and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief Priest and Elders and said I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood Mat. 27.3 4. and so went out and hanged himself thirdly Francisco Spira fell into Despair for his Apostacy for having imbraced the Protestant Religion he was by large promises of great preferments seduced to return to Popery but the worm of Conscience did so rack him See the book of Martyrs that he often cried out he was in in hell because the torments of hell as he said could not be greater then those that he did suffer fourthly The persecuting of Gods children is a cause to beget a spiritual Despair in men as you may see at large in a Treatise called The Iudgments of God upon Persecutors Thirdly The worst effect of Self-murdering Despair is that it deprives men of Repentance and by consequence of salvation for Repentance is a gift of the free grace of God neither can men repent when they will Six pernitius effect of De-Despair sith it is not their own gift but Gods and how can they repent when their Understanding and their Will which are the noblest faculties of their soul are perverted and so distempered with this furious passion of Despair that they are rather like mad then rational men and worse then the bruit creatures for none of them will destroy their own kinde much less themselves Repentance is a gift of God and is not at mens disposing and must be attained by prayers and not to be deferred to the hour of death for Self-murdering is an action contrary to the Law of Nature for Nature strives in all its Effects to preserve its own beeing besides it is expresly prohibited by the Law of God that one man should murder another but suppose he do yet if he murder the body of a man he cannot murder his soul but he that murdereth himself doth murder his owne body and his own soul and therefore deserves a far greater punishment then a common murderer secondly This kinde of Despair proceeds from a distrust of Gods mercie and what greater injury can be done to God by man then to distrust of his infinite mercy and to be a wilful rebel to his blessed Commandments thirdly It deprives men of all Reason Judgment Compassion and Humanity for they are more cruel to themselves then their greatest enemies can be to them as it
will appear by these three insuing effects of Despair fourthly In the time of the civil wars See Plutarch in Syllaes life between Sylla and Marius Sylla besieged Preneste a small but a very strong City of Italy because it had sided with Marius and after a long siege he took the same and commanded that all the Inhabitants should be put to the Sword and the City set on fire onely he charged that his Host and his Family should be preserved because in former time he had shewed him much love and good hospitality so at the first entrance of the Town an Officer with a band of souldiers were sent to this Hosts house to preserve it from plunder but he hearing of Syllaes cruel decree against the City was so transported with Despair that he slew himself saying He would not be obliged for his life to the destroyer of his native Countrey See Plutarch in Cesars life fifthly in the civil war between the Cesarean and the Pompeian faction a Centurion or Captain of Cesar and some thirty common souldiers were taken in a fight and brought before Cornelius Scipio that was then Governor of Africa for the Pompeian party who condemned them all to death the Centurion excepted who seeing the cruelty of Scipio drew out his sword and slew himself in his presence saying He would not be obliged for his life to so cruel an enemy of Cesar sixthly In the war that fell out between the Romans and the Iews in the days of the Emperor Vespasianus See Josephus in the war of the Iews Titus his son laid siege and incompassed Iopata a strong City of the Iews with trenches and a powerful Army and after a long siege and great resistance thirty of the chiefest Magistrates of Iopata seeing no probability that the City could hold out any longer hid themselves in a private Vault into which they conveied victuals for three days before which time the City was taken by a Storm and the greatest part of the people put to the sword and such strickt watch set to the gates that none could escape so that these thirty in the Vault must either yield themselves to the Romans or famish whereupon transported with Despair they resolved rather to kill themselves then to die a lingering death or to yield themselves to the mercy of the Romans a desperate mad and barbarous resolution for the fury of the souldiers being over they had undoubtedly obtained mercy and so they cast lots who should be killed first till there were but two left alive and that was Iosephus and another who abhorring this Self-murdering perswaded his fellow to yield themselves to the Romans to which he consented and having discovered themselves they were brought before Titus who having heard of the merit of Iosephus shewed him mercy and at his intreaty saved the life of his fellow Fourthly The good effects of the passion of Despair may be these first It annihilates and turneth to smoak all the vain and extravagant hopes of men that are fixed upon impossibilities Four good effects of Despair secondly It doth quench the burning flames of love and clips the wings of presumptuous Lovers who fly too high with their desires that would otherwise rack and torment their mindes and make them daily sigh and groan because they could not obtain the enjoyment of that object that is too rare and excellent for their degree but Despair coming on makes them desist from the prosecution of things in which there is no probability they can be obtained thirdly it mitigates the ambitious hopes of Princes who would conceive nothing impossible to them because of their might and power if this faithful counsellor of Despair did not respresent unto them the difficulties there may be to attain to the fruition of their Hope The Emperor Charls the fifth See du Bailys Commentaries in the life of Francis the first King of France being ready to pass out of Italy into France with a very potent Army led by approved Commanders and composed of old and experienced souldiers caused this Army to be ranged in Battel array and when it was Marshalized in the best order it could be according to the Art and Rules of War he sent for a French Noble man that was his Prisoner to ride along with him to view this Army and after they had ridden through the same and viewed all the Squadrons of it The Emperor did ask the Noble man what he conceived of this Army He answered that it was a gallant one and well disciplined I hope said the Emperor to ride with this Army thorow the heart of France without impediment of any moment and come to the very walls of Paris safe Sir said the French Noble man mitigate your Hopes with Despair for I can assure you if you had three such Armies you will not come to Paris before you are well beaten and so it fell out for he went no furthen then Marsellies and there lost thirty thousand of his men and was inforced to raise his siege and to return with shame and dishonor into Italy fourthly As Despair makes men fly and takes away their courage so when it isextream and that there is no hope left for the preservation of their lives it inflames their courage See the English History and du Halian in his French History and makes them fight like Lyons The Black Prince having entred France with an Army of some ten thousand men and taken divers strong holds in Poytou Iohn then King of France came against him with an Army of thirty thousand men the Prince seeing himself over-matched by the means of the Popes Nuncio desired to come to a Treaty and offered to the French King to restore unto him all the strong holds he had taken and to make good the damages he had received so he might peaceably retreat with his Army into Aquitain that did then belong to the Kingdom of England but King Iohn a rash and inconsiderate Prince required greater things which stood not with the Princes honor to grant and so was inforced out of Despair to fight whether he would or no and being an excellent souldier seated his Camp in a high ground full of thorns and bushes which he lined with his Archers and caused in the night time a deep ditch to be cast up about his Camp to break the fury of the French horse the French in the morning in stead to send their foot to make a passage through this ditch sent their horse who falling atop of one another in the ditch were slain by the Archers and the battel of the French disordered whereupon the Prince came upon them with his whole Army and obtained a famous victory and took King Iohn and his youngest son Philip le Hardy that was afterwards Duke of Burgundy prisoners and a great number of the French Nobility which confirms that extream Despair makes men fight like Lyons and that wise Princes are rather to
inlarge my self upon these particulars 1. On the Definition of this Passion 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Nature and Proprieties of it 4. On the evil and good Effects of it 5. On the Spiritual Use of it First This Passion hath several names some call it Confidence and have good reason for it because it is its unseperable companion others call it Audacity but this terme doth blemish the true Nature of it The definition of the passion of Undantedness for audacious and presumptuous men are held to be under one and the same predicament other call it boldness but this word is often taken for Impudency but the French call it Hardiesse which doth express most properly the nature of it which is Undantedness in the English Tongue And here is the definition of it according to the judgment of the best Moralists Boujou fol. 7 23. Vndantedness saith one is an affection and assurance to eschew an evil and to overcome all the difficulties of it Vndantedness The Bishop of Marseilles in pag. 401. saith another is a Passion of the soul which strengtheneth the same and makes it confident it can overcome the most difficult evils that can befall it in this life and doth also incourage it to prosecute the good that is most difficult to obtain And to this last definition I assent as concerning the same the best of the two for it doth truely express the nature of this passion which is the third passion incident to the Irascible Appetite 2. The Causes of it are many but they may be reduced to these six the two first are Natural the two middlemost accidental and the two last supernatural The first natural cause of undantedness is a hot and moist temper of the body The first Natural cause may be a moist and hot temper of the body for the Naturalists have observed that all such as are of that constitution of body have ordinarily an undanted spirit The Natural reason of it is that this hot and moist temper doth suppress the Melancholick humor and its evil proprieties and effects whereby the blood that is hot and airy an ful ofvital spirits and the bilia that is dry and fiery and the flegm that is cold and moist being thus mixt become of a dilative nature and by the motion of the heart spread themselves into all the utmost parts of the body and inableth the minde to undertake and the body to execute all maner of generous designs be they never so difflcult or perillous The second natural cause of Undantedness may be the largeness of the heart of men for it hath been observed by the Physitians when they have opened the bodies of valiant and undanted spirits that their hearts were larger then the hearts of ordinary men See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and King Xerxes King of Persia having caused the body of Leonidas King of Sparta to be opened partly out of admiration of his valour and in part out of curiosity The second natural cause of undantedness is the largeness of the harts of men to see whether the heart of such an undanted spirit was larger then the hearts of common men he found the same to be as big again and hairy all over a natural propriety incident to such as are of a hot and moist constitution of body to abound in hair The Natural reason why men with larger hearts then others should be addicted to Valour and Undantedness is this that the larger the heart is the morevital spirits it can contain which are the essential causes of Valour and Undantedness and therefore it may very well be that the largeness of the heart is a natural cause of Undantedness That tall and burly men are commonly less valorous then short and middle stastured men Divers men are of opinion that tall and burly bodied men are more addicted to Valour and Undantedness then short and middle-statur'd men but they are mistaken for tall men have smaller hearts then others and are also commonly more faint-hearted then other men and the Naturalists give this reason for it If their hearts say say were proportionable to their body they might have reason to be of that opinion but it is commonly smaller because Nature extended its vertue to the utmost parts deprives the inward parts of it Besides all the vitall spirits reside in the bloud and in the heart and by its motion they are dispersed through all the parts of the body Now the farther distant these parts are from the heart the longer time are the vital spirits a going to quicken and vivifie them and by consequence tall and burlybodied men are fuller of Flesh then of Spirits and less couragious then others It is true that they have a presuming undantedness because of their strength but what is done by strength proceeds from Strength and not from Valour which doth reside in the heart and in the minde and not in the arms and in the sinews And the most valorous and undanted spirits of this Age and of other Ages were for the most part short or at the most of a middle stature Leonidas See Plutarch in Peleopidas life and Peleopidas were but short men and Sir Francis Veere and Sir Francis Drake and the Marshal de Biron and the Marshal Gastion were all short men I conclude then that Valour and undantedness doth reside in the heart and minde and not in the strength of the body and that some of all statures may be valiant and undanted The first accidentall cause may be the innocency of men and the justice of their Cause for as Salomon saith Prov. 28.1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth but the righteous are bold as a a Lyon and it is daily seen that three true men will overcome half a dozen of theeves And when men fight for the preservation of the Liberties of their native Countrey and the lives of their wives and children and all the means they have they fight commonly like Lyons The second accidentall cause of Undantedness may be The relations support or alliances that men have with potent and powerful Princes or States for the confidence they have to be backt and supported by them doth make them undertake with undanted courage difficult and perillous enterprises The two accinentall causes of the undantedness of men for Instance The Hollanders a small Commonwealth being at the first supported by Elizabeth Queen of England and afterwards by Henry the fourth King of France have for many years together undantedly waged war with the great King of Spain and likewise the Kingdom of Sweden a petty Kingdom in comparison of the Empire of Germany being supported by Lewis the 13th King of France hath with an undanted courage waged war many years with the House of Austria See the Histories of Germany England and France Thirdly The first supernatural cause of the undantedness of men may be their zeal to Religion for
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
Solomon saith By the means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread I will prove the point by Instances 1. All the Treasures of Asia did not suffice to defray the excessive volupties of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra 2. All the Revenews of the Roman Empire did not serve to discharge the lascivious riots of the Emperors Caligula Nero Vitellius Domitianus and Heliogabalus 3. All the comings in of the Kingdom of France did not suffice to defray the lascivious volupties of Henry the third King of France for he left the Crown indebted fourscore millions of Crowns although he raised the Subsidies and Imposts of his Realm as much more as they were in his Fathers Reign whereby it may be collected that voluptuous Princes are the greatest Oppressors of their Subjects 4. Daily experience doth shew that many Noble-men Gentlemen and rich Merchants spend and consume their Portion or Patrimony as the Prodigal Son did with Harlots and riotous living 5. Luk. 15.13 It shortneth mens days and makes their lives miserable for none can deny but continency temperance and sobriety doth preserve men in health and doth prolong their lives And without health the greatest Monarch upon the Earth can neither have joy nor content And to that end God was pleased to add health and length of days to those extraordinary gifts he gave unto King Solomon 1 King 3.14 otherwise his Wisdom incomparable Magnificence and incredible riches had not afforded him any true joy or content Besides carnal volupties do not only consume mens Estates and impair their health but it makes also their life miserable and loathsome to themselves for what anguish grief and dolours perplexity and vexation of minde is it to a miserable Patient that is sick of the Venereal disease to see his members rot away by piece-meals and to smell the stinking vapours that proceed from the inward corruption of his body And what vexation is it unto him to see Wife nearest Parents and intimate friends to eschew the very sight of him and forsake him in these anxieties Oh what inward torments doth he feel by the gnawing worm of an awakned conscience which doth rack him day and night by the horrid representations of his former pollutions Oh what unspeakable terror do possess him when he sees and feels the arrows of the Almighty Job 6.4 as Job saith to be in him the venom whereof doth drink up his spirits and the terrours of God fight against him for his former transgressions Christians should then endeavor to mortifie this sinful passion if it were but to preserve their means and lengthen their days But 6. it endangers also their souls for if they continue in their impenitency till the end of their days they run a hazard without the special mercy of God to be deprived for ever of his gracious presence For S. Paul saith in the affirmative sense Heb. 13.4 Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge And by the Levitical Law Levit. 19.10 The Adulterer and Adulteress were both to be put to death yet Christ our Saviour goeth further for he saith Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her Matth. 5.28 hath already committed Adultery with her in his heart Now if the intellectual adulteries and pollutions of the imagination deserve eternal damnation the actual fornications of voluptuous men who take no other delight but in the commission of such scandalous sins must of necessity deserve a greater punishment if any did exceed the torments of Hell The consideration then of the evil nature pernitious proprieties and destructive Effects of this sinful passion should induce Christians to endeavor by all means to crush this Cockatrice in the shell before it getteth the mastery over their reason Otherwise if this evill spirit of uncleanness doth possess the noble faculties of their souls it will require an extraordinary measure of Grace to cast him out and will cost them many sighs groans and floods of penitent tears for this unclean spirit is of the same kinde as our Saviour speaks of which cannot be expelled but by fasting and prayer Math. 17.21 Now if they cannot be induced to this so necessary duty by the reasons moral precepts and strong Arguments before cited let the ensuing judgements of God inflicted upon voluptuous men awake and force them to it Sixthly The judgments of God inflicted upon particular Voluptuous men and whole Nations are so numerous that it would be an endless piece of work to speak of them all I will then make choyce but of some of them Gen. 19.5.24 1. All the Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with Fire and Brimstone righteous Lot and his two Daughters onely excepted for their abhorred Lust and sins against Nature Num. 25.9 2. Twenty four Thousand of the People of Israel were consumed by the Plague for their fornications with the Moabitish women 3. Judg. 20.47 48. All the Tribe of Benjamin Six hundred only excepted were destroyed by the Sword for Patronizing the abhorred Lust of some of the Gibeahnites committed upon the Levites Concubine See Herodotus See the French Hist 4. All the Inhabitants of Ionia were destroyed by Cyrus for their lascivious Volupties 5. All the French that were in Sicilia were murthered in one night by the Sicilians for their uncleanness and fornications committed with the women of that Kingdom See the Hist of Naples 6. A great Borough near unto Putzola in the Kingdom of Naples was in one night overwhelmed by a just judgement of God with fire brimstone and the ashes of a hill near to it for the abhorred Lusts against Nature of the Inhabitants of the same 7. Gen. 34.26 Reuben was deprived of his Birth-right for defiling of his Fathers bed 8. Shechem lost his life for the rape of Dinah 9. Numb 25.8 Zimri was run through the body with a Javelin by Phinehas for his impudent Fornication with a Midianite Lady 10. Eli the High Priest 1 Sam. 4.17 18. and Hophni and Phinehas lost their lives the two last for their pollutions committed with the Israelitish women that came to Shiloh and the first for not reprehending his Sons so severely as he should have done for their lascivious courses 11. 2 Sam. 11.4 King David was severely punished for the Adultery committed with Bathsheba 12. Amnon his Son was killed by the servants of Absolom his Brother for the Rape of his sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13.14.29 And Absolom was slain by the commandment of Joab for having defiled his Fathers Concubines in the sight of the Sun and of all Israel See the Ecclesiastical History See the Millan and Florentine History Pope John the Twelfth was murthered in his bed for his Adultery committed with a Roman Lady 14. One of the Sforza's Duke of Millan was murthered in the Church of S. Steven by a Gentleman for his Adultery committed with his Wife 15. Alexander de Medecis Duke of
Alexander cut in Marble standing in the Market place of the City of Cadice in Spain doth evidently manifest that he was of a haughty and ambitious spirit Out of these instances it may then be collected that Ambition is as common to haughty and proud spirits as Avarice is proper and peculiar to vile and base-minded-men Fifthly The causes moving men to be ambitious may be these 1. Self-love 2. Pride 3. Vain-glory. 1. Self-love induceth to prefer their own glory to any thing under the Sun And it is certain that all the heroical Actions of the antient Heathens did rather proceed from self-love then from the love they did bear to Vertue or to their native Countrey And in these days most of the commendable Actions of Magistrates Commanders The causes moving men to be Ambitious and Learned men have a greater reference to this self-love then the glory of God and the Publick good except it be the actions of some special Saints and true children of God 2. Pride raiseth their hearts above the Moon for like proud and ambitious Haman they would have all men bow their knees before them and will be accounted as the Cedars of Libanon and not as the brambles of the Forrest And this Pride makes them aspire to the greatest Offices and Places of the Commonwealth being assured that by these Places and Dignities they will be more honoured then for their own worth Never considering that the steepest Mountains the highest Clifts Towers and Steeples are more subject to be beaten down by the boysterous winds and thunder-claps then the low trees growing in the Valleys And that God doth always exalt the humble and speaketh thus to the proud Though thou exalt thy self as the Eagle Obad. 1.4 and though thou set thy nest among the stars thence will I bring thee down saith the Lord. 3. Vain-glory gives wings to the ambitious men and makes them undertake the most perilous enterprises if they conceive they may obtain in this life the prayse and the applause of men and make their memory famous in the Generations to come This moved the two Decii to throw themselves in the midst of the Enemies Army to save and to give the Victory to the Roman Legions See Livie in his first Decade It moved Martius Curtius to cast himself on Horse-back armed from head to foot into a bottomless Pit to free the City of Rome from the contagion of a consuming Plague It moved Scevola to burn his own hand before King Porsenna in the flame of a lighted Torch to obtain an advantageous Peace for his native Countrey And the ancient Romans knowing what power vain-glory hath over ambitious men did ordain to this purpose three kinde of Triumphs to incite them by these vain shews and the applause and acclamations the common people made at their entring See Livie in his 1.2 and 3. Decade to hazzard their lives in Martial Atchievments the first of these Triumphs excelling in honour the second and the second the last that their valour might be honoured according to the degrees as it did really deserve Whereby it appears that vain-glory hath from the beginning to this day been the only aym of proud and ambitious men Sixthly The proprieties of ambition are numerous but for brevity sake I shall onely speak of three of them The first proprietiy of it is That it hath neither limits nor bounds and this I will prove by three instances that are known to such as are vers'd in ancient and Modern Histories 1. The Ambition of the Democratical Commonwealth of Rome had no bounds although the beginning of it was vile and small it was vile because the first erectors of it were for the greater part Out-laws Fugitives and Vagabonds and it was small because their number did not exceed three thousand before the Sabines joyned with them the first object of their Ambition was the City of Alba See Livie in his 1. Decade Lib. 1. which was destroyed in one day the second was Gabes and the Citizens of them both were joyned with the Romans which did much encrease their number and so by degrees subdued all their neighbouring Princes and Commonwealths then Sicilia was the object of their Ambition then Carthage Spain France England Greece Macedonia and Armenia And when they had in their possession the greatest part of Europe See Caesars Commentaries Asia and Africa then the ambition of Caesar swallowed up them who from a servant became their imperious Lord. Neither was the ambition of their Emperors ever limited for the greater part of them did endevor to enlarge their Monarchy till the days of the Emperor Trajan See Dion and Apian at which time it had the largest extent that it ever had for presently after it began to decay and was annihilated by its own waight as all great Politick Bodies are commonly 2. The Ottoman ambition was never limited to this day At the first it was contained within the Circumference of a Countrey Village their number not above six hundred then they extended the same in the Lesser Asia and then it came over Hellespontus into Greece conquered Constantinople See the Turkish History suppressed the Greek Empire subdued Servia Dalmatia and a great part of Hungaria then Egypt Syria and Armenia with the Iland of Cyprus Rhodes and all the Islands of the Archipelago then they extended the same into Persia but were enforced to give it over because of their Civil Divisions The Janisaries and the Spahis holding at this present the helm of the ship of that great Monarchy for they have of late years placed and displaced to and from the Throne such as pleased and displeased them yet is not their ambition limited for Candia is now the object of it 3. The ambition of the House of Austria was never yet limited 1. In the days of Ferdinando and Isabella they conquered the Kingdom of Grenado See the German and Spanish History and the West Indies and by a wile possessed themselves perfidiously of the Kingdom of Navarr and drove the French out of the Kingdom of Naples and the Dutchy of Milan and having by the Heir of the House of Burgundy obtained the rule of the seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands Charls the Fifth the son of that Heir was chosen Emperor of Germany when he was already King of Spain which Kingdom he left to Philip the Second his son and the Empire of Germany to his brother Ferdinande whom he caused to be chosen by his power in his life time and so ambitiously and cunningly made the Empire of Germany Hereditary to that Family that was formerly elective his son Philip the Second of that name King of Spain following his ambitious steps by the invincible Navie he sent to conquer England See the French and English History and the Catholike League that were his Emissaries to betray into his hands France their native Countrey came very near to be the absolute Monarch of
entrusted into his hands and constantly paid wages to for the enlarging of their limits And as for the invasion of Asia by Alexander It was in the Opinion of the best Polititians a rash and inconsiderate enterprize proceeding rather from Temerity then from prudence or true valor to undertake such a Conquest with an Army of forty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse when Darius had to oppose him twenty times as many more yet because it was decreed in the secret Councel of God that he should be the Head of the third Mornarchy the end of this rash and unjust enterprize proved prosperous and not for the justice of his cause for Darius had never attempted to invade any of his Dominions or done him any injury all the pretext he had was that the former Persian Kings had invaded Greece and to prevent future invasions it was a wise policy to assail and give him work at home A poor excuse or colour of justice for him to deprive Darius of his Life Empire and incredible Treasures which did well deserve this Answer that a Pyrate made unto him See Plutarch in Alexanders Life when he was brought before him to be sentenced to death for his Pyracies at Sea For Alexander having asked him why he did use that base and unlawful trade of Pyracy Out of need said the Pyrate for my Father left me nothing but this small Brigantine to maintain my self my wife and children but thy Father left thee a large Kingdom and incredible Treasures and yet thou usest this trade by the great by depriving Princes of their Kingdoms and Treasures whereas I use it only by retail in taking some sorry Merchants goods consider then which of us two is the greatest Pyrate and which of us deserves the greatest punishment Alexander was so astonished at this Answer considering that he said nothing but the very truth that in lieu to sentence him to death he made him Captain of one of the best Ships he had in his Navie Therefore forraign and intestine Wars are not to be undertaken but upon just grounds otherwise the Authors of them will be answerable at the last day for the life and blood of those who have been slain in them and for appropriating to themselves such Provinces or Kingdoms to which they have neither right nor any just tittle Eighthly The means which are to be used to allay the fury of this passion and to subdue it utterly if it be possibe are these 1. Men are to endevor to attain to a true habit in the grace and vertue of humility for he who is truly humble can never be ambitious because Pride and Ambition are inseparable companions 2. This grace of humility will beget in them a filial fear for men before they be humbled by the consideration of their unworthiness can never attain to this filial fear the fear of God being the beginning of true wisdom And to fear God and to keep his Commandments Eccles 12.13 is saith Solomon the whole duty of a man And those whose are endowed with this filial fear can never be ambitious because they know it to be offensive to God and to men as the criminal effects of this sinful passion here before discribed do witness the same 3. Men are to strive to attain to an habit of true contentedness for such as are contented cannot be ambitious because from the discontentedness of the minde proceed the ambitious desires of men Diogenes had more content with his Tub to shelter him from the injuries of the Meteors of the Ayr and with his wooden dish to eat and drink therein then Alexander had with the Conquest of half the World and the fruition of all the Treasures Pomps and lascivious Volupties of Asia 4. Men are to consider Job 1.21 That naked they came into the World and naked they shall go out of it And that the reward of all their ambitious undertakings will be at the conclusion if they had conquered the whole World but six foot of ground to bury them in 5. Ambitious men are ever to have in their minde this saying of our blessed Saviour For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul 6. If men will needs be ambitious let them be ambitious to excel all others in spiritual Graces and to make their Calling and Election sure That they may at their departure out of this miserable life be made by the merits of Christ Co-heirs with their blessed Saviour of the Kingdom of Heaven and of eternal Glory CHAP. XX. Of the vanity of the passion of Envie CImon the famous general of the Athenian Commonwealth hearing a friend of his highly commending his martial Atchievments Answered That he feared they were not werthy commendation because they were not envied See Plutarch in Cimons life Intimating that in those days the noble and generous actions of the most valorous and vertuous men were the only object of the Athenians Envie But Plutarch in his life giveth sufficient reason why Cimons actions were not envied by the Athenians as the actions of Solon Themistocles Alcibìades and Aristides were in their time for through envie of their vertue they banished them all for ten years viz. because of his extraordinary liberality shewed to the common people for he having great and spacious Demains about the City of Athens relieved the poorer sort with corn when it was dear and every year at Lammas laid open the Gates of his Closing to relieve their Cattel And this liberality of his did quench the fire of Envie stopped the mouths of envions men as conceiving his own prodigality would bring him lower and make him poorer then their own envie could wish or desire Aristides was one of the most just and upright Magistrates that ever was in Athens and for his Justice Prudence Temperance and other rare Vertues was called Aristides the just and by consequence more envyed by the common people then any other Therefore his name being written in the List of such as the people did desire to banish that yeer the day appointed for the collecting of the peoples Votes being come See Plutarch in Aristides life a Country-fellow that could neither write nor read came amongst the rest to give his voyce and because the Athenians gave their Voyces by Tickets he addressed himself to Aristides desiring him to write Aristides name in that Ticket whereupon Aristides astonished demanded of him Whether he knew Aristides and what injury he had done unto him that moved him to desire he should be banished I know him not said the fellow neither hath he done me any injury but I cannot endure to hear him called Aristides the Just whereupon Aristides without disclosing of himself The common object of Envie is goodness and vertue write his name in the Ticket and gave it to the Fellow And was the same day exiled by the major part of the voyces of the people By this