Plutarch in Marcus Antonius Life and Augustus Cesar for which Antonius was advised by an Astrologian that the good Angel of Augustus would at last prevail over his and the great antipathy there was between Socrates and his wife who had lived one with another live Cats and Dogs if the unparallel'd temperance of Socrates had not mitigated their debates And it is seen daily that men hate the company of some other men that never did them wrong nor give them occasion of offence and I have known my self a man and a woman of good means that had such an natural aversion one against the other that they were inforced to live asunder and yet neither of them could shew a just cause from whence this antipathy of affections did proceed There is another sort of Humane Hatred that is accidental but the description of it will be more proper in the next Discourse Thirdly some of the accidentall causes of the Hatred of men are these for they are so numerous that I cannot speak of them all first An inveterate wrath is oftentimes the cause of an everlasting Hatred for when Wrath cannot vindicate it self at the present it becomes an incurable Hatred because Wrath is a suddain and fiery distemper of the Heart which is but like a lightning if it may freely vent it self but if it be restrained in the brest it becomes an irreconcilable Hatred It is a common saying That Cholerick men never sleep upon their anger and that it is but a flash that passeth away but if this Choler hath not some vent it is changed into such a hatred that all the precepts of Philosophy can hardly extinguish the fire of it secondly One of the greatest causes of Hatred is the deniall of Love or more properly of Lust the denial that Joseph gave to his Mistress b Gen. 39.17.20 changed her love to a cruel hatred for she caused him to be cast into a dungeon and in stead of imbracements to be fettered with irons thirdly Self-Love is an ordinary cause of Hatred for such as are possessed with this vanity think themselves never sufficiently respected nor honored and nothing doth sooner engender Hatred in men then misprision fourthly Calumnies and false Reports that blemish a mans Fame and Reputation are cause of an inveterate Hatred for Honor is dearer to some men then their own lives and many have constantly indured all other injuries that have been cast into great distempers by Calumnies which have also bred such a hatred in their hearts that they have shunned all familiarity with men See Plutarch in his Life as it may appear in Tymolions Life fifthly The infidelity of men is often the cause of mens hatred for Confidence and Trust abused is a great motive to Hatred and the reason why Hatred is so predominant in these days is that men are so much addicted to betray the Trust that others have confidently deposed in their hands for like Weather-Cocks they change their friendship upon the lest occasion of their friends disgrace nay Religion it self that should be the greatest link and the strongest bond to knit the fidelity of men together is as subject to mutation and change as the Windes for look as the current of the Times goes these Camelions Religion is according to that which is most in fashion sixthly Jealousies of Hate and jealousies of Love are great provokers to Hatred The jealousies that the Turkish Janisaries did conceive See the Turkish History in his Life that their Emperor Osman would change his Militia and remove the Seat of his Empire from Constantinople to Damasco begot such an implacable hatred in their hearts that they caused him to be strangled in the black Tower of Constantinople The jealousie that Mecaenas had conceived of the inconstancy of his wife did not onely deprive him of sleep for three years together but did also ingender such a hatred in his heart against women that he ever after abhorred the sight of them And that is the reason why the hatred proceeding from the jealousie of Love is held to be the most implacable Fourthly Princes Favorites are addicted to Hatred as it may appear by the carriage of Haman the Agagite towards Mordecai c Esther 3.2 3. because he did not worship him as the other Officers that sate at the King Ahasuerus gate and his hatred was so cruel that conceiving Mordecai to be too base an object for his hatred he made sute to the King that all the Jews living in his Dominions might be destroyed in one day secondly Envious men are always addicted to Hatred and upon the most unjust and ridiculous occasion that can be imagined viz. for the prosperity of their intimate friends or next neighbours whose good and wellfare they are obliged by the Commandments of God to prosecute with all their might and yet the malice and corruption of mens hearts is so vile and so base as to hate those who never injured them for no other reason but because God is pleased to bless them more then they exceeding in malice those murmuring labourers who envied at the goodness and liberality of the Father of the Houshold that sent them into his Vineyard yet they had some colour for their discontent because they had born the burden and heat of the day but these have none at all and therefore their censure will undoubtedly be greater at the last day then that which was given to these Labourers viz. d Matth 20.11 12 13 14.15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own Is thine eye evil because I am good thirdly Effeminate and vicious Princes are addicted to Hatred It is recorded by Dion that as the Emperor Commodus was riding over the stone-bridge that crosseth the River of Tiber at Rome he saw six noble Gentlemen who were discoursing together upon the bridg and having sent for them he inquired of what they discoursed they answered they were talking of the noble Acts and vertuous Parts of his father Mark Aurelius See Dion in his Life whereupon he commanded that they should instantly be cast into the River saying They could not speak well of his father but they thought ill of him Such a hatred did this effeminate and cruel Emperor bear to the Vertue of his deceased father and it is daily seen in this age that the base and profane People doth hate extreamly vertuous and religious men fourthly Ambitious and high Aspiring men are much addicted to Hatred for they hate mortally their competitors and all their abettors witness the irreconcilable hatred that was between Marius and Sylla See Plutarch in their Lives and their adherents and the horrid hatred that was between Antonius Caracalla and his brother Geta See Herodion in their lives that did at last transport Antonius with such rage that he slew his brother in his mothers arms fifthly The common people are addicted to hate the Favorites of Princes because they
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
power of the Concupiscible appetite to make the children of God commit such sins as the Prophet David and St. Peter did but it was because God was pleased to give them over to themselves to make them know that the perseverance in grace is a free gift of his neither is it in the power of the Irascible appetite to infuse such a continency as was found in Joseph nor such an unparallel'd undantedness as was in Shadrach Meshach Abednigo and in Daniel but it was the blessed Spirit of God that did infuse in their hearts that admirable fortitude c. CHAP. VI. Of the vanity of the passion of love AS after a hard winter the Sun is not onely seen to give a new life to all the Vegetative Sensitive and rational Creatures upon earth but also by the heat of his beams to penetrate the very bowels of the earth for to purifie the insensible creatures from their dross as the silver gold and precious stones even so after mens passions have by their natural commotions clouded their mindes with a Winter of anxiety and sorrow supernatural Love doth not onely revive their Spirits but doth also purifie them from the dross that these perturbations had left behinde them in their souls Love being then the most noble passion of men it is fit it should have the precedency in these Discourses sith without love all humane society should be extinguished and by it men deprived of all content and comfort in this life for the greatest comfort that men can attain to in this vale of Tears is to have a constant friend or a faithful consort in whose brest they may confide their greatest secrets and be partaker with them of their prosperity honor and glory or sympathize with them in their afflictions and miseries It is recorded that Fpamonides the Commander in Chief of the Thebanes a man as free from vain-glory as any one we read of did not glory in any thing but in this See Plutarch in his Moâ—is that his father was living when he won three famous battels against the Lacedemonians that were then held for their valour to be invincible regarding more the content and honor that his father whom he loved intirely should receive of it then his own and certainly the greatest fruit that men can receive of their prosperity is when their friends rejoyce and partake of it and the greatest comfort they can have in their afflictions is when they are assured to have friends that sympathize with their miseries Now the passion of Love being of such concernment I will for the better description of it speak in order of these particulars first of the definition of Love secondly of the essentiall cause of Love thirdly of the variety or kinds of Love fourthly of the end or interest of mens Love fifthly of the qualities required in men for to obtain Love sixthly of the good and bad effects of Love seventhly of the Love of God towards men eighthly of the Love of men to God First Love is nothing else but to wish good to another not for mens own interest Definition of love according to Aristotle and Senault but for the good and merit of the party beloved to whom men are to procure all the good and content that shall be in their power Upon which definition observe these four Particulars first that Love doth ever unite the Heart and Will of men to the party beloved And therefore the ancients said commonly that Alexander and Ephestion had but one soul in two distinct bodies because their joy and glory sorrow or disgrace was mutuall to them both secondly Mens love is not to be grounded upon the pleasure or profit they may receive by them they seem to love for it can be no love except their love be grounded upon the vertues and merits of the party beloved thirdly Lovers are to wish and procure the good and honor of their beloved and to require nothing of them but what they may do with honor and equity fourthly The goods and lives of men are to be at the disposing of the party beloved Honor Religion and Loyalty onely excepted for true friendship doth not oblige men to blemish their honor rack their conscience nor to betray their Prince at the request of their beloved because these requests are beyond the bounds of love which is only to be confined within the limits of Vertue See Plutarch in his Moralls and therefore the ancient Moralist highly commends this saying of a Heathen who said to his friend who did require him to perjure himself I am saith he thy friend untill the Altar and the like answer was given to Charls Duke of Burbon See Du Belay Commentaries when he did intreate his noble friends to side with him against his and their natural Prince Francis the first King of France Secondly The cause of Love is conceived by some to be a sympathy or natural inclination that inticeth men to love one man before another for it is often seen that when a man comes in the company of other men he never had seen before he will affect one of that company more then any of the rest which proceeds say they from a sympathy of affections that is between these two men Others conceive that the cause of Love doth consist in the influence of the Planets and for proof of their Opinions say that the love of Achilles to Patroclus See Homer See Quintius Curtius and of Alexander to the Amazon Queen was because they were born under one and the same Planet Others conceive the cause of Love to be the intimate conversation and familiarity of the parties which by an habit and custom begets love between them Others conceive that the goodness and beauty of the object is the cause of love and with these I concur in Opinion for God who is the Beauty and Goodness it self is certainly the essential cause of true love Thirdly All sorts of love may be comprised under natural and supernatural the natural hath divers branches that may all be reduced under the love of Interest and the love of Friendship of which I shall speak hereafter when I have set forth the Opinion of those who maintain there is five severall sorts of Love first the love of the innanimate creatures secondly the love of the sensitive creatures thirdly the love of the rational creatures fourthly the love of Angels fifthly the love of God first The love of the innanimate creatures is apparent in the prosecution of the perfection of their beeing the light ones ascending upwards and the heavy ones descending downwards as to their center secondly The love of the sensitive creatures is an impression wrought by the senses in their imagination by the objects it conceives to beuseful unto them which begetteth a desire to injoy them and this passion is not onely incident to the bruit creatures but also to the rational who are overcome by the sensitive appetite
thirdly The love of the reasonable creatures should be guided by Reason because it is inlightned by the Understanding the seat of the rational power of the soul but because the Sensitive power doth oftentimes get the mastery it straies from its right end that is properly to endeavor to attain to the supream good the very end why men were created but since Adams fall men are carried away by the violence of their passions to greater inconveniencies and dangers then they which ride upon untamed Colts their love being no more a temperate motion of their Will but an effect of their passions fourthly The love of Angels doth far excel the love of men because they are the blessed Spirits attending day and night before the Throne of God to execute his Will and Pleausure and specially to protect his Elect now as the onely object of their love is God who is the perfection of Beauty and Goodness their love must of necessity be more excellent then the love of the reasonable creatures fifthly The love of God towards mankinde for excellency is so superlative over the love of men and Angels that it will admit of no comparison his beeing infinite and theirs finite and therefore I will desist to speak of it at this present for the Love I am to speak of is the love of Interest and the love of Friendship Fourthly The end and Interest of mens Love is of a large extent for many do seem to love such that can prefer them to the injoyment of honors riches and pleasures but the Love grounded upon these sandy foundations is but a fained and mercenary love Sejanus the Favorite of the Emperor See Tacitus Suetonius and Dion Tiberius was adored as the morning Sun is by the Indians by the greatest Senators and men of war of the Empire as long as he was in favor and could prefer his Clients to places of honor or gain but as soon as he fell in disgrace they became his greatest persecutors Haman the Favorite of King Ahasuerus was worshipped by the Officers that sate at the Kings gate Mordecai onely excepted but when he fell into disgrace these very Officers informed the King that he had erected a gibbit of fifty cubits to hang up a Esther 3.2 and 7.9 Mordecai upon which information the King commanded they should instantly hang Haman upon the same gibbit and having readily performed this command the said men pillaged his house and rich moveables If Love be grounded upon Beauty it cannot be of any continuance what is more subject to accidents then Beauty the Measles the small Pox or old Age will disfigure the greatest Beauty But the love of true friendship having no other object then the vertue and merit of the beloved party remaineth permenant and rather increaseth then diminisheth by age But some will object Many in these days that profess to be our greatest friends are our greatest enemies how shall we then be able to distinguish these counterfeit friends from the reall They may be discerned by these evidences first if they rejoyce when thou rejoycest and mourn when thou mournest not in shew but in heart secondly If they are as serviceable in thy adversity as in thy prosperity for if they respect thee in prosperity and reject thee in thy poverty they are but fained friends thirdly If they are as easily invited to a simple Meal as to a great Banquet for there are too many Table-friends in these days if they love those thou lovest and hate those thou hatest for otherwise their affections do not sympathize with thine and there can be no true love where an antipathy of affections raigns fifthly If the defamation of thy honor or good name be as tender unto them as it is to thee and whether they will be as apt to vindicate the same when opportunity serve as thou wilt for otherwise thou canst not be dear unto them who make no account of thy infamy sixthly If they take in good part thy reproofs and acknowledg them to proceed from thy love to them rather then from a censorious austerity many other Evidences might be given but these shall serve for brevity sake Fifthly the qualities required in men to obtain Love are numerous for Aristotle in his Phys makes mention of fifteen and yet there be many more but Piety Vertue Goodness and Beauty are four of the principal first Piety draws the love of God as the Adamant stone draws the Needle and such as are honored with the love of God are blessed and need not fear the hatred of men For if God be with us who shall be against us secondly Vertue is such a Jewel that all men and women that are endowed with Vertue are never without lovers nay their very enemies love them Tilligny for his rare Vertues was rescued from death by his greatest enemies at the massacre of Paris thirdly See the French History in the life of Charis the ninth Goodness is a dependency of Piety and Vertue for goodness is to them as the shadow is to the body and therefore it is never without lovers fourthly Beauty although it be but a fading gift of Nature hath notwithstanding more lovers then any of the former for men are bewitched by the raies of Beauty the comliness and beauty of Absolom insnared the love of David unto him and although he had neither Piety nor Vertue it made him cry out b Sam. 18.33 O Absolom Absolom Absolom my son would to God I had died for thee fifthly such as execute unpartial Justice are beloved of all men as Aristides and Fabritius sixthly Valour makes men to be beloved if they imploy the same for to free their Native Countrey from oppression as Jepthy and Gedion seventhly Liberal men are beloved as Mecaenas was of all the learned men of his time eighthly Grateful men are beloved for ingratitude is abhorred of God and men for the very bruit beasts are grateful to their benefactors witness the gratitude of the Lyon towards the Roman Slave who saved his life for curing of his paw See Livius in his 1. Decade ninthly Peace-makers are beloved as Mamercus was for reconciling the People with the Patricians tenthly Godly and Religious men that constantly stand to their Principles are beloved as Athanasius for although he was exiled divers times yet was he ever protected and found friends wheresoever he came eleventhly Merciful men are beloved See the History of France as Cesar was for his clemency twelfthly The cherishers of Learning are beloved as was Francis the first King of France thirteenthly Men of a sweet pleasant and complying conversation are beloved as Ephestion was of Alexander fourteenthly Men free from dissimulation who speak what they think to be good for their native Country are beloved See Tacitus as Tracia was in Vespasians days fifteenthly Men love courteous and serviceable men that are ready to befriend them upon all occasions and by this Absolom
c 2 Sam. 15.6 stole the hearts of the people of Israel from his father Divers other qualities might be produced which abstract Love from others but these shall serve for this time Sixthly The effects of Love are either Good or Bad according to the end of it for if the end of mens Love be Good the effects of it are always comfortable but if the end of their Love is to satisfie their lust it is always destructive and fatall and so proved the love of d Gen. 34.2 Sechem to Dinah and the love e 2 Sam. 13.14 28. Homers Illiades Livius Decade 1. lib. 2. of Amnon to his sister Tamar and the rape of Helen by Paris was the cause of the ruine of Troy the Rape of Lucretia by Tarquinus was the cause that Rome from a Monarchy fell into a Democracy the violence committed by the f Judg. 19.25 Gibeathites to the Levit's Concubine was the cause of the death of fourty thousand Israelites and almost of the utter ruine of the whole Tribe of Benjamin and the love of Antonius to Cleopatra was the cause of their lamentable end but sith a volume would not contain all the examples that might be produced of the evil effects of lust varnished over with the name of Love I will now speak of the effects of true Love first See Plutarch in the two young Graccus lives The love of Tiberius Graccus towards his vertuous wife Cornelia was such as he slew the male Serpeut and spared the femall on purpose that he might save her life by the loss of his own secondly The love of Antonio Perez's wife to him was such as she ventured her own life to save his See the Spainsh History in the raign of Philip the second thirdly The love of Portia daughter to famous Cato and wife to Martius Brutus was so vehement and passionate that being informed of his death at the battell of Philippi See Bâ—utus life in Appian she smothered her self by casting a handful of burning coles into her mouth fourthly The love of Artemisa Queen of Caria towards her beloved husband Mausolus was so violent that being dead See Plutarchs Morals it could not suffer his body to have any other grave then her own bowels for she caused the same to be burned and drank a portion of his ashes at every meal in commemoration of their constant love See the Italian History fifthly The love of an Italian Gentleman to his betrothed Mistress is to be commended for hearing she had been taken at sea by some Pirats of Tunis and sold for a Slave he went over into Africa and redeemed her with an incredible sum of money sixthly The incredible love and fidelity of Damon and Pythias two Sicilian Noble men is to be admired for Dionysius the Elder King or Tyrant of Syracuse having upon some jealousie of state caused Damon to be cast into prison and to be condemned to death Damon presented a petition unto him desiring to have leave for eight days to go into the Countrey to set his houshold in order See old Dionisius life promising to return Dionysius granted the same upon this condition that some other Noble man of his means and degree should bail him body for body and life for life and should remain in durance untill the day appointed for his return Pythias his intimate friend bailed him of his free accord and yeelds himself prisoner in Damons stead but the day being come and almost the hour appointed at hand and Damon not appearing Dionysius began to deride Pythias for his credulity of the constancy of his friend yet before the hour went out Damon came in and presented himself to the King desiring his friend might be discharged at whose love fidelity and constancy Dionysius was so astonished that he set them both at liberty and required to be accepted for the third of their society yet all these admirable effects of Love are as much inferior to the Love of God towards man as the finite is inferior to the infinite as it will appear by the insuing Discourse Seventhly The Love of God towards men is altogether incomprehensible as it will appear by these expressions of the blessed Spirit For God saith St. Iohn g Ioh. 3.6 so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life and Christ saith himself h Ioh. 10.10 That he is the good Shepherd who hath given his life for his sheep And St. Iohn saith i 1 Ioh 4 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Beloved let us love one another for love cometh of God and every man that loveth is born of God he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another no man hath seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world These words of St. Iohn and divers others to the later end of this Chapter do confirm the Point that Gods Love is the Adamant stone that draweth our love to him and that we cannot of our selves love him before he be pleased to love us Eighthly As for the love of man towards God it comes infinitely short of Gods love towards them for if any love God it is a gift of his free grace and God hath loved his elect before the creation of the world and St. Paul a Rom. 9.13 doth give us a clear instance for it Rom. 9.13 For God saith he loved Jacob and hated Esau from their mothers womb and the heart of b 1 Sam. 13.14 David was framed after Gods own heart and that is the reason why this holy man hath such rare expressions in his Psalms of his unfained love towards God And to confirm the choise and election of Gods faithful ones we have divers instances of it in his Word for Moses c Numb 16.5 was a chosen servant of the Lord as it appears by these words Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him And Aaron d Deut. 18.5 was a chosen servant of the Lord as appears Deut. 18.5 And Cyrus King of Persia e Isai 44.28 was a chosen servant of the Lord to execute his will as it appears Isai 44.28 And St. Paul f Act. 9.15 was a chosen vessel of the Lord as it appears Act 9.15 But
the Lord said unto him Go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name fore the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel Now this incomparable love of God towards St. Paul in converting of him to become from a persecutor one of the greatest instruments of Gods glory that ever was did kindle in his brest such a flame of fervent love towards God g Phil. 1.23 that he often desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ and wished h Rom. 9 3. himself accursed from Christ for the increase of Gods glory confirming our blessed Saviours saying i Luke 7.47 For he loveth much to whom much is forgiven as appeared by Mary Magdalen And the Prophet David k 2 Sam. 12.13 who after the pardon of his two abhorred sins of Adultery and Murder did so fervently love God that all his delight was to meditate l Psal 1.1 2. day and night in his Law and to magnifie his love towards him m Psal 18.1 Psal 116.12 as it appears in the 18. Psaim ver 1. I will love thee O Lord my strength and in Psal 116. ver 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce and my supplications because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live To conclude Carnal love is but vanity and vexation of spirit but the love of God towards man and the love of man towards God doth fill their hearts with joy and comfort for t in this life and will crown their soul with eternal glory in the life to come CHAP. VII Of the vanity of the passion of Hatred THis Passion is the opposite of Love and yet without Love and it nature could not be perfect nor the world subsist for if the divine Providence were not pleased to make use of the Natural aversion that is between the Elements this universal Fabrick of the World would soon return to its first Chaos And without this passion of Hatred men might justly complain of Nature to have onely given them an inclination to pursue the good and not an aversion to eschew the evil Divers men conceive this passion to be the greatest Antagonist of mankinde and repute it as a Monster in Nature but it is out of ignorance and for want of divine knowledg for all the handy works of God were created perfectly good as the blessed Spirit doth confirm it by these words And God saw every thing that he had made a Gen. 1.31 and behold it was very good but since the fall and disobedience of Adam men have abused the good that was in the creatures and by a pernitious transmutation have made those which were created for their good to be the Agents of their corrupt inclinations And would they make use of Hatred for the end it was created they would finde it a most useful passion for the propagation of a godly life as it will appear at the end of this Chapter but for the better description of this passion I intreate the Reader to observe these insuing particulars as they are set in order 1. The definition of Hatred 2. How many sorts there are 3. The Causes of it 4. Who are most addicted to it 5. The nature and bad effects of it 6. The use that may be made of it First for the better description of the nature of this passion I will set down divers definitions of it according to the different opinions of the best Authors Hatred is an aversion and a detestation or horror that men have against all such things as they conceive in their imagination to be contrary to their good and opposite to their content The Bishop of Marseilles pag. 175. Or Hatred is a detestation or horror of the sensitive appetite against such things as it conceives to be hurtful and distastful to the Senses and to its content or destructive to its Beeing even as the Hatred or antipathy there is naturally between the Sheep and the Woolf. As Love saith another is a certain sympathy of the Sensitive appetite with such things as are sutable and convenient to Nature even so Hatred is an antipathy of the Sensitive appetite against such things as are distastful to the Senses or contrary to mens good or destructive to their Beeing And as Love is of two sorts viz. The first True Love and Amity Theophrast Boju in his Commentaries upon Aristotles Phys called the love of Friendship Secondly Vicious Love called Lust so there is two sorts of Hatred viz. The hatred of Detestation or Horror secondly the hatred of Enmity the last being far inferior to the former for to detest and abhor is the highest degree of Hatred Senault saith That Hatred is nothing else but a meer aversion in us from whatsoever is contrary unto us or an antipathy of our appetite to a subject which displeaseth it Senault pag. 244. all which definitions come neer unto one and the same sense Secondly The Moralists are of opinion there is four sorts of Hatred first The Vegetative secondly The Brute thirdly The Melancholick fourthly the Humane but the Divines add to these four the Spiritual Hatred of which I shall speak towards the later end of this Chapter first The Vegetative is apparent in the Plants as between the Cabbage and the Vine and between the Oak and the Ivy secondly The Brute is to be seen between the Sheep and the Woolf between the Cock and the Lyon and between the Basilisk the Panther and Mankinde See Plinius in his Natural History for the Naturalists say That if a man see a Basilisk that the Basilisk dies by the glance of his eyes but if the Basilisk see the man first he falls down dead And it is Recorded that the Panther doth so detest and abhor man out of a natural hatred that the Hunters that seek after him do commonly set the Picture of a man against an Oak and behinde it their snares to catch him for he hath no sooner discovered this Picture but with a fierce violence he runs towards it and so is insnared and taken thirdly The Melancholick Hatred is not naturall but accidental for it doth proceede from an Adust or burned Choler residing in the blood but specially in the Mesentery veines who cast ill and virulent vapors up to the brain that begets Chimaeraes and strange phansies that makes men sometimes abhor their Parents nay their Wives and children and this Melancholy begets such a hatred in Timon the Athenian against mankinde See Plutarch in his Morals that he caused Gibbets to be erected and set up in his Garden and proclaimed through the streets of the City That whosoever would come and hang themselves they might fourthly The Humane and Natural Hatred proceeds from an antipathy of Affections that is between some men and between men and women as the extraordinary antipathy which was between the affections of Mark Antonius See
make golden bridges for their enemies to retreat then by despair to enforce them to fight To conclude Despair is a dangerous passion and Self-murdering Despair is to be abhorred of Christians for it doth not onely destroy the body but it doth also cast mens souls into the pit of eternal wo. There is also another sort of Despair which I have not as yet spoken of which proceeds from natural infirmities as from burning Feavers Frenzies and Madness but the evil effects which proceed from these are rather to be imputed to keepers of the Patients then to themselves or to the fury of the disease and therefore cannot come within the compass of Self murder The Remedies against which horrid sin are contained in the insuing Discourse Fifthly Six remedies against Despair The Remedies to prevent the evil and most pernicious effects of this dangerous passion of Despair which is one of the strongest temptations of Satan may be these and such other passages of Scripture a Psal 5.2 Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray for constant and fervent prayers are able to cast back this temptation like filth in Satans face and to obtain of the Lord these supernatural graces whereby Christians will be inabled to defie and overcome Despair first Faith as a shield wherewith men shall be able saith St. Paul to quench all the fiery b Ephes 6.16 darts of the wicked And to say with Iob in the greatest tribulations that can befall them in this life Though he slay me yet will I c Job 13.15 trust in him secondly Repentance for it is a pretious Antitode against the venom of Despair What had become of St. Peter for denying his Lord and Master three times before the Cock d Matth. 26.75 crowed once if by the bitter tears of Repentance he had not obtained mercy Nay the very temporal and fained Repentance of Ahab King of Israel moved God to transfer or remove the execution of his wrath e 1 Kings 21.27 28 29. from him to his children And it is conceived by the best Divines that if Iudas who betraied our blessed Saviour had repented of his horrid sin he had not faln into f Matt. 27.5 despair for the compassions of the Lord are incomprehensible and his mercies are infinite as it appears by his towards Manasseh g 2 Chron. 33.12 13. King of Iudah who had committed all the wickedness that could be imagined by the hearts of men for he caused the Prophet Isaiah to suffer a most cruel death by sawing his body in the midst with a Saw and he turned aside from the Lord to commit Idolatry and caused his son to pass through the fire and dealt with Familiar Spirits and made the streets of Ierusalem to overflow with the innocent blood he caused to be spilt and yet when he humbled himself by an unfained Repentance before the Lord God was so gracious as to shew him mercy and from a miserable Captive he restored him to his royall dignity thirdly Patience is a special remedy against Despair for it preserved Job in the midst of his greatest temptation nay when his wife that should have been his greatest comforter said unto him Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse h Job 2.9 10. God and die He answered with an admirable meekness of Spirit Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh What Shal we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil And this onely consideration That all things work for good to them that i Rom. 8.28 love God should keep men from Despair when they are in a maner overwhelmed with the greatest afflictions that can befall them in this life fourthly Confidence in God is an excellent remedy against Despair for such as trust in the Lord may say with the Prophet David I will not k Tsal 3.6 be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me fifthly Hope is a powerful remedy against Despair for if men say with the Prophet David The Lord is my Rock l Psal 18.2 and my Fortress and my Deliverer for my m Psal 39.7 hope is in thee sixthly Fortitude is an excellent remedy against Despair for it is able to dash and overcome all the evil apprehensions that beget Despair and check mens pusillanimity with these words of the Prophet David Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou n Psal 42.11 disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God By these and the like passages of Scripture men may prevent the dangerous effect of Despair Nay draw unspeakable comforts out of the very Causes that beget Despair which passion is full of vanity and vexation of spirit c. CHAP. XIV Of the vanity of the passion of Vndantedness IF Diamonds were as common as Pipples and Vertues as natural to men as Vices they would not be so precious nor valued at so high a rate as they are in these days for it is the rarity of things more then their goodness that makes them to be esteemed among men for Instance Bread is the only staff of mans life and the best food that Nature hath appointed for his subsistence and yet because it is common it is little regarded for Beggers will hardly give men thanks if they give them nothing but dry bread But this passion I am to speak of is not onely rare sith one man among one hundred is not indowed with it but also good and excellent and therefore the more to be esteemed and valued of men as a rare and precious Jewel By it mens hopes are attained all fears expelled and despair suppressed and were it not a Passion I should call it a Vertue because of the resemblance it hath with Fortitude For Undantedness is the Spring of all true Valour and manly courage and by it all the generous actions that have been acted since the Creation till this day have had their beeing and successful end And therefore most judiciously and properly placed by the Moralists after Despair and before Fear to mitigate by the excellent proprieties of it the evil qualities of the two others for were it not for this passion men would be diverted from undertaking any noble design by Fear and Despair who have a natural propriety to withdraw the vitall spirits into the Center of the body which hinders the natural faculties to do and execute their functions and makes men timerous and remiss to undertake any noble action but Undantedness causeth the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it to dilate themselves to the utmost parts of the members of the Body and so gives them life and vigor and makes men apt and fit to undertake and execute all noble enterprizes Now for the better description of this noble Passion I will
by this saying of S. Paul 1 Tim. 6.9 10. They that will be rich fall into temptations and snares and into many foolish and noisom lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction For the love of money is the root of all evil which while some lusted after they erred from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Eighthly The considerations inducing men to allay the fire of this passion are these 1. They are to consider that nature is contented with a little for some bread and water some Rise Reasons Almonds or Figgs will satisfie the same So that all such as are not nice but sober in their diet and temperate in their drinking will never be enforced to sell their Land to feed their bodies for it is the excess of the superfluous volupties used in these dayes that brings men to penury 2. They are to consider That he who cannot be contented with a little will not be satisfied with all he could desire nothing under the Sun being able to satisfie the desires of men but God only And that is the reason why S. Paul saith 1 Tim. 6.6 That godliness with contentment is great gain for none can be truly contented except he hath the power of godliness in him because the love of God doth suppress all other desires in men It was therefore a wise saying of a Heathen That he who can give bounds to his desires is a greater Conqueror and a richer Monarch then Alexander was See Quintus Curtius in his Life for having conquered one World and having in his possession all the Treasures of Asia which Darius had heaped together yet were not his desires satisfied for he did enquite if there were any more Worlds to satisfie his Ambition and Avarice 3. They are to consider that riches are accounted the gifts of Fortune which is held to be blind therefore it is no wonder if she bestows her gifts upon undeserving men such as were Nabal Sobna and the rich glutton Besides vertuous and Religious men make conscience of their ways and will rather be poor then use indirect and unlawful means to enrich themselves but such as neither fear God nor man stretch their consciences upon the Tenters and conceive no courses unlawful or sinful so they enrich themselves by them 4. They are to consider that Avarice is worse then Prodigality for the profuseness of Prodigal men is not destructive to any but to themselves but the courses used by Avaritious men to enrich themselves are destructive to the whole Commonwealth for all Shop-keepers and Artificers are the better by Prodigals but they are the worse by Avaritious men and specially the poorer sort For they commonly engross or monopolize into their hands all manner of Commodities to sell them dear and principally corn and so like horsleeches suck the very blood of the Poor which makes them to be hated of God and of Men. The consideration of which should move all conscientious men to abhorr Avarice and to endevor by all means to subdue this sinful Passion 5. They are to consider that if they had in their possession all the gold and silver Mines of the West Indies yet they would not adde any thing to their present and future Felicity but rather traverse the first and deprive them of the second Neither can they prolong their Lives an hour nor free their bodyes from any of the numerous Infirmities they are naturally subject unto It is then an absolute Madness for men to tire their bodyes and to waste their spirits by laboring and carking day and night to accumulate some smal heaps of white and yellow Clay that will be of no use unto them at the hour of death Nay they run great hazzard without the mercy of God to lose their own souls in or by the acquisition of them Therefore they should have always this Saying of our Blessed Saviour in their mind Mark 8.36 For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own soul 6. They are to consider that there is a greater difference between the spiritual and temporal riches then there is between Light and Darkness in regard of the superexcellency and duration of the first and the baseness and mutability of the second For spiritual riches are free from all Accidents durable and eternal but the temporal riches are subject to changes and mutations and of no continuance their abode being uncertain men being rich to day and extreme poor to morrow as it appears by the History of Job and of Croesus king of Lydia the one being the richest man of the East and the other the richest Prince in Asia And yet in the revolution of one day Herodotus in Croesus life the last was deprived of his incredible treasures and kingdom and became also the Captive of his mortal Enemy And the first came to be an Object of Poverty and Misery See the Book of Job Ch. 1. and a Subject of Derision and false Imputations to his own wife and intimate freinds It is Recorded that at the sacking or destruction of the City of Thebes by Alexander the Great a Greek Philosopher for his rare parts was permitted to go away with all he had before the rest of the Inhabitants were slain and the city set on fire And being asked as he came out Why he carryed not away his Goods Answered In saving my person I preserve all that may truly be called Riches or Goods meaning his Learning and Vertue Even so if Christians would be as careful to hoard up spiritual riches as they are to heap up gold and silver they should not need to fear the loss of them For Godliness and Holiness that are the spiritual riches of a true Christian are free from all Accidents And this is the reason why our Blessed Saviour doth charge us all To seek first the kingdom of God Math 6.33.34 and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto us And Let us take no thought for to morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evill thereof CHAP. XIX Of the vanity of the passion of Ambition AS it is not the quality but the quantity of wine that is offensive to men So it is the excess and the irregularity of mens ambition that is destructive to mankind for as a little wine rejoyceth the heart so a spark of ambition in the heart of men bends their minds upon generous actions And could they make vertue and holiness the only objects of their Ambition as they do the honour and glory of this world Ambition would prove to be the best and the most commendable passion of men See Plutarch in his Life Themistocles did use to say That the great Trophies of Miltiades did hinder him to take his rest even so if the Faith of Abraham the righteousness of Lot the patience of Job the continency 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-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
THE VANITY OF THE Lives and Passions OF MEN. Written by D. Papillon Gent. Eccles 1.2 Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity April 9. 1651. Imprimatur John Downame London Printed by Robert White and are to be sold by George Calvert at the Sign of the half-Moon in Wattling-Street near St. Austins Gate 1651. To my beloved Sister Mrs. Chamberlan the Widow Dear Sister AS men usually Dedicate their works to their best beloved or most respected friend so I Dedicate this Treatise unto you who after God have ever been the object of my dearest love and best respects Be pleased then to peruse the same for you will finde comfort in it if you oppose or apply as Antidotes to the passions of Sorrow Way-wardness and Fear incident to old age the passions of Love Hope and Vndauntedness for the love of God will wâ—an your affections from the vanities of this life and give them wings to soar up to heaven to six themselves upon that infinite object of all perfection God himself Psalâ— 6.11 In whose presence is fulness of joy and at his right hand pleasures for evermore Secondly the Christian hope you have to be made by the merits of Christ co-heir with him of the Kingdom of Glory will expel all the sorrows way wardness and discontents proceeding from the crosses and afflictions you are subject unto in this life Lastly your Christian fortitude or undauntedness will annihilate as the beams of the Sun doth the morning dew the fears which may perplex your mind by the apprehension of the dart of death and will make you say with confidence at your departure out of this vayl of Tears Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy Victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And so being confident you will accept this small evidence of my love with the same affection it is presented unto you I commend you to the Lords protection desiring to remaine Dear Sister Your loving Brother David Papillon From London June 1. 1651. To the Reader IF this saying Know thy self were written in mens hearts as it was engraven over the door of the Temple of Apollo at Delphos they would be more careful to regulate their passions for when mens passions are distempered it is impossible for them to know themselves And that is the reason why so many Learned men have lately written upon the use and moderation of mens passions And specially Senault a most Elegant and learned French Author And although his works have lately been translated into English by the Noble Earl of Monmouth yet because they are fitter for Schollers then for the illiterate I have thought it convenient to publish this Treatise for the benefit of meaner capacities In which I have joyned the Scripture-evidences with the principles of Morality For a good education with an habit in the precepts of Morality without the sanctifying graces of the blessed Spirit are not sufficient to regulate the intellectual distempers of mens passions because moral precepts and a good education penetrates no further then the bark and moderates only the distempers of 〈◊〉 â—utward man but a justifying Faith and the grace of sanctification its inseparable companion doth moderate the distempers of the intellectual faculties of the soul as well as those of the corporeal members I mean that by a good education and the principles of Morality a man may attain to a corporeal continency but never to an Intellectual Chastity without the graces of the sanctifying Spirit Therefore such as desire to obtain the mastery over the intellectual and corporeal distempers of their passions are to endevor to attain by fervent prayers from God the graces of the sanctifying Spirit as well as an habite in the Principles of Morality Otherwise they will never obtain the mastery over their passions to make them subordinate to the rules prescribed in the word of God And whereas Senault maintains that men have a Free will to do good or evil and gives over much power to the Principles of Morality I say we have no Free-will to do good except it be given us by the Free grace of God and that the Principles of true Christianity have more power to make men obtain the mastery over their passions then the Principles of Morality can have Be pleased then to accept of these Essays of mine with the same affection as I present them unto you and to account me as really I am Your humble servant in Christ D. Papillon From London June 1. 1651. Errata PAg. 22. l. 1. r. he outbraded him p. 26. l. 15. r. Crown p. 28. l. 1. r. concussion p. 43. l. 1. of Chap. 4. r. there are also p. 132. l 16. r. He that looketh upon a woman p. 135. l. 13. leave out the word all p. 140. l. 12. r. Crassus p. 182 l. 2. r. Charls the eighth p. 193. l. 3. r. July-flowers p. 194. l. 1. r. these p. ibid. l. 14. r. curb p. 205. l. 23. r. Marquis d'Ancre p. 244. l. 15. r. as conceiving the same p. 246. l. 16. r. say they p. 231. l. 3. r. precise p. 236. l. 17. r. these are p. 361. l. 25. r. are rather worse p. 379. l 9. r. induceth men The Contents Chap. 1. The vanity of the lives of Men. Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The vanity of worldly Honors p. 19. Chap. 3. The vanity of worldly Riches p. 43. Chap. 4. The vanity of worldly Pleasures p. 65. Chap. 5. The vanity of mens passions in general p. 81. Chap. 6. The vanity of the passion of Love p. 97. Chap. 7. The vanity of the passion of Hatred p. 115. Chap. 8. The vanity of the passion of Desire p. 131. Chap. 9. The vanity of the passion of Flight p. 147. Chap. 10. The vanity of the passion of worldly Joy p. 162. Chap. 11. The vanity of the passion of worldly Sorrow p. 179. Chap. 12. The vanity of the passion of worldly Hope p. 197. Chap. 13. The vanity of the passion of Despair p. 219. Chap. 14. The vanity of the passion of Vndauntedness p. 241. Chap. 15. The vanity of the passion of Fear p. 261. Chap. 16. The vanity of the passion of Wrath. p. 280. Chap. 17. The vanity of the passion of Volupty p. 299. Chap. 18. The vanity of the passion of Avarice p. 347. Chap. 19. The vanity of the passion of Ambition p. 372. Chap. 20. The vanity of the passion of Envie p. 401. CHAP. I. Of the vanity of the lives of Men. IF the end be the crown of the work the creating of man was the crown of the creation for after God had made man after his own a Gen. 1.27 Image and had infused into him a living soul he rested b Gen. 2.2 on the seventh day from all his works and this ingrateful man who
his soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof but a stranger eateth it this is vanity and it is an evil disease And in another place o Eccles 2.24 There is nothing better saith he for a man then he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul injoy good in his labor This also I saw that it was from the hand of God By these things it appears that worldly riches are painful in their acquisition full of cares in their preservation and in their losses grievous and full of sorrow The third Chap. of the vanity of riches and that in their dispensation do consist the bliss or the wo of the owners of them As for the spiritual riches of a Christian they are the immediate gifts of the blessed Trinity for his Election is the gift of God the Father his Justification is of God the Son and his Sanctification the gift of God the Holy Ghost and the riches of his other graces proceed from the same Spring and therefore these riches are supernaturally excellent and free from all changes and mutations whatsoever Neither can the Elements or any creature in heaven or upon earth nor the Prince of darkness nor death deprive him of these riches for as St. Paul saith p Rom. 11.19 The gifts and calling of God are without repentance And every good gift and every perfect gift saith St. James q Jam. 1.17 is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning Spiritual riches are then that treasure laid up in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where theeves do not break thorow and steal It is that treasure r Matt. 6.21 hid in the field the which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all he hath and buyeth that field It is that precious Pearl of great price Å¿ Matt. 13.44 which when a man had found he went and sold all he had and bought it t Mat. 13.46 To conclude the gifts and graces of God of his Son and of his blessed Spirit are the true riches that men should endeavor to attain for they onely are able to rejoyce his heart and content his minde and to comfort him at the hour of death This is the wisdom that Salomon saith u Pro. 8.11 is better then rubies and all things that may be desired are not to be compared to it It is in these mercies and graces in which the Prophet David x Psa 1. and 119.77 took all his delight and meditated upon day and night for they are more to be desired then gold yea then much y Psal 19.10 fine gold and are sweeter then hony and the hony comb whereas riches are but meer vanity and vexation of spirit CHAP. IV. Of the vanity of worldly pleasures THere is also two sorts of pleasure first the Worldly secondly the Spiritual the last are rather spiritual ravishments then pleasures for their superlative excellency but the worldly pleasures are like the morning dew that vanisheth away at the rising of the Sun even so worldly pleasures have no substance and in the continuance they become irksome and yet is one of the dieties of worldly men in the injoyment of which they conceive doth consist their supream good Their original spring is the five senses first the Sight secondly the Hearing thirdly the Tast fourthly the Smel fifthly the Feeling and every one of these have their peculiar delights the Sight takes pleasure in beautiful objects the Hearing in Musick the Tast in delicious Savors the Smel in oderiferous Odours and the hand in lascivious Feelings so that all the worldly pleasures that can be imagined proceed from one of these senses how can it then be possible that rational men should be so mad as to conceive their supream good should consist in such momentary vanities besides it is daily seen that mens pleasures are rather guided by Phansie then by Reason and more by inclination then judgment for what is pleasant to one is distastful to the other throughout the five senses First in the Objects some love a flaxen hair'd others a black hair'd woman some love to hear a doleful melody others a joyful some love to eat one thing and some another nay their very taste will vary although they eat of one and the same meate some love a sweet milde odour others a strong perfume and for their Feeling they are as various and in the Election of their calling they differ as much some love a Souldiers life others love Learning others to be Merchants other Shop-keepers others will be Artificers others will be Sea-faring men others will feed cattel and others will till the ground Likewise in their Recreations some love Hawking others Hunting others Shooting others Bowling others Gaming and so in all things their pleasures differ varie If it be then granted that their supream Good doth consist in the injoyment of their pleasures then there must of necessity be as many different supream Goods as there is variety of pleasures but as I have said before all these pleasures or inclinations are but meer phansies vanities and vexations of Spirit as it shall be proved by these insuing Discourses Observe then for method sake that worldly pleasures may be distinguished thus 1. By necessary and natural 2. By violent and superfluous 3. By moderate and lawful 4. By vitious and unlawful And for conclusion I will give a hint of the spiritual Pleasures that are superexcellent and free from vanity First under the necessary pleasures are comprised eating drinking walking resting and sleeping with the actions and imployments about our just and lawful Callings for in all these things there is a naturall delight for he that eateth when he is ahungry and drinieth when he is athirst and resteth when he is weary or sleepeth after a long watching finds a delight in all these necessary things without which men cannot subsist but in all these men are to be moderate otherwise they become vitious but they must be laborious in their caling therefore as Salomon saith a Prov. 5.12 Sleep to a labouring man is sweet as Souldiers in their Military exercises Students in their Studies The necessarie and natural pleasures Merchants in their Negotiations Shop-keepers in their Shops and Artificers in their Work otherwise their professions will seem tedious and irksome unto them and as a rowling stone never getteth Moss so fickle and inconstant men in their calling never attain to honor nor riches for it is diligence activity and a constant assiduity in in any profession that make men thrive in the world He becometh poor saith Solomon b Pro. 10.4 5. that dealeth with a slack hand but the hand of the diligent maketh rich he that gathereth in Summer is a wise son but he that sleepeth in Harvest is a son of
for Lovers Ambitious and Covetous men are cast into strange fits of Melancholy and sorrow if they be deprived of their Love or of the honors and riches they aim at secondly The carking cares that men usually take to increase their means or to preserve their lives and estates is a cause of their sorrow thirdly The fear that many men have to fall into penury is a common cause of their sorrow fourthly The losses of mens goods fame or reputation is a cause of their sorrow because they want the grace of patience and cannot say with Iob Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord nor with the Prophet David I will wash my hands in innocency Psal 26.6 fifthly The loss of Parents Wife Children or intimate Friends is often times the cause of mens sorrow for want of the rememoration of this saying of Salomon Eccles 3.20 All are of the dust and all shall return to dust again sixthly the vain apprehensions that man have of the evil to come is the cause of their sorrow because they rely not upon this gracious promise All things work together for good to them that love God seventhly Rom 8.28 The want of courage in men is the cause of their sorrow because like faint hearted Pilots they give over the Helme of the Ship in a storm I mean the Helme of their Reason whereby they might regulate the distempers of this passion of Sorrow eightly The fears that possess men for the punishment of their sins is a cause of their sorrow whereas they should fear and grieve for the guilt of sin to attain to that spiritual Sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation The Natural causes of the Dolour and Anguish of the body may be these first Long and tedious diseases The natural causes of the Dolour and Anguish of the body as the Stone in the Kidneys or Bladder the Gravel the Strangullion the Gout the Cough and consumption of the Lungs or the Hectick Feaver for all these in continuance of time by the secret communion that the senses have with the sensitive power of the soul do beget in the minde grief and sorrow besides the Dolour and Anguish of the body secondly The Adust or burnt Choler or Bilis gathered in the Mesentery veines which sendeth virulent vapors up into the braine is a natural cause of much sorrow 4. The accidental causes of sorrow The accidentall causes may be these first when men themselves or their Parents Children or intimate Friends do accidentally come to their end by sea or by land as to be murdered upon a Rode or cast away at sea or taken captive by Pyrats or slain by a fall from a horse or lamed by some other accident all these things are causes of sorrow and grief yet none of these natural or accidental causes are or should be sufficient to breed sorrow to mens minde sith nothing happens casually or accidentally but is guided by the hand of the divine Providence to whose blessed will men are obliged to submit themselves and our blessed Saviour doth assure us that the meanest Sparrow or an hair of our head doth not fall to the ground without the permission of our heavenly Father Fourthly The nature and effects of Sorrow are directly contrary to the nature and to the effects of Joy first The nature of Joy is to dilate and spread the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it into the utmost parts of the members of the body but Sorrow being of a cold and dry nature draws the blood and vital spirits from the utmost parts of the body towards the heart to comfort the same secondly Joy is hot and active and by its sudden motion indangers the life of men The natur and the effects of Anguish Grief and Sorrow but Sorrow is cold and slow and comes upon men with leaden feet and never causeth death but by long continuance and lingering diseases except it cast men into despair as it doth oftentimes as it will be shown in the effects of it thirdly Joy is proper and pleasant to Nature and rejoyceth the heart and makes men chearful in their Calling both private and general but Sorrow is adverse and distasteful to Nature and makes men slow and stupid in their particular and general calling fourthly Joy preserveth and increaseth health and lengtheneth mens days and makes them pass their lives with mirth and content but Sorrow impairs mens health and shortens their days and makes their lives to be tedious and irksome In a word moderate Joy is comfort to man and excessive Sorrow is the bane of man And the effects of worldly Sorrow are as bad or rather worse first Sorrow makes men flee the society of men nay the very light of the Sun and all things that may rejoyce and comfort Nature the sight of their dearest friends nay of their wife and children is irksome to men that are possessed with excessive sorrow secondly See the Acts and Monuments or Book of Martyrs If mens Sorrow proceeds from mens Apostacy in Religion it doth commonly cast them into despaire and inflicts upon them in this life the very paines of hell as it doth appear in the life of Francisco Spira thirdly Sorrow tempts carnal men to be rid of it to desperate resolutions as to bereave themselves of life by hanging stabbing and drowning of themselves as it hath lately been seen in this City of London fourthly Sorrow makes men careless to make their calling and election sure and to neglect the means appointed by God for their salvation I mean the hearing of the Word with that attention as they should for their thoughts and cogitations are so fixed upon the object of their sorrow that they minde nothing else for this pernicious passion doth stupifie the most noble faculty of the soul as the Memory the Imagination and the Understanding Divers other effects might be produced but these will suffice to induce men to indeavor to eschew or regulate this dangerous and destructive passion Fifthly The Remedies against the venom of this passion are first Natural secondly Moral thirdly Spiritual The Natural are first to flee as far as men can from the object of their sorrow secondly If mens sorrow proceeds from Natural infirmities they are in the first place to call upon God and then use the Counsel of Physitians for they must not do as Ahaziah King of Israel did 2 Kings 1.2 who being faln from an upper Chamber thorow a Lattess sent to the God of Ekron to know whether he should recover of his disease as too many do in these days who send to Astronomers to know the events of things not to the Physitian 2 Chron. 16.12 as Asa King of Iuda did who being diseased in his feet sent to the Physitian before he had called upon the Lord by prayer for God is the Paramount Physitian and the God of Nature and
Moses was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharoahs daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the recompence of reward And were it not for this Spiritual Hope the true Christians should be more miserable then the profane nay more then the bruit beast for the portion of the children of God in this life is most commonly nothing but affliction grief and sorrow tribulations persecutions reproaches and ignominy whereas the wicked flourish in this world like green Bay trees Psal 37.39 and injoy all the delights and pleasures of this life because they make no conscience to sin but the true children of God hate and abhor sin and are conscious to commit the least sins therefore without this hope which doth uphold and comfort them their race through this vale of tears would be tedious and irksome unto them for as Salomon saith Hope deferred maketh the heart sick Prov. 13.12 but when the desire cometh it is the tree of life The first effect of spiritual Hope is that it breeds in the hearts of men such a fortitude and confidence that it expelleth all fears from their souls and makes them say with the Prophet David Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved secondly Hope engendreth joy in the hearts of the Elect and this joy is so constant and permanent that it never forsakes them in their greatest perplexities nay at the very hour of death when all worldly comforts forsake them this joy chears up their hearts and makes them say with the Prophet David Psal 16.9 10. My heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hel neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption thirdly Hope breeds patience and makes Christians suffer patiently the greatest torments that the cruellest tyrants can inflict upon them Rom. 5.3 4 5. For we glory saith S. Paul in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed in our hearts by the holy Ghost that is given us fourthly Hope gives life to all our Christian and religious Duties as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 9.10 He that ploweth should plow in Hope and he that thresheth in hope shall be partaker of his hope Hope is one of the best defensive Arms of a Christian to oppose the fiery darts and the temptations of Satan as the Apostle St. Paul saith Putting on the breast-plate of faith and love 1 Thes 5.8 and for an helmet the hope of salvation sixthly Hope is like a sure Anker to all afflicted Christians in the midst of the impetuous storms of persecution as the Apostle St. Paul saith Heb. 6.18.19 That by two immutable things in which it was impossibile for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us which hope we have as an Anker both sure and stedfast seventhly Hope doth mitigate and sweetens all kinde of afflictions that befall to the children of God in this life Colos 1.5 whether they be perplexities of the minde or anguishes of the body eighthly All such as confide and hope in Christ shall never be ashamed nor confounded c. CHAP. XIII Of the vanity of the passion of Despair NOthing can be more hateful and odious unto God who hath been pleased to create men after his own Image then when they distrust of his mercies and fall into despair for in the second of the first Table of his Commandments he doth exalt himself his Mercies above his Justice Deut. 5.9.10 in these words For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquitie of the father unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandements Yet the Stoicks the most presumptuous Sect of all the ancient Philosophers honor the passion of despair above all other passions for Seneca one of the greatest Champions of it doth exalt the criminal and abhorred act of Cato of Vtica who ripped up his own bowels with his own hands See Plutarch in the life of Cato because he would not be obliged to the clemency of Cesar for his life as the most heroical action that ever was acted See Tacitus in the life of Nero. And notwithstanding Seneca himself was strucken with a certain fear and horror when the messenger that was sent unto him from Nero told him that it was the Emperors pleasure that he should make choise of what manner of death he would for die he must whereupon seeing there was no other remedy he made as they say of necessity Vertue and commanded his servant to heat a Stove and caused his veines to be opened as he was in the Stews that he might depart this life with the lest torment and anguish that might be out of fear that his Stoick constancy should have failed him at his need That the Academick Sect was the best of all the Heathen Philosophers But the Academicks another Sect of the Heathen Philosophers maintain that it is rather a Pusillanimity then a true fortitude of courage for men to lay violent hands upon themselves to be free of the greatest evil that can befall them in this life and this opinion doth best agree with the principles of the Protestant Religion for he that doth with constancy and patience endure the greatest evils torments and anguishes of the body that can be inflicted upon him by the cruellest Tyrants That true constancy and fortitude is more visibly seen in the bearing of evils with patience then by laying violent hands upon our selves and the grief and sorrow of minde which may proceed from the shame reproaches and ignominy that is done by them to his person in the publick view of the world hath a far higher degree of fortitude and manly courrge then they who to prevent the foresaid evils torments and anguishes or shame and ignominy lay violent hands upon themselves because the longer the Dolour continues the greater is the constancy and fortitude of men that endure the same and it is daily seen that the pains of violent deaths are of no continuance And this was the reason why the Emperor Tiberius Nero See Tacitus in Tiberius life one of the most cruel Tyrants that ever lived upon earth did prolong the lives of those he most hated by keeping of them in dungeons with bread and water for many years together saying to his friends that desired to know the reason of it because they shall said he feel
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
it appears that goodness and vertue is the common object of envie Give me leave therefore to enlarge my Discourse upon these particulars to discover the venome of this vitious passion 1. On the definition of Envie 2. On the nature causes and proprieties of it 3. On the evil Effects of Envie 4. On the means or remedies for the curbing of it First Envie is a mixt Passion composed of cupidity wrath and hatred cupidity makes it vile and base wrath fiery and furious and hatred makes it loathsome and odious And by the mixture of these three pernitious ingredients it becomes one of the worst passions incident to men for where it raigneth it produceth nothing but anguish grief and sorrow of heart and no profit joy or pleasure at all Envie saith the Bishop of Marseilles is a sordid passion See p. 369. of the Book upon this Passion begetting a repining grief and sorrow in the hearts of men who are possessed with it 2. The Nature Causes and Proprieties of this passion of Envie may be these First The nature of Envie Envie is by accident of a cold and dry nature having a shrinking quality like unto that of Fear and Sorrow for although Wrath of which it is composed be hot and fiery yet being turned into Hatred it loseth its natural heat becomes cold by accident as the humor of the yellow Choler which is hot being burned changeth its nature and is turned into a cold melancholy humor Secondly the causes of Envie are these 1. Pride 2. Self-love 3. Malice First Pride-begetteth Envie for all such as are proud repine and grieve to see others to excel them in honours The causes of Envie riches pleasures or in moral Vertues and spiritual graces Secondly Self-love is the cause of Envie for such as are possessed with self-love cannot endure that others should be accounted more valiant nor more learned vertuous or righteous then they Thirdly Malice breeds Envie for malitious men cannot see without grief and sorrow their Neighbours prosperity and all these shall be proved by instances when I shall speak of the malitious effects of this passion of Envie The first proprietie of Envie is The evil Proprieties of Envie that such as are transported with it never envie those who are of a lower degree then themselves for Envie doth ever ascend and never descend because Envie is not like Hatred which continues till death and sometimes after death as it hath been proved in the Chapter of Hatred but it encreaseth or decreaseth according to the prosperity or adversity of those that are envied by others for if the party envied become poor or fall into misery the envious party will change oftentimes his envie into compassion and pitty The second Propriety of Envy is That men of different Callings seldom envie one another But Princes envie Princes Commanders envie Commanders Learned men envie the Leaned Merchants envie Marchants and Artificers envie Artificers of their own calling for a Smith will not Envie a Carpenter nor a Carpenter a Smith Marius did envy Sylla Pompeius Caesar Francis the First King of France did envie the Emperour Charls the Fifth See Plutarch in their lives and the French and Spanish Histories and all these were Competitors of honour and glory And likewise learned men never envie Generals of Armies but they envie such as they fear will outgo them in the Sciences they profess Orators envie Orators and Divines envie Divines for the objects of this malitious passion are those that excel others in Valour Prudence Honors Riches Pleasures Sciences Arts and Piety The third Proprietie of Envie is That it enticeth men to cruelty for if Might and Power happen to be in the hands of envious men to satisfie their envie they will commit all manner of injustice and Tyrannicall cruelty 3. The effects of Envie have from the Creation to this day been destructive to mankinde And the Painter that did first represent this Passion under the shape of a woman having a wrinkled face squint-eyes a crown of Snakes on her head The evil effects of Envie and a Vultur gnawing her breast was well acquainted with the evil nature and pernitious effects of Envie For the Feminine Sexe first intimates the pusillanimity of this Passion Secondly her wrinckled face represents the grief and sorrow that is incident to such as are possessed with envie Thridly her squint-eye demonstrates the indirect objects of this passion Fourthly the crown of Snakes on her head signifies the anxieties of their minde Fifthly The Vultur gnawing her breast is a lively emblem of the wracking tortures wherewith Envie doth continually afflict the hearts of envions men The first effect of Envie proceeding from Pride was the cruel murder of Abel for the pride of Cains heart did beget in him this envie because his Sacrifice was rejected of the Lord and Abels Sacrifice was accepted as it appears by these words Gen. 4.5 And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his Offering But to Cain and to his Offering he had no respect The second effect of Envie proceeding from Pride was when the hearts of the Pharisees puffed up with pride did out of a malitious envie slander our blessed Saviour saying unto him Joh. 7.46 That he did cast out Devils by the power of Belzebub the Prince of the Devils because they could not endure to hear their own Officers say Never man spake like this man The first effect of Envie proceeding from self-self-love was this Dionysius Tyrant of Syracuse caused the Poet Philoxenus to be sold for a slave See Plutarch in his Morals because he was generally reputed to be a better Poet then he The second effect proceeding from self-self-love was this That the Emperor Adrianus caused Favorinus and Melisius See Spartianus in Adrianus Life two Learned men to be banished because they were generally reputed to be more learned in the Liberal Sciences then he The first effect of Envie proceeding from Malice was this that Josephs brethren sold him to the Midianite Merchants to be carryed and sold as a Slave into Egypt for being transported with Envie and Malice they said amongst themselves Come now therefore Gen. 37.20 and let us slay him and cast him into some Pit and we will say some evil beast hath devoured him and we shall see what will become of his dreams But God who had in his secret Decree otherwise disposed of him caused Judah to perswade them he should be sold and not slain The second effect of Envie proceeding from Malice was the malitious Envie of Saul against David And for no other cause but forasmuch as God was pleased to bless him in all his designs and undertakings And this Malice and Envie was so inveterate 1 Sam. 29. that when all his wiles miscarryed he perswaded Michal his Daughter to betray her own Husband but she abhorring so base an act out of love saved his life by a wile Fourthly Tyranny and Cruelty
is an effect of Envie for the Envie of Marius against Sylla was the cause of a bloody Civil War And the envie of Pompeius against Caesar was the cause of a greater and the Envie of Francis the First against Charls the Fifth was the cause of the death of a Million of men The fifth effect of Envie is That it begetteth shame and ignominy because envious men cannot excuse nor palliate this Passion of Envie as men can divers other passions The ambitious man will excuse his ambition and will say it is an evidence of his generosity of spirit to aspire to honours and places of Authority that there is none but base-minded men who do affect to live obscurely The covetous man will varnish over his avarice and cloke the same by this passage of S. Paul 1 Tim. 5.8 But if any provide not for his own Family he hath denyed the Faith and is worse then an Infidel The cholerick man will disguise his wrath and perswade men it proceeds from a masculine courage and that there is none but cowards that will suffer injuries and affronts The voluptuous man will disguise his Vices and say this that joy mirth and pleasure are natural to men and will pervert this passage of Solomons Eccles 3.22 I preceive there is nothing better that a man should rejoyce in his own works The timerous man will excuse his pusillanimity and say that Fear is the mother of security and that there is more prudence to be fearful then over-bold The curious man will varnish over his nice curiosity and say it is comely and gentile to be apparrelled a la mode and that none but Clowns will go after the old fashion In a word men have excuses to turn all their vitious passions into Vertues Envie only excepted for they disclaim it and will not own it because it is shameful and ignominious The last evil effect of Envie is That it fils the minds and hearts of men with anguish grief and sorrow for repining and discontent do follow envious men as the Spaniel followeth his Master and the shadow the body See Plutarch in his Morals The Philosopher Anarcharis being demanded by a friend of his why so many men were discontented because they conceive saith he that their Neighbours condition is better then theirs intimating that Envie is the greatest disturber of peace and tranquility of the minde and that they that are addicted to this vile and base passion can never be merry nor joyful And Solomon the Prince of wisdom that was better able then any to judge of the evil nature and pernitious effects of mens passions saith that Envie is worse then Wrath as it appears by these words Wrath is cruel and anger is outragious Prov. 27.4 but who is able to stand before Envie To conclude Envie is not only vanity but a great torment and vexation of Spirit 4. The chief means or remedies against this passion of Envie are prayer The remedies against Envie contentedness charity and self-denial First fervent Prayer to God is a special remedy against this passion for Envie is one of the temptations of Satan which cannot be overcome without God be pleased to give men power to cast them like dirt into his face by the shield of Faith Eph. 6.16 Whereby they may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked Secondly contentedness is an approved remedy against Envie for if men were contented with the condition that God hath been pleased to set them in they would never Envie the prosperity of their Neighbous for this discontent that is so familiar to men proceeds from their cupidity or covetousness which is one of the ingredients of the composure of this passion of Envie and this cupidity is insatiable except men can obtain from God by fervent prayers this excellent grace of contentedness for as S Paul saith Godliness with contentment is great gain 1 Tim 6.6 And were a man the absolute Monarch of the whole World yet without this grace of contentedness his desires would never be satisfied but would envie and long for some other imaginary felicity or greater glory And that is the reason why S. Paul doth exhort the Hebrews to be contented with such things as they had and that their conversation should be without covetousness Let your conversation Heb. 13.50 saith he be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Thirdly Charity is a soveraign remedy against Envie for if men were in charity with all men they would never envie at the prosperity of their Neighbours and the only antidote against Wrath which is another of the ingredients of the composure of this passion of Envie is Charity because men that be endowed with the Grace of Charity bear patiently all manner of injuries For Charity saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 13.4 suffereth long and is kinde Fourthly self-denial is an excellent remedy against Envie for men that deny themselves drive all manner of hatred and Envie from their hearts And hatred is the third ingredient of the composure of this passion of Envie and our blessed Saviour doth tell us that if we will imitate and come after him Mark 8.34 we must deny our selves and take up his cross and follow him To conclude If men would be fervent in prayers to obtain these foresaid Graces they would abhor and detest Envie more then they do the Pestilence and the contagious disease of the Plague for a grain of Envie is able to stain and blemish all the spiritual Graces of a Christian FINIS