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
conceive them to be the cause of all the burden that are laid upon their backs I mean Lones Subsidies Taxes and Monopolies fifthly The wicked are addicted to Hatred 1 Cor. 4.13 for they hate implacably the Just and the Righteous and hold them as the off-scouring of all things Fifthly the nature and effects of Hatred in the unregenerate are nothing else but murders ruine and desolation first Hatred provoked f Gen. 4.8 Cain to kill his brother Abel and this hatred did proceed from Envie because his sacrifice was rejected of the Lord and the sacrifice of his brother was accepted secondly Hatred provoked Simeon and Levy g Gen. 34.25 26. to murder under the vail of Religion all the Shechemites and to plunder their City thirdly Hatred and the desire of Vengeance provoked h 2. Sam. 13.29 Absolom to murder under colour of friendship and hospitality his brother Amnon at a banquet as he set at table fourthly It was Hatred that provoked men to invent all maner of Weapons to destroy themselves and the devillish Art of making Canons Gunpowder Muskets Calivers Carabines and Pistols whereby the most valiant are as soon slain as the greatest cowards fifthly It was Hatred that provoked men to dive into the bowels of the earth to finde out Mines of Silver and Gold whereby they might execute their hatred spleen and malice and set all the world together by the ears sixthly Hatred hath given men an habit in all maner of impiety who have left by it their natural humanity and are become devouring Lyons and Tigers Nay when open violence cannot serve to execute their hatred they have an art to poyson men in their meat and drink by the smelling of a pair of gloves The Queen of Navarr was poysoned by the smell of a pair of Gloves by the putting on of a shirt or by the drawing off a pair of Boots nay by the very taking of a man by the hand under colour of curtesie as the Genovais Admiral did to the Venetians Admiral after he had been overcome by him at sea In a word Hatred hath been the projector of all the horrid actions of men for it is a passion that deprives men of all Reason Judgment and hath bin the cause of all the woes of men for by the hatred of Satan was our first mother Eve i Gen. 3.6 deluded and by her charms she deluded Adam her husband and so by their transgression sin is come into the world and sin like a contagious disease hath infected the whole race of mankinde Moreover Hatred is of a permanent nature for it is not like Envie or Wrath for Envy declines according as the prosperity of its object doth diminish and Wrath vanisheth into smoak if its fury may have some vent or it may be mitigated For a soft answer turneth away wrath saith Salomon k Pro. 15.1 but Hatred continues from generation to generation and death it self cannot extinguish Hatred Amilcar father to Hanibal out of an inveterate hatred he bore to the Roman Commonwealth See Livius Plutarch made Hanibal to take an Oath a little before his death that he should be to the end of his life a mortal enemy to the Romans and the hatred that Henry the seventh King of England bore to the House of York induced him to make his son Henry the eight to swear as he was upon his bed of death that after his decease that he would cause the Duke of Suffolks head to be cut off that was then his prisoner in the Tower of London as being the last apparent hair of the House of York an Unchristian part saith Montagnes See Montagnes Essais for a Prince to have his heart filled with hatred at his departure out of this world Nay the unparallel'd hatred that was between the two brethren Eteocles and Polinices could not be extinguished after their death for after they had slain one another in a Duel See Garnier in the Tragedy of Antigone or single Combat their bodies being brought together to be burned the fire by an admirable antipathy did cleave of it self into two parts and so divided their bodies that their ashes might not be mixed together and the inveterate hatred that was between the Guelfs and Gibbelins See Guiechardine in the wars of Italy Paulus Jovius in his Tragical Relations did continue from one generation to another But Paulus Jovius relates the most unheard of cruelty proceeding from an inveterated hatred that ever was read of Two Italians having had some bickerings together such a hatred was bred in their hearts that one of them having got his enemie at an advantage made him by threats deny his Saviour promising to save his life if he did it but he had no sooner by imprecations impiously denied him but the other stabbed him through the heart with his Ponyard saying The death of thy body had not been an object worthy of my hatred and vindication except I had also procured the eternal death of thy soul An horrid and unparrallel'd cruelty and a matchless effect of hatred Sixthly Having thus described the evil nature and effects of Hatred I will now come to the use that Christians should make of it I remember to have said in the beginning of this Chapter that this passion of Hatred had not been given to men to abuse it as they do but rather to eschew sin the greatest evil upon earth and that being used as an aversion to fly from sin it would serve for a strong motive to the propagations of a godly life for sin should be the onely object of mens hatred as the efficient cause of all their miseries and why our blessed Saviour out of his tender compassions towards his Elect was willing to suffer the ignominous death of the Cross Matth. 27.35 to redeem them from the guilt and punishment of sin which was eternal death And men cannot by any other means shew themselves grateful and to be sensible of this incompre hensible love of Christ then by having an inveterate hatred against sin and to detest and abhor with all their hearts all sinful courses sith sin is the onely separation wall that bars them from having an intimate and loving familiarity with God for the hatred of sin is the first step to attain to the love of God and without the love of God a true faith in Christ and unfained hatred of sin there is no possibility of salvation hatred against sin being the chiefest ingredient required in a true Repentance and how can men love God that hate their brethren and therefore the blessed Spirit in holy Writ doth so often exhort men to avoid all hatred except it be against sin He that l Ioh 3 14. 1 Ioh. 3.15 loveth not his brother saith St. John abideth in death and whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know no murderer hath eternal life Men must then love God and
drinking of it become worse then bruit Beasts because they deprive themselves of Judgment and Reason The Viper is naturally rank poyson and yet the Mithridate and other Antidotes against venoms are composed of it even so this passion of Fear is much abused and made worse then it is although it proceed from an evil spring I mean the weakness and infirmity of men yet God is pleased to make good use of it to convert sinners and to make them prosecute with greater fervency then they would otherwise do the ways of Righteousness Divers conceive Fear to be a Feminine passion and unworthy to be harbored in a Masculine Brest yet it maketh the proudest of men to be cautious and circumspect in their undertakings and clips the wings of their vain hopes and ambitious designes Tacitus saith See Tasitus in the life of Nero. That it serves as a curb to the licentious will of Princes and of all others that are in power and authority and for instance saith That as long as Agrippina the mother of the Emperor Nero lived of whom he stood in fear his actions were not so exorbitantly wicked as after her death but he having like a graceless son deprived her of life took free liberty to commit the greatest impieties that his heart could imagine And Joash King of Juda did the like for as long as Jehojada the high Priest lived whom he feared he seemed to love the Lord but soon after his death he gave himself over to Idolatry and cruelty for like an ungrateful wretch he caused Zechariah 2 Chro. 24.17 22. the son of Jehojada to be slain because he onely delivered unto him the message he had received from the Lord. Divers prefer Love before Fear but there cannot be any true Love without Fear Others say it is better to be feared then beloved but it is better to be equally loved and feared for men without Love endevor to be rid of the object of their Fears But if men be beloved and feared this composure keeps off all danger and begets security and obedience Neither can there be any filial obedience without Love for the obedience that proceeds from Fear is not free Prov. 1.7 and 20.2 but forced The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledg And the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul How much more should men be afraid to provoke Gods wrath by their sins and yet that is one of their least fears for they fear those things which they should not fear and fear not to sin which they should most fear But sith the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and of all saving knowledg which knowledg doth teach men to be afraid of sin which is the greatest evil Give me leave to inlarge my discourse upon these ensuing particulars that you may know to fear nothing but sin 1. On the definition of Fear 2. On the Nature of it 3. On the causes and remedies of mens fears 4. On the evil and good Effects of Fear 5. On the Spirtiual use of Fear The Moralists do vary in opinion Boujou in his Commentaries upon Aristotles Phâ—s lib. 16. cap. 6. concerning the definition of this Passion of Fear Fear saith one is a passion and apprehension of an evil that is to come but near at hand and looked for and unlikely to be avoided Fear saith another The Bishop of Marseille p. 408. is nothing else but a Grief and Dolor of the soul apprehending an evil at hand in which men see little probability it can be eschewed although it aims at the annihilation of their Being or to some dismal disgrace that threatneth their life or estate Yet it will appear by the nature the proprieties and effects of Fear that men are rather transported with Fears of imaginary Evils then of real and that mens fears do but rarely proceed from the annihilation of their Being However it is the fourth passion incident to the irrascible Appetite and the opposite and great Antagonist to the noble passion of Undantedness Secondly The nature of Fear is different from the nature of Joy for Joy dilates the blood and the vital spirits residing in it from the heart to the utmost parts of the body contrarily Fear withdraws the blood from the extreams of the body to the heart because Fear is a cold passion and the heart finding this cold to oppress it withdraws and calls as it were the blood and vital spirits from the further parts of the body to his ayd that by their natural heat he may be revived and cherished And that is the reason why divers men and women have been deprived of life by a sudden fear or fright because this cold passion congealeth the blood about the heart as a great frost congealeth water into Ice but if the Fear be not so violent yet it produceth a great alteration in the body for mens and womens faces will become as white as a cloth and sometimes all their members will tremble as a leaf and the motion proceeding from this alteration is so swift and forcible that women great with-childe miscarry by it nay it doth oftentimes turn the childe in their womb which depriveth the mother and the childe of life But Fear and Dolor have a great resemblance one with the other for they have both this withdrawing quality and are both of an extream cold and dry nature and therefore Fear and Sorrow are compared to the Winter Season and Joy and Delectation to the Spring and Summer in which the vegetative Creatures sprought and spring out their branches leaves flowers and fruits but in Winter time they withdraw their sap which is their life into their Roots as Fear and Sorrow doth draw the blood and vital spirits about the heart that is the essential cause and motion of mens lives Having both one and the same end the vegetatives to preserve themselves from the Frost and Snow and the heart to warm and cherish it self against these cold and frosty passions of Fear and Sorrow Thirdly The causes of mens fears are many and of several natures and by consequence their remedies must be proportionable unto them I will therefore speak first of the causes and to every cause apply the remedy but as I have said a little before mens fears do oftner proceed from imaginary evils then from the real and the worst propriety of this passion of Fear is That it anticipates and creates Fears in the Minde the real effects of which evils oftentimes are not like to trouble such as apprehend them nor their childrens children which kinde of Fear proceeds from a distrust of Gods providence and therefore as odious to God as any other kinde of Fear as it shall be proved when I come to speak of the effects of this passion First Worldly men Fear to loose their honors and dignities Secondly Their treasures and riches Thirdly
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
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
evill then upon the good except the nature and propriety of them be changed by divine Grace The effects of mens desires As for the effects of mens desires they are as I have said before Good of Evil according to their objects but sith it hath been proved that they are commonly fixed upon evil objects their effects must of necessity be rather evil then good If the honors of this world be their object the fruits and effects of Adhbition is the desolation of Kingdoms the shedding of innocent blood and the miseries that follow civil and intestine wars If their object be the riches of this world their effects are carking cares moiling and toyling and vexation of minde in their acquisition and fears and apprehensions in their keeping and grief and sorrow in the losing of them If the pleasures of this world be their object the effects wil be the wasting of their means the impairing of their health and the indangering of their souls But if the object of their desires be the glory of God then their effects will be comfort in this life and eternal bliss in the life to come The fruition of Gods presence is the onely object that can satisfy the desires of men So that upon the good or bad election of the objects of mens desires depends their happiness or woe in this life and their torment or glory in the life to come It behoveth men therefore to be wary upon what objects they fix their desires sith there is not any thing under the Sun that can satisfy them for if all the excellency of the creatures were abstracted into one yet it could not satisfy the desires of men sich their soul is a spark of the divine essence that can never be free of the anxiety and perturbations of minde that proceed from the inconstancy and restlesness of mens desires till by grace it doth injoy the sight of the glorious presence of God the original Spring of it who is the fulness and perfection of all bliss for that object onely can satisfy the wishes and desires of their souls Fourthly The comforts that Christians may receive in this life of their godly desires are many as it shall appear when I have perswaded them to indevor to banish from their minde the swarms of vain desires that disquiet the tranquillity of their souls which may be done by these means first To hate and abhor all carnal desires for as long as they have a predominancy in their souls it is impossible for them to have a feeling of the comforts proceeding from the spiritual desires for the flesh having the mastery over the spirit it keeps these effects under hatches Allusion upon the 19. Psalm ver 9 10. But if men desire the sear of God and prefer his Statutes and Judgments before the refined gold and hold them sweeter then hony or the hony comb they will by degrees obtain the dominion over their carnal desires The second means is to indevor to obtain a contented minde for discontentedness is the cause of the extravagancy of mens desires But godliness a 1 Tim. 6.6 with contentment saith St. Paul is great gain for the daily discontent of men makes them desire they know not what but when they are contented with their estate and condition in this life Four means to contain mens desires within their limits their desires aspire higher and endeavor to attain to the supream good as the onely object of mens desires The third means is to purifie their hearts for as clean and pure streams cannot proceed from a foul and muddy Spring even so it is impossible that godly desires should spring from the hearts of men except they be purified and sanctified by the Spirit of God for as our blessed Saviour saith b Matth 15.19 Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications c. and these are the effects of mens desires whose hearts are not purified by grace because the Concupiscible appetite resides in the heart and this appetite is the spring or root of all the desires of men The fourth means is for men to set a watchful Centry over their eyes for by the eye men perceive the objects and the objects are the moving cause of mens desires and Cupidities by the eye King David saw the beauty of c 2 Sam. 11. ver 2. Bathshebah by which he was tempted to lust Therefore men must make a covenant with their eyes as Job did d Job 31.1 for they are the windows whereby mens lascivious desires are conveied into their hearts and by these means and the free grace of God men will be able to keep their desires within the limits prescribed in his Word from which wil proceede first Six comforts proceeding from the spiritual desires of men A true and real contentment of minde which cannot be obtained as long as their vain desires do interrupt the peace of their souls for being freed of their extravagant desires of Cupidity They may as St. Paul saith be contented with that they have sith e Heb. 13.5 God hath promised that he will never leave nor forsake them secondly An unspeakable inward joy for being free from the continuall vexation proceeding from the irregularity of their desires whereby they have more liberty to beat the ways of righteousness and make their f 2 Pet. 1.10 calling and election sure from which they were distracted by their worldly desires thirdly A far greater consolation by the familiar communion they will have with their gracious God then they had before At whose right hand saith the Prophet David g Psal 16.11 there are pleasures for evermore fourthly A fervent desire to walk in the ways of righteousnes and to seek the Lord in the night and in the morning as the Prophet Isaiah saith h Isa 26.9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early fifthly A certain assurance that their desires shall be granted sith they have banished their former vain and extravagant desires as Salomon saith i Pro. 10.24 The fear of the wicked shall come upon him but the desire of the righteous shall be granted sixthly A hunger and thirst after righteousness whereby they shall be in love with all righteous duties and be induced to k Psal 1.2 meditate day and night in the Law of God and by their constant habit in the ways of true piety they shal be made partakers of this blessing of our blessed Saviour l Matth. 5 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled viz. with incredible joy and unspeakable comfort It is then apparent that worldly desires are but meere vanity and vexation of spirit and that there is no true comfort but in the Spiritual c. CHAP. IX Of the vanity of the passion of Flight or Eschewing GOd out of his infinite love to
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
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