17. The Third Dividing Distemper: Envy
Chapter Seventeen The Third Dividing Distemper:
Envy E nvy is a squint-eyed fool. Job 5:2 states, "Envy slays the silly one."
James 3:14 warns, "If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts." Envy is a bitter thing that causes strife and makes it bitter too. As verse 16 says, "Where envying and strife is." Galatians 5:20 lists hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, and envyings. 1
Corinthians 3:3 notes, "There is among you envying, strife, divisions."
Envy created divisions between angels and men; it was the first sin—not the first born of the Devil, but that which turned angels into devils. The first heart-division among men was between Cain and Abel, and what caused it but envy? Who can stand before envy? She is subtle, undermining, and dares not appear at first; but if she cannot be satisfied with her underhanded works, then she flings, rends, frets, and fights. She uses violence, seeks to raise a contrary faction, and falls on anything in the world as long as mischief may be done. Let it become of God's glory, of service to the public, or of saving souls; rather than that esteem, respect, and honor that otherwise might be had should not be obtained. All must come under; all must be serviceable to this base lust. Rather than the glory of an envious
man being eclipsed, God Himself and His blessed truth must be darkened.
O hideous wickedness and high impudence against the God of Heaven!
Envy divides in counsels, in instruments, actions, in all proceedings. She will make use of good to oppose that which is good; if she cannot raise evil men to oppose good, she will seek to get good men to oppose. She would make God contrary to Himself; she would strike at God with His own sword. Philippians 1:15 notes that some preach Christ out of envy. As envy makes use of good for evil, so God makes use of this evil for good. Many seek to excel in preaching or otherwise by this means; and says Saint Paul,
"Howsoever I do rejoice, and will rejoice."
If envy cannot reach others by imitation, she will reach them by calumniation. Zoilus the common slanderer was asked why he spoke evil of such and such men. "Because," says he, "I can do no evil to them." If there is any good done, she seeks to blast it together with the instruments of it; if any evil, she rakes into it and feeds upon it like that bird Ibis in Africa that eats serpents. Luther says envious men feed upon the dung of other men; they are like flies that love to be upon sores.
Erasmus tells of one who collected all the lame defective verses in Homer and passed over all that were so excellent. When you see a man seeking to rake and gather together all he can of any distempers, disorders, mistakes, or miscarriages by hearsay, letters, or any way so he may fill up his dungcart; and for the good—the graces or gifts of God in men—those are laid aside or slightly passed over. If at all mentioned, it is with some dirt mingled. Surely this is an envious man fitted for strife and debate whom
God permits to be an affliction to His people by raising up a spirit of strife and contention and causing divisions among them. Like the kite who passes over fair meadows and pleasant fields without regard until she meets with
carrion—there she falls and fastens—now she is upon her prey where she would be.
How pleasant is it to some men to hear of or find out evil in others whom they do not love? To say no worse. You know how it has been an old practice to seek to get anything by reports or any other ways that might blast the professors of religion; and how glad were they? How did it please them at heart if they could meet with anything that might serve their turn?
This is a very shameful distemper. Some men will upon occasion confess they fear other men, and others that they love not other men or that they contemn others. But no man will acknowledge that he envies others; there is too much shame in this to be owned by any.
The impiety and wickedness are not less; it is a monstrous wickedness for a man to complain of God that He made the world no better. And yet such wickedness exists in some men's hearts. But what is it then to complain of and quarrel with God that He has made the world or any part of it so well?
This the envious man does.
An envious man cannot endure to see others better than himself or to have more respect than himself. It is reported of Licinius, an intimate familiar with Constantine the Great who also married his sister but fell off to be a desperate enemy against Christians, alleging this as the reason: because in their assemblies they prayed for Constantine and not for him. Envious men, whether they deserve respect or not, yet if others have it and not themselves, they rage and are mad.
There is no vice but has some kind of opposition to some other—such as covetousness to prodigality—but envy only opposes that which is good and all good; therefore there is nothing in it but evil and a universal evil.
Gulielmus Parisiensis brings in Gregory saying that all the poison in the old
serpent is in this sin as if it had emptied itself of its poison and vomited it into this sin—so much venom there is in it.
Is it not a very evil thing that in men's opposition against what they see others desire, they should give this reason why it should not be allowed: because if it is, the greater part of the most godly people in all places will join with it? This brings to mind what I have read in Ecclesiastical History:
In the Second Century, Emperor Hadrian would have built a church for the honor of Christ void of images, because such was the custom of the Christians; but his friends dissuaded him, saying, if he did so, all men would forsake the temples of the gods and become Christians.
I find in that learned piece of Voetius, "Desperata causa papatus," a notable story of Raynerius, a Popish Inquisitor. He exclaims against the Waldenses, those poor men of Lyons (as he calls them). He says there was never any more pernicious sect than that; and I pray why? He gives three reasons: First, that it is very ancient; some say (says he) it has continued from the time of Sylvester; others, from the times of the Apostles. Secondly, it is so general, there is scarcely any country but this has got into it. Thirdly, whereas others are guilty of blasphemy against God, upon which they are abhorred, these appear to be holy men; they live justly, their belief in God is right, they believe all the Articles in the Creed. We can find no fault with them either for their lives or for their doctrine, only they are against the Church of Rome, in which the people are ready to join with them.
These are strange accusations, for do not they themselves make all these the signs of the true Church? And yet are these poor men so vile because such things are found amongst them. Surely, it is envy that embitters the spirits of men against others because they see in them those things which they cannot but acknowledge to be good. Herein lies the great evil of envy,
that malignity of it by which it causes so great contentions to appear; they are angry they can find no evil in them whereby they may gain an advantage against them.
The Holy Ghost says that envy is rottenness to the bones; the same learned man Gulielmus Parisiensis applies this to such as are chief in Church and Commonwealth, who are as it were the bones, the strength, the support of the societies whereof they are. Envy, says he, is often found amongst them, and it is rottenness to them. This vile sin has caused a rot in many men of eminent abilities and places who might otherwise have done much service for God and his people in Church and Commonwealth: oh, it is a mischievous sin. Take away envy, says Augustine, and what is mine you have; take away envy, and what is yours I have.
We read in Acts 11 of Barnabas that he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, and he was a man of a cleaving disposition, of an uniting temper. Verse 23: He exhorted them that with full purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord. This man was free from envy, for the text says when he had seen the grace of God, he was glad: He rejoiced in and blessed
God for the graces he saw in his Saints. Do you envy for my sake? says Moses; I would to God all the people of the Lord did prophesy. Moses was a fit man for public service who was so void of envy; no men are so fit for public employment as such who can bless God that he is pleased to make use of others as well as, yea beyond themselves.
It was a good speech of that gracious, holy old disciple Mr. Dod lately deceased: I would to God, says he, I were the worst minister in England; not wishing himself worse than he was but all ministers better.
The Fourth Dividing Distemper: Passion
Prov. 29:23. An angry man stirs up strife. Passion is so opposite to union that Prov. 22:24. the Holy Ghost would have us make no friendship with an angry man.
First, this fire of anger burns asunder the bands of union, the bands of relation, as Nebuchadnezzar's fire did the bands of the three children. A rebellious heart cares not for any relations. What makes divisions between husband and wife, brother and brother, servants and masters and mistresses, neighbor and neighbor but passionate rebelliousness?
Secondly, this fire burns asunder the bands by which men's lusts were tied up and kept in; it sets men's lusts at liberty. The lusts of men's hearts are like a bed of snakes in the cold, but the heat of passion warming them causes them to crawl and hiss. What a stir would the lions in the Tower make and the bears in Paris-garden if they were let loose? Passion lets men's lion-like lusts loose.
Philosophers say of the inferior orbs that were they not kept in, restrained in their motion by the Primum Mobile, they would set all the world on fire.
If our lower affections, especially this of anger, be not kept in and ordered by reason and religion, they will set all on fire. Passion makes men and women lawless, boundless, careless.
Men know not what they do in their anger; this raises such smoke that they cannot see their way; the more corrupt the heart is, the greater and more noisome is the smoke raised by this fire in the heart. Put fire to wet straw and filthy stuff; oh what a filthy smoke arises!
Leviticus 13:25. We read of a leprosy breaking out of a burning; seldom do men's passions burn but there is a leprosy breaking out of that burning, and what union can there be with such? If rebellious people were dealt with like lepers—shut up from others—we should have more peace.
Some men when once their anger is up will never have done; we can have no quiet with them; this fire in them is like that of hell—unquenchable. The dog days continue with them all year long. Seven devils can better agree in one Mary Magdalene than seven rebellious people in one family.
If one should set the beacons on fire upon the landing of every cock-boat, what continual combustions and tumults would there be in the land? Those men who upon every trifle are all on fire by their passions—and what in them lies sets others on fire—do exceedingly disturb the peace of those places where they live, those societies of which they are. Their hot passions cause the climate where they live to be like the torrid zone—too hot for any to live near them.
Christ is the Prince of Peace, and the Devil is the Prince of Divisions.
Hence that expression of the Holy Ghost, Ephesians 4:27: Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil: you are loath to give place to your brother. You will say, What, shall I yield to him? You will not yield to him but you will yield to him that is worse—to the Devil. So you do when you yield to wrath.
There are various other dividing distempers that we shall speak to, but for the present, let us make use of the great mercy of God towards us, which we solemnized yesterday in a public Thanksgiving. Let us see how we may improve this glorious work of God for the closing of our spirits and the healing of our divisions. It calls to us aloud to join—oh, let your hearts join.
There are twelve arguments in this great work of God to persuade us to union.
First, there has appeared much of God's presence in this great work. "I will praise thee, oh Lord, for thou hast done it," Psalms 52:9. The Lord has appeared wonderfully; His naked arm has been revealed, His right hand has
become glorious in power. Those who were present saw much of God in this work. They send to us to give God the glory, and all the country around still sends to us to tell us how much of God they have seen in this.
But how is this an argument for us to unite?
Answer: Suppose children or servants were wrangling with one another; would this not be an argument to make them be quiet? "Your Father is here,
Your Master has come." Will not all be silent presently? God is among us; we may see the face of God in what He has done for us, and shall we be quarreling before His face?
Just three days before this great goodness of God, by special order from the House of Commons, there was a day set apart to humble our souls before the Lord and to seek Him for this mercy that we now rejoice in. In our humiliation, was not this one great sin we confessed—our divisions?
Did we not then acknowledge that it would be righteous with God because of our divisions to give us up as a prey to our adversaries? Now then, have not our divisions overcome God's goodness, lest God's goodness overcome our divisions? Suppose there had been a day of humiliation set apart to mourn under the heavy hand of God against us in delivering us up into the hands of our enemies, as (through His mercy) we have had a day of Thanksgiving to bless Him for our deliverance from them. Would not this sin have been the matter of a great part of the confession of all your ministers? Oh, the divisions that are among us! Thou hast dealt righteously with us. Our wraths were up against one another, and it is just with thee, O
Lord, to let out the rage of the adversary upon us; and shall we yet continue in that after a mercy which we have confessed might justly have prevented the mercy? Shall we still be guilty of that which our consciences tell us would have been the burden of them as the just cause of our misery if the
Lord had come against us in His sore displeasure? God forbid. Let not that evil now be found in us that would have galled our consciences if mercy had been denied us.
We are delivered from being devoured by our enemies; shall we now devour one another? Oh, unworthy we are of such a deliverance as this. It went ill with us at the beginning of the fight, but God looked mercifully upon us; His bowels worked: "If I do not come in for their help, these ungodly men will devour my servants." However fair they have been to some because they have not yet attained their own ends, if they prevail here, they will account all their own, and then they will begin to exercise that cruelty that has not yet been heard of. But it shall not be; my heart cannot bear the cries of my servants under such cruelties as I foresee. Do you think this was God's end in delivering us from being devoured by our enemies— that we may be devoured by one another? We read in Ezekiel 5:3-4 that the Prophet was bid to bind up a few hairs in his skirt, which was to signify a few of the people who were preserved from that common calamity. But afterward, these were cast into the fire, and fire came forth from these to all the house of Israel. Polanus upon the place has this note: that grievous evils may come upon those who have been preserved from former common miseries, and those who for a while have been preserved by their contentions and divisions may be the cause of woeful evil to others. God forbid that this text should be fulfilled in us. Let not a fire come from us, who yet are so graciously preserved, to devour the house of Israel.
Fourthly, God in this work has joined several sorts of instruments—men of various opinions; He has made them one to do us good. Why should we not be one in the enjoyment of that good? Let each part have their due
honor under God; in His mercy, God has made use of both, and why may not both enjoy the fruit of this mercy together in the land?
Fifthly, we were not without some fears lest God should leave us in the work of Reformation begun; but now God speaks aloud to encourage us; He tells us He owns the work. Now what does this require of us? A little logic will draw the consequence: Has God declared Himself that He intends to go on in this work He has begun? Then let us all join together to further it to the utmost we can; let us not exasperate the spirits of one another in ways of strife and opposition, but let everyone set his hand and heart to this work so that he may be able to say: "Oh Lord God, thou that knowest the secrets of all hearts knowest that upon this great mercy of thine my heart was so moved that whatsoever I could possibly see to be thy will for the furtherance of this great work of Reformation, and that I was able to do, I did set myself to do it and am resolved to spend my strength and life in it."
If everyone did thus, oh what glory might God have from this mercy of His!
Sixthly, when the Lord comes to us with mercies—and such great mercies —He expects we should rejoice in them and sing praise; but how can we sing without harmony? Prayer requires an agreement. Matthew 18:19: "If two of you shall agree on earth touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for them." Surely praise requires agreement much more. Psalms out of tune are harsh to the ear; disagreement of heart is much more so to the Spirit of God.
7. Surely, when God has done so much for us, it must be acknowledged to be our duty to study what sacrifice would be most pleasing to Him. Some sacrifice we must offer: if there is any more acceptable to Him than another, surely He deserves it now. If a friend had done some real kindness for you, you would be glad to know what might be most grateful to him, wherein
you might testify your thankfulness. Is this in your hearts? Do you now say, "Oh, that we did but know what is the thing that would be most pleasing to God; what sacrifice would smell sweetest in His nostrils!" The Lord knows we would gladly offer it, whatever it may be.
I will tell you: that we would lay aside our divisions, our rebelliousness, that we would abandon our contentions and strife, that we would put on the bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another; if any man has a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you (Col. 3:12).
And in 1 Pet. 3:4, a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price; it is much valued, πολυτελές. Psal. 51:17 states that the sacrifice of God, that which is instead of all sacrifices, is a broken spirit. Our hearts have been broken from one another in our unhappy divisions; oh, that now they could break towards one another in love and tenderness! Here would be a sacrifice more esteemed by God than thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil: loving mercy and walking humbly are preferred above such sacrifices (Micah 6:8).
Eighthly, God might have soldered us together by the fire of His wrath; He might have made our blood to have been our cement to join our flinty hearts together. But it is otherwise; God seeks to draw us to Himself and one to another by the cords of love, the allurements of His mercy.
Ninthly, what can have that power to take off the sourness of men's spirits like mercy—the mercy of a God? Surely if anything can sweeten them, that must do it. We read in 1 Sam. 11:11-13 a notable experiment of the efficacy of mercy to sweeten men's hearts. After Saul had slain the Ammonites, some boisterous spirits would have had him slay those who had formerly rejected him; but mark Saul's answer in verse 13: "There shall not a man be
put to death this day." Why? "For this day the Lord has wrought salvation in Israel." Though Saul at another time was a man of a harsh and cruel spirit, yet now mercy sweetens him; that which he was one day by the sense of mercy, that should we be not only on the day of our Thanksgiving but in the course of our lives.
When salvation came to the house of Zacchaeus, oh, what a sweet temper was he in! "Behold, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have wronged anyone, I restore fourfold." Salvation has this day come to the Kingdom; oh, that all we had hearts to say, "If we have wronged any, we will restore; if we have wronged any in their names by word or writing in any way, we will restore." Mercy and love call for mercy and love; if we were in a right tune, there would be a sympathy between the bowels of God and ours; as in two lutes, if the string in one is wound up to be answerable to the other, if you then strike one string, the other will move though lying at a distance. Now God's love, God's bowels move; let our love, our bowels move answerably.
10. God shows that He can own us notwithstanding all our infirmities.
Was ever Kingdom in a more distempered condition than ours has been of late? And yet the Lord has owned us. Why should we not own our brethren notwithstanding their infirmities? Why should our divisions cause us to cast off one another when our divisions from God have not provoked Him to cast us off?
11. Is it not in our desires that this great victory might be pursued so that it might not be lost as others (in great part) have been? Surely it cannot be pursued better than by taking this advantage of it to unite ourselves more together than ever we have done. This would strike as great a terror into the hearts of our adversaries as the victory has done.
Lastly, we need to take heed of breaches lest God should be provoked to change His administrations towards us. If there is so much choler in the stomach that sweet meats are turned into choler, it would be just with God to come with bitter and sour pills to purge out our choler. We read in Jude verse 5: "The Lord saved the people out of the land of Egypt; yet afterward
He destroyed them that believed not." The Lord has granted us a great salvation from our enemies who would have brought us into Egyptian bondage. We have been singing the song of Moses; we have been praising
God according to that (Apoc. 15:3), but let us take heed that yet God is not provoked against us for we are not out of all danger. As they by not believing, so we by not agreeing but contending and quarrelling may at last be destroyed.
You know how the lord of that servant to whom ten thousand talents were given took it when he should presently go to his fellow servant who owed him but a hundred pence and lay hands on him and take him by the throat and say, "Pay what you owe," and cast him into prison (Mat. 18:28). If men are not mollified by this mercy, they will be hardened; they will use their brethren worse than they did before because they would declare to all the world that they make no such interpretation of this mercy as that God would have them have further tender regard towards seeking union and peace with bearing with or yielding unto their brethren more than before. It is not unlikely but temptation may be suggested to do some act more against them either now or within a while to wipe away any conceit of any such interpretation of this gracious work of God for us.
But those who are of gracious and peaceable spirits should take the hint of this and go to all they know who have been at distance from one another— of whom they may have hope to do good—and seek to mollify their spirits,
to know what it is they have against one another, what prejudices or hard thoughts have been entertained by them and by all means they are able to remove them so that we loving and delighting in one another may cause the Lord to love us and delight in us and show mercy to us yet more and more.