A Body of Practical Divinity

(1.) By Envy. Envy is Tristitia de bonis alienis, a secret repining at the Welfare of another. Invidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis. An envious Man is more sorry at another's Prosperity, than at his own Adversity. He never laughs but when another Weeps. Envy is a Self-murder, a Fretting Canker. Cyprian calls it Vulnus occultum, a Secret Wound; it hurts a Man's self most-Envy corrodes the Heart, dries up the Blood, rots the Bones. Prov. 14.30. Envy is the rottenness of the Bones. It is to the Body as the Moth to the Cloth, it eats it, and makes its Beauty consume. Envy drinks its own Venom. The Viper which leaped on Paul's Hand, thought to have hurt Paul, but fell her self into the Fire, Acts 28.3. So while the envious Man thinks to hurt another, he destroys himself.

(1.) By Envy. Envy is Tristitia de bonis alienis, a secret repining at the Welfare of another. Invidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis. An envious Man is more sorry at anothers Prosperity, than at his own Adversity. He never laughs but when another Weeps. Envy is a Self-murder, a Fretting Canker. Cyprian calls it Vulnus occultum, a Secret Wound; it hurts a Man's self most-Envy corrodes the Heart, dries up the Blood, rots the Bones. Prov. 14.30. Envy is the rottenness of the Bones. It is to the Body as the Moth to the Cloth, it eats it, and makes its Beauty consume. Envy drinks its own Venom. The Viper which leap'd on Paul's Hand, thought to have hurt Paul, but fell her self into the Fire, Acts 28.3. So while the envious Man thinks to hurt another, he destroys himself.

(2.) By laying Violent Hands upon himself, and thus he is Felo de se; as Saul fell upon his own Sword and killed himself. Because I see so many in the Bills of Mortality who make away themselves, let me a little expatiate. It is the most unnatural and barbarous kind of Murder for a Man to butcher himself, and imbrue his Hands in his own Blood. A Man's self is most near to him, therefore this Sin of Self-murder breaks both the Law of God and the Bonds of Nature. The Lord hath placed the Soul in the Body as in a Prison; now it is a great Sin to break Prison, till God by Death open the Door. Self-murders are worse than the Brute-Creatures, they will tear and gore one another, but no Beast will go to destroy its self. Self-murder is occasioned usually from Discontent. Discontent is joined with a sullen Melancholy. The Bird that beats her self in the Cage, and is ready to kill her self, is the true Emblem of a discontented Spirit. And this Discontent ariseth,