Page 357
CHAP. XVIII. Of Envy, Error, Flattery, Gluttony.
ENVY.
ENvy is a grief for the prosperity of others. Est * 1.1 aegritudo suscepta propter alterius res secundas, quae nihil noceant invidenti.
The first instances that we have of sinne, are Adams pride and Cains envy.
Envy is the mother of strife, they are often coupled Rom. 1. 29. & 13. 13. 1 Cor. 3. 3. 2 Cor. 12. 20. Gal. 5. 20. Iam. 3. 14. Natural corruption doth most of all bewray it self by envy. The Devil first envied us the favour of God, and ever since we have envied one another. The children of God are often surprized with it, Numb. 11. 29. Iohn 21. 20, 21. It breaketh both Tables at once; it beginneth in dis∣content with God, and endeth in injury to man.
Macrobius l. 2. Sat. c. 2. saith acutely of Mutius a malevolous man, being sadder then he was wont, Aut Mutio nescio quid incommodi accessit, aut nescio cui aliquid boni. The Heathens when they saw an envious man sad, they would demand whether harm had happened unto him, or good unto his neighbour.
Aristotle cals it the Antagonist of the Fortunate. Parum alicui est si ipse sit foe∣lix, nisi alter fuerit infoelix.
Livor semper lippus est, saith Petrarch, this humour is alwayes ill-sighted. All blear-eyed men are offended and hurt with the light, so envy is provoked at anothers good and honour. The better the party envied is, the better he behaveth himself, the more bitter the envier doth grow against him, and the more his ha∣tred increaseth. Saul had still a more violent spleen against David by how much he discovered more wisdom, courage, and the more the hearts of his servants were set upon him. Who can stand before envy? saith Salomon, Prov. 27. 4.
It is the rottennesse of the bones, Pro. 14. 3. and so the justest of all vices, because it bringeth with it its own vengeance.
Sed videt ingratos, intabescitque videndo, Successus hominum, carpitque & carpitur unà, Suppliciumque suum est. Ovid. Met. 11. Fab. 12.
As the rust consumes iron, so this vice the envious man. Anacharsis cals it serram animae, and Socrates, Ulcus. When Hercules had vanquished so many fierce mon∣sters,
Comperit invidiam supremo fine domandam,* 1.2
He grapled at last with envy as the worst.
Erasm. lib. 17. of his Epist. in an Epistle to Sir Thomas More, saith of Conradus Goclenius, Invidere quid sit, ne per somnium quidem unquam intellexit: tantus est in∣genii candor.
The objectum quod of it, is, Good of any kinde, true, apparent, honest, profitable, pleasant, of minde, body, fortune, fame, vertue it self not excepted; the obje∣ctum cui, is generally any other man, Superiour, Inferiour, Equal. We envy a Superiour because we are not equalled to him, an Inferiour least he should be equal to us, an Equal because he is our equal. Men of the same Trade or Profession envy each other:
Figulus figulo invidet, Faber Fabro.