lands given to the most vertuous of that race not admiting any impious heir whatsoever to inherit as Varro well notes But it is otherwise in this case for in regard of Gods curse upon this unmerciful Muckworm if he have more sons then one the eldest proves a prodigal and he inherits Every mans own experience can tell him that for the most part a scatterer succeeds a gatherer one that wasts vertues faster then riches and riches faster then any vertues can get them one that is as excessive in spending as the other was in scraping for as the father choseth to fill his chests so the son is given to satisfie his lusts Nor could the one be more cunning at the rake then the other will be at the pitchfork The moneys which were formerly chested like caged birds will wing it merrily when the young heir sets them flying And as Cicero speaks he roituously spends that which the father had wickedly gotten The one would have all to keep the other will keep nothing at all the former gets and spends not the latter spends and gets not Yea the son being as greedy of expence as the father was in scraping he reddeth that with a fork in one year which was not gathered with a rake in twenty Yea how oft is that spent upon one Christmas revelling by the son which was fourty yeers a getting by the Father Which Diogenes well considered for whereas he would ask of a frugal Citizen but a penny of a Prodigal he would beg a talent and when the party asked him what he meant to desire so much of him and so little of others his answer should be Quoniam tu habes illi habebunt because thou hast and they will have I shall begg of thee but once thy estate will so soon vanish of them often yea give me now a talent I may live to give thee a groat And at another time hearing that the house of a certain Prodigal was offered to sale he said I knew well that house was so accustomed to surfeting and drunkenness that ere long it would spue out the master Nay in all likelihood he foresees it himself and therefore as he makes short work with his estate so not long with his life as knowing that if he should live long he must be a begger As seldom but he shortens his days some way for he gives himself to all manner of vice gluttony and drunkenness chambering and wantonness pride riot contention c. He even banishes civility and gives himself over to sensuality and such a life seldom lasts long They may rightly be called spend-alls for they not onely spend all they have but themselves also instead of quenching their thirsts they drown both their bodies souls and estates in drink They will call drawer give us an Ocean and then leave their wits rather then the wine behinde them One cryes to his fellow do me reason but the drink answers I will leave thee no reason no not so much as a beast hath for these Nabals cannot abound but they must be drunk and surfet They have not onely cast off Religion that should make them good men but even reason that should make them men And saving only on the Sea they live without all compass as a ship on the water so they on the land reel too and fro and stagger like a drunken man Psal. 107. 27. All their felicity is in a Tavern or brothell house where harlots and sicophants rifle their estates and then send them to robbe or teach them how to cheat or borrow which is all one for to pay they never mean and prodigallity drives them to repair their too great lavishness in one thing by too great covetousness and injustice in another The greatest mispenders for the most part are constrained to be as great misgetters that they may feed one vice with another Now as if they had been bred among Bears they know no other dialect then roaring swearing and banning It is the tongue or language of hell they speak as men learn before hand the language of that Country whether they mean to travel By wine and surfetings they pour out their whole estates into their bellies The father went to the devil one way and the son will follow him another and because he hath chosen the smoother way he makes the more hast The father cannot finde in his heart to put a good morsel into his belly but lives on roots that his prodigal heir may feed on Phesants he drinks water that his son may drink wine and that to drunkenness The one dares not eat an egge least he should lose a chicken and goes to hell with whay and carrots the other follows after with Canary Partridges and Potatoes These are Epicures indeed placing Paradise in their throats and heaven in their guts their shrine is their Kitchin their Priest is their Cook their Altar is their table and their belly is their God By wine and surfeiting they pour out their whole estates into their bellies yet nevertheless complain against nature for making their necks so short Aristippus gave to the value of sixteen shillings for a Patridge his clownish neighbor told him he held it too dear at two pence Why quoth Aristippus I esteem less of a pound then thou dost of a penny the same in effect sayes the prodigal son to his penurious father for how else could he so soon bring a noble to nine pence an inheritance of a thousand pounds per annum to an annuity of five hundred shillings besides the one obtains a thousand pounds with more ease then the other did a thousand pence and by how much the less he esteems of money by so much the more noble and better man he esteems himself and his father the more base and hereupon he scorns any calling and must go apparelled like a Prince God hath inacted it as a perpetual law In the sweat of thy face beit brow or brain shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth Gen. 3. 19. And for the best Gentleman to despise honest callings mental or manual is a pride without wit or grace Even gallant Absalom was a great sheepmaster the bravery and magnificence of a Courtier must be built upon the ground of frugality Besides exercise is not more wholsome for the body then it is for the minde and soul but this vain glorious Coxcombe is all for sports and pleasure and seldom ceases hunting after sports as Esau for venison untill he hath lost the blessing But he should O that he would consider that medicines are no meat to live by Then for his pride in apparel you may know that by this he is like the Cinamon tree whose barke is of more worth then his body or like the Estridge or Bird of Paradise whose feathers are more worth then her flesh Or some Vermine whose case is better then her carcass And yet this swells him so and makes him look as big as if
Nor do I know any beast like him save Pharaohs seven lean and evill favoured kine and to them he is very like For when his large and greedy conscience hath devoured or eaten up many Customers or Clients estates as they did the seven fat and well favoured kine yet it cannot be known by any reall amendment that he hath eaten them but in his food raiment satisfaction of his mind c. he is as ill favoured as at the beginning He doth not more lock up his goods from the theis than from himself So that I cannot more fitly compare him to any thing than to an Idoll for as an Idoll hath eyes but sees not so he hath a reasonable soul but understands not And most just it is that he who is unjust to all others should be most unjust to himself And as a covetous man is good to no body so he is worst of all to himself It is the depth of misery to fall under the curse of Cham a servant of servants divitis servi maxime servi no thraldom to the inward and outward bondage too So that if there be any creature miserable it is the miserable miserly muck-worm and yet he is least to be pitied because he makes himself thus miserable Now this may move wonder to astonishment that they should take such care and paines and cast away their soules to heap up riches and when they have done to be never a penny the better for them Yea what can any wise man think of them are they not stark mad are they not fooles in folio What take so much care and paines indure so much greif sting of conscience losse of credit deprive themselves of heaven damn their own soules to get wealth and when they have got it not to be the better for it yea they are lesse satisfied and contented than before meanlier accommodated than mean men and could this possible be so if God did not give them their riches in wrath nor would he otherwise deny them the use of their own for the wise man hath given it as a rule That to whom God hath given riches as a blessing he also giveth him to eat and drink and to take pleasure and delight his soul with the profit of his labours wherein he travelleth under the sun for which see Ecces 2. 24. and 3. 12 13. and 5. 17 18 19. and 8. 15. And so you have one particular to prove what I promised But CHAP. VII SEcondly To this is added as another judgement let the ingrateful merciless miser have never so much he is never the more but the lesse contented As how many have mighty estates their houses full their shops and ware-houses full their coffers full their purses full and their pastures full and yet as if their hearts were bottomlesse that is still as lank and empty through an excessive desire of more as if they did indeed want all things The Cormorants desires are rather sharpened by injoying and augmented by possession For wishing still his wishes never cease But as his wealth his wishes still increase To shew that covetous men belong to hell after they dye they are like hell while they liue Hell is never filled and they are never satisfied covetous men drink brine which increaseth thirst rather than quenches it And though the devil should say to them as he said to our Saviour touching the whole world and glory thereof all these will I give thee though he needs not offer them all for they will serve him for less yet all would not content them no more than heaven it self contented Lucifer For as the rich glutton in hell desired a drop of water and yet a river would not have satisfied him for if his desire had been granted in the first he would have required more and then more to that never ceasing to ask never having enough nor being the better when he had it so it fares with the covetous man his abundance no more quencheth his lust than fuell does the flame For as oyle kindleth the fire which it seemes to quench so riches come as though they would make him contented but they make him more covetous And is not this thy very case that art covetous No man more happy in respect of outward things then thy self couldest thou but see it thou hast all things that heart can wish and shouldest thou but come to want what thou now injoyest and thinkest not worth thanks when it were past thou wouldest say thou wast most happy and after a little misse wish withall thine heart thou hadest the same again yea a world for such a condition and content withall Onely the devill by Gods just permission bewitches thee to think that thou hast not enough when thou hast too much and more than thou needest or knowest what to do withall Nor is it possible for a worldling to be contented for whereas naturall desires are soon satisfied those that are unnaturall are infinite Hunger is soon apeased with meat and thirst allayed with drink but in burning Feavers quo plus sunt potae plus sitiuntur aquae they still love amore concupi scentiae never amore complacentiae If covetous or ambitious men ever feel content in these transitory things it is no otherwise then as itching soars do in clawing and scratching fingers And indeed how should intemperate desires be satisfied with increase according as they are replenished when these appetites are not capable of satiety Men in this case are like poysoned Rats which when they have tasted of their bane cannot rest untill they drink and then can much less rest till they drink again swell and burst Covetousness is like the disease called the Woolf which is alwayes eating and yet keeps the body lean A moderate water makes the Mill goe merrily but too much will not suffer it to go at all Secondly another reason is Nothing can fill the heart of man but he that made it The heart shall be satisfied with gold when the body shall be contented with winde The whole world is circular the heart of man is triangular and we know a circle cannot fill a triangle Yea if it be not filled with the three persons in Trinity it will be filled with the world the flesh and the devil The heart is the seat or receptacle of spiritual things and the things of the world are corporal and carnal Now carnal and corporal things can no more fill our hearts then spiritual things can fill our Coffers Visible light will not cleer the invisible understanding nor will corporal food feed the soul Blessed are they sayes our Saviour who thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Mat. 5. 6. not they that thirst after riches or honor or pleasure for instead of being satisfied they thirst more Yea these Mammonists are so infinite in desiring that could such a one swallow the whole earth that swallows all and will swallow him ere long it might choak him but not satisfie him
as abundance of examples that I could give you sufficiently prove namely Alexander and Crassus and Licinius and Marcus Crassus and Ahab and Haman c. But CHAP. VIII THirdly to this is added as a further judgement that as the more he hath the more he coveteth so the neerer he is to his journeys end the more provision he makes for it Other vices are weakned with age and continuance onely covetousness and that odious sin of drunkenness grows stronger As the covetous wretch increaseth in yeers so he increaseth in covetousness What Pline writes of the Crocodile is fitly appliable to the miserly muckworm other creatures grow up to their height and then decay and dye onely the Crocodile grows to her last day The aged worldling though he have one foot in the grave yet his appetite to and persute of gain are but new born Yea though he hath out-lived all the teeth in his gums the hairs of his head the sight of his eyes the tast of his palate have he never so much yet he hath not enough and therefore would live to get more and covets as if he had a thousand generations to provide for He so lives as if he were never to dye and so dyes as if he were never to live again He fears all things like a mortal man sayes Seneca but he desires all things as if he were immortal Had it not been for sin death had never entered into the world and were it not for death sin especially the Misers sin would never go out of the world Lust is commonly the disease of youth ambition of middle age covetousness of old age And Plautus maketh it a wonder to see an old man beneficent But what saith By as covetousness in old men is most monstrous for what can be more foolish and ridiculous then to provide more mony and victuals for our journey when we are almost at our journyes end Wherefore remember thou O old man yea O remember that your Spring is past your Summer over-past and you are arrived at the fall of the leaf yea winter colours have already stained your head with gray and hoary hairs Remember also that if God in justice did not leave you and the Prince of darkness did not blinde you and your own heart did not grosly deceive you you could not possible be so senceless as you are in these three last mentioned miseries Thus three of the covetous mans woes are past but behold more are coming for God inflicts more plagues upon him then ever he did upon Pharaoh I 'le acquaint you only with seven more CHAP. IX FOurthly his thoughts are so taken up with what he wants or rather desires for he wants nothing but wit and a good heart that he not once mindes or cares for what he hath as you may see in Abab 1Kings 21. 4. and Haman Hester 5. 13. and Micha Judges 18. 24. What the covetous man hath he sees not his eyes are so taken up with what he wants yea the very desire of what he cannot get torments him and it is an heart-breaking to him not to add every day somewhat to his estate besides not to improve it so many hundreds every yeer will disparage his wisdom more to the world then any thing else he can do as I have heard such an one allege when I have told him my thoughts about perplexing himself But see the difference between him and one that hath either wit or grace whose manner it is even in case of the greatest losses to look both to what he hath lost and to what he hath left and instead of repining to be thankful that he hath lost no more having so much left that he might have been deprived of But sottish sensualists have a duller feeling of many good turns then of one ill they have not so sensible a feeling of their whole bodyes health as they have of their fingers aking nor are they so thankful for twenty yeers jollity as displeased for one dayes misery Whereas an humble and good man will see matter of thankfulness there where the proud and ingrateful finde matter of murmuring And so much of the fourth particular onely let me add as a sure rule He that in prosperity is unthankful will in adversity be unfaithful CHAP. X. FIftly the Devil by Gods just permission prevails by his temptations to make them think that the forbidden fruit is the sweetest of all fruits as he did our first parents Nor will any other content him each thing pleaseth him better that is not his own And as Publius observes other mens goods are far more esteemed by him Plines Woolf is a true emblem of this avaritious beast whose nature it is when he is eating his prey though never so hungry if he sees another beast feeding to forsake that which he is about to take the prey from the other Ahab was such a Wolf who could not content himself with his own though he injoyed a whole kingdom but he must wrest Naboths inheritance from him The commandment is express Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors house thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife servant Ox Asse nor any thing that is thy neighbors Exod. 20. 17. and all that fear God observe it but nothing more cross to the grain of a wicked mans heart to whom stoln waters are most sweet and hid bread the most pleasant Prov. 9. 17. For one so insatiably covets after another mans estate or office that he is never the better for his own Another so loves his neighbors wife that he even loaths and contemnes his own Thy neighbors wife to thee to him thines fairest sayes the Poet Hence hath that cursed speech issued from one too great to name That he could love his wife above any other if she were not his wife a word sufficient to rot out the tongue that spake it Solomon was a wise man and had tryed all things Oh that men would be so wise as to take his counsel and injoy their own with joy and gladness of heart drink waters out of their own Cistern and rejoyce with the wife of their youth so as her brests may satisfie them at all times and they be ravisht alwayes with her love rather then deprive themselves of that happiness by inbracing the bosom of a stranger and coveting that which is anothers Prov. 5. 15. to 21. Oh that thou wouldst be convinc'd that thy present condition what ever it is is the best for thee hadst thou but the wit to see it and that onely good use gives praise to earthly possessions that there are no riches comparable to content for this is the gift of God then surely thou wilt not much remember the dayes of thy life because God answereth the joy of thine heart Eceles. 5. 17 18 19. But no matter they love misery lose the comfort of their own brest and all outward blessings together with the tuition of God and they shall have it for he that makes