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other thing that is worth any thing as giving us to understand thereby, that in those minds where the defire of this metal groweth, there cannot remain fo much as a spark of true honour and virtue. For what thing can be more base, than for a man to degrade, and to make himself a fervant and a flave to that which should be fubject unto him? Riches serve wife men, but command a fool; for a covetous man ferveth his riches, and not they him and he is faid to have goods, as he hath a fever, which holdeth and tyrannizeth over a man, not he over it. What thing more vile, than to love that which is not good, neither can make a good man? Yea, is common, and in the poffeffion of the most wicked in the world; which many times perverts good manners, but never amends them: without which, fo many wife men have made themselves happy; and by which fo many wicked men have come to a wicked end. To be brief; what thing more miferable, than to bind the living to the dead, as Meżentius did, to the end their death might be languishing, and the more cruel; to tie the spirit unto the excrement and fcum of the earth, to pierce through his own foul with a thoufand torments, which this amorous paffion of riches brings with it; and to entangle himself with the ties and cords of this malignant thing, as the fcripture calls them, which doth likewife term them thorns and thieves, which steal away the heart of man, fnares of the devil, idolatry, and the root of all evil. And truly, he that fhall fee the catalogue of thofe envies

and moleftations, which riches engender into the heart of man, as their proper thunderbolt and lightning, they would be more hated than they are now loved. Poverty wants many things, but covetoufnefs all: a covetous man is good to none, but worse to himself.' Thus much of Charron, a wife and great man. My next teftimony is yielded by an author not un likely to take with fome fort of people for his wit; may they equally value his morality, and the judgment of his riper time.

§. XXII. Abraham Cowley, a witty and ingenious man, yieldeth us the other testimony: of avarice he writeth thus: There are two forts of avarice, the one is but a bastard-kind, and that is a rapacious appetite of gain; not for its own fake, but for the pleasure of refunding it immediately through all the channels of pride and luxury. The other is the true kind, and properly fo called, which is a restless and unfatiable defire of riches, not for any farther end or ufe, but only to hoard and preferve, and perpetually increase them. The covetous man of the first kind, is like a greedy oftrich, which devoureth any metal, but it is with an intent to feed upon it, and in effect, it maketh a shift to digeft and excern it. The fecond is like the foolish chough, which loveth to fteal money, only to hide it. The first doth much harm to mankind, and a little good to fome few: the fecond doth good to none; no, not to himself. The firft can make no excufe to God or angels, or rational men, for his actions: the fecond can give no reafon or

colour, not to the devil himself, for what he doth he is a flave to mammon without wages. The first maketh a fhift to be beloved, aye, and envied too, by fome people: the fecond is the univerfal object of hatred and contempt. There is no vice hath been fo pelted with good fentences, and efpecially by the poets, who have pursued it with fatires and fables, and allegories and allufions, and moved, as we fay, every stone to fling at it; among which, I do not remember a more fine correction, than that which was given it by one line of Ovid's: Multa Luxuria defunt, omnia avaritiæ.

Which is,

Much is wanting to luxury, all to avarice.

To which faying I have a mind to add one member, and render it thus: poverty wants fome, luxury many, avarice all things. Somebody faith of a virtuous and wife man, that having nothing, he hath all. This is just his antipode, who having all things, yet hath nothing.

And O! what man's condition can be worfe Than his, whom plenty ftarves, and bleffings curfe?

The beggars but a common fate deplore,
The rich poor man's emphatically poor.

'I wonder how it cometh to pass, that there hath never been any law made against him :

against him, do I fay? I mean for him. As there are public provifions made for all other mad-men, it is very reasonable that the king fhould appoint fome perfons to manage his eftate, during his life, for his heirs commonly need not that care, and out of it to make it their bufinefs to fee, that he fhould not want alimony befitting his condition; which he could never get out of his own cruel fingers. We relieve idle vagrants, and counterfeit beggars, but have no care at all of thefe really poor men, who are, methinks, to be respectfully treated, in regard of their quality. I might be endless against them, but I am almost choaked with the fuper-abundance of the matter. Too much plenty impoverisheth me, as it doth them.' Thus much against avarice, that moth of the foul, and canker of the mind.

CHAP. XIV.

§. 1. Luxury, what it is, and the mischief of it to mankind. An enemy to the cross of Chrift. §. 2. Of luxury in diet, how unlike Chrift, and contrary to fcripture. §. 3. The mifchuf it does to the bodies, as well as minds of people. §. 4. Of luxury in the excess of apparel, and of recreations; that fin brought the first coat: people not to be proud of the badge of their mifery. §. 5. The recreations of the times, enemies to virtue: they rise from degeneracy. §. 6. The end of clothes allowable;

the abufe reprehended. §. 7. The chiefeft recreation of good men of old, was to ferve God, and do good to mankind, and follow honeft vocations, not vain Sports and pastimes. §. 8. The Heathens knew and did better things. The fobriety of infidels above Chrif tians. §. 9. Luxury condemned in the cafe of the rich man. §. 10. The doctrine of the fcripture pofitively against a voluptuous life.

§. I.I AM now come to the other extreme,' and that is luxury, which is an exceffive indulgence of felf in eafe and pleasure. This is the last great impiety ftruck at in this difcourfe of the holy cross of Christ, which indeed is much of the fubject of its mortifying virtue and power. A difeafe as epidemical, as killing: it creeps into all stations and ranks of men;' the poorest often exceeding their ability to indulge their appetite; and the rich frequently wallowing in those things that please the lufts of their eye and flefh, and the pride of life; as regardless of the fevere difcipline of JESUS, whom they call Saviour, as if luxury, and not the cross, where the ordained way to heaven. What fhall we eat, what fhall we drink, and what fhall we put on? once the care of luxurious heathens, is now the practice, and, which is worse, the study of pretended Chriftians. But let fuch be afhamed, and repent; remembering that Jefus did not reproach the Gentiles for thofe things, to indulge his followers in them. They that will have Chrift to be theirs, must be fure to be his; to be

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