Senault pag. 405. is nothing else but a violent motion of the sensitive appetite provoking men to seek revenge for some offence received However it is the last passion incident to the irascible appetite for I am of the Opinion of those that maintain it hath no opposite and is distingushed by these three names Anger Choler and Wrath. Anger is as it were the infancy of it Choler its adolescencie and Wrath its virility or maturity and the highest and superlative degree of the distemper of this fiery and destructive passion of Wrath. Secondly The causes of Wrath are numerous but I will reduce them to these four Heads 1. To the Pride 2. To the Impatiency 3. To the indiscretion 4. To the over-credulity of men For the first It was Pride that moved Simeon and Levi to slay in their wrath under colour of Piety and Religion Hamor and Shechem and all the innocent Males of their City because of the dishonor they conceived to have received by the rape of their sister Dinah but the reward of their wrath was this heavy curse of their Father Jacob Cursed be their anger Gen. 34. v 25.497 for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel And it was Pride that moved Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon to command in his fierce wrath that Shadrach Meshach and Abednego should be cast into a burning Furnace heated seven times more then it was wont to be because they had refused to obey his imperious command viz. to worship the golden Image he had caused to be set up But the reward of his unparalleld pride and wrath was this that he was deposed of his Empire driven away from the company of men and enforced to live amongst the beasts of the field till he was humbled Dan. 3.20 and 4.32 and did acknowledge that God was the King of Kings For the Second The ambitious Impatiency of Joab moved him in his wrath to slay perfidiously Abner and Amasa that he might still continue cheif General of the Armyes of the People of Israel But the reward of his wrath and ambition was this that king David at his dying hour charged Solomon his son that he should not suffer Joabs hoary head to go down to the grave in peace 2 Sam. 27. 20.10 And the natural impatiency of Charls Duke of Burgundy was by Custom changed into such an habit of wrath that upon the smallest misdemeanor of any of his servants there was but a word and a blow But the reward of his inconsiderate wrath was the cause he was betrayed and slayn at the rout of the Battle of Nancy by a Neapolitan Commander See Philip de Commines in his life to whom he had given a box on the ear For the Third The indiscretion of Clitus and of Callisthenes two intimate freinds of Alexander in their out-braiding speeches See Plutarch in Alexanders life moved this Prince to such a wrath that he slew them with his own hands And the indiscreet and unadvised answer that Zeno gave to Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse when he lovingly required he should give unto him his two Daughters in marriage viz. that he would rather see them carried to their graves then they should be married to such a Tyrant See Plutarch in his Morals did kindle such a wrath in the heart of Dionysius that he caused those two innocent Ladyes to be slayn and then invited their Father to their Funerals For the Fourth The over-credulity of King Ahasuerus in believing the false reports that Haman his Favorite made unto him against the Jews kindled such a wrath in his brest Esth 3.8 that he caused presently a Decree to be passed for the utter destruction of all the Jews that were scattered throughout the hundred and seven and twenty Provinces of his Dominions And the over-credulity of the good Emperor Theodosius in believing the false reports of some of his Courtiers concerning an uprore and mutiny that had happened in the City of Thessalonica See the Ecclesiastical Histories did beget such a wrath in this good Princes heart that he instantly passed a Decree that all the Inhabitants of that City both men women and children should be put to the sword But after this Decree had been put in execution he was truly informed that very few had a hand in this mutiny for which inconsiderate wrath of his he was much afflicted and penitent all the days of his life Thirdly The Proprieties of Wrath are these 1. It is of an ayrie fiery quality as proceeding as I have said before of an overflowing of the gall the seat of the yellow Choler therefore it must of necessity be fiery sith the cholerick humor is compared to the fiery Element and daily experience doth shew that bilious complexioned men are most addicted to Anger Choler and Wrath. The Proprieties of Wrath. It is also of an ayrie quality because the mixture of the bloud which is compared to the Element of the Ayr maketh the same as light and swift as the Ayr. 2. Wrath is of a spreading and dilative quality for as a small piece of Leven doth dilate it self in a short time thorow a great lump of dow and make the same rise and swell so this cholerick humor mixt with the bloud dilates it self thorow all the parts of the body and inflames them all with Anger and Wrath. 3. Wrath hath a changing or altering quality for it changeth the coulor of the Face sets the eyes on fire and makes the members of some mens bodies to tremble like a leaf Again in some other men it will make their Face as white as a Clout their Tongues to stammer and their Eyes to roll in their Heads all which symptoms and qualities do confirm the violent fury of this passion And that is the reason why it is compared to the flashof Gun-powder or to the over-boyling of a Pot. 4. Wrath opposed and hindered to vent it self doth in time turn into an inveterate hatred or at the best into a deep and incurable sorrow and sometimes it induceth men to despair and to lay violent hands upon themselves when they cannot be revenged to their mindes upon their enemies Fourthly The evill effects of Wrath are as destructive as the proprieties of it are precipitate The pernitious effects of Wrath. 1. The virulency of this passion is so pernicious that it blemisheth the graces of Gods dearest Children and extinguisheth all moral vertues in civil and moral men Nay it deprives them of reason and judgement and makes them go astray from Justice and equity King David was a man after Gods own heart yet by the means of this passion he committed a great injustice in suffering the false Accusator Ziba to have half the land of the Innocent Mephibosheth as it appears by this unjust sentence 2 Sam. 19. vers 27 29. And the king sayd
Christians have with their gracious God by contemplation meditation or fervent prayers The first is a sudden and violent motion of the heart that causeth a great alteration in the body The definition of Joy See Theuphrast Boju in his Commentaties upon Aristotle Phys fol. 727. proceeding in the opinion of the Moralists from the possession or fight of some object much desired which is really good or reputed to be so by the imagination of men yet it will appear by the proprieties and effects of it that it doth not always come from the possession or injoyment of a beloved object or from an imaginary good but sometimes from relations scurrilous speeches ridiculous postures and deformedobjects for Joy is as I have said before an affection of the minde and is rather infused in the Heart by the Eye and by the Ear then by any of the other three Senses for those are more proper to the passion of Volupty of which Delight or Delectation is a branch however it is the fifth passion incident to the Concupiscible appetite and proceeds from divers causes as it will appear in the next Discourse Secondly The causes of worldly joy are either Publick or Private the Publick proceed commonly from the immediate hand of God or from his favor or by his permission and of these I shall speak in the first place first It was a great cause of publick joy proceeding from the immediate hand of God to the people of Israel presently after their coming out of Egypt to see the sea go back Exod. 14.21 to 31. and make a free passage for their host to pass through the midst of it and when they were all safe come to dry land to see the rowling waves of the sea to turn back and overwhelm Pharoah and all his Army secondly It was a cause of publick Joy when it pleased the Lord to deliver the people of the Iews from that bloody decree obtained by Haman from the great King Ahasuerus against the whole Nation of the Iews Esther 3.4 The causes of publick joy that were scattered through the one hundred and seven and twenty Provinces of the said Kings Dominions for which admirable deliverance the people of Israel made the 15th and 16th day of the moneth Adar days of Thanksgiving and of Feasting and Rejoycing from one generation to the other which were called the days of Purim See the Spanish and Turkish History thirdly It was the cause of publick joy to the Venetians and to all Christendom when God was pleased to give unto the Christian Fleet such a memorable victory over the Turkish Navy at the Battel of Lepantho for which after thanks given to God many days of Feasting and Rejoycing were kept at Venice and other parts of Christendom fourthly See Speed in the life of King James It was an incredible cause of publick joy for England when the Lord was pleased to deliver this Nation from the devillish plot of the Gunpouder Treason for which miraculous deliverance after hearty thanks given to God great Feasting Bond-fires and other expressions of joy were made in London and through the whole Land 1. It was a cause of private joy to the old Patriarch Jacob to hear by the report of his sons that his beloved son Joseph Gen. 45.26 who he thought had been devoured by wild beasts was chief Governor of Egypt and the next man in honor to the King 2. It was a cause of private joy for old Iesse The causes of private joy 1 Sam. 16.12 to see his youngest son David from a Shepherd to be promoted to be King of all Israel and specially to be reputed by God himself to be a man after his own heart 3. It was a cause of private joy for old Mordecay to see his Neece Esther Esther 2.16 from a Captive to be exalted to be the wife of the great King Ahasuerus and the greatest Queen in the world 4. It was a cause of incomprehensible joy to the Virgin Mary and to all mankinde to hear the blessed and glad tidings that the Angel Gabriel brought her from the Lord saying Behold Luke 1.26.46 thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David whereupon the Virgin Mary transported with joy and ravished in spirit sung some dayes after this excellent Song My soul doth magnify the Lord beginning at the fourty sixt Verse of the first Chap. of St. Luke Here was a true and real Cause of Spiritual Joy not onely for the Virgin Mary but also for all the Elected of God who by free grace have part in the merits of Christ By these Instances it appears that these causes of joy did proceed from the seeing and hearing which are the two Senses most proper to the passion of Joy There are divers other Causes of worldly joy which are not so well grounded as these but are most vain and ridiculous and they are these following The joy of private and worldly men suits with their inclinations first The Ambitious will rejoyce in the increase of their honors secondly The Covetous men in the abundance of their riches thirdly The causes of private mens joy The Voluptuous men will rejoyce in the injoyment of their pleasures fourthly The Merchants and Trades-men in the increase of their Trade fifthly The Lawyers in the multiplicity of their Clients and in the discord of their neighbors sixthly The prophane and Libertine in all manner of ridiculous Sports scurrilous Songs lewd Musick Dancing Valting and in lascivious Pictures and Postures and in Chambering Gluttony and Drunkenness and these are the common and ordinary causes of the joy of worldly men Let the Reader judg then whether carnal joy be not meer vanity and vexation of Spirit for the great vanity of it moved Solomon to say I said of laughter Eccles 2.2 it is mad and of mirth what doth it and the very truth is that men transported with immoderate joy are like fools and mad men Thirdly The proprieties of worldly joy are these first Worldly joy is of hot temper secondly It is of a dilative or spreading quality and these two proprieties are the cause that sudden joy doth bereave men of life for when some beloved object or glad tidings are unexpectedly represented to the eyes or ears of men this causeth a violent alteration in all the parts of the body but specially in the heart by means of the hot and dilative quality of this passion of Joy because the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it are with great violence driven from the inward parts to the extremity of the members of the body The proprieties of worldly joy whereby mens hearts are deprived of their natural heat and of their vital spirits and so fall into a swoon
this world would imbrace all manner of desperate resolutions and make themselves away to be rid of the continual anguish grief and sorrow they are subject unto in this life And I am perswaded that the want that the Heathen had of this spiritual hope of the eternal joy to come was the cause that so many of them laid violent hands upon themselves for some to be free from the imperious insultations of their mortal enemies or disdaining out of a manly courage to be oblieged for their lives to their clemency have ripped up their own bowels with their swords See Plutarch in Cesar and Catoes lives as Cato did rather then he would fall alive into the hands of Cesar and others to be rid of the excessive grief and sorrow which did rack and torture their souls for the loss of their beloved husbands or intimate friends have drunk Poyson or stifled themselves with burning coals as did Portia for her dear husbands death Martius Brutus See Plutarch in Marcus Brutus life But Christians being supported by this spiritual Hope and with an assurance that all worldly disgraces and afflictions are not for continuance but like unto a vapor arising from the earth which is suddenly annihilated by the beams of the Sun accounts these things unworthy to be regarded in comparison of the eternal joy and glory that is reserved in the highest heavens for such as suffer with patience the crosses and tribulations of this life for righteousness sake This passion being then of great use for all true Christians I will for the better descriptition of it extend my Discourses on these particulars 1. On the Definition of worldly Hope 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Objects of it 4. On its Proprieties 5. On its Effects 6. On the Excellency of spiritual Hope First There are diverse Definitions of Hope some say it is but an expectation of the good The definition of worldly Hope others say It is nothing but a confidence that men have that such things will happen to them which they have conceived in their imagination The Bishop of Marseillis pag. 500. Theophrastus Bojou pag. 723. Others say It is a passion of the soul whereby upon the impression that men have of some future good which is represented to their imagination by the senses as difficult to obtain whereupon they addict themselves to an eager prosecution of it conceiving to be able of themselves to obtain the injoyment of the same Hope saith another is a motion of the soul that inticeth men to expect and seek after a good that is absent in which they see some probability to be obtained and Senault agreeing with these two last Opinions adds that there can be no real hope except there be an apparent possibility it may be obtained Hope is then the first passion incident to the Irascible appetite of great use to men if they fix their hope upon vertuous or religious objects Secondly The causes that beget worldly Hope in the heart of carnal men are these first a continual prosperity in their understandings doth puffe up their hearts with vain and deluding hopes that the same prosperity will still continue and accompany their designs to the end See Plutarch in Pompejus life Pompejus the great was deluded by this hope for relying overmuch in the prosperous events he had formerly had in war having never been foiled by any of his enemies he neglected to raise a sufficient Army to hinder Cesars coming into Italy as he was counselled to do by his intimate friends but hoping on his former prosperous success he said unto them If I do but stamp with my feet upon the ground souldiers will issue out of it in all parts of Italy to side with me against Cesar but this vain hope was the cause of his utter overthrow for he was inforced to forsake Italy to the mercy of Cesar and to fly beyond the seas where his Army was defeated and himself constrained to save his life by shipping into Egypt where he was basely murdered secondly Might and Power doth fill the hearts of carnal men with vain hopes Xerxes King of Persia relying upon his numerous Army of a million of men hoped to over-run Greece See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and to dry up the very rivers with the incredible number of his foot and horse but he was deluded in his hope and in the straits of Thermopilae his whole Host was stopped and foiled by Leonidas King of Sparta who had but three hundred valiant Lacedemonians with him and presently after his invincible Navy was utterly routed by Themistocles by the Island of Salamine and he himself inforced out of fear to fly into Asia with a great part of his Army thirdly Youth Strength and a sanguin Complexion fills the hearts of young Gallants with vain hopes and makes them undertake things that seem impossible See Quintius Curtius in his Alexanders life as Alexander the Great did the Conquest of the greatest part of the world with an inconsiderable Army of fouty thousand foot and twenty thousand horses in comparison of five or six hundred thousand that Darius brought into the field and this passion of Hope was so predominant in him that before he departed out of Greece he gave away to others his Patrimony estate and reserved nothing for himself but the uncertain hope of the conquest of Asia The natural reasons why young strong and sanguin Complexions are more addicted to this passion of Hope then others are Six causes of the worldly Hopes of men first that they abound in spirits for the Sanguin have more blood and spirits then the Cholerick Flegmatick or Melancholick men secondly they have time by their young age to prosecute the injoyment of their hopes thirdly they have strength and activity to overcome all difficulties that seem to bar them from the injoyment of their hopes whereas ancient men are more addicted to the passion of Fear then to Hope Three reasons why young men are more addicted to Hopes then ancient men first Because their natural strength and vital spirits are wasted with age secondly because their long experience hath made them more considerate then young men thirdly because they have one foot in the grave and have not time to prosecute the injoyment of their hopes and are better acquainted with the incertitude of the undertakings of men fourthly Men that are versed in the affairs of the world have their hearts filled with vain hopes because they think nothing impossible unto them by reason that their long experience in the affairs of this world hath drawn them out of the snares of many perplexities fifthly Men that have been divers times in great dangers by Sea and by Land have their hearts filled with Hope when they fall into danger hoping then to avoide the same as they have done formerly sixthly Men of undanted spirits have their hearts filled with vain hopes because the
daily the fears and apprehensions of death which is worse then death it self and die for one death a thousand deaths Yet if men will dive into the nature and effects of this passion of Despair without partiality they will finde that good use may be made of it so it doth not attain to that exorbitant and horrid degree of Self-murdering Give me leave therefore to extend my Discourse upon these particulars 1. On the definition of this passion of Despair 2. On the diversity of the Causes of it 3. On the bad and good Effects of it 4. On the Remedies to allay the fury of it There are divers sorts of Despair which may be reduced to these three first Worldly secondly Moral thirdly Spiritual The worldly Despair is nothing else but a conceit of an impossibility in the acquisition of the vain hopes of men as it will appear in the Causes and Effects of that kinde of Despair The definition of the Moral Despair is according to the opinion of the best Moralists as followeth Despair saith Boujou Theophrast Boujou Lord of Beaulieu fol. 723. is a passion of the Soul withdrawing men from some good much desired because it is represented by the Senses to their imagination as impossible to be obtained Senault in his use upon the passions pag. 344. Despair saith Senault is a violent motion of the soul that keeps men aloof from the prosecution of some good in which they see no probability it can be obtained Now this good is not always a real good for the Senses do oftentimes delude the Reason and Judgment of men but suppose it be a real good then it is Vertue it self or some vertuous Object Action or Design which they conceive impossible to be obtained or performed for Moral Hope hath no other object then Vertue or vertuous and generous actions and by consequence Moral Despair must have the same objects The definition of worldly moral and spiritual despair for divers of the ancient Moralists held Self-murdering no Despair as I have given a hint of it in the last Discourse but an action of fortitude and of magnanimity of courage And this Moral Despair is the opposite and great Antagonist of Moral Hope and the second passion incident to the Irascible appetite which doth mitigate the extravagancy of mens Hopes as it will appear in the insuing Discourses yet men often times despair of things in which they imagine impossibilities when there is none as it will appear by these two Instances About sixscore years past it was a thing thought impossible to sail with a ship round about the circuit of the earth and yet Magalen a Portugais See the Spanish and English History and Sir Francis Drake an English man have shown by experience that it was possible to be done secondly In the days of Charls the ninth Henry the third and Henry the fourth Kings of France It was a thing thought impossible to take the City of Rochel by force or by famine and yet the Cardinal de Riche-lieu by the Art of a French Enginere See the French History hath shown by experience it was possible to be done for by a floating bridge that he made over an Arm of the Sea upon which he planted Ordinances and erected two Towers and with a land Army Lewis the thirteenth King of France took that City by famine in less then a year whereupon I conclude that men Despair of things by imagining impossibilities where there is none and this proceeds from want of judgment power or experience for it is daily seen that which seems to be impossible to one man is easie and facile to another Spiritual Despair is nothing else but a distrust of Gods mercy which by the temptation of Satan do intice men to be the murderers of themselves which is the next sin to the sin of the Holy Ghost Secondly The causes of worldly Despair may be these first The death of a beloved party See Bandel in his Tragical Histories Romelio supposing his beloved Mistress Iuliete to be dead when she was but in a swound slew himself upon her body and when she came to her self again she seeing her Sweet-Heart had killed himself for her sake she stabbed her self with his Poynard secondly The infidelity in love is a cause of Despair See Virgils Aeneads Dido Queen of Carthage slew her self because Aeneas a Trojan Prince forsook her and sailed into Italy but if this be a Poeticall Fable hear a true Relation A proper young maiden being secretly betrothed to a young man living here in London who broke his faith and married another whereupon the maiden being transported with Despair poisoned her self and died the next day this hapned within this twelve moneth I could relate a hundred such instances to prove that of all the passions Love being abused or extinguished by death doth sooner then any other thing beget Despair but I pass them over for brevity sake thirdly Avarice is the cause of Despair A Merchant in London of good means having had some losses at sea and having received the tidings of it on the Saturday he being transported with Despair hung himself on the Sunday morning when his servants were at Church and it is a common thing among the Cormorant Farmers when they have Monopolized all the corn of a County into their hands to hang or drown themselves if the next year prove to be a fruitful year fourthly Famine is a cause of Despair 2 Kings 6.29 for in Jehorams days such a famine was in Samaria that two women boiled a childe and did eate the same the mother of the childe out of Despair consenting to it and whosoever will be pleased to read Iosephus will see the horrid actions of some of the Iews committed out of Despair because of the great famine that was at Ierusalem when it was besieged by the Romans fifthly The fear to fall into the hands of a cruel enemy causeth Despair some of the richest of the Saguntines rather then they would fall into the hands of Hanibal and his cruel Carthaginian and Numidian souldiers See Titus Livius in his third Decade lib. 1. pag. 34. did carry all their wealth with their wives and children into their Market place and having made a great heap of their rich moveables they set the fire in it and slew their wives and children and having cast them into the fire they slew themselves afterwards sixtly Shame is a cause of Despair Cleopatra Queen of Egypt being informed that it had been resolved in the Counsel of Augustus Cesar that she should be led as a captive after the triumphant Chariot of the said Emperor when he should make his entry into Rome out of Despair to avoid that shame See Plutarch in Marcus Antonius life she applied two Vipers to her two breasts and so died There are divers other causes of worldly Despair but they are of another nature for they attain not to that
shrubs in a Forrest are safer from being rooted up with the boysterous winds then the high Cedars in Libanon And the Antient and Modern Histories do verifie that rich men under Tyrants are always the mark at which promooting knaves false informers do aym See Tacitus in their lives as it is apparently seen in the lives of Caligula Nero Vitellius Domitianus and Commodus and such other Monsters in nature Likewise in all civil broils and publike commotions the richer men go ever to the pot as it is apparent in Livies Decades See Livie in his first Decade the Plebeian ever repining and envying the richest Patricians So that riches do rather expose men to dangers then rescue them Sixthly The evil proprieties of this sordid passion are many but I will speak only of some of them 1. It inticeth men to Idolatry for Avaricious men make their addresses morning and evening to their god Mammon in lieu to make their prayers to God I mean in bending as soon as they rise all their thoughts and cogitations upon the means how they may encrease their wealth whereby it appears that the love of money doth extinguish in them the love of God and that it is almost as impossible for a rich avaritious man to obtain the Kingdom of God Allusion upon Math 19.24 as it is for a Camel to go thorow the eye of a needle and that is the reason why few noble and rich are called and why rich men are compared in the Gospel of S. Luke to the thorny ground 1 Cor. 1.26 Luk. 8.14 because the care they take to encrease their riches smothers in them the seed of the Word and hinders them to grow in spiritual graces there being as great an antipathy between the carking care of this life and godliness as there is between light and darkness Math. 6.21 for where mens treasure is there is their heart And that is the reason why Saint James doth pronounce this heavie sentence against the rich who are possessed with Avarice Jam 5.1 2 3 4 5 6. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupt and your garments are moth-eaten Your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye heave heaped treasures together for the last dayes Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the eares of the Lord of Sabaoth Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Ye have condemned and killed the just and he hath not resisted you The second propriety of it is That it deprives those who are possessed with it of all true joy because their joy and content doth only consist in the encrease of their riches which can afford no solid joy the creatures having nothing in them but emptiness whereas the object of true joy is God himself that ever will be an infinite unchangeable and eternal God Besides how can avaritious men have any joy or content that are hourly perplexed with fears of being deprived of all they have by a thousand accidents which riches are subject unto See Plutarch in his Morals And this moved Crates to cast all his wealth into the Sea saying he would rather drown his riches then they should drown the tranquillity of his mind in fears and continual anxieties He that loveth silver saith Solomon shall not be satisfyed with silver Eccles 5.10 And except mens desires be satisfied they can have no joy nor content The Third Propriety of it is That it deprives men of understanding For Avaritious men cannot make use of their Riches but will pinch their bellyes goe ragged and deprive themselves from the comfort of all good things Nay their harmless Cattle shall feel the smart of their biting Avarice An Italian Bishop was so base as he did steal in the night time the Provender that was allowed to his Coach-horses But his Coach-man gave hiw a hundred bastinadoes as a just reward for his Avarice For seeing his horses dayly decline and become poor and faint he watched all night and found his Master stealing of their Provender out of their manger and taking no notice who he was did swadle him soundly verifying this Saying of Solomon That he who loveth riches shall be without the fruit thereof And this he calleth An evill sickness or sore disease And in truth it is a sign of Phrensy or of a Privation of understanding when men make no use of the Blessings of God And may be compared to a dog that sits upon a truss of hay that will not suffer it to be taken away although he cannot eat of it himself The Fourth Propriety of it is That it banisheth all Christian Charity out of the hearts of men For none are so close-fisted towards the Poor as Rich Avaritious men And when with much importunity Collectors draw from them some smal Contribution towards their releif they repine for it and think they draw like horsleeches their hearts blood Nay they will bury their Gold and Silver in the ground rather then they will lend their poor Neighbor some part of it gratis See Plutarch in his Morals And this moved Aesop to say to an Avaritious man who lamented for the loss of a Treasure he had hid in the ground Lament and vex not thy self sayd he but carry a stone of the like weight and bury it in the same place where thy gold was and imagine it is the same Gold which was taken from thee For this stone will be as usefull to thee as thy Gold was sith thou couldst not make a better use of it And certainly such Nabals as hoard up their Wealth and deny to relieve the distressed Davids of these Times in their extream need may be compared to that Sicilian Merchant who being possessed with a strong Phrensy did believe that all the rich ships that came into the Haven of Syracuse were his own Even so these miserable Cormorants are not Really but Imaginarily rich sith God deprives them of the use of their Riches The Fifth Propriety of it is That it begets Pride and makes men insolent disdainfull and arrogant For it is a Saying as True as Common That Honors and Riches corrupt good manners And dayly Experience doth show that such as become rich suddenly which were before of a mean and low degree are prouder and more insolent in their carriage and comportments then the greatest Noble-men in the Land And more disdainful towards their neighbors then those whose shoos they were formerly unworthy to untye See Plutarch in his Life Crassus from a mean condition being by his Avarice and his vile and base courses to get mony grown