Subsect. 12. φιλαργυρία Covetousnesse, a Cause.

Plutarch, in his book whether the diseases of the body be more grievous then those of the soul; is of opinion, if you will examine all the causes of our miseries in this life, you shall finde them most part, to have had their beginning from stubborne anger, that furious desire of contention, or some injust or immoderate affection, as Covetousness, &c.

From whence are warres and contentions amongst you? S. Iames askes: I will adde usury, fraud, rapine, Simony, oppression, lying, swearing, bearing false witness, &c. are they not from this fountain of covetousness, that greediness in getting, tenacity in keeping, sordidity in spending; that they are so wicked, injust against God, their neighbor, themselves, all comes hence.

The desire of money is the root of all evil, and they that lust after it, pierce themselves through with many sorrowes, 1 Tim. 6.10. Hippocrates therefore in his Epistle to Crateva an Herbalist, gives him this good counsel, that if it were possible, amongst other hearbs, he should cut up that weed of Covetousness by the roots, that there be no remainder left, and then know this for a certainty, that together with their bodies, thou mayst quickly cure all the diseases of their minds.

For it is indeed the patterne, Image, Epitome of all Melancholy, the fountain of many miseries, much discontented care and woe; this inordinate, or immoderate desire of gain, to get or keep money, as Bonaventure defines it: or, as Austin describes it, a madness of the soul, Gregory a torture; Chrysostome, an insatiable drunkenness; Cyprian, blindness, speciosum supplicium, a plague subverting Kingdomes, families, and incurable disease:

Budæus, an ill habit, yielding to no remedies: neither Æsculapius nor Plutus can cure them: a continual plague, saith Solomon, and vexation of spirit, another Hell. I know there be some of opinion, that covetous men are happy, and worldly wise, that there is more pleasure in getting of wealth then in spending, and no delight in the world like unto it.

’Twas Bias problem of old, With what art thou not weary? with getting mony. What is most delectable? to gain. What is it, trow you, that makes a poor man labour all his life time, carry such great burdens, fare so hardly, macerate himself, and endure so much misery, undergo such base offices with so great patience, to rise up early, and lye down late, if there were not an extraordinary delight in getting and keeping of mony?

What makes a Merchant that hath no need, satis superque domi, to range all over the world, through all those intemperate Zones of heat & cold, voluntarily to venture his life, and be content with such miserable famine, nasty usage, in a stinking ship; if there were not a pleasure and hope to get mony, which doth season the rest, and mitigate his indefatigable pains?

What makes them go into the bowels of the earth, an hundred fathome deep, endangering their dearest lives, enduring damps and filthy smels, when they have enough already, if they could be content, and no such cause to labour, but an extraordinary delight they take in riches?

This may seem plausible at first shew, a popular and strong argument; but let him that so thinks, consider better of it, and he shall soon perceive, that it is far otherwise then he supposeth; it may be haply pleasing at the first, as most part all melancholy is. For such men likely have some lucida intervalla, pleasant symptomes intermixt, but you must note that of Chrysostome, ’Tis one thing to be rich, another to be covetous;

generally they are all fooles, dizards, mad-men, miserable wretches, living besides themselves, sine arte fruendi, in perpetual slavery, fear, suspicion, sorrow, and discontent, plus aloes quam mellis habent; and are indeed, rather possessed by their money, then possessors;

as Cyprian hath it, mancipati pecuniis, bound prentise to their goods, as Pliny; or as Chrysostome, servi divitiarum, slaves and drudges to their substance; and we may conclude of them all, as Valerius doth of Ptolomæus King of Cyprus, He was in title a King of that Iland, but in his minde, a miserable drudge of money:

potiore metallis libertate carens

wanting his liberty, which is better then gold. Damasippus the Stoick in Horace, proves that all mortall men dote by fits, some one way, some another, but that covetous men are madder then the rest: and he that shall truly look into their estates, and examine their symptomes, shall finde no better of them, but that they are all fooles, as Nabal was, Re & nomine (1. Reg.15.)

For what greater folly can there be, or madness, then to macerate himself when he need not? and when, as Cyprian notes, he may be freed from his burden, and eased of his pains, will go on still, his wealth increasing, when he hath enough, to get more, to live besides himself, to starve his Genius, keep back from his wife and children, neither letting them, nor other friends use or enjoy that which is theirs by right, and which they much need perhaps;

like a hog, or dog in the manger, he doth only keep it, because it shall do no body else good, hurting himself and others; and for a little momentary pelf, damne his own soul? They are commonly sad and tetrick by nature, as Achabs spirit was because he could not get Naboths Vineyard, (1. Reg.22.) and if he lay out his money at any time, though it be to necessary uses, to his own Childrens good, he brawles and scolds, his heart is heavy, much disquieted he is, and loath to part from it: