No cross, no crown

by William Penn

XVII. But, which aggravates this sin, I have myself once known some, that to get money have wearied themselves into the grave; and to be true to their principle, when sick would not spare a fee to a doctor, to help the poor slave to live; and so died to save charges: a constancy that canonizes them martyrs for money.

XVIII. But now let us see what instances the Scripture will give us in reproof of the sordid hoarders and hiders of money. A good-like young man came to Christ, and inquired the way to eternal life: Christ told him, he knew the commandments: he replied, he had kept them from his youth: it seems he was no loose person, and indeed such are usually not so, to save charges. And "yet lackest thou one thing," saith Christ; "sell all, distribute it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Me." It seems Christ pinched him in the sore place; He hit the mark, and struck him to the heart: who knew his heart; by this He tried how well he had kept the commandment, "To love God above all." It was said, the young man was very sorrowful, and went his way; and the reason which is given is, that he was very rich. The tides met, money and eternal life: contrary desires: but which prevailed? Alas! his riches. But what said Christ to this? How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! He adds, "It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven:" that is, such a rich man, to wit, a covetous rich man, to whom it is hard to do good with what he has: it is more than a miracle: O who then would be rich and covetous! It was upon these rich men that Christ pronounced his woe, saying, "Woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation here." What! none in the heavens? No, unless you become willing to be poor men, can resign all, live loose to the world, have it at arm's end, yea, under foot; a servant, and not a master.

XIX. The other instance is a very dismal one too: it is that of Ananias and Sapphira. In the beginning of the apostolical times, it was customary for those who received the word of life, to bring what substance they had and lay it at the apostles' feet: of these Joses, surnamed Barnabas, was exemplary. Among the rest, Ananias and his wife Sapphira, confessing to the truth, sold their possession, but covetously reserved some of the purchase-money from the common purse to themselves, and brought a part for the whole, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter, a plain and bold man, in the majesty of the Spirit, said, "Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost; and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." (Acts, v. 3, 4.) But what followed this covetousness and hypocrisy of Ananias? Why, "Ananias hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost." The like befel his wife, being privy to the deceit their avarice had led them to. And it is said, that "great fear came upon all the church, and those that heard of these things:" and also should on those that now read them. For if this judgment was shown and recorded that we should beware of the like evils, what will become of those who, under the profession of Christianity, a religion that teaches men to live loose from the world, and to yield up all to the will and service of Christ and his kingdom, not only retain a part, but all; and cannot part with the least thing for Christ's sake? I beseech God to incline the hearts of my readers to weigh these things. This had not befallen Ananias and Sapphira, if they had acted as in God's presence, and with that entire love, truth, and sincerity that became them. O that people would use the light that Christ has given them, to search and see how far they are under the power of this iniquity! For would they but watch against the love of the world, and be less in bondage to the things that are seen, which are temporal, they would begin to set their hearts on things above, that are of an eternal nature. Their life would be hid with Christ in God, out of the reach of all the uncertainties of time, and troubles, and changes of mortality. Nay, if people would but consider how hardly riches are got, how uncertainly they are kept, the envy they bring; that they can neither make a man wise, nor cure diseases, nor add to life, much less give peace in death; no, nor hardly yield any solid benefit above food or raiment, (which may be had without them,) and that if there be any good use for them, it is to relieve others in distress; being but stewards of the plentiful providences of God, and consequently accountable for our stewardship; if, I say, these considerations had any room in our minds, we should not thus post to get, nor care to hide and keep such a mean and impotent thing. O that the cross of Christ, which is the Spirit and power of God in man, might have more place in the soul, that it might crucify us more and more to the world, and the world to us; that, like the days of paradise, the earth might again be the footstool, and the treasure of the earth a servant, and not a god to man!—Many have written against this vice; three I will mention.

XX. William Tindall, that worthy apostle of the English reformation, has an entire discourse, to which I refer the reader, entitled, "The Parable of the Wicked Mammon." The next is——

XXI. Peter Charron, a famous Frenchman, and in particular for the book he wrote of wisdom, hath a chapter against covetousness; part of which take as followeth: "To love and affect riches is covetousness: not only the love and affection, but also every over-curious care and industry about riches. The desire of goods, and the pleasure we take in possessing them, are grounded only upon opinion: the immoderate desire to get riches is a gangrene in our soul, which with a venomous heat consumeth our natural affections, to the end it might fill us with virulent humours. So soon as it is lodged in our hearts, all honest and natural affection, which we owe either to our parents, our friends, or ourselves, vanisheth away: all the rest, in respect of our profit, seemeth nothing; yea, we forget in the end, and condemn ourselves, our bodies, our minds, for this transitory trash; and as our proverb is, We sell our horse to get us hay. Covetousness is the vile and base passion of vulgar fools, who account riches the principal good of a man, and fear poverty as the greatest evil; and not contenting themselves with necessary means, which are forbidden no man, weigh that which is good in a goldsmith's balance; when nature hath taught us to measure it by the ell of necessity. For, what greater folly can there be than to adore that which nature itself hath put under our feet, and hidden in the earth, as unworthy to be seen; yea, rather to be contemned, and trampled under foot? This is that which the sin of man hath only torn out of the entrails of the earth, and brought unto light to kill himself. We dig out the earth, and bring to light those things for which we would fight: we are not ashamed to esteem those things most highly which are in the lowest parts of the earth. Nature seemeth even in the first birth of gold, after a sort, to have presaged the misery of those that are in love with it; for it hath so ordered the matter, that in those countries where it groweth there groweth with it neither grass nor plant, nor other thing that is worth anything: as giving us to understand thereby, that in those minds where the desire of this metal groweth, there cannot remain so 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 servant and a slave to that which should be subject unto him? Riches serve wise men, but command a fool: for a covetous man serveth his riches, and not they him: and he is said 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 possession of the most wicked in the world; which many times perverts good manners, but never amends them: without which, so many wise men have made themselves happy; and by which so many wicked men have come to a wicked end. To be brief; what thing more miserable, than to bind the living to the dead, as Mezentius did, to the end their death might be languishing, and the more cruel; to tie the spirit unto the excrement and scum of the earth; to pierce through his own soul with a thousand torments, which this amorous passion of riches brings with it; and to entangle himself with the ties and cords of this malignant thing, as the Scripture calls them, which doth likewise term them thorns and thieves, which steal away the heart of man, snares of the devil, idolatry, and the root of all evil? And truly he that shall see the catalogue of those envies and molestations 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 covetousness all: a covetous man is good to none, but worse to himself." Thus much of Charron, a wise and great man. My next testimony is yielded by an author not unlikely to take with some sort 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 sorts of avarice, the one is but a bastard-kind, and that is a rapacious appetite of gain; not for its own sake, but for the pleasure of refunding it immediately through all the channels of pride and luxury. The other is the true kind, and properly so called, which is a restless and insatiable desire of riches, not for any further end or use, but only to hoard and preserve, and perpetually increase them. The covetous man of the first kind, is like a greedy ostrich, which devoureth any metal, but it is with an intent to feed upon it, and in effect, it maketh a shift to digest and excern it. The second is like the foolish chough, which loveth to steal money, only to hide it. The first doth much harm to mankind, and a little good to some few: the second doth good to none; no, not to himself. The first can make no excuse to God or angels, or rational men, for his actions: the second can give no reason or colour, not to the devil himself, for what he doth: he is a slave to mammon without wages. The first maketh a shift to be beloved, aye, and envied too, by some people: the second is the universal object of hatred and contempt. There is no vice hath been so pelted with good sentences, and especially by the poets, who have pursued it with satires and fables, and allegories and allusions, and moved, as we say, every stone to fling at it; among which I do not remember a finer correction than that which was given it by one line of Ovid's:

Multa Luxuriæ desunt, omnia avaritiæ."

Which is,

"Much is wanting to luxury, all to avarice."