[3711] “Num tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quaeris
Pocula?”------

Doth a man that is adry desire to drink in gold?  Doth not a cloth suit become him as well, and keep him as warm, as all their silks, satins, damasks, taffeties and tissues?  Is not homespun cloth as great a preservative against cold, as a coat of Tartar lamb’s-wool, died in grain, or a gown of giant’s beards?  Nero, saith [3712]Sueton., never put on one garment twice, and thou hast scarce one to put on? what’s the difference? one’s sick, the other sound:  such is the whole tenor of their lives, and that which is the consummation and upshot of all, death itself makes the greatest difference.  One like a hen feeds on the dunghill all his days, but is served up at last to his Lord’s table; the other as a falcon is fed with partridge and pigeons, and carried on his master’s fist, but when he dies is flung to the muck-hill, and there lies.  The rich man lives like Dives jovially here on earth, temulentus divitiis, make the best of it; and “boasts himself in the multitude of his riches,” Psalm xlix. 6. 11. he thinks his house “called after his own name,” shall continue for ever; “but he perisheth like a beast,” verse 20. “his way utters his folly,” verse 13. male parta, male dilabuntur; “like sheep they lie in the grave,” verse 14. Puncto descendunt ad infernum, “they spend their days in wealth, and go suddenly down to hell,” Job xxi. 13.  For all physicians and medicines enforcing nature, a swooning wife, families’ complaints, friends’ tears, dirges, masses, naenias, funerals, for all orations, counterfeit hired acclamations, eulogiums, epitaphs, hearses, heralds, black mourners, solemnities, obelisks, and Mausolean tombs, if he have them, at least, [3713]he, like a hog, goes to hell with a guilty conscience (propter hos dilatavit infernos os suum), and a poor man’s curse; his memory stinks like the snuff of a candle when it is put out; scurrilous libels, and infamous obloquies accompany him.  When as poor Lazarus is Dei sacrarium, the temple of God, lives and dies in true devotion, hath no more attendants, but his own innocency, the heaven a tomb, desires to be dissolved, buried in his mother’s lap, and hath a company of [3714]Angels ready to convey his soul into Abraham’s bosom, he leaves an everlasting and a sweet memory behind him.  Crassus and Sylla are indeed still recorded, but not so much for their wealth as for their victories:  Croesus for his end, Solomon for his wisdom.  In a word, [3715]"to get wealth is a great trouble, anxiety to keep, grief to lose it.”

[3716] “Quid dignum stolidis mentibus imprecer? 
        Opes, honores ambiant: 
        Et cum falsa gravi mole paraverint,
        Tum vera cognoscant bona.”