XIII
OF AVARICE
Avarice was this Rival’s name, and she is the Immoderate Desire of acquiring and holding Riches. But they called her by a holier Name, so that it might not seem that they had abandoned me, by whose Gift they had been raised from the Dust and lifted up out of the Mire. So they spake gently of her to me, but there was Craft and Anger in their Hearts. And though the Desolation of a City which is set upon a Hill ♦Matt. v. 14.♦ cannot be hid, yet they gave her the Name of Discretion or Foresight, though such Discretion were better named Confusion, and such Foresight a pernicious Forgetfulness of all Good Works. And they said unto me: Thine is the Power; thine the Kingdom: fear not. It is good to use Charity and labour for Good Ends, to succour the Needy and give to the Poor. But I answered: What you say is just, Brothers, but I beseech you, consider ♦1 Cor. i. 26.♦ your Calling. Do not look back. Do not come down ♦Matt. xxiv. 17.♦ from the house-top to take anything out of your Houses, neither return back from the fields to take your Clothes. Do not be busied about this World’s Affairs, nor be entangled again in its Pollution, ♦2 Pet. ii. 20, 21.♦ which you have escaped through the Knowledge of the Saviour. For those who are entangled therein a second time must needs be overcome, and the latter End is worse with them than the Beginning, if by a Pretence of Piety they turn from the Holy Commandment which has been delivered unto them. And after I had thus spoken, there arose a Dissension among them, for some said that I was good and spoke the Truth, but others that I desired to seduce them into following me, in that I was wretched, and wished to make them wretched with me.