The Amaranth Or, religious poems; consisting of fables, visions, emblems, etc. Adorned with copper-plates from the best masters [by Walter Harte] |
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 | The Amaranth |  |
11.
Th'Ambitious and the Covetous desireMore than their worth deserves, or wants require:
Not merely for the profit things may yield,
But ah, their neighbour's pittance maims their field:
Thus, gain'd by force, or fraudulent design,
The grapes of Naboth yield them blood for wine .
“He that gathereth by defrauding his own soul, gathereth for others, that shall spend his goods riotously. A covetous man's eye is not satisfied with his portion, and the iniquity of the wicked drieth up his soul.” Ecclus. C. xiv.
“Ahab's excuse to Naboth, when he said give me thy vineyard that I may make it a garden of herbs, represents in a lively manner the pretences that avaricious and ambitious men use, when they want to make new acquisitions. They lye to their consciences; asking a seeming trifle, and meaning to obtain something very valuable.” St. Ambrrose.”
“Woe unto them that covet fields, and take them away by violence.” Micah C. ii, V. 2.
“They enlarge their desire as hell, and are as death, and cannot be satisfied: Woe unto them that encrease that which is not theirs.” Hab. C. ii, V. 5, 6.
| The Amaranth | |