[1] Nothing shall more effectually betray the heart into a love
of sin and a loathing of holiness, than an ill-managed
prosperity. It is like some meats, the more luscious, so
much the more dangerous. Prosperity and ease upon an
unsanctified, impure heart, is like the sunbeams upon a
dunghill; it raises many filthy, noisome exhalations. The
same soldiers who, in hard service, are in perfect
subjection to their leaders, in peace and luxury are apt to
rebel; (and the passions, which in adversity are easily
controlled, in prosperity are apt to break loose). That
corrupt affection which has lain, as it were, dead and
frozen in the midst of distracting business, or under
adversity, when the sun of prosperity has shined upon it,
then, like a snake, it presently recovers its former
strength and venom. Vice must be caressed and smiled upon
that it may thrive and sting. It is starved by poverty, it
droops under the frowns of fortune, and pines away upon
bread and water; but when the channels of plenty run high,
and every appetite is plied with abundance and variety, so
that _satisfaction_ is but a mean word to express its
enjoyment, then the inbred corruption of the heart shows
itself pampered and insolent, too unruly for discipline,
and too big for correction.--_South,_ 1633-1716.
[2] It is a hard thing for princes to remember death. They have
no leisure to think of it, but chip into the earth before
they beware, like a man who walks over a field covered with
snow, and sees not his way, but when he thinks to run on,
suddenly falls into a pit: even so they who have all things
at will, and swim in pleasure, which as a snow covers their
way and dazzles their sight, while they think to live on,
and rejoice still, suddenly rush upon death, and make
shipwreck in a calm sea.--_Henry Smith,_ 1593.
[3] Colonel Gardiner relates that when he was considered by his
gay military companions to be one of the most handsome and
highly favoured officers of his day, he has seen a dog
enter the mess-room, prowling for food, and looked at the
creature with envy, inwardly groaning and exclaiming, "Oh,
that I were that dog!" Since his time thousands have felt
the same iron enter their souls, although looked upon by
their comrades as men enjoying life in rich
abundance.--_Holderness._