he meantime thus much I may say of them, that
generally they crucify the soul of man, [1798]attenuate our bodies, dry
them, wither them, shrivel them up like old apples, make them as so many
anatomies ([1799]_ossa atque pellis est totus, ita curis macet_) they cause
_tempus foedum et squalidum_, cumbersome days, _ingrataque tempora_, slow,
dull, and heavy times: make us howl, roar, and tear our hairs, as sorrow
did in [1800]Cebes' table, and groan for the very anguish of our souls. Our
hearts fail us as David's did, Psal. xl. 12, "for innumerable troubles that
compassed him;" and we are ready to confess with Hezekiah, Isaiah lviii.
17, "behold, for felicity I had bitter grief;" to weep with Heraclitus, to
curse the day of our birth with Jeremy, xx. 14, and our stars with Job: to
hold that axiom of Silenus, [1801]"better never to have been born, and the
best next of all, to die quickly:" or if we must live, to abandon the
world, as Timon did; creep into caves and holes, as our anchorites; cast
all into the sea, as Crates Thebanus; or as Theombrotus Ambrociato's 400
auditors, precipitate ourselves to be rid of these miseries.

SUBSECT. XI.--_Concupiscible Appetite, as Desires, Ambition, Causes_.

These concupiscible and irascible appetites are as the two twists of a
rope, mutually mixed one with the other, and both twining about the heart:
both good, as Austin, holds, _l. 14. c. 9. de civ. Dei_, [1802]"if they be
moderate; both pernicious if they be exorbitant." This concupiscible
appetite, howsoever it may seem to carry with it a show of pleasure and
delight, and our concupiscences most part affect us with content and a
pleasing object, yet if they be in extremes, they rack and wring us on the
other side. A true saying it is, "Desire hath no rest;" is infinite in
itself, endless; and as [1803]one calls it, a perpetual rack, [1804]or
horse-mill, according to Austin, still going round as in a ring. They are
not so continual, as divers, _felicius atomos denumerare possem_, saith
[1805]Bernard, _quam motus cordis; nunc haec, nunc illa cogito_, you may as
well reckon up the motes in the sun as them. [1806]"It extends itself to
everything," as Guianerius will have it, "that is superfluously sought
after:"' or to any [1807]fervent desire, as Fernelius interprets it; be it
in what kind soever, it tortures if immoderate, and is (according to [1808]
Plater and others) an especial cause of melancholy. _Multuosis
concupiscentiis di