Those who desire to be rich
And even if you do not succeed, what is the fruit of your endeavoring to lay up treasures on earth? Those who desire to be rich (they who desire, who endeavor after it, whether they succeed or not) fall into temptation and a snare, a trap of the devil, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, desires with which reason has nothing to do, such as properly belong not to rational and immortal beings but only to the brute beasts which have no understanding, which drown men in destruction and perdition, in present and eternal misery (1 Timothy 6:9). Let us but open our eyes and we may daily see the melancholy proofs of this: men who, desiring, resolving to be rich, coveting after money, the root of all evil, have already pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:10) and anticipated the hell to which they are going.
1771 text
15. *And even if you do not succeed, what is the fruit of your endeavouring to lay up treasures on earth? They that will be rich (αἱ βουλόμενοι πλουτεῖν, they that desire, that endeavour after it, whether they succeed or no) fall into a temptation and a snare, a gin, a trap of the devil, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts; ἐπὶ θυμίας ἀνοήτους, desires with which reason hath nothing to do; such as properly belong, not to rational and immortal beings, but only to the brute-beasts, which have no understanding: which drown men in destruction and perdition, in present and eternal misery. Let us but open our eyes, and we may daily see the melancholy proofs of this: men, who desiring, resolving to be rich, coveting after money, the root of all evil, have already pierced themselves through with many sorrows, and anticipated the hell to which they are going.