Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 1.3

the chief thing, which is subject to the judgment of God. They are treacherous because, although wealth by itself is enough to puff up the souls of its possessors, to corrupt them and turn them aside from the way by which salvation can be reached, these people further dazzle the minds of the rich with the pleasures of immoderate praise, exalting them and preparing them to despise absolutely everything except the wealth for which they are admired. As the proverb says, they channel fire onto fire, pour pride upon pride, and load wealth, a heavy thing by nature, with a heavier burden of arrogance, when they ought rather to take it away and cut it back as a dangerous and deadly disease. For to the one who is exalted and magnified the opposite change is attached, a turn to humiliation and a fall, as the divine Word teaches.