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"he that hath mercy

Remember this precept, on the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and the Lord "will recompense him what he hath given." I do not understand those for poor, which are vagabonds and beggars, but those that labour to live, such as are old and cannot travel,* such poor widows and fatherless children as are ordered to be relieved, and the poor tenants that travel to pay their rents, and are driven to poverty by mischance and not by riot or careless expenses. On such have thou compassion, and God will bless thee for it.

SIR WALTER RALEGH.

DEFER not charities till death, for certainly if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so, is rather liberal of another man's than of his own.

LORD BACON.

A DUE care for the relief of the poor is an act, First, of great piety towards almighty God, who requires it of you; he hath left the poor as his pupils, and the rich as his stewards to provide for them it is one of those great tributes that he justly requires from the rest of mankind,

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come from the poor, or from any body, that hurt me, because

they come from them; but because I do something ill against "them, that deserves God should curse me for it. On the "other hand, 'tis not a man's blessing that makes me blessed, "he only declares me to be so; and if I do well, I shall be blessed, whether any bless me or not.” TABLE TALK.

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which, because they cannot pay to him, he hath scattered the poor amongst the rest of mankind as his substitutes and receivers. Second, it is an act of greatest humanity among men. Mercy and benignity is due to the very beasts that serve us, much more to those that are partakers of the same common nature with us. Third, it is an act of great civil prudence and political wisdom; for poverty in itself, is apt to emasculate the minds of men, or at least it makes men tumultuous and unquiet. Where there are many very poor, the rich cannot safely continue such. Necessity renders men of phlegmatic and dull natures, stupid and indisciplinable; and men of more fiery or active constitutions, rapacious and desperate.

SIR MATTHEW HALE

CHURCH

Your Saviour came not with a gaudy show,
Nor was his kingdom of the world below:
Patience in want, and poverty of mind,

These marks of church, and church-men he design'd,

And living taught, and dying left behind.

The crown he wore was of the pointed thorn,

In purple he was crucified, not born:

They who contend for place and high degree
Are not his sons, but those of Zebedee.

DRYDEN

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THE laws of the church are most favourable to the church, because they are the church's own making; as the heralds are the best gentlemen, because they make their own pedigree.

SELDEN.

THEY that are against superstition oftentimes run into it of the wrong side. If I will wear all colours but black, then I am superstitious in not wearing black.

IBID.

THERE must be some lay-men in the synod, to overlook the clergy, lest they spoil the civil work just as when the good woman puts a cat into the milk-house to kill a mouse, she sends her maid to look after the cat, lest the cat should eat up the cream.

IBID.

"TIS a foolish thing to say ministers must not meddle with secular matters, because his own profession will take up the whole man; may he not eat, or drink, or walk, or learn to sing? The meaning of that is, he must seriously attend his calling.

IBID.

THERE is all the reason you should believe your minister, unless you have studied divinity as well as he, or more than he.

IBID.

IF I were a minister, I should think myself most in my office, reading of prayers, and dispensing the sacraments; and 'tis ill done to put one to officiate in the church, whose person is contemptible out of it. Should a great lady, that was invited to be a gossip, in her place send her kitchen-maid, 'twould be ill taken; yet she is a woman, as well as she; let her send her woman at least.

SELDEN.

(GOD hath given gifts unto men.) General texts prove nothing; let him shew me John, William, or Thomas, in the text, and then I will believe him. If a man hath a voluble tongue, we say, He hath the gift of prayer. His gift is to pray long, that I see; but does he pray better?

IBID.

WE take care what we speak to men; but to God we may say any thing.

IBID.

PRAYER should be short, without giving God Almighty reasons why he should grant this, or that; he knows best what is good for us. If your boy should ask you a suit of clothes, and give you reasons, " otherwise he cannot wait upon you, he cannot go abroad but he will discredit you," would you endure it? You know it better than he let him ask a suit of clothes.

WHEN the preacher says, This is the meaning of the Holy Ghost, in such a place, in sense he can mean no more than this: I, by studying of the place, by comparing one place with another, by weighing what goes before, and what comes after, think this is the meaning of the Holy Ghost; and for shortness of expression, I say, The Holy Ghost says thus, or This is the meaning of the Spirit of God.

Selden.

THE tone in preaching does much in working upon the people's affection. If a man should make love in an ordinary tone, his mistress would not regard him, and therefore he must whine. If a man should cry Fire, or Murder, in an ordinary voice, nobody would come out to help him.

IBID.

IN preaching, they do by men as writers of romances do by their chief knights, bring them into many dangers, but still fetch them off. So they put men in fear of hell, but at last bring them to heaven.

IBID.

Preachers will bring any thing into the text. The young Masters of Arts preached against the non-residency in the University; whereupon the heads made an order, that no man should meddle with any thing but what was in the text. The

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