after he was stark dead buried and stanke again Yet as unlikely improbable and impossible as they seemed to be yet they came to pass and God did not break his promise nor disappoint the hopes of such as had the wit and grace to confide in him no more will he in this case which is by far the easier to be performed And what though carnall mindes like that Noble-man who was trodden to death in the gate of Samaria for his incredulity will not believe yet truth is truth as well when it is not acknowledged as when it is And I wish men would take heed of unbelief and giving God the lie for as there is nothing he so abhors as that his own houshold servants should not dare to trust him as we may see in that example of the Noble man 2 Kings 7. 17 24. likewise in those Israelites Psal. 78. when they said Can God furnish a table in the Wilderness He smote the Rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed but can be give bread also Can he provide flesh for his people Yes he could and did it to their small comfort that made the exception For because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them He gave them flesh even quailes in his wrath until they were choaked Psal. 78. 10 to 38. and Numb. 11. 33 34. But admit God should not answer thy greedy desire in multiplying thy estate yet if he do that which is better for thee viz. give thee a competency together with a more contented minde then now thou hast or ever wouldst have wert thou as rich as Crassus would it be ever the worse or hadst thou any cause to complain no but greatly to rejoyce as I have shewn in the foregoing part Wherefore trust God with Abraham who above hope believed under hope Rom. 4. 18 to 22. For Faith is to God as Bathsheba was to Solomon so in favour that the King will deny her nothing that good is This is the second means which God hath appointed for the improvement of our outward estates or the second step to riches and all outward prosperity viz. bounty and liberality to the poor CHAP. XXXI THe third and fourth are thankfulness and humility which are no way inferiour to the former Thankfulness and humility are the only means to enrich us with Gods blessings but pride and unthankfulness is the only way to make God withdraw and take from us both himself and his blessings Because the King of Assyria said By the power of mine arme have I done it and by my wisdom for I am prudent therefore saith the Lord I have removed the borders of the people and have spoiled their treasures and have pulled down the Inhabitants like a valiant man Isay 10. 13. AEsops Crow not content with her own likenesse borrowed a feather of every bird and she became so proud that she scorned them all which the birds observing they came and pluckt each one their feather back and so left her naked even so does God deal with all proud and ingrateful persons There is nothing more pleasing to God nor profitable to us both for the procuring of the good we want or continuing the good we have then humility and thankfulness Yea to the humble and thankful soul nothing shall be wanting God will sowe there and there only plenty of his blessings where he is sure to reap plenty of thanks and service but who will sowe those barren sands where they are sure not only to be without all hope of a good harvest but are sure to lose both their seed and labour Yet fools as we are we forfeit many of Gods favours for not paying that easie quit-rent of thankfulness Ingratitude forfeits mercies as Merchants do all to the King by not paying of custome Because Pharaoh saith The River is mine own therefore God saith I will dry up the River Ezek. 29. 3 to 13. Isaiah 19. 5 6. Deut. 11. 9 10. Tamberlain having overcome Bajazet he asked him whether he had ever given God thanks for making him so great an Emperour he confest ingenuously he had never thought of it to whom Tamberlain replyed that it was no marvel so ingrateful a man should be made such a spectacle of misery When the people sought themselves only and how to have their houses ceiled and sumptuous neglecting the house of God and his honour thus it fared with them Ye have sowen much and have reaped little and he that earneth wages carneth wages to put it into a bag with holes Ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it I called for a drought upon the land and upon all that it bringeth forth and upon all the labour of the hands c. Again when they sought Gods glory and were thankful mark the difference even from this very day will I bless you saith God Hag. 1. 4. to 12 2 18 19. He that is unthankful for a little is worthy of nothing whereas thanks for one good turn is the best introduction to another Holy David was a man after Gods own heart and therefore he ever mixeth with his prayers praises Bless the Lord ô my soul sayes he and forget not all his benefits Psal. 103. 2. And being of a publick spirit he discovers the secrets of this skill as when he saith Let the people praise thee ô God let all the people praise thee then shall the earth bring forth her increase and God even our God shall give us his blessing Psal. 67. 5 6 7. Wherefore be not like the Swine that feeds upon the Acorns without ever looking to the Oake from whence they fall Or the Horse that drinks of the Brook and never thinks of the Spring Yea since God is the fountain from which all our enjoyments flow let this be our continual determination He hath given us all the grace good and happiness we have and we will give him all the possible thanks and honour we can Yea teach us ô Lord to receive the benefit of thy merciful favour and to return thee the thanks and the glory And the like of Humility Blessed are the meek saith our Saviour for they shall inherit the earth Matth. 5. 5. The reward of humility and the fear of God is riches and honour and life Prov. 22 4. If there be a hollow in a valley lower then another thither the waters gather And the more lowly we are in our own eyes the more lovely we are in Gods the more despicable in our selves the more acceptable in him as is seen in the example of the Publican Luke 18. 13 14. And the Prodigal Luke 15. 18 19 c. Nor can any thing make us more acceptable to God then the conscience of our own unworthiness when with Jacob we can say O Lord I am not worthy of the least of all the
comfort when even his bread wine the feathers of his bed his shirt garments and every thing else turned into that hard mettal as Fulgentius delivers it he had his desire but so as he would gladly now have unpray'd his prayers Alass how often does riches without Gods blessing upon them prove or become the owners ruine Many a young Heir hath a great and fair estate left him and is cryed up as happy but it proves to him within a while even like the Ark to the Philistines which did them more hurt than good and so fares it with all that forget God and are unthankful to him for what they have Neither is this all For CHAP. V. THirdly there are abundance of men that God doth not onely withdraw his blessing from them but sends his curse with the riches he bestowes As suppose a man growes never so rich by indirect meanes as some care nor how but what and how much they get for to get one scruple of gold they will make no scruple of conscience they care not to make many poor to make themselves rich for they have consciences like a barn door as loving money better than themselves yea they care not so they may get silver if they loose their souls Now God not seldom suffers such to grow very rich but together with their riches they have the curse of God whereby they become the worse and not the better for them There is an evill sickness sales Solomon that I have seen under the sun to wit riches reserved to the owners thereof for their hurt Eccles. 5. 13. To which accords that of the Prophet Malachy If ye will not hear it nor consider it in your heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and will curse your blesings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not consider it in your hearts Mal. â— 2. Their riches are seeming benefits very curses even gifts given in wrath as a King unto Israel I gave them a King in my wrath saith the Lord Hosea â—3 11. And so of their Quaeiles He gave them their desire but he sent leannesse into their soules Psal. 106. 15. They did eat and were well filled yet turned they not from their lusts but the flesh was yet between their teeth before it was chewed even the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people and the Lord smote the people with an exceeding great plague Numb. 11. 33. Psal. 78 29 30 31. And in another place Let their table be a suare unto them and their prosperity their ruine Psal. 69. 22. They had better have had no meat then such sauce withall The covetous Cormorant and unthankful wretch deales with God as a dog does with his master who devoureth by and by whatever he can catch and gapeth continually after more and it were a marvel that God should answer him with such abundance and as it were be still pouring water into that vessel which already runs over considering his monstrous unthankfulness were it not to rot the hoops and chines that so the whole cask may break in pieces were there not poyson mixt with it I mean Gods secret curse as I shall suddenly shew We well know that a Ship may be so laden as that her very freight may be the cause of her sinking Demonioa having betrayed Ephesus where all her friends and kindred were to Brennus of Seuona for the love of gain was brought to a great heap of gold and loaded so heavy therewith that she dyed under the burthen Tarpeia for the desire she had of all the gold bracelets which the Sabines wore about their left armes when they went to besiege Room sold the Fort or Castle of the City wherein there was a great Garrison of which her Father Tarpeius was Captain to the Sabines and asking for reward of her treason Fatius the Sabines General according to his promise when she had opened them a gaete in the night and let them in commanded his whole Army to do as he did who taking the bracelet which himself wore on his left arm and his target did hang them about her neck and so all the rest untill she being bowed down to the ground with the weight of them was pressed to death under the burthen And much after this manner does God deal with unmerciful misers and all wicked and ungrateful men As see the sad condition of a man to whom God gives riches in wrath it is so well worth your knowledge and observation that David was very inquisitive with the Lord about it Psal. 73. 3. to 13 and likewise the Prophet Jeremy chap. 12. Righteous art thou O Lord when I speak with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring sorth fruit thou art neer in their mouth and far from their reines ver. 1 2 3. Yea it is admirable to consider how the tabernacles of robbers do prosper how secure they are that provoke God and how abundantly God giveth into their hands Job 12. 6. They increase in riches wax fat and shine Jerem. 5. 28. They are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued like other men their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart can wish yea there are no bands in their death Psalm 73. and many the like places But hear all and ye will never envy their prosperity neither will your teeth water after their dainties as what is ever the conclusion their felicity and happiness is no sooner mentioned but it followes And thou diddest set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction they are brought into desolation in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrours Psalm 73. 18. to the 21. verse Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter Ierem. 12. 3. They spend their dayes in wealth and in a moment they go down into hell Job 21. 13. Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God Psal. 55. 19. But no greater judgement then thus to be free from judgements Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone saith God Hosea 4. 17. And the like I will not visit your daughters when they are harlots nor your Spouses when they are whores ver. 14. and hereupon all they do is well But think it not an argument of Gods favour or dispensation that thou and thousands more do prosper in their wickedness that some eminent judgement is not executed speedily upon them while they are contriving their deep and divelish plots For though prosperous wickednesse is one of the devils strongest chaines yet there cannot be a greater unhappiness an heavier curse than to prosper in ill designs and ungracious courses Such a mans preservation is but a
The Prevention of Poverty Together with the Cure of Melancholy Alias Discontent Or the best and surest way to Wealth and Happiness being Subjects very seasonable for these Times wherein all are Poor or not pleased or both when they need be neither By Rich. Younge of Roxwel in Essex Florilegus Imprimatur Joseph Caryl LONDONâ—â—â—nted by R. W. Leybourn and are to be sold by James Crumpe a Book-binder in Little Bartholomews Well-yard 1655. Of the Prevention of Poverty By R. Y. VErtue is distributive and loves not to bury benefits but to pleasure all she can And happy is he that leaves such a president for which both the present and future Ages shall praise him and praise God for him It was no small comfort I suppose to Cuthemberg Anaximenes Triptolemus Columbus and other the like whose happiness it was to finde out Printing the Dial the Plough to enrich the World with the best of Metals with the Loadstone and a thousand the like But had they smothered their conceptions as so many lights under a bushel and not communicated the same for the publick it had argued in them a great dearth of charity whereas now to the glory of God all men are the better for them Nor is any employment so honorable as for a man to serve his generation and be profitable to many When like the Moon we bestow the benefits received from God to the profit and commodity of others It is the Suns excellency that his bright rayes and beamns are dispersed into every corner of the Universe The Tragick Buskin as they say would fit all that should put it on Here is that will much benefit thee being made use of be thy condition good or bad rich or poor learned or unlearned mental or manual The which to conceal would argue in the Authour either too much lucre or too little love Even the Physician that hath a sovereigne Receipt and dieth unrevealing it robs the world of many blessings which might multiply after his death leaving to all survivers this collection that he once did good to others but to do himselfe a greater C. E. The Prevention of POVERTY Together with the Cure of MELANCHOLY Alias DISCONTENT Or the best and surest way to Wealth and Happinesse Being Subjects very seasonable for these Times wherein all are Poor or not pleased or both when they need be neither THE PREFACE SECT. 1. WHen a Gentleman in Athens had his plate taken away by Ahashucrus as he was at dinner he smiled upon his friends saying I thank God that his Higness hath left me any thing So whatever befals us this should be our meditation It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Lam. 3. 22. Or this He that hath afflicted me for a time could have held me longer he that hath touched me in part could have stricken me in whole he that hath laid this upon my name or estate hath power to lay a greater rod both upon my body and soul without doing me the least wrong And indeed if we but think of our deliverance from the fire of Hell or that our names are writ in Heaven it is enough to make us both patient and thankful though the trifles we delight in be taken from us But most men are so far from this that if God does not answer their desires in every thing they will take pleasure in nothing they will slight all his present mercies and former favours because in one thing he crosses them Like Ahab they are more displeased for one thing they want or rather fain â—nd pretend they want or at least have no right unto than they are thankfull for a thousand things they enjoy though the least mercy they injoy is beyond their best merit They are ready to receive all while they return nothing but sin and disobedience wherein they more than abound for they have done more against God in one week than they have done for him ever since they were born Yea such sotts they are that if another displease them they will be revenged on themselves grow melancholy and discontent like foolish Children who will forbear their meat and grow sick of the sullens if never so little crost Yea though men have all their hearts can wish and might if they would and had but the wit and grace be as happy as any men alive yet some small trifle shall make them weary of themselves and every thing else as it fared with foolish Haman Esther 5. 13. More particularly if their purses grow light their hearts grow heavy yea as if men did delight to vex themselves how many are there that of happy make themselves miserable or more miserable than they need by looking upon miseries in multiplying glasses the opinion onely of being poor or fear that they may be so when they are old makes them never injoy a merry day when they neither want nor are like to doe and every man is so miserable as he thinks himself The tast of goods or evils does greatly depend on the opinion we have of them SECT. 2. Thus millions are miserable melancholy discontent by their own conceit when thousands would think themselves happy had they but a piece of their happiness Which discontent or melancholy occasions more murmuring amongsts us than ever there was among those Israelites in the wilderness an unthankfulness able to make or keep them poor and miserable and that everlastingly Indeed because judgement is not executed speedily Eccles. 8. 11. they think it no sin at all such is their ignorance Otherwise they might know that as the Israelites was so their murmuring is against even the holy One of Israel as Isaiah affirmed of Senuacherib 2 King 19. 22. And David of Goliah a Sam. 17. 36 45. The Lord sayes Moses to the people when they grumbled for want of bread and also to Datban and Abiram heareth your murmuring against him and what are we your murmurings are not against vs but against the Lord Exod. 16. 8. Numb. 16. 15 21. Onely this is the difference multitudes of them were destroyed suddenly even fourteen thousand and seven hundred at a clap yea they had all been consumed in a moment for their murmuring had not Moses stood up in the gap and interceded for them Numb. 16. 41. to 50. and 32. 10. to 14. and 26. 64 65 and 11. 12 33. and 14. 12 22 23. and 21. 5 6. Whereas millions among us do the like and are not stung with fiery Serpents as they were because they are reserved without repentance to a fiery Serpent in Hell Nor stricken with death temporall because reserved to death eternal But God is the same God still and as just now as ever though now under the Gospel instead of corporall judgements he inflicts many times spirituall as blindness of mind hardness of heart and finall impenitency the fore-runner of eternal destruction of body and soul in that burning lake Revel. 19 20. For why is their ruine recorded but
or winter and more before ten then after threescore There are graves of all fizes and likewise sculls in Golgotha as sayes the Hebrew proverb One dies in the bud another in the bloom some in the fruit few like the sheaf that comes to the barn in a full age Men may put far from them the evil day but they may finde it neerer then they are aware of Revel. 22. 12. The pitcher goes oft to the water but at length it comes broken home The cord breaks at last with the weakest pull as the Spanish proverb well noteth The tree falleth upon the last stroke yet all the former strokes help forwards A whirl-winde with one furious blast overturneth the greatest and tallest trees which for many years have been growing to their perfect strength and greatness so oftentimes the thrid of life breaketh when men think least of death as it fared with Saint Lukes fool who promised himself many years to live in ease mirth and jollity when he had not one night more to live Luke 12. 19 20. For when like a Jay he was pruning himself in the boughs he came tumbling down with the Arrow in his side John the 22th prophesied by the course of the Stars that he should live long but whilest he was vainly vaunting thereof the Chamber wherein he was fell down and bruised him to pieces His glasse was run when he thought it but new turned And the Axe was lifted to strike him to the ground when he never dreamed of the slaughter-house And whether thy soul shall be taken from thee this night as it fared with him formerly spoken of thou hast no assurance the very first night which the rich man intended for his rest proved his last night Nor was there any more between Nabals festival and his funeral then ten or a dozen dayes 1 Sam. 25. 38. And could any thing have hired death to have spared our forefathers they would have kept our possessions from us Neither is this all for if thou beest wicked and unmerciful thou hast no reason to expect other then a violent death for which see Job 24. 24. Psal. 37. 10 11. Job 36. 11 12. Psal. 37. 37 38 39. 55. 23. Prov. 12. 27. Great trees are long in growing but are rooted up in an instannt The Axe is laid to the root Matth. 3. 10. down it goes into the fire it must if it will not serve for fruit it must for fuel And what knowest thou but God may deal with thee as Mahomet did by John Justinian of Geneva who having taken Constantinople by his treason first made him King according to promise and within three dayes after cut off his head God may have fatted thee with abundance on purpose to send thee to the slaughter-house Nay why hath God spared thee so long as he hath probably not in love to thee but for some other end As perhaps God hath some progeny to come from thee As for good Hezekiah to be born his wicked Father Abaz is forborn Why did Ammon draw out two years breath in Idolatry but that good Iosia was to be fitted for a King Many sacrilegious extortioners Idollaters c. Are delivered or preserved because God hath some good fruit to come from their cursed loynes However thou canst not look to live many years The Raven the Phenix the Elephant the Lyon and the Hart fulfill their hundred yeares But man seldome lives to four score and thou art drawing towards it Besides the last moneth of the great yeare of the World is come upon us we are deep in December And that day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night for when thou shalt say peace and safety then shall come upon thee sudden destruction as the travel upon a woman with childe and thou shalt not escape as the Apostle speaks 1 Thess. 5. 2 3. That nothing is more certain then death nothing more uncertain then the houre thereof That this only is sure that there is nothing sure here below and that if we were owners of more land then ever the Devil proffered to Christ yet when death shall knock at our door no more can be called ours then the ground we are put into needs no more proof then experience See Psal. 37. 35 36. But Ninthly and lastly a godly mans desires are fixed upon the riches of the minde which being once had can never be lost The which Saint Augustine only counted true riches The wise and godly are of Pythagoras his minde who being asked why he cared no more for riches answered I despise those riches which by expending are wasted and lost and with sparing will rust and rot They are of Stilpons judgment who used to say All that is truly mine I carry with me They desire not so much to lay up treasure for themselvs upon earth but to lay up for themselvs in Heaven as their Lord and Master hath commanded them Matth. 6. 19 20. What saith the Apostle Let not covetousness be once named among Saints Ephes. 5. 3. As if that world which many prefer before Heaven were not worth talking of All worldly things are but lent us our houses of stone wherein our bodies dwell our houses of clay wherein our souls dwell are but lent us honours pleasures treasures money maintenance wives children friends c. but lent us we may say of them all as he said of the Ax-head when it fell into the water 2 Kings 6. 5. Alass they are but borrowed Only spiritual graces are given of those things there is only a true donation whereof there is a true possession worldly things are but as a Tabernacle a moveable heaven is a mansion Now put all these together and they will sufficiently shew that he is a fool or a mad man that prefers not spiritual riches which are subject to none of these casualties before temporal and transitory And so at lenght I have shewn you what it is not and what it is to be rich And I hope convinced the worldling that the richest are not alwayes the happiest Yea that they are the most miserable who swim in wealth wanting grace and Gods blessing upon what they do possesse while that man is incomparably happy to whom God in his love and favour giveth only a competency of earthly things and the blessing of contentation withall so as to be thankful for the same and desire no more I will now in discharge of my promise acquaint you how of poor melancholy and miserable you may become rich happy and cheerful CHAP. XXVIII THe which I shal do from the Word of God Nor need it seem strāge that for the improving of mens outward estates I prescribe them rules and directions from thence For would we be instructed in any necessary truth whether it be Theological concerning God Ecclesiastical The Church Political The Common-wealth Moral Our neighbours and friends Oeconomical Our private families Monastical Our selves Or be it touching Our Temporal estate
God God will not be wanting in any good thing to us Nor can we look that God should make good his promises if we make them void by not observing the condition as that we may do by our distrusting him If we will not dare to trust God upon his promise so confidently as we would a friend or some great man that is able and honest Besides the Lord hath promised that there shall be no want to them that fear him and that no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly Psal. 34. 9. 84. 11. Where observe two things there shall be no want to such and such shall want no good thing so that he must be such an one to whom the promise is made and he must also be sure that it is good for him which is promised But oftentimes it is not good for a man to abound with earthly blessings as strong drinke is not good for weake brains Yea if any thing be wanting to a good man he may be sure it is not good for him and then better that he doth want it then that he did enjoy it and what wise man will complain of the want of that which if he had would prove more hurtful then gainful to him as a sword to a mad man a knife to a childe drinke to them that have a Fever or the Dropsie No good thing will God with-hold c. and therefore not wants themselves which to many are also good yea very good things as I could reckon up many want sanctified is a notable means to bring to repentance to work in us amendment of life it stirs up to prayer it weans from the love of the world it keeps us always prepared for the spiritual combate discovers whether we be true believers or hypocrites prevents greater evils of sin and punishment to come It makes us humble conformable to Christ our head increaseth our faith our joy and thankfulnesse our spiritual wisdom and likewise our patience as I have largely shewen in The Benefit of Affliction To coonclude All good things were created for the good and therefore are they called goods because the good God created them for good men to do good withal Therefore as Jacob got the blessing so he gat the inheritance also to shew that as the faithful have the inward blessing so they have the outward blessing too when they will do them good and cause them to do good Yea in this case even as the sheaffs fell before Ruth so riches shall fall in our way as they did to Abraham and Lot and Jacob and Job and Joseph upon whom riches were cast they knew not how but as if God had onely said Be rich and they were rich straight But that this is the true and only way to wealth and happiness needs no more proof then that which is recorded of Solomon 1 Kings 3. 2 Chron. 1. where the Lord appearing to him in a dream said Ask what I shall give thee And he asking only an understanding heart to discern between good and evil that he might the better discharge that great place whereunto God had called him wherein Gods glory and the peoples good was his principal aime and end Heare what the Lords answer is Because this was in thine heart and thou hast not asked riches wealth or honour nor the life of thine enemies neither yet hast asked long life but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thy self that thou mightest judge my people over whom I have made thee King Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee and I will give thee riches wealth and honour such as none of the Kings have had that have been before thee neither shall there any after thee have the like c. Yea he was so surpassing rich that he gave silver in Jerusalem as stones and gave Cedars as the wilde fig-trees that grow abundantly in the plain 1. King 10. 27. 2 Chron. 1. 7 to 13 14 15. Lo the true way to Wealth honour and happiness is to desire grace that we may glorifie God and do good for cleering whereof I 'le give you a similitude A man spies a fair apple on a tree hath a longing desire to it whereupon he falls a shaking the tree with all his might at length it not only comes down but many other come down to him together with it And so much to prove that the way to become rich is first to become godly If any shall ask why the godly are not alwayes nor oft rich notwithstanding these promises I answer that God not seldom withholds these outward blessings from his own people in great love only affording them all things that they have need of Our heavenly Father who knows us better then we know our selves and what is good and fit for us even as the Nurse knows better then the childe and the Physician better then the Patient knows too well how apt we are to abuse these his mercies and that we cannot abound with earthly blessings but we grow proud and surfeit of them as we see Solomon himself did who was the wisest next to Adam in his innocency that ever lived and likewise how happy it is for them to be kept short And when the All-wise God does fore-see that men will serve him as the Prodigal son served his father who only prayed untill he had got his patrimony and then forsook him and spent the same in riot to the givers dishonour even as the cloud that is lifted up and advanced by the Sun obscures the Sun In this case he either denies them riches in mercy as he denied Saint Paul in his suit 2 Cor. 12. 8 9. And our Saviour himself Matth. 26. 39. Or grants them their riches in wrath Hosea 13. 11. Psal. 106. 15. of which I have largely spoken in the foregoing pages where I have declared how miserable they are who swim in wealth wanting grace and Gods blessing upon what they do possesse This is the first and main step to riches and the next is like unto it viz. bounty and liberality to the poor members of Jesus Christ For CHAP. XXX SEcondly He that would be a rich man let him be a merciful man and do good with what God hath already given him be it never so little for there is not a more sure and infallible way to increase and multiply a mans outward estate then in being charitable to the poor if we will believe Gods Word As what saith our Saviour Give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosome Luke 6. 38. Matth. 7. 2. Mark 4. 24. In which regard it may be truly said Eleëmosyna non est divitiarum dispendium sed ditescendi potius compendium quaestusque omnium uberrimus And to this accords that place in the Proverbs There is that scattereth and is more increased but he that spareth more then is right shall surely come to