it would not have been more profitably bestowed. So that it is not more hard to wrench a strong nail, as the proverb saith, out of a post, than to wring a farthing out of our fingers. There is nei ther the fear nor the love of God before our eyes; we will more esteem a mite, than we either desire God's kingdom, or fear the devil's dungeon. Hearken, therefore, ye merciless misers, what will be the end of this your unmerciful dealing. As certainly as God nourished this poor widow in the time of famine, and encreased her little store, so that she had enough and felt no penury when other pined away, so certainly shall God plague you with poverty in the middes of plenty. Then, when other have abundance and be fed to the full, you shall utterly waste and consume away yourselves; your store shall be destroyed, your goods plucked from you; all your glory and wealth shall perish; and that which when you had you might have enjoyed yourself in peace, and might have bestowed upon other most godly, ye shall seek with sorrow and sighs, and no where shall find it. For your unmercifulness towards other ye shall find no man that will shew mercy towards you. You that had stony hearts towards other shall find all the creatures of God to youwards as hard as brass and iron.

Alas, what fury and madness doth possess our minds, that in a matter of truth and certainty we will not give credit to the truth, testifying unto Matt. vi. 33. that which is most certain. Christ saith that, if we will first seek the kingdom of God, and do the works of righteousness thereof, we shall not be left destitute, all other things shall be given to us plenteously. Nay, say we, I will first look that I be able to live myself, and be sure that I have enough for me and mine; and, if I have any thing over, I will bestow it to get God's favour, and the poor shall then have part with me. See, I pray you, the perverse judgment of men. We have more care to nourish the carcase, than we have

Eleemosyna.

fear to see our soul perish. And, as Cyprian saith, Serm. de "whilst we stand in doubt lest our goods fail in being over liberal, we put it out of doubt that our life and health faileth in not being liberal at all. Whilst we are careful for diminishing of our stock, we are altogether careless to diminish ourselves. We love mammon, and lose our souls. We fear lest our patrimony should perish from us, but we fear not lest we should perish for it." Thus do we perversely love that we should hate, and hate that we should love; we be negligent where we should be careful, and careful where we need not.

;

This vain fear to lack ourselves, if we give to the poor, is much like the fear of children and fools, which when they see the bright glimpsing of a glass, they do imagine straightway that it is the lightning, and yet the brightness of a glass never was the lightning. Even so, when we imagine that by spending upon the poor a man may come to poverty, we are cast into a vain fear for we never heard nor knew, that by that means any man came to misery, and was left destitute, and not considered of God. Nay, we read to the contrary in the Scripture, as I have before shewed, and as by infinite testimonies and examples may be proved, that, whosoever serveth God faithfully and unfeignedly in any vocation, God will not suffer him to decay, much less to perish. The Holy Ghost teacheth us by Salomon, that the Lord will not Prov. x. 3. suffer the soul of the righteous to perish for hunger. And therefore David saith unto all them that are merciful, O fear the Lord, ye that be his saints; for Ps. xxxiv. they that fear him lack nothing. The lions do lack 9, 10, and suffer hanger; but they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good. When Elias was in the desert, God fed him by the Kings xvii. ministry of a raven, that evening and morning brought him sufficient victuals. When Daniel was shut up in the lions' den, God prepared Bel and the meat for him, and sent it thither to him. And Dragon, 30there was the saying of David fulfilled: The lions

2-6.

39.

do lack and suffer hunger; but they which seek the Lord shall want no good thing. For, while the lions, which should have been fed with his flesh, roared for hunger and desire of their prey, whereof they had no power, although it were present before them, he in the meantime was fresh fed from God, that should with his flesh have filled the lions. So mightily doth God work to preserve and maintain those whom he loveth; so careful is he also to feed them who in any state or vocation do unfeignedly serve him. And shall we now think that he will be unmindful of us, if we be obedient to his word, and according to his will have pity upon the poor? He gives us all wealth before we do any service for it; and will he see us to lack necessaries when we do him true service? Can a man think that he that feedeth Christ can be forsaken of Christ and left without food? or will Christ deny earthly things unto them whom he promiseth heavenly things for his true service?

It cannot be therefore, dear brethren, that by giving of alms we should at any time want ourselves; or that we, which relieve other men's need, should ourselves be oppressed with penury. It is contrary to God's word; it repugneth with his promise; it is against Christ's property and nature to suffer it; it is the crafty surmise of the devil to persuade us it. Wherefore stick not to give alms freely, and trust notwithstanding, that God's goodness will minister unto us sufficiency and plenty, so long as we shall live in this transitory life, and, after our days here well spent in his service and the love of our brethren, we shall be crowned with everlasting glory, to reign with Christ our Saviour in heaven. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory for ever. Amen.

AN

HOMILY OR SERMON

CONCERNING

THE NATIVITY AND BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR
JESUS CHRIST.

V. 1; ix. 6:

AMONG all the creatures that God made in the beginning of the world most excellent and wonderful in their kind, there was none, as Scripture beareth witness, to be compared almost in any point unto man; who, as well in body and in soul, exceeded all other no less than the sun in brightness and light exceedeth every small and little star in the firmament. He was made according to the image and similitude of God; he was indued with Gen. i. 26, 27; all kind of heavenly gifts; he had no spot of un- James iii. 9. cleanness in him; he was sound and perfect in all parts, both outwardly and inwardly; his reason was uncorrupt; his understanding was pure and good; his will was obedient and godly; he was made altogether like unto God in righteousness, in holiness, in wisdom, in truth, to be short, in all kind of perfection. When he was thus created and made, Almighty God, in token of his great love towards him, chose out a special place of the earth for him, namely, Paradise; where he lived in all tranquillity and pleasure, having great abundance of worldly goods, and lacking nothing that he might justly require or desire to have. For, as it is said, God made him lord and ruler over all the works Ps. viii, 6-8,

of his hands, that he should have under his feet all sheep and oxen, all beasts of the field, all fowls of the air, all fishes of the sea, and use them always at his own pleasure, according as he should have need. Was not this a mirror of perfection? Was not this a full, perfect, and blessed estate? Could any thing else be well added hereunto? or greater felicity desired in this world?

But, as the common nature of all men is in time of prosperity and wealth to forget not only themselves but also God, even so did this first man Adam: who, having but one commandment at God's hand, namely, that he should not eat of the fruit of knowledge of good and ill, did notwithstanding most unmindfully, or rather most wilfully, break it, in forgetting the strait charge of his Maker, and giving ear to the crafty suggestion of that wicked serpent the devil. Whereby it came to pass, that, as before he was blessed, so now he was accursed; as before he was loved, so now he was abhorred; as before he was most beautiful and precious, so now he was most vile and wretched, in the sight of his Lord and Maker. Instead of the image of God, he was become now the image of the devil; instead of the citizen of heaven, he was become the bondslave of hell; having in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness, but being altogether spotted and defiled; insomuch that now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin, and therefore by the just judgment of God was condemned to everlasting death.

This so great and miserable a plague, if it had only rested on Adam, who first offended, it had been so much the easier, and might the better have been borne. But it fell not only on him, but also on his posterity and children for ever; so that the whole brood of Adam's flesh should sustain the selfsame fall and punishment which their forefather by his offence most justly had deserved. St. Paul Rom. v. 18, 19. in the fifth chapter to the Romans saith, By the