The white devilThe white deuil

Nay, he terms it no better then a waste and a losse: [Greek or Hebrew]? ad quid perditio haec? ^aWhy is this wast? What, lost and given to Jesus? can there be any waste in ²the creatures due service to the Creator? no: pietas est, ⟨p. 14⟩pro pietate sumptus facere: this is godliness, to be at cost with God: therefore our fathers left behind them (deposita pietatis) pledges, evidences, sure testimonies of their Religion, in honouring Christ with their riches: (I mean not those in the days of Popery, but before ever the locusts of the Papal sea made our Nation drunk with her enchanted cup:) they thought it no waste either (nova construere, aut vetera conseruare) to build new Monuments to Christs honour, or to better the old ones: we may say of them, as Rome bragged of Augustus Caesar: quae inuenerunt lateritia, reliquerunt marmorea: what they found of Brick, they left of Marble; in imitation of that precedent in Isaiah, though with honester hearts: ^bThe bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewen stones: the Sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into Cedars. In those days, charity to the Church was not counted waste: The people of England, devout like those of Israel, cried one to another (afferte) Bring ye into Gods house; till they were stayed with a statute of Mort-main, like ^cMoses prohibition, the people bring too much, but now they changed a letter, and cry, (Auferte) take away as fast as ever they gave, and no Inhibition of God or Moses, Gospel or statute, can restrain their violence: till the Alabaster box be as empty of oil, as their own consciences are of grace. We need not stint your devotion, but your devoration: every contribution to Gods service is held waste: ad quid perditio haec? now any required ornament to the church is held waste: but swallowing down (I say not, of ornaments, as things better spared, but) necessary maintenance, Tithes, Fruits, Offerings, are all too little: Gentlemen in these cold Countries have very good stomachs, they can devour (and digest too) three or four plump Personages; in Italy, Spain, and those hot Countries, (or else nature and experience too lies) a Temporal man cannot swallow a morsel or bit of a spiritual preferment, but it is reluctant in his stomach, up it comes again: surely these Northern Countries, coldly situate,