A preparative to marriage The sum whereof was spoken at a contract, and enlarged…A preparatiue to mariage The summe whereof was spoken at a contract, and inlarged…

He had no goods, nor lands, nor money, to give by his testament. A rich man when he dieth, bestoweth the money which he hath gathered, and forgiveth many debts which are owing him, but Christ had nothing to give, nor any thing to forgive. The Lord of all had least of all, and he might say like his servant Peter, ¹Gould and silver have I none, no not a grave to bury his body in, but the grave which Joseph made for ²himself, served to bury Christ. His Father was a Carpenter, but never made any house for himself: ³his Mother lay in a stable ⁴for want of a Chamber: his Disciple was fain to borrow twenty ⁵pence for him of a fish: therefore when one offered, Master, I will ⁶follow thee, thinking to gain by ⟨image 105⟩his service, like them which retain to noble men; he replied unto him, The foxes have holes, and the fowls have nests, but the Son of man hath not a house to hide his head: showing, that the beasts & fowls were richer than he; therefore when he had nothing to give, he gave himself, and when he had no debtors to forgive, he forgave his enemies: what then, this is a ⁷poor and weak testament, which gave nothing; oh the goodlyest testament that ever was made, for it bringeth to us the remission of sins. Is it such a matter to forgive sins? yea, the greatest benefit in all the world, nay, a greater benefit than all the world: for ⁸thus it stood, thou haddest committed high treason against the Queens person, thou art detected, apprehended, accused, convicted, ⟨image 105⟩