A12367:260
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…
A preparative to marriage The sum whereof was spoken at a contract, and enlarged after. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of the Lords Supper, and another of usury. By Henry Smith.A preparatiue to mariage The summe whereof was spoken at a contract, and inlarged after. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of the Lords Supper, and another of vsurie. By Henrie Smith.
London: printed by Thomas Orwin for Thomas Man, 1591
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thirdly, as it is against the law of Nations, so it is against the law 1of Nature, that is, the natural compassion which should be among men. You see a river when it goeth by an empty place, it will 2not pass until it hath filled that empty place, & then it goeth forward to another empty place and filleth it, and so to another empty place and filleth it, always filling the places which are empty: so should we, the rich should fill the poor, the full should fill the hungry, they which abound should fill them which want, for the rich are but Gods Amners, and their riches ⟨image 139⟩are committed to them of God to distribute and do good as GOD doth himself: As the water is charitable after a sort, so is the air, for it goeth to empty places too, and filleth them as the water doth. Nature cannot abide that any place should be empty, and therefore the air though it be a light body, and so naturally ascendeth upward: yet rather than any place in the earth should be empty, the air will descend as it were from his throne, and go into caves, into dens, and into dungeons, to fill them. If the rich were so good to their empty brethren, as the air and water are to other empty things; as there is no empty place in the world, so there should be no empty person in the world: that is, the rich in Israel would fill the poor in Israel, but ⟨image 140⟩the rich make the poor to fill them, for Usurers feed upon the poor, even as great fishes devour the small. Therefore he which said Let there not be a beggar in Israel, 3said too, let there not be an Usurer in Israel, for if there be Usurers in Israel, there will be beggars in Israel, for Usurers make beggars, even as Lawyers make quarrellers.
Thirdly, as it is against the law of Nations, so it is against the law 1of Nature, that is, the naturall compassion which should bee among men. You see a riuer when it goeth by an emptie place, it will