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…

These are the best excuses which our Usurers have to plead for themselves, against they come ⟨image 153⟩before the tribunal of GOD; and if their reasons will not stand before men nor their own conscience, how will they stand before the Lord?

These are the best excuses which our Vsurers haue to pleade for themselues, against they come ⟨image 153⟩before the tribunall of GOD; and if their reasons will not stande before men nor their owne conscience, how will they stande before the Lorde?

Now, you long to hear what ¹the Usurer is like. To what shall I liken this generation? They are like a Butlers box: for as all the counters at last come to the Butler; so all the money at last cometh to the Usurer, ten after ten, and ten after ten, and ten to ten, till at last he receive not only ten for an hundred, but an hundred for ten. This is the only difference, that the Butler can receive no more than he delivered: but the Usurer receiveth more than he delivereth. They are like a Moth; even as a Moth eateth a hole in cloth, so Usury eateth a hole in silver: If you have a piece of silver which ⟨image 153⟩is as much as an hundred pounds, in one year Usury will eat a hole in it as big as ten pounds: in two years she will eat a hole as big as twenty pounds: in three years she will eat a hole as big as thirty pounds. Nay, now they say, he is but a bad husband which cannot eat a hole as big as fifty pounds in a year: that is, which cannot gain half in half: how many holes have these Moths eaten in poor mens garments? They are like Nonresidents, that is, such bad members that no man speaketh for them but themselves. As no man standeth for Nonresidency but he which is a Nonresident, or he which would be a Nonresident: so no man standeth for Usury but he which is an Usurer, or he which would be an Usurer. They are like Jezebel, which said, Let me