A20559:464
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A…
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandments gathered from the mouth of a faithful pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholar in Cambridge.The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandements gathered from the mouth of a faithfull pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholler in Cambridge.
London: printed by John Harison for Thomas Man, 1603London: printed by Iohn Harison for Thomas Man, 1603
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
An other point of honesty is to take order about the poor in a good honest sort. First, for rogues and runagates that being strong and lusty, make begging and wandering their trade of life, that they be severely punished and set to work.
An other point of honestie is to take order about the poore in a good honest sort. First, for rogues and runnagates that being strong and lustie, make begging and wandring their trade of life, that they be seuerely punished and set to worke.
That no maintenance or allowance be given unto them, for as the Apostle saith, He that will not work, let him not eat. And what more dishonest thing in a Christian commonwealth, then that such men should be permitted which pollute the air, and fill the land with sin? making their whole life nothing else but a continual practise of filthiness, theft, and idleness, sons of Sodom, that live without a calling, without a magistracy, ⟨p. 31⟩without a ministry. That neither glorify God, nor serve the prince, not profit the commonwealth, but are an unspeakable burden to the earth, & blot to the state, as drones living on other mens labours, and the sweat of other mens brows. These filthy persons, this cursed and ungodly offspring, and unprofitable generation, this dross of the land, refuse and of scouring of the world, must be purged away by the hand of the magistrate, in whom hand there is power, and to whom God hath for this intent committed the sword that they cut off or amend such rotten branches. And this the excellent and worthy example of Job sufficiently confirms, who though he was abundant in mercy, and in all liberty to the poor and needy, whose necessity not idleness made them stand in need of his help, so that he was an eye to the blind, (as every good magistrate especially, ought to be) and a foot to the lame &c. yet for these wicked persons, he so hated their sons, and so sharply punished their persons, as that they had rather fly to the wilderness, and embrace the rocks, lye among the bushes, and eat the Juniper roots, then be seen in that place where Job had any thing to do, or come within the limits of his authority, yea so infamous where they grown, that men shouted at them as at a thief, and they were almost quite banished from the company of men. And he gives this reason, they were villains and the sons of villains, more base and vile, then the earth which they tread upon; this sentence the holy Ghost gives of these young and lusty roguing vagrants. But one might say be they not men, and bear Gods image? Nay saith he, they have so defaced Gods Image, as that they be not to be compared to the dogs of my flock; the dogs of the flock do good in defending the sheep, but these are good for nothing but to dishonour God, and stain and defile the land with all filthiness and whoredom.