A20559:533
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.
The third and last duty here commanded, is to show mercy to the needy, that want, according to your ability, and their necessity. This Christ commands, Luke. 12. 33. Sell that you have and make you bags that wax not old. Where Christ exhorting them to be merciful, meets with a common objection. Indeed I would willingly bestow something upon Christ, I owe him a good turn, and could find in my heart to pay him, but alas I have nothing to give, yet have you nothing to sell? never a strike of corn, never a piece of land, no spare household stuff, that you can spare for Christ? If you have sold it, and give it to Christ, & for Christs sake, even as wicked a man will rather sell something to serve his lust then that he will have it unserved, so do you rather sell something for Christs sake, then let him go unserved. & show that you love him as well, as they love their lust. O but if I should sell and give thus, I should be beggared; nay Christ wills no man to beggar himself, but make you bags; this is such a treasure, as no other is like it, you should get a more excellent increase, for no other treasure, but it is of that nature that either of it self it will corrupt, & the canker & rust will set on & bring it to naught, or else the thief may meet with it so that one is in continual danger, to loose it, & become poor. But this is such a kind of treasure as in it self it is eternal, and it is so surely kept that no man can deprive us of it by force or craft, and then another benefit is, Where your treasure is, there is your heart also. This is a good effect that if you lay up a treasure in heaven, your hearts will follow also. What is the ⟨p. 49⟩reason that many men can come so hardly, and with such difficulty to think or speak of heaven, that we may as easily make a great millstone ascend up into the skies, as to draw their thoughts to heavenward? it cannot be, because their treasure is not their, they have sent nothing before them thither. Worldly men can talk nimbly and readily of grounds & money and beasts, because they have laid up their treasure in these things, and let one go whether he will from one end of the world to the other, his heart will still be there where his treasure lies, of this he will talk at his table, in the field as he walks, as he lies, every where, and he is not weary. The treasure draws the hart unto it.
The third and last dutie heere commaunded, is to shew mercie to the needie, that want, according to your abilitie, and their necessitie. This Christ commaunds,