The plea of the poor. Or A treatise of beneficence and alms-deeds teaching how…The plea of the poore. Or A treatise of benificence and almes-deeds teaching how…

The reasons also to prove this are clear and manifest. For first, virtue and goodness are so ¹excellent in their own nature, that they bring always their reward with them. This appeareth in many places of this book of the Psalms, where the Prophet preferreth Gods commandments and the keeping of them before gold and all manner of riches, as being much more profitable, and before the honey and the honey comb, ²as being much more sweet and pleasant. So the wise man commendeth wisdom, that is, the knowledge and practise of true godliness, before silver, gold, and precious stones. And Job telleth us that it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with ³the precious Onyx, or the Sapphire; the gold and the crystal cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. And this even the heathen man discerned by the light of nature; O ⁴virtue (saith he) if we could behold thee with bodily eyes, with what admirable love wouldest thou inflame us. And another affirmeth, that in ⁵whom soever virtue is, there is nothing wanting ⟨p. 6⟩