A20764:84
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 plea of the poor. Or A treatise of beneficence and alms-deeds teaching how these Christian duties are rightly to be performed, and persuading to the frequent doing of them. Necessary for these times, wherein the works of mercy are so much neglected, or so undiscreetly practiced. Published by John Downame Bachelor in Divinity.The plea of the poore. Or A treatise of benificence and almes-deeds teaching how these Christian duties are rightly to be performed, and perswading to the frequent doing of them. Necessary for these times, wherein the workes of mercy are so much neglected, or so vndiscreetly practized. Published by Iohn Downame Bachelour in Diuinitie.
London: printed by Edward Griffin for Ralph Mabbe, 1616
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.
Sect. 4. We must so give to one as that we do not neglect many.
Sect. 4. We must so giue to one as that we do not neglect many.
Yet because great benefits can reach but to few, and almsdeeds must extend to many, wisdom as much as may be avoideth both extremes, and so giveth to one, as that many others may not be neglected. And therefore the godly man maketh wisdom to deal the dole, because nothing is well done which is done without it. For as the heathen man saith, non est beneficiū nisi quod ratione datur, quoniam ratio omnis honesti comes est. 1It is not a benefit which is not given with reason, because reason is the guide and companion of all honest and virtuous actions. And in this regard almsdeeds are fitly likened unto sowing of 2seed, wherein the rule is, manuserendum non thylaco, the seed is to be cast out of the hand, and not out of the whole sack, and strained through ⟨p. 27⟩the fingers, that it may be scattered abroad and so go far, and not poured on heaps, which were non serere but congerere, not to sow but to surcharge the ground with superfluity in one place, and to cast nothing in another. And thus in giving alms, we must cast the seed of our beneficence with an even and indifferent hand, not upon one or two alone, but upon many, for it is the nature of goodness, as the schoolmen speak to be diffusiva sui, extending it self to the benefit of many. The which is also signified by that phrase of casting our bread upon 3the face of the waters, where he useth the plural number to intimate unto us, that the object of our bounty should be many, and not one or some few; and by the phrase of communicating, which the Apostle useth.