The rich mans charge delivered in a sermon at the Spittle upon Monday in…The rich mans charge delivered in a sermon at the Spittle vpon Monday in…

He doth not then forbid to be rich: Riches are the good gifts of God, Prov. 10. 22. The Lord had in his Church, as well a rich Abraham, Job, David, Solomon, as a poor Lazarus. Yea, in those times of danger and persecution, the Spirit of the Lord which bloweth where it listeth, did find out a Joseph of Arimathea, a Sergius Paulus, a Pudens, (who was a man of a Senatorian order, as Baronius telleth us, married unto Claudia, a Lady of this Island, of which marriage we read in Martial's Epigrams.) Yea, we read of Saints in the ¹Family of Narcissus, who was that vast rich man, worth Ten Millions of pounds in the days of Claudius the Emperor; for of him do Calvin, P. Martyr, Paraeus, Grotius, and other Learned men understand that place, Rom. 16. 11. though ²Baronius think that he was dead when that Epistle was written. We find mention likewise of Saints that were of Caesars Household, Phil. 4. 22. If any place in the World were like Hell, certainly Nero's Court was the place, yet even there we meet with some that belonged unto Heaven. Rich then he forbids them not to be.

He doth not then forbid to be rich: Riches are the good gifts of God, Prov. 10. 22. The Lord had in his Church, as well a rich Abraham, Job, David, Solomon, as a poor Lazarus. Yea, in those times of danger and persecution, the Spirit of the Lord which blowcth where it listeth, did finde out a Joseph of Arimathea, a Sergius Paulus, a Pudens, (who was a man of a Senatorian order, as Baronius telleth us, married unto Claudia, a Lady of this Island, of which marriage we read in Martials Epigrams.) Yea, we read of Saints in the ¹Family of Narcissus, who was that vast rich man, worth Ten Millions of pounds in the days of Claudius the Emperor; for of him do Calvin, P. Martyr, Paraeus, Grotius, and other Learned men understand that place,