Prison-Pietie or, Meditations Divine and Moral. Digested into Poetical Heads, On Mixt and Various Subjects. Whereunto is added A Panegyrick to The Right Reverend, and most Nobly descended, Henry, Lord Bishop of London. By Samuel Speed, Prisoner in Ludgate, London |
 |
On the worth of Wealth. |
 | Prison-Pietie |  |
125
On the worth of Wealth.
The good that is in Riches doth consistIn the right use thereof: for if we list
To shew it in its lustre and its worth,
It must be us'd like Ointment poured forth.
The womans box, if it had not been broke,
Its vertue (like the dumb) had never spoke.
So hoarded Wealth that hath much labour cost,
By being so recluse, its worth is lost:
The sweet refreshments of those glittering Embers
Infuse a heat in Christ's distressed Members.
He that is covetous may justly write
On rusty heaps, This ore corrupts my sight:
They breed but Care, and are for nothing good;
Might cloath the Naked, finde the Hungry food.
Chrysostome well observes, he is not rich
That lays up much: He is more happy which
Doth much lay out, but not in ways profuse;
It's all one, not to have, and not to use.
He that relieves the Poor with what he hath,
Makes for himself a purging healing Bath.
He that hath pity on the poor, doth lend
Unto the Lord: and God's our firmest friend.
| Prison-Pietie | |