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Bshps ECC Chapter 5

5 When thou commest into the house of God, kepe thy foote and drawe nye, that God which is at hande may heare that thou geue not the offerynges of fooles: for they knowe naught but to do euyll. 2 Be not hastye with thy mouth, and let not thine heart speake any thyng rashly before God: For God is in heauen, and thou vpon earth, therfore let thy wordes be fewe. 3 For where much carefulnesse is, there are many dreames: and where many wordes are, there men may heare fooles. 4 If thou make a vowe vnto God, be not slacke to perfourme it: As for foolish vowes he hath no pleasure in them: yf thou promise any thyng, pay it. 5 For better is it that thou make no vowe, then that thou shouldest promise and not pay. 6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy fleshe for to sinne, neither say thou before the angell that it is thy ignoraunce: for then God wyll be angry at thy voyce, and destroy all the worke of thyne handes. 7 And why? wheras are many dreames and many wordes, there are also diuers vanities: but loke that thou feare God. 8 If thou seest the poore to be oppressed, and wrongfully dealt withall, so that equitie and right of the lawe is wrested in the lande, maruayle not thou at such a thyng: for he that is higher then the hyghest regardeth, and there be hygher then they. 9 The encrease of the earth vpholdeth all thyng: yea the kyng hym selfe is maynteyned by husbandry. 10 He that loueth money, wyll neuer be satisfied with money: and he that loueth riches, shalbe without the fruite therof: This is also a vayne thyng. 11 Wheras much riches is, there are many also that spende them away: And what pleasure more hath he that possesseth them, sauyng that he may loke vpon them with his eyes? 12 A labouryng man sleepeth swetely, whether it be litle or much that he eateth: but the aboundaunce of the riche wyll not suffer him to sleepe. 13 Yet is there a sore plague which I haue seene vnder the sunne namely riches kept to the hurt of him that hath them in possession: 14 For oft tymes they perishe with his great miserie and trouble: and yf he haue a chylde, it getteth nothyng. 15 Lyke as he came naked out of his mothers wombe, so goeth he thyther agayne, and caryeth nothyng away with him of all his labour. 16 This is a miserable plague, that he shall go euen as he came away: What helpeth it him then that he hath laboured in the wynde? 17 All the dayes of his lyfe also he dyd eate in the darke, with great carefulnesse, sicknesse, and sorowe. 18 Therfore me thinke it a better and a fayrer thyng, a man to eate and drynke, and to be refresshed of all his labour that he taketh vnder the sunne, all the dayes of his lyfe which God geueth him: for this is his portion. 19 For vnto whom soeuer God geueth riches, goodes, and power, he geueth it him to enioy it, to take it for his portion, and to be refresshed of his labour: this is the gyft of God. 20 For he thinketh not much howe long he shall lyue, forasmuch as God fylleth his heart with gladnesse.

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