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¹ 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.