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¹ Whan thou commest in to the house of God, kepe thy fote, and drawe nye, that thou mayest heare: that is better then the offeringes of fooles, for they knowe not what euell they do.² Be not hastie with thy mouth, & let not thine hert speake eny thige rashly before God. For God is in heauen, & thou vpon earth, therfore let thy wordes be fewe.³ For where moch carefulnesse is, there are many dreames: & where many wordes are, there men maye heare fooles.

⁴ Yf thou make a vowe vnto God, be not slacke to perfourme it. As for foolish vowes, he hath no pleasure in them.⁵ Yf thou promyse eny thinge, paye it: for better it is that thou make no vowe, then that thou shuldest promise, and not paye.⁶ Vse not thy mouth to cause yi flesh for to synne, yt thou saye not before the angell: my foolishnesse is in ye faute. For the God wil be angrie at thy voyce, and destroye all ye workes of thine handes.⁷ And why? where as are many dreames & many wordes, there are also dyuerse vanities: but loke yt thou feare God.⁸ Yf thou seyst the poore to be oppressed and wrongeously dealt withall, so yt equite & the right of the lawe is wraisted in the londe: maruell not thou at soch iudgmet, for one greate ma kepeth touch with another, and the mightie helpe the selues together.

⁹ The whole londe also with the feldes and all that is therin, is in subieccion and bondage vnto ye kinge.¹⁰ He that loueth money, wil neuer be satisfied with money: and who so delyteth in riches, shal haue no profit therof. Is not this also a vayne thinge?¹¹ Where as many riches are, there are many also that spende them awaye. And what pleasure more hath he that possesseth them, sauynge that he maye loke vpon them with his eyes?¹² A labouringe man slepeth swetely, whether it be litle or moch that he eateth: but the abundaunce of the riche wil not suffre him to slepe.¹³ Yet is there a sore plage, which I haue sene vnder the Sonne (namely) riches kepte to the hurte of him yt hath them in possession.¹⁴ For oft times they perishe with his greate misery and trouble: and yf he haue a childe, it getteth nothinge.¹⁵ Like as he came naked out of his mothers wombe, so goeth he thither agayne, and carieth nothinge awaye with him of all his laboure.¹⁶ This is a miserable plage, yt he shal go awaye euen as he came. What helpeth it him then, yt he hath labored in the wynde?¹⁷ All the daies of his life also must he eate in the darcke, with greate carefulnesse, sicknesse & sorow.

¹⁸ Therfore me thinke it a better and a fayrer thinge, a man to eate and drynke, and to be refreshed of all his laboure, yt he taketh vnder the Sonne all the dayes of his life which God geueth him, for this is his porcion.¹⁹ For vnto whom so euer God geueth riches, goodes and power, he geueth it him to enioye it, to take it for his porcion, and to be refreshed of his laboure: this is now the gifte of God.²⁰ For he thinketh not moch how longe he shal lyue, for so moch as God fylleth his hert with gladnesse.