XXXVI. SUBTRACT NOT, BUT ADD.

A COVETOUS courtier complained to King Edward the Sixth, of Christ’s College in Cambridge, that it was a superstitious foundation, consisting of a master and twelve fellows, in imitation of Christ and his twelve apostles. He advised the king, also, to take away one or two fellowships, so to discompose that superstitious number.

O no, said the king, I have a better way than that to mar their conceit, I will add a thirteenth fellowship unto them; which he did accordingly, and so it remaineth to this day.

Well fare their hearts who will not only wear out their shoes, but also their feet, in God’s service, and yet gain not a shoe-latchet thereby.

When our Saviour drove the sheep and oxen 276out of the temple, lie did not drive them into his own pasture, nor swept the coin into his own pockets when he overturned the tables of the money-changers. But we have in our days many who are forward to offer to God such zeal which not only cost them nothing, but wherewith they have gained great estates.