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 ...

¶ The Free Giver.

GReat Alexander, when he youthful was, A check received from Leonidas His Governour, for being too profuse In wasting his perfumes in pious use: For on a day being to sacrifice Unto the Gods, to shew himself unnice, Fill'd both his hands with Frankincense; that done, Gave it the fire as his devotion. But afterwards when he became a man, He conquered Judea, over-ran That Country whence those spices took their birth, Then to conclude his piety with mirth,

He sent Five hundred Talents weight (by odds Too much) to him grutch'd what he gave the Gods. Thus they that sowing plentifully keep A zeal unspotted, plentifully reap. He that doth niggardly his Talent spare, Shall sow, but in the end reap but a Tare. Give God the choicest branches of thy fruit; For by that means God may give thee the Root.