And this I would answer, if the man had there done the one out of hand—­the giving, I mean, of half in alms—­and not so much as spoken of restitution till afterward.  Whereas now, though he spoke the one in order before the other (and yet all at one time) it remained still in his liberty to put them both in execution, after such order as he should then think expedient.  But now, cousin, did the spirit of God temper the tongue of Zachaeus in the utterance of these words in such wise that it may well appear that the saying of the wise man is verified in them, where he saith, “To God it belongeth to govern the tongue.”  For here, when he said that he would give half of his goods unto poor people and yet beside that not only recompense any man whom he had wronged but more than recompense him by three times as much again, he doubly reproved the false suspicion of the people.  For they accounted him for so evil that they reckoned in their mind all his goods wrongly gotten, because he was grown to substance in that office that was commonly misused with extortion.  But his words declared that he was deep enough in his reckoning so that, if half his goods were given away, he would yet be well able to yield every man his due with the other half—­and yet leave himself no beggar either, for he said not he would give away all.

Would God, cousin, that every rich Christian man who is reputed right worshipful—­yea, and (which yet, to my mind, is more) reckoned for right honest, too—­would and could do the thing that little Zachaeus, that same great publican, were he Jew or were he paynim, said that he would do:  that is, with less than half his goods, to recompense every man whom he had wronged four times as much.  Yea, yea, cousin, as much for as much, hardly!  And then they who receive it shall be content, I dare promise for them, to let the other thrice-as-much go, and forgive it.  Because that was one of the hard points of the old law, whereas Christian men must be full of forgiving, and not require and exact their amends to the uttermost.

But now, for our purpose here:  He promised neither to give away all nor to become a beggar—­no, nor yet to leave off his office either.  For, albeit that he had not used it before peradventure in every point so pure as St. John the Baptist had taught them the lesson:  “Do no more than is appointed unto you,” yet he might both lawfully use his substance that he intended to reserve, and lawfully might use his office, too, in receiving the prince’s duty, according to Christ’s express commandment, “Give the Emperor those things that are his,” refusing all extortion and bribery besides.  Yet our Lord, well approving his good purpose, and exacting no further of him concerning his worldly behaviour, answered and said, “This day is health come to this house, for he too is the son of Abraham.”

But now I forget not, cousin, that in effect you conceded to me thus far:  that a man may be rich and yet not out of the state of grace, nor out of God’s favour.  Howbeit, you think that, though it may be so in some time or in some other place, yet at this time and in this place, or any other such in which there be so many poor people, upon whom you think they are bound to bestow their goods, they can keep no riches with conscience.