For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;
Ver. 3. Yea, and beyond their power] One such poor Macedonian might well shame a hundred rich Corinthian curmudgeons. a They knew that Manus pauperum est gazophylacium Christi, The hand of the poor man is the treasury of Christ, and might haply have heard of their once King Alexander the Great, how that when he had undertaken the conquest of the Persian empire, he gave away his treasure; and being asked where it was, he pointed to the poor, and said, In scriniis, in my chests; and when he was further asked what he kept for himself, he answered, Spem maiorum et meliorum, The hope of greater and better things.
They were willing] Gr. Αυθαιρετοι, they were volunteers, full of cheerful charity. So were Aidanus, and after him Mr Fox, who gave his horse to a poor beggar that answered him discreetly. Mr Greenham also gave more than he could spare; so that he usually lacked money to get in his harvest.
a An avaricious churlish fellow; a miser, a niggard ŒD