And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
Ver. 8. The half of my goods] See the like in Tyre converted,Isaiah 23:17,18 .
I restore him fourfold] Which was the law for things stolen. Fraud is no better than theft. Restitution is necessary to remission of sin. God hates holocaustum ex rapina, burnt offerings from stolen goods, as Sultan Selymus could tell his counsellor Pyrrhus, who persuaded him to bestow the great wealth he had taken from the Persian merchants, upon some notable hospital for relief of the poor. The dying Turk commanded it rather to be restored to the right owners, which was done accordingly; to the great shame of many Christians, who mind nothing less than restitution, &c. When Henry III of England had sent the friar Minors a load of frieze a to clothe them, they returned the same with this message, that he ought not to give alms of what he had rent from the poor, neither would they accept of that abominable gift. Master Latimer saith, "If ye make no restitution of goods detained, ye shall cough in hell, and the devils will laugh at you." Henry VII in his last will and testament, after the disposition of his soul and body, he devised and willed restitution should be made of all such monies as had unjustly been levied by his officers. Queen Mary restored again all ecclesiastical livings assumed to the Crown, saying, that she set more by the salvation of her own soul than she did by 10 kingdoms. A bull came also from the pope at the same time, that all others should do the like, but none did. Latimer tells us that the first day that he preached about restitution, one came and gave him 20 lib. to restore. The next day another brought him 30 lib. Another time another gave him 200 lib. Mr Bradford hearing Latimer on that subject was struck in the heart for one dash of a pen which he had made without the knowledge of his master, and could never be quiet till, by the advice of Mr Latimer, restitution was made, for which he did willingly forego all the private and certain patrimony which he had on earth. I myself (saith Mr Burroughs) knew one man that had wronged another but of five shillings, and fifty years after could not be quiet till he had restored it.
a A kind of coarse woollen cloth, with a nap, usually on one side only; now esp. of Irish manufacture. ŒD