have eggs, butter, corn, barley, oats, apples, pears, etc.; but good
and godly Christians must suffer, be persecuted, must sit in
dungeons where they can see neither sun nor moon, must be thrust out
into poverty, must be banished, and plagued, etc. But certainly it
must be better one day; it cannot always so remain; let us have but
patience, and steadfastly remain by the pure doctrine, and,
notwithstanding all this misery, let us not fall away from the same.


That God, and not Money, preserves the World.

God only, said Luther, and not money and wealth, maintains and
preserves the world; for riches and much money do make proud and
lazy people: as at Venice, where the richest people are, a horrible
dearth fell among them in our memory, so that they were driven to
call upon the Turks for help, who sent twenty-four galleys laden
with corn, all which, as they almost were arrived, went down into
the sea and sank before their eyes.

Therefore, said Luther, great wealth and money cannot still the
hunger, but rather occasioneth more dearth; for where rich people
are, there it is always dear, and things are at high rates.
Moreover, money maketh no man right merry, but much more pensive and
full of sorrow; for they are thorns which do prick people, as Christ
calls riches; yet is the world so mad that they will set thereupon
all their joy and felicity.


That God's corporeal Gifts are but little regarded.