Note, 1. That which is ill-got, though it may increase much, will not
last long. A man may perhaps raise a great estate, in a little time, by
usury and extortion, fraud, and oppression of the poor, but it will not
continue; he gathers it for himself, but it shall prove to have been
gathered for somebody else that he has no kindness for. His estate
shall go to decay, and another man's shall be raised out of the ruins
of it. 2. Sometimes God in his providence so orders it that that which
one got unjustly another uses charitably; it is strangely turned into
the hands of one that will pity the poor and do good with it, and so
cut off the entail of the curse which he brought upon it who got it by
deceit and violence. Thus the same Providence that punishes the cruel,
and disables them to do any more hurt, rewards the merciful, and
enables them to do so much the more good. To him that has the ten
pounds give the pound which the wicked servant hid in the napkin; for
to him that has, and uses it well, more shall be given, Luke xix. 24.
Thus the poor are repaid, the charitable are encouraged, and God is
glorified.