Thou hast taken a pledge - Thou hast been vexatious in all thy doings, and hast exacted where nothing was due, so that through thee the poor have been unable to procure their necessary clothing.

For thou

Job 24:3,9 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge...

Exodus 22:26 If you at all take your neighbor's raiment to pledge, you shall deliver it to him by that the sun goes down:

Deuteronomy 24:10-18 When you do lend your brother any thing, you shall not go into his house to fetch his pledge...

Ezekiel 18:7,12,16 And has not oppressed any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has spoiled none by violence, has given his bread to the hungry...

Amos 2:8 And they lay themselves down on clothes laid to pledge by every altar...

stripped, etc. Heb. stripped the clothes of the naked

Job 24:10 They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;

Job 31:19,20 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering...

Whether all Things are under Divine Providence
Whether All Things are under Divine Providence We proceed to the second article thus: 1. It seems that not all things are under divine providence. For nothing that is ordained happens contingently, and if all things were provided by God, nothing would happen contingently. There would then be no such thing as chance or fortune. But this is contrary to common opinion. 2. Again, every wise provider, so far as he is able, preserves those in his care from defect and from evil. But we see many evils in …
Aquinas—Nature and Grace

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Epistle xxxix. To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria.
To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria. Gregory to Eulogius, &c. As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country (Prov. xxv. 25). But what can be good news to me, so far as concerns the behoof of holy Church, but to hear of the health and safety of your to me most sweet Holiness, who, from your perception of the light of truth, both illuminate the same Church with the word of preaching, and mould it to a better way by the example of your manners? As often, too, as I recall in …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great