Sirs, I beseech you remember that it was Cato, a heathen, that said ' that account must be given not only of our labour, but also of our leisure.'^ And in affirming this, he affirms no more than what the Scrip- ture speaks. But oh what a sad account, then, have some to make ! Well, as Cleopatra said to Mark Antony, ' It is not for you to be fish- ing for gudgeons, but for towns, forts, and castles ;' so say I, Right honourable and beloved, it is not for you to spend your time about poor, low, contemptible things, but about those high and noble things that make most for the interest of Christ and the good of your country.*
It was Titus, a pagan emperor, that uttered this memorable and praiseworthy apophthegm, Amici, diem perdidi, My friends, I have lost a day, when he had spent it in company, without doing good.
The Egyptians drew the picture of time with three heads, to repre- sent the three differences. The first of a greedy wolf, gaping for time past, because it hath ravenously devoured even the memory of so many things past recalling ; the second of a crowned lion, roaring for time present, because it hath the principality of all action, for which it calls aloud. The third of a deceitful dog, fawning for time to come, because it feeds fond men with many flattering hopes, to their own undoing.
I have read of a man who upon his dying bed would have given a world for time, he still crying out day and night, ' Call time again, call time again.' So a great lady" of this land on her death-bed cried out, * Time, time, a world of wealth for an inch of time.'*
One Hermanns, a great courtier in the kingdom of Bohemia, being at point of death, did most lamentably cry out ' that he had spent more time in the palace than in the temple, and that he had added to the
' Blessed Bradford the martyr counted that hour lost wherein he did not some good with his tongue, pen, or purse. * See references before : Index.— G.
' Chile, one of the seven sages, being asked what was the hardest thing in the world to be done, answered, To use and employ a man's time well.
* Alexander the Great gave him a check and not a reward, that boasted that he could thi-ow pease at a great distance upon the point of a needle. Ah ! how will God at last check those that spend their precious time, as it were, with throwing pease upon the point of a needle ! * Queen Elizabeth. — G.
riotousness and vices of the court, which he should have sought to have reformed,' and so died, to the horror of those that were about him.^
I have been the longer upon this, because I have been a sad spec- tator of men's misspending their time and trifling away golden oppor- tunities, at sea as well as at land ; and though I thus speak (knowing that this treatise will come into other hands beside your own), yet ' I hope better things of you,' to whom I dedicate it, ' even such as do accompany salvation,' Heb. vi. 9.
Thirdly, Take no truths upon trust, but all npon trial : 1 John iv. 1, ' Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God ; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.'* This age is very full of impostors ; therefore try the spirits, as lapidaries do their stones, or as goldsmiths do their metals. A Bristol-stone may look as well as an Indian diamond, and many things glister besides gold.
It was the glorious commendations of the Bereans, ' that they searched the Scriptures daily/ whether those things that Paul and Silas had delivered ' were so ;' and this act of theirs made them ' more noble than those of Thessalonica,' Acts xvii. 10, 11.' Christian nobility is the best and truest, where God himself is the top of the kin, and rehgion the root ; in regard whereof all other things are but shadows and shapes of nobleness. ■
A father that had three sons was desirous to try their discretions, which he did by giving to each of them an apple that had some part of it rotten. The first eats up his, rotten and all ; the second throws all his away, because some part of it was rotten ; the third picks out the rotten, and eats that which was good. The third was the wisest. Some in these days swallow down everything, rotten and sound together ; others throw away all truth, because everything that is presented to them is not truth ; but surely they are the wisest that know how to choose the good and refuse the evil, Isa. vii. 15.
You must not, with Pythagoras's scholars, magnify the i'pse diodt of the greatest clerks, especially in those things that are of eternal con- cernment to your souls. You will try, and tell, and weigh gold after your fathers ; deal so by the truth you hear, and let no man bind you to believe, with Anaxagoras, that snow is black. ' Truth,' saith Basil, ' is hard to be taken by hunting, and must be found out by a narrow observing of her footsteps on every side.' Many are like those in Clemens, that thought truth to be cruelty.*
Fourthly, Be exemplary to those among tvhom you walk, and over whom you command. Bonus dux, bonus comes, a good leader makes a good follower. Precepta docent, exennpla movent, precepts may in- struct, but examples do persuade. Verily, gentlemen, your examples will have a very great influence upon those that are under you. It is natural to inferiors to mind more what their superiors do than what
' Lamacus, a commander, said to his offending soldiers, Non licet in hello hia peccare. No man must offend twice in war. So Qod sometimes will not suffer men again and again to neglect the day of grace.
* 'ioKifiiaXiri. Satan may more easily disturb the truth than subvert it. — Avg\ustiru']. ' tvyitie-rt^ai. Better-bom and bred, of a more noble disposition. They were more
noble, not by civil descent, but by spiritual advancement.
* Amictia Socrates, amicus Plato, amicior Veritas : Socrates is my friend, and Plato is mj friend, but, above all, truth is my friend. [A saying of Cicero. — G.J
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they say ; therefore you had need be angelical in your walkings and actings. You are lights upon a hill, you are sea-marks, and therefore every eye will be upon you.* Those that can find no ears to hear what you say, will find many eyes to see what you do. Scripture and expe- rience do abundantly evidence that good men's examples have done a world of good in the world, and verily the evil examples of great men especially are very dangerous.
Charles the Fifth was wont to say, that as the eclipse of the sun is a token of great commotions, so the errors and evils of great men bring with them great perturbations and evils to the places and persons where they live. Oh therefore, be exemplary both in lip and life, in word and work, that others ' seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven,' Mat. v. 16. Oh look that your lives be as a commentary upon Christ's life. Tdce lingua, loquere vita; talk not of a good life, but let thy life speak, said the philosopher.'*