[510] Avoid both the extremes, which Petrarch mentioneth: Nam ut multi qui se bonos, sic aliqui qui se malos fingerent sunt reperti; quod vel humani favoris pestilentem auram; vet invisam bonorum temporalium sarcinam declinarent. Quod de Ambrosio lectum est. Quam similis amicitiæ adulatio? non imitatur tantum illam sed vincit: eo ipso gratiosos facit quo lædit. Senec.
[511] Hieron. in Gal. iv.
[512] Cujus aures clausæ veritati sunt, ut ab amico verum audire nequeat, hujus salus desperanda est. Cicer. Rhet. li. 1. Nemo parasitum canum amat. Materia quoque fingendi tempore consenescit. Athænus. Malum hominem blandiloquentem agnosce tuum laquum esse. Habet suum venenum blanda oratio. Senec.
[513] Prov. xii. 19.
[514] Read Prov. xxi. 6.
[515] Jer. vii. 4, 8.
[516] Temere affirmare de altero est periculosum propter occultas hominum voluntates, multiplicesque naturas. Cicer. Prov. xvii. 4; Hos. vii. 3; Nah. iii. 1.
[517] Insignis est temeritas, cum aut falsa aut incognita res approbatur: nec quicquam est turpius quam cognitione assertionem approbationemque præcurrere. Cicer. Acad. l. 1.
[518] Acts v. 4; Isa. lix. 13; Ezek. xiii. 9, 19.
[519] Prov. xvii. 7; Hos. iv. 8.
[520] Rom. vii. 20-23.
[521] Job xxi. 15; Mal. iii. 14.
[522] Job xxiv. 9; Heb. xiii. 15.
[523] 1 Kings xviii. 27; Prov. xxix. 9.
[524] James v. 13, "Is any merry? Let him sing psalms."
[525] Otiosum verbum est quod justæ necessitatis aut intentione piæ utilitatis caret. Gregor. Moral.
[526] 1 Cor. iii. 20; Rom. i. 21.
[527] Job xxxv. 16. Saith Hugo, there is a time when nothing, and a time when something should be spoken; but never a time when all should be spoken.
[528] Eccles. v. 23, The Spartan banished an orator for saying, he could speak all day of any subject. Erasm.
[529] See the Manual of Prayers printed at Antwerp. 1658. pag. 507.
[530] Megabyzus, a great Persian lord, was told by Apelles, that while he was silent they reverenced him for his gold and rich attire, but when he talked of what he understood not, the boys in the shop laughed at him. Plutarch de Tranquil. Anim. pag. 154.
[531] See Ezek. xxxiii. 30. Sollius Apollinar. Sidon. in his description of king Theodoricus saith that at his feasts, Maximum tunc pondus in verbis est: quippe quum illic aut nulla narrantur aut seria.
[532] Difficile est cum iis durare qui neque otii neque negotii tempora distinguere norunt. Theophrastus.
[533] Col. ii. 8.
[534] Col. iii. 16, 17; Eph. iv. 29; Psal. cviii. 1.
[535] Eccles. v. 3, 7; x. 12-14; Psal. xxxvii. 30; Prov. xvii. 27, 28; x. 20; xii. 18; x. 19; xviii. 4-6; xxi. 23.
[536] Prov. xxiii. 8, 9.
[537] Isa. xxxii. 4-6; Matt. xii. 34, 36; 2 Cor. iv. 13; John iii. 11; 1 John iv. 5; Prov. xvi. 23; Psal. xl. 5; Cant. vii. 9.
[538] Prov. xxiii. 16; Psal. cxlv. 6, 11-13, 21.
[539] Psal. cxix. 172; xlix. 3; xxxv. 28.
[540] Jer. viii. 6; Prov. vi. 22; Psal. lxxvii. 12; cv.; cxiv.; cxlix. 11.
[541] 1 Tim. vi. 13; 1 Pet. iv. 15.
[542] Garrulo non respondere convitium est.
[543] Prov. xiv. 17; xv. 18; Eccles. vii. 8, 9.
[544] Eccles. ii. 2; vii. 6; Eph. v. 4.
[545] Prov. xxii. 17; xii. 18; xiii. 20; xv. 2, 7, 31.
[546] You will else be but ingeniosi nugatores, as one called him that wrote a great book on a little matter.
[547] 1 Tim. iv. 12; Job xii. 12; Eccles. xi. 10.
[548] 1 Cor. xv. 33.
[549] Socrates inter loquendum sæpe, agente id orationis vehementiâ, jactare digitos solebat, ita ut à plerisque rideretur, et despectui haberetur: quæ tamen omnia æquo animo ferebat. Laert. in Socrat.
[550] Si quis vero eorum mitior, et veritati aliquatenus propior, videretur, in hunc quasi Britanniæ subversorem omnia odia telaque sine respectu contorquebantur, et omnia quæ displicuerint, Deoque placuerint, æquali saltem lance pendebantur, si non gratiora fuissent displicentia. Gildas. Quod autem quædam de illo inhonesta et maligna jactantur, nolo mireris: cum scias hoc esse opus semper diaboli, ut servos Dei mendacio laceret, et opinionibus falsis gloriosum nomen infamet; ut qui conscientiæ suæ luce clarescunt, alienis rumoribus sordidentur. Cyprian de Cornel. Epist. ad Antonian. Hæc et nos risimus aliquando. Tertul.
[551] Malignity so blindeth the understanding that it maketh men ascribe all the evil that befalleth them, to that which is the only way to happiness: every bad success that the heathen Romans had, they imputed to the christians: saith Paul. Diaconus, lib. 3. when Radagusus the Goth invaded the Romans: Pavor infinitus Romam invadit; declamatur a cunctis, se hæc ideo perpeti, quod neglecta fuerunt magnorum sacra Deorum: magnis querelis ubique agere: et continuo de repetendis sacris celebrandisque tractatur: fere in tota urbe blasphemiæ ad nomen Christi, tanquam lues aliqua probris ingravantur, conducuntur a Romanis adversus Radagusum duo Pagani duces, &c.