_Direct._ IV. Make the cause of the innocent as it were your own; and suffer it not to miscarry through your slothfulness and neglect.[119] He is a lover of money more than justice, that will sweat in the cause of the rich that pay him well, and will slubber over and starve the cause of the poor, because he getteth little by them. Whatever your place obligeth you to do, let it be done diligently and with your might; both in your getting abilities, and in using them. Scævola was wont to say, (ut lib. Pandect. 42. tit. refer.) _Jus civile vigilantibus scriptum est, non dormientibus_. Saith Austin, _Ignorantia judicis plerumque est calamitas innocentis_. And as you look every labourer that you hire should be laborious in your work, and your physician should be diligent in his employment for your health; so is it as just that you be diligent for them whose cause you undertake, and where God who is the lover of justice doth require it.
_Direct._ V. Be acquainted with the temptations which most endanger you in your place, and go continually armed against them with the true remedies, and with christian faith, and watchfulness, and resolution. You will keep your innocency, and consequently your God, if you see to it that you love nothing better than that which you should keep. No man will chaffer away his commodity for any thing which he judgeth to be worse and less useful to him. Know well how little friends or wealth will do you in comparison of God, and you will not hear them when they speak against God, Luke xiv. 26; xvii. 33. When one of his friends was importunate with P. Rutilius to do him an unjust courtesy, and angrily said, "What use have I of thy friendship, if thou wilt not grant my request?" He answered him, "And what use have I of thy friendship, if for thy sake I must be urged to do unjustly?" It is a grave saying of Plutarch, _Pulchrum quidem est justitia regnum adipisci: pulchrum etiam regno justitiam anteponere: nam virtus alterum ita illustrem reddidit, ut regno dignus judicaretur; alterum ita magnum ut id contemneret_. Plut. in Lycurg. et Numa. But especially remember who hath said, "What shall it profit a man to win all the world, and lose his soul?" And that temptations surprise you not, be deliberate and take time, and be not too hasty in owning or opposing a cause or person, till you are well informed; as Seneca saith of anger, so say I here, _Dandum semper est tempus: veritatem enim dies aperit. Potest pœna dilata exigi; cum non potest exacta revocari_. It is more than a shame to say, I was mistaken, when you have done another man wrong by your temerity.[120]
[114] Legum mihi placet autoritas; sed earum usus hominum nequitia depravatur: itaque piguit perdiscere, quo inhoneste uti nollem, et honeste vix possem, etsi vellem. Petrarch. in vita sua.
[115] Male se rectum putat, qui regulam summæ rectitudinis ignorat. Ambros. de Offic.
[116] It was an ill time when Petr. Bless. said, "Officium officialium est hodie jura confundere, lites suscitare, transactiones rescindere, dilationes innectere, supprimere veritatem, fovere mendacium, quæstum sequi, æquitatem vendere, inhiare actionibus, versutias concinnare."
[117] Bias fertur in causis orandis summus atque vehementissimus fuisse, bonam tamen in partem dicendi vim exercere solitum. Laert. p. 53. Justum est homines justitiam diligere; non autem justitiam propter homines postponere. Gregor. Reg. Justitia non novit patrem, vel matrem; veritatem novit; personam non novit; Deum imitatur.--Cassian. Plutarch saith, that Callicratidas being offered a great sum of money (of which he had great need to pay his seamen) if he would do an unjust act, refused: to whom saith Cleander his counsellor, "Ego profecto hæc accepissem, si fuissem Callicratidas." He answered, "Ego accepissem, si fuissem Cleander."
[118] Facile est justitiam homini justissimo.
[119] Vix potest negligere, qui novit æquitatem: nec facile erroris vitio fordescit, quem doctrina purgaverit. Cassiodor.
[120] Chilon in Laert. p. 43. (mihi) saith, Sibi non esse conscium in tota vita ingratitudinis: una tamen re se modice moveri, quod cum semel inter amicos illi judicandum esset, neque contra jus agere aliquid vellet, persuaserit amico judicium a se provocaret, ut si nimirum utrumque et legem et amicum servaret. This was his injustice of which he repented.