Se&. 1 8. Let your employment be fuch as may become reasonable perfon; and not be a business fit for chi dren or diftracted People, but fit for your age and us derftanding. For a man may be very idlely bufie, an take great pains to fo little purpofe, that in his la bours and expence of time he fhall ferve no end bu of folly and vanity. There are fome Trades tha wholly ferve the ends of idle perfons and fools, and fuch as are fit to be feized upon by the fevery o Laws, and banish'd from under the Sun: and there are fome People who are bufie, but it is, as Domitian was, in catching flies. 9. Let your employment be fitted to your perfon and calling. Some there are that employ their time in affairs infinitely below the dignity of their person, and being called by God or by the Republick, to help to bear great burthens, and to judge a People, enfeeble their understandings, and disable their perfons by fordid and brutifh bufinefs. Thus Nero went up and down Greece,and challenged the Fiddlers at their trade. Aropus, a Macedonian King, made Lanterns. Harcatius, the King of Parthia, was a Mole-catcher; and Biantes the Lydian, filed Needles. He that is appointed to minifter in holy things, muft not suffer fecular affairs and fordid arts to eat up great portions of his employment: a Clergy-man must not keep a Tavern, nor a Judge be an Inn-keeper; and it was a great idlenefs in Theophlyact the Patriarch of C. P. to spend his time in his stable of Horfes, when he thould have been in his Study, or in the Pulpit, or faying his holy Offices. Such employments are the diseases of labour, and the ruft of time, which it contracts, not by lying ftill, but by dirty employment. 10. Let your employment be fuch as becomes a Chriftian, that is, in no fenfe mingled with fin; for he that takes pains to ferve the ends of covetoufnefs, or minifters to another's luft, or keeps a fhop of impurities or intemperance, is idle in the worft fense; for every hour fo fpent runs him backward, and muft be fpent again in the remaining and fhorter part of his life, and fpent better. II. Per 11. Perfons of great quality, and of no trade, are to be most prudent and curious in their employment and traffick of time. They are miferable, if their education hath been fo loofe and undisciplined as to leave them unfurnished of skill to spend their time: but most miserable are they, if fuch mifgovernment and unskilfulness make them fall into vitious and bafer company, and drive on their time by the fad minutes and periods of fin and death. They that are learned know the worth of time, and the manner how well to improve a day; and they are to prepare themfelves for fuch purposes in which they may be most useful in order to arts or arms, to counfel in publick, or government in their Country: but for others of them that are unlearned, let them chufe good company, fuch as may not tempt them to a vice, or join with them in any: but that may fupply their defects by counfel and difcourfe, by way of conduct and converfation. Let them learn eafie and useful things, read Hiftory and the Laws of the Land, learn the customs of their Country, the condition of their own eftate, profitable and charitable contrivances of it: let them ftudy prudently to govern their families, learn the burdens of their Tenants, the neceffities of their Neighbours, and in their proportion fupply them, and reconcile their Enmities, and prevent their Law-fuits, or quickly end them; and in this glut of leafure and dif-employment, let them fet apart greater portions of their time for Religion and the neceffities of their Souls. 12. Let the women of noble birth and great fortunes do the fame things in their proportions and capacities, nurfe their Children, look to the affairs of the houfe, vifit poor cottages, and relieve their neceffities, be courteous to the neighbourhood, learn in filence of their Husbands or their fpiritual Guides, read good books, pray often, and fpeak little, and learn to do good works for necessary ufes; for by that phrafe St. Paul expreffes the obligation of Chriftian women to good Hufwifery, and charitable provifions for their Family and Neighbourhood. 13. Let 13. Let all perfons of all conditions avoid all delicacy and nicenefs in their cloathing or diet, because fuch foftnefs engages them upon great mif-fpendings of their time, while they drefs and comb out all their opportunities of their morning devotion, and half the days feverity, and fleep out the care and provifion for their Souls. 14. Let every one of every condition avoid curiofity, and all inquiry into things that concern them not. For all business in things that concern us not is an employing our time to no good of ours, and therefore not in order to a happy Eternity. In this account our neighbours neceffities are not to be reckoned; for they concern us as one member is concerned in the grief of another: but going from houfe to houfe, tatlers and bufi-bodies, which are the canker and ruft of idleness, as idleness is the ruft of time, are reproved by the Apostle in fevere language, and forbidden in order to this exercise. 15. As much as may be, cut off all impertinent and ufelefs employments of your life, unneceffary and phantaftick vifits, long waitings upon great perfonages where neither duty nor neceffity nor charity obliges us, all vain meetings, all laborious trifles, and whatfoever fpends much time to no real, civil, religious, or charitable purpose. 16. Let not your recreations be lavish spenders of your time, but chufe fuch which are healthful, fhort, tranfient, recreative, and apt to refresh you; but at no hand dwell upon them, or make them your great employment: For he that spends his time in fports, and calls it recreation, is like him whofe garment is all made of fringes, and his meat nothing but fawces; they are healthlefs, chargeable and ufelefs. And therefore avoid fuch games which require much time or long attendance; or which are apt to fteal thy affections from more fevere employments. For to whatsoever thou haft given thy affections, thou wilt not grudge to give thy time. Natural neceffity and the example of S. John (who recreated himself with fporting with a tame Partridge) teach us that it is law Sect. I. 11. lawful to relax and unbend our bow, but not to fuf- Caffian Col fer it to be unready or unftrung. 17. Set apart some portions of every day for more folemn devotion, and religious employment, which be fevere in obferving: and if variety of employment, or prudent affairs, or civil fociety prefs upon you, yet fo order thy rule, that the neceffary parts of it be not omitted; and though juft occafions may make our prayers thorter, yet let nothing but a violent, fudden, and impatient neceffity make thee upon any one day wholly to omit thy morning and evening devotions; which if you be forced to make very thort, you may supply and lengthen with ejaculations and fhort retirements in the day-time in the midft of your employment, or of your company. lat. 24. C. 21. 18. Do not the work of God negligently and idlely; Jer. 48. 10. let not thy heart be upon the world, when thy hand is lift up in prayer: and be sure to prefer an action of religion in its place and proper feafon before all worldly pleasure, letting fecular things (that may be difpensed with in themselves) in thefe circumftances wait upon the other; not like the Patriarch who ran from the Altarin S, Sophia to his ftable in all his Pontificals, and in the midft of his office, to fee a colt newly fallen from his beloved and much valued mare Phorbante. More prudent and fevere was that of Plutarch. de Curiofi Sir Thomas More, who being fent for by the King when he was at his prayers in publick, returned anfwer, he would attend him when he had first performed his fervice to the KING of Kings. And it did honour to Rufticus, that when Letters from Cæfar were given to him, he refused to open them till the Philo fopher had done his Lecture. In honouring God and doing his work put forth all thy ftrength; for of that time only thou mayft be most confident that it is gained, which is prudently and zealously spent in God's Service, 19. When the Clock ftrikes, or however else you fhall measure the day, it is good to fay a fhort ejacu lation every hour, that the parts and returns of devo tion may be the measure of your time: and do fo alfo Οι ἐν αὐτοῖς Vandal. Sect. 1. alfo in all the Breaches of thy fleep, that thofe fpaces which have in them no direct bufinefs of the world may be filled with Religion. 20. If by thus doing you have not fecured your doxis time by an early and fore-handed care, yet be fure by εἰς ἡ μαρίου ευπρεπεσέραν a timely diligence to redeem the time, that is, to be donyi- pious and religious in fuch instances in which formerara píly you have finned, and to bestow your time especially Procop. 2. upon fuch graces, the contrary whereof you have formerly practifed, doing actions of chastity and temperance with as great a zeal and earneftness as you did once act your uncleannefs; and then by all arts to watch against your present and future dangers, from day to day fecuring your ftanding: this is properly to redeem your time, that is, to buy your fecurity of it at the rate of any labour and honest arts. x Cor. 7. 5. 21. Let him that is most bufied fet apart fome fo lemn time every year, in which, for the time quitting all worldly bufinefs, he may attend wholly to fafting and prayer, and the dreffing of his Soul by confeffions, meditations and attendances upon God; that he may make up his accounts, renew his vows, make amends for his carelefnefs, and retire back again from whence levity and the vanities of the world, or the opportunity of temptations, or the diftraction of fecular affairs have carried him. * Μη ὕπνον μαλακοΐσιν επ' ὅμμασι προσ δίξαθαι. Πρὶν τῶν ἡμερινῶν ἔργων τρὶς ἔκασον ἔπελθεῖν. Πῇ παρέβην, τί δ' ἔρεξα, τί μοι δέου Pythagor. Carm. * 22. In this we fhall be much affifted, and we fhall find the work more eafie, if before we fleep every night we examine the acti τns of the paft day with a particular fcrutiny, if there have been any accidents extraordinary; as long difcourse, a feast, much bufinefs, variety of company. If nothing but common hath happened, the lefs examination will fuffice: onely let us take care that we fleep not without fuch a recollection of the actions of the day as may reprefent any thing that is remarkable and great either to be the matter of forrow or thanksgiving: for other things a general care is proportionable. 23. Let |