296 EXPOSTULATION TO LORD 



cover some of these rules to be inconvenient, and 

 sojne other to be fit to be added ; therefore his 

 lordship intendeth in any such case from time to 

 time to publish any such revocations or additions. 



AN EXPOSTULATION TO THE LORD CHIEF 

 JUSTICE COKE. 



MY VERY GOOD LORD, 



Though it be true, that &quot; he who considereth the 

 wind and the rain, shall neither sow nor reap ;&quot; yet 

 &quot; there is a season for every action,&quot; and so &quot; there 

 is a time to speak, and a time to keep silence.&quot; 

 There is a time when the words of a poor simple man 

 may profit ; and that poor man in &quot; The Preacher,&quot; 

 which delivered the city by his wisdom, found that 

 without this opportunity the owner both of wisdom and 

 eloquence lose but their labour, and cannot charm the 

 deaf adder. God therefore, before his Son that 

 bringeth mercy, sent his servant the trumpeter of 

 repentance to level every high hill, to prepare the 

 way before him, making it smooth and straight : and 

 as it is in spiritual things, where Christ never comes 

 before his way-maker hath laid even the heart with 

 sorrow and repentance, since self-conceited and 

 proud persons think themselves too good and too 

 wise to learn of their inferiors, and therefore need 

 not the physician, so in the rules of earthly wisdom, 

 it is not possible for nature to attain any mediocrity 



