Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
Ver. 15. Meditate upon these things] And so digest them, turn them in succum et sanguinem. Let your heart study a good matter, that your pen may be as the tongue of a ready writer, Psalms 45:1, and not present crude and rude stuff. When it was objected to Demosthenes that he was no sudden speaker, but came ever to the court after premeditation, he answered, Se si fieri posset, dicturum non tantum scripta sed etiam sculpta; that he would not only write but engrave, if he could, what he was about to utter in public. The same Demosthenes also would have such a one branded for a pernicious man to the commonwealth, who dared propose anything publicly which he had not beforehand seriously pondered. What impudence then is it in a preacher so to do. It was a wise speech of Aristides, who being required by the emperor to speak something propounded ex tempore, answered, Propound today, and I will answer tomorrow; for we are not of those that spit or vomit things, but of those that elaborate them, ου γαρ εσμεν των εμουντων, αλλα των ακριβουντων. Melancthon answered Eccius in like manner, who hit him in the teeth with his slowness in answering arguments. So did Augustine deal by Vincentius Victor, a rash young man, who boldly censured him for his unresolvedness concerning the original of a reasonable soul, and vaunted that he could do it without demurs or delays.
That thy profiting may appear to all] i.e. That it may appear thy gifts increase daily, by thy good husbandry.
Give thyself wholly to them] Gr. εν τουτοις ισθι, Be thou in them: totus in hoc sis. It was Mr Perkins' motto, Verbi minister es, hoc age, Thou art a minister of the word, make it thy whole business.