"Euen as the Sayler's Gnomon, or rule, which is commonly called the mariner's needle, doth alwayes looke towards the north poole, and will euer turne towards the same, howsoeuer it bee placed: which is maruellous in that instrument and needle, whereby the mariners doo knowe the course of the windes: Euen so euerie Christian man ought to direct the eyes of his minde, and the wayes of his heart, to Christ; who is our north poole, and that fixed and constant north starre, whereby we ought all to bee governed: for hee is our hope and our trust; hee is our strength, whereupon wee must still relie."
"Like as the Gnomon dooth euer beholde the north starre, whether it be closed and shutte uppe in a coffer of golde, siluer, or woode, neuer loosing his nature: So a faithfull Christian man, whether hee abound in wealth, or bee pinched with pouertie, whether hee bee of high or lowe degree in this worlde, ought continually to haue his faith and hope surely built and grounded uppon Christ: and to haue his heart and minde fast fixed and settled in him, and to follow him through thicke and thinne, through fire and water, through warres and peace, through hunger and colde, through friendes and foes, through a thousand perilles and daungers, through the surges and waues of enuie, malice, hatred, euill speeches, rayling sentences, contempt of the worlde, flesh, and diuell: and, euen in death itselfe, bee it neuer so bitter, cruell, and tyrannicall; yet neuer to loose the sight and viewe of Christ, neuer to giue ouer our faith, hope, and trust in him."
Robert Cawdray, the author of _A Treasurie or Store-house of Similes_, was a Nonconformist divine of learning and piety. Having entered into the sacred function about 1566, he was presented by Secretary Cecil to the rectory of South Luffenham in Rutlandshire. After he had been employed in the ministry about twenty years, he was cited before Bishop Aylmer and other high commissioners, and charged with having omitted parts of the Book of Common Prayer in public worship, { 500} and with having preached against certain things contained in the book. Having refused, according to Strype, to take the oath to answer all such articles as the commissioners should propose, he was deprived of his ministerial office. Mr. Brook, however, in his _Lives of the Puritans_, states that though he might at first have refused the oath, yet that he afterwards complied, and gave answers to the various articles which he proceeds to detail at length. He was cited again on two subsequent occasions; and, on his third appearance, being required to subscribe, and to wear the surplice, he refused, and was imprisoned, and ultimately deprived. He applied to Lord Burleigh to intercede on his behalf, and his lordship warmly espoused his cause, and engaged Attorney Morrice to undertake his defence, but his arguments proved ineffectual. Mr. Cawdray, refusing to submit, was brought before Archbishop Whitgift, and other high commissioners, May 14, 1590, and was degraded and deposed from the ministry and made a mere layman. The above account is abridged from Brook's _Lives of the Puritans_, London, 1813, pp. 430-43.