Is labour necessary to all?
Quest.I. Is labour necessary to all? or to whom, if not to all?Answ.It is necessary (as a duty) to all that are able to perform it: but to the unable it is not necessary; as to infants, and sick persons, or distracted persons, that cannot do it, or to prisoners, or any that are restrained or hindered unavoidably by others, or to people that are disabled by age, or by any thing that maketh it naturally impossible.
What labour is necessary?
Quest.II. What labour is it that is necessary?Answ.Some labour that shall employ the faculties of the soul and body, and be profitable, as far as may be, to others and ourselves. But the same kind of labour is not necessary for all.
In some labours, the mind is more employed than the body; as in the labours of a magistrate, a minister, a physician, a lawyer, &c.; though some in these may have much bodily labour also.
The labour of some is almost only of the mind: as, 1. Of students in divinity, philosophy, law, physic, &c. who are but preparing themselves for a calling. 2. Of some ministers, or other godly persons, who by the iniquity of the place or times where they live, may for a season be disabled from appearing among men, and labouring for any except by the mind; being imprisoned, or driven into solitude, or otherwise made incapable. 3. Of men that have some extraordinary necessity for a season, to converse with God and themselves alone; as, men that are near death, and have need to lay by all other labours to prepare themselves. Though, usually, even they that are near death should labour the good of others to the last; and in so doing they profit and prepare themselves.
The labour of some others is more of the body than the mind; as, most tradesmen and day-labourers.
And the labour of some is equally of the body and mind; as, some painful ministers, and physicians, scribes, and artificers of more ingenious professions, as watchmakers, printers, builders, &c.: some of these are fittest for one man, and some for another.[567]
Will religion excuse from labour?
Quest.III. May not religion excuse men from all other labour, save prayer and contemplation?[568]Answ.Religion is our obligation to obey God. God bindeth us to do all the good we can to others. Some men that have ability, opportunity, and a call, may be excused by religion from worldly labours, as ministers; but not from such spiritual labours for others which they can perform. He that under pretence of religion, withdraweth from converse, and forbeareth to do good to others, and only liveth to himself, and his own soul, doth make religion a pretence against charity, and the works of charity, which are a great part of religion; for "pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world," James i. 27. Even when sickness, imprisonment, or persecution disableth to do any more for others, we must pray for them. But while we can do more, we must.
Will not riches excuse?
Quest.IV. Will not riches excuse one from labouring in a calling?Answ.No; but rather bind them to it the more; for he that hath most wages from God, should do him most work. Though they have no outward want to urge them, they have as great a necessity of obeying God, and doing good to others, as any other men have that are poor.
Why labour is necessary.
Quest.V. Why is labour thus necessary to all that are able?Answ.1. God hath strictly commanded it to all; and his command is reason enough to us: 2 Thess. iii. 10-12, "For even when we are with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy-bodies: now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." See ver. 6, 14; 1 Thess. iv. 11, "We beseech you, brethren—that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and work with your hands as we commanded you, that ye may walk honestly (or decently) towards them that are without, and that yemay have lack of nothing." Gen. iii. 19, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." And in the fourth commandment, "Six days shalt thou labour."[569]So Eph. iv. 28; Prov. xxxi. 32, 33.
2. Naturally action is the end of all our powers; and the power were vain, but in respect to the act: to be able to understand, to read, to write, to go, &c. were little worth, if it were not that we may do the things that we are enabled to.
3. It is for action that God maintaineth us and our abilities: work is the moral as well as the natural end of power. It is the act by the power that is commanded us.
4. It is action that God is most served and honoured by: not so much by our being able to do good, but by our doing it. Who will keep a servant that is able to work and will not? Will his mere ability answer your expectation?
5. The public welfare, or the good of many, is to be valued above our own. Every man therefore is bound to do all the good he can to others, especially for the church and commonwealth. And this is not done by idleness, but by labour. As the bees labour to replenish their hive, so man, being a sociable creature, must labour for the good of the society which he belongs to, in which his own is contained as a part.
6. Labour is necessary for the preservation of the faculties of the mind. (1.) The labour of the mind is necessary hereto, because unexercised abilities will decay; as iron not used will consume with rust. Idleness makes men fools and dullards, and spoileth that little ability which they have. (2.) And the exercise of the body is ordinarily necessary, because of the mind's dependence on the body, and acting according to its temperature and disposition: it is exceedingly helped or hindered by the body.
7. Labour is needful to our health and life: the body itself will quickly fall into mortal diseases without it (except in some very few persons of extraordinary soundness).[570]Next to abstinence, labour is the chief preserver of health. It stirreth up the natural heat and spirits, which perform the chief offices for the life of man: it is the proper bellows for this vital fire: it helpeth all the concoctions of nature: it attenuateth that which is too gross: it purifieth that which beginneth to corrupt: it openeth obstructions: it keepeth the mass of blood and other nutritious humours in their proper temperament, fit for motion, circulation, and nutrition; it helpeth them all in the discharge of their natural offices: it helpeth the parts to attract each one its proper nutriment, and promoteth every fermentation and assimilation by which nature maintaineth the transitory, still-consuming oil and mass: it excelleth art in the preparation, alteration, and expulsion of all the excrementitious matter, which being retained would be the matter of manifold diseases; and powerfully fighteth against all the enemies of health. In a word, it doth incomparably excel the help of the most skilful physicians and excellent medicines in the world, for the preventing of most diseases incident to man: (and consequently to the benefit of the soul itself, which cheerfully useth a cheerful and well-tempered body; and useth a languishing, sickly body, as the rider useth a tired horse, or as we use a sick or lazy servant, or a blunted knife, or a clock or watch that is out of order). I speak all this of bodily labour, which is necessary to the body, and consequently to the mind; for want of which abundance grow melancholy, and abundance grow sluggish and good for nothing, and abundance cherish filthy lusts, and millions yearly turn to earth before their time. For want of bodily labour, a multitude of the idle gentry, and rich people, and young people that are slothful, do heap up in the secret receptacles of the body a dunghill of unconcocted and excrementitious filth, and vitiate all the mass of humours which should be the fuel and oil of life, and die by thousands of untimely deaths, (of fevers, palsies, convulsions, apoplexies, dropsies, consumptions, gout, &c.) more miserably than if thieves had murdered them by the highway, because it is their own doing, and by their sloth they kill themselves. For want of bodily exercise and labour interposed, abundance of students and sedentary persons fill themselves with diseases, and hasten their death, and causelessly blame their hard studies for that which was caused by their bodily sloth. The hardest studies will do little harm to most men, if they do but by convenient, interposed bodily labour, keep all the humours in their just temperament; when by a sluggish walk now and then, instead of labour and sweat, they defraud themselves. If the world knew but the benefit of temperance and labour to the maintaining of man's health and life, and the mischiefs of excess of meat and drink, and idleness, the love of health and life would do that with them, which God's authority will not do.
8. Labour and diligence do keep the mind upon a lawful employment, and therefore keep out many dangerous temptations, and keep the thoughts from vanity and sin; and also keepeth out vain words, and preserveth the soul from many sins, which a life of idleness and sloth doth cherish. It helpeth even unlearned persons more effectually to restrain their thoughts and words from sin, than the greatest knowledge and diligent watchfulness can do in an idle kind of life.
9. Diligent labour mortifieth the flesh, and keepeth under its luxurious inclinations, and subdueth that pride, and lust, and brutish sensuality which is cherished by an idle life.
10. Lastly, It is God's appointed means for the getting of our daily bread; and as it is a more real honour to get our bread ourselves, than to receive it by the gift of our friends or parents, so is it more comfortable to a well-informed mind. We may best believe that we have our food and provisions in mercy, and that they shall be blest to us, when we have them in God's appointed way; who hath said, "If any man will not work, neither should he eat," 2 Thess. iii.
Direct.II. As labour is thus necessary, so understand how needful a stated calling is, for the right performance of your labours. A calling is a stated ordinary course of labour. This is very needful for these reasons: 1. Out of a calling a man's labours are but occasional, or unconstant, and so more time is spent in idleness than in labour. 2. A man is best skilled in that which he is used to. 3. And he will be best provided for it with instruments and necessaries. 4. Therefore he doth it better than he could do another work, and so wrongeth not others, but attaineth more the ends of his labour. 5. And he doth it more easily; when a man unused, and unskilled, and unfurnished, toileth himself much in doing little. 6. And he will do his work more orderly, when another is in continual confusion, and his business knoweth not its time and place, but one part contradicts another. Therefore some certain calling or trade of life is best for every man.
Quest.I. May not a man have a calling consisting of occasional, uncertain works?Answ.He that can have no better, may do thus; so be it they are consistent works which he is able for: as a footman may go of various errands, and a day-labourer may do many sorts of works; but great variety will be a great inconvenience to him.
Quest.II. May a man have divers trades or callings at once?Answ.Yes, no doubt, if it be for the common good, or for his own, and no injury to any other; nor so inconsistent, as that one shall make him unfaithful in the other; then God forbids it not.
The question, Whether a man may change his calling, I answered before, chap. iii. direct. x.
Direct.III. Think not that a calling can be lawful when the work of it is sin; nor that you, or your labour, or your gain, in an unlawful calling, shall be blest. An unlawful act is bad enough; but an unlawful calling is a life of sin. To make sin a man's trade, and work, and living, is a most horrid, desperate course of life. As mercenary soldiers, that for their pay will fight against authority, right, or innocency, and murder men for half a crown a day: and those that live by cheating, stealing, oppressing, whoring, or by resetting such; or upon the sin of such: or of drunkards, gamesters, or other sensual vices, which they knowingly and willingly maintain.
Direct.IV. Think not that because a work is lawful, that therefore it is lawful to make a calling of it. It is lawful to jest in time and measure, but not lawful to be a jester as a trade of life. If in some cases it should prove lawful to act a comedy or tragedy, it it will not follow, that therefore it is lawful to be by trade a stage-player: if a game at cards or dice may be in some cases lawful, it follows not, that it is lawful to be a gamester by trade. The like I may say of many others.
Direct.V. It is not enough that the work of your calling be lawful, nor that it be necessary, but you must take special care also that it be safe, and not very dangerous to your souls. The calling of a vintner and ale-seller is lawful and needful; and yet it is so very dangerous that (unless it be in an extraordinary place or case) a man that loveth his soul should be loth to meddle with it, if he can have a safer to get his bread by. They get so little by sober people, and their gain dependeth so much upon men's sin, that it is a constant temptation to them to be the maintainers of it. And frail man, that can so hardly stand on firm ground, should be loth for a little money to walk still upon the ice, and to venture his soul in a life of such temptations; for it is twenty to one but they will prevail.
Direct.VI. The first and principal thing to be intended in the choice of a trade or calling for yourselves or children, is the service of God, and the public good; and therefore(cæteris paribus)that calling which most conduceth to the public good is to be preferred. The callings most useful to the public good are the magistrates, the pastors, and teachers of the church, schoolmasters, physicians, lawyers, &c. husbandmen (ploughmen, graziers, and shepherds); and next to them are mariners, clothiers, booksellers, tailors, and such other that are employed about things most necessary to mankind; and some callings are employed about matters of so little use, (as tobacco-sellers, lace-sellers, feather-makers, periwig-makers, and many more such,) that he that may choose better, should be loth to take up with one of these, though possibly in itself it may be lawful. It is a great satisfaction to an honest mind, to spend his life in doing the greatest good he can; and a prison and constant calamity to be tied to spend one's life in doing little good at all to others, though he should grow rich by it himself.
Direct.VII. When two callings equally conduce to the public good, and one of them hath the advantage of riches, and the other is more advantageous to your souls, the latter must be preferred; and next to the public good, the soul's advantage must guide your choice: as suppose that a lawyer were as profitable to the public good as a divine, and that it is the way to far more wealth and honour; yet the sacred calling is much more desirable for the benefit of your souls; because it is an exceeding great help, to be engaged by our callings to have the word and doctrine of Christ still before us, and in our minds and mouths; when others must be glad to be now and then exercised in it, when their hearts are cooled by the frequent and long diversions of their worldly business; so that our calling and work is to an honest heart a continual recreation, and preserving, and edifying help to grace. So a schoolmaster's calling is usually but poor and very painful, requiring much close attendance; but yet it is of so great use to the common good, and alloweth the mind so much leisure and advantage to improve itself in honest studies, that it is fitter to be chosen and delighted in by a well-tempered mind, than richer and more honoured employments. It is sweet to be all day doing so much good.
Direct.VIII. If it be possible, choose a calling which so exerciseth the body, as not to overwhelm you with cares and labour, and deprive you of all leisure for the holy and noble employments of the mind; and which so exerciseth your mind, as to allow you some exercise for the body also. 1. That calling which so taketh up body and mind, as neither to allow you commixed thoughts of greater things, nor convenient intermissions for them, is a constant snare and prison to the soul; which is the case of many who plunge themselves into more and greater business than they can otherwise despatch; and yet are contented to be thus continually alienated in their minds from God and heaven, to get more of the world. Many poor labourers (as clothiers, tailors, and other such) can work with their hands, and meditate or discourse of heavenly things without any hinderance of their work; when many men of richer callings have scarce room for a thought or word of God or heaven all day. 2. On the contrary, if the body have not also its labour as well as the mind, it will ruin your health, and body and mind will both grow useless.
Direct.IX. It is lawful and meet to look at the commodity of your calling in the third place (that is, after the public good, and after your personal good of soul and bodily health). Though it is said, Prov. xxiii. 4, "Labour not to be rich;" the meaning is, that you make not riches your chief end: riches for our fleshly ends must not ultimately be intended or sought. But in subordination to higher things they may; that is, you may labour in that manner as tendeth most to your success and lawful gain: you are bound to improve all your Master's talents; but then your end must be, that you may be the better provided to do God service, and may do the more good with what you have. If God show you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way, (without wrong to your soul, or to any other,) if you refuse this, and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God's steward, and to accept his gifts, and use them for him when he requireth it; you may labour to be rich for God, though not for the flesh and sin.
Direct.X. It is not enough that you consider what calling and labour is most desirable, but you mustalso consider what you or your children are fittest for, both in mind and body. For that calling may be one man's blessing, which would be another's misery and undoing. A weak body cannot undergo those labours that require strength; and a dull and heavy mind and wit, cannot do the works which require great judgment and ingenuity.[571]It hath been the calamity of the church, and undoing of many ministers themselves, that well-meaning parents out of love to the sacred work of God, have set their children to be ministers that were unfit for it; and many self-conceited persons themselves are ready to thrust themselves into that holy office, when they have some inconsiderable smattering knowledge, and some poor measure of gifts, overvalued by themselves, that know not what is required to so great a work. Be sure that you first look to the natural ingenuity of your children, (or yourselves,) and then to their grace and piety; and see that none be devoted to the ministry that have not naturally a quickness of understanding, and a freedom of expression, unless you would have him live upon the ruin of souls, and wrong of the church and work of God; and turn an enemy to the best of his flock, when he seeth that they value him but as he deserves: and let none be so unwise as to become a preacher of that faith, and love, and holiness, which he never had himself. And even to the calling of a physician none should be designed that have not a special ingenuity, and sagacity, and natural quickness of apprehension; unless he should make a trade of killing men; for it is a calling that requireth a quick and strong conjecturing ability, which no study will bring a man that hath not a natural acuteness and aptitude thereto. Thus also as to all other callings, you must consider, not only the will of the child or parents, but their natural fitness of body and mind.
Direct.XI. Choose no calling (especially if it be of public consequence) without the advice of some judicious, faithful persons of that calling. For they are best able to judge in their own profession. Never resolve on the sacred ministry without the advice of able ministers: resolve not to be a physician, but by the counsel of physicians; and so of the rest: for abundance of persons ignorantly conceit themselves sufficient, that are utterly insufficient; and so live all their days, as wrongs and burdens unto others, and in sin and misery to themselves.
Direct.XII. If thou be called to the poorest laborious calling, do not carnally murmur at it, because it is wearisome to the flesh, nor imagine that God accepteth the less of thy work and thee: but cheerfully follow it, and make it the matter of thy pleasure and joy that thou art still in thy heavenly Master's service, though it be about the lowest things: and that he who knoweth what is best for thee, hath chosen this for thy good, and trieth and valueth thy obedience to him the more, by how much the meaner work thou stoopest to at his command. But see that thou do it all in obedience to God, and not merely for thy own necessity; thus every servant must serve the Lord in serving their masters, and from God expect their chief reward, Col. iii. 22-24; Eph. vi. 6, 7.
What sloth and idleness is.
Here I must show you what idleness and sloth is, and what are the signs of it; and then give you directions how to conquer it. Sloth signifieth chiefly the indisposition of the mind and body; and idleness signifieth the actual neglect or omission of our duties. Sloth is an averseness to labour, through a carnal love of ease, or indulgence to the flesh. This averseness to labour is sinful, when it is a voluntary backwardness to that labour which is our duty. Sloth showeth itself, 1. In keeping us from our duty, and causing us to delay it, or omit it: and, 2. In making us to do it slowly and by the halves: and both these effects are called idleness, which is the omission or negligent performance of our duties through a flesh-pleasing backwardness to labour.
What it is not.
By this you may see, 1. That it is not sloth or sinful idleness to omit a labour which we are unable to perform: as for the sick, and aged, and weak to be averse to labour through the power of an unresistible disease or weakness; or when nature is already wearied by as much labour as it can bear. 2. Or when reason alloweth and requireth us to forbear our usual labour for our health, or for some other sufficient cause. 3. Or when we are unwillingly restrained and hindered by others; as by imprisonment, or denial of opportunity: as if the magistrate forcibly hinder a preacher, or physician, or lawyer from that which otherwise he should do. 4. Or if a mistake or sinful error only keep a man from his labour, it is a sin, but not this sin of sloth; so also if any sensual vice or pleasure besides this love of ease take him off. 5. If it be a backwardness only to such labour as is no duty to us, it is but a natural and not a vicious sloth. But involuntary averseness to the labour of our duty through indulgence of fleshly ease, is the sinful sloth or laziness which we speak of.
The aggravations of it.
Sloth and idleness thus described is a sin in all; but a far greater sin in some than in others.[572]And you may thus know what sloth it is that is the most sinful. 1. The more sloth is subjected in the mind itself, and the less it is subjected in the body, the greater is the sin. For the mind is the nobler part, and immediate seat of sin. 2. The smaller the bodily distempers or temptations are which seduce the mind, the greater is the sin; for it shows the mind to be the more corrupted and tainted with the disease of sloth. He that is under an unresistible indisposition of body, sinneth not at all (unless as he voluntarily contracted that disease). But if the body's indisposition to labour be great, but yet not unresistible, it is a sin to yield to it; but so much the smaller sin,cæteris paribus, as the bodily disease is greater. He that hath some scorbutical lassitude, or phlegmatic heaviness and dulness, doth sin if he strive not against it as much as he can, and as in reason he should: it is not every bodily indisposition that will excuse a man from all labour, as long as he is able to labour notwithstanding that disease; but if the disease be great, so that he resisteth his lassitude with a great deal of labour, the sin is the less: but he that hath a body sound and able, that hath no disease to indispose him, sinneth most of all if he be slothful, as showing the most corrupted mind. 3. He is most sinfully slothful who is most voluntarily slothful. As he that endeavoureth least against it, and he that most loveth it, and would not leave it; and he that is least troubled at it, and least repenteth and lamenteth it, and contriveth to accommodate his sloth. 4. The sloth is,cæteris paribus,the worst, which most prevaileth to the omission or negligent performance of our duty; but that sloth which doth but indispose us, but is so far conquered by our resistance, as not to keep us from our duty, or not much and often, is the smaller sin. 5. That is the most sinful sloth,cæteris paribus, which is against the greatest duties: to be backward to the most holy duties, (as praying, and hearing or reading the word of God, &c.) or to duties of public consequence, is a greater sin than to be lazily backward to a common, toilsome work. 6. That is the most sinful sloth and idleness which is committed against the greatest motives to labour and diligence: therefore, in that respect, a poor man's sloth is more sinful than a rich man's, because he is under the pressure of necessity; and in another respect the rich man's sloth is worst, because he burieth the greatest talents, and is idle when he hath the greatest wages. A man that hath many children sinneth more than another by his idleness, because he wrongeth them all whom he must provide for. A magistrate or pastor of the church doth sin more incomparably than common people, if they be slothful; because they betray the souls of men, or sin against the good of many. As it is a greater sin to be lazy in quenching a fire in the city, than in a common, needless business; so it is a greater sin to be slothful in the working out our salvation, and making our calling and election sure, when God, and Christ, and heaven, and hell are the motives to rouse us up to duty, and when the time is so short, in which all our work for eternity must be done, I say, it is a far greater sin, than to be slothful when only corporal wants or benefits are the motives which we resist. Yet indeed the will of God is resisted in all, who forbiddeth us to be "slothful in business," Rom. xii. 11.
The signs of sloth.
Sloth is a thing that is easily discerned: the signs of it are, 1. When the very thought of labour is troublesome and unpleasing, and ease seems sweet. 2. When duty is omitted hereby and left undone. 3. When the easy part of duty is culled out, and the harder part is cast aside. 4. When the judgment will not believe, that laborious duty is a duty at all. 5. When that which you do, is done with an ill will, and with a constant weariness of mind, and there is no alacrity or pleasure in your work. 6. When you do no more in much time, than you might do in less, if you had a willing, ready mind. 7. When the backward mind is shifting it off with excuses, or finding something else to do, or at least delaying it. 8. When you choose a condition of greater ease and smaller labour, before a laborious condition of life which in other respects is better for you. As when a servant had rather live in an ungodly family where there is more ease (and fulness) to be had, than in a place of greatest advantage for the soul, where there is more labour (and want). 9. When little impediments discourage or stop you. "The slothful saith, there is a lion in the way," Prov. xxvi. 13; xxii. 13. "His way is an hedge of thorns," Prov. xv. 19. "He will not plough by reason of cold," Prov. xx. 4. 10. When you make a great matter of a little business. It cannot be done but with such preparation, and so much ado, that shows a slothful mind in the doer. Even the "putting his hand to his mouth," and "pulling it out of his bosom," is a business with the sluggard; that is, he maketh a great matter of a little one, Prov. xxvi. 15; xix. 24. 11. Lastly, The fruits of slothfulness use to detect it, in soul, and body, and estate; for it corrupteth, impoverisheth, and ruineth all. The weeds of his field or garden, the vices of his soul, the sins of his life, the duties omitted, or sleepily performed, the disorders of his family or charge, and usually, or oft, his poverty, do detect him, Prov. xxiv. 30; xii. 24, 27.[573]
By this much it is easy to discern the impudent folly of the quakers and some ignorant rustics, that rail against magistrates and ministers for living idly, because they do not plough or thrash, or use some mechanic trade or labour; as if the labour of their highest calling were no labour, but mere idleness. Thus proud men speak evil of that which they understand not! Had they tried it, they would have found that the work of a faithful minister is further distant from idleness than a thrasher is. Doth not Christ and the Holy Ghost oft call them "labourers, fellow-labourers with Christ, and workmen, and their work a labour?" Luke x. 27; 1 Cor. iii. 9; 1 Tim. v. 17, 18; 2 Tim. ii. 15; Matt. x. 10; 1 Cor. iii. 13-15; ix. 1; Eph. iv. 12; Phil. ii. 30.
Hence also you may see, 1. That though all that can must labour, yet there is great diversity of labours; and all men are not to do the same work. Magistrates, and pastors, and lawyers, and physicians, must labour diligently; but they are not all bound to plough, and thrash, and use the more servile labours of their inferiors. 2. That every man must labour in the works of his own calling, "and do his own business," 1 Thess. iv. 11; 2 Thess. iii. 11; and take that for the best employment for him, which God doth call him to, and not presume to step out of his place, and take the work of other men's callings out of their hands. 3. That a man that is paid for his labour by another, (as lawyers, physicians, schoolmasters, servants,) do rob them by their idleness, when they withhold from them any part of that which they are paid for.
Direct.I. The first help against sloth, is to be well acquainted with the greatness of the sin. For no wonder if it be committed by them that think it small. First, therefore, I shall tell you what it is.
1. God himself reckoneth it with heinous sins. "Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness," Ezek. xvi. 49, (the very character of the debauched part of the gentry,) is said to have been Sodom's sin, that was consumed with fire from heaven. And the Thessalonians were forbidden to keep company with such as lived disorderly and did not work.[574]
2. Idleness is a temporary destruction (as to their use) of all the faculties of mind and body which should be exercised. It is contrary to nature; for nature made our faculties for use. You bury yourselves alive. If it be a sin to hide God's lesser talents, what is it to bury ourselves and all our powers? If it be pity to see a dead man, because he is unuseful to the world; is it not pity and shame to see one voluntarily dead, that maketh himself useless by his sloth? Should not the church-yard be the dwelling of the slothful, that he may be nearest them in place that he is nearest to in quality?
3. Idleness and sloth are consumers of all the mercies of God. You are the barren ground where he soweth his seed, and none comes up. You return him but a crop of thorns and briers, and such ground is "nigh to cursing" (the final curse); "whose end is to be burned," Heb. vi. 8. Doth God daily feed, and clothe, and keep you, and protect and support you, and teach and warn you, and all for nothing? Is idleness that for which he hired you? Will you accuse your Maker of so great imprudence,and your Redeemer of more, as if he created and redeemed you to do nothing, or that which is as bad or worse than nothing? He calleth to you, "Why stand you idle?" Matt. xx. 3, 6. And it is a terrible sentence that such shall receive, "Thou wicked and slothful servant; cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness," &c. Matt. xxv. 26.
4. Idleness is a robbing God, who is the Lord of us and all our faculties, and all our service is his due. You rob him of the honour and service that you might have done him by your diligence.
5. And it is a robbing yourselves of all the good to soul or body, which by your labour and industry you might have got. The slothful man lieth wishing till he perish, Prov. xxi. 25.[575]
6. And it is a robbing of the commonwealth, and of all those to whom your labours, or the fruit of them, was due. You are burdens to the commonwealth, like drones in the hive, Col. iii. 22.
7. Slothfulness is a great consumer of time (as is showed, chap. v.) You lose not only all the time when duty is omitted, but much of the time in which you perform it, while you rid no work, and do it as if you did it not. He that goeth but a mile an hour, loseth his time, though he be still going, even as much as he that goeth two miles one hour and sits still the next. Oh what abundance of their lives do idle persons lose! When time is gone, they will better understand the greatness of their sin and loss, that now make light of it.
8. Idleness is not a single sin, but a continued course of sinning: an idle person is sinning all the while he is idle; and that is with some a great part of their lives: and therefore it is the greater, because the continuance showeth that it is not effectually repented of.
9. Idleness is a destroyer of grace, and gifts, and natural parts; they will rust for want of use. "The slothful is brother to the great waster," Prov. xviii. 9. Weeds will grow up and choke the fruit.
10. Idleness and sloth is a fruit of flesh-pleasing; and so cometh from the most pernicious vice. It is but to please the flesh that one is drunk, and another gluttonous, and another a fornicator, and another covetous; and your idleness and sloth is but pleasing the same flesh in another way, which is forbidden as well as those. "And if ye live after the flesh ye shall die," Rom. viii. 13.
11. It is a strengthening the flesh against the Spirit, by indulging it in its ease and sloth; and maketh it not only unruly and unserviceable, but masterly and earnest for its own desires.
12. Idleness is the mother and nurse of many heinous sins. 1. It cherisheth lust, and draweth people to fornication, which hard labour would have much prevented. 2. It is the time for foolish sports, and vanity, and wantonness, and excess of riot, and all the mischiefs which use to follow it. 3. It is the time for idle talk, and meddling with other folk's matters: and therefore Paul reprehendeth the idle as busy-bodies, or meddlers with matters that concern them not, and twattlers, and tale-carriers, 2 Thess. iii. 11: 1 Tim. v. 13; 1 Thess. iv. 11.[576]They that do not what they should, will be doing what they should not. 4. It is the time for gluttony, and drunkenness, and gaming, and all other sensuality. 5. Yea, it is the time for seditions and rebellions; as in armies it is the time for mutinies.
13. Idleness is the season of temptation: it is Satan's seed-time. It is then that he hath opportunity to tempt men to malice, revenge, and all other villany that is committed.
14. Idleness is "a disorderly walking," 2 Thess. iii. 10, 11; out of the way that God hath appointed us to eat our bread in, and receive his blessing in. The large description of a virtuous woman, Prov. xxxi. 10, to the end, is worthy to be studied by the slothful. "She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchant's ships; she bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She considereth a field and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her hand to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.—She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness."[577]I desire our ladies and gentlewomen, that take this pattern to be below them, to remember that it was not a ploughman, but a king, and that the greatest that ever Israel had, that gave this counsel as received from his mother: who concludeth, ver. 30, 31, "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates." But if our gallants should have no meat or clothing but what were the fruit of their hands, it would make a foul change in their garb and diet! And if their own works must be the matter of their praise, instead of the names of their ancestors, arms, lands, and titles, it would also make a foul change in their honours![578]
15. Idleness usually bringeth poverty; and it is a just and merciful chastisement of God to cure the sin: but such can have little comfort in their wants; nor expect that others should pity them, as they would do the diligent. Yea, many, when by idleness they are brought to poverty, by poverty are brought to murmuring and stealing, to the ruin both of soul and body, and family and reputation.
16. Idleness is a murderer of the body. Gluttony and idleness kill most of the world before their time: no two sins more constantly bring this curse along with them.
17. Idleness maketh thee the shame of the creation. Seest thou not how all the world is in action? how the sun runneth his course for thee, the waters flow, the ground bringeth forth, thy cattle labour for thee; and all things that are most excellent, are most active; and all things that are most unactive, are most vile, and dead, and drossy. The Scripture sendeth the slothful even to the ant to learn to labour, Prov. vi. 6. And shall the ant, the bee, and every creature be witnesses against thee to condemn thy sloth?
18. Lastly, idleness disableth you from doing good to others: you should "work with your own hands, that you may have to give to him that needeth," Eph. iv. 28. Or if you give out of your superfluity that which cost you no labour, it is not so much to yourhonour or comfort, as if you were purposely thrifty and laborious to do good; he that pleaseth his flesh with ease and fulness, and giveth his leavings (how much soever) to the poor, will never have that comfort and evidence of God's acceptance and grace in it, as he that pampereth not his flesh by his abundance, but giveth that to the poor which he getteth with his diligence, and which he denieth to his inordinate desires.
Direct.II. Those persons must be extraordinary watchful against this sin of idleness, whose constitutions, unhappy educations, condition of life, or company, do most strongly tempt them to it. It is a sin that some have but little temptation to in comparison of others: and some have need of a great deal of care and resolution to escape it. 1. Those are most subject to this sin who have a phlegmatic constitution, or dulness of spirits, or other bodily indisposition to cherish it: such therefore should strive the more against it, and not give way to any sloth which they are able to resist. Though their bodies are like a dull or tired horse, they must use the rod and spur the more. Such heavy persons are more given to sleep than others are; and yet they may resist it and rise early if they will, though they have a greater sluggishness than others to overcome. So though they are more undisposed to labour than more active persons are, yet if they will do their best, they may go as far as their strength of body will enable them. And this they should the rather strive to do, (unless they have a disease that labour is hurtful to,) because that custom doth much to the increasing or decreasing their bodily undisposedness, and labour is the most effectual means to cure them of that fleshly heaviness which unfitteth them for their labour.[579]
2. Those that have been unhappily bred up in idleness, have great cause to repent of their sinful life that is past, and to be doubly diligent to overcome this sin: if their parents have so far been their enemies, they should not continue enemies to themselves. Though usually the children of the rich and proud have this for their peculiar original sin, and are very unhappy in their parentage and education in comparison of the children of wise, and humble, and industrious parents, yet their own understanding and willingness, by the help of grace, may overcome it. If your parents had trained you up to live by stealing, could not you leave it if you will, when you come to know that God forbiddeth it? so though they have bred you up in idleness, and done their part to undo you both in soul and body, to make your souls a sty for sin, and your bodies a skinful of diseases, yet if you will do your part you may be recovered, at least as to your souls; and custom may conquer the fruits of custom. You cannot do worse than to go on, and spend the rest of your life in sin. If you had been still-born, or murdered in your infancy, it had been no sin for you to have lain idle in the common earth; but to teach a living soul to be idle, and to train up the living to a conformity to the dead, (save only that they eat, and spend, and sin, and carry their ornaments on their backs, when the dead have theirs for a standing monument,) this was great cruelty and treachery in your parents: but you must not therefore be as cruel and treacherous against yourselves.[580]
3. Those that abound in wealth, and have no need to labour for any bodily provisions, should be especially watchful against this sin. Necessity is a constant spur to the poor (except those that live upon begging, who are the second rank of idle persons in the land); but the rich and proud are under a continual temptation to live idly; for they need not rise early to labour for their bread; they need not work hard for food or raiment; they have not the cries of their hungry children to rouse them up; they have plenty for themselves and family without labour, and therefore they think they may take their ease. But it is a sad case with poor souls, when the commands of God do go for nothing with them; or cannot do as much to make them diligent as poverty or want could do; and when God's service seemeth to them unworthy of their labour, in comparison of their own. It may be, God may bring you unto a necessity of labouring for your daily bread, if you so ill requite him for your plenty. But it is better that your idleness were cured by grace, than by necessity: for when you labour only for your own supplies, your own supplies are your reward; but when you labour in true obedience to God, it is God that will reward you, Col. iii. 23, 24. I do, with very much love and honour, think of the industrious lives of some lords and ladies that I know, who hate idleness and vanity, and spend their time in diligent labours suitable to their places. But it is matter of very great shame and sorrow, to think and speak of the lives of too great a number of our gallants: to how little purpose they live in the world! If they take a true account of their lives, (as God will make them wish they had done, when he calls them to account,) how many hours, think you, will be found to have been spent in any honest labour, or diligent work that is worthy of a christian, or a member of the commonwealth! in comparison of all the rest of their time, which is spent in bed, in dressing, in ornaments, in idle talk, in playing, in eating, in idle wanderings and visits, and in doing nothing, or much worse?[581]How much of the day doth idleness consume in comparison of any profitable work! Oh that God would make such know in time, how dreadful a thing it is thus to imitate Sodom that was punished with the vengeance of eternal fire, Ezek. xvi. 49; Jude 7, instead of imitating Christ. As for idle beggars, they read not books, and therefore I shall not write for them: they are in this more happy than the idle gentry, that the law compelleth them to work, and leaveth them not to themselves.
4. Those persons that live in idle company have special cause to fear this sin; for such will entangle you in idleness, and greatly hinder you from conscionable diligence.
5. Those servants that live in great men's houses, and are kept more for pomp and state than service, having little to do, should specially take heed of the sin of idleness. Many such take it for their happiness to live idly, and take that for the best service where they have least work. But have you nothing to do for yourselves, for soul nor body? If you have leisure from your master's service, you should thankfully improve it in God's service and your own.
Direct.III. Settle yourselves in a lawful calling, which will keep you under a necessity of ordinaryand orderly employment. As we cannot so easily bring our minds to a close attendance upon God, in the week days when we have our common business to divert us, as we can do on the Lord's day which is purposely set apart for it, and in which we have the use of his stated ordinances to assist us; even so a man that is out of a stated course of labour cannot avoid idleness so well as he that hath his ordinary time and course of business to keep him still at work. It is a dangerous life to live out of a calling.
Direct.IV. Take heed of excess of meat, and drink, and sleep; for these drown the senses, and dull the spirits, and load you with a burden of flesh or humours, and greatly undispose the body to all diligent, useful labours: a full belly and drowsy brain are unfit for work. It will seem work enough to such, to carry the load of flesh or phlegm which they have gathered. A pampered body is more disposed to lust and wantonness, than to work.
Direct.V. A manlike resolution is an effectual course against sloth. Resolve and it will be done. Give not way to a slothful disposition. Be up and doing: you can do it if you do but resolve. To this end, be never without God's quickening motives (before mentioned) on your minds. Think what a sin and shame it is to waste your time; to live like the dead; to bury a rational soul in flesh; to be a slave to so base a thing as sloth; to neglect all God's work while he supporteth and maintaineth you, and looketh on; to live in sloth, with such miserable souls, so near to judgment and eternity. Such thoughts well set home will make you stir, when a drowsy soul makes an idle body.
Direct.VI. Take pleasure in your work, and then you will not be slothful in it. Your very horse will go heavily where he goeth unwillingly, and will go freely when he goeth thither where he would be. Either your work is good or bad: if it be bad, avoid it; if it be good, why should you not take pleasure in it? It should be pleasant to do good.
Direct.VII. To this end be sure to do all your work as that which God requireth of you, and that which he hath promised to reward; and believe his acceptance of your meanest labours which are done in obedience to his will. Is it not a delightful thing to serve so great and good a Master, and to do that which God accepteth and promiseth to reward? This interest of God in your lowest, and hardest, and servilest labour, doth make it honourable, and should make it sweet.
Direct.VIII. Suffer not your fancies to run after sensual, vain delights; for these will make you weary of your callings. No wonder if foolish youths be idle, whose minds are set upon their sports; nor is it wonder that sensual gentlemen live idly, who glut themselves with corrupting pleasures. The idleness of such sensualists is more unexcusable than other men's, because it is not the labour itself that they are against, but only such labour as is honest and profitable: for they can bestow more labour in play, or dancing, or running, or hunting, or any vanity, than their work required; and it is the folly and sickness of their minds that is the cause, and not any disability in their bodies: the busiest in evil are slothfullest to good.
Direct.IX. Mortify the flesh, and keep it in an obedient dependence on the soul, and you will not be captivated by sloth. For idleness is but one way of flesh-pleasing: he that is a sensual slave to his flesh, will please it in the way that it most desireth; one man in fornication, and another in ambition, and another in ease; but he that hath overcome and mortified the flesh, hath mastered this with the rest of its concupiscence.
Direct.X. Remember still that time is short, and death makes haste, and judgment will be just, and that all must be judged according to what they have done in the body; and that your souls are precious, and heaven is glorious, and hell is terrible, and work is various and great, and hinderances are many; and that it is not idleness, but labour, that is comfortable in the reviews of time; and this will powerfully expel your sloth.
Direct.XI. Call yourselves daily or frequently to account how you spend your time, and what work you do, and how you do it. Suffer not one hour or moment so to pass, as you cannot give your consciences a just account of it.
Direct.XII. Lastly, watch against the slothfulness of those that are under your charges as well as against your own: some persons of honour and greatness are diligent themselves, and bestow their time for the service of God, their king and country, and their souls and families (and I would we had more such): but if, in the mean time, their wives and children and many of their servants spend most of the day and year in idleness, and they are guilty of it, for want of a thorough endeavour to reform it, their burden will be found greater at last than they imagined. In a word, though the labour and diligence of a believing saint, and not that of a covetous worldling, is it that tends to save the soul, and diligence in doing evil is but a making haste to hell; yet sloth in itself is so great a nourisher of vice, and deadly an enemy to all that is good; and idleness is such a course and swarm of sin, that all your understandings, resolution, and authority, should be used to cure it in yourselves and others.
Zeal in things spiritual is contrary to sloth, and coldness, and remissness; and diligence is contrary to idleness. Zeal is the fervour or earnestness of the soul:[582]its first subject is the will and affections, excited by the judgment; and thence it appeareth in the practice. It is not a distinct grace or affection, but the vigour and liveliness of every grace, and their fervent operations.