ify others, to appear somebody among his companions; to avoid the shame of being quite out of employment: wherefore not having the heart to mind his own affairs, he will take the boldness to meddle with the concerns of other men if he cannot have the substance, he will set up an idol of business, and seem very active in his impertinency; in order thereto, being curiously inquisitive, and prying into the discourse, actions, and affairs of all men. This men are apt to do in their own defence and besides, idleness doth put men into a loose, garish, wanton humour, disposing them without heed or regard to meddle with any thing, to prattle at any rate. In fine, whoever hath no work at home, will be gadding to seek entertainment abroad, like those gossips of whom St. Paul saith, They learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.p If indeed we consider all the frivolous and petulant discourse, the impertinent chattings, the rash censures, the spiteful detractions which are so rife in the world, and so much poison all conversation, we shall find the main root of them to be a want of industry in men, or of diligent attendance on their own matters; which would so much take up their spirit and time, that they would have little heart or leisure to search into or comment upon other men's actions and con cerns. 10. Let us consider that industry is needful in every condition and station, in every calling and way of life: in all relations, for our good behaviour, and right discharge of our duty in them. Without it we cannot in any state act decently or usefully, either to the benefit and satisfaction of others, or to our own advantage and comfort. Are we rich? Then is industry requisite for keeping and securing our wealth, for managing it wisely, for employing it to its proper uses and best advantages (in the service of God, in beneficence to our neighbour, in advancing public good ;) so that we may render a good account to him who hath intrusted us with the stew ardship thereof industry is very needful to guard us from the temptations and mis > 1 Tim. v. 13. chiefs to which wealth doth expose us, that it do not prove a treacherous snare, an unwieldy burden, a destructive poison and plague to us, throwing us into pride and vanity, into luxury, into stupidity, into distracting solicitude, into a base, worldly, and earthly temper of heart, into a profane oblivion of God, and of our own souls. Are we in conspicuous rank of dignity, or in honour and repute among men? Then is industry requisite to keep us fast in that state, to hold us from tumbling from that pinnacle down into extreme disgrace; for then all eyes are upon us, strictly observing what we do, and ready to pass censure on our actions; so that great diligence is necessary to approve ourselves, and shun obloquy. Nothing is more brittle than honour; every little thing hitting on it is able to break it, and therefore without exceeding care we cannot preserve it. Nothing is more variable or fickle than the opinions of men (wherein honour consisteth ;) it is therefore no easy matter to fix or detain them in the same place. Honour cannot live without food or fuel; it must be nourished by worthy actions; without a continual supply of them it will decay, languish, and pine away: industry therefore is required to keep it ; and no less is necessary to use it well, in a due subordination to God's honour, and reference to his service, that, instead of an ornament and convenience, it do not prove a baneful mischief to us; puffing up our minds with vain conceits and complacencies, inclining us to arrogance and contempt of others, tempting us by assuming to ourselves to rob God of his due glory; to decline which evils great care is requisite; we must have a steady ballast, and we must hold the rudder warily, when we carry so great sail. On the other hand, are we poor and low in the world; or do we lie under disgrace? Then do we much need industry to shun extremities of want and ignominy; that we be not swallowed up and overwhelmed by need or contempt; to support us under our pressures, to keep up our spirits from dejection and disconsolateness; to preserve us from impious discontentedness and impatience: industry is the only remedy of that condition, Vitrea fama. Hor.-Eccl. x. 1. enabling us to get out of it, retrieving a | or a rustic, acting in a low and narrow competence of wealth or credit; or dis- sphere, can effect no great matter, and posing us to bear it handsomely, and with comfort; so as not to become forlorn or abject wretches. It is so needful to every condition; it is so for all vocations; for, Is a man a governor, or a superior in any capacity? Then what is he but a public servant, doomed to continual labour, hired for the wages of respect and pomp, to wait on his people; in providing for their needs, protecting their safety, preserving their peace and welfare; where is he but on a stage, whereon he cannot well act his part, without vigilant attendance to his charge, and constant activity in performing all the functions thereof? He is engaged in great obligations and necessities of using extreme diligence, both in regard to himself and others. Homer's description of a prince is a good one: One who hath much people, and many cares committed to him; Ω λαοὶ τ' ἐπιτετράφαται, καὶ τόσσα μέμηλε. He must watchfully look to his own steps, who is to guide others by his authority and his example. All his actions require special conduct, not only his own credit and interest, but the common welfare depending thereon. He must heedfully advise what to do, he must diligently execute what he resolveth on. He hath the most ticklish things that can be (the rights and interests, the opinions and humours of men) to manage. He hath his own affections to curb and guide, that they be not perverted by any sinister respects, not swayed by any unjust partiality, not corrupted by flattery or fear. He will find, that to wield power innocently, to brandish the sword of justice discreetly and worthily, for the maintenance of right, and encouragement of virtue, for the suppression of injury, and correction of vice, is a matter of no small skill or slight care. Industry is indeed a quality most proper for persons of high rank and dignity, or of great power and authority; who have special opportunities to employ it in weighty affairs to great advantage; whose undertakings being of vast moment, do need answerable efforts to move and guide them. The industry of a mechanic therefore itself need not to be great : but the industry of a prince, of a nobleman, of a gentleman, may have a large and potent influence, so as to render a nation, a county, a town, happy, prosperous, glorious, flourishing in peace, in plenty, in virtue; it therefore for achieving such purposes need be, and should be propor tionably great; a small power not being able to move a great weight, nor a weak cause to produce a mighty effect. Where fore Cicero recommending Pompey for a public charge, doth reckon these to be the imperatoria virtutes, qualities befitting a prince, or general, wherein he did excel, Labour in business, valour in dangers, industry in acting, nimbleness in perfor mance, counsel in providing.* — And Alexander the Great, reflecting on his friends degenerating into sloth and luxury, told them, that it was a most slavish thing to luxuriate, and a most royal thing to labour.t And for those who move in a lower orb of subjection or service, I need not show how needful industry is for them. Who knoweth not that to be a good subject, doth exact a careful regard to the commands of superiors, and a painful diligence in observing them? that to make a good servant, fidelity and dili gence must concur? whereof the first doth suppose the last, it being a part of honesty in a servant to be diligent; whence δοῦλε πονηρὲ καὶ ὀκνηρέ, Ο th wicked and slothful servant, were in the gospel well coupled; and the first epithet was grounded on the second, he being therefore wicked, because he had been slothful. Neither can a man be a true friend, or a good neighbour, or anywise a good rel ative, without industry disposing him to undergo pains in performing good offices, whenever need doth require, or occasion invite. In fine, it is palpable, that there is no calling of any sort, from the sceptre to the spade, the management whereof with any good success, any credit, any satis * Labor in negotio, fortitudo in periculis, industria in agendo, celeritas in conficiendo, consilium in providendo, &c.-Cic. pro lege Maxil To TOVEV-Plut. in Alex. p. 1262. † Δουλικώτατόν ἐστι τὸ τρυφᾶν, βασιλικώτατον δι Matt. xxv. 26. faction, doth not demand much work of defence, sweet conversation and benefithe head, or of the hand, or of both. cial commerce. If wit or wisdom be the head, if honesty be the heart, industry is the right hand of every vocation; without which the shrewdest insight and the best intention can execute nothing. It by meditation did invent all those sciences whereby our minds are enriched and ennobled, our manners are refined and polished, our curiosity is satisfied, our life is benefited.* What is there which we admire, or wherein we delight, that pleaseth our A sluggard is qualified for no office, no calling, no station among men; he is a mere nobody, taking up room, pester-mind, or gratifieth our sense, for the ing and clogging the world. which we are not beholden to industry? 11. It also may deserve consideration Doth any country flourish in wealth, in that it is industry whereto the public state grandeur, in prosperity? It must be imof the world, and of each commonweal puted to industry, to the industry of its therein, is indebted for its being, in all governors settling good order, to the inconveniences and embellishments belong-dustry of its people following profitable ing to life, advanced above rude and sordid barbarism; yea, whereto mankind doth owe all that good learning, that morality, those improvements of soul, which elevate us beyond brutes. To industrious study is to be ascribed the invention and perfection of all those arts whereby human life is civilized, and the world cultivated with numberless accommodations, ornaments, and beauties. occupations; so did Cato, in that notable oration of his in Sallust,† tell the Roman senate, that it was not by the force of their arms, but by the industry of their ancestors, that the commonwealth did arise to such a pitch of greatness. When sloth creepeth in, then all things corrupt and decay; then the public state doth sink into disorder, penury, and a disgraceful condition. All the comely, the stately, the pleas- 12. Industry is commended to us by ant and useful works which we do view all sorts of examples, deserving our rewith delight, or enjoy with comfort, in-gard and imitation. All nature is a copy dustry did contrive them, industry did thereof, and the whole world a glass frame them. wherein we may behold this duty represented to us. Industry reared those magnificent fabrics, and those commodious houses; it We may easily observe every creature formed those goodly pictures and statues; about us incessantly working toward the it raised those convenient causeways, end for which it was designed, indefatithose bridges, those aqueducts; it plant- gably exercising the powers with which ed those fine gardens with various flow- it is endued, diligently observing the laws ers and fruits; it clothed those pleasant of its creation. Even beings void of fields with corn and grass; it built those reason, of sense, of life itself, do sugships, whereby we plough the seas, reap-gest unto us resemblances of industry; ing the commodities of foreign regions. It hath subjected all creatures to our command and service, enabling us to subdue the fiercest, to catch the wildest, to render the gentler sort most tractable and useful to us. It taught us, from the wool of the sheep, from the hair of the goat, from the labours of the silk-worm, to weave us clothes to keep us warm, to make us fine and gay. It helped us from the inmost bowels of the earth to fetch divers needful tools and utensils. It collected mankind into cities, and compacted them into orderly societies, and devised wholesome laws, under shelter whereof we enjoy safety and peace, wealth and plenty, mutual succour and they being set in continual action toward the effecting reasonable purposes, conducing to the preservation of their own be ings, or to the furtherance of common good. The heavens do roll about with unwearied motion; the sun and stars do perpetually dart their influences; the earth is ever labouring in the birth and nourishment of plants; the plants are drawing sap, and sprouting out fruits and seeds, to feed us and propagate themselves; the rivers are running, the seas are tossing, * Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artes the winds are blustering, to keep the elements sweet in which we live. courers of good men; officious spirits, sent forth to minister for the heirs of salvation: so even the seat of perfect rest is no place of idleness. Solomon sendeth us to the ant, and biddeth us to consider her ways, which provideth her meat in the summer, and Yea, God himself, although immovagathereth her food in the harvest. Many such instructors we may find in nature; the like industrious providence we may observe in every living creature; we may see this running about, that swimming, another flying, in purveyance of its food and support. If we look up higher to rational and intelligent natures, still more noble and apposite patterns do object themselves to us. Here below, every field, every shop, every street, the hall, the exchange, the court itself (all full of business, and fraught with the fruits of industry), do mind us how necessary industry is to us. If we consult history, we shall there find, that the best men have been most industrious; that all great persons, renowned for heroical goodness (the worthy patriarchs, the holy prophets, the blessed apostles), were for this most commendable; that, neglecting their private ease, they did undertake difficult enterprises, they did undergo painful labours, for the benefit of mankind; they did pass their days, like St. Paul, & xóл015 xui pózis, in labours and toilsome pains, for those purposes. Our great example, the life of our blessed Lord himself, what was it but one continual exercise of labour? His mind did ever stand bent in careful attention, studying to do good?" His body was ever moving in wearisome travel to the same divine intent. bly and infinitely happy, is yet immensely careful, and everlastingly busy he rested once from that great work of crea tion; but yet My Father (saith our Lord) worketh still: and he never will rest from his works of providence and of grace. His eyes continue watchful over the world, and his hands streched out in upholding it. He hath a singular regard to every creature, supplying the needs of each, and satisfying the desires of all.* And shall we alone be idle, while all things are şo busy? Shall we keep our hands in our bosom, or strech ourselves on our beds of laziness, while all the world about us is hard at work in pursuing the designs of its creation? Shall we be wanting to ourselves, while so many things labour for our benefit? Shall not such a cloud of examples stir us to some industry? Not to comply with so universal a practice, to cross all the world, to disagree with every creature, is it not very monstrous and extravagant? I should close all this discourse with that, at which, in pitching on this subject, I chiefly did aim, an application exhortatory to ourselves, urging the practice of this virtue by considerations peculiar to us as scholars, and derived from the nature of our calling. But the doing this requiring a larger discourse than the time now will allow, I shall reserve it to another occasion; adding only one consideration more. which we are apt to complain, to be our sloth; and that there is hardly any of them which commonly we might not easily prevent or remove by industry. Why is any man a beggar, why con If we yet soar further in our medita- 13. Lastly, if we consider, we shall tion to the superior regions, we shall find the root and source of all the inconthere find the blessed inhabitants of heav-veniences, the mischiefs, the wants of en, the courtiers and ministers of God, very busy and active; they do vigilantly wait on God's throne,* in readiness to receive and to despatch his commands; they are ever on the wing, and fly about like lightning to do his pleasure. They are attentive to our needs, and ever ready to protect, to assist, to relieve us! Especially, they are diligent guardians and suc * O tu bone omnipotens, qui sic curas unumquemque nostrum tanquam solum cures, et sie omnes tanquam singulos. -Aug. Conf. iv. 11. ▾ Psal. ciii. 21, 22; xxxiv. 7; xci. 11; Heb. i. 14 w Gen. ii. 2; John v. 17. Psal. cxxi. 3; cxxvii. 1; Zech. iv. 10; 2 Chron. xvi. 9; Psal. cxlv. 15, 16; (Prov. v. 21; xv. 3; Psal. xxxiv. 15; Gen. xxxi. 49; Jer. xxxi. 18.) Without it we cannot well sustain or secure our life in the enjoyment of any comfort or convenience; we must work to earn our food, our clothing, our shelter; and to supply every indigency of accommodations, which our nature doth crave. To it God hath annexed the best and most desirable rewards; success to our undertakings, wealth, honour, wisdom, virtue, salvation; all which, as they flow from God's bounty, and depend on his blessing; so from them they are usually conveyed to us through our industry, as the ordinary channel and instrument of attaining them. temptible, why ignorant, why vicious, why miserable? Why, but for this one reason, because he is slothful; because he will not labour to rid himself of those evils? What could we want, if we would but take the pains to seek it, either by our industry or by our devotion? For where the first will not do, the second cannot fail to procure any good thing from him, who giveth to all men liberally, and hath promised to supply the defect of our ability by his free bounty; so that if we join these two industries (industrious action and industrious prayer there is nothing in the world so good, or so great, of which, if we are capable, we may not assuredly become masters: and even for industry itself, especially in the performance of all our duties toward God, let us industriously pray even so, It is in itself sweet and satisfactory; The God of peace sanctify us wholly, and as freeing our mind from distraction, and make us perfect in every good work to do wrecking irresolution; as feeding us with his will, working in us that which is well-good hope, and yielding a foretaste of its pleasing in his sight; through our bless- good fruits. ed Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom for ever be all glory and praise. Amen. SERMON LII. OF INDUSTRY IN OUR GENERAL CALLING, AS CHRISTIANS. It is requisite to us, even for procuring ease, and preventing a necessity of immoderate labour. It furnisheth us with courage to attempt, and resolution to achieve things needful, worthy of us, and profitable to us. It is attended with a good conscience, and cheerful reflections, of having well spent our time, and employed our talents to good advantage. It sweeteneth our enjoyments, and ROM. xii. 11.-Not slothful in bussness.* seasoneth our attainments with a delight ful relish. INDUSTRY is a very eminent virtue, being It is the guard of innocence, and baran ingredient, or the parent, of all other reth out temptations to vice, to wantonvirtues, of constant use upon all occa-ness, to vain curiosity, and pragmaticalsions, and having influence upon all our affairs. For it is in our nature framed; all our powers of soul and body being fitted for it, tending to it, requiring it for their preservation and perfection. We were designed for it in our first happy state; and upon our lapse thence were further doomed to it, as the sole remedy of our needs and the inconveniences to which we became exposed. For ness. It argueth an ingenuous and generous disposition of soul; aspiring to worthy things, and pursuing them in the fairest way; disdaining to enjoy the common benefits, or the fruits of other men's labour, without deserving them from the world, and requiting it for them. It is necessary for every condition and station, for every calling, for every relation; no man without it being able to deport himself well in any state, to manage * Tÿ crovdÿ μù dxvnpoí. Solicitudine non pi- any business, to discharge any sort of gri.-Vulg. y James i. 5. duty. To it the world is indebted for all the * Δέησις ἐνεργουμένη.—James v. 16 ; Προσκαρ-culture which advanceth it above rude Tépnois-Eph. vi. 18; Rom. xii. 12; Col. iv. 2; 1 Thess. v. 23. and sordid barbarism; for whatever in common life is stately, or comely, or |