DIRECTIONS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BODY.
PART I.
_Directions about our Labour and Callings._
_Tit._ I. _Directions for the Right Choice of our Calling
and ordinary Labour._
I have already spoken of christian works, and the duty of our
callings, chap. iii. grand direct. x; and am now only to subjoin these
few directions, for the right choosing of your callings: for of the
using of them I must speak more anon.
_Direct._ I. Understand how necessary a life of labour is, and the
reasons of the necessity.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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
ye may 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 must also 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.
_Tit._ 2. _Directions against Idleness and Sloth._
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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 your honour 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 ordinary and 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.
_Tit._ 3. _Directions against Sloth and Laziness in
Things Spiritual: and for Zeal and Diligence._
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.
[Sidenote: The kinds of false zeal.]
_Direct._ I. Be sure that you understand the nature and use of zeal
and diligence, and mistake not a carnal, degenerate sort of zeal, for
that which is spiritual and genuine. 1. There is a zeal, and activity
merely natural, which is the effect of an active temperature of body.
2. There is an affected zeal, which is hypocritical, about things that
are good; when men speak, and make an outward stir, as if they were
truly zealous, when it is not so. 3. There is a selfish zeal: when a
proud and selfish person is fervent in any matter that concerneth
himself; for his own opinions, his own honour, his own estate, or
friends, or interest, or any thing that is his own. 4. There is a
partial, factious zeal:[583] when error, or pride, or worldliness hath
engaged men in a party, and they think it is their duty or interest at
least, to side with the sect or faction which they have chosen, they
will be zealous for all the opinions and ways of their espoused party.
5. There is a superstitious, childish, carnal zeal, for small,
indifferent, inconsiderable things: like that of the Pharisees (and
all such hypocrites) for their washings, and fastings, and other
ceremonious observances. 6. There is an envious, malicious zeal,
against those that have the precedency, and cross your desires, or
cloud your honour in the world, or that contradict you in your
conceits and ways: such is that at large described, James iii. 7.
There is a peevish, contentious, wrangling zeal, which is assaulting
every man who is not squared just to your conceits. 8. There is a
malignant zeal, against the cause and servants of the Lord, which
carrieth men to persecute them. See that you take not any of these, or
any such like, for holy zeal.
[Sidenote: The mischiefs of false zeal.]
If you should so mistake, these mischiefs would ensue: 1. Sinful zeal
doth make men doubly sinful: as holy zeal is the fervency of our
grace, so sinful zeal is the intention and fervency of sin. 2. It is
an honouring of sin and Satan: as if sin were a work, and Satan a
master, worthy to be fervently and diligently followed. 3. It is the
most effectual violent way of sinning, making men do much evil in a
little time; and making them more mischievous and hurtful to others,
than other sinners are. 4. It blindeth the judgment, and maketh men
take truth for falsehood, and good for evil, and disableth reason to
do its office. 5. It is the violent resister of all God's means; and
teacheth men to rage against the truth that should convince them: it
stops men's ears, and turns away their hearts from the counsel which
would do them good. 6. It is the most furious and bloody persecutor of
the saints, and church of Jesus Christ:[584] it made Paul once
exceeding mad against them, Acts xxvi. 10, 11, and "shut them up in
prison, and punish them in the synagogues, and compel them to
blaspheme, and persecute them even unto strange cities, and vote for
their death." Thus "concerning zeal he persecuted the church," Phil.
iv. 6. 7. It is the turbulent disquieter of all societies; a destroyer
of love; a breeder and fomenter of contention; and an enemy to order,
peace, and quietness. 8. It highly dishonoureth God, by presuming to
put his name to sin and error, and to entitle him to all the
wickedness it doth. Such zealous sinners commit their sin as in the
name of God, and fight against him ignorantly by his own (pretended or
abused) authority.[585] 9. It is an impenitent way of sinning: the
zealous sinner justifieth his sin, and pleadeth reason or Scripture
for it, and thinking that he doth well, yea, that he is serving God
when he is murdering his servants, John xvi. 2. 10. It is a
multiplying sin, and maketh men exceeding desirous to have all others
of the sinner's mind: the zealous sinner doth make as many sin with
him as he can.
Yea, if it be but a zeal for small and useless things, or about small
controversies or opinions in religion; 1. It showeth a mind that is
lamentably strange to the tenor of the gospel, and the mind of Christ,
and the practice of the great substantial things. 2. It destroyeth
charity and peace, and breedeth censuring and abusing others. 3. It
dishonoureth holy zeal by accident, making the profane think that all
zeal is no better than the foolish passion of deceived men. 4. And it
disableth the persons that have it to do good; even when they are
zealous for holy truth and duty, the people will think it is but of
the same nature with their erroneous zeal, and so will disregard them.
[Sidenote: The signs of holy zeal.]
The signs of holy zeal are these: 1. It is guided by a right judgment.
It is a zeal for truth and good, and not for falsehood and evil, Rom.
x. 2. 2. It is for God, and his church or cause, and not only for
ourselves. It consisteth with meekness, and self-denial, and
patience, as to our own concernments, and causeth us to prefer the
interest of God before our own, Numb. xii. 3; Exod. xxxii. 19; Gal.
iv. 12; Acts xiii. 9, 12. 3. It is always more careful of the
substance than the circumstances; it preferreth great things before
small; it contendeth not for small controversies to the loss or wrong
of greater truths, Matt. xxiii. 22, 23; it extendeth to every known
truth and duty, but in due proportion, being hottest in the greatest
things, and coolest in the least; it maketh men rather zealous of good
works, than of their controverted opinions, Tit. ii. 14. 4. Holy zeal
is always charitable; it is not cruel and bloody, nor of a hurting
disposition, Luke ix. 55, but is tender and merciful, and maketh men
burn with a desire to win and save men's souls, rather than to hurt
their bodies, 1 Cor. xiii.[586] Zeal against the sin is conjunct with
love and pity to the sinner, 2 Cor. xii. 21. 5. Yet it excludeth that
foolish pity which cherisheth the sin, Rev. ii. 2; 1 Kings xv. 13. 6.
True zeal is tender of the church's unity and peace; it is not a
dividing, tearing zeal: it is first "pure and then peaceable, gentle,
and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits," James iii.
17. 7. True zeal is impartial, and is as hot against our own sins, and
our children's and other relations' sins, as against another's.[587]
8. True zeal respecteth all God's commandments, and is not hot for
one, and contemptuous of another. It aimeth at perfection; and
stinteth not our desires to any lower degree. It maketh a man desirous
to be like to God, even holy as he is holy. It consisteth principally
in the fervour of our love to God; when false zeal consisteth
principally in censorious wranglings against other men's actions or
opinions: it first worketh towards good, and then riseth up against
the hindering evil. 9. It maketh a man laborious in holy duty to God,
and diligent in all his work;[588] and lieth not only in the heat of
the brain, or rigid opinions, or heat of speech. 10. It is not a
sudden flash, but a constant resolution of the soul; like the natural
heat, and not like a fever (though the feeling part is not still of
one degree); therefore it concocteth and strengtheneth, when false
zeal only vexeth and consumeth.[589]
_Direct._ II. When you are thus acquainted with the nature of true
zeal, consider next of its excellency and singular benefits, that
there may be a love to it, and an honour of it in your hearts. To that
end consider of these following commendations of it.
[Sidenote: The excellency of zeal and diligence.]
1. Zeal being nothing but the fervour and vigour of every grace, hath
in it all the beauty and excellency of that grace, and that in a high
and excellent degree. If love to God be excellent, then zealous,
fervent love is most excellent.
2. The nature of holy objects are such, so great and excellent, so
transcendent and of unspeakable consequence, that we cannot be sincere
in our estimation and seeking of them, without zeal. If it were about
riches or honours, a cold desire and a dull pursuit might serve the
turn, and well beseem us; but about God, and Christ, and grace, and
heaven, such cold desires and endeavours are but a contempt. To love
God without zeal, is not to love him, because it is not a loving him
as God.[590] To seek heaven without zeal and diligence is not to seek
it, but contemn it. To pray for salvation without any zeal, is but
hypocritically to babble, instead of praying; for no desire of Christ,
and holiness, and heaven is saving, but that which preferreth them
before all the treasures and pleasures of the world; and that which
doth so, hath sure some zeal in it; so that some zeal is essential to
every grace, as life and heat are to a man.
3. The integrity and honesty of the heart to God consisteth much in
zeal:[591] as he is true to his friend that is zealous for him, and
not he that is indifferent and cold. To do his service with zeal is to
do it willingly, and heartily, and entirely. To do it without zeal is
to do it heartlessly, and by the halves, and to leave out the life and
kernel of the duty: it is the heart that God doth first require.
4. Zeal is much of the strength of duty; and maketh it likeliest to
attain its end. The prayer of the faithful that is effectual must be
"fervent," Jam. v. 16. Zeal must make us importunate suitors, that
will take no denial, if we will speed, Luke xviii. 1-8. "The kingdom
of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." We
must "strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many shall seek to
enter and not be able." Not every one that striveth is crowned, nor
every one that runneth wins the prize; but he that doth it effectually
so as to attain. No wonder if we be commanded to love God with all our
heart, and soul, and might, which is a zealous love; for this is it
that overcometh all other love, and will constrain to dutiful
obedience. As experience telleth us, it is the zealous and diligent
preacher that doth good, when the cold and negligent do but little; so
it is in all other duties; the diligent hand maketh rich, and God
blesseth those that serve him heartily with all their might.[592]
5. Zeal and diligence take the opportunity, which sloth and negligence
let slip. They are up with the sun, and "work while it is day;" they
"seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is
near;" they know the day of their visitation and salvation; they delay
not, but take the "accepted time." When the slothful are still
delaying and trifling, and hear not God's voice while it is "called
to-day," but "harden their hearts," and sleep with their "lamps
unfurnished," and knock not till the "door be shut."[593] They stand
and look upon their work while they should do it; they are never in
readiness, when Christ and mercy are to be entertained; they are still
putting off their duty till some other time; till time be done, and
their work undone, and they are undone for ever.
6. Zeal and diligence are the best improvers of time and mercy; as they
delay not, but take the present time, so they loiter not, but do their
work to purpose. As a speedy traveller goeth farther in a day, than a
slothful one in many; so a zealous, diligent christian will do more for
God and his soul in a little time, than a negligent dullard in all his
life. It is a wonder to think what Augustine and Chrysostom did among
the ancients! what Calvin, and Perkins, and Whitaker, and Reignolds, and
Chamier, and many other reformed divines have done in a very little
time! and what Suarez, and Vasquez, and Jansenius, and Tostatus, and
Cajetan, and Aquinas, and many other papists, have performed by
diligence! When millions of men that have longer time, go out of the
world as unknown as they came into it; having never attained to so much
knowledge as might preserve them from the reproach of brutish ignorance,
nor so much as might save their souls from hell: and when many that had
diligence enough to get some laudable abilities, had never diligence
enough to use them to any great benefit of others or themselves. Zeal
and diligence are that fruitful, well-manured soil, where God soweth his
seed with best success; and which returns him for his mercies a
hundredfold, Matt. xiii. 8, 23; and at his coming giveth him his "own
with usury," Matt. xxv. 27, 28. But sloth and negligence are the grave
of mercies, where they are buried till they rise up in judgment against
the despisers and consumers of them. Aristotle and Plato, Galen and
Hippocrates, improvers of nature, shall condemn these slothful
neglecters and abusers of nature and grace; yea, their oxen and horses
shall be witnesses against many that served not God with any such
diligence, as these beasts served them; yea, many gallants of great
estates never did so much service for the common good in all their lives
as their very beasts have done. Their parts, their life, and all are
lost by them.
7. Zeal and diligence are the victorious enemies of sin and Satan.
They bear not with sin: they are to it as a consuming fire is to the
thorns and briers. Zeal burneth up lust, and covetousness, and pride,
and sensuality.[594] It maketh such work among our sins, as diligent
weeders do in your gardens; it pulleth up the tares, and burneth them.
It stands not dallying with sin, nor tasting or looking on the bait,
nor disputing with and hearkening to the tempter; but casteth away the
motion with abhorrence, and abstaineth from the very appearance of
evil, and hateth the garment spotted by the flesh, and presently
quencheth the sparks of concupiscence; it chargeth home, and so
resisteth the devil that he flieth:[595] when sloth and negligence
cherish the sin, and encourage the tempter, and invite him by a cold
resistance. The vineyard of the sluggard is overgrown with nettles;
his heart swarmeth with noisome thoughts and lusts, and he resisteth
them not, but easily beareth them. If he feel sinful thoughts
possessing his mind, he riseth not up with zeal against them; he hath
not the heart to cast them out, nor make any effectual resistance; he
famisheth his soul with fruitless wishes, because his hands refuse to
labour.[596] Negligence is the nurse of sin.
8. Zeal and diligence bear down all opposition against duty with power
and success. Those impediments which stop a sluggard, are as nothing
before them; as the cart-wheels which go slowly are easily stopped by
a little stone or any thing in their way, when those that are in a
swifter motion easily get over all. The lion that is in the sluggard's
way, is not so much as a barking whelp in the way of a diligent,
zealous christian. The cold doth not hinder him from ploughing.[597] A
very scorn, or mock, or threatening of a mortal man, will dismay and
stop a heartless hypocrite; which do but serve as oil to the fire, to
inflame the courage of the zealous so much more. The difficulties
which seem insuperable to the slothful, are small matters to the
zealous; he goeth through that which the slothful calls impossible.
And when the slothful sits still and saith, I cannot do this or that,
the zealous, diligent christian doth it.
9. Zeal and diligence take off the toil and irksomeness of duty, and
make it easy. As a quick-spirited, diligent servant maketh but a
pleasure of his work, which a lazy servant doth with pain and
weariness; and as a mettlesome horse makes a pleasure of a journey,
which a heavy jade goeth through with pain; so reading, and hearing,
and prayer are easy to a zealous soul, which to another are an
unwelcome task and toil.
10. Zeal is faithful, and constant, and valiant, and therefore greatly
pleaseth God: it sticks to him through persecution; the fire consumeth
it not; many waters quench it not. But others are false-hearted: and
those that have but a cold religion will easily be drawn or driven from
their religion. They are so indifferent, that a little more of the world
put into the balance, will weigh down Christ in their esteem. The hopes
or fears of temporal things prevail with them, against the hopes and
fears of things eternal. No wonder therefore if God disown such
treacherous servants, and turn them away as unworthy of his family.[598]
_Direct._ III. Let the great motives of holy zeal and diligence be set
home and printed on your hearts:[599] and often read them over in some
quickening books, that you may remember them, and be affected with
them. I have given you so many of these moving, exciting
considerations, in the third part of my "Saints' Rest," and my "Saint
or Brute," and "Now or Never," and in my sermon against "Making Light
of Christ," that I shall be but very brief in them at present.
[Sidenote: Motives of zeal.]
1. When you grow cold and slothful, remember how great a Master you
serve: should any thing be done negligently for God? And remember how
good a Master you serve; for whom you are certain that you can never
do too much; nor so much as he deserveth of you; nor will he ever
suffer you to be losers by him.
2. Remember that he is always present; in your converse with others,
in your prayers, your reading, and all your duties: and will you
loiter in his sight? when a very eye-servant will work while his
master standeth by.
3. One serious thought of the end and consequence of all thy work, one
would think, should put life into the dullest soul! Say to thy sleepy,
frozen heart, Is it not heaven that I am seeking? Is it not hell that
I am avoiding? And can I be cold and slothful about heaven and hell?
Must it not go with me for ever according as I now behave myself? And
is this the best that I can do for my salvation? Is it not God that I
have to please and honour? and shall I do it slothfully?
4. One thought of the exceeding greatness of our work, one would
think, should make us be zealous and diligent! To think what abundance
of knowledge we have to get! and how much of every grace we want! and
how much means we have to use! and how much opposition and many
temptations to overcome! The humble sense of the weakness of our
souls, and the greatness of our sins, should make us say, that
whatever the rich in grace may do, it is labour that becomes the poor.
5. To remember how short our time of working is, and also how uncertain!
How fast it flieth away! how soon it will be at an end! And that all the
time that ever we shall have to prepare for eternity is now! and that
shortly there will be no praying, no hearing, no working any more on
earth![600] To look into the grave, to go to the house of mourning! to
consider that this heart hath but a little more time to think, and this
tongue but a little more time to speak, and all will end in the endless
recompence; methinks this should quicken the coldest heart!
6. To remember how many millions are undone already by their sloth and
negligence! how many are in hell lamenting their slothfulness on earth,
while I am hearing, or reading, or praying to prevent it, one would
think should waken me from my sloth: what if I saw them, and heard their
cries? would it not make me serious? What if one of them had time and
leave and hope again as I have? would he be cold and careless?
7. To think how many millions are now in heaven, that all came thither
by holy zeal and diligence, and are now enjoying the fruit of all
their labour and sufferings! to think of the blessed end of all their
pains and patience, and how far they are now from repenting of it!
methinks should stir us up to zeal and diligence.
8. To foresee what thoughts all the world will have of holy diligence
at last! how the best will wish they had been better, and had done
much more for God and their salvation! and how the worst will wish,
when it is too late, that they had been as zealous and diligent as the
best! How earnestly they will then knock and cry, "Lord, open to us,"
when it is all in vain! and say to the watchful, diligent souls, "Give
us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out," Matt. xxv. To think how
glad the most ungodly would then be, if they might but have "died the
death of the righteous, and their latter end might be as his!" Numb.
xxiii. 10. And what heart-tearing grief will seize upon them for ever,
to think how madly they lost their souls, and sluggishly went to hell
to spare their pains of that sweet and holy work that should have
prevented it! Will not such forethoughts awaken the most sluggish,
stupid souls, that will but follow them till they can do their work?