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A fluggard is qualified for no office, no calling, no s ER M. Itation among men; he is a mere nobody, taking up XIII. room, pestering and clogging the world.

11. It also may deferve our confideration, that it is industry, whereto the public ftate of the world, and of each commonweal therein, is indebted for its being, in all conveniencies and embellishments belonging to life, advanced above rude and fordid barbarifim; yea, whereto mankind doth owe all that good learning, that morality, thofe improvements of foul, which elevate us beyond brutes.

To industrious study is to be afcribed the invention and perfection of all thofe arts whereby hu> man life is civilized, and the world cultivated with numberless accommodations, ornaments, and beauties.

All the comely, the ftately, the pleasant, and useful works which we do view with delight, or enjoy with comfort, industry did contrive them, industry did frame them.

Industry reared thofe magnificent fabrics, and those commodious houfes; it formed thofe goodly pictures and ftatues; it raised thofe convenient caufeys, thofe bridges, those aqueducts; it planted thofe fine gardens with various flowers and fruits; it clothed those pleafant fields with corn and grafs; it built thofe hips, whereby we plough the feas, reaping the commodities of foreign regions. It hath fubjected all creatures to our command and fervice, enabling us to fubdue the fierceft, to catch the wildeft, to render the gentler fort most tractable and useful to us. It taught us from the wool of the fheep, from the hair of the goat, from the labours of the filk-worm, to weave us clothes to keep us warm, to make us fine and gay. It helpeth us from the inmoft bowels of the earth to fetch divers needful tools and utenGils.

It collected mankind into cities, and compacted them into orderly focieties, and devifed wholesome

laws,

SER M. laws, under fhelter whereof we enjoy fafety and peace, XIII. wealth and plenty, mutual fuccour and defence, sweet conversation and beneficial commerce.

It by meditation * did invent all those sciences whereby our minds are enriched and enabled, our manners are refined and polished, our curiofity is fatisfied, our life is benefited.

What is there which we admire, or wherein we delight, that pleaseth our mind, or gratifieth our fenfe, for the which we are not beholden to industry?

Doth any country flourish in wealth, in grandeur, in prosperity? It must be imputed to industry, to the industry of its governors fettling good order, to the industry of its people following profitable occupations: fo did Cato, in that notable oration of his in Salluft, tell the Roman fenate, that it was not by the force of their arms, but by the industry of their ancestors, that commonwealth did arife to fuch a pitch of greatness. When floth creepeth in, then all things corrupt and decay; then the public ftate doth fink into diforder, penury, and a difgraceful condition.

12. Industry is commended to us by all forts of example, deferving our regard and imitation. All nature is a copy thereof, and the whole world a glafs, wherein we may behold this duty reprefent'ed to us.

We may eafily obferve every creature about us inceffantly working toward the end for which it was defigned, indefatigably exercifing the powers with which it is endued, diligently obferving the laws of its creation. Even beings void of reafon, of fenfe, of life itself, do fuggeft unto us resemblances of induftry; they being fet in continual action toward the

* Ut varias ufus meditando extunderet artes

Paulatim, &c.

+ Cat. apud Salluft. in bello Catil.

Virg. Georg. 1.

effecting

effecting reasonable purposes, conducing to the pre- s ER M. servation of their own beings, or to the furtherance XIII. of common good.

The heavens do roll about with unwearied motion, the fun and stars do perpetually dart their influences; the earth is ever labouring in the birth and nourishment of plants; the plants are drawing fap, and fprouting out fruits and feeds, to feed us and propagate themselves; the rivers are running, the feas are toffing, the winds are blustering, to keep the elements sweet in which we live.

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Solomon fendeth us to the ant, and biddeth us to confider her ways, which provideth her meat in the fum- Prov, vi. 6, mer, and gathereth ber food in the barveft. Many fuch inftructors we may find in nature; the like industrious providence we may observe in every living creature; we may see this running about, that fwimming, another flying in purveyance of its food and fupport.

If we look up higher to rational and intelligent natures, ftill more noble and appofite patterns do object themselves to us.

Here below every field, every fhop, every street, the hall, the exchange, the court itself (all full of bufinefs, and fraught with the fruits of industry) do mind us how neceffary induftry is to us.

If we confult hiftory, we fhall there find, that the beft, men have been moft induftrious; that all great perfons, renowned for heroical goodness (the worthy Patriarchs, the holy Prophets, the bleffed Apostles) were for this moft commendable; that, neglecting their private ease, they did undertake difficult enterprizes, they did undergo painful labours for the benefit of mankind; they did pass their days, like St. Paul, iv xóis xai píxois, in labours and toilfome pains, 2 Cor. xi. for those purposes.

27.

Our great example, the life of our bleffed Lord himfelf, what was it but one continual exercife of labour? His mind did ever ftand bent in careful at- Ats x.

tention,

1

SER M. tention, studying to do good. His body was ever XIII. moving in wearyfome travel to the fame divine in

- tent.

If we yet foar farther in our meditation to the fuperior regions, we fhall there find the bleffed inhabitants of heaven, the courtiers and minifters of God, very busy and active; they do vigilantly wait on God's throne in readiness to receive and to dispatch his commands; they are ever on the wing, and fly about like Pfal. cii. lightning to do his pleafure. They are attentive to our needs, and ever ready to protect, to affift, to relieve us! Especially, they are diligent guardians and fucHeb. i. 14. courers of good men; officious spirits, fent forth to minifer for the heirs of falvation: fo even the feat of perfect reft is no place of idleness.

21, 22.

xxxiv. 7. xci. 11.

Yea, God himself, although immovably and infinitely happy, is yet immenfely careful and everlastingly Gen. ii. 2. bufy: he refted once from that great work of creation; John v. 17. but yet my Father, faith our Lord, worketh ftill; and Pfal. cxxi. he never will reft from his works of providence and of grace. His eyes continue watchful over the world, and his hands ftretched out in upholding it. He hath a fingular regard to every creature, fupplying Pfal. cxlv. the needs of each, and fatisfying the defires of all.

3. cxxvii. 1. Zech. iv.

IO.

2 Chron.

xvi. 9.

15, 16.

Prov. v.21.

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49.

And fhall we alone be idle, while all things are fo xv. 3. bufy? Shall we keep our hands in our bofom, or Pfal. xxxiv. ftretch ourselves on our beds of laziness, while all the Gen. xxxi. world about us is hard at work in pursuing the defigns of its creation? Shall we be wanting to ourfelves, while so many things labour for our benefit ? Shall not fuch a cloud of examples ftir us to fome industry? Not to comply with fo universal a practice, to cross all the world, to difagree with every creature, is it not very monftrous and extravagant?

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+ O tu bone omnipotens, qui fic curas unumquemque noftrum, tanquam folum cures, et fic omnes tanquam fingulos. Aug. Conf.

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SERM.

I fhould close all this difcourfe with that, at which, in pitching on this fubject, I chiefly did aim, an ap- XIII. plication exhortatory to ourselves, urging the practice of this virtue by confiderations peculiar to us as scholars, and derived from the nature of our calling. But the doing this requiring a larger difcourfe than the time now will allow of, I fhall referve it to another occafion; adding only one confideration more.

13. Laftly, if we confider, we fhall find the root and fource of all the inconveniences, the mischiefs, the wants of which we are so apt to complain, to be our floth; 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 contemptible, why ignorant, why vicious, why miferable? Why, but for this one reafon, because he is flothful; because he will not labour to rid himself of those evils? What could we want, if we would but take the pains to feek it, either by our industry, or by our devotion? For where the firft will not do, the fecond cannot fail to procure any good thing from him, who giveth to all men liberally, and hath promised to fup- Jam. i. 5. ply the defect of our ability by his free bounty; fo that if we join these two industries (induftrious action, and industrious prayer) there is nothing in the ainus ivgworld fo good, or fo great, of which, if we are capa- m. 16. ble, we may not affuredly become masters: and even for induftry itself, efpecially in the performance of all Пporxαprípnour duties towards God, let us induftriously pray Eph. vi. 18. even fo, The God of peace fanctify us wholly, and make Rom. xii. us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well pleafing in his fight; through our bleffed Saviour Jefus Christ, to whom for ever be all glory and praife. Amen.

γεμένη.

σις.

12.

Col. iv. 2.

1.

23.

21.

Theff. v. b. xiii.

SERMON

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