Another darling of human affection (and a jewel indeed of considerable worth and use in our life) is honour, or reputation among men: this also plainly, after the common reason and course of things, is purchased and preserved by industry: for he that aspireth to worthy things, and assayeth laudable designs, pursuing them steadily with serious application of heart, and resolute activity, will rarely fail of good success, and consequently will not miss honour, which ever doth crown victory; and if he should happen to fail in his design, yet he will not lose his credit; for, having meant well, and done his best, all will be ready to excuse, many to commend him; the very qualities which industry doth exercise, and the effects which it doth produce, to beget honour, as being ornaments of our person and state. God himself (from whom "honour cometh," and whose special prerogative it is to bestow it, he, as King of the world, being the fountain of

honour) will be concerned to dignify an industrious management of his gifts with that natural and proper recompense thereof; conducting him who fairly treadeth in the path of honour, that he shall safely arrive unto it. It is therefore a matter of easy observation, which the wise Prince doth prompt us to mark; "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men:" that is, diligence, as it is the fairest, so it is. the surest way to the best preferment : as it qualifieth a man for employment, and rendereth him useful to the world, so it will procure worthy employment for him, and attract the world to him; as the same great author again doth assert: "The hand," saith he, "of the diligent shall bear rule;" yea, so honourable a thing is industry itself, that an exercise thereof in the meanest rank is productive of esteem, as the wise man again doth observe and tell us; "He that waiteth

on his master (that is, with diligence attendeth on the business committed to him,) shall be honoured."

No industrious man is contemptible; for he is ever looked upon as being in a way of thriving, of working himself out from any straits, of advancing himself into a better condition. But without industry we cannot expect any thing but disrespect, shame, and reproach, which are the certain portion of the slothful; he not having the heart to enterprise, or the resolution and patience to achieve any thing deserving regard, or apt to procure it; he wanting all the ornaments and good fruits that grow from industry; he being only fit for a sordid and servile condition; whence "the slothful," saith Solomon, shall be under tribute;" and, "He that sleepeth in harvest, is a son that causeth shame;" he causeth it to his relations by his beggarly accoutrements, he causeth it much more to himself by his despicable faulti

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ness, and by the disgraceful consequences of it.

Another yet more precious good, far surpassing all external advantages of our state; the which, in the judgment of him who (together with it having a full possession of all secular prosperity, wealth, dignity, and power) was best able to praise it," is better than rubies, and incomparably doth excel all things that may be desired," as ennobling, enriching, and embellishing our better part: wisdom, I mean, or a good comprehension, and right judgment about matters of highest importance to us, is the prize of industry, and not to be gained without it; nature conferreth little thereto, fortune contributeth much less; it cannot be bought at any rate; "It cannot," saith Job, "be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof; it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire;" it is the offspring of watch

ful observation and experience, of serious meditation and study; of careful reflection on things, marking, comparing, and weighing their nature, their worth, their tendencies and consequences; these are needful to the getting of wisdom, because truth, which it seeketh, commonly doth not lie in the surface, obvious to a superficial glance, nor only dependeth on a simple consideration of few things; but is lodged deep in the bowels of things, and under a knotty complication of various matters; so that we must dig to come at it, and labour in unfolding it : nor is it an easy task to void the prejudices springing from inclination or temper, from education or custom, from passion and interest, which cloud the mind, and obstruct the attainment of wisdom.

If we will have it, we must get it as Solomon himself did, that great master of it. How was that? "I gave," saith he, " my heart to know wisdom." He who made it his option and choice before

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