SERMON LIV. OF INDUSTRY IN OUR PARTICULAR CALLING, ROM. xii. II. Not flothful in business. I PROCEED to the other fort of perfons, whom we did SERM. propound, namely, II. Scholars; and that on them particularly great engagements do lie to be industrious, is moft evident from various confiderations. The nature and defign of this calling doth fuppofe induftry; the matter and extent of it doth require industry; the worth of it doth highly deserve industry. We are in special gratitude to God, in charity to men, in due regard to ourselves, bound unto it. LIV. 1. First, I fay, the nature and defign of our calling doth suppose industry: There is, faith the divine Preacher, Eccles. ii. a man whofe labour is in wisdom, in knowledge, and in 21. equity. Such men are Scholars; so that we are indeed no Scholars, but abfurd ufurpers of the name, if we are not laborious; for what is a Scholar, but one who retireth his person, and avocateth his mind from other occupations, and worldly entertainments, that he may oxoxáZew, vacare ftudiis, employ his mind and leisure on study and learning, in the search of truth, the quest of know- 'H ropía γραμματέως ledge, the improvement of his reason. Wherefore anzeig idle scholar, a lazy ftudent, a sluggish man of learning, is xoans. nonsense. εὐκαιρίᾳ Ecclef. xxxviii. 24. SERM. What is learning, but a diligent attendance to inftrucLIV. tion of masters, skilled in any knowledge, and conveying their notions to us in word or writing? What is ftudy, but an earneft, fteady, perfevering application of mind to fome matter, on which we fix our thoughts, with intent to fee through it? What in SoloProv, ii, 2. mon's language are these fcholaftic occupations, but inclining the ear, and applying our heart to understanding? than which commonly there is nothing more laborious, more straining nature, and more tiring our fpirits; whence it is well compared to the most painful exercises of body and foul. 5. The Wife Man, advifing men to feek wisdom, the which is the proper defign of our calling, doth intimate that work to be like digging in the mines for filver, and like fearching all about for concealed treasure; than which there can hardly be any more difficult and painful Prov. ii. 4, task: If, faith he, thou feekeft her as filver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand.— Otherwhere he compareth the fame work to affiduous watching and waiting, like that of a guard or a client, Prov. viii. which are the greatest inftances of diligence; Blessed, faith he, (or Wisdom by him faith, Bleffed) is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the pofts of my doors. 34. Wherefore, if we will approve ourselves to be what we are called, and what we pretend to be; if we will avoid being impoftors, affuming a name not due to us, we must not be flothful. Farther, 2. The matter and extent of our bufinefs doth require induftry from us: the matter of it, which is truth and knowledge; the extent, which is very large and comprehenfive, taking in all truth, all knowledge, worthy our study, and useful for the defigns of it. Our business is to find truth; the which, even in matters of high importance, is not easily to be discovered; being as a vein of filver, encompaffed with earth and mixed with drofs, deeply laid in the obfcurity of things, wrapt up in false appearances, entangled with objections, and perplexed with debates; being therefore not readily SERM. discoverable, especially by minds clouded with prejudices, LIV. lufts, paffions, partial affections, appetites of honour and intereft; whence to defcry it requireth the most curious obfervation and folicitous circumfpection that can be together with great pains in the preparation and purgation of our minds toward the inquiry of it. ; Our bufinefs is to attain knowledge, not concerning obvious and vulgar matters, but about fublime, abstruse, intricate, and knotty subjects, remote from common observation and sense; to get fure and exact notions about which will try the best forces of our mind with their utmost endeavours; in firmly fettling principles, in strictly deducing confequences, in orderly digesting conclufions, in faithfully retaining what we learn by our contemplation and study. And if to get a competent knowledge about a few things, or to be reasonably skilful in any fort of learning, be difficult, how much industry doth it require to be well seen in many, or to have waded through the vast compass of learning, in no part whereof a Scholar may conveniently or handfomely be ignorant; feeing there is fuch a connection of things, and dependence of notions, that one part of learning doth confer light to another, that a man can hardly well understand any thing without knowing divers other things; that he will be a lame Scholar, who hath not an insight into many kinds of knowledge; that he can hardly be a good Scholar, who is not a general one. To understand so many languages, which are the fhells of knowledge; to comprehend fo many fciences, full of various theorems and problems; to peruse so many histories of ancient and modern times; to know the world, both natural and human; to be acquainted with the various inventions, inquiries, opinions, and controverfies of learned men; to skill the arts of expreffing our mind, and imparting our conceptions with advantage, fo as to inftruct or perfuade others; these are works indeed, which SER M. will exercise and strain all our faculties (our reafon, our LIV. fancy, our memory) in painful study. The knowledge of fuch things is not innate to us; it doth not of itself fpring up in our minds; it is not any ways incident by chance, or infufed by grace, (except rarely by miracle ;) common obfervation doth not produce it; it cannot be purchased at any rate, except by that, for Dii labori which it was faid of old, the gods fell all things, that is for vendunt. pains; without which, the best wit and greatest capacity may not render a man learned, as the best foil will not yield good fruit or grain, if they be not planted or fown therein. bus omnia 9. Confider, if you please, what a scholar Solomon was: beside his skill in politics, which was his principal faculty and profeffion, whereby he did with admirable dexterity and prudence manage the affairs of that great kingdom, 1 Kings iii. judging his people, and difcerning what was good and bad; accurately dispensing juftice; fettling his country in a most flourishing state of peace, order, plenty, and wealth ; 1 Kings iv. largely extending his territory; fo that his wisdom of this kind was famous over the earth: befide, I say, this civil wisdom, he had an exquifite skill in natural philofophy and medicine; for He Spake of trees, or plants, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyffop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beafts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. 20, 25. x. 27. 1 Kings iv. 21, &c. 1 Kings x. 6, 24. 1 Kings iv. 33. 30. He was well verfed in mathematics; for it is faid, 1 Kings iv. Solomon's wifdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east-country, and all the wisdom of Egypt; the wifdom of which nations did confist in thofe fciences. And of his mechanic skill he left for a monument the most glorious ftructure that ever ftood on earth. He was very skilful in poetry and mufic; for he did 1 Kings iv. himself compofe above a thousand fongs; whereof one yet extant declareth the loftiness of his fancy, the richness of his vein, and the elegancy of his style. 32. He had great ability in rhetoric; according to that in Wifd. vii. Wisdom, God granteth me to speak as I would; and that 35. in Ecclefiaftes, The Preacher fought to find out acceptable SERM. words; a great inftance of which faculty we have in that LIV. admirable prayer of his compofure at the dedication of Ecclef. xii. the Temple. 10. 1 Kings 32. He did wonderfully excel in ethics; concerning which viii. he spake three thousand proverbs, or moral aphorifms; and 1 Kings iv. moreover, faith Ecclefiaftes, because the Preacher was wife, Ecclef. xii. he ftill taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good9. heed, and fought out, and fet in order many proverbs; the which did contain a great variety of notable obfervations, and useful directions for common life, couched in pithy expreffions. &c. As for theology, as the ftudy of that was the chief Prov. ii. 5, study to which he exhorteth others, (as to the head, or principal part, of wisdom,) so questionless he was himself most converfant therein; for proof whereof he did leave so many excellent theorems and precepts of divinity to us. In fine, there is no fort of knowledge, to which he did not apply his study; witness himself in those words, Ecclef. i. gave my heart to feek and fearch out by wifdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. 13. - Such a Scholar was he; and fuch if we have a noble ambition to be, we must use the course he did; which was first in his heart to prefer wisdom before all worldly things; then to pray to God for it, or for his bleffing in our quest of it; then to use the means of attaining it, diligent fearching and hard study; for that this was his method he telleth us; I, faith he, applied my heart to Ecclef. vii. know, and to fearch, and to feek out wisdom, and the reason of things. Such confiderations fhew the neceffity of industry for a Scholar. But, 3. The worth, and excellency, and great utility, together with the pleasantnefs of his vocation, deferving the highest industry, do fuperadd much obligation thereto. We are much bound to be diligent out of ingenuity, and in gratitude to God, who by his gracious providence hath affigned to us a calling fo worthy, an employment 25. |