L. 1 Thef. iv. Prov. xxiii. their doom to be poor and beggarly, their nature to wafte SERM. and embezzle an estate : he could affure us, that drowsiness Shall clothe a man with rags; he could propound it as a vandevos certain obfervation, that he who is flothful in his work, is xix. brother to a great wafter; or that want of industry in our 11. business will no less impair our estate, than prodigality itfelf; he could more than once warn the flothful, that if he did Дeep on, or perfift in his fluggish way, indigency Prov. x. 4. would furprise and seize on him with an insupportable violence: So, faith he, shall thy poverty come as one that tra- Prov.vi.11. velleth, and thy want as an armed man. 21. xviii. 9. xxiv. 34. xxix. 11. Another darling of human affection (and a jewel indeed of confiderable worth and use in our life) is honour, or reputation among men: this alfo plainly, after the common reafon and course of things, is purchafed and preserved by industry: for he that aspireth to worthy things, and affayeth laudable defigns, pursuing them fteadily with serious application of heart, and resolute activity, will rarely fail of good fuccefs, and confequently will not miss honour, which ever doth crown victory; and if he should hap to fail in his defign, yet he will not lose his credit; for having meant well, and done his best, all will be ready to excufe, many to commend him; the very qualities which industry doth exercise, and the effects which it doth 1 Chron. produce, to beget honour, as being ornaments of our per- Dan. v. 18. fon and ftate. God himself (from whom honour cometh, Ecclef. v. and whose special prerogative it is to beftow it, he, as 19. King of the world, being the fountain of honour) will be concerned to dignify an induftrious management of his gifts with that natural and proper recompence thereof; conducting him who fairly treadeth in the path of honour, that he shall safely arrive unto it. It is therefore a matter of eafy observation, which the wife Prince doth prompt us to mark; Seeft thou a man diligent in his business ? he Prov. xxii. Shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men: that is, diligence, as it is the faireft, fo it is the fureft way to the best preferment: as it qualifieth a man for employment, and rendereth him useful to the world, fo it will procure worthy employment for him, and attract 29. 24. L. SERM. the world to him; as the fame great author again doth affert: The hand, faith he, of the diligent shall bear rule; Prov. xii. yea, fo honourable a thing is industry itself, that an exercife thereof in the meanest rank is productive of esteem, as Prov. xxvii. 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. 18. Ὃς φυλάσσει Toy SauTo κύριον, τιμης θήσεται, No induftrious man is contemptible; for he is ever looked upon as being in a way of thriving, of working himself out from any ftraits, 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 flothful; he not having the heart to enterprise or the resolution and patience to achieve any thing deferving regard, or apt to procure it; he wanting all the ornaments and good fruits that grow from induftry; he being only fit for a fordid and fervile condiProv. xii. tion; whence the flothful, faith Solomon, shall be under tribute; and, He that fleepeth in harvest, is a Son that oracaufeth fhame; he causeth it to his relations by his begπρονομῇ. Prov. x. 5. garly accoutrements, he causeth it much more to himself by his despicable faultiness, and by the disgraceful confequences of it. 24. Δόλιος δὲ Another yet more precious good, far furpaffing all external advantages of our ftate; the which in the judgment of him who (together with it having a full poffeffion of all fecular profperity, wealth, dignity, and power) was Prov. viii. best able to prize it, is better than rubies, and incompara15. iv. 7. bly doth excel all things that may be defred, as ennobling, Job xxviii. enriching, and embellishing our better part: wisdom, I 11. iii. 14, 18. mean, or a good comprehenfion, 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 lefs; it cannot Job xxviii. be bought at any rate; It cannot, faith Job, be gotten for gold, neither shall filver be weighed for the price thereof; it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the pre 15, 16. 1 Nec rude quid profit video ingenium. Hor. de Arte Poet. L. cious onyx, or the fapphire; it is the offspring of watchful SERM. obfervation and experience, of ferious meditation and ftudy; of careful reflection on things, marking, comparing, and weighing their nature, their worth, their tendencies and confequences; thefe are needful to the getting of wifdom, because truth, which it feeketh, commonly doth not lie in the furface, obvious to a fuperficial glance, nor only dependeth on a fimple confideration 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 paffion and intereft, which cloud the mind, and obftruct the attainment of wisdom.. 17. ii. 3. Wifd. viii. 26. If we will have it, we must get it as Solomon himself did, that great master of it. How was that? I gave, faith Ecclef. i. he, my heart to know wifdom. He who made it his op-1 Kings iii. tion and choice before all things; who fo earnestly and fo 9. iv. 29. happily did pray for it; upon whom it is fo exprefsly 21. ix. 17. said, that God in a special manner and plentiful measure Ecclef. ii. did beftow it; who averreth God to be the fole donor of Jam. i. 5. it, (for, The Lord, faith he, giveth wifdom, out of his mouth Prov. ii. 6. cometh knowledge and understanding;) yet even he did first give his heart to it, before it was given into his heart: he did not only gape for it, to receive it by mere infufion; but he worked and studied hard for it. He was indeed a great ftudent, an inquifitive fearcher into nature, a curious obferver of the world, a profound confiderer and comparer of things; and by that industrious course, promoted by divine bleffing, he did arrive to that great stock of so renowned a wisdom. 3, 4. And the fame method it is which he prefcribeth to us for getting it; exhorting us, that we incline our ear unto Prov. ii. 2, wisdom, and apply our heart to understanding; that we cry after knowledge, and lift up our voice for understanding; that we feek her as filver, and fearch for her as for hid treafures; in following which courfe he doth affure us of good fuccefs; for then, faith he, fhalt thou under Prov. viii. 34, 35. SERM. ftand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God, L. which is the head or chief part of wisdom; and Blessed, faith he again, in the person and place of wisdom itself, is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors; for he that findeth me, findeth life, and fhall obtain favour of the Lord. It is the way he supposeth of finding wisdom, to watch affiduously, to wait diligently upon the means of attaining her; and how infallible the acquift of her is thereby, the doth again Prov. viii. by his mouth thus acquaint us; I love them that love me, and those that feek me early shall find me; and she, 12, 13, 14. faith his imitator, is eafly feen of them that love her, and found of fuch as feek her; whofo feeketh her early, fhall have no great travel, for he shall find her fitting at his doors. 17. Wifd. vi. 16. This indeed is the only way; idlenefs is not capable of fo rich and noble a purchase: a flothful perfon may be conceited, yea needs must be fo; but he can never be Prov. xxvi. wife: A fluggard, faith Solomon, is wifer in his own conceit, than feven men that can render a reafon. This conceit of wisdom is a natural iffue of his ignorance; and it is indeed no fmall part of his folly, that he doth not perceive it; being no lefs ftupid in reflection on his own mind, than in confidering other matters: being always in a flumber, he will often fall into fuch pleafant dreams; and no wonder that he should prefume upon abundance of knowledge, who not lifting to take any pains in the search or difcuffion of things, doth fnatch the first appearances,' doth embrace every fuggeftion of his fancy, every conceit gratifying his humour, for truth. What should I fpeak of learning, or the knowledge of various things, transcending vulgar apprehenfion? Who knoweth not that we cannot otherwife reach any part of that, than by affiduous ftudy and contemplation? Who doth not find that all the power in the world is not able to command, nor all the wealth of the Indies to purchase, one notion? Who can be ignorant, that no wit alone, or ftrength of parts can fuffice, without great industry, to frame any science, to learn any one tongue, to know the history of nature, or of Providence? it is certainly by SERM. Horace's method 8, Multa tulit, fecitque puer, by much exercife and endurance of pains, that any one can arrive to the mark of being learned or fkilful in any fort of knowledge. But farther yet, Virtue, the nobleft endowment and richest poffeffion whereof man is capable; the glory of our nature, the beauty of our foul, the goodliest ornament and the firmest support of our life h; that alfo is the fruit and bleffing of industry; that of all things most indispenfably doth need and require it. It doth not grow in us by nature, nor befall us by fortune; for nature is fo far from producing it, that it yieldeth mighty obstacles and refiftances to its birth, there being in the beft difpofitions much averfeness from good, and great pronenefs to evil; fortune doth not further its acquifts, but cafteth in rubs and hindrances thereto, every condition presenting its allurements, or its affrightments from it; all things within us and about us confpire to render its production and its practice laborious. L. cxxvii. 3. It is ('tis true) a gift of heaven, and cannot be obtained without a special influence of divine grace; but it is given as children are, (of whom it is faid, Lo, children are an Pfal. heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward,) not without fore travail and labour of the mother, not without grievous difficulty and pangs in the birth. In our converfion to embrace virtue God doth guide us; but to what? to fit ftill? No, to walk, to run in his ways: Grace doth move us, but whereto? to do nothing? No, but to ftir, and act vigorously; The holy Spirit doth help Rom. viii. our infirmities: but how could it help them, if we did abava. not conjoin our beft, though weak, endeavours with its Heb. xii. 4. operations? To what doth. it σuvavriλaμbáve, or co-help Aas x. 35. Qui cupit optatam curfu contingere metam, Multa tulit, fecitque puer, fudavit et alfit. Hor. de Art. Poet. Η Τῇ μὲν κακίᾳ ἡδονῇ, τῇ δὲ ἀρετῇ συγκεκλήρωται πόνος. Chryf. in Joh. Or. 36. 26. συναντι Rom. ii. 10. |