SERMON. I .XVI. 363 dig ; there is the sloth of the man : He had livedwellin his stew- ardship, and was grown proud, to beg I am ashamed. Well, I canpurloin no more of my Lord's estate for myself, but I can do it for his debtors ; I will cheat him in his accounts, and make all his debtors my friends, by cancelling a good part of their obliga- tions, and then I shall get a livelihood amongst them. O that all such practices had been found no wherebut in parables ! Some that have been reduced to poverty by idleness, and have borrowedboldly what they could never pay, yet wipe their mouths, and think themselves innocent and righteous, because theyhave not a sufficiency to make payment: Whereas, in truth, it is their own sloth that makes them poor, and keeps them so. Some of these idle creatures waste their days in drowsiness and inactivity. " A little more sleep, a little more slumber, so po- verty comes upon them like, an armed man without resistance." Others are a little more sprightly, and they spend their hours in an inquisitive impertinence, in public news and private slander, in searching and tatling of the of airs of other persons and their families, while they eat, and drink and live upon the labour of the diligent, and unjustly serve themselves out of the industry of their neighbour. So the worthless drone wastes the summer's day in buzzing and trifling, he gads abroad, and wanders with idle Hight ; then he returns, and feeds upon thehoney that thebee has gathered, and abuses the industryof a better animal. St. Paul takes notice of this sort of people at Thessalonica. who call themselves christians, and reproves themWith just seve- rity; We hear there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such, we commandand exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quiet- ness they work, and eat their own bread : For even when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat ; 2 Thess. M. 10, &c. And in his letter to the Ephesians, he exhorts the thief to diligence. Let him that stole steal nò more, but rather let him labour;working withhis hands, the thing which is good and that not only for his own support, but that he may have to give to him that needeth ; Eph. iv. 28. How little do those christians read their bibles'! Orhow little do they mind what thegreat apostle tells them ! They profess they were never brought up to work, and give that answer roundly as a sufficient excuse for idleness : And thereforewhen they become poor andnecessitous, they thinkit the duty of others to maintain them, without stretching out their hand for any thing but to beg and receive. They Will apply themselves to no employment, though they are told their duty continually : Their pride, indo- lence, and slothwithhold them from labour, though they are called to it daily in the loudest language inwhich God now-a-days speaks
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