Labour forbidden, and commanded A sermon preached at St. Pauls Church, September 28. 1634. By Edvvard Rainbovve, fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge.

Labour forbidden , And Commanded . JOHN 6. 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth , but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life , which the Sonne of man shall give unto you : for him hath God the Father sealed .

MAn is borne to labour , as the sparkes flye upwards : with the pangs of labour and paine his mother delivers this burthen to the world ; and that receives him , not as an indulgent father , but a censorious taskemaster : and , as if he beganne not life ▪ but an Apprentiship , he breakes his fast with teares , cryes aloud e're dinner , and if he live till night , 't is much if sickly grones be not some parcell of his breath . Our necessities , like niggardly step-dames , locke so fast the cupboords of refreshment from us , that none but the key of labour can open them , this being their peremptory law , He that will not ioyle , must not eat .

But meat being made the end of our toyle , gives more alacritie to endure it , and the hopes of that , sweeten the bitternesse of this : let Apelles paint the grapes by the boy , and the birds shall be more enticed by them , than affrighted by him ; those goodly grapes lessen the stature of those Anakims which with-hold them ; pictures those Gyants with a milder countenance : and if we heare of a land that flowes with milke and honey , Jordans streame is easily strided over ; if our famisht appetites heare of meat , they feare no Colloquintida , but now shake hands with Labour , are friends with Industry , can hardly be compell'd to rest ; they will not listen to the call of ease , their bellies have no eares , till this sad morsell fill their mouthes : O man of God there is death in the pot , and we have labour'd all this while for meat that perisheth .

Slacke then your sailes , saith the voyce of my Text ; pursue those gilded baits no further , nor pull those fugitives into your walls which will betray you to the worms : but arme your labour with an holy violence ; assault the kingdome of heaven ; re-enter Paradise ; the Angell now has sheath'd his flaming sword ; the tree of Life's unguarded ; Labour no more for the meat , &c.

The occasion of these words take briefly thus : When Occasion ▪ our Saviour was told of Herods ▪ cruelty against Saint Iohn the Baptist , and of the inquisition which hee made after himselfe , as in a doubtfull amazement , fearing him to be redivivum Iohannem , Iohn risen from the dead ; and albeit his Omniscience was conscious that Herods plots , and his determin'd end could not be cotemporaries ; neverthelesse not relying upon the arme of miraculous preservation , with the wind of this rumor he sailes over the Sea of Galilce , on purpose , as the three first Evangelists harmoniously agree , to getout of Herods Iurisdiction : and although his first abode was in the desart , yet the eager multitude ( now greedy in pursuit of miracles ) trace him out . Christ being found , answers their expectation by dispensing of his two-fold cures ; generally , with his Doctrine upon their soules ; and , when particular maladies cryed for ayd , his mercie had miracles for their bodies .

The day posts on , and is likely to attaine a period , before he can remember to end his dayes worke of mercie , when his Disciples ( though not more feeling of mans frailty than himselfe , yet now , perchance , after his lengthned Sermon , more sensible of their owne ) thus admonish him . The place is desart , the Towne 's remote , the day'● farre spent , the people weary ; and if they hunger , victuals are not plentifull in the desart , therefore send them away . But Christ who had power to broach the rockes and give them drinke , to turne the fruitlesse desarts into kitchins , even replenisht with Manna for bread , and Quailes for meat , had likewise at this time compassion enough to fill their bowels ▪ and the companies being sat downe ( now not more hungring after the meat than the miracle that could provide it ) found that two fishes , with five loaves and Christs blessing , were enough to fill five thousand ; and when that was done , ( as if each Spawne had now beene hastned into a perfect Fish ) to overflow into twelve baskets of fragments .

As if each word he spoke had become a feeding morsell , themselves might now have witness'd with him against the Divell , that man lives not by bread alone , but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God . That the oyle in the Cruise did not faile , and meale in the barrell did not wast , they had heard ; but that the eating should make the remainder exceed its first proportion ; this , had not sense stretch'd it out , might justly have exceeded their faith . Certaine it is by the event of the story , that this miracle being well digested , had a stronger operation in them than any that they had seene before ; and now their pamper'd bellies could prompt them to a devout sedition , and they durst , in despight of Caesars power , attempt to make Christ their King : Their carnall wisdome easily might suggest him a fit Generall for a conquering army , who could so cheaply , and so suddenly victuall his hungry Campe. But Christ , who knew his kingdome of another world , slights these poore ambitions ; neverthelesse to declinethe violence of popularity , having given his Disciples the watch-word to saile over the Sea , himselfe glides , first from the people , then on the waters after them . Hot was the multitude in their pursuit , and the first opportunity imbarque themselves and follow ; and being now landed , they find their yesterdayes steward arriv'd before them , which strange celerity , makes their first salutation this question , Rabbi , quando huc venisti ? Master , when camest thou hither ? But Christ discern'd full well which way their stomacke stood , that over all this water they did but follow the bait which they yesterday tasted of , that no other god than their bellies brought them thus farre to sacrifice ; he therefore , neglecting their curious question , shapes an answer fitter for their affections than their demands , will not tell them when he came , but why themselves came thither . Vers. 26 , Not because they saw the miracles , but because they did eat of the loaves , and were filled . Thus first he daunts them , and what they might thinke hee would applaud for piety , he condemnes for gluttony ; he was able to anatomize their intentions , and found those goads which prick'd them forward to be in their stomacke , nor their braine ; to fill their bellies with the bread of miracles , not their soules with the Manna of his Doctrine . And when hee had cool'd their fervency with this reproofe , prepared their appetites with this sowre reprehension , then gives he them my Text as a more wholesome bit to chew on , and thus addresses it , Labour not , &c.

The scope of which words import thus much ; as if Scope . he had said , Poore , and beguiled men , whom the greedy hopes of a fill'd belly could flatter into all this industry ! Was this the cause why from towne to desart , from desart to sea , from sea to land , your untired limbs could follow me ? What went you out into the wildernesse to see ? a reed shaken with the wind of miracles ? or rather whether he could furnish a table in the desart ? But what went you out into the wildernesse to see ? The sonne of man cloath'd in the soft rayments of mercy and righteousnesse ? or rather whether hee could satisfie the hungry with bread : But what went you out to see ? A Prophet ? or rather a Purveyour ? Was all this toyle to satisfie your vnderstandings , or your appetites ? to feed your minds or your bellies ? I know 't was the wind of carnall appetite inspir'd your sailes this way ; it was the sought-for loaves brought you to this Market . But , since the limbs of your industry are so strong and laborious , make me your over-seer , and they shall be imploy'd in amore worthy labour ; not for those melting morsels , as fading as the taste , those apples of Sodom which dye betwixt the hand and the mouth ; that meat that fades even before your pots wax hot with thornes , which brings an angry destruction even whilest the Quailes are yet in your mouthes , that meat which is more perishing than the creatures whence 't was digg'd , that dying meat which makes your throat its sepulcher , is scarcely long-liv'd enough for digestion : But for a meat which breeds eternall blood in your veynes , the bread of soules , whose equall temper crambs to no diseases , but fils each part with spirit and life , and enables your stomacks to digest eternitie . Pant and breathe after this long-winded food , pile up all the loose minutes of your labours for this purchase of perpetuity ; in the sweat of your brow eat this bread of everlasting rest : if you have any breath , sinewes , orlimbes , Labour , not for the meat , &c.

My Text , me thinkes , is a map of Paradise , and in it Paral. you shall finde both commanded , and forbidden fruit , onely thus they differ ; the forbidden fruit there stood in the midst , here in the entry of the garden ; the tree of life there not tasted of , is here an offered dish ; the tree of good and evill wholly there forbidden , here distinguisht according to its fruits , the good to be pursued , the other to be neglected ; there the fruit it selfe forbidden , here onely the labouring for that fruit ; there , after the eating labour followed as a curse , here to rest from that labour is both a precept , and a blessing : thus againe they meet and agree , that both the forbidden meats perish , the eaters with themselves , and both deprive the soule of the desired tree of life : So that thus holds both the paralell and the antithesis : There ,

If thou presumest to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evill , that act shall damne thee from the tree of life , from which an Angell of God shall stave thee , arm'd by the Lord of hoasts . Here ,

Fly that perishing meat , and thou shalt crambe thy selfe with food of everlasting life , which the Sonne of man shall give thee , whom God the Father hath seal'd ; the Angell of the Covenant .

In the words then are to bee discovered these foure Divisio●n parts :

1. Praeceptum . 2. Praecepti Proemium . 3. Proemii Dispensatorem . 4. Dispensatoris Potestatem . 1. A Precept● ▪ Labour not for the meat that , &c. 2. The Reward of the Precept , Everlasting life . 3. The Dispensour of the Reward ; Which the Sonne of man , &c. 4. The Power of the Dispensour ; Whom God the Father hath , &c.

The Precept here is double , Preceptum non faciens , and Preceptum faciens ; 1. Negative : 2. Affirmative . 1. Labour not for , &c. 2. But labour for , &c. And in each of these Precepts there is , 1. an Act: 2. a Specified Object . In the Negative , the Act , Labour not ; the Object , for the meat that perisheth . In the Affirmative , the Act , But labour ; the Obiect , for the meat that endureth , &c. and both of these objects carry along a specification as a reason inforcing the object : In the Negative , the inconvenience of the Obiect must deterre us , it is specified by Perishing : In the Affirmative , the conveniencie of the Obiect must allure us , being specifi'd by meat which endures to everlasting life . Therefore labour not for , &c.

The reward of both precepts is the specified object 2. of the second , Everlasting Life : in which there is 1 ▪ the substance , Life ▪ 2 , the perpetuity , Everlasting life .

In the Dispenser of the reward two things are considerable : 3. 1. The person dispensing , The Sonne of man : 2. The manner of his dispensation , will give .

The power of the Dispenser tells us likewise of two 4. things : 1. who is the Author of this dispensatory power , God the Father : 2. the manner of his authorization , hath sealed : the dispensor , the Sonne of man ; the Author of his dispensatory power , God the Father ; the manner of his dispensation , will give ; the manner of his authorization , hath sealed . Labour not for the meat ▪ &c.

Did we heare of Labour , and no Everlasting Life ; or of Everlasting Life , and no Sonne of man to give it ; or of the Sonne of Man to give it , and not of God the Father to scale him for that purpose , wee might hide our heads in our bosome , or labour to slip our neckes out of the yoke . Harsh commands when the eye cannot looke over the burthen to the reward ; doubtfull reward where the giver is not knowne ; suspected giver , whose abilities are not manifest : But here the precept may be more pl●asant , being sweetned with a Reward ; the Reward ascertain'd , being assign'd its Giver ; the Giver inabled , being thereto authorized . Labour not then , &c.

And thus me thinkes my Text may afford a large field of discourse , and after this paines I have taken in the tillage and opening of it , your apprehensions may enter into it as into a plentifull harvest , if this first word be not a Scare-crow to some , Labour . Nor yet can I see any reason why the Labourers should be few , the increase being so certaine , and so precious , that whosoevers labour shall carry away but one sheafe , and husband it aright , may knead thereof even bread of Life : therefore to handle these parts in method I intend first to joyne the precept with the Negative particle ; secondly , them both with the Object ; and thirdly , all of them with the Specification .

And if wee beginne with the parts in order , the two first words of my Text seeme to tye up our hands and to save us a labour , thus beginning the negative Precept , Labour not . Labour not ? Why what can the dainty pallat of flesh and blood rellish with more delight ? May not the greatest part of this company averre with the young man in the Gospell ( if this be all the precept ) All this have I observed up from my youth , not to labour , nay , even for the meat which perisheth , much lesse for the other : and perchance may be glad to have got so favourable a shelter for their idlenesse , as this porch of my Text , Labour not . But if wee attend the words , not the Act of labouring , but the following Object , is here by this negation deprest . The Originall reads it , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 ▪ Labour not : Saint Hierome ( whom almost all antiquity followes ) Operamini non , worke not : The Syriacke Translation , Ne operemini , doe not worke ; yet all of them fastning the Negation to the Object , not the Act ▪ and therefore some later Interpretors make a Comma at the word Labour , as if wee must read it thus , Labour , but not for the meat , &c. perchance out of a diligent cautile , left the duty of labouring should from this place seeme rather to be forbidden than commanded .

But none , that I ever heard of , urg'd this place as a lurking hole for sluggishnesse in the generall , or a manumission from all kind of labour , but yet I may well conjecture , that many in their practise have lived as if this Text gave some convenience to a cessation from bodily labour for necessary food and rayment , ( which they call meat that perisheth , ) that the practice of many hath laid them open to this accusation we may collect ; because many of the learned Interpretors , and ancient Fathers who have written upon this place , amongst whom Saint Chrysostome especially , have beene very laborious in invection against such , and in vindicating this Text from giving any connivence to their Lazinesse ; and therefore to overthrow all such pretences , some have diversly expounded and limited the Act , Labour ; some the following Object , Meat that perisheth ; some the Negative particle . Hugo Cardinalis would have to bee meant by the object , Meat that perisheth , Mala opera , evill workes , because they are the kirnels and causes of all mans perishing : So that man is not pluckt away from all labour and working by this precept , but onely from the works of darkenesse . But those that expound the object more largely , yet understand the Act more strictly ; that although labour for bodily meanes be here forbidden , yet not all kind of labour ; but as Rupertus ( after Saint Basil , Saint Augustine , and others ) expounds it , Nimiam sollicitudinem prohibet , operationem iubet ; 't is too much sollicitude and anxiety which is forbidden , to labour too eagerly , not to labour at all : for , Pigritari ( as another has it ) idlenesse is maximè cibus periens , the meat that soonest perisheth ; the bread of floth is soonest mouldy and corrupt . And Bonaventure's joynt exposition of the Act with the Object is agreeable . Operari cibum qui perit est affici secularibus ▪ To labour for the meat that perisheth , saith he , is to be too much taken and affected with secular affaires ; and he addes , Quam vis in usu operis quandoque sit temporalitas , tamen in intentione semper debet esse aeternitas ; though in the act of our labours sometimes we place temporality , yet ought we alwayes before our intentions to set aeternity . Nay , some there are who yet straighten the act more narrowly , and will not have this negative precept any generall rule , but limited by the like occasions as it was here . Now , when the people had opportunity to receive from Christ the bread of life , they lingred againe after the five loaves to have more of the meat that perisheth ; which when Musculus thought on , he thus inferres , Non praescribit normavi generaliter omnibus , sed nimium et intempestivum ventris studium , ubi occasio spiritualis cibi effertur , abjiciendum esse ; That this precept is not intended by Christ as a rule , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , to be at all times observed , but here hec teaches that the unseasonable care of filling the belly is to bee laid aside when we are invited to spirituall banquets ; that Martha's incumbrings were therefore culpable , because then shee had the choyce of the better part : that the marrying of wives , the buying of oxen , and earthly purchases , are onely then to be left aside , when our soules are invited to heavenly feasts .

But Cardinall Tollets rule , if there were any , takes away all the difficulty of this place , by limiting the negative particle : for , saith he , particula , non , saepe in Scripturis non negat , sed solicitudinem excludit ; the negative particle does not alwayes deny , but excludes a solitarinesse of interpretation : as if it had beene said , Labour , but not only , or not chiefly for the meat that perisheth , but also , &c. And we have , amongst many others , one pregnant example of this , Ioh. 12. 44. Hee that beleeveth on mee , beleeveth not on me , but on him that sent mee . Hee that beleeveth on me , beleeveth not on me ? how can this stand together ? the rule reconciles it ; that is , not onely on me , or not on me chiefly , but on him that sent mee : and thus it must be here expounded , Labour not , that is , not onely , or not specially , for the meat that perisheth , but for , &c.

So that it 's plaine , not Labour , but anxiety , unseasonable and importunate labour for the meat that perisheth , is onely here forbidden .

But imagine awhile , the feet of our industry should be fetter'd , the limbs of our diligence should be dis-jointed , and if wee were asked with those in the Gospell , Why stand you idle all the day ? Wee might answer , Not onely because none hath hired us , but because wee are forbidden to labour : What then should we doe for food and rayment ? Must we supinely gape till the showres of providence shall raine downe Quailes into our mouthes ? Must we grovell in the dew for miraculous Mannah ? or expect the stony rockes to cleave into cups , and present themselves to our thirsty pallats ? Shall wee sit under those Vines and Figge-trees which free Nature hath husbanded , till their voluntary fruit drop into our mouthes ? Shall wee , in the conceits of a lawfull sloth , what the Prophet did out of holy inspiration , wait for the Ravens to bee our Caterers ; expect bowles of mercy from Birds of prey ?

Shall we slumber and sleepe , and fold our hands untill the Handmaids of Nature cloath and get us ready ? Shall we sit with the Lillies in the field , neither labour nor spinne , and expect that apparell and ornament shall grow upon us ? Shall wee glow in the cold , till the pittifull sheep resigne its coat to bee our garment ? or lye in the shade till the ashamed Figtree drop downe its leaves into aprons , to cover our nakednesse ? What more can we do , nay , what lesse can we expect , if this command be peremtory , Labour not ? Why t is as if he had said , Lull your selves into the laps of everlasting idlenesse , wake not your silent thoughts with noise of care , cherish your tender hands in the bosome of sloth , nor expose your dainty limbs to the rude imployments of labour and travell , Nature that sent you naked into the world upon hererrand shall cloth you at her owne expenses , and strow her Dugs of nourishment at the doores of your appetite , labour not .

Contenti cibis nullo cogente creatis .

Meats shall spring out of your platters , and the earth shall crowd her harvests into your ample garners , labour not . Lay the burthen of your necessities upon the shoulders of an higher providence : if you bee lame and lazie Providence has nimble feet to post on your occasions , if you bee weake and fainting the hands of Providence can hold you up ; are your eyes dim and drowsie ? the eye of Providence sees all things : Are you injur'd ? Providence has a sword : Are you in danger ? Providence has a Buckler : sit still and smile at Providence your officious servant , but as for your selves , labour not . Why take yee thought for food ? sow with the Sparrowes and bee fed even to wantonnesse : Why take ye thought for raiment ? Spin with the Lillies and bee clothed even to pride , but labour not . Thus might pillowes bee sowed and voices heard , which warble out nothing but softnesse and delicacie : thus might wee make us beds in the field , and clothe our Vineyards with Cushions : thus might we turne our Carts into Coaches , our painefull Plowes into instruments of pleasure , our fields into gardens , our garners into Theaters , our Shops into Dancing-Schooles , and all become most experienced professors of the arts of idlenesse , were this Precept meerely negative , Labour not .

But not to divorce the Act any longer from the Object , that we may better discover what it is we must not labour for , let me in the second place set , for a while , before you the meat that perisheth . In addressing of which , I entend more clearely to discusse how farre our labour may be extended for it , and where againe it must retire and breath .

And first , I doubt not but I shall befriend your patience if I passe over the divers acceptations of the word Esca , or Cibus , Meat , and expound it with the most ancient and best Interpretours in this one signification , for all bodily and outward necessities . Nor is the Synechdoche too violent , which in this one word involves thus much ; meat being that which nature has made the monarch of all our necessities ; that if we be not allow'd to labour for meat , there is nothing which may set our industry on worke . Aud therefore , no doubt , our Saviour intended to make the negative precept against solicitous and superfluous labour more Emphaticall , by eccluding in the Object , even what daily is both to be pray'd and labour'd for , Meat ; Labour not for the meat . For if this injunction had beene more restrain'd ( as indeed the rules of Interpretation may doe it ) and onely had taken from them their superfluity , it might seeme to have carried along with it both reproofe and counsell enough . What if hee had allowed them to toyle for their meat ; nay , have made that ancient curse a new Injunction , In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread ! have compell'd them even to sweat for their daily bread , but not allow'd them to stirre at all for dainties ? have forc'd them to eat , even their bread with carefulnesse , but suster'd them to labour for no other sawce ? What if he had said unto them , Let not your labour perplex it selfe for such superfluity of meat , and pride of rayment , but confine it within the narrow bankes of necessity ? What excessive madnesse is in that gluttonous care which spreads tables not where hunger , but ambition may best be sutisfied ? which disperses purveyours for the mouth into remotest Countries , that the wanton pallat may feed on what the eye till then ne're saw ? Spare your superfluous paines in fetching in the whole brood of nature to make one meale , one bait for gluttony : Tell mee , Could not the five loaves upon the homely grasse refresh your hungry appetites , as well as all those glutting morsels spread , in so proud a method , upon your finer linnen and purples ? cannot the stomacke fill , but when the eye is dazled ? nor meat digest , except received from the richest mettals ? Is not gluttony at ease but in a wardrobe ? nor Iunkets sweet but serv'd in Iewels ? If labour should be allow'd for these , time has not howres enough to dispatch it . Nor must this Labour bee lesse restrained from other superfluities ; though rayment be within its reach , yet pride is farre too high for it ; leisure may be allow'd to cloath , when it cannot to adorne . The sheepe , that 's neare at hand , gives us shelter enough from the cold , why should we hunt after more costly furres and wrappings ? Is the skinne of the beast too cheape , that the bowels of worms must be wrought into clothing ? Natures helpe is a shorter cut : Must you send for apparell to the utmost bounds of the earth before you can be readie : must all the creatures lend their ayd to dresse one man ? and is he not hansome til anticke beasts have given him a shape ? must a Iury of Trades be busied to verdict him readie ? and every disorder'd haire bee allow'd a time for reformation ? Certainly , if we may labour for this out-side perfection , then no labour is forbidden . Againe , had it not likewise beene a checke to have forbidden their excessive labour and toyle in the rearing up of their ambitious Babels , as if they meant to goe to heaven by the staires of their houses ; or rather to fetch downe heaven thither , and so make them their everlasting habitations ; to make each angle of their dwellings like the polished corners of the Temple , and every stone a Statue ; to ingrave to posteritie the stories of their vanted pedigree , and epitomize the hystorie of the world in their superfluous carvings ; to fill each chamber as a wardrobe , and stuffe every roome with the treasures of the East ; to extend their walls to an admired vastnesse , and give their private mansions capacitie for the traines of Princes ! If labour for these extremities of excesse had onely beene forbidden , the wonder would not have beene great . Therefore , more strictly to forbid superfluities , in my Text , not onely vanities , but decencies ; not onely surfetting , but feeding ; not onely excesse of meat , but even meat it selfe seemes to be forbidden to made the Object of our Labour , Labour not for the meat , &c.

But to continue to shew the force of the negative precept as it is joyn'd with the Object Meat , ( besides superfluous Labour ) in this word , Labour , here are these two kinds of it forbidden : Labour importunus ( or importunatus ) and non opportunus . The conjugates of the first word may beare both Importunate , and Importune Labour ; the first denotes an unlawfulnesse in the manner of the Act ; the second in the circumstance of time ; the first is labour too earnest , too sollicitous ; the second is labour out of its due time , unseasonable . And if we attend to the occasion of our Saviours delivery of these words of my Text ( namely , when the people pressed after him , both with violence , and that likewise for bodily food , when they had opportunity to seeke and obtaine the food of their soules ) thus farre , and thus onely shall we perceive his command to be negatively extended .

First then , Labour not for outward things ; that is , with immoderate labour . Non ne habeat praecipit sed ne solicitus habeat ; non ne in domum sed ne in animum intromittat : Not but that we may have these outward supplements , but not with solicitude ; we may lodge them in our houses , but not our hearts : we may buy them for our selves , but we must not sell our selves to them . Let not the full bent of your endevours stand that way ; hurry not your selves along with the eagertide of praecipitation , but let moderation stand at the sterne , and hold the reines of your industry ; and let the feet of your affections goe , but not runne after this perishing meat : Let not the stormes of violence , but the milder blasts of indifferencie waft your sailes through these straights of humane wants ; take not the wings of Vultures to fetch in meat as prey , nor eat the bread of violence , but seeke it daily at the hands of Providence . The Lions lacke and suffer hunger , notwithstanding all their ravening and roaring , whereas the meeker brood of nature meet with a shepheard that brings it to their mouthes . The wild and savage beasts ramble for their food in the desart , whereas the tame ones obtaine the mercie of mans fertile habitations : the vehement and sturdy winds hold up and drive away the raine , the softer gales moysten the earth with fruitfull showres . We may herein take some resemblance from God himselfe , and seeke his blessings in so calme a way as he declares himselfe to give them : Not , as he brought the Locusts , by some mighty blustring wind , which might rend the rockes of barrennesse ; not by plowing up our ground with prodigious earthquakes ; not by burning up the tares and brambles with some impetuous fire , but by the still and sweet voyce and ayd of his providence : The kingdomes of this world are not to bee taken by violence ; nay , wee must not snatch , but pray for daily bread : Let not man assault his earthly affairs with all the engines of his wit and strength , but rather winne them by wary composition : Let not his hot pursuit broyle him in an Aegyptian furnace to purchase bricke and stone , the base materials of an earthly Babell : Let him indeed labour to the exercising of his limbs , not the cracking of his sinewes , where anxiety must needs accompany Labour , Labour not for the meat , &c.

Secondly , as this Labour must not be with importunity , so neither must it be against opportunity ; that is , though we be allow'd to labour for perishing meat , yet neither chiefly for that , nor unseasonably , when wee should labour for that other which perisheth not . That indeed of the Moralist is as true as plausible , Ad virtutem tendenti etiam fortunae indulgentia est necessaria , &c. The Indulgence of outward sustenance is necessary , whilst yet the soule ▪ wrastles with the infirmities of a fainting body , whilst it strives to untye this knot of flesh , and breake through all the chaines of mortality ; but yet so , that there must be a subordination both in place and time , betwixt the fading and the permanent ; and to bestow those howres on that which are due to this , were to lose both . Season and time are of such powerfull consequence , that the neglect of them turnes even sweet into sowre , good into evill ; makes those actions which in themselves are lawfull , to be despis'd and sinfull : They wait upon thee , saith the Psalmist , and thou givest them their meat in due season : Even meat , out of season , is the burthen , not the food of the stomacke ; to labour therefore for it out of season , were like Asses to couch under a burthen which no necessity imposes on us ; nay , which necessarily diseases us . Labour out of season could ne're exact its wages : the seed that 's sowne before , or when the time of sowing's past , never blest the sower with maturity , 't is it wherewith the mower filleth not his handfull , nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosome : he that so sowes that he may reape , makes the season of sowing the chiefe pillar of his hopes of reaping .

The summe then is this , If you have howres to bestow on moderate labour for meat and outward necessities , yet rob not the soules opportunities to allow the body time ; slacke not that taske which God has commanded to obey the belly ; lose not that time , nor hide in the napkin of gluttony , which , well employ'd , may gaine the Talent of Eternity : Beleeve me , 't is the height of sacrilege to steale time from the Sanctuary ; and houres which should serve at the Altar , sacrificed to businesse , makes our affaires our Idols . The howres of Devotion runne in their owne constant revolution , nor must wee count it arbitrary to prorogue them . The Sabbaths of grace stand in their owne unalterable Kallenders , nor is it mans power to make the soules feasts moveable ; to be serving ourselves when we should be serving of God , is to turne day into night , to make the armour of God a worke of darknesse .

The Sunne and Starres , the worlds great Clocks and and witnesses of time , have taught our Dials to measure out God's by inches , and mans by ells ; hee that would pilfer from that , is too ingratefull to live a spanne of life . Shall we doubt to give him his fulnesse of time , who hath both invested us with time , and made us capable of Eternity ? When hee 's lessoning our soules , shall we be crambing our bodies ? or rather leave the best Junkets of the body , to gaine one morsell for the soule . Whilst that is feeding on the bread of Life , Labour not for the meat that perisheth . And this is both the Specification of the Object , Perishing Meat ; and the reason inforcing this negative precept , why we must not labour for it , because it perisheth .

But before we enter into this , were it no tworth the labor to enquire why our meat should be called Perishing ? Certainly , as it is mans meat , his food and sustenance , 't is that commune vinculum , which knits and marries the soule to the body ; shall it be then the cause of their divorce ? When man perisheth , surfetting indeed may be a cause ; but meat seemes to be a Catholique Antidote against all malignant poysons and enemies of natures continuance . Is it not Meat which armes our perishing flesh against the powers of death , and dispatches new supplies to nature , when the former spirits beginne to faile ? Does not the tender suckling seeme apprehensive of this truth , which knowes the dugge that feeds it , before the mother that brought it forth ? Being cannot continue without sustenance ; and shall the Author of our continuance be likewise the cause of our perishing ? Shall that which inlarges the epitomy of infancy , and sets it forth into those early editions of growth and stature ; that which spins the thread of life to such a length be likewise the knife to cut it off ? If honey be meat , dip but the tip of Ionathans rod ; and besides the continuance of life , it may adde a victorious courage to his limbs . Drinke , taken but from the brooke in the way , may make the languishing soule lift up his head : Even poyson , having taken acquaintance with the pallat of Mithridate , as meat , could now sooner nourish than destroy . The flying spirits with the tast of meat recoyle to their tabernacle ; and famisht bodies , even dropping into their earthly principles , receive this doome from food , Returne ye sonnes of Adam : then how can meat be perishing ? To make meat perishing , were to metamorphise bread into stones , fishes into Scorpious , honey into gall , even food into poyson : how then can meat be perishing ? Are not two Sparrowes sold for a farthing ? and shall we buy our owne destruction , and set a price on those petulant creatures that come within us to undoe us ? Arise , Peter , kill and eat , were the words of the vision ; but , if this were true , these words might well have follow'd ; such creatures as will rise in thy stomacke , kill , and devoure thy selfe . 'T is true indeed , our fathers eat Mannah in the wildernesse , and are dead , and perisht , but was the Mannah the cause of their perishing ? And have wee not read how David when he was an hungred went in and eat the Shew-bread , and regaind more vigour , and was further from perishing by the eating of it . Man lives not by bread alone , saith our Saviour : whence we may gather , that bread is a partiall cause of his life ; shall we then thinke , that little leaven unleavens mans whole lumpe ? that those treacherous graines prove Amalekites , and Iebusites , thornes in our eyes , and prickes in our sides , or seed us into putrifaction ? How then must we doe to joyne this epithite of perishing , with meat ? Neverthelesse , if we attend , the doubt will not be very intricate , why our Saviour should make use both of the metaphor of meat , and the specification , perishing ; the former both befitting the present occasion , meat being that which they now sought for , & likewise most able to beare the whole latitude of the signification for all outward necessities : and for the latter , although as 't is food it cannot be said to be causally perishing , yet in regard of its substance , it is both perishing in it selfe , and likewise by accident proves as commonly the cause of mans perishing as of his sustenance . Ever since the eating of that forbidden fruit , a curse having cloven to our meats ; and as Gods grace makes them nourishable , so that primitive malediction makes them perishable ; as they proved sowre grapes to our first parents , so they have continued to set our teeth on edge , and sinne necessarily accompanying their enjoyment , corruption and death the sting of sinne , must needs ensue : and therefore we may well prosecute the specification as a reason to flye the object , and so to inforce the negative Precept , Labour not for the meat which perisheth ; or as now I am to handle it in genere causae , because it perisheth .

For why should wee struggle and strive to attaine that which being attain'd will not abide the use . So childishly to spend our breath for bubbles , and hunger for meat which cannot stay to satisfie : Shall we , like foolish Merchants , compasse sea and land for a purchase which will not last the bringing home ? Shall our paines reape the soonest decaying fruit ? or shall our desires long for that which is shortest of continuance ? Doe we not desire to invest our bodies with rayment of the longest weare ? and marke the highest prized stustes with such lying names as may boast of their durable continuance ? Is it not a perpetuity which Nature aymes at ? and has she not cloth'd the weeds , and mildest of her creatures with most perishing garments ? The vanishing smoake and vapours , the languishing clouds which roule themselves into their owne hasty consumptions , the short-lived meteors , and all the children of the melting ayre , fill the same day in their Kalender with their birth and death ; whereas the purer heavens involve themselves in their endlesse orbs ; the lively Sunne and Stars , those Iewels of Natures garment , shine in an everlasting constancy of glory ; nor can all the Arithmeticke of time subtract from their native vigour , but each new day sends them forth as Gyants ready to runne their course . Why then is it the more perishing part of nature which wee ayme at , and build our senses on the slippery sands , when there are rockes so neare ? Amidst an whole Paradise of fruit , onely the tree of Life is never tasted ▪ Wee sowe within our selves the seed of our owne corruption , and choose such meats for the belly as will make God destroy both it and them ; our meat is receiv'd into us as fiery hulks into a Navy , which ruine themselves and those that admit them . Accepimus peritura perituri , mortals feed on mortals ; nor can Natures salt turne season into Eternity , preserve either the eaten or the eaters flesh from corruption . Goe now , vaine Paracelsian , and extract for men the quintessence , nay , the soules of perishing beasts , and yet shall man be like the beast that perisheth . Let that luxurious heathen feed his fishes with the flesh of men , that they againe may feed mans flesh : let all the troops and heards of nature lay downe their life at his kitching doore , and sacrifice their fatnesse for his health , yet shall not thousands of Rams , nor ten thousand of Oxen , the blood of Buls , nor the Sheepe on a thousand mountaines , with all their lives , redeeme one day of his . Si non perit et expelltur hic cibus , saith Saint Basil , perimus nos citius . If the meat wee take in should not perish and corrupt by our concoction , our selves must perish more speedily . Labour not then for the meat that perisheth ; if it be for no other reason , yet because it perisheth .

But enough of that meat , that was the first , but now there remaines a second course , Everlasting Life ; for which , I may presume , every religious appetite does hunger . In that other indeed are many varieties , here but one dish ; but yet like the Mannah , able to represent ( nay be ) to the pallat whatsoever the soule shall lust for . But before we admit you to this , we must needs examine , a while , how you have behaved your selves with that , and whether your stomacke be not too full with it . For whosoever eateth the meat , and drinketh the drinke , even that perisheth , unworthily , is in great danger to be denyed this other . To make therefore our application more methodicall , we must needs thus addresse our censure ; first , on them who sinne against the Negative , by not labouring at all ; and secondly , on those who entrench too farre upon the Affirmative , in labouring too much ; and that with their eyes and cares fixt upon this Object , Meat , nay and under this specification of perishing meat .

And first , me thinkes , it s even necessary to invocate the whole quire of holy Prophets , Apostles , Fathers and Interpretors , againe to cleare this parcell of our Saviours precept , Labour not , from warranting this our spreading idlenesse : Labour not ? why the whole world is a gaming , or a sleeping , and even Saint Paul in the pulpit were not able to waken their drowsie consciences , having first bin lull'd by this soft voyce of Labour not . Why , 't has given the truanting world a desired play-day , 't has fetch 't them from the Brick-kilnes of Aegypt , and now like vagrants in the desart , providence owes them a sustenance ; and you shall find all their Tribes hanging this motto at their Escutchions , Labour not . You shall observe them to out-Epicure the foole in the Gospell , and before they have their garners fill'd , or laid up treasures for many yeares , to sing their requiems , Eat , and drinke , and take thine ease ; this precept is their happy portion , Labour not . So that certainely if this precept were presented to the suffrages of men to confirme it as a law , and to set a penalty on their heads that needs would labor , such Courts of Censure would scarcely in an age find one offender , but every one would most zealously endevour to keepe his hands from labour .

And I am afraid , our invection may here be as pertinent , as in any Citty of the world , this being an hive which swarmes with innumerable drones , which come hither to sucke the honey and fatnesse of the land , which in this place flowes ; and all they labour for , is to thrust their stings into the more thriving and laborious sort . It is farre beyond my young discovery , and ( I thanke God ) my experience in evill , to find out the innumerable waies which idlenesse has here invented to maintaine it selfe ; but my informations are infallible , that sloth hath now , to support it selfe , set up , if not a Trade , yet a mysterie ; and it wil one day be a wonder that it's banner is not display'd with the solemnity of the rest ; for , I am sure that all your twelve have not a more numerous company than that of idlenesse .

And the Masters , or first of these idle companions are those who may well be accounted a Company by themselves ; for they are such whom the world , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , has called Good Companions . Good Companions ? good for what ? to suffocate the time with smoke and vapours , to drownd the drying cares with a deluge of drinke ? the tedious time afflicts and persecutes them , they cannot be rid of it till such as these shall drive it away . This indeed is the onely company which ( as an Idoll ) set up Idlenesse and professe it ; and spend their whole estate on purpose to spend the time : and of precious howres ( of which onely a covetousnesse is lawfull ) they are most desperately prodigall : And those dayes workes they thinke the best imploy'd , whereon they have , without wearinesse , done nothing : Except this be to labour , with the Belides in hell , ever to be filling Danaidum dolium , bottomlesse vessels ; ever to bee measuring in drinke at their mouthes by whole saile , and still retailing of it againe by vomiting : If this be to labour , to have the liquor worke and be more busie in their brains , than themselves are in their Shops and affaires ! If this be to labour to swill their lungs , till they soake them to spunges , to make their veynes which should administer blood and spirits , become hydropicall , base and abject Water-bearers ! If this be to labour , to invent scurrilous libels , and with the dregs of wit , and their liquor , bespot their apparell , and temperate neighbors . If this be to labour , to propagate unworthy quarrels , to seeke for wounds without a cause , to flush their complexion to the drunkards ruby , to make this blush on their face like the bush at the doore , a signe that good wine usually dwels there , if all this be to labour , then these are never idle . Certainly , all their toyle might seeme to be to build Castles of smoke in the ayre , they may be said to dwell in the middle region , amongst smoke and moister vapors , and themselves commonly perish as meteors . Nay , why may we not say that they dwell in our American Iles , whither they have transplanted their affections , and as others have gone from amongst us ( God knowes upon what grounds ) to purchase that earth ; so these send to purchase the basest part of that earth , the very weeds of it , nay and the basest part of that weed , the very smoke that arises from it .

Nor is this all , but a second sinne of Idlenesse , namely Wantonnesse , is necessarily stumbled on by this ; for the Poets , no question , were not lesse significant than witty , who alwayes made the Satyrs attendants on Bacchus , lasciviousnesse and petulancy , being the birth of their frothy cups , as Venus was fain'd of the froth of the Sea ; and those who spend their time and themselves on this vice , I dare say are idely given , and you may be sure they labour not ; for Labour is the onely antidote against the poysons of lust ; and therefore this Cities providence was very sutable , to quell lust with a Bridewell , to worke ; and to censure whorishnesse with the embleme of labor , the Cart ; and were these with greter severity required at the hands and laid upon the shoulders of more of these wantons , they would quickly drive lust out of their bones .

But thirdly , there are another sort who come more seldome within the lists of labour than these , and those are our Common gamesters , whose every dayes worke is to have playd all the day ; this seemes to bee their vocation ; and truly they are more diligent in it than any . And as if they had learnt of those Idolaters in the Scriptures , that place seemes to be but a prolepsis of their custome , the people sate downe to eat and drinke , and rose up to play ; the price , and place , and howres of gaming succeeding in their ordinary courses , as well as of eating and drinking . T is strange to see that these unbusied persons can continue in this playing idlenesse till it become atoyle , and thus exercised , can confound the day and the night , make the evening with the two mornings but their Naturall day ! Shuffle off the revolutions of time without taking any notice , indure the course of the Sunne , the succession of the Moone and Starres , as if they were Candles for them to play by ; and turne that most godly counsell of the Apostle , of watching and praying , into a most Divellish Paranomasie of watching and playing .

Certainely , these are those terrours of the night , who when they prosper not in their hazards , are ready to fetch up all the curses can be invented , nay to hale the divels themselves from hell into their luckelesse losses : and if Iudas betrayed our Saviour for thirty peeces of silver , these are ready to open his wounds with oaths , and fetch out his blood againe at the losse of but one .

And what 's the reason of all this , but , besides the excesse of time spent at it , their very adventures fall deepe into their estates ; and the crosse winds of fortune makes their goods meet with a shipwracke , though farre from the Sea ; and all their substance may even in a parlour sinke and be gone , and themselves and patrimony with one dismall throw quite overthrowne , when at last they finde that they have cast away money , time , and grace , and have met with robbers , as Pharaoh did with Frogges at their very chambers . For now there are sprung up a wiser generation in this kinde , who have the Art to coy the fonder sort into their nets , who have now reduced gaming to a Science , if not more thriving , yet more getting than any of the Liberall ones : Birds of prey who live by the fruits of other mens labours ; Eagles which flye about the slothfull carkasses ; and what those have scarcely obtain'd in a yeare by working , these gaine from them in one howre of playing : they stay till , like Spunges , they have suck'd in the moysture of many yeares gaines , and then they squeeze them in a moment , and make the very gleaning of Ephralm , better than the vintage of Abiezer . Certainely their limitago were fallen to them in a goodly ground ( where so small a part of an Aker is so fruitfull and yeelding ) and they might terme it , not the lot of their inheritance , but their inheritance of the Lot , if this wheele of Fortune could be held from turning ; if God would give them grace to keepe , what the Divell has given them cunning to get ; but commonly as they are shuffled together with the Knaves , and cut off with the scouring of the world , so you shall heare them ratling the bones , till their owne are ready to rattle in their skinne ; and at last become materials for Dice , that which made them living , being now made of them being dead : But to reforme these , were to undoe an army of Tapsters , and to make waste the most goodly and fruitfull ground in all your Citie , the Bowle-allies and Dice-houses , which are so much the more fruitfull , because these weeds are suffered even to grow and flourish there to ranknesse .

But I will not particularize in more that labour not ; those that I have already named had the ring , and you may finde most of the rest dancing within it ; t is strange to observe , how many are busie , but for an after-idlenesse , and what care they take , that they may take none : t is not the love of labour sets any on worke , but the Pismire's providence ; indure 't in Summer , lest they should suffer 't in winter ; or else employ themselves in such as the Moralist calls desidiosanegotia , serious trifles ; like children besmeare themselves for toyes , otherwise labour not .

But secondly , as these may offend in the Negative , so many there are which trespasse upon the Affirmative force of this precept , namely , in labouring too much , and that in these three respects , either in supervacuis , importunis , or immoderatis laboribus : In labour that is either superfluous , unseasonable , or immoderat ; all which ( by the antithesis of the censure with the thesis which lay in the parts ) fall directly within the censure of this negative precept .

First then , I doubt , we shall spye the most of those which keepe such a bustling in the world , as if 't were they tooke all the paines , to doe it for sinfull and superfluous Objects ; and if they sometimes cast but a looke or a thought after righteousnesse , yet are they frequent workers of iniquitie ; pursue that but with the eye , this with the hand and industrie . Wee doe not vsually say with Iacob , Gen. 28 20. If God will give me bread to eat , and rayment to put on , then hee shall bee my God ; but if my meat flow in with abundance , and my Cup over-flow , then shall my belly bee my God , my meat and drinke-offerings it's morning and evening sacrifice : Wee would all bee God's Beniamins , and if our Messes doe not exceed , and our change of rayment goe beyond the rest of our brethreu , wee are not well dealt with . Wee cannot content our selves to dwell with Vertue in a meane , but our desires flye to the utmost of our atchievements , and never thinke themselves farre enough , unlesse they can get no further . Hunger is not satisfied onely to take in enough , unlesse it may likewise leave enough .

Does not superfluitie daily cover our Tables ? and meats which must make wanton as well as strong , fill up our stomacks ? Are not those the feasts of niggards , where Luxury is not Caterer ? and our meetings too homely and disordered , if riot be not the Steward ? Ancient gluttony was then at the height , when Iunkets of the Land could bee fed on at Sea , and the Sea send her varieties to the Land for a requitall ; but now both Sea , Earth , and Ayre , must concentour at one Table , as if Noah from hence were to fill his Arke with all manner of Creatures ; or as if their Table-clothes must imitate Saint Peters sheet , represent the Species of all Creatures , cleane and uncleane : nay , as if their very stomackes were to be Noahs Arke , where those Creatures must not be preserved from , but perish'd with a deluge of drinke which followes after ; and he a very just and upright man that can bee saved from it . Me thinkes some of those Tables verifie what they tell us of the beasts meeting promiscuously in Affrica , and by their confused ingendrings , sending forth yearely new Species of Monsters into the world : For hither they all come , and Cookery has taught them so to ingender , to make such medlies of Creatures , that were some of our more thrifty Ancestours alive to see them , they would wonder what monsters of meat were crept into our platters , and had need have kitching Dictionaries , or Interpretours to tell them the name and use of every dish . And they must needs conclude , that man who feeds on them , and is nourish'd by them , is the most various and devouring monster of them all . How strange it is that so much of our labour and providence should now belong to the bellie , that wit and art should keepe Schoole in the Kitching , and turne professors of Cookery ; that the invention of provoking Sauces should be their Lectures and Critticismes , that the belly should have so good capacitie ; and the pallat , though so much cloy'd and dull'd , should attaine such ingenuitie .

That a man should turne his friends to Cannibals , and invite them to devoure his owne substance , and eat him out of house and harbour , that he should purse up so much of his revenues in his belly , and make a feast at the departure of his patrimony ; that he should labour and travell , and be bigge with superfluity , and not deliver'd of it but with his estate ▪ that the Apostles penalty should be eluded , He that will not labour , let him not eat , for those have now the best stomacks , and hee that labours least , eats most .

What should I tell you of abundance of superfluous labour in the pride of those who are inter pectinem speculumque occupati ? whom the Looking-glasse sends on perpetuall errands to the Combe ; who are their owne umbra's , the servants and shadowes of their owne reflected shadowes ; whose daily labour is to court and study themselves , and had rather an whole Corporation , or Common-wealth , than any Appendix of their pride should be out of order . Whose bodies are their golden Calfes , and whatsoever time they can spare from idlenesse and gluttony , is altogether sacrificed to the dressing of this Idoll .

Thus might we finde superfluous labour in the ambitious yawning after outward dignitie and honour , whilest we labour to make worth the gift of pedigree , and read deserts written in Escutcheons ; whilest honour is raked from the graves of our parents , and the monuments of their vertues , must be the pillars to uphold our crazy fame , whilest the Armes of their Nobilitie is , indeed , the device of our owne ; and the Emblemes of theirs , the life of ours . Whilest we beguile posterity with usurped motto's , and would make them beleeve that to have beene the pencill of vertue , which was but the painters . Fond ambition , that struggles to be eternall in a stone , and thinkes that a painted Sepulcher can dawbe over , or bury committed faults ; thy memory shall rot before ▪ thy monuments , and Satyricall infamy shall hale thy vices to a resurrection before thy bodies .

Is it not superfluous to have your houses that must even over ▪ top the Churches , as if they were their over-seers ; when , indeed , they have beene their underminers : Who will not grieve at that irreligious and scandalous superfluitie , to see , where their mansions stand , their very Stables like Churches , and ne are adjoyning a Church like a Stable ; Gods house like a Cottage , their owne like a Pallace : the zeale of such houses have indeed eaten them up ; nay , and perchance the house of God too ; or certainely the most of its revenues .

Lastly , can wee finde no superfluous labour for wealth and riches ? Are you all content with a competency ? Is a viaticum enough to carry you through the journey of this lifes pilgrimage ? or doe you seeke for unnecessary baggage and burdens to retardate your speed ? Why then doe those winged vessels cut the water and ayre , and visit Nations as distant in language as scituation ? to fetch necessities or superfluities , purchases suitable to your wants or desires ? Could wee ever know the abode of a man that was rich enough , and thought so himselfe , or was there not still in his ayme some further purchase ? Will a mad man beleeve he is mad ? or was superfluity ever accounted superfluous by him that had it ? Looke into your houses , where if seelings be an ornament , what are scrupulous carvings ? Are not hangings wrought by the tedious needle , and not longer in working than in bringing home , neare of kinne to superfluity ? Has not wealth turviated into costly inventions , and made wood and stone which homely Nature lent you , proud of their gilded clothing , and even ready to shrinke under the burthen of their superfluous trappings ? 'T were an homely complaint to say that glasse is become Chrystall ; have you not vessels whose very fragility raises the price even danger , whereas it should make more cheap , with those wantons of wealth makes the instruments of ostentation more deare . Has not the whole world help'd you to furnish one house , and the Sea lent such Jewels as may weigh downe the ransome of many of your brethrens lives and estates ? What need we peepe into their Closets ? It would dazle your eyes to see how they make each Chamber 〈◊〉 a Sanctum Sanctorum , or like the Kings daughter , all glorious within , their clothings being by some degrees transcendant to needle worke even wrought with gold .

But this superfluity might seemeto be inveigh'd against by the envy of poverty , that , like the Fox in the Fable we speake against grapes we cannot reach ; if that labour that attaines it were but seasonable , if it flowed within the bankes of just moderation : But if it were so , what meanes the bleating and bellowing , the noyse and clamor , the cry which goes along with us in scenting out these perishing objects , when as if without superfluities we were famish'd ; we aske them with the voice of barren Rachell , Give me superfluities or else I dye ; and breake through tho stone-walls of cost and difficulty , not for hunger , but wantonnesse ; meat , but dainties ! when we eat not onely what the sweat of the brow , but what 's purchas'd with the price of blood ; when with stomackefull children we bawle for Rattles , nor can have the cry of our labours appeas'd , till our humour 's fulfilld .

Doe they not digge their Iewels from rockes of Adamants , and screw their gold from the center , whereas the earth has offer'd our more easie paines daily bread , and all things necessary ; she has drown'd and hid those noxious mettals , and laid her whole weight upon them ; how violent then is that labor which rends up the bowels of our common mother , for drosse and dung , haling up Iron from the same obscurity with gold and silver , that neither ▪ the Instruments nor the price of our destruction may be denyed our superfluous toyling .

Climbs not Ambition up an Icy mountaine ? Are not all lower degrees diseases to it ? from which when 't is cured , is it not over-toyled with danger of relapse ? How in its ascent it wrastles with each rougher knot to conquer its supportance ! what panting , what breathing , what courting the slippery holds ! does it not breake and corrupt its wayes over those Alpes , as Hannibal did with Vinegar ? with the sowre and smart of all their Industry ; mounts the steps by a motion not more tedious and violent than contrary to nature , though perchance , when al is done , with one just fal , breaks both the backe , the estate , the credit , and the heart of him that thus attaines it ?

But thirdly , Is this labour in seasons alwayes beseeming it ? I feare me , as it is importunate and instant , so likewise that it is both in season and out of season ; and what our Saviour would have his Disciples deprecate , as likely to prove a greater augmentation to their afflictions , namely that their flight might not happen in the winter , nor on the Sabbath day ; the hot pursuit of these can feele no winter , nor their cold devotions acknowledge any Sabbath day , but all seasons must be their harvest , and they not onely plucke , but reape their eares of corne on the Sabbath day , though it turne their carnall eares from hearing the word of God .

And thus like ingratefull theeves that rob their benefactors , when God bestowes blessings on them , they steale time from God to fetch them home : and because Eternity , of necessity , belongs to their soules , they imploy all the houres of time for the good of their bodies : hold it methodicall enōugh to set grace onely after meat ; and though the object be never so needlesse , and the labour never so immoderate , they faile not to adde this third aggravation , to make it unseasonable .

And thus we finde the whole world either idle or , ill imploy●d , either triflers or busie-bodies ; not labouring at all , or labouring and toyling importunately for the meat that perisheth . Some who deserve our Saviours complaining question , Why stand yee idle all the day ? Some who have cause to complaine to our Saviour , Master , wee have labour'd all the night , but catch'd nothing ! Some on their slothfull beds to muse mischiefe , some rising up early to act it ; sloth moulding some , anxiety consuming others ; some folding their hands so farre in idlenesse that they cannot worke , some folded and inwrapt so farre in businesse that they have no leisure : some so unused to toyle as was that Mindyrides whom Seneca tels , that seeing one take great paines ▪ in digging , himselfe was weary to behold him , and commanded that he should worke out of his sight ; and that he was wont to complaine , that a leafe amongst the Roses , on which he lay , being doubled under him , did hurt him : Some againe , as pragmatticall as was that Turannius , of whom 't is related , that undergoing a laborious , and no profitable office , untill he was ninety yeares of age , that then the Emperour of his owne compassionate accord sent him his exemption , and that now he might rest : which newes the busie old man received with no lesse horror than if it had beene chesentenee of his condemnation ; and composing himselfe ▪ upon his bed , he commanded his family to mourne for him ; as if the office of his soule had , with the losse of that other , for saken his body ; nor must the face of this funerall sadnesse bee laid aside , untill that providence which eas'd him of his burthen , must be so pittifull as to restore it to him againe . Adeone luvat occupatum mori ? Can the least wind of labour thus blast some , and others be recover'd with the noyse of care ? Certainly , some have that Roman Knights pillow ( which Augustus desired ) whence the noyse of debts , and poverty , comming as an armed man cannot waken them : some have none other than Augustus his , whereon no melody could hush him into sleepe . Some would lye on the top of Olympus , above the Clouds of disturbance , and Winds of molestation . Some on the top of Aetna , and are not warme enough except in a combustion of businesse . All are divided betwixt those that labour not at all , and those that labour too much ; but for the meat that perisheth .

And now whilst I would find Arguments to inlarge my invection ( besides the admonition of time ) that , me thinkes , of Seneca sounds in mine care ; Vide , non tantum an verum sit quod dicis , sed an ille cui dicitur veri patiens sit : Take heed , not onely that thou speak the truth , but also that those to whom thou speakest can brooke that truth : Truth , it seemes , is a physicke , but whereof every diseased is not patient ; a salve , but too corrosive for some sores ; and though counsell sometimes finds entertainment , yet reproofe seldome misses of contempt ; Wasps being knowne to sting more deeply than Bees : He therefore that is sharpe with vice , round with fortune , that debases ambition , chides luxury , scourges lust , and hangs a rod at the fooles backe , shall be thought to speake words , no matter ; and mens ears , not their minds shall lend him attention . Nor did hee speake besides , though before these times , who said , Maior est qui iudicium astulit , quam qui meruit ; He shal be the multitudes Magnifico , who steals not , who deserves their judgement . I will therefore , to conclude all , make our Saviours method mine , who in the verse before my Text chid , here exhorts , and turne my invection against the lazy , and those that overtoyle themselves , into a breefe exhortation to leave that , and use this more moderately ; the inconveniences which follow being my reason to deterre us from offending on either fide .

For let me tell the sluggish , What is Idlenesse , but the sediments of some sinfull disease , and a disposition to fall into all . The Church is Ager Dei , Gods field ; and what availeth it to shape out handlesse Christians , or to expect any harveh from such as Labour not ? The Church is Civitas Dei , Gods City ; and none are free of this , but those that have some function . Tell mee , you that never heard the call of any Vocation , that are free of no other Company than your idle companions ; that shirke living from others , but time from yourselves ; tell mee , may it not be said of Idlenesse as he said of Envy , that it is tormentumsut , it s own scourge : and is there any wracke to the bed of sloth ? If it bee ask'd of what function you are , is it sufficient to answer , Gentlemen ? as if generosity were turn'd vagrant ; and the businesse proper to Nobility , were to sleepe in a Chaire of State . Tendit in ardua v●rtus , Vertue is essentially in action , and all her Clients worke their passage to her . The greatest of our Common-wealth have inroll'd their names into the protection of some Corporation in this City , no doubt , that their examples may tell the rest , that Labour is an honour as well as a burthen ; and may he that shrinkes from it , never have a trencher of his owne , but let his stomacke be alwayes attendant and weare the perpetuall livery of other mens leisures . Let this shirking generation be cast out ( as Christ would have the Divels ) by Prayer and Fasting , Devotion and Hunger , their most feared enemies ; and when they want their penny-worths of newes , let their very apparell pay for their Ordinary : Let the very Constables and Marshals of the City be the undertakers to draine and scoure this fenny and viciously over-growne , this untill'd , unfruitfull ground : O let not those gardens of our selves be over-growne with the weeds of sloth , let not customary sluggishnesse make us unweeldy for any thing but gossipings , and to be the tradition of tales and reports ; let not us bee that unfallowed ground where the Divell may sowe his tares ; or standing pools which ever end in stinch and corruption ; but let us gird up our loynes , and though it be the last howre of the day , yet adventure into the field , and labour . But yet not too fast , nor too eagerly , for this falls into as dangerous an extremity on the other side ; and when you have digg'd as deepe as you can , and follow'd the game as farre as t is possible , you prove but th' unprofible servants of your unlimited desires , and all for which you tugge thus diligently , shall perish : Fore-see your heaps of silver sunke to the center from whence it came , your houses bury'd in the ruins of your Cellars , your wardrobes intomb'd in the bellies of contemptible Moths , your pamper'd carkasses baits for the wormes ; then say , here 's meat that perisheth : All those things that swell thine heart , and hoist thy mind above the memory of mortality , which barricado'd with barres of Iron , snatch'd with the servile lives of others , defended with thine owne , for which the furrowes of the Sea were smooth'd with blood , the walls of Cities shaken , the leagues of affinity , friendship , and blood , have beene so often broken , are now no longer thine , they were but lent ; or if they were thine owne , they 're perishing .

Goe now , vaine man , and spread thy Factors through all Languages , fetch both the Indies to thy capacious Cellars , make all the Kings of the Nations thy debtors , pile up thine house with obligatory parchment , umbra's and fancies , empty shadowes of wealth and substance , farme out th' usurious time ( sanguivolentae indies duplicentur centesimae ) and let each day redouble thine hundreds , blesse thy speculations with the volumes of thy riches , and survay the Maps of thy purchas'd Territories , Pride thy selfe at the sight of thy great Babilons which thou hast built for thine honour ; and now when thou commest to eat the fruit of thy labours , to use that felicity which all this while thou hast but serv'd , know and consider that it , and thou thy selfe shalt perish .

O then let us turne the eyes of our appetites , and the limbs of our labour , after that meat which indure's to Everlasting Life ; that Manna that came downe from heaven , and carries man up thither ; that Angels food which luxury ne're look'd at , bread made and composed of th' immortall seed of the Word . Lord give us evermore this bread ! Let the froward appetites of worldlings thirst after their broken Cisterns ; leave those that never felt the sweets of Canaan , to breath after Aegypts Onions and Leekes ; letearthly pottage be those Esau's birth-right ; surfet poore prodigals with your Swinish huskes ? Lord give us evermore this bread . Turne , O the stormes of our earthly tuggings into a calme ! bee still O you waves of over-flowing desires ! Say unto God , Thou art my Rocke ; my heart is fixed , O God , my heart is fixed there . Fly away , O thou Sea of pleasure ; and be thou driven backe , thou swelling Jordan of pride ; Skip away , ye mountaines of Ambition , like Rams ; and ye little hils of Riches , like Lambs . Tremble , O earth of care , at the presence of the Lord , at the presence of the God of Iacob . Let the Spirit and the Bride say , Come ; and let him that heareth say , Come ; and let him that is athirst say , Come ; and whosoever will , let him take of this water of life freely . And come , O Son of man , and with that meat make men the Sonnes of God . O blessed Father , scale to us the love of thy Sonne , which is our life ; and sanctifie that living meat , O holy Spirit . Now to that Sonne of man that gives , and God the Father that seales , and God the Holy Ghost that sanctifies to the unspeakable glory of Everlasting Life ; Ascribed be all praise , dominion , life , and glory .

In secula seculerum , Amen . FINIS .