gence maintain yourself, and fuch others as have a Right to be maintained by you. The Apostle adds, that you muft labour, working with Hands: Which is your Duty your when you are not capable of any better Work; for fuch as cannot live without it, muft live by bodily Labour. But the Injunction is more general, and includes all Kinds of Labour and Toil, or Study, by which Men may be ferviceable to themselves and others: And it may properly be asked, how far this Duty extends? And it will, I conceive, be no 'unfeafonable Digreffion to inquire, whether only fuch are obliged to labour, who cannot live without it; or whether those who have enough to fupport themselves without either ftealing or begging, are not likewife obliged to turn to fome honeft Calling and Employment?

Man, I think, was not made to be idle; God has not given him Senfe and Understanding to fit ftill and do nothing. If Man was made only to eat and drink, then indeed it would follow, that those who have enough to eat and drink, need do nothing, else: But if he is made for, and is capable of nobler Employment; then it is a very abfurd Thing to afk, whether a Man may be idle, VOL. III. I provided

provided he wants nothing? For if he is not made merely to serve his own Wants, then his wanting nothing can never be a Reason for his doing nothing. The neceffary Affairs of the World cannot be managed by the Labour of the Hand only: The Head must be employed in all Matters of Policy and Government, in preferving Peace and Order in the World; and in all Matters that concern. the future and prefent Well-being of Mankind. These are Matters of higher Moment than to fall under the Direction of Artificers. These are Things of the last Confequence, and must be regarded; and therefore it is the Duty of fome to qualify themselves for thefe Purposes. And every Man owes it as a Duty to God and his Country to render himself serviceable according to the Station he is in, and to qualify himself to discharge fuch Offices of Truft and Power, as generally fall to the Share of Men of his Rank and Degree; that when he is called upon by Authority to take any Office upon him,

he

may be able to discharge it with Credit to himself, and Benefit to others. Those of the highest Degree among us reckon it among their Titles of Honour that they are born Counsellors of the Kingdom: The Confequence,

quence, I think, is extremely plain, that it is their indifpenfible Duty, by Labour and Study, and Knowledge of the Laws and Conftitutions of their Country, to fit themfelves to be what they say they are. The Men of Eftates among us are generally entrufted with the Execution of the Laws in their Country; and can it be a Doubt, whether they ought to be fit for their Employment, or no? From thefe, and fuch like Confiderations, it appears, that all Men are obliged to that kind of Labour and Work, which is fuitable to the Station in which God has placed them. We generally fay, that God has made nothing to no Purpose; and yet, pray tell me what the rich Man is made for, if his Business be only to eat and drink, and spend his Estate? Can you justify the Wisdom of Providence in fending fuch a Creature into the World? There is Work cut out for all Creatures, from the highest to the loweft; all things in Nature have their proper Business, and are made to ferve fome wife End of God. The Angels are his miniftering Spirits, they attend upon and execute his Commands. The inanimate Things of the World have their Office; the Sun duly performs his Courfe, and rules

the Day; the Moon and Stars rule the Night: And if there be a Man in the World who has no Work, but was formed to be idle, he, among all the Works of God, is the only Thing that is fo. Are not Senfe and Reason great Gifts of God? And if he has exempted your Hands from Labour and Toil, by supplying you with Neceffaries and Conveniencies of Life, will he not expect that you should improve your nobler Parts? Will he not exact an Account from you, how you turned your better Talent, and what Ufe you made of his more excellent Gifts? Is it reasonable, that a poor Man should be accountable for not getting Bread for himself by the Labour of his Hands, and that the rich Man fhould be liable to no Judgment for not getting Underftanding, which is a more valuable Poffeffion, by the Work and Labour of his Mind? Bread is the Nourishment of the Animal, but Knowledge is the Food of the Man: By one we grow to the World, by the other we reach to Heaven. And has God made it an indifpenfible Duty to labour for the Meat which perisheth, and not required an equal Concern and Labour for the Food of Life and Immortality ?

DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE V.

PART II.

I

**

PROCEED now to the Third Thing, which is the Limitation, by which we are confined to work only the Things which C & X # are good, foregoing all unlawful Means of supporting ourselves: Let him labour, working with his Hands the Thing which is good.

Had not this Condition been expreffed, it might have been collected from the Nature of the Command; for if the Law of God be fuperior to our Neceffities in any Point, it must be so in all Points. The Reason why we must not steal, but labour, is this: That we must not do evil, or tranfgrefs the Laws of God, to fupply our Wants or Neceflities.