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of: and the ftone-wall is broken down." Thus, " Poverty cometh upon him like one "that travaileth, and his want as an armed till drowfinefs at laft clothes him

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man,

with rags.

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Such is the picture which Solomon draws of the fluggard; and the features are fo ftrongly marked, that there is no room to doubt that it was drawn from the life.

Whether there are perfons in the present ftate of fociety to whom all the parts of this character agree, is a queftion which every man will answer to himself, either from his knowledge or experience. The charge is indeed fo complex, that it might be difficult perhaps to prove it in its full extent against any one individual,

We know well who they are whofe hands refufe to labour, who are clothed with rags, and make poverty not only their complaint, but their argument. But though the idle vagrant is plainly defcribed and condemned by thefe articles, there are other parts of the charge against which he might offer a plaufible defence.

He might anfwer to the charge of excef

five

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five fleep, that he rifeth as early, or at leaft is as foon abroad, as any from whom he can expect an alms: and that he is fo far from hiding his hand in his bofom, that he stretcheth it forth from morning to night, to levy contributions from every paffenger he fees. Nay, to strengthen his defence, might he not argue, that as the Preacher was a king, perfons of a higher rank were far more likely to be the objects of his attention, many of whom eat the bread of idleness, and labour as little as the beggar? And as he speaks of fields and vineyards, that this shows him to have had fluggards of a fuperior order in his eye, who originally poffeffed fome property, and held a station above the lower tribes of the people. By this defence, he will certainly elude fome articles of the charge. Enough, however, will still remain to evince his right to the character in the text. And what he throws off from himfelf doth not fall to the ground, but will bear hard on the idle and voluptuous in the higher ranks of life. At the fame time, there are fome articles in the charge, to which thofe of a better station

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would no doubt object in their turn. They might attempt to evade the charge of fluggifhnefs, by alledg., that though indeed they apply themselves to no active bufinefs or employment, yet the fatigues of drefs, of ceremony, and of equipage; the anxieties of gaming, and the attendance on fashionable amusements, render the purfuit of pleasure in the prefent age, as toilfome and laborious as any mechanical employment whatsoever. And that fo far from being clothed in rags, which Solomon makes the badge of a fluggard, the fact is, that Solomon himself, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of them.

Were this a controverfy of any importance, it would be an eafy matter to detect the fallacy of thefe reafonings, and to fhow, that the defences on both fides are weak and frivolous. But this would be an idle wafte of time; for as neither of the parties can deny that some parts of the description apply to them, it is of little confequence to which of them the larger share of it belongs.

But floth is not confined to the common affairs of life, nor the character of a fluggard

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gard to men in any particular station. There is floth in religion, as well as in common life; and the defeription in my text applies. to all, without exception, who, however ac tive and induftrious in their fecular employments, neglect the one thing needful, the care of their precious and immortal fouls.

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اليات

The laborious mechanic, the bufy merchant, the painful ftudent, and the bustling ftatéfman, are all fluggards in a spiritual fenfe, unless they are active in the love and fervice of the God that made them; and unless the advancement of his glory, and the final enjoyment of his favour, are the ends to which all their purfuits are directed.

Here we are only to fojourn for a fhort time. Our great Creator hath made us for higher occupations, and better joys, than the present world affords us. He hath formed us for the knowledge and enjoyment of himfelf in an eternal and unchangeable state, and hath inftructed us how we may attain this glorious object of our being. And therefore, however busy a man may be for himself, however induftrious for his family, however active for the public; yet if all his

Views terminate in this prefent life, he is ftill a fluggard in the eye of God. For he who labours only for the meat that perifheth, doth as fatally counteract the end of his creation, as he that fleeps on the bed of floth, or as he that fatigues himself in purfuing the vain and fugitive pleasures of this world. I will add, that even thofe who have chofen the better part, and who feek the kingdom of God and his righteoufnefs in the first place, do often incur the impu tation of fluggishness, by the omiffion or careless performance of what God hath required of them. For, alas where is the man who doth "whatfoever his hand findeth "to do" in the bufinefs of religion, "with

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all his might?" Where is the man who "strives," as in an agony (for fo the original word imports)" to enter in at the "Arait gate?" or who "gives all diligence "to make his calling and election fure." We fee much activity in the pursuits of the world; but a very fmall portion of it, indeed, in that pursuit which most requires and deferves it.

1 may therefore venture to affirm, tha

ther

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