LABOUR FORBIDDEN, AND Commanded.  
A SERMON PREACHED AT St. PAUL'S CHURCH, SEPTEMBER 28. 1634.  
By EDWARD RAINBOW, Fellow of Magdalen College in Cambridge.  Praeca●eamus ne aut labor irritus sine effectu sit, aut effectus labore indignus, aequè enim ex his tristitia sequitur, si aut non successit, aut successus pudet. Sen. 
LONDON: Printed for Nicholas Vavasour, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Inner-Temple, near the Church, 1635.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL, SIR JOHN WRAY, Knight and Baronet, and to his truly generous Brother, EDWARD WRAY of Rycot, Esq. Lovers and Incouragers of Learning and Piety.  
IF the attentive eye may be as gainful to the understanding as the listening ear; if the fugatious words, which escape the ears pursuit, by that may be arrested to the doom of judgement, if it can scruple at Errata, when the ears credulity sums up with approbation, then may I discharge myself, and frustrate censure, of an apology, for exposing to a more deliberate review of the eye, what posted by the laborynths of the ear with less delay. I must confess, in those forward births of Pamphlets (the usual brats of pregnant impudence) nothing uses to be more legible, than Ignorance, inspired by Ambition: where the itch of public prostitution breaks forth into the very Frontispiece: and those Characters which the Author fancies to be glorious on the front, the Reader deems stigmatical.  
Although my private resolutions to the contrary, have stooped to some assaults, and made my weakness now as public as the rest, yet this must be my confidence, that some of my judicious friends have promised to share of the censure, if not as causes, yet as provocations to the delinquency.  
If in the subject there be any thing satirical, the patronage to which I have commended it, dare read without any conscious starting at invection. Their observations may throw it at the guilty world, and this shall truly number them in the pancity of the guiltless. Innocency is no superecilious Patron, nor expects the manners of an Apology from those that intrude into its protection. Nevertheless, I was compelled to invocate yours, for if I have gained any thing from obscurity, the light of your encouragements have led me to it; and as the College, whereof I am a member, so my own private duty shall ever prompt me to rank your name amongst the chiefest of my Benefactors, and endeavour to make nothing more public (excepting God's glory in the good of his Church) than your virtues, and that I am  
Yours in my devoutest preys and Observance, EDW. RAINBOW. Mag. Coll. Novem. 15. 1634.   

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 Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. 
MAn is borne to labour, as the sparks fly upwards: with the pangs of labour and pain his mother delivers this burden to the world; and that receives him, not as an indulgent father, but a censorious taskemaster: and, as if he began not life▪ but an Apprenticeship, he breaks his fast with tears, cries aloud  dinner, and if he live till night, 'tis much if sickly groans be not some parcel of his breath. Our necessities, like niggardly stepdames, lock so fast the cupboards 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 toil, gives more alacrity to endure it, and the hopes of that, sweeten the bitterness 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 withhold them; pictures those Giants with a milder countenance: and if we hear of a land that flows with milk and honey, Jordan's stream is easily strided over; if our famished appetites hear of meat, they fear no Coloquintida, but now shake hands with Labour, are friends with Industry, can hardly be compelled to rest; they will not listen to the call of ease, their bellies have no ears, till this sad morsel fill their mouths: O man of God there is death in the pot, and we have laboured all this while for meat that perisheth.  
Slack then your sails, saith the voice of my Text; pursue those gilded baits no further, nor pull those fugitives into your walls which will betray you to the worms: but arm your labour with an holy violence; assault the kingdom of heaven; re-enter Paradise; the Angel now has sheathed his flaming sword; the tree of Life's unguarded; Labour no more for the meat, etc.  
The occasion of these words take briefly thus: When 
Occasion▪  our Saviour was told of Herod's▪ cruelty against Saint john the Baptist, and of the inquisition which he made after himself, as in a doubtful amazement, fearing him to be redivivum johannem, john risen from the dead; and albeit his Omniscience was conscious that Herod's plots, and his determined end could not be cotemporaries; nevertheless not relying upon the arm of miraculous preservation, with the wind of this rumour he sails over the Sea of Galilce, on purpose, as the three first Evangelists harmoniously agree, to getout of Herod's jurisdiction: and although his first abode was in the desert, yet the eager multitude (now greedy in pursuit of miracles) trace him out. Christ being found, answers their expectation by dispensing of his twofold cures; generally, with his Doctrine upon their souls; and, when particular maladies cried for aid, his mercy had miracles for their bodies.  
The day posts on, and is likely to attain a period, before he can remember to end his days work of mercy, when his Disciples (though not more feeling of man's frailty than himself, yet now, perchance, after his lengthened Sermon, more sensible of their own) thus admonish him. The place is desert, the town's remote, the day'● fare spent, the people weary; and if they hunger, victuals are not plentiful in the desert, therefore send them away. But Christ who had power to broach the rocks and give them drink, to turn the fruitless deserts into kitchens, even replenished with Manna for bread, and Quails for meat, had likewise at this time compassion enough to fill their bowels▪ and the companies being sat down (now not more hungering after the meat than the miracle that could provide it) found that two fishes, with five loaves and Christ's blessing, were enough to fill five thousand; and when that was done, (as if each Spawn had now been hastened into a perfect Fish) to overflow into twelve baskets of fragments.  
As if each word he spoke had become a feeding morsel, themselves might now have witnessed with him against the Devil, that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. That the oil in the Cruise did not fail, and meal in the barrel did not waste, they had heard; but that the eating should make the remainder exceed its first proportion; this, had not sense stretched it out, might justly have exceeded their faith. Certain 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 seen before; and now their pampered bellies could prompt them to a devout sedition, and they durst, in despite of Caesar's power, attempt to make Christ their King: Their carnal wisdom easily might suggest him a fit General for a conquering army, who could so cheaply, and so suddenly victual his hungry Campe. But Christ, who knew his kingdom of another world, slights these poor ambitions; nevertheless to declinethe violence of popularity, having given his Disciples the watchword to sail over the Sea, himself glides, first from the people, then on the waters after them. Hot was the multitude in their pursuit, and the first opportunity embark themselves and follow; and being now landed, they find their yesterday steward arrived before them, which strange celerity, makes their first salutation this question, Rabbi, quando huc venisti? Master, when camest thou hither? But Christ discerned full well which way their stomach 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 fare to sacrifice; he therefore, neglecting their curious question, shapes an answer fit 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 think he would applaud for piety, he condemns for gluttony; he was able to anatomize their intentions, and found those goads which pricked them forward to be in their stomach, nor their brain; to fill their bellies with the bread of miracles, not their souls with the Manna of his Doctrine. And when he had cooled their fervency with this reproof, prepared their appetites with this sour reprehension, then gives he them my Text as a more wholesome bit to chew on, and thus addresses it, Labour not, etc.  
The scope of which words import thus much; as if 
Scope.  he had said, Poor, and beguiled men, whom the greedy hopes of a filled belly could flatter into all this industry! Was this the cause why from town to desert, from desert to sea, from sea to land, your untired limbs could follow me? What went you out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken with the wind of miracles? or rather whether he could furnish a table in the desert? But what went you out into the wilderness to see? The son of man clothed in the soft raiments of mercy and righteousness? or rather whether he could satisfy the hungry with bread: But what went you out to see? A Prophet? or rather a Purveyour? Was all this toil to satisfy your understandings, or your appetites? to feed your minds or your bellies? I know 'twas the wind of carnal appetite inspired your sails 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 overseer, and they shall be employed in amore worthy labour; not for those melting morsels, as fading as the taste, those apples of Sodom which die betwixt the hand and the mouth; that meat that fades even before your pots wax hot with thorns, which brings an angry destruction even whilst the Quails are yet in your mouths, that meat which is more perishing than the creatures whence 'twas digged, that dying meat which makes your throat its sepulchre, is scarcely long-lived enough for digestion: But for a meat which breeds eternal blood in your veins, the bread of souls, whose equal temper crambs to no diseases, but fills each part with spirit and life, and enables your stomaches to digest eternity. Pant and breathe after this long-winded food, pile up all the lose 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, sinews, orlimbes, Labour, not for the meat, etc.  
My Text, me thinks, is a map of Paradise, and in it 
Paral.  you shall find both commanded, and forbidden fruit, only 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 evil wholly there forbidden, here distinguished according to its fruits, the good to be pursued, the other to be neglected; there the fruit itself forbidden, here only 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 again they meet and agree, that both the forbidden meats perish, the eaters with themselves, and both deprive the soul of the desired tree of life: So that thus holds both the parallel and the antithesis: There,  
If thou presumest to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that act shall damn thee from the tree of life, from which an Angel of God shall stave thee, armed by the Lord of hosts. Here,  
Fly that perishing meat, and thou shalt cram thyself with food of everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give thee, whom God the Father hath sealed; the Angel of the Covenant.  
In the words than are to be discovered these four 
Divisio●n  parts:  

1. Praeceptum.  
2. Praecepti Proemium.  
3. Proemii Dispensatorem.  
4. Dispensatoris Potestatem.   

1. A Precepts▪ Labour not for the meat that, etc.  
2. The Reward of the Precept, Everlasting life.  
3. The Dispensour of the Reward; Which the Son of man, etc.  
4. The Power of the Dispensour; Whom God the Father hath, etc.   
The Precept here is double, Preceptum non faciens, and Preceptum faciens; 1. Negative: 2. Affirmative. 1. Labour not for, etc. 2. But labour for, etc. 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 Object, for the meat that endureth, etc. and both of these objects carry along a specification as a reason enforcing the object: In the Negative, the inconvenience of the Object must deter us, it is specified by Perishing: In the Affirmative, the conveniency of the Object must allure us, being specified by meat which endures to everlasting life. Therefore labour not for, etc.  
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 Son 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 dispenser, the Son 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▪ etc.  
Did we hear of Labour, and no Everlasting Life; or of Everlasting Life, and no Son of man to give it; or of the Son of Man to give it, and not of God the Father to scale him for that purpose, we might hide our heads in our bosom, or labour to slip our necks out of the yoke. Harsh commands when the eye cannot look over the burden to the reward; doubtful reward where the giver is not known; suspected giver, whose abilities are not manifest: But here the precept may be more pleasant, being sweetened with a Reward; the Reward ascertained, being assigned its Giver; the Giver enabled, being thereto authorized. Labour not then, etc.  
And thus me thinks my Text may afford a large field of discourse, and after this pains I have taken in the tillage and opening of it, your apprehensions may enter into it as into a plentiful harvest, if this first word be not a Scarecrow to some, Labour. Nor yet can I see any reason why the Labourers should be few, the increase being so certain, and so precious, that whosoevers labour shall carry away but one sheaf, and husband it aright, may knead thereof even bread of Life: therefore to handle these parts in method I intent first to join the precept with the Negative particle; secondly, them both with the Object; and thirdly, all of them with the Specification.  
And if we begin with the parts in order, the two first words of my Text seem to tie up our hands and to save us a labour, thus beginning the negative Precept, Labour not. Labour not? Why what can the dainty  of flesh and blood relish with more delight? May not the greatest part of this company aver with the young man in the Gospel (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 less for the other: and perchance may be glad to have got so favourable a shelter for their idleness, as this porch of my Text, Labour not. But if we attend the words, not the Act of labouring, but the following Object, is here by this negation depressed. The Original reads it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ Labour not: Saint Hierome (whom almost all antiquity follows) Operamini non, work not: The Syriac Translation, Ne operemini, do not work; yet all of them fastening the Negation to the Object, not the Act▪ and therefore some later Interpreters make a Comma at the word Labour, as if we must read it thus, Labour, but not for the meat, etc. perchance out of a diligent cautile, left the duty of labouring should from this place seem rather to be forbidden than commanded.  
But none, that I ever heard of, urged this place as a lurking hole for sluggishness in the general, or a manumission from all kind of labour, but yet I may well conjecture, that many in their practice have lived as if this Text gave some convenience to a cessation from bodily labour for necessary food and raiment, (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 Interpreters, and ancient Fathers who have written upon this place, amongst whom Saint Chrysostome especially, have been very laborious in invection against such, and in vindicating this Text from giving any connivance to their Laziness; and therefore to overthrow all such pretences, some have diversely expounded and limited the Act, Labour; some the following Object, Meat that perisheth; some the Negative particle. Hugo Cardinalis would have to be meant by the object, Meat that perisheth, Mala opera, evil works, because they are the kirnels and causes of all man's perishing: So that man is not plucked away from all labour and working by this precept, but only from the works of darkness. But those that expound the object more largely, yet understand the Act more strictly; that although labour for bodily means 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; 'tis too much solicitude and anxiety which is forbidden, to labour too eagerly, not to labour at all: for, Pigritari (as another has it) idleness is maximè cibus periens, the meat that soon perisheth; the bread of sloth is soon mouldy and corrupt. And Bonaventure's joint 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 affairs; and he adds, Quam vis in usu operis quandoque sit temporalitas, tamen in intention semper debet esse aeternitas; though in the act of our labours sometimes we place temporality, yet ought we always before our intentions to set eternity. Nay, some there are who yet straighten the act more narrowly, and will not have this negative precept any general 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 lingered again after the five loaves to have more of the meat that perisheth; which when Musculus thought on, he thus infers, 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 be laid aside when we are invited to spiritual banquets; that Martha's incumbrings were therefore culpable, because than she had the choice of the better part: that the marrying of wives, the buying of oxen, and earthly purchases, are only then to be left aside, when our souls are invited to heavenly feasts.  
But Cardinal 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 Scriptures non negat, sed solicitudinem excludit; the negative particle does not always deny, but excludes a solitariness of interpretation: as if it had been said, Labour, but not only, or not chief for the meat that perisheth, but also, etc. And we have, amongst many others, one pregnant example of this, joh. 12. 44. He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. He that believeth on me, believeth not on me? how can this stand together? the rule reconciles it; that is, not only on me, or not on me chief, but on him that sent me: and thus it must be here expounded, Labour not, that is, not only, or not specially, for the meat that perisheth, but for, etc.  
So that it's plain, not Labour, but anxiety, unseasonable and importunate labour for the meat that perisheth, is only here forbidden.  
But imagine awhile, the feet of our industry should be fettered, the limbs of our diligence should be dis-jointed, and if we were asked with those in the Gospel, Why stand you idle all the day? We might answer, Not only because none hath hired us, but because we are forbidden to labour: What then should we do for food and raiment? Must we supinely gape till the showers of providence shall rain down Quails into our mouths? Must we grovel in the dew for miraculous Mannah? or expect the stony rocks to cleave into cups, and present themselves to our thirsty palates? Shall we sit under those Vines and Figge-trees which free Nature hath husbanded, till their voluntary fruit drop into our mouths? Shall we, in the conceits of a lawful sloth, what the Prophet did out of holy inspiration, wait for the Ravens to be our Caterers; expect bowls of mercy from Birds of prey?  
Shall we slumber and sleep, and fold our hands until the Handmaids of Nature cloth and get us ready? Shall we sit with the Lilies in the field, neither labour nor spin, and expect that apparel and ornament shall grow upon us? Shall we glow in the cold, till the pitiful sheep resign its coat to be our garment? or lie in the shade till the ashamed Figtree drop down its leaves into aprons, to cover our nakedness? What more can we do, nay, what less can we expect, if this command be peremptory, Labour not? Why 'tis as if he had said, Lull yourselves into the laps of everlasting idleness, wake not your silent thoughts with noise of care, cherish your tender hands in the bosom of sloth, nor expose your dainty limbs to the rude employments of labour and travel, Nature that sent you naked into the world upon hererrand shall clothe you at her own expenses, and strew her Dugs of nourishment at the doors 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 burden of your necessities upon the shoulders of an higher providence: if you be lame and lazy Providence has nimble feet to post on your occasions, if you be weak and fainting the hands of Providence can hold you up; are your eyes dim and drowsy? the eye of Providence sees all things: Are you injured? Providence has a sword: Are you in danger? Providence has a Buckler: sit still and smile at Providence your officious servant, but as for yourselves, labour not. Why take ye thought for food? sow with the Sparrows and be fed even to wantonness: Why take ye thought for raiment? Spin with the Lilies and be clothed even to pride, but labour not. Thus might pillows be sowed and voices heard, which warble out nothing but softness and delicacy: thus might we make us beds in the field, and cloth our Vineyards with Cushions: thus might we turn our Carts into Coaches, our painful Ploughs into instruments of pleasure, our fields into gardens, our garners into theatres, our Shops into Dancing-schools, and all become most experienced professors of the arts of idleness, were this Precept merely 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 intend more clearly to discuss how fare our labour may be extended for it, and where again it must retire and breath.  
And first, I doubt not but I shall befriend your patience if I pass over the diverse acceptations of the word Esca, or Cibus, Meat, and expound it with the most ancient and best Interpreters in this one signification, for all bodily and outward necessities. Nor is the Synecdoche 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 allowed to labour for meat, there is nothing which may set our industry on work. And therefore, no doubt, our Saviour intended to make the negative precept against solicitous and superfluous labour more Emphatical, by eccluding in the Object, even what daily is both to be prayed and laboured for, Meat; Labour not for the meat. For if this injunction had been more restrained (as indeed the rules of Interpretation may do it) and only had taken from them their superfluity, it might seem to have carried along with it both reproof and counsel enough. What if he had allowed them to toil for their meat; nay, have made that ancient curse a new Injunction, In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread! have compelled them even to sweat for their daily bread, but not allowed them to stir at all for dainties? have forced them to eat, even their bread with carefulness, but sustered them to labour for no other sauce? What if he had said unto them, Let not your labour perplex itself for such superfluity of meat, and pride of raiment, but confine it within the narrow banks of necessity? What excessive madness is in that gluttonous care which spreads table's not where hunger, but ambition may best be sutisfied? which disperses purveyors for the mouth into remotest Countries, that the wanton  may feed on what the eye till then ne'er saw? Spare your superfluous pains in fetching in the whole brood of nature to make one meal, one bait for gluttony: Tell me, Can not the five loaves upon the homely grass refresh your hungry appetites, as well as all those glutting morsels spread, in so proud a method, upon your finer linen and purples? cannot the stomach fill, but when the eye is dazzled? nor meat digest, except received from the richest metals? Is not gluttony at ease but in a wardrobe? nor junkets sweet but served in jewels? If labour should be allowed for these, time has not hours enough to dispatch it. Nor must this Labour be less restrained from other superfluities; though raiment be within its reach, yet pride is fare too high for it; leisure may be allowed to , when it cannot to adorn. The sheep, that's near at hand, gives us shelter enough from the cold, why should we hunt after more costly furs and wrappings? Is the skin of the beast too cheap, that the bowels of worms must be wrought into clothing? Nature's help is a shorter cut: Must you send for apparel to the utmost bounds of the earth before you can be ready: must all the creatures lend their aid to dress one man? and is he not handsome till antic beasts have given him a shape? must a jury of Trades be busied to verdict him ready? and every disordered hair be allowed a time for reformation? Certainly, if we may labour for this outside perfection, than no labour is forbidden. Again, had it not likewise been a check to have forbidden their excessive labour and toil in the rearing up of their ambitious Babel's, as if they meant to go to heaven by the stairs of their houses; or rather to fetch down 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 engrave to posterity the stories of their vaunted pedigree, and epitomise the history of the world in their superfluous carvings; to fill each chamber as a wardrobe, and stuff every room with the treasures of the East; to extend their walls to an admired vastness, and give their private mansions capacity for the trains of Princes! If labour for these extremities of excess had only been forbidden, the wonder would not have been great. Therefore, more strictly to forbid superfluities, in my Text, not only vanities, but decencies; not only surfeiting, but feeding; not only excess of meat, but even meat itself seems to be forbidden to made the Object of our Labour, Labour not for the meat, etc.  
But to continue to show the force of the negative precept as it is joined 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 bear both Importunate, and Importune Labour; the first denotes an unlawfulness in the manner of the Act; the second in the circumstance of time; the first is labour too earnest, too solicitous; the second is labour out of its due time, unseasonable. And if we attend to the occasion of our Saviour's 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 seek and obtain the food of their souls) thus fare, and thus only 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 ourselves, but we must not sell ourselves to them. Let not the full bend of your endeavours stand that way; hurry not yourselves along with the eagertide of precipitation, but let moderation stand at the stern, and hold the reines of your industry; and let the feet of your affections go, but not run after this perishing meat: Let not the storms of violence, but the milder blasts of indifferency waft your sails through these straits of humane wants; take not the wings of Vultures to fetch in meat as prey, nor eat the bread of violence, but seek it daily at the hands of Providence. The Lion's lack and suffer hunger, notwithstanding all their ravening and roaring, whereas the meeker brood of nature meet with a shepherd that brings it to their mouths. The wild and savage beasts ramble for their food in the desert, whereas the tame ones obtain the mercy of man's fertile habitations: the vehement and sturdy winds hold up and drive away the rain, the softer gales moisten the earth with fruitful showers. We may herein take some resemblance from God himself, and seek his blessings in so calm a way as he declares himself to give them: Not, as he brought the Locusts, by some mighty blustering wind, which might rend the rocks of barrenness; not by ploughing up our ground with prodigious earthquakes; not by burning up the tares and brambles with some impetuous fire, but by the still and sweet voice and aid of his providence: The kingdoms of this world are not to be taken by violence; nay, we 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 win them by wary composition: Let not his hot pursuit broil him in an Egyptian furnace to purchase brick and stone, the base materials of an earthly Babel: Let him indeed labour to the exercising of his limbs, not the cracking of his sinews, where anxiety must needs accompany Labour, Labour not for the meat, etc.  
Secondly, as this Labour must not be with importunity, so neither must it be against opportunity; that is, though we be allowed to labour for perishing meat, yet neither chief for that, nor unseasonably, when we 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, etc. The Indulgence of outward sustenance is necessary, whilst yet the soul▪ wrestles with the infirmities of a fainting body, whilst it strives to untie this knot of flesh, and break through all the chains 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 hours on that which are due to this, were to lose both. Season and time are of such powerful consequence, that the neglect of them turns even sweet into sour, good into evil; makes those actions which in themselves are lawful, to be despised and sinful: They wait upon thee, saith the Psalmist, and thou givest them their meat in due season: Even meat, out of season, is the burden, not the food of the stomach; to labour therefore for it out of season, were like Asses to couch under a burden which no necessity imposes on us; nay, which necessarily diseases us. Labour out of season could ne'er exact its wages: the seed that's sown before, or when the time of sowing's past, never blessed the sour with maturity, 'tis it wherewith the mower filleth not his handful, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom: he that so sows that he may reap, makes the season of sowing the chief pillar of his hopes of reaping.  
The sum than is this, If you have hours to bestow on moderate labour for meat and outward necessities, yet rob not the soul's opportunities to allow the body time; slack not that task which God has commanded to obey the belly; lose not that time, nor hide in the napkin of gluttony, which, well employed, may gain the Talon of Eternity: Believe me, 'tis the height of sacrilege to steal time from the Sanctuary; and hours which should serve at the Altar, sacrificed to business, makes our affairs our Idols. The hours of Devotion run in their own constant revolution, nor must we count it arbitrary to prorogue them. The Sabbaths of grace stand in their own unalterable Kallenders, nor is it man's power to make the soul's feasts movable; to be serving ourselves when we should be serving of God, is to turn day into night, to make the armour of God a work of darkness.  
The Sun and Stars, the world's great Clocks and and witnesses of time, have taught our Dial's to measure out God's by inches, and man's by else; he that would pilfer from that, is too ingrateful to live a span of life. Shall we doubt to give him his fullness of time, who hath both invested us with time, and made us capable of Eternity? When he's lessoning our souls, shall we be crambing our bodies? or rather leave the best Junkets of the body, to gain one morsel for the soul. 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 enforcing this negative precept, why we must not labour for it, because it perisheth.  
But before we enter into this, were it no tworth the labour to inquire why our meat should be called Perishing? Certainly, as it is man's meat, his food and sustenance, 'tis that common vinculum, which knits and marries the soul to the body; shall it be then the cause of their divorce? When man perisheth, surfeiting indeed may be a cause; but meat seems to be a Catholic Antidote against all malignant poisons and enemies of nature's continuance. Is it not Meat which arms our perishing flesh against the powers of death, and dispatches new supplies to nature, when the former spirits begin to fail? Does not the tender suckling seem apprehensive of this truth, which knows the dug 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 enlarges the epitome 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 jonathans' rod; and besides the continuance of life, it may add a victorious courage to his limbs. Drink, taken but from the brook in the way, may make the languishing soul lift up his head: Even poison, having taken acquaintance with the  of Mithridate, as meat, could now sooner nourish than destroy. The flying spirits with the taste of meat recoil to their tabernacle; and famished bodies, even dropping into their earthly principles, receive this doom from food, Return ye sons of Adam: then how can meat be perishing? To make meat perishing, were to metamorphize bread into stones, fishes into Scorpious, honey into gall, even food into poison: how then can meat be perishing? Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing? and shall we buy our own destruction, and set a price on those petulant creatures that come within us to undo us? Arise, Peter, kill and eat, were the words of the vision; but, if this were true, these words might well have followed; such creatures as will rise in thy stomach, kill, and devour thyself. 'Tis true indeed, our fathers eat Mannah in the wilderness, and are dead, and perished, but was the Mannah the cause of their perishing? And have we not read how David when he was an hungered went in and eat the Shewbread, 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 partial cause of his life; shall we then think, that little leaven unleavens man's whole lump? that those treacherous grains prove Amalekites, and jebusites, thorns in our eyes, and pricks in our sides, or seed us into putrefaction? How then must we do to join this epithet of perishing, with meat? Nevertheless, 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 bear the whole latitude of the signification for all outward necessities: and for the latter, although as 'tis food it cannot be said to be causally perishing, yet in regard of its substance, it is both perishing in itself, and likewise by accident proves as commonly the cause of man's perishing as of his sustenance. Ever since the eating of that forbidden fruit, a curse having cloven to our meats; and as God's grace makes them nourishable, so that primitive malediction makes them perishable; as they proved sour grapes to our first parents, so they have continued to set our teeth on edge, and sin necessarily accompanying their enjoyment, corruption and death the sting of sin, must needs ensue: and therefore we may well prosecute the specification as a reason to fly the object, and so to enforce 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 we struggle and strive to attain that which being attained will not abide the use. So childishly to spend our breath for bubbles, and hunger for meat which cannot stay to satisfy: Shall we, like foolish Merchants, compass sea and land for a purchase which will not last the bringing home? Shall our pains reap the soon decaying fruit? or shall our desires long for that which is shortest of continuance? Do we not desire to invest our bodies with raiment of the longest wear? and mark the highest prized stustes with such lying names as may boast of their durable continuance? Is it not a perpetuity which Nature aims at? and has she not clothed the weeds, and mildest of her creatures with most perishing garments? The vanishing smoke and vapours, the languishing clouds which roll themselves into their own hasty consumptions, the short-lived meteors, and all the children of the melting air, fill the same day in their Calendar with their birth and death; whereas the purer heavens involve themselves in their endless orbs; the lively Sun and Stars, those jewels of Nature's garment, shine in an everlasting constancy of glory; nor can all the Arithmetic of time subtract from their native vigour, but each new day sends them forth as Giant's ready to run their course. Why then is it the more perishing part of nature which we aim at, and build our senses on the slippery sands, when there are rocks so near? Amidst an whole Paradise of fruit, only the tree of Life is never tasted▪ We sow within ourselves the seed of our own corruption, and choose such meats for the belly as will make God destroy both it and them; our meat is received into us as fiery hulks into a Navy, which ruin themselves and those that admit them. Accepimus peritura perituri, mortals feed on mortals; nor can Nature's salt turn season into Eternity, preserve either the eaten or the eaters flesh from corruption. Go now, vain Paracelsian, and extract for men the quintessence, nay, the souls 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 again may feed man's flesh: let all the troops and herds of nature lay down their life at his kitchen door, and sacrifice their fatness for his health, yet shall not thousands of Rams, nor ten thousand of Oxen, the blood of Bulls, nor the Sheep on a thousand mountains, with all their lives, redeem one day of his. Si non perit et expelltur hic cibus, saith Saint Basil, perimus nos citius. If the meat we take in should not perish and corrupt by our concoction, ourselves 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 remains 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  whatsoever the soul shall lust for. But before we admit you to this, we must needs examine, a while, how you have behaved yourselves with that, and whether your stomach be not too full with it. For whosoever eateth the meat, and drinketh the drink, even that perisheth, unworthily, is in great danger to be denied this other. To make therefore our application more methodical, we must needs thus address our censure; first, on them who sin against the Negative, by not labouring at all; and secondly, on those who entrench too fare upon the Affirmative, in labouring too much; and that with their eyes and cares fixed upon this Object, Meat, nay and under this specification of perishing meat.  
And first, me thinks, it's even necessary to invocate the whole choir of holy Prophets, Apostles, Fathers and Interpreters, again to clear this parcel of our Saviour's precept, Labour not, from warranting this our spreading idleness: 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 drowsy consciences, having first been lulled by this soft voice of Labour not. Why, it has given the truanting world a desired playday, it has fetched them from the Brick-kilnes of Egypt, and now like vagrants in the desert, providence owes them a sustenance; and you shall find all their Tribes hanging this motto at their Escutcheons, Labour not. You shall observe them to out-Epicure the fool in the Gospel, and before they have their garners filled, or laid up treasures for many years, to sing their requiems, Eat, and drink, and take thine ease; this precept is their happy portion, Labour not. So that certainly if this precept were presented to the suffrages of men to confirm it as a law, and to set a penalty on their heads that needs would labour, such Courts of Censure would scarcely in an age find one offender, but every one would most zealously endeavour to keep his hands from labour.  
And I am afraid, our invection may here be as pertinent, as in any City of the world, this being an hive which swarms with innumerable drones, which come hither to suck the honey and fatness of the land, which in this place flows; and all they labour for, is to thrust their stings into the more thriving and laborious sort. It is fare beyond my young discovery, and (I thank God) my experience in evil, to find out the innumerable ways which idleness has here invented to maintain itself; but my informations are infallible, that sloth hath now, to support itself, set up, if not a Trade, yet a mystery; and it will one day be a wonder that its banner is not displayed with the solemnity of the rest; for, I am sure that all your twelve have not a more numerous company than that of idleness.  
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 drowned the drying cares with a deluge of drink? 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 only company which (as an Idol) set up Idleness and profess it; and spend their whole estate on purpose to spend the time: and of precious hours (of which only a covetousness is lawful) they are most desperately prodigal: And those days works they think the best employed, whereon they have, without weariness, done nothing: Except this be to labour, with the Belides in hell, ever to be filling Danaidum dolium, bottomless vessels; ever to be measuring in drink at their mouths by whole sail, and still retailing of it again by vomiting: If this be to labour, to have the liquor work and be more busy in their brains, than themselves are in their Shops and affairs! If this be to labour to swill their lungs, till they soak them to sponges, to make their veins which should administer blood and spirits, become hydropical, 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 apparel, and temperate neighbours. If this be to labour, to propagate unworthy quarrels, to seek for wounds without a cause, to flush their complexion to the drunkard's ruby, to make this blush on their face like the bush at the door, a sign that good wine usually dwells there, if all this be to labour, than these are never idle. Certainly, all their toil might seem to be to build Castles of smoke in the air, they may be said to dwell in the middle region, amongst smoke and moister vapours, and themselves commonly perish as meteors. Nay, why may we not say that they dwell in our American Isles, whither they have transplanted their affections, and as others have gone from amongst us (God knows 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 sin of Idleness, namely Wantonness, is necessarily stumbled on by this; for the Poets, no question, were not less significant than witty, who always made the Satyr's attendants on Bacchus, lasciviousness and petulancy, being the birth of their frothy cups, as Venus was feigned of the froth of the Sea; and those who spend their time and themselves on this vice, I dare say are idly given, and you may be sure they labour not; for Labour is the only antidote against the poisons of lust; and therefore this City's providence was very suitable, to quell lust with a Bridewell, to work; and to censure whorishnesse with the emblem of labour, the Cart; and were these with greater severity required at the hands and laid upon the shoulders of more of these wantoness, they would quickly drive lust out of their bones.  
But thirdly, there are another sort who come more seldom within the lists of labour than these, and those are our Common gamesters, whose every day's work is to have played all the day; this seems to be their vocation; and truly they are more diligent in it than any. And as if they had learned of those Idolaters in the Scriptures, that place seems to be but a prolepsis of their custom, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play; the price, and place, and hours of gaming succeeding in their ordinary courses, as well as of eating and drinking. 'tis strange to see that these unbusied persons can continue in this playing idleness till it become atoyle, and thus exercised, can confound the day and the night, make the evening with the two mornings but their Natural day! Shuffle off the revolutions of time without taking any notice, endure the course of the Sun, the succession of the Moon and Stars, as if they were Candles for them to play by; and turn that most godly counsel of the Apostle, of watching and praying, into a most Devilish Paranomasia of watching and playing.  
Certainly, these are those terrors 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 devils themselves from hell into their luckless losses: and if judas betrayed our Saviour for thirty pieces of silver, these are ready to open his wounds with oaths, and fetch out his blood again at the loss of but one.  
And what's the reason of all this, but, besides the excess of time spent at it, their very adventures fall deep into their estates; and the cross winds of fortune makes their goods meet with a shipwreck, though fare from the Sea; and all their substance may even in a parlour sink and be gone, and themselves and patrimony with one dismal throw quite overthrown, when at last they find that they have cast away money, time, and grace, and have met with robbers, as Pharaoh did with Frogs at their very chambers. For now there are sprung up a wiser generation in this kind, 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 Liberal ones: Birds of prey who live by the fruits of other men's labours; Eagles which fly about the slothful carcases; and what those have scarcely obtained in a year by working, these gain from them in one hour of playing: they stay till, like Sponges, they have sucked in the moisture of many year's gains, and then they squeeze them in a moment, and make the very gleaning of Ephralm, better than the vintage of Abiezer. Certainly their limitago were fallen to them in a goodly ground (where so small a part of an Acre is so fruitful and yielding) and they might term it, not the lot of their inheritance, but their inheritance of the Lot, if this wheel of Fortune could be held from turning; if God would give them grace to keep, what the Devil 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 hear them rattling the bones, till their own are ready to rattle in their skin; and at last become materials for Dice, that which made them living, being now made of them being dead: But to reform these, were to undo an army of Tapsters, and to make waste the most goodly and fruitful ground in all your City, the Bowle-allies and Dice-houses, which are so much the more fruitful, because these weeds are suffered even to grow and flourish there to rankness.  
But I will not particularise in more that labour not; those that I have already named had the ring, and you may find most of the rest dancing within it; 'tis strange to observe, how many are busy, but for an after-idlenesse, and what care they take, that they may take none: 'tis not the love of labour sets any on work, but the Pismire's providence; endure't in Summer, lest they should suffered in winter; or else employ themselves in such as the Moralist calls desidiosanegotia, serious trifles; like children besmear themselves for toys, otherwise labour not.  
But secondly, as these may offend in the Negative, so many there are which trespass 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 immoderate; 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 spy the most of those which keep such a bustling in the world, as if't were they took all the pains, to do it for sinful and superfluous Objects; and if they sometimes cast but a look or a thought after righteousness, yet are they frequent workers of iniquity; pursue that but with the eye, this with the hand and industry. We do not usually say with jacob, Gen. 28 20. If God will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, than he shall be my God; but if my meat flow in with abundance, and my Cup overflow, then shall my belly be my God, my meat and drinke-offerings its morning and evening sacrifice: We would all be God's Benjamins, and if our Messes do not exceed, and our change of raiment go beyond the rest of our brethreu, we are not well dealt with. We cannot content ourselves to dwell with Virtue in a mean, but our desires fly to the utmost of our achievements, and never think themselves fare enough, unless they can get no further. Hunger is not satisfied only to take in enough, unless it may likewise leave enough.  
Does not superfluity daily cover our Tables? and meats which must make wanton as well as strong, fill up our stomaches? 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 junkets of the Land could be fed on at Sea, and the Sea send her varieties to the Land for a requital; but now both Sea, Earth, and Air, must concentour at one Table, as if Noah from hence were to fill his Ark with all manner of Creatures; or as if their Table-clothes must imitate Saint Peter's sheet, represent the Species of all Creatures, clean and unclean: nay, as if their very stomaches were to be Noah's Ark, where those Creatures must not be preserved from, but perished with a deluge of drink which follows after; and he a very just and upright man that can be saved from it. Me thinks some of those Tables verify what they tell us of the beasts meeting promiscuously in Africa, and by their confused ingendring, sending forth yearly new Species of Monsters into the world: For hither they all come, and Cookery has taught them so to engender, to make such medleys of Creatures, that were some of our more thrifty Ancestors alive to see them, they would wonder what monsters of meat were crept into our platters, and had need have kitchen Dictionaries, or Interpreters to tell them the name and use of every dish. And they must needs conclude, that man who feeds on them, and is nourished 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 belly, that wit and art should keep School in the Kitchen, and turn professors of Cookery; that the invention of provoking Sauces should be their Lectures and Critticismes, that the belly should have so good capacity; and the , though so much cloyed and dulled, should attain such ingenuity.  
That a man should turn his friends to Cannibals, and invite them to devour his own 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 travel, and be big with superfluity, and not delivered 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 stomaches, and he 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-glass sends on perpetual errands to the Comb; who are their own umbras, the servants and shadows of their own reflected shadows; whose daily labour is to court and study themselves, and had rather an whole Corporation, or Commonwealth, than any Appendix of their pride should be out of order. Whose bodies are their golden Calves, and whatsoever time they can spare from idleness and gluttony, is altogether sacrificed to the dressing of this Idol.  
Thus might we find superfluous labour in the ambitious yawning after outward dignity and honour, whilst we labour to make worth the gift of pedigree, and read deserts written in Escutcheons; whilst honour is raked from the graves of our parents, and the monuments of their virtues, must be the pillars to uphold our crazy fame, whilst the Arms of their Nobility is, indeed, the device of our own; and the Emblems of theirs, the life of ours. Whilst we beguile posterity with usurped mottoes, and would make them believe that to have been the pencil of virtue, which was but the painters. Fond ambition, that struggles to be eternal in a stone, and thinks that a painted Sepulchre can daub over, or bury committed faults; thy memory shall rot before▪ thy monuments, and Satirical 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 overseers; when, indeed, they have been their underminers: Who will not grieve at that irreligious and scandalous superfluity, to see, where their mansions stand, their very Stables like Churches, and ne are adjoining a Church like a Stable; Gods house like a Cottage, their own like a Palace: the zeal of such houses have indeed eaten them up; nay, and perchance the house of God too; or certainly the most of its revenues.  
Lastly, can we find 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 life's pilgrimage? or do you seek for unnecessary baggage and burdens to retardate your speed? Why then do those winged vessels cut the water and air, and visit Nations as distant in language as situation? to fetch necessities or superfluities, purchases suitable to your wants or desires? Can we ever know the abode of a man that was rich enough, and thought so himself, or was there not still in his aim some further purchase? Will a mad man believe he is mad? or was superfluity ever accounted superfluous by him that had it? Look into your houses, where if ceilings be an ornament, what are scrupulous carvings? Are not hangings wrought by the tedious needle, and not longer in working than in bringing home, near of kin 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 shrink under the burden of their superfluous trappings? 'Twere an homely complaint to say that glass is become Crystal; have you not vessels whose very fragility raises the price even danger, whereas it should make more cheap, with those wantoness of wealth makes the instruments of ostentation more dear. Has not the whole world helped you to furnish one house, and the Sea lent such Jewels as may weigh down the ransom of many of your brethren's lives and estates? What need we peep into their Closets? It would dazzle your eyes to see how they make each Chamber 〈◊〉 a Sanctum Sanctorum, or like the King's daughter, all glorious within, their clothing being by some degrees transcendent to needle work even wrought with gold.  
But this superfluity might seemeto be inveighed against by the envy of poverty, that, like the Fox in the Fable we speak against grapes we cannot reach; if that labour that attains it were but seasonable, if it flowed within the banks of just moderation: But if it were so, what means the bleating and bellowing, the noise and clamour, the cry which goes along with us in scenting out these perishing objects, when as if without superfluities we were famished; we ask them with the voice of barren Rachel, Give me superfluities or else I die; and break through the stonewalls of cost and difficulty, not for hunger, but wantonness; meat, but dainties! when we eat not only what the sweat of the brow, but what's purchased with the price of blood; when with stomackefull children we bawl for Rattles, nor can have the cry of our labours appeased, till our humour's fulfilld.  
Do they not dig their jewels from rocks of Adamants, and screw their gold from the centre, whereas the earth has offered our more easy pains daily bread, and all things necessary; she has drowned and hid those noxious metals, and laid her whole weight upon them; how violent then is that labour which rends up the bowels of our common mother, for dross 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 denied our superfluous toiling.  
Climbs not Ambition up an Icy mountain? Are not all lower degrees diseases to it? from which when 'tis cured, is it not overtoyled with danger of relapse? How in its ascent it wrestles with each rougher knot to conquer its supportance! what panting, what breathing, what courting the slippery holds! does it not break and corrupt its ways over those Alps, as Hannibal did with Vinegar? with the sour and smart of all their Industry; mounts the steps by a motion not more tedious and violent than contrary to nature, though perchance, when all is done, with one just fall, breaks both the back, the estate, the credit, and the heart of him that thus attains it?  
But thirdly, Is this labour in seasons always beseeming it? I fear 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 feel no winter, nor their cold devotions acknowledge any Sabbath day, but all seasons must be their harvest, and they not only pluck, but reap their ears of corn on the Sabbath day, though it turn their carnal ears from hearing the word of God.  
And thus like ingrateful thiefs that rob their benefactors, when God bestows blessings on them, they steal time from God to fetch them home: and because Eternity, of necessity, belongs to their souls, they employ all the hours of time for the good of their bodies: hold it methodical enonugh to set grace only after meat; and though the object be never so needless, and the labour never so immoderate, they fail not to add this third aggravation, to make it unseasonable.  
And thus we find the whole world either idle or, ill imploy●d, either triflers or busybodies; not labouring at all, or labouring and toiling importunately for the meat that perisheth. Some who deserve our Saviour's complaining question, Why stand ye idle all the day? Some who have cause to complain to our Saviour, Master, we have laboured all the night, but catched nothing! Some on their slothful beds to muse mischief, some rising up early to act it; sloth moulding some, anxiety consuming others; some folding their hands so fare in idleness that they cannot work, some folded and enwrapped so fare in business that they have no leisure: some so unused to toil as was that Mindyrides whom Seneca tells, that seeing one take great pains▪ in digging, himself was weary to behold him, and commanded that he should work out of his sight; and that he was wont to complain, that a leaf amongst the Roses, on which he lay, being doubled under him, did hurt him: Some again, as pragmatticall as was that Turannius, of whom 'tis related, that undergoing a laborious, and no profitable office, until he was ninety years of age, that then the Emperor of his own compassionate accord sent him his exemption, and that now he might rest: which news the busy old man received with no less horror than if it had been chesentenee of his condemnation; and composing himself▪ upon his bed, he commanded his family to mourn for him; as if the office of his soul had, with the loss of that other, for saken his body; nor must the face of this funeral sadness be laid aside, until that providence which eased him of his burden, must be so pitiful as to restore it to him again. Adeone luvat occupatum mori? Can the least wind of labour thus blast some, and others be recovered with the noise of care? Certainly, some have that Roman Knights pillow (which Augustus desired) whence the noise of debts, and poverty, coming as an armed man cannot waken them: some have none other than Augustus his, whereon no melody could hush him into sleep. Some would lie on the top of Olympus, above the Clouds of disturbance, and Winds of molestation. Some on the top of Aetna, and are not warm enough except in a combustion of business. 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 enlarge my invection (besides the admonition of time) that, me thinks, 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 only that thou speak the truth, but also that those to whom thou speakest can brook that truth: Truth, it seems, is a physic, but whereof every diseased is not patiented; a salve, but too corrosive for some sores; and though counsel sometimes finds entertainment, yet reproof seldom misses of contempt; Wasps being known to sting more deeply than Bees: He therefore that is sharp with vice, round with fortune, that debases ambition, chides luxury, scourges lust, and hangs a rod at the fool's back, shall be thought to speak words, no matter; and men's ears, not their minds shall lend him attention. Nor did he speak beside, though before these times, who said, Maior est qui iudicium astulit, quam qui meruit; He shall be the multitudes Magnifico, who steals not, who deserves their judgement. I will therefore, to conclude all, make our Saviour's method mine, who in the verse before my Text chid, here exhorts, and turn my invection against the lazy, and those that overtoyle themselves, into a brief exhortation to leave that, and use this more moderately; the inconveniences which follow being my reason to deter us from offending on either fide.  
For let me tell the sluggish, What is Idleness, but the sediments of some sinful disease, and a disposition to fall into all. The Church is Ager Dei, God's field; and what availeth it to shape out handless Christians, or to expect any harveh from such as Labour not? The Church is Civitas Dei, God's City; and none are free of this, but those that have some function. Tell me, 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 me, may it not be said of Idleness as he said of Envy, that it is tormentumsut, it's own scourge: and is there any wrack to the bed of sloth? If it be asked of what function you are, is it sufficient to answer, Gentlemen? as if generosity were turned vagrant; and the business proper to Nobility, were to sleep in a Chair of State. Tendit in ardua v●rtus, Virtue is essentially in action, and all her Clients work their passage to her. The greatest of our Commonwealth have enrolled 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 burden; and may he that shrinks from it, never have a trencher of his own, but let his stomach be always attendant and wear the perpetual livery of other men's leisures. Let this shirking generation be cast out (as Christ would have the Devils) by Prayer and Fasting, Devotion and Hunger, their most feared enemies; and when they want their pennyworths of news, let their very apparel pay for their Ordinary: Let the very Constables and Marshals of the City be the undertakers to drain and scour this fenny and viciously overgrown, this untilled, unfruitful ground: O let not those gardens of ourselves be overgrown with the weeds of sloth, let not customary sluggishness make us unweeldy for any thing but gossiping, and to be the tradition of tales and reports; let not us be that unfallowed ground where the Devil may sow his tares; or standing pools which ever end in stinch and corruption; but let us gird up our loins, and though it be the last hour 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 digged as deep as you can, and followed the game as fare as 'tis possible, you prove but th'unprofitable servants of your unlimited desires, and all for which you tug thus diligently, shall perish: Foresee your heaps of silver sunk to the centre from whence it came, your houses buried in the ruins of your Cellars, your wardrobes entombed in the bellies of contemptible Moths, your pampered carcases baits for the worms; then say, here's meat that perisheth: All those things that swell thine heart, and hoist thy mind above the memory of mortality, which barricadoed with bars of Iron, snatched with the servile lives of others, defended with thine own, for which the furrows of the Sea were smoothed with blood, the walls of Cities shaken, the leagues of affinity, friendship, and blood, have been so often broken, are now no longer thine, they were but lent; or if they were thine own, they're perishing.  
Go now, vain 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, umbras and fancies, empty shadows of wealth and substance, farm out th' usurious time (sanguivolentae indies duplicentur centesimae) and let each day redouble thine hundreds, bless thy speculations with the volumes of thy riches, and survey the Maps of thy purchased Territories, Pride thyself at the sight of thy great Babylon's which thou hast built for thine honour; and now when thou comest to eat the fruit of thy labours, to use that felicity which all this while thou hast but served, know and consider that it, and thou thyself shalt perish.  
O then let us turn the eyes of our appetites, and the limbs of our labour, after that meat which indure's to Everlasting Life; that Manna that came down from heaven, and carries man up thither; that Angel's food which luxury ne'er looked at, bread made and composed of th' immortal 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 Egypt's Onions and Leeks; letearthly pottage be those Esau's birthright; surfeit poor prodigals with your Swinish husks? Lord give us evermore this bread. Turn, O the storms of our earthly tuggings into a calm! be still O you waves of overflowing desires! Say unto God, Thou art my Rock; my heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed there. Fly away, O thou Sea of pleasure; and be thou driven back, thou swelling Jordan of pride; Skip away, ye mountains of Ambition, like Rams; and ye little hills of Riches, like Lambs. Tremble, O earth of care, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of jacob. 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 Sons of God. O blessed Father, scale to us the love of thy Son, which is our life; and sanctify that living meat, O holy Spirit. Now to that Son of man that gives, and God the Father that seals, 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.