face thereof; and the stone-wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

Idleness, at the same time, is obviously a fraud. The lazy man cheats himself of good, which God hath given to him; of enjoyments, put into his hands by the bounty of his Creator. These blessings he barters for the love of ease. The price, which he pays, is very great: that, which he gets in return, is dross and dung.

The Mischiefs of Idleness are numerous, and important.

In the first place. Idleness is a sinful waste of our Time.

Our time is a possession, of inestimable value. The best employment of it, that is, such an employment of it as the Scriptures require, involves all, which is meant by our duty. The loss, or waste, of it, is, therefore, no other than the loss or omission of all our duty; the frustration of the purpose for which we were created.

Secondly. Idleness is a sinful waste of our Talents.

By these I mean all the powers of body and mind; and the means, which God has furnished us in his Providence, of employing them for valuable ends. Our Time and Talents, united, constitute our whole capacity of being useful; our worth; our all. The idle man wastes them both; wraps them up in a napkin, and buries them in the earth. In this manner he robs God of the end for which he was made; and becomes a burden upon the shoulders of his fellow-men. He eats what others provide: and, while they are industriously engaged in labour, his business is only to devour. Thus he is carried by mankind, as a load, from the cradle to the grave; is despised, loathed, and execrated, while he lives; and, when he dies, is buried, like the carcass of an animal, to fulfil the demands of decency, and merely to get rid of a nui

sance.

In the mean time, his drowsiness clothes himself and his family with rags; prevents them from the enjoyments, common to all around them; disappoints, without a reason perceivable by them, all their just expectations; and, as was formerly observed concerning the drunkenness of a Parent, sinks them below the common level of mankind. Want in every form, and all the miseries of want, arrest them daily, and through life. Their food is poor and scanty. Their clothes are rags. They are pinched with cold, through the destitution of fuel; and deprived of refreshing sleep, because their bed is the earth, and because their dwelling, a mere sieve, admits without obstruction snow and rain, the frost and the storm. Thus, while they see almost all others around them possessed in abundance, not of the necessaries only, but of all the comforts, and most of the conveniences, of life; they them

selves are forced to look on, and thirst, and pine, for the tempting enjoyments: while, like Tantalus, they are forbidden by an ironhanded necessity to taste the good.

At the same time, the man is forced to feel, while his family also are compelled by him to feel, that he, their husband, and their father, is the subject of supreme folly, and insignificance, and of gross, unremitted, and hopeless sin; of folly, which is causeless; insignificance, voluntarily assumed; sin, unnecessary and wanton; and that he is an object of general and extreme contempt. The contempt, directed immediately to him, is of course extended to his family, also; and they are compelled, at their first entrance into the world, to encounter the eye of scorn, and the tongue of derision. All these evils are sustained, also, only that the man may lead the life of a sluggard, be assimilated to the sloth in his character, and rival the swine in his favourite mode of life, and his most coveted enjoyments.

Thirdly. Idleness exposes a man to many temptations, and many

sins.

A lazy man is, of course, without any useful engagement: his mind is therefore vacant, and ready for the admission of any sin, which seeks admission. To such a man temptations may be said to be always welcome. They are guests, for which he is regularly prepared and he has neither company nor business, to hinder him from yielding to them whatever attention, or entertainment, they may demand. The proverbial adage, that "Satan will employ him, who does not find employment for himself,” is founded in experience, and good sense. The mind, even of the idlest man, will be busy; and the mind, which is not busied in its duty, will be busied in sin. On such a mind every temptation is secure of a powerful influence; entices without opposition; and conquers without even a struggle, or a sigh. Hence we find such a man devoted, not only to the general sin of idleness, but to all the other sins which he can conveniently practise.

The Sluggard, says Solomon, is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men, that can render a reason. From this miserable vanity, of which their deplorable mismanagement of their own affairs ought to cure them at a glance, it arises that Sluggards so commonly become the professed counsellors of mankind. Hence it arises, that so many of them are politicians, pettifoggers, and separatical preachers. They know nothing, it is true, except what an abecedarian knows, of either Divinity, Law, or Government. Still they feel, and declare, themselves to be abundantly able to teach the way to Heaven, which they have never learned; and to explain Laws, which they never studied. The affairs of a Nation, so numerous, so complicated, and so extensive, as to be comprehended only by minds peculiarly capacious, and to demand the laborious study of a life, these men understand instinctively; without inquiry, information, or thought. Their own affairs. it

is true, they manage in such a manner, as to conduct them only to ruin; yet they feel perfectly competent to manage the af fairs of a Nation with pre-eminent skill, and certain success. Every thing in the concerns of the public, if you will believe them, goes wrong; and will never be set right, if you will believe them a little further, by any body but themselves. These men are smoke to the eyes, and vinegar to the teeth, of persons possessing real understanding. To the public they are mere nuisances, living on the earnings of others; fomentors of discontent; active agents in riots and broils; incendiaries, who consume the peace and comfort of all around them, and who well deserve to be the by-word and the hissing, of every upright and benevolent citizen. Such were the men, whom the Jews of Thessalonica gathered into a company against Paul; who set all the City in an uproar; and attempted to destroy the Apostle, and his Religion, by the violence of a mob. They were ayogai; translated lewd fellows of the baser sort; literally, idle, lounging haunters of market places.

It ought particularly to be remembered, that persons of this character rarely become converts to Christianity. Among all those, who, within my knowledge, have appeared to become sincerely penitent and reformed, I recollect only a single lazy man: and this man became industrious from the moment of his apparent, and, I doubt not, real conversion. The sinful prostitution of his time and talents by idleness, and his ready admission of temptations to his heart, fix the idler in a regular hostility against all the promises, and threatenings, of Religion: while his self-conceit makes him too wise, willingly to receive wisdom even from God. Few cases in human life are, in this respect, more desperate, than that of the Idler. A Preacher, destined to address an assembly of such men, might, with nearly the same hope of success, exchange his Desk for the Church-Yard; and waste his eloquence upon the tenants of the grave.

In the mean time, every lazy man ought steadily to remember, that his very subsistence is founded on Fraud. If any man will not work, saith the Proprietor of all things, neither let him eat. For him to eat is to rob; to rob his Maker of his property, and his fellow-men of theirs.

2. Prodigality is another Fraud, of the same general nature.

There are various modes of Prodigality. Property may be wasted by negligence; by foolish bargains; by the injudicious management of business; by bold adventures, and by direct profusion. The guilt, in the different cases, may vary somewhat. The general nature of the conduct, its folly, and its end, are substantially the same. There will, therefore, be no necessity of distinguishing it, here, with any particular attention.

The effects of Prodigality are, in many respects, exactly the same with those of Idleness. By both of these vices property is

effectually wasted. The negligent waster of property is influenc ed by the same motives, which govern the Idler; and shuns the labour of preserving it, as the Idler the labour of acquiring it, from the mere love of ease. The Spendthrift squanders it, from a foolish fondness for the several enjoyments, of which he makes it the price; from the love of show; the indulgence of whim; and the relish for luxurious and voluptuous gratification. The objects of his expense are, either in their degree, or their kind, always unnecessary to his true interest, and his real comfort. Passions, which ought not to be indulged; whims, which ought not to exist, much less to be cherished; govern his mind with despotic sway; and make him their absolute and miserable slave. Unsatisfied with what he is, and what he has, he pines incessantly, with a sickly taste for some new gratification; for objects, in which he supposes happiness to lie, and in which he expects to satisfy a relish, too restless, craving, and capricious, ever to be satisfied. His appetite is canine; not merely eating and drinking, but devouring; and, although daily crammed, is still hungry.

Vanity and pride are also perpetual prompters to the Prodigal; vanity, which cries with an unceasing voice, "Give, give ;" pride, which never saith, "It is enough." Goaded by these passions, he struggles with unceasing anxiety to outrun those around him in the splendour of dress, equipage, houses, gardens, and other objects of expense. The contest of one with many is almost necessarily unequal. It is scarcely possible, that some of his competitors should not excel him in one thing, and some in another; or that, whenever he is excelled, he should not be unhappy. In its nature, the strife is unwise, and fruitless; because neither the spirit, nor the efforts, of rivalry, ever made any man happy. In its progress, it necessarily disappoints all his eager wishes, and fond hopes. When he succeeds, the expected enjoyment expires in the very moment of success: when he fails, the disappointment makes him miserable. With all this, he is preparing himself insensibly for more accumulated misery. No Prodigal ever looks into his affairs; nor conjectures the extent of his expenses. Of course, no Prodigal ever perceives the rapidity with which his property declines. To men of this sort ruin is always nearer, than they mistrust; and hastens with a celerity, of which they never dreamed. While the means of expense are supposed to last, the whole host of sharpers fasten on him as their prey. The jockey cheats him in a bargain. The swindler borrows, and runs away with his money. The usurer furnishes him with loans, at an enormous interest. Heedless of expense, and greedy of the enjoyments which it procures, every manufacturer of frippery, every owner of a toy-shop selects him as his own best customer; and exchanges the merchandize of Vanity-fair for his money and his lands.

Such a career Providence never suffers to last long. Unsuspected by himself, but foreseen by all around him, Ruin, hastening with rapid steps, knocks at his door in an evil hour. The host of wretches, who pamper themselves on his extravagance while they secretly laugh at his folly, startled at the sound, are out of sight in a moment. They have, indeed, rioted at his expense; and might be expected to be grateful for what he has given. But gratitude is rarely created by profusion; and the hearts of such men were never susceptible of gratitude. They have feasted on enjoyments, which he furnished: but they came only to feast; not to sympathize. They have encouraged his expense; praised his generosity; admired his taste; and professed a deep interest in his happiness. But their whole business terminated in enjoying, praising, admiring, and professing. They are harpies, who gathered around him, to revel on his profusion; and sycophants, who flattered him, that they might be admitted to the revel. For him, for any other human being, they never exercised a generous thought; a sympathizing feeling; an honest Good-will. The house of suffering has no charms for them. They came only to get; and, when they can get no longer, they come

no more.

When they have taken their flight; instead of being grateful to him for the enjoyments, on which they have so long, and so riotously feasted at his expense, they are among the first, most incessant, and most clamorous, of those, who load him with censure. Instead of pitying his calamities; calamities, into which they have persuaded, urged, and flattered him; they make both him, and them, the butt of ridicule; a mark, for scorn to shoot at; and persuade the world to forget, that they have been eminently the causes of his destruction, by vociferating their contempt of his folly.

In the mean time, his door is thronged by a mob of duns, and a host of bailiffs. His houses and lands pass away to the sharpers, who have been long fattening upon his spoils. His equipage, his furniture, even the very bed on which he has slept, is struck off to the highest bidder. The sprightly sound of the viol, and the harpsichord, is succeeded by the rude hammer of the Auctioneer. Broken in fortune, and broken in heart, the miserable squanderer, and his miserable family, quit their luxurious mansion, and shelter themselves in a solitary hovel.

This wretched career is rendered more sinful, and more unhappy, by the avarice, which regularly haunts the prodigal. Addison, in a beautiful allegory, informs us, that Luxury and Avarice were formerly at war; that, after various vicissitudes of fortune, they agreed, at length, to a permanent peace; on the condition, that Luxury should dismiss Plenty from his service, and Avarice, Pov erty; their respective Ministers of State; and that Avarice should become the Minister of Luxury, and Luxury of Avarice, by VOL. III.

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