The Godly Man's Picture

Private prayer keeps up the trade of godliness; when closet-holiness is laid aside, there ⟨p. 242⟩is a stab given to the hear• of religion.

3¹ A godly man is diligent in his^† calling; he takes care to provide for his family: the Church must not exclude the shop. 'Tis a speech of Mr. Perkins, though a man be endued with excellent gifts, and hear the word with reverence, and receive the sacrament, yet if he practise not the duties of his calling, all is but hypocrisy; religion did never grant a patent for idleness, 2 Thess. 2. 11, 12. There are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all; them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus, that with quietness, they work, and eat their own bread: That bread eats most sweet, which is got with most sweat; a godly man had rather fast, than eat the bread of idleness. Vain professors talk of living by faith, but do not live in a calling; they are like the Lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin; an idle person is the Devils Tennis-ball; which he bandies up and down with temptation, and at last the Ball falls into the Hazard.

3¹ A godly man is diligent in his^† calling; he takes care to provide for his family: the Church must not exclude the shop. 'Tis a speech of Mr. Perkins, though a man be endued with excellent gifts, and hear the word with reverence, and receive the sacrament, yet if he practise not the duties of his calling, all is but hypocrisie; religion did never grant a pattent for idleness,