An Homily against Idleness.An Homilee against Idlenesse.

An Homily against Idleness.

An Homilee against Idlenesse.

Forasmuch as man, being not borne to ease & rest, but to labour & travel, is by corruption of nature through sin, so far degenerated & grown out of kind, that he taketh idleness to be no evil at all, but rather a commendable thing, seemly for those that be wealthy, & therefore is greedily embraced of most part of men, as agreeable to their sensual affection, & all labour and travail is diligently avoided, as a thing painful & repugnant to the pleasure of the flesh: It is necessary to be declared unto you, that by the ordinance of God, which he hath set in the nature of man, every one ought in his lawful vocation and calling, to give himself to labour: And that idleness, being repugnant to the same ordinance, is a grievous sin, & also for the great inconveniences & mischiefs which spring thereof, an intolerable evil: to the intent that when ye understand the same, ye may diligently flee from it, & on the other part earnestly apply your selves, every man in his vocation, to honest labour and busyness, which as it is enjoined unto man by Gods appointment, so it wanteth not his manifold blessings & sundry benefits. Almighty God, after that he had created man, put him into paradise, that he might dress & ⟨p. 497⟩keep it: But when he had transgressed gods commandment, eating the fruit of the tree which was forbidden him, almighty God forth with ¹did cast him out of paradise into this woeful vale of misery, enjoining him to labour the ground that he was taken out of, and to eat his bread in the sweat of his face all the days of his life. It is the appointment and will of God, that every man, during the time of this mortal and transitory life, should give himself to some honest and godly exercise & labour, and every one to do his own business, & to walk uprightly in his own ²calling. Man (saith Job) is borne to labour. And we are commanded by Jesus Sirach, not to hate painful works, neither husbandry, or other such mysteries of travail, which the highest hath created. The wise man also exhorteth us