The Religious Tradesman

Author’s Preface

Friendly reader,

Writing books takes great effort and trouble, at least for people of certain temperaments, I am sure, unless opposition, profit, vanity, or similar motives spur them on. And the age we live in is so exacting, if not censorious, that I should explain this undertaking. Its purpose is simply to guide the honest-minded tradesman along the right way to heaven.

Vast numbers of people work in one trade or another. I thought some guidance and warnings about their conduct in it would be useful. Surely an activity that occupies six out of seven parts of their time requires more rules, and raises more questions of conscience, than any single existing treatise has brought together.

While others debate more uncertain points of doctrine or worship, my present task will be to guide the conscientious Christian’s thinking and conduct in his daily employment. This is certainly where he faces the most temptations and, without God’s grace, falls into the most sins. Here he needs all the help God or man will give him. It is not enough to pray devoutly morning and night while leaving conscience asleep all day. Those religious duties are the means of obtaining the wisdom, faith, patience, self-denial, and integrity he will need throughout the day.

The tradesman has more occasions to exercise these graces than most other people. Like them, he has the same corrupt nature to sway him and the same devil to tempt him. But he faces a greater variety of trials from the world than the studious scholar or the ordinary farmer. Countless questions of conscience arise in a tradesman’s path. This short book cannot address them all, but I hope it will instruct him and settle his doubts about the most important ones. At least, I hope to establish principles and rules that, faithfully applied to particular cases, will do much to guide him.

I will therefore discuss the nature and kinds of callings, their necessity, how to choose one, and how to enter one properly. Then I will set out the guidance a Christian tradesman needs in his particular calling and point out the temptations he faces. I will add something about leaving or finishing his calling, and commit it all to the blessing of the Almighty. Only that blessing can make this undertaking useful to human souls. That is the sincere desire of

The unworthy instrument,

Richard Steele

May 12, 1684

1. What a Calling Is

A calling is a way of life to which God calls us. All Christians are called by God to know and believe in him, to love and serve him, and finally to enjoy him fully. Besides this calling, and in submission to it, God calls every man and woman, as if by name, to serve him in some particular employment in this world, both for their own good and for the common good.

From this comes the distinction between a general calling and a particular or personal calling. We could call them our spiritual and earthly callings more clearly, except that some particular callings, such as ministry, deal with spiritual matters. Even these are quite distinct from our Christian calling.

Our general or spiritual calling, then, is God’s call to a person to believe and obey the gospel. Because the gospel is revealed as a covenant of grace, this is called a calling to the covenant. When the Spirit accompanies the Word, this is effectual calling and leads to salvation, as Scripture says: “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy Calling” (2 Tim 1:9).

I will say no more about this here, except to explain why it is called our general calling. It is common to all Christians, requires the same duties of all, assures all of the same promises, and binds all to the same conditions. No one may therefore undertake a particular calling that conflicts with their general calling. And whenever the duties of the two compete, the particular calling must humbly give way to the general one. Everyone should conduct their earthly work in submission to their spiritual calling, remembering that even amid all their business, they are a Christian.

A particular or earthly calling is settled employment in some specific business appointed by God, for our own good and the good of others. This is called a calling to a way of life or to an office. Both callings are elegantly mentioned in one verse: “Let every Man abide in the same Calling, wherein he was called” (1 Cor 7:20). The first calling mentioned here is earthly; being called refers to his heavenly calling. No one should think that God likes them either more or less merely because of their outward calling. Everyone should therefore remain contentedly in the same earthly calling, provided it is lawful, in which their heavenly calling found them.

Consider three things in this description.

1. The author of a particular calling is God. As the apostle says, “But as God hath distributed to every Man; as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk” (1 Cor 7:17). Surely these employments are called callings because everyone must be called by God to them. He directs people to them, inclines them toward them, and equips them for them.

God calls people in two ways. 1. Directly, by himself: he called Adam to be a farmer (Gen 2:15), Amos to be a prophet (Amos 7:15), and Paul to be an apostle (Acts 9). But he rarely uses this method in these later days. Those who claim a direct calling must produce extraordinary gifts and qualifications; otherwise their claim is mere fancy and delusion.

2. Indirectly, through others: these include parents, guardians, and, in some cases, magistrates. Through those who have the right, under natural law or civil law, to direct others, God calls people to one employment or another as truly as if he called them directly. The Lord God has sole right and authority over all his creatures. He never transfers his ownership to anyone else, but he delegates authority to parents and other superiors to act under him. They are to direct those in their care according to his will, and he confirms everything they properly do in that role. There is also an inward call from God, consisting in abilities of body and mind, and in inclinations. More about this later.

2. The essence of a particular calling is settled employment in some specific business. It is not enough to do something occasionally. No one is so idle that they never do anything. A calling is regular business that fills a person’s time. It must also be their own proper business. We read of people who did “not work at all,” yet are called “Busybodies” (2 Thess 3:11). The apostle describes their lives as disorderly. They busily interfered in other people’s affairs but did not engage in any regular business of their own. He also urges them to “study to be quiet, and to do their own Business” (1 Thess 4:11). The great Governor of the world has assigned everyone their own post and responsibility. However active someone may be outside their sphere, they will suffer great loss if they fail to tend their own vineyard and attend to their own business.

3. Consider the purpose of a particular calling. Its immediate purpose is a person’s own good: “with quietness they work, and eat their own Bread” (2 Thess 3:12). To a person of honorable spirit, bread earned by their own work tastes good, however coarse it may be. Someone may indeed aim to gain enough wealth through their calling to live comfortably, with something to live on and something to give: “Let him labour, working with his Hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Eph 4:28).

Another purpose is the common good. We are in this world as the members are in a body, where each must be useful to the whole. Each member preserves itself, it is true, but with regard for the whole. It is therefore a brutish selfishness to seek no one’s good but our own. The proverb “Every one for himself” is very unchristian if it means excluding everyone else. The community needs you, and you need the community. “And the Eye cannot say unto the Hand, I have no need of thee.” Nor can the noble head say to the lowly feet, “I have no need of you” (1 Cor 12:21).

The highest purpose of all, understood though not stated in the description, is the glory of God. All things are “of him” and “through him”; therefore the glory of all things must be intended and ascribed “to him” (Rom 11:36). If the honest tradesman desires sufficient means, it is so that he may live for God’s glory rather than for himself. If he gains anything more, his aim is to use it to educate his children so that they may honor God. Trace a hypocrite’s most religious actions to their ultimate end, and they lead to self. A true Christian’s humblest labors lead to the glory of God. That completes the description of a particular calling.

The kinds of callings differ according to what they concern.

1. Some chiefly concern the soul, such as schoolteachers, tutors in arts and sciences, and especially ministers. Although these often provide a poor livelihood, they are always rich callings.

2. Some concern only the body, such as physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, and everyone whose work depends on theirs. These often have good opportunities to offer counsel for the salvation of their patients’ souls, if only they also have the heart to do so.

3. Some callings provide for human subsistence, such as farming and trade. The farmer’s calling concerns the maintenance of life itself; the tradesman’s concerns its well-being. The farmer’s care and labor supply the substance and raw materials of our food and clothing. The tradesman shapes and prepares them for our immediate use.

4. Others provide for human delight and convenience, such as music and various other arts, in which several trades also have a part.

5. Some callings concern the defense of people’s bodies and property. These include soldiers and all employments connected with military affairs.

Finally, some serve humanity’s public peace and safety, such as princes and magistrates of every kind and rank. Their calling too is from God: “for there is no Power but of God, the Powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom 13:1).

Let us pause here and consider what this shows us.

1. Human Folly

1. Consider those who neglect both their spiritual and their earthly callings. It is true that they were born and raised in their general Christian calling, and so they profess it. Had they been born and raised in paganism or Islam, they would have given themselves to those religions. They have never examined Christianity’s foundations and reasons. Neither do they study its great duties or set themselves to practice them. Their whole business is to please their appetites and advance their interests in this world, while entirely neglecting the world to come.

They are strangers to living faith, sound repentance, constant holiness, self-denial, and sincere love for God and man. Some of them could learn temperance, justice, patience, and friendship from pagans. Their only support is a form of godliness, while they deny its power.

These same people give equally little attention to any earthly calling. They do nothing to advance humanity’s good. They have abilities but use them to advance no field of knowledge. They have strength and health but practice no art or skill. They have talents but hide them in a napkin.

How will they account for themselves to the Judge of the living and the dead? Do you think he will never call you to account because he delays his coming? Or that he will be satisfied with the story of your birth or education? You have the ability to ridicule religion and do harm. You have strength enough to drink, hunt, and visit prostitutes. You are only “wise to do Evil,” but “to do Good ye have no Knowledg.” Woe to you if you do not reform! You have a long account overdue. He who is gracious, merciful, and “slow to Anger” yet “by no means will clear the Guilty.”

Think about yourselves, then. Give yourselves time to consider what you have done for God, for humanity, and for your own souls. Serious reflection will show you that you have been asleep all this time, in a pleasant, foolish dream. It is high time to wake to action and employment. Who knows whether you may receive “your Penny” even if you enter the vineyard at the “eleventh Hour”?

2. Consider the folly of those who neglect either one of their callings. Perhaps they are very diligent in reading and hearing, in prayer and fasting, and run from one sermon to another all week long, but do nothing in any particular calling. They serve God, but do not serve their generation by God’s will, as David did (Acts 13:36) and as they ought to do. These people live as if they were all soul and no body, or as if they were born only for themselves and for no one else. If some of their ancestors had taken no more care of them than they take of posterity, they would have had to fast from necessity instead of choice.

Long ago, holy Augustine wrote an entire book against people like these. They are a sort of secular monks and nuns who forget the old rule: “That if any will not work, they should not eat” (2 Thess 3:10). This applies whoever or whatever they may be, provided they are capable of working.

On the other hand, far greater numbers are very diligent in their worldly employments. They rise early, stay up late, and eat the bread of care, labor, and sorrow, yet plainly neglect their souls’ welfare and the world to come. They make no effort to gain knowledge, faith, or holiness. Their reading or hearing of God’s Word and their prayers, if any, are merely superficial and customary. They are busy at the Exchange at noon but sleepy in their prayers at night. They exhaust all their strength and energy in their shops and have no heart left for private devotion or family worship.

They live as if they were all body and no soul, or as if no far longer life followed this short one. Even the Sabbath, that sacred day of rest which should be a delight, is a burden to them. In their hearts they cry, “When will it be over, so that we can return to our worldly business?” Even on that day, though the law keeps their hands from working, their souls are full of worries and plans about earthly things.

But why do you separate the callings God has joined? What blessing can you expect on wealth gained without godliness? Or what will it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your own souls? You could work hard and pray hard too. You could gain enough of both worlds if you attended to each in its proper place. But if you neglect what matters most, God may justly tear away your earthly riches and shut you out from heavenly riches, as he has often done to those who do not value a grain of grace above a world of gold. Trust him, then, who has never deceived you, when he says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all other things shall be added to you” (Matt 6:33).

3. Consider the evident folly of those who disregard the author of their callings, Almighty God. They neither seek his advice nor attend to his blessing. All people and things are most certainly governed by God’s providence. Nothing is so great or so small that it is not directed by it. If we really believe this, surely everyone should turn to him in their important affairs, consult his will, and ask his blessing. Otherwise we neglect him and treat him as nothing. He may very justly neglect us and take no interest in our welfare.

Learn from Abraham’s servant when he attended to the business concerning his master’s son. How earnestly he asked God to direct him, and how well he succeeded afterward (Gen 24)! Learn from Jacob when he set out into the world: how he prayed and made vows, and how abundantly the Lord blessed him (Gen 28). The apostle who forbids distracting anxiety about anything commands that “in every thing, by Prayer and Supplication, with Thanksgiving, we make our Requests known unto God” (Phil 4:6).

How, then, dare anyone choose a calling without God’s approval or rush into it without earnest prayer? On the other hand, how confidently and cheerfully someone may go about their work when they can affirm that God himself called them to it! He will therefore stand by them and carry them through it. “In all thy Ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy Steps” (Prov 3:6).

4. The sin and folly of those who mistake the purposes of their calling are no less serious. They aim only at their own wealth, ease, and honor, rather than at God’s glory and the public good as well as their own subsistence. An action’s purpose ennobles or debases it. A right principle, rule, and purpose sanctify every step and part of a person’s life. But if any of these is missing, the action is spoiled.

However lawful your calling may be, if you enter it with an eye only to yourself, you may gain wealth and honor, but you have your reward in them. You act merely like prudent pagans, who may be as industrious, rich, and just as you. You do nothing to “shew forth the Praises of him that hath called you out of Darkness into his marvellous Light.” The Christian’s motto is, “None of us liveth to himself, and no Man dieth to himself; but whether we live, we live unto the Lord,” etc. (Rom 14:7-8).

Whoever lives only for themselves lives like a beast. Whoever lives for the public good lives like a human being. But whoever also lives for the Lord lives like a Christian. That person will die to enjoy the Lord to whom, and for whom, they have lived.

2. God’s Wisdom

1. See God’s wisdom in the variety and kinds of callings suited to the different needs of human life. Does a person have a soul? A calling is provided and sanctified for its instruction and salvation. Does a person have a body? A calling is fitted to preserve and restore its health. The body must also have food and clothing. How many callings stand ready to prepare them! Some serve the head, some the hands, and some the feet. Almost every member has a calling to attend to it. Some serve necessity, some delight, and all humanity’s comfort and welfare.

2. See the same wisdom in equipping and inclining some people toward one employment and others toward another. One person wants to travel and bring materials from abroad; another delights in working them up at home. One has a keen mind, another a skillful hand, and another a muscular arm. One has skill, another strength, and a third prudence and care, all for the good of the whole.

It is just as in the natural body. The wise God has placed every part and organ in its proper position and fitted them for their different functions. Each is at ease and content in its place. In the same way, God’s infinite wisdom and goodness shine in the body politic. He distributes everyone’s function, equipping and inclining some toward one office and others toward another, for the general good of all.

His providence is remarkable in making people generally pleased with their different employments, just as with their homes. Someone who lives in the open countryside wonders how an inhabitant of the barren mountains can endure it. Someone who lives in fresh air wonders how anyone can live comfortably among the fens. Yet each loves the place where they were born and raised, and sits and sings under their own roof.

The lowliest parts of the human body quietly and readily perform their functions without discontent or envy toward the rest. So divine providence has most graciously suited people’s differing minds to choose and pursue, among these various callings, what they find most agreeable and what is useful to the whole. An irregular and useless part of the body would be ashamed, if it were capable of shame, to cling to the body without serving any purpose. In the same way, any man or woman who is not useful to their generation in some calling should feel ashamed. This leads us to the second subject of our discussion: the necessity of a calling.

2. Why Everyone Needs a Calling

I proceed, then, in the second place, to show that every man and woman capable of it should have a particular earthly occupation in addition to their general spiritual calling.

1. I prove this from the light of nature. It teaches us that everyone must make an effort to live; that food does not drop straight from the clouds; that it is unreasonable to live at others’ expense; and that activity is natural to human beings. If idleness were imposed by law, it is thought that many people would pay the fine so that they could work. A human being is not only an active creature but has intelligence and strength, which were given to no one to lie unused. Even pagans devote themselves to some employment for their own good and the good of others. Thus Pharaoh’s first question to Joseph’s brothers was, “What is your Occupation?” (Gen 47:3). This taught Jubal to teach music and Tubal-Cain to work in brass and iron (Gen 4:21).

In a word, God’s giving people hands as well as mouths tells us that those who eat should also work. The inclination and aptitude for one occupation or another that the God of nature has placed in people’s minds, if they would notice and cultivate it, plainly indicates and proves that everyone should settle into some way of being useful in the world.

2. I prove it from the light of Scripture. Here we have the following evidence.

(1.) God’s ordinance and appointment for Adam, both before and after the Fall. Before the Fall, when Adam was in a state of innocence, God’s wisdom still chose an occupation for him: “And the Lord God took the Man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it” (Gen 2:15). He was God’s chief steward over all the earth and, if anyone could, might have lived at ease. Yet he was required to work. Someone greater, wiser, and holier than any of his descendants, except the second Adam, had to have a calling. Let no one, therefore, appeal to their birth, wealth, abilities, or Christian virtues to justify an idle life.

After the Fall, God said, “In the Sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat thy Bread, till thou return unto the Ground” (Gen 3:19). Adam had to return to the same occupation, though he found it more difficult than before, like a bankrupt tradesman who starts again with less capital in worse times. When he had two sons, each was established in a calling: Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the ground (Gen 4:2). Although they had the whole world before them, they had no exemption from settled employment.

(2.) We have God’s express command. First, in the fourth commandment: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy Work” (Exod 20:9). These words, “thy Work,” plainly imply that everyone should have their own work or business, since every commandment is given to everyone. This work should ordinarily occupy their time from Sabbath to Sabbath. The duty is further pressed upon all humanity by God’s own example: “For in six Days the Lord made Heaven and Earth” (Exod 20:11). He could have done it in six minutes but chose to fill every day with work, probably to teach us and encourage similar diligence.

Second, we find commands to the same effect in the New Testament: “… Rather let him labour, working with his Hands the thing that is good” (Eph 4:28). That is, let him follow some honest calling. Indeed, the apostle commands and exhorts by our Lord Jesus Christ that people should “with Quietness,” meaning without disputing or grumbling, “work, and eat their own Bread” (2 Thess 3:12). Let all idle and useless people consider how, at their peril, they will answer for disregarding these plain commands.

Add to this the sharp rebukes Scripture gives those who neglect this duty. When Hagar had left her employment, the angel met her with the question, “Hagar, Sarah’s Maid, whence comest thou? and whither wilt thou go?” (Gen 16:8). In the next verse, he sent her home to her unpleasant calling again (Gen 16:9). The apostle calls those who “work not at all” disorderly people who should be sharply admonished (2 Thess 3:11). Indeed, he commands, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we withdraw from every such disorderly person (2 Thess 3:6). So it is no trivial fault for a man or woman to live without a calling.

(3.) In Scripture we have the example of our Savior himself. When almighty God had only one Son in the world, he placed him in a calling: he made him a preacher. Before entering his ministry, it is highly probable that he worked with his supposed father Joseph in the carpenter’s trade. Although the people called him “the Carpenter’s Son” (Matt 13:55), they also plainly asked, “Is not this the Carpenter, the Son of Mary?” etc. (Mark 6:3). If our Savior Christ, in whom the “Fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily,” stooped to an ordinary calling so that he might “fulfil all Righteousness,” how dare anyone called by his name disdain or refuse some settled employment?

We find that the apostles themselves were not only chosen for their glorious office from their respective occupations. Even after Christ’s death and resurrection, they diligently returned to those occupations until they were commissioned to preach the gospel, as is evident in John 21:2, 3, etc. Indeed, on occasion, even after entering his sacred ministry, the apostle Paul stayed and worked with Aquila and Priscilla at their craft, for they were tentmakers (Acts 18:3).

3. We have the light of reason to strengthen this point: everyone capable of it should have a particular earthly occupation in addition to their Christian calling. This is necessary for the following reasons.

1. Justice and fairness.

(1.) Justice to oneself. Anyone useless in the world steals from themselves. This duty therefore falls under the eighth commandment, which says, “Thou shalt not steal.” It condemns every neglect of duty that harms one’s material welfare. Certainly, honest diligence in any lawful occupation, with God’s blessing, would greatly increase a small estate and enable someone to live more comfortably and be more useful to others.

(2.) Justice to one’s family requires it: “If any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own House, he hath denied the Faith, and is worse than an Infidel” (1 Tim 5:8). To that extent, someone without a calling robs their own family, whose members might live more comfortably and be better provided for through that person’s care and effort. An idle parent also gives an idle child a ready model to copy. In time, “By much Slothfulness the Building decays, and through Idleness of the Hands the House droppeth through” (Eccl 10:18). At last, “Drousiness covers them all with Rags” (Prov 23:21). By contrast, the industrious woman who spins “is not afraid of the Snow for her Household; for all her Household are clothed with Scarlet. She maketh her self Coverings of Tapistry, her Clothing is Silk and Purple” (Prov 31:21).

(3.) There is justice to the poor, which neglecting a calling makes us unable to fulfill: “Let him labour … that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Eph 4:28). God, who has given you eyes, hands, health, and capital, intends and appoints you to help those who have no sight, strength, health, or ability to work at all. No one should grumble at this, since one of our Savior’s sayings was, “It is a more blessed thing to give, than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

(4.) There is justice and fairness toward the public: work benefits the commonwealth. Just as every member of the body is useful to the whole, so everyone, as a member of the body politic, should serve the common good. No one should stand as a mere zero in their generation. Everyone should work in such a way that the world would feel their absence. How many trades have worked to supply your food, drink, and clothing every day? How unreasonable it is for you to give nothing back to them! Should many rivers empty themselves into you daily, while you are like a dead sea with no outlet and no usefulness to them in return?

Thus the apostle gives this instruction: “And let ours also learn to maintain good Works,” or, as the margin puts it, “profess honest Trades,” “for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful” (Titus 3:14). Even bees drive drones out of their little commonwealth. Indeed, anyone who contributes nothing to the public welfare does not deserve its protection.

2. The other reason for everyone to engage in a calling concerns safety.

(1.) Safety from sin. Someone fully employed does not have the leisure to sin that others have. “I have no leisure” restrains more than “I have no permission.” Satan’s temptations have an easy target in an unemployed person, as a hunter does in a bird sitting still. But the busy person, like a bird on the wing, escapes many snares: “And not only idle, but Tatlers also, and Busybodies” (1 Tim 5:13). It is rare to be merely idle and nothing worse. An idle head usually has a busy tongue, and anyone who does not do what they ought will commonly say what they ought not.

Hence St. Augustine’s wish concerning these words in Timothy: “Would to God, that they who hold still their Hands, would hold their Tongues also!” He devotes a whole book to showing the sin and harm of an idle life.

(2.) Safety from danger. Someone without a calling is not only exposed to Satan’s temptation but is also outside God’s protection. His angels are charged to keep us, but only in those ways the Lord appoints for us (Ps 91:11). Everything is safest in its proper place. If trouble overtakes someone in their place and calling, they have comfort in it. But disasters that strike an unemployed or wrongly employed person carry double weight.

Jonah is a famous example. He was offered a noble calling but had no desire for it and fled. A dreadful storm met him; the ship could not bear such a sinful burden. You know that no one ever had such a remarkable escape as he did. By contrast, Elijah and other prophets were wonderfully saved from dangers in their calling, but no one is safe outside theirs. If Satan finds someone on his own ground, he will harm them unless God shows great mercy. So the light of nature, Scripture, and reason plainly shows that everyone should engage in a calling.

I can imagine only two objections to this assertion. The first is, “I have no need of a calling. I can live without one.”

[Answer:] 1. Although no material necessity forces you to take up a calling, it may be necessary for your soul, to prevent the corruptions that tend to grow there. A stagnant pool is prone to decay. It would be better to discipline your body and keep it under control through hard work than to become a castaway through indulgence.

2. Although you do not need a calling for your own sake, it may be useful to others. Even if you have no relatives who need your help, you always have the poor with you. You have just heard the apostle directing people to work so that they might have something to supply those in need.

3. Although you do not need a calling, the command of God already mentioned makes it necessary for you. God knows best what is fitting and necessary for all his creatures. The apostle Paul did not need to preach to earn a living, yet on this very ground he says, “A Necessity is laid upon me, yea, wo unto me, if I preach not the Gospel.” So, although you do not need the world, the world needs you. Therefore, “why stand ye all the day idle? go ye also into the Vineyard.”

The other objection is, “I have no ability or capacity for a calling.” One person is sickly, another has a physical disability, another is old, another blind. What can people like these do in a calling?

[Answer:] 1. If any of these infirmities completely disables you, God himself releases you. You have time to mourn your past neglect and lost opportunities, and a fitting occasion to exercise both trust in God’s providence and patience under his heavy hand. Once you could have done something if you had wanted to; now you would do something if you could.

2. You should mourn your present inability to be useful as a severe affliction, and also the sins that have brought it upon you. Endeavor to occupy yourself in some way, as far as you possibly can. Everyone except those suffering acute illness or pain might do something for their own good or the good of others. A willing mind would overcome small difficulties, and even great ones, rather than sit and count for nothing in the world.

So much for the proof that a calling is necessary. We may apply this proposition in the following ways.

1. To expose and rebuke three kinds of guilty people.

(1.) Begging friars and those monks who live only for themselves and their formal devotion, but do nothing to support themselves or benefit humanity. Some such people arose long ago. They appealed to the sixth chapter of Matthew against all worldly care and labor (Matthew 6). They interpreted the apostle’s words, “If any Man will not work, neither let him eat,” as referring to spiritual work and labor (2 Thess 3:10). The learned Augustine thoroughly refutes this from the context.

But what would he have said if he had lived to see such swarms of drones dividing their time between a dull chapel and a warm dining hall, disguising a life of sensual indulgence beneath a mask of religion? At first, these people both prayed hard and worked hard. They not only supported themselves but helped the poor. Since then, they have degenerated into a public grievance. Yet they have the confidence to boast of this way of life as a state of perfection. In fact, as far as its worth is concerned, it falls below that of the poorest cobbler, whose calling comes from God, while theirs does not.

(2.) This rebukes idle beggars, people who live without law and without the gospel. They are neither useful to the public good nor attentive to their own, but resemble tumors on the body politic and cesspools of every kind of uncleanness. It would be better for them if fewer people lavished foolish pity on their bodies and more showed wise compassion for their souls. If they are able in any way, they should undoubtedly be employed. If they are entirely unable, they should certainly be pitied and supported. Meanwhile, however, the church wholly neglects them, and the commonwealth generally fails to use the excellent laws in force for their reform.