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AND Solomon, the wisest of men, clearly points to this fault of
idleness in many passages, as he says: "He that followeth idleness shall be
filled with poverty," either visible or invisible, in which an idle
person and one entangled with different faults is sure to be involved, and
he will always be a stranger to the contemplation of God, and to spiritual
riches, of which the blessed Apostle says: "For in all things ye were
enriched in him, in all utterance and in all knowledge." But concerning
this poverty of the idler elsewhere he also writes thus: "Every sluggard
shall be clothed in torn garments and rags." For certainly he will not
merit to be adorned with that garment of incorruption (of which the Apostle
says, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ," and again: "Being clothed in
the breastplate of righteousness and charity," concerning which the Lord
Himself also speaks to Jerusalem by the prophet: "Arise, arise, O
Jerusalem, put on the garments of thy glory)," whoever, overpowered by
lazy slumber or by accidie, prefers to be clothed, not by his labour and
industry, but in the rags of idleness, which he tears off from the solid
piece and body of the Scriptures, and fits on to his sloth no garment of
glory and honour, but an ignominious cloak and excuse. For those, who are
affected by this laziness, and do not like to support themselves by the
labour of their own hands, as the Apostle continually did and charged us to
do, are wont to make use of certain Scripture proofs by which they try to
cloak their idleness, saying that it is written, "Labour not for the meat
that perisheth, but for that which remains to life eternal;" and "My
meat is to do the will of my Father." But these proofs are (as it were)
rags, from the solid piece of the gospel, which are adopted for this
purpose, viz., to cover the disgrace of our idleness and shame rather than
to keep us warm, and adorn us with that costly and splendid garment of
virtue which that wise woman in the Proverbs, who was clothed with strength
and beauty, is said to have made either for herself or for her husband; of
which presently it is said: "Strength and beauty are her clothing, and she
rejoices in the latter days." Of this evil of idleness Solomon thus
makes mention again: "The ways of the idlers are strown with thorns;"
i.e., with these and similar faults, which the Apostle above declared to
spring from idleness. And again: "Every sluggard is always in want." And
of these the Apostle makes mention when he says, "And that you want nothing
of any man's." And finally: "For idleness has been the teacher of many
evils:" which the Apostle has clearly enumerated in the passage which he
expounded above: "Working not at all, but curiously meddling." To this
fault also he joins another: "And that ye study to be quiet;" and then,
"that ye should do your own business and walk honestly towards them that
are without, and that you want nothing of any man's." Those also whom he
notes as disorderly and rebellious, from these he charges those who are
earnest to separate themselves: "That ye withdraw yourselves," says he,
"from every brother that walketh disorderly and not according to the
tradition which they received from us."
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