2. First then, it is to be
seen, what is said by persons of that profession, who will not
work: then, if we shall find that they think not aright, what is
meet to be said for their correction? “It is not,” say they,
“of this corporal work in which either husbandmen or
handicraftsmen labor, that the Apostle gave precept, when he said,
‘If any will not work, neither let him eat.’” For he could
not be contrary to the Gospel, where the Lord Himself saith,
“Therefore I say unto you, be not solicitous for your life, what
ye shall eat, neither for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Consider the
fowls of heaven, that they sow not, nor reap, nor gather into
barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye rather of
more worth than they? But who of you by taking thought can add to
his stature one cubit? And concerning raiment, why are ye
solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they
labor not, neither spin; but I say unto you, that not even Solomon
in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. But if the grass of
the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God
so clotheth; how much more you, (O ye) of little faith! Be not
therefore solicitous, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we
drink, or wherewithal shall we be clad? for all these things do the
Gentiles seek. And your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all
these. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,
and all these shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous
for the morrow: for the morrow will be solicitous for itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”2477
Lo, say they, where the
Lord
biddeth us be without care concerning our
food and
clothing: how
then could the
Apostle think contrary to the
Lord, that he should
instruct us that we ought to be in such sort solicitous, what we
shall eat, or what we shall drink, or wherewithal we shall be
clothed, that he should even burden us with the arts, cares,
labors
of handicraftsmen? Wherefore in that he saith, “If any will not
work, neither let him eat;” works
spiritual, say they, are what
we must understand: of which he saith in another place, “To each
one according as the
Lord hath given: I have
planted,
Apollos hath
watered; but
God gave the increase.”
2478
And a little after, “Each one
shall receive his
reward according to his own
labor. We are
God’s
fellow-workers;
God’s
husbandry,
God’s
building are ye:
according to the
grace which is given unto me, as a
wise
masterbuilder I have laid the
foundation.” As therefore the
Apostle worketh in planting, watering,
building, and
foundation-laying, in that way whoso will not
work, let him not
eat. For what profiteth in eating spiritually to be fed with the
word of
God, if he do not thence
work others’ edification? As
that
slothful servant, what did it
profit to receive a
talent and
to
hide it, and not
work for the
Lord’s
gain? Was it that it
should be taken from him at last, and himself cast into outer
darkness? So, say they, do we also. We read with the
brethren, who
come to us fatigued from the turmoil of the
world, that with us, in
the word of
God, and in prayers, psalms,
hymns, and
spiritual
songs, they may find
rest. We speak to them, console,
exhort,
building up in them whatever unto their
life, according to their
degree, we perceive to be lacking. Such works if we
wrought not,
with
peril should we receive of the
Lord our
spiritual sustenance
itself. For this is it the
Apostle said, “If any one will not
work, neither let him eat.” Thus do these men deem themselves to
comply with the apostolic and evangelic sentence, when both the
Gospel they believe to have given
precept concerning the not caring
for the corporal and temporal indigence of this
life, and the
Apostle concerning spiritual work and food to have said, “If any
will not work, neither let him eat.”
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
