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| Chapter XXI. Different passages from the writings of Solomon against accidie.
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Chapter XXI.
Different passages from the writings of Solomon against
accidie.
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,”985
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.”986
But concerning this poverty of the idler elsewhere he also writes thus:
“Every sluggard shall be clothed in torn garments and
rags.”987
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,”988
and again:
“Being clothed in the breastplate of righteousness and
charity,”989
concerning which
the Lord Himself also speaks to Jerusalem by the prophet: “Arise,
arise, O Jerusalem, put on the garments of thy glory),”990
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;”991
and “My meat
is to do the will of my Father.”992
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.”993
Of this evil of
idleness Solomon thus makes mention again: “The ways of the
idlers are strewn with thorns;”994
i.e., with
these and similar faults, which the Apostle above declared to spring
from idleness. And again: “Every sluggard is always in
want.”995
And of these the
Apostle makes mention when he says, “And that you want nothing of
any man’s.”996
And finally:
“For idleness has been the teacher of many evils:”997
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.”998
| 998 2 Thess. iii. 11, 6; 1 Thess. iv.
11. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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