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Emblems Divine, Moral, Natural and Historical

Expressed in Sculpture, and Applied to the several Ages, Occasions, and Conditions of the Life of Man. By a person of Quality

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[EMBLEM III.] No Working, no Eating.
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[EMBLEM III.] No Working, no Eating.

To Idle packs.
An Idle soul shall suffer hunger etc. pro: 19. 15.
We here present to view an idle pair;
That sit and gape, as if they liv'd by th'air:
Father and son suppose; a hopeful breed
Is likely to spring up from such a seed!
Adam, when he did Paradise possess,
Must not be idle, he the same must dress:
And afterward must nothing have to eat,
But what he in the sweat of's brow did get.
The great Apostle Paul, that might command,
Did labour for his food with his own hand:
And wheresoere he came, he order gave
That such as would not work no food should have.
By Draco's Laws, the slothful man was slain;
The Florentines make banishment his pain:
At Corinth they to such did warning give;
Which if not ta'n, they might no longer live.
An idle minde is Satans shop, where still
He forgeth and contriveth what he will.
For who through sloth at honest work doth grudge,
Must certainly be made the devils drudge.
Then unto honest labour bend thy minde,
And thou therein both wealth and peace shalt finde:
For when our mindes are on our Callings set,
Satans injections there no room can get.