SECT V. A Fifth Excellency of this Calling is That it was the first Calling in the World and sustains all others There hath been great strife about the Antiquity of Countryes and many Arguments have been tost The Egyptians somtimes shewing fair Cards for their praecedency and then the Phaenicians other grounds for theirs But in Antiquity of Callings none can contend with the Husbandman for ere the Sun had gone three dayes Journey he was busie in the field so that the Spade or Plow is the most ancient Coat of Armes that can be given by Herald And then our Father Adam liked the Calling so well that he put his eldest Son on this imployment Gen. 4. 2. But Cain was a Tiller of the ground And so from Father to Son this Calling hath past to this very day in a lineal succession And these Callings that now outbrave him were at first Colonies and derivations from this their Founder For man must have Raiment and hence the Clothier and an house to dwell in and hence the Builder and tools he must have for his business hence the Artificer in Brass and Iron and some recreation when he is weary and so Jubal must have his Custom Gen. 4. 21. But his Plow maintains them all From his sweat comes the Trades-mans living and through his painful hands comes his Landlords Silver-lace Yea Eccl. 5. 9. The Profit of the earth is for all the King himself is served by the Field As it is with a Ship for all the rich lading and gallant passengers that are in her for all the curious works Cabbins and carving on her without the Roweâ—…s below and the Wind above she is but a fine Cypher and an useless Bulk So all the Tradesmen Statesmen and Gallants in a Nation would signifie very little without the cares and labours of the Husbandman If Gods Providence above and his Plough below stand still we must all shortly beg or starve It is reported of Willigis a Wheelers Son Nephew to the Husbandman that being made Arch-Bishop of Mentz and Elector of the Empire he gave in his Coat of Armes Three Wheels with this Motto written in his Bed-Chamber in great Letters Willigis Willigis recole unde veneris Remember from whence thou camest It little becomes the Child when advanced to honour to forget his honest poor and aged Parents seeing without their concurrence he had never received a Being And it doth as little become our splendid Gallants or richest Merchants to despise or look big on the first of their Line the poor Husbandman This is to forget the Rock whence they were hewen and the hole of the pit whence they were digged SECT VI. THe Sixth Excellency of the Husbandmans Calling is That it is a Calling of less temptation than others Not that he is without temptations as you will hereafter see but his Temptations are not so strong as in most other Callings For 1 John 2. 16. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life Now his labour keeps down his lust and his poverty helps to quell down his pride and sure his worldly Desires cannot compare with those of vaster Estates seeing the more a man hath the more unsatisfied are his Desires Joseph and Benjamin were own Brothers but Joseph is exalted at Court and Benjamin is seated in the Country and now whether proves the safer why Benjamin he comes to Egypt humble and modest and sober but Joseph though 't is like the better man yet he is gotten into the Court fashion and hath by the Life of Pharaoh at his tongues end Nay one and the same man holy David who more chast and innocent in the Countrey among his Sheep but he was not so at the Court So that as many great Oaks and Cedars fall when Shrubs do keep their standing in a storm so the great and rich and mighty ones of the world are often entrapped in lust envy pride and Atheism when the poor honest Husbandman is kept innocent and cleer I do not say but he hath an Heart too like other men and perhaps would be as bad as they if he had wherewith But he hath not so great temptations his God doth not give him Wind and Tyde least he should drown himself The Lace on a proud Tradesmans Cloak would suit the Husbandman all the Year and one of his Dinners would find his house the Month about but yet he is adorned with the orient Jewels of Grace within and tasts more Covenant comforts at an Ordinance than the other doth in seven years He hath not his Beauties in the Windows to allure him nor the sparkling Wine to entice him the newest Fashion is so far from entangling him that it 's ugly in his eyes the charms of Musick do not inchant him he is more taken with the musick of his Bees than any other His Children are his usual Recreations and his spare time he spends with them And his Dinner of herbs with the love of God feeds him more safely than a stalled Oxe and Gods hatred with it SECT VII THe seventh Excellency of the Husbandmans Calling is That God may be read most in his Creatures therein So that when others are studying self in their Callings he is studying God in his calling Though it may be he cannot one letter on the book yet he can study God in the two-fold Glass of his Ordinance and his Creatures And he hath an advantage herein above most other callings in that his Business lies among trees and flowers grass and cattel and even all the creatures of God And Gods creatures are a book in Folio each creature is a word and each part of it a letter out of which an holy heart may spell exceeding much of God and converse with him as in an Ordinance all the Day long So our Father Adam did Loving Father sayes he Here is thy wisdome there thy mercy in yonder Heavens thy Power and Glory the whole Earth is full of thy Riches And thus as the Sun is best seen in the water so doth the religious Husband-man better and oftener fee God in his creatures than many Philosophers and Divines in their books Famous is that instance of the honest Poor man whom One of the Ancients found weeping over a Toad to think of the wonderful goodness of God that had made him a reasonable creature and not such a Toad whereat the learned man cryed out Rapiunt indocti coelum these unlettered Country-men run away with heaven while we do onely talk thereof The School-men say there is four wayes of knowing a man and so of knowing God 1. In vestigio by the print of his foot so we know that he is a man but not who it is in particular 2. In umbra by his shadow or picture here we know how tall and great he is 3. In speculo In a glass so man saw God
much among the Creatures He must study the Earth as well as the Heavens and you know the hired Servanâ—…â—…hat are out in the fields may more easily forget their Lord than they who wait on him in his chamber There are many in the world that have little else to do but think of God and their Souls but the Husbandman he hath many things to think on many things to care for besides and the Moon of the world doth interpose and hide from him the sight and beams of the Sun of Righteousness and because God is out of sight he is too much out of the mind of the Husbandman If the year be fruitfull he is ready to give the honour thereof to the goodness of the Ground or to the skilfull husbandry thereof If it be unfruitful he is apt to conclude such and such a thing was the cause not looking to the First Cause the Mercy or Justice or Providence of God which doth order and govern the growing of every grasse pile and the blasting of every single ear of corn upon the earth But none saith where is God my maker who giveth Songs in the night Job 35. 10. When the rain distills and makes the fields to smile dow readily does the Husbandman cry out O the sweetness of this rain but how unready is he to break forth and say O the sweetness of that God that gives it And to help on this neglect of God most languages have made those words Impersonals that signifies Rain Snow and the like which must have no Nominative case It Rains it Freezes c. as if men were loth to acknowledge God in those peculiar works of his Providence When this part of his field misses he is far proner to take notice of the badness of the Earth than of the Anger of Heaven When his Cattle mismarry his eye is quicker upon the improvidence of his Servants than on the Providence of his Master in Heaven But none saith where is God my Maker And so because we cannot discern his finger he is constrained next time to lay on his hand and awaken us to feel and see him Thus the Honour also which is due to God is often laid at the feet of second Causes and men blesse the hand that reaches and not the Hand that sends it If Grace be not predominant in our Husbandmans heart you shall more commonly hear him when he is reaping his Corn commend the goodness of his ground than the Goodness of his God and declare to his neighbours his own skill with great freedome and frequency but speak of Gods blessing which was All in All seldome and with much straitnesse The Autidotes against this Temptation are 1. A full Perswasion of the General Providence and particular influence of God the First Cause over all and into all Second Causes hence they are called Second Causes because of their relation and dependance on the First See the Genealogy of Corn and Wine resolved into God Hos. 2. 21 22. Hence some of the very Heathen when they went to plow in the morning they laid one hand on the Plough to speak their own part to be painfulness and held the other hand up to Ceres their Goddess of Corn to testifie their expectation of plenty from her It is God alone that crowns the year with his Goodnesse Psal. 65. 〈◊〉 He bringeth the wind out of his treasures he giveth the former latter rain in their season he causeth his wind to blow and the waters flow Psal 147.16 Not a drop of rain but he makes and sends it and tells it where it shall fall When the Sun shines or showers fall do but draw by the curtain and by faith you may see God in the thing Deut. 11. 15. And I will sendgrass in thy fields for thy Cattel that thou mayest eat and be full Does thy Grass grow well God from heaven sent thee that grass Does it wither parch and fail God hath sent for thy grass away and that he never does without good reason And therefore under the Law Exod. 23.16 19. God called for the first fruits of their land partly to let them know who it was that gave them and charges his People Deut. 8. 18. Beware least thou say in thy heart my Power and the Might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth but thou shalt REMEMBER the LORD thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth And all thy Endeavours without his Blessing are as Caesar said of Senecas writings Arenâ—… sine calce they fall asunder Look thou therefore at God in all things The Finger of God may be seen by an eâ—…e of Faith There is no Event so great nor any so â—…nall but the hand of God is in it And O how canst thou forget God when thou mayest hear from him and see him every minute Though you see not his face yet you may discern his foot-steps Go into the field and he hath been there return into thy house among thy children and there hath he â—…en before thee Thou may'st meet him in every mercy and feel him in every Judgment As the Wife therefore is somtimes angry with what the Servant is doing till he tell her that his Master appoynted him then she sayes no more So when cross Accidents fret thee and second Causes walk contrary to thee remember the First Cause hath bidden them and rest content If the Bottles of Heaven be stopped knock at Gods door and he will open them Jer. 14. 22. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain or can the Heavens give Showers Art not thou He O Lord our God Therefore we will wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things Three Keyes the Jewish Rabbins often give him The Key of the Wâ—…mb the Key of the Grave and the Key of the Clouds implying that none but He can unlock these Learn then to see God to seek God in all things Satan cannot enter into an Hogg without divine appoyntment VVhat can one think more casual and independent on God than the Sabeans and Chaldeans taking away Job's Cattle and yet he looks beyond them at God The Lord hath taken away and this contents him This opens our mouths to praise him for mercies and strikes us dumb from repining against him in crosses I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou dâ—…dst it Look through all Creatures and Providences as through a Glass and behold God disposing thee and them with infinite wisdome so wilt thou meet God every step and keep correspondence with him though mediately all the day long As it was with Saul and his fellow travellers Acts 9. 7. They all heard a voice but none save Saul saw Jesus Christ So any man perceives the external sensible effects of providence but it 's the Christian Husbandman that sees God in them and adores him Every Rivulet guides him up to the fountain and seeing his works he presently ascends to
or dumb must men of old be so many years onely to learn the principles of Phylosophy and can you commence Christian and scarce study the Principles thereof a month Shall your brains be studied more about the sorriest Trade than about that great Calling that teaches to live for ever What variety of instructions do you give your Children for Husbandry Every day you are at it and will less a doe make them wise for Heaven than Earth Tell me not of your mean Birth and Education God requires not from you what he he doth from some others but doth he therefore give you a Patent for gross ignorance He expects not you shall resolve all the Questions in the Schools but doth it follow you should not know all the Principles of your Catechism And though your business be great yet remember still that one thing is necessary Though your hands and time be full yet I hope you 'l find leisure to go to Heaven You must discharge your debts attend your markets pay your rents and bring up your children And must you not get your blindness eurâ—…d your leprosie healed and your soul saved The busiest of you if you break a bone or be sick will have time to seek help Are ye too busie to go to Heaven God forbid What though you are poor Are not many poor men rich in knowledge Must not poor men go to Heaven and can they come thither hood-wink't Though thou art but an Husbandman yet thou must be a Christian and to be a Christian without knowledge of the Scripture is like being a Philosopher without learning Though thy Understanding be dull yet when the Holy Ghost is the School-Master it is possible to learn If no man learn any thing that he is dull at first about how few would have skill in any thing The first line in the Horn-book is the hardest the further you learn the easier Prayer and Diligence will make it easie And the Husbandman's God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him Isa. 28.26 He that teacheth you to know the properties of the Earth will teach you also the passage to Heaven He that teacheth you to Plow when you endeavour it will teach you to Pray when you endeavour that And though others abuse their knowledge are better Schollers and worse Christians than thou yet this will be no excuse to thee Their sin doth not ease thee of thy duty They shall go to Hell for their uneffectual knowledge and thou shalt go to Hell for thy affected Ignorance But alas you argue not thus in the Case of riches or other things you do not say my Neighbour yonder hath great riches and mispends them therefore I will resolve to be poor he is proud of his fine clothes and therefore I 'le go in rags Urge then no more others abuse of knowlege but seeing it is necessary do thou obtain it and use it better 2. Be resolved in the means of procuring saving knowledge Prov. 2.2 3. If thou incline thine ear unto wisdome diligently hear the instructions of the wise and apply thy heart unto understanding set thy heart upon it as Schollars upon their Books or Tradesmen on their Trades yea if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest np thy voice for understanding Earnestly and continually pray for it if it be not worth asking it is worth nothing If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasure if thou usest all good means readest in every book makest out to any good Minister or Christian that can help thee then shalt thou find the knowledge of God pains must be taken or no good done I cannot chuse but wonder to hear illiterate men sometimes O I would give all the Cattel I have that I could but read who yet might with half the pains which they would bestow to get one of them learn to read sufficiently and yet will not endeavour it Alas they speak as they think but a deceived heart turns them aside even so you will hear some ignorant men express themselves I would I had given all I am worth for that knowledge which such have and yet when they are directed to the means they suddenly are weary and shew thereby they did but dally Notwithstanding all your business you have one whole day every week How rich in knowledge would you quickly be if every minute of that day were put to the best Some Divines have collected the material points of Religion into fifty two heads for each Sabbath one now if the poorest Husbandman in the Land would fix each Lords day on one of these and any good Minister would set you in and in the spare time thereof read or hear others read to him or ask questions and confer with his honest Neighbour about it and as he hath occasion the week following drive in the same nail What a blessed crop of saving knowledge would he reap when the year is expired This is to seek knowledge as silver and it 's worth more pains than this in that there 's no going to Heaven without it If you lived in Countries where no Bibles must be read where there be no Ministers to teach you and to know Christ were criminal there were some excuse for ignorance but what plenty of precious Bibles have we what store of excellent Books Catechisms and principles of Religion what choice of Ministers that long to teach you And to run through all this light into eternal darkness what excuse can you bring how great will be that darkness Up therefore and be doing let your future diligence compensate your former negligence lest you hear that fatal sentence when it is too late to reverse Isa. 27.11 This is a man of no understanding and therefore he that made him will not save him and he that formed him will shew him no favour Now God forbid that the poor harmless Husbandman should after his painfull life be thus sentenced into a more painful state that for want of outwards he should be poor here and for want of inwards be poor for ever Why then prevent it while there is time The markets yet are open good eye-salve to be had The richest pearles to be had for a little labour God himself will be the Master and who will not be proud to be his Schollar O taste and see how good the Lord is apply your selves to him and he will teach you the fear of the Lord so shall you be rid of this temptation SECT X. X. THe Tenth Temptation of the Husbandman is Wrong unto his Neighbour Though most other imployments exceed this in temptations hereunto yet this Calling wants not its temptation This wretched Self is of such powerfull influence that it draws the plain Husbandman himself to strain a point of Conscience sometimes to fulfill the lusts thereof Hence it comes to pass sometimes I hope it is not oft that you may observe deceit and dissimulation in his bargains though not
patience to wait Jam. 5.7 Be patient therefore Brethren to the coming of the Lord. Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fâ—…uits of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain And Clemens is of opinion that the Apostles James and Jude were Husbandmen Well we see here the Husbandman hath need of patience long patience to wait for the fruits of the Earth Many a long day and night there is between Seedness and Harvest and yet he is not in despair he waites and hopes Harvest will come at length The Heavens they frown upon the Earth the Corn mourns the Grasse withers but yet he waits with patience upon God He knows the bottles of Heaven are in a good hand and therefore relyes on God and does his duty His ground is sometimes chok't for Rain and sometimes again chok't with over-much Rain But he frets not at all but quietly waits on Gods pleasure He goes into his Barne and sees his Corn almost gone and then goes into the Field and there its slow in ripening He looks into his purse and there 's no money and now his patience is tryed Yet in this case he considers the wisdom providence of God arms his mind with patience till Harvest comes and then sometimes excessive Rain keeps him and his Corn asunder Week after Week and when it comes sometimes the poor yieldance of it utterly disappoints him so that he hath need of patience to last another year by that time his borrowed Corn is paid and his Ground Seeded his stock is almost gone And therefore the Husbandman hath need of patience great long patience patience to wait 2. He must have Patience to bear He meets with a dear bargain a hard Rent heavy Taxes tempests without doors and storms sometimes within But this is his Cloak to bear off all weathers this is his harness he dare not go without If he fret it will gall him worse And he is then undone when the back of his patience is broken His provocations are many his neighbours wrong him but he licks himself whole by his patience his servants are surly his children oft displease him yea his wife sometimes le ts fly her tongue against him But he hath his Armour on He knows they have little wit to provoke him but he thinks he should have less alwayes to observe it According to that Eccles. 7.21 He takes not heed to all words that are spoken lest he hear his servant curse him He finds a time to acquaint them with their duties and miscarriages and bears what cannot be helped with Patience Alas his whole life is a tryal and exercise of this grace He works hard and fares hard and lodges hard but patience is the pillow he lies on the only Bootes he hath to ride with in the mire yea the Horse he rides on The linnen of his every day clothes It s all the Table cloth and napkin he uses in a word it s the very food he lives by And therefore as ever you hope for comfort in this calling labour for this grace of patience meditate of it pray for it when it fails renew it study the precept plead the promise consider that grand pattern of Patience our Lord Jesus Christ. And oft think that there is more real good in it than there is evil in that which tryes it That you are in a better condition when you have patience under a tryal than if you were without the tryall And seeing you possess but little in the World resolve to possess your own souls in Patience SECT II. II. THe second Grace necessary for the Husbandman is Discretion 1. In his affairs Isa. 28.25 Doth the Plowman Plow all day to sow Doth he open and break the clods of his Ground When he hath made plain the face thereof doth he not cast abroad the Fitches and scatter the Cummin and and cast in the principalWheat and the appointed Barley Rye in their place Here you see the Holy Ghost himself guiding the Husbandman in his Tillage he should be wise to manage his business in due season and order And then vers 27. The Fitches must he beaten out with a staff Bread Corn must be bruised c. And even this Discretion must be taught of God so saith this Scripture vers 29. This also cometh from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in Counsel and Excellent in working He doth well therefore to be inquisitive of his elder neighbours but he must not neglect to seek this skill of God who is wonderful in counsel And then he finds that wise fore-casting is as necessary as working that things may be done in their place that he neither entertain confusion nor idleness but that businesses may fall in one after another and still there may be fit time for religious duties And thus a good man orders his affairs with discretion 2. He must have discretion about his Family that he may therein be neither a Tyrant nor a Cypher that he may educate and dispose his children with that prudence and circumspection he ought Discretion also to correct in prudence not in passion and to add sweet lessons as God doth to sharp lashes to keep them at a sufficient distance and yet not discourage them to preserve his authority in hischeerfulness to choose fit Callings for them or matches when they are ready and to load them from him at least with good counsel There is nothing harder than for an indiscreet man to command due reverence in his house And therefore the wise Husbandman considers that if his Authority in his house be gone he is buried alive and the life of a slave will be better then his that hath all the charge and none of the rule And this can never be obtained by imperiousness or correction but by discretion 3. He must have discretion for his estate that he may neither live above it nor below it That in his clothing house-keeping and spending he may neither be guilty of pride nor baseness His incomes are not great and therefore that States-mans Rule that the ordinary expences of him who would keep even with the World must be but the one half of their income and of him that would thrive but the third part thereof I say this Rule stands him in little stead If he can pay his Rent and Taxes feed and cloath his family you shall not hear him complain But if with all he can yearly lay by a little towards the better education or disposal of his children then you shall hear him sing Well all the Discretion he hath is needful hereunto Partly to take such bargaines that may afford a livelihood and yet herein he is afraid of weakning the estate of him that sells as well as his own Partly in observing the Markets for the vending of his commodities and other wayes unless he will outlive his livelihood and leave his Children beggars 4. He
Seat the greater Rent you must pay unto God When thou lookest on thy habitation bless the Lord when thou walkest in thy ground bless the Lord many others they have barren ground rotten house unwholsome Air dangerous scituation now if it be otherwise with thee say not I have gotten this by my wit or labour or sword but Lord thy right hand and tâ—…ine arm and the light of thy countenance because thou hadsta favour unto me Psal. 44. 3. If you didst but see in a glass the miserable houses of many a child of God you would bless the Lord upon your knees and never repine at some petty inconvenience that troubles your mind yea make a step somtimes into the poor mans Coat and behold the pitiful abiding that he hath and then praise the Lord who setteth the bounds of your habitatioâ—…s and who might have taken an house for thee in Bedlam in a Dungeon But this is not all Verbal praises cannot pay off real Mercies and therefore see you make a sutable return of honour and service unto God The Sun shines on the Stars and they reflect light on us so seeing God hath so singularly provided for you be singularly useful to him If you be lean in a fat pasture you may be justly turned to Commons If Israel be unfruitful in Canaan he must be sent to Babel Deut. 28. 47. Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things Therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies in the want of all things The nearer and liker to Heaven thy place is the better howbeit any habitation on this side Hell may content a poor sinner as thou art CHAP. II. The main Doctrine proposed An Husbandman described and the Lawfulness of his Calling SECT I. AND now we are come to the Kind of this great Mans imployment and this was to Dress and keep the ground to be an Husbandman from whence we gather this Doctrinal conclusion That Husbandry is a most ancient and excellent Calling It was a wise answer of Father Latimer when his Enemies accused him to K. Henry 8. for his malepert preaching before him a little while before said He Your Grace hath many fitter persons to preach before You than my self and I would be glad to be dismis't But if there be no remedy but that I must preach before the King I will preach as to a King and sutable to his place which answer took well and got him off Even so My dearly Beloved since it is my lot to preach in the Country among Husbandmen I will preach as to Husbandmen something sutable to your Calling and that from this Text and Doctrine In the handling of this Subject I shall shew 1. What an Husbandman is 2. The Lawfulness of his Calling 3. The Excellencies thereof 4. The Inconveniences 5. His Temptations 6. His Lessons from his Calling 7. The Graces requisite 8. The abuse of it 9. His Designs 10. Some Rules for him in his Calling And first of the First viz. What an Husbandman â—…s I shall take him here in his largest Capacity for since our Father Adams time divers other Callings have been cantelled out of it but he had it intire and as he left it I shall take it in this place A Husbandman is a man that works profit out of the Earth that makes the ground that bred him keep him that makes the Earth bear his charges to Heaven And so the Holy Ghost describes him Jam. 5.7 The Husbandman first worketh then waiteth for the precious fruits of the Earth At first this was done without toyl The ground was dress'd with as little pain and as much pleasure as now it 's walkt on or as a tree is prun'd but since the Fall the Calling is somwhat worse All Trades decay but yet a good Husband may mend it A Christian Husbandman that can husband his Husbandry may live comfortably here and happily hereafter A Christian Husbandman is a man with his hands in the Earth and his heart in Heaven he lives above that which he cannot live without he is daily Digging his Grave and at length layes him in it he makes the Earth to feed him and at last to cover him The Physitian is bred out of the Corruption of our Bodies and the Lawyer is bred out of the Corruption of our Manners The Tradesmen live upon one another But the Husbandman lives upon the precious fruits of the Earth and sustains them all SECT II. THe Second Point to be handled is The Lawfulness of his Calling It stands men upon to be well assured of the lawfulness of their Callings else every stroke they take in them is Sin In the choice of Callings think of this Is my Calling lawful And am I lawfully called into it No Calling on earth hath precedence to this for lawfulness It s true the lawfullest Calling may be abused by a graceless man That transcendent Calling of the Ministry the Sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2. 17. did so abuse that men did abhor the offerings of the Lord. Wo wo for ever if they repent not to all such Hophnites that drive the Lords people from the Lords offerings But this can lay no imputation upon that worthy Calling A Spider can suck poyson from the sweetest Flower and so a bad Husband may make shift to grow bankrupt on the best Calling in he World but yet in its self the Husbandman hath as much to say for the lawfulness of his imployment as any man under Heaven For 1. It is a Calling of Gods choyre and that is the best Portion that God carves If there had been the least sin in it he would never have disposed our Father Adam into it He that knew all the Callings that men would invent he pitcht upon this And he chose it for his eldest Son and you know men will serve the first best God tells his people Israel he would bring them to a Land that he had spied out for them and if there be an happy place on earth God can spy it out why this was a Calling that God had spied out for his Eldest Child Adam Therefore lawful no doubt 2. It is a Calling of mans industry and so the more lawful When a Calling is driven on only by Art and Cunning there is sin enough in such Callings but the Hand is more innocent than the Head There is no guile in innocent labour The sweat of the Browes is harmless sweat If there be any flaw it is in the Man not in the Husbandry which is as innocent as the state of Innocency it self Indeed most other Callings are lawful too in themselves but they border more nearly upon sin and temptation than this doth They may be more profitable but cannot be more lawful Think of this Poor Husbandman to thy comfort when thou art sweating at thy Plough This is heavy cheer But I am in my Calling my lawful
encouragement of the Husbandman under his burdens and troubles that he may be content with the Inconveniencies of his Lot and blesse the name of the Lord his God And these I shall observe in the next place and lay them in the other ballance least the former fly too high least trades mens shops should be emptyed and least the Husbandman should forget himself CHAP. IV. The Inconveniencies of the Husbandmans Calling and the Remedies thereof SECTION I. ANd now I come to the Fourth point which is to give you an Account of the Inconveniencies of the Husbandmans Calling where with I shall also prescribe some Remedies It is Heaven onely that is without Inconveniencies Here we would live without them There we shall live without them The wisdome of God hath so ordered it that not an house on Earth but hath some Grievance annext to it that we may long for our other House which is above It is said of the plain of Jordan Genes 13. 10. That it was like the Garden of the Lord and Lot thought he had a great bargain of it and good man he found many inconveniences in it So in Eden it self our father Adam had a Serpent Latet anguis in herbâ And if he met with Inconveniencies there let no man think to escape them It is our misery to have them It is our happiness to manage and improve them The First Inconvenience of the Husbandmans Calling is That his Business lyes in the world his greaâ—…est Enemy Indeed the world in it self is Gods good Creature but since the fall of Man as it brings forth naturally thorns and bryars to tear the flesh so by the malice of the Devil it is full of snares to catch the soul. He hath privily instigated all the Creatures to be against God and our souls and laid Rats-bane here and there upon the things the Husbandman converseth in to poyson and undo him So that he may e're he is aware fall into temptation and a snare That is a sad Curse Psal. 69. 22. Let that which should have been for their wellfare let it become a trap Sad that the Plough should be a trap and in his innocent business should be a dangerous snare As if a mans house stood in his Enemies garrison it were a great Inconvenience though his house were never so pleasant yet to enjoy it he ventures his life The world is now an Enemy to our souls yet in the mid'st of it stands the Husbandmans calling And therefore if he will be safe he must do as Nehemiah 4. 17. with one of his hands work in his calling and with the other hold a weapon The Best Remedy against this Inconvenience is To be crucified to the world Gal. 6. 14. God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified to me and I to the world as if he should say I 'le glory in my sufferings others glory in their chains of Gold I 'le only shake my chain of iron and triumph in it by which my heart is well weaned from the temptations of the world So let the troubles and hardships which the Husbandman meets with in the world crucifie his heart to the inticements of it Get the world once under you make it a servant as the word in our Text signifies subdue it and then you may more safely trade in it And seeing it is your Enemy deal with it as an enemy have as little to do with it as you can and though you owe to it a love of Benevolence because it sustains you yet beware how far you bestow upon it a love of Complacence because it would ensâ—…are you SECT II. THe Second Inconvenience of the Husbandmans Calling is That he hath but little Time for his Soul His Landlord can get up in a morning and read as long as he will and then pray as long as he will and as oft and meditate as much as he will But he hath but little time to pray and less time to read and least of all to meditate unless it be occasionally among his work And his Life is divided between labour and rest and but that he is fully resolved the main chance shall not be neglected his soul would be forgotten He hath many dayes and yet but a little time his business calls him out and the night calls him in again And so he is apt to doubt of himself by fits because it is said Psalm 1. 2. The Godly mans delight is in the law of the Lord and in that law he doth meditate day and night He longs to read such a good Book but Harvest or Business calls and he must away longs to go and confer with his Minister about his poor soul but can seldome get leave of his business either his poor soul or his poor family must suffer And he finds it very much adoe to live in this world and yet provide to live for ever And how shall the honest Husbandman remedy this matter Your Remedy must be this you must Work the harder and sleep the less that you may pray and read the more If the Heathens can produce a Philosopher that used to work most of the day that he might be sustained to study most of the night how much more may you that hope for better things than they punish the body a little as it will bear to furnish the soul as it hath need How late and early can you sometimes be at a gainfull market and is there any market where Grace is sold Remember still that One thing and only that one thing is Needful in comparison Luke 10. 42. And then be sure the little time you can spend for your souls improve it well The shorter you must be at prayer see you be the more serious They who can do little had need to do it well And then you may be assured that as the Lord blesseth your short Commons and thin meals to as much health and strength of body as they who have their plenteous variety so will the same God bless to you your pulse and water your few but lively duties to feed your souls as if you had larger opportunities It is better to have a little communion with God and hunger for more than to have larger time and lesser appetite SECT III. A Third Inconvenience of the Husbandmans Calling is That he is lyable to many burdens and injuries He is and must be like Issachar Gen. 49. 14. an ass couching down under two burdens He must suffer from his Superiors many an harsh Lecture his Landlord reads him many a trespass and injury his Neighbour offers him many scornful terms after all their wrongs he must put up he hath neither power nor will nor skill to go to Law and so sits him down and makes his moan to God He must suffer from his equals often for he is known to be a man of peace
is increased For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his glory shall not descend after him And thus you see how much against Reason how much against Religion it is to have a rising thought of envy against your Superiours which Considerations may work with you and Prayer joyned to them will work with God to bring your spirits level with your Estates and rather to pity then envy that Crown that 's so garnisht with Pearls without and lin'd with Tears within SECT V. V. THe Fifth Temptation of the Husbandman is Negligence and Deadness in holy Duties I say this is his Temptation not that it is his usual sin if he fear God for you shall most commonly at his door hear as grave and serious and pathetical a Prayer as at the Parsons of the Parish but yet through the multitude of his business and the weariness of his spirits he is often tempted to deadness in the Service of God in his Family and in secret and somtimes to neglect and pass it over Alas you can have of a man but his strength and that ere the Sun be set is most an end spent and gone so that when he comes to Prayer his heart is a sleep and a little thing would hire him if he durst to skip over that good work by which in very deed he gets and saves more than by all his dayes work besides As when Moses spake of sacrificing to God Pharaoh still spake of work to put them off So when God calls to worship the World calls to work or the Flesh to sleep Or if the fear of God or a constant custome do engage him in his Duty he dreams through it and is contented that it s over though he have done nothing but displeased God the rein If the Day had been two hours longer he would have found strength to do more work but he hath no might for God or ability for heavenly business The Fish is scarce ever weary of swiming because the water is her Element but on the dry ground she is soon weary So our poor Husbandman hath strength for two dayes in the Earth which is his Element but hardly vivacity and ability for half an hour in the precious service of his God He is like a Bee that hath lost her sting dull and dronish Alas he hath lost his spirits and hath nothing but weary limbs and a dead heart to present to God And Soul-work never goes on unless we have a mind to work as they Neh. 4.6 They built c. for the people had a mind to work O when a man hungers for Prayer-time more then meal-time when all businesses are dry and all Companies taste of the Cask but Gods ' when a man can see more glory and beauty in one verse of the Bible than in all the Corn in his Field when the Soul doth really hasten through all other business and cry O When shall I come and appear before God! then the work of God and the Soul goes on then Duties of worship are welcome to him and well done by him And thus it is with our serious Husbandman that uses the world that he may enjoy God and not the contrary that rids his work that he may go to Prayer and rids not Prayer out of the way that he may go to work But alas all Husbandmen are not of this mold happy they for ever if they were Abundance of them think when they have supped they have a VVrit of ease to go to bed and let them pray that have nothing else to do And though they are seldome so weary but they will think upon their bodies and take their suppers with them ere they go to rest yet they dare venture to forget their souls and steal to bed without a blessing And so in the morning the VVorld calls on so hard that prayer is neglected in the Morning and at night the Flesh calls for ease that Prayer is neglected at Evening or if somthing be done that way by reason of custom or conviction alas the wife she is sleeping in one corner the child in another the servant in a third when they should all of them be wrestling might and main with God for mercy for their souls And then when the Sabbath comes the poor Husbandman lyes under great Temptations to make it a Play-day for his body and yet no Work-day for his soul. He that can rise early every morning takes his ease that morning and the Bells do hardly raise him up And then in the Assembly the easier is his seat the readier is he to sleep while his weightiest affair is in hand Or it the Church be far or the weather frown or his finger ake a small matter shall keep him at home though perhaps as it was the case of Thomas the Apostle that very day he might have seen Jesus Christ to his eternal comfort And here is the Husbandmans Temptation Negligence and Deadness in holy Duties But what Preservative can we prescribe against this temptation These two at present 1. More Zeal 2. Less Labour 1. More Zeal Zeal is Religion boyling hot And a warm heart in a weary body will be active Zeal revives the languishing spirits infuses new spirits makes a man all spirit for the time This in a false Religion will raise a man to his Orisons at Midnight send him some hundreds of miles on Pilgrimage make him sweep the Church with the Hair of his Head lame his Knees with Prayers and blind his Eyes with tears In the true Religion this works more languidly it 's true men swim faster down then up the stream but more regularly and doth animate a gracions heart wonderfully in the wayes of God makes the lame man to leap as an Hâ—…rt and the tongue of the dumb to sing The godly Husbandman remembers that his chiefest business every day is with God and the hardest of his work is on his knees and so buckles to it and is in good earnest and sweats even at his eyes The more zeal the more forward to what is good and the more unwearied in it And it is good to be alwayes zealously affected in a good matter Gal. 4.18 The service of God is the best matter in the world and it is not enough to be well affected to it but to be zealously effected in it The wise Husbandman considers that in all likelihood the load of his whole dayes work will be thrown off at night except Prayer do bind it on that he cannot be a gainer if his soul lose its spiritual life and strength he knows if he leave off his meals he must go with thin sides and if he omit his Prayers he must go with a thin soul. Alas what will you be the better to pay your Rent and to run in arrear with God to keep your time with your Landlord and break time with God your Landlords Landlord What good can your meat or clothes or estate do you if it
better of thee than before They will now conclude certainly yonder is a singular good man that will part with his estate and venture his credit rather than burden his Conscience or remain under sin All men will commend this and much praise will redound to God Pray what disgrace is it to Zacheus that he was willing to restore all he had gotten by wrong God and Man record it to his honour But further yet you may so order your restitution that if occasion be you never need to be known Consider whom you have injured and how much and then choose your discreet Minister or some other faithful friend who may dispose the thing restored or the value of it to the right owner and your name never needs to be in question But rather exceed than fall short of the full value in your restitution I will restore saith Zacheus fourfold that is rather more than less And the Lord hath ordered in that case Numb 5.7 They shall confess their sin which they have doâ—… and he shall recompence his trespass with tâ—… principal thereof and adde unto it the fifth part thereof and give it unto him against whom bâ—… hath trespassed This is equitable for him who perhaps hath been prejudiced by your injury more than the naked worth of the thing especially if much time be past And it is profitable for you when your sin costs you dear its likely you will not easily meddle that way again Obj. I but what if the party I have wrong'd be dead and perhaps there is none left to whom restitution may be made or the persons at such a distance that it is impossible to make them amends Answ. Restitution must be made in the proper place if it be possible or if the party be dead to their Heirs or Executors and pains must be taken to find them out It is but a reasonable penance for your fault But if no person can be found in whom the right of receiving remains then hear what God saith Numb 5.8 But if the man have no Kinsman or person having right to recompence the trespass unto let the trespass be recompenced unto the Lord even to the Priest Almighty God is Heir-General in all such cases in whose name and stead his Priests and poor are authorised to give you an acquittance and your sin bewailed shall through the Ram of attonement mentioned in the same verse be forgiven But till this be done or fully purposed your guilt remains you are yet in your sins And thus I have at length given you a view of the Husbandmans Temptations and their several Antidotes not but that he hath many more As he is a Christian he is liable to all the temptations of a poor Christian so as he is Husband Master Subject but I think these are more incident to his earthly Calling wherein if he be faithful to his own soul in the use of the Preservatives annexed I trust by the blessing of God he shall overcome and reign with Christ at last where the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary an at rest CHAP. VI. The Husbandmans Lessons in his Calling SECT I. ANd now I proceed to the Sixth Point to be handled which is the excellent Lessons that God teacheth the poor Husbandman who perhaps cannot skill of one Letter in the Book For his God doth instruct unto discretion and doth teach him as you had it out of Isa. 28.26 And that 's a dull Schollar that such a Master cannot teach There is hardly any thing that the Husbandman hath to deal with but he may learn somthing of God out of it when God doth prompt him thereunto Yea God hath translated the world into the Scripture that we may translate and think of the Scripture in the World This as was observed is one end of Similes and Comparisons so frequent in the Bible not only that God may come down by them unto us but that we may by them ascend unto him As our Lord Christ excellently by occasion of a Vine in his way as the Learned conclude raiseth up his and his hearers minds to learn this Lesson That every branch that beareth not fruit shall be taken away and the branch that doth bear fruit shall be purged to bring forth more fruit Joh. 15.1 2. A profitable Lesson taught out of a Tree Having therefore such a Copy let us endeavour to shew what Learning the Husbandman may and ought to get And I. Out of his Ground And here 1. He looks on it and thinks Whence he came He reads his Pedigree in the Dust and remembers his Paternal Coat is blazon'd Gen. 3.19 Out of the Ground wast thou taken And having much business with it he is often minded what he is For Dust thou art And there is but a remove between the Dust that lies and the Dust that 's walking on it And therefore the Husbandman ought to look down and learn humility and then to look up and beg it of God And hence it was as some judge that God gave to our Father Adam his name from the ground or earth for so his name signifies that whensoever he heard his name Adam call'd he might think of his original and be humble The Husbandman therefore hath many Items of his frailty and must lay it to heart Here is my Ground and alas what am I but earth sifted and purified and molded up by the hand of God And what cause hath white and red clay to be proud Come down O my vain heart and know thy place when clay ascends it is against the Laws of the Creation 2. From his ground the Husbandman learnes his mortality and may be oft minded of his change For unto dust thou shalt return There is the end of his Line Poor man creeps out of the dust keeps a coile in the world a while and then râ—…turnes unto dust again Every day the Husbandman may learn this lesson His imployment lyes as it were in his grave when he is digging or plowing in the ground he breakes out in these thoughts Poor peice of creeping dust whither art thou going Art thou ready to return to thy mother Earth again Hast thou glorified God Hast thou finisht the work which he gave thee to do What sticks it at Thy passing Bell may be rung to morrow and then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto G d who gave it Eccles. 12.7 Prepare thy self therefore to lye down in the Earth which thou art now manuring Get dying thoughts for thou art but dying dust 3. From the quality of his ground he must learn his lesson When you walk over a fruitful Field the sight of it pleaseth you And a fruitful heart and life would please God much more This shower of rain hath made my field better Did the last shower from Heaven make my heart better Hebr. 6.7 For the Earth that drinketh in the rain that cometh often
know your purse will not reach many nor your time serve you to peruse them and a few Books well read are like ground well till'd which is far better then a great Demesne that alwayes lies fallow Be sure then that you consult and advise with some judicious and pious Divine about the choice of your Books that may direct you to such as are most fit for your condition that you may not only buy such as are Good but such as are the Best because your time and money is so precious Perhaps you 'l say your Charge is great and your Rent is great and no money will be spared for these uses A hard case if you cannot spare two or three shillings in a whole year for God and your Souls when divers that have as great a Charge and Rent as you and yet can spend more than that quantity in a year vainly and wickedly and yet make a shift to live in the world Alas God tryes you hereby whether you can deny your selves and abate a little from back and belly and give it this way to your poor souls Resolve then to purchase this houshold-stuff which by Gods blessing may do both you and your children more good than thousands of Gold and Silver yea you may by a discreet lending of them to your kindred and neighbours startle and reform them also A practise which I would recommend to persons of Ability whereby they may be very instrumental in promoting the Kingdome of Jesus Christ in the world to wit by buying some numbers of awakening and practical books and engaging their Kindred and poor Neighbours to read them over in such a time and return them some account thereof And though I undertake not to determine what books are fittest â—…or your several conditions yet of those that I have perused these following may be most useful for the generality of your families which I entreat you to buy and read as soon as you can In the first place let not your house nor any of your grown children be without a Bible Though other books have much of Heaven in them this book is all Heaven And it is as unfit to be without this in your house as to be without a fire or without your houshold bread Next that you and yours may be grounded in the Principles of our Excellent Religion buy the Assemblies Two Catechismes and Confession of Faith the Shorter for your Children and Servants to learn by heart the Other for you and them to read and consider for your understanding in the good knowledge of God wherein also Mr. Ball 's Catechism with the Exposition is most excellent and useful Mr. Baxter's Call to the Vnconverted and Mr. Dent's Plain-mans Path-way to Heaven will be well worth your buying and reading for the awakening your souls and your Children to saving conversion Mr. Shepheard's Sound Believer Mr. Allen's First Part of the Vindication of Godliness and Mr. Dod on the Commandments are choice Books to help you in inside practical holiness The Practice of Piety also and the Whole Duty of Man have so many useful Instructions both about Devotion and Conversation that I would recommend them to you Dr. Goâ—…ge of Domestical Duties will be necessary to teach your whole family their Relative Duties Mr. Pool'sDialogue will be very useful to settle you in the True Protestant Religion against the Papists and if you can reach either Diodates or the Dutch Annotations on the Bible after all to help you to understand the hard Scriptures you daily meet with though you may read you need not buy many more books for your souls But when you have bought these books let them not lie dustie by you but read and lend them and read them again but be sure to mix Meditation and Ejaculation with your reading and when you shut the book consider what profit you have gotten and bless the Lord. Thus you may refresh your spirits after your hard labour and with the same exercise revive both your bodies and your souls SECT IX IX THe Ninth Rule for the Husbandman in his Calling is Pay your Great Land-lord his Rent The Lord of Heaven and Earth is Lord of the Soil and Lord of the Soul also and a Chief belongs to him This is that great Housholder Mat. 21.33 that planted a Vineyard and hedged it about and let it out to Husbandmen and went into a far Country And he hath charged a Rent over and beside your earthly Land-lords upon your estate and it concerns you to enquire what it is what Arrears there are and what course to take for the constant discharge thereof least the Lord turn you out of doors Your petty Land-lord can but turn you into the wide World but your Chief Land-lord can turn you out into Hell The former indeed may imprison you but the latter can damn you Alas how little have you thought of this one Year returns after another your Earthlie Land-lord calls for Rent and you make hard shift to pay him but your Heavenly Land-lord calls and calls again and no Rent is paid to him What will ye do in the end thereof Pray consider though you hold your Land of man yet you hold your Life of God though you have your house of some Great man yet you have the body and soul that inhabits it of the Great God you have your health of God your strength of God You hold the Gospel by a tenure in Capite of God through Jesus Christ now what Rent do you pay unto him flinch not nor start away but say what Rent have you ever paid unto God Must every one have their due but God canst thou please him only with fair words or content him with naked promises Can you pay unto men their Pounds and cannot you pay unto God his Pepper-corn what deny your Maker his pepper-corn why what is this pepper-corn I answer It 's contained in one verse Psal. 50. last He that offereth praise glorifieth me and he that ordereth his conversation aright to him will I shew the Salvation of God Your Rent then consists in Holy Worship and Holy Walking When you sit down to meal and rise my Rent says God Be sure he have cordial praises that you adore him in your hearts See your tongue be the faithful Messenger of your very heart so when you lie down and rise up when you go out and come in again in all thy wayes acknowledge him and he shall direct thy steps but this is not all your Rent you live by him you must live for him if you ever mean to live with him Go to then speak and act for God to the utmost of your Capacitie The little you can do for God do it with all your might If God will take his rent in thoughts in words and in deeds that cost you nothing O grudge it not delay it not Cry out Lord I am a poor man but here is my Rent at my day Well done good and
mourns for his folly and opening his eyes sees Gods hand in all and blesseth the Name of the Lord. Preservatives against this Temptation to Discontent are Discretion Supplication and Consrderation 1. Discretion Most of your vexations are the effect and consequence of your indiscretion hence many of your straits come had you ordered business wisely you had never been in them hence many of your losses many trespasses and the vexations from them have flowed and therefore you must study to be wise Psal. 112. 5. A good man guides his affairs with discretion and so comes to be able to shew favour and lend A wise man discerneth time and judgement orders things in their season and so layes in little fuel for discontent whereas the foolish man by his rashness leaps into troubles and straits and then fumes and roars like a wild Bull in a net all the house cannot hold him And especially young House-holders that have leapt into that condition hand over head erre herein The rashness of their youth layes up for the discontents of their old age And Parents are too blame herein that do not fill their children with advise and all kind of wisdome before they lanch out into this sea of worldly troubles They send them away with Portions and Estates but how few are they that spend a day or an hour in directing them with wise counsel whereby they may live well here and better hereafter A little wisdom would prevent a great deal of Discontent 2. Supplication Beg of God a meek and quiet Spirit which is of so great price in the fight of God and watch after your Prayers not only how the Lord answers but how you endeavour He that prayes against Discontent binds himself to watch and strive against it or else his prayers are sin Beg an humble heart of God The humble man is seldome discontent he thinks the least of mercies is good enough for the chief of sinners Here 's a poor house course fare hard lodging unkind usage but 't is good enough for me Any thing that 's abated of Hell is meer courtesie If I may have but bread to eat and rayment to put on it 's fair for such a one as I. And then beg a mortified heart to all that is in the world When the heart is dead to the world worldly troubles do not trouble him When the Souldiers saw Christ our Lord was dead they would not break his bones He that 's dead to the world will save his bones whole when crosses straits and troubles come upon him why they return to God saying yonder man is dead already to the world his heart is crucified to it he feels nothing so as to be distempered by it When they strip dead men they struggle not you may take all they trouble not at it O beg such an heart that God may do what he will with thee That his will may be done and this prayer will procure patience and help against Discontent 3. Consideration of the Evil and Folly of this Sin It strikes at the Soveraignty Wisdome Power and Love of God at one blow Against his Soveraignty as if he rulâ—…d not things well or knew not what to do with his own Hence this sin is call'd Rebellion Num. 16. 14. with 17. 10. There God calls them Rebels and why because said they thou hast not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey nor given us inheritances of fields and vineyards Thus thousands in their hearts reproach God and say Alas my lot is fallen ill I have neither house nor ground nor clothes as are fit for me Take heed go on no further in thy complaint This is Rebellion It wounds the Wisdom of God as if he knew not what to do for us and with us We would abhor to say this of God but in effect we proclaim it by our Discontent His wayes are sometimes dark but alwayes just sometimes intricate but alwayes wise Naomi thought that she and hers were quite undone but even then God was providing a stay for her in her old age No sayes the male-content if things had sorted to my mind it had been far better than it is as if you should say If God had taken my way he had hit it Also this puts a check upon the Power of God Can God give flesh Can he help me in this or that strait O I am undone there is no remedy As if his wayes and his thoughts were like thine and mine How oft hath he helped thee at a dead lift when the Lease was to takâ—… â—…hy Rent to pay thy Children to dispose And therefore why should you fret or repine at the straits and crosses that do befall you as though his hand were shortned or his car heavy Sure he that helps Kings can help Husbandmen in their need And then it strikes at the love of God No Father can be so carefull of the good of his Child or Husband of his Wives happiness as God is of each of you that belong to him And why will â—…e be displeased at his proceedings towards you Hear what he saith Jer. 32. 47. I will rejoyce over you to do you good and will plant you in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul as if he should say I am glad in my heart when I can have a fit opportunity to do you good and I do it with my whole heart and soul. Nay sayes the discontented man Things falls out with me to the worst spite it self could not order worse for me such unexpected such intollerable troubles and vexations How doth this grieve Love it self that is ordering every thing for thy Good and thou cryest All these things work against me And here 's the evil of it And the Folly also of Discontent is manifest for it produces no good and procures much evil No good comes of it I report me to your experience whether ever your Discontent did mend the matter From the chieâ—… Evil Sin no good can come What folly is this for a man to fret and stamp and play the Bedlam an hour or two to no purpose 〈◊〉 matters nothing at all the better Nay it procures much Evil disheartens thy Wife discontents thy Family distempers thy self and wounds thy soul and grieves away the Good Spirit of God and all to no purpose O consider of these thingâ—… and never be discontent again SECT III. III. THe Third Temptation of the Husbandman is Forgetting God and Depending upon second Causes His Calling lying among the Creatures at some distance from God he is prone by trading with things seen to forget things unseen like a man in a Mill cannot hear the voice of God for the clacking and noise it makes It is the peculiar happiness of the Minister that his very Calling lies about God He dwells at Court every day he needs do little else but contemplate God and perswade others to him But the Husbandmans business lies
be not blest by prayer or how can God and you be friends if you keep not correspondence cannot he yea will not he make thee amends by the years end for an hour in a day spent with him Alas you may get more in half an hour by Prayer Psalms Reading to wit some grains of true grace than by your hardest working all your lives yea then all the world is worth and why then will you stand so with God for a little time He that gives you all will you stand with him for an inch If your servant should tell you when he hath neglected a business of concernment he could not help it for he had business of his own would it please you so neither will it please God when you omit Prayer c. that you had other business and could not heed it The very Turks though they make their slaves work hard yet afford them time for food and rest will you deal worse with your soul than with a Gally slave Hath not God said Psalm 127.2 It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows except the Lord give his blessing and how is that obtain'd but by prayer a constant blessing but by constant prayer Alas one mischance may half undoe thee and were it not best then to keep in with that God that hath all creatures and casualties in his hand You have heard of that religious Gentleman concerning whom the Witch his Neighbour made this confession at her death That she had waited seven whole years to do him a mischief but his constant Prayers had still disappoynted her until one Morning that hast of business had carryed him from home without Prayer in his Family and before his return she had bewitched four or five of his children Miracle of mercy and nothing else that God hath spared thee whose neglects in that kind have been many What if Satan had been permitted to do so by thee how many Prayers might it have cost thee for deliverance And is it not more comfortable to spend those Prayers for preventing evil than for removing it Is not that Prayer better spent that God commands than that which Sin procures Nay think when you are tempted to neglect the service of God in your Families or otherwise what an honour and advantage it is that you may thus approach God If the King should but give you liberty to come twice or thrice a day into his presence and there tell your whole case and lay out all your wants and promise a real answer to your requests how hard or many soever O how proud would you be of such a priviledge and seldom would you miss your time you would find somthing or other wanting for your selveâ—… or friends and duly improve it How much is your Priviledge greater that may come two or three times a day into the presence of thâ—… King of Kings and be heard about the greaâ—… things of eternal life O never fail your attendance open your mouth wide and he wiâ—… fill it And then get more Zeal that will heal yoâ—… of your deadness in holy duties Think seriously whom am I before my Maker and Redeemer And what am I about The eternal salvation of my soul and body And whither am I going Into that world of souâ—… and spirits that endless state whence I muâ—… never return And are these things to be 〈◊〉 in Are men asleep when they are begginâ—… for their lives in a dream when their Cauâ—… is trying O remember it is the effectâ—… fervent prayer of a righteous man that avaiâ—…eth much Though he be a righteous man yeâ—… except he put fervency into his prayer it prevaileth little Frozen suits meet with colâ—… answers from God Put therefore Fire intâ—… thy Sacrifice and then it will ascend Consider that the Lord thy God is to be loved anâ—… served with all the soul and might and strength and that he hath a curse and not a blessing foâ—… the deceiver that hath in his flock a Male anâ—… voweth and sacrificeth to God a corrupt thing Mal. 1.13 Nay sayes God I could see yoâ—… earnest enough in the Field busie in the House busie in the Barn busie every where and idlâ—… and cold only when you come to me you have in your flock a male but you think any frame any thing will serve me I have no blessing for such as you He that wrestles with me shall prevail he that takes pains shall have the Garland and no man must be crowned except he strive and strive lawfully He that hath zeal strives 2. To prevent deadness or negligence in holy Duties You must not 〈◊〉 your selves Immoderate labour may be sinful as well as immoderate meat and drink Then it is immoderate 1. VVhen it is not consistent with the strength of thy body God requires from no man more than he hath given him he doth not allow a man a weak body and exact from him strong labour this were to require Brick and deny straw When therefore thy pains in thy Calling doth quite dis-spirit or distemper thy body then it grows immoderate and for a poor accident thou hazardest the substance 2. Thy labour then is immoderate when it is not consistent with the Duties of Religion when secret or family Prayer must stand or fall at the courtesie of thy labour and business when thy spirits are exhausted and thy strength so spent that when Duties should be done thy heart like Nabals is dead as a stone thy body worn out and good for nothing but the Bed then your labour becomes immoderate And neither will it advantage thy estate nor thy dead duties advantage thy Soul and so thou makest a fair Bargain For it is certain that what a man gets by immoderate cares and labour does him no more good than what he gets by theft or oppression Hab. 2.13 The people weary themselves in the very fire and that for very vanity VVhat a piece of folly is this to weary a mans self and that in the very fire broyling in the world and all this for very vanity a poor recompence Day-labourers are to be pitied and the Lord no doubt pities them and takes up with a lesser Rent of service from them than from their Masters yet even they must remember that they have souls as well as bodies that they have a Master in Heaven as well as a Master upon Earth that a Living must be gotten for Hereafter as well as aâ—… present and they ought as Tertullian saith of eating so to work as that they remember they must to Prayer before they go to bed Lest this rise up against them that they were careful to take some warm thing in the morâ—…ing for their bodies before they went to work and neglected a warm Prayer or Chapter that were much more wholsome for theâ—… souls You should argue if I have taken all this pains all day for a little money shall I
not strain one sinew for a little grace at night If I have tyred my Legs about the earth shall 〈◊〉 not wear my Knees to get to Heaven If I have wearied my Armes to get a living here shall I not stretch out my Hands to get a Crown hereafter And let all resolve that the Husbandman must give place to the Christian the Plough must submit to the Prayer and your Earthly Vocation to your heavenly Calling SECT VI. VI. THe Sixth Temptation of the Husbandman is Vncharitableness and Nigardliness He can hardly part with that which he hath so hardly gotten That which he hath gotten with the drops of his sweat he is like to part with as the drops of his blood 1 Sam. 25.11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be said that rich Chub Nabal So the Husbandman must I take pains for wealth and give it away when I have done Let all that will eat labour as well as I and herewith he turns off the fittest objects of charity that are and resolves that every man must be for himself and so will he He argues that no body gives him and therefore he will give to none But though this be his Temptation yet I do not assert that Husbandmen are generally conquer'd by it For according to the proportion of his estate he exceeds for the most part the Gentry round about him The poor Criple at his door shall have a larger alms to his power I am sure a quicker dispatch than at the great pair of Gates close by him And in publick Collections for charitable uses the poor Husbandmans Purse is ready with his Mite when hiâ—… Landlord was not at Church that day Neither do I affirm that every one that asks is a fit object for the Charity of our Husbandman especially if our Laws for setting the pooâ—… on work were put in execution no some lusty Beggars he entertains with a charitable Exhortation to honest labour and tells them the benefit and comfort that he finds by it and somtimes sets them on work upon tryal but because he considers that it 's safer to relieve nine needless Beggars than to turn away one needy one therefore he strains himself to help the most that cry for it and refers himself to the Lord his God for recompense But yet he hath much adoe with his heart herein Flesh and Blood looks thrice upon his money ere the Spirit and Grace can once part with it It puts all the Faith he hath to the utmost to give to strangers when perhaps his own children are unprovided for and to relieve others that must come if two or three bad years meet with him to be relieved himself But if he have no Faith but an earthly selfish temper instead of it the poor have cold entertainment at his door He thinks it enough for him to be just to pay every man his own let others be charitable that have greater Estates He must pay Taxes to the King he must pay Rents to his Landlord he must pay Lewnes to the Church and then to the poor of his Parish and by this time he is drained and can do no more And it is to say the truth a lamentable thing that so many wandring Beggars are suffered to be unimployed and yet more that the burden of them falls upon the poor Husbandman for his Landlord lives in the City and visits his Hall only twice a year and the poor are little the better for that yea somtimes their unconscionable Rents make the Beggars and then the Husbandman is forc'd to keep them But yet some Preservatives must be laid before the Husbandman against this Temptation 1. You must consider that you are but Stewards of your Estate The Property is Gods the Possession and use only yours And so what you give is of Gods stock in your hands and what need you be niggardly of anothers stock As long as your Alms and Expences will pass in your accounts it is nothing at all to you how he will have it dispos'd The forgetfulness of this makes men so close-handed They take all they have to be their own so Nabal shall I give my bread and my flesh So the worldling cries This is my house my corn my bread and this locksâ—…up his hand whereas when thou look'st on thy house say This is the Lords who gives me house-room on charity and therefore any Guest he sends must be welcome this Corn is Gods and so is this Bread I have but the disposing of it and so if he order it to a Beggar I will freely part with it for it is none of mine but Gods If some great man give you an Estate oâ—… twenty pounds a year freely only heâ—… layes twenty shillings Rent-charge upon it Were not you unworthy to deny or to grudg the payment of this Rent-charge why this is the case It is the Lord only that hath given you an Estate charitable relief of such as are in want is the Lords Rent-charge which he hath laid upon it and therefore grudg not to pay it lest he re-enter and seize the whole And especially considering that he hath charged thee herein according to thy ability not as earthly Landlords that lay somtimes a great Rent on a small living he would only have thee to suit thy charity to thy ability O but I am a very poor man and can hardly subsist Answ. Art thou poorer than that widow Mark 12.42 She had not much and Christ expected not much from her two Mites shall serve thy turn if thou hast but little And our Lord Jesus himself was low in Stock when he was put to a miracle for money to pay his Tax and yet saith the text he had a Purse for the Poor Joh. 13.29 Think of this when thou hast much a do to pay thy Rent or to pay thy Tax and grudg not somthing to the hungry and naked seeing thy Saviour had a purse for the poor though he somtimes wanted money to pay his Tax 2. You must believe that giving will make you rich Well-ordered charity makes no man poor The way to have full Barns is to have free hands To this both God and Man beaâ—… witness Isa. 32.78 The instruments of the Churl are evil that is he who maketh empty the soul of the hungry vers 6. But the liberal man deviseth liberal things and by liberal things shall he stand He deviseth how he may do good and where and when he lyes in his bed contriving how he may do poor men good in the best manner I say you so he may quickly devise away all that ere he hath Nay saith the Holy Ghost â—…y liberal things shall he stand Piety Equity and Charity are the best Pillars in any mans house None more punctually payes his debts than God now he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord and the Lord he will pay