soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully He observes the Increase is treble to the laying out and the thicker he sows observing rules of prudence the thicker it comes up and pays him fully both for his labour and his forbearance And he that can trust his Seed in the bosome of the Earth can trust his Charity in the hands of God and therefore of that little he hath his poor Neighbours shall have part Heaven will repay it all Eccles. 11.4 3. The Third Lesson which the Husbandman learns from his Corn is from the Springing of it and hence he learns the Nature both of the first and second Resurrection First he perceives hence the strange working of Grace in his soul Mark 4.26 So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how There he throws his seed into the cold ground and goes his way and behold e're long it comes up but he knows not how Just thus cryes he was it with my heart I feel some supernatural work in me but I know not how 't was wrought Seed I remember was cast upon me but how this sorrow this faith this love is wrought in me I know not What a blessed change is here a field of thorns into a field of corn Sure Lord thy hand has been here And 't is thou must perfect the work of thy own hands This green corn must have many a shower before it be ripe this must have the former and the latter rain and so must I. And this minds the Husbandman of frequenting all the means of Grace he can and there he layes his soul under the droppings of heaven with unspeakable delight and goes away from every Ordinance more green and fresh than he was before Hence again he learns something of the last Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.35 But some man will say How are the dead raised up Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it dyâ—… It is sown in Corruption it is raised in incorruption The Husbandman remembers he sowed his Corn white and withered but it comes up fresh and green it lay in the ground till it seem'd lost and perish't but that dying was to give it life and that corn which to his sence was dead and gone e're long to his sense is revived and in greater glory than before And is it thus saith the Husbandman Why then this withered body of mine is but sown in the grave to spring up again without these imperfections It is to be sown deeper because it must spring up higher than my corn what though I dye consume and perish to the eye of senâ—… yet though worms destroy this body in my flesh shall I see God and though I live and dye in dishonour yet I shall rise again in honour He that raises up my corn can raise up me He can effect one Resurrection at last that causes a Resurrection in my field every year How many thousands of men and women shall spring up then out of this one Church Yard You shall see no less I believe than fifty or threescore thousand come up at the spring of the Resurrection in this one Church Yard How dreadful then will the whole appearance be at that great day 4. The Fourth Lesson that the Husbandman may learn from his Corn is from the Reaping and In-gathering of it And this effectually minds him of the End of the world Mat. 13.39 The Harvest is the end of the World and the Reapers are the Angels Beloved the world hath grown a long while it hath grown longer than the Old world by two thousand years so that now the fields are white to the harvest and I doubt if it grow longer it will grow worse every day then other Now when the Husbandman sees his field is ripe then he puts in his sickle sets in his reapers and down it goes The weeds that have escaped till then go down and are bundled togeâ—…hrr and cast away And so when the holy and wise God sees his Elect ripe for glory and the Reprobates for ruine then he calls to his Angels as Joel 3.13 Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe come get you down for the Press is full for their wickedness is great What a brave sight will it be to see the Angels reaping And then those hypocrites that have grown in Gods field with the corn and had their part in the showers above and fatness beneath with the corn it self shall be gathered into bundles a bundle of proud creatures a bundle of worldly creatures a bundle of wanton wretches and cast into hell fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And then shall true Holiness be richly rewarded which also the Husbandman hath occasion to think of in his harvest What pains had he in sowing how did he sweat at plow but now he is richly paid The Vallies are covered with corn they shout for joy they also sing they make the Husbandman to sing He went forth weeping bearing precious Seed Psal. 126. ult But now he comes again rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him And he learns by this that his fasting and prayers and self-denial though sharp and difficult yet will quit the cost at the long run He hath a natural faith to believe his pains for the Earth will pay his charge and make him merry once in the year and he hath a spiritual faith to believe his pains for Heaven will bring much greater surer and sweeter gains Drudging at the harrow that 's sharp but sweeping down the wheat that 's sweet Prayers and tears he finds to cost him dear but grace and glory pay him home The Sluggard Prov. 20.4 will not plow by reason of cold therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing The idle hand shall have an empty Barn he shall beg and have nothing when harvest comes Here the idle poor glean at harvest and get something but O what millions of Beggars will there be at that great harvest crying Give us of your Oyl but they shall have nothing the Godly Father shall not spare the Ungodly Child one drop of Oyl nor the religious wife to the graceless husband They who would now spare a drop of their hearts blood to save their Relations then will not cannot must not spare them one drop of Oyl to save their souls Mat. 25.9 And from the In-gathering of his corn he learns this Lesson That when his Soul is ripe and ready God will leave him no longer in the field below but will house him in heaven above and will bring him into his grave in a full age like as a shock of Corn cometh in in his season And if he see a storm coming he will make some haste to secure him before it falls as the Husbandman hurries in his corn when he sees
provide for them That God who hears young Ravens will hear young Children Though Ishmael was no better then he should be yet God heard the voice of the Lad Gen. 21.17 for the old love that was between himself and Abraham And he often thinks with comfort on that Psal. 37.25 I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging bread And he hath need of Faith to hold up his heart under his many wearisome cares and troubles Faith will find honey in the Lion and comfort in the Bible when there 's none on earth and therefore when the Husbandman comes home tired with his hard work he takes the Bible and there finds that every condition all things shall work together for good to them that love God That when flesh and heart faileth yet God is the strength of his heart and his portion for ever He finds that tribulation works patience and patience experience That affliction is better than sin That it is better to be worn out with labour than to be given up to lust He believes the day how dark soever will end well O the Husbandman cannot live a day without faith He cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God And lastly he hath need of Faith for his poor soul in the world to come If ever any man sure he may say Psal. 27.13 I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living This is his refuge when nothing else will serve when his body and spirits are spent when his cares and crosses prevail against him Heaven will put an end to this Now I am plowing in the Earth but shortly I shall be reaping in Heaven This sweating life will be over and my singing life will begin yet a while and I shall be sent for post to Heaven There is but one life between me and a great Estate my troubles will have an end but my joy will never have an end and my short afflictions which are but for a moment are all this while working for me an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory And this I believe I have not onely some sleight and groundless hopes of it but I have an Evidence for it I find my Name in the Scripture and so know it is in the book of Life And therefore my heart is glad my glory rejoyceth my flesh also that hath little rest here doth rest in hope my possessions are little but my reversions great He that shall be rich for ever may be content to be poor a while And thus you have heard what special Graces the Husbandman should have and which I earnestly in Gods behalf perswade you to strive for with all your might leave no means unused no strength unspent for the attaining of these Graces It is possible to get them its profitable to have them its perillous to be without them without these you live but little above your beasts you do but drudge O therefore go to the God of grace for them and never leave him till you have them CHAP. VIII The Abuse of Husbandry SECTION I. WE are come now in the Eighth place to Discover the Abuse of Husbandry And pity it is that so honest and innocent an Imployment should be abused but abus'd it is by many But that 's the fault of the men not of the Calling the Calling shall be had in honour when they shall dye in shame What Calling more Excellent than the Ministry and yet alas how is that Calling abused but wo to them by whom offences come let that holy Calling stand innocent and honourable notwithstanding Our worthy Calling of Husbandry is defaced by too many but for all that remains Excellent Yet these Abuses we must detect that you may see the extreames and never fall into them SECT I. THe First Abuse of the Husbandmans Calling is by Drunkenness and Gluttony So we find Gen. 9.20 21. And Noah began to be an Husbandman and he planted a Vineyard and he drank of the Wine and was drunken Here we have Noahs Imployment and his Infirmity His imployment he began to be an Husbandman Though all the world was his and his heirs for ever yet he chose to have a Calling and he chose this Calling And then here is his Infirmity where there are two extreames in opinion Some making it an unpardonable crime that an aged wise and holy man should thus miscarry not charitably considering that it was not Intemperance but Inexperience that caused his fallâ—… And others holding it was no sin at all because Involuntary and of Ignorance but this annihilates it not extenuate it may it was ill done but recorded purposely to warn us from the like Patriarchae nos docent non soluâ—… Docentes sed Errâ—…tes The Patriarchs Errors teach us as well as their Instructions O let this instance teach the Husbandman never to abuse his Calling thus by drunkenness and Gluttony I mean immoderate eating and drinking when men eat or drink more than doth good not onely when it is too much for their heads or stomacks but when it is too much for their time or too much for their estate which God will account Drunkenness at the last day Though there be degrees of it and some worse than other and it is worse in some men than in others and beseems an Husbandman as ill as most others in the world And yet he is prone to think there is no Recreation but an Ale-house no way to quench his Cares but by strong drink no exercise on a Festival but quaffing and smoaking But this is a fearful Abuse in thy Calling Thy hard labour will never excuse thy hard drinking thy field groans that bears the grain which thou thus abusest Why this is a beastly and deadly sin Other sins 't is true in their nature are many of them worse than this but few beyond it considering the inseparable effects of it namely the rendring the man or rather the beast liable to all sins A sin that by degrees will steal all the money out of thy purse all the comforts out of thy house all thy credit and all thy conscience and leave thee nothing but stinging sorrow O rectifie therefore this Abuse Hast thou no Recreation but thy Ruine no pleasure but in Sin no way to refresh thy body but by wounding thy soul hast thou so many houses neer thee where thou may'st be chearfull and welcome for thy company and will none serve thee but the Alehouse where thou art welcome onely for thy money Think as thou entrest in those doors Doth God call me hither Can I give account of this Is God to be met with here would I be found thus by Death Shall I gratifie my flesh to provoke my God Shall I sadden my Conscience to chear my Appetite I 'le away I 'le stay here no longer Depart
him to his friend or business but not to dwell upon not for themselves even so a man may design and desire outward ends as riches or ease not for the injoying of them but that we may better love serve and enjoy God As all causes run up and resolve â—…mselves into the first cause so all our ends â—…ld terminate in the last end of all things â—…ich is the glory and honour of God for 〈◊〉 him and through him and to him are all â—…ings to whom be Glory Rom. 11.36 The Husbandman looks up and cryes Ah Lord I â—…ive here on Earth but my aims are as high as Heaven though I be but a poor man yet I â—…ave rich ends I accuse not my Superiours but if a man stand on a Tower and shoot downward he that stands at the bottom of 〈◊〉 and shoots upward may fly above him 〈◊〉 poor Peasant may look as high as the Prince in this sense and the Plough-mans laboâ—… please his Maker more than the Victories 〈◊〉 an Emperour the one serving the will of his heavenly Lord the other sacriâ—… to his hellish Lust. And this leads us to the Ninth point which is to set down the Husbandmans designs in his Calling Alwayes provided this point be not laid aside without some use thereof namely that you bewail this Abuse of it in others and reform it in your selves mend the same as far as you can and mourn for it wherein you cannot As the Apostle saith Vse the world as not abusing it so use this Calling as not abusing it adorn it and do not shame it A bad Husbandman and a good Christian seldom go together And so much for the Eighth Point CHAP. IX The Husbandmans Designs SECTION I. WE are arrived now at the 〈◊〉 general Head of this Subject which is the Designs which 〈◊〉 good Husbandman ought 〈◊〉 have in his Calling It is a 〈◊〉 end that crowns or shames his work 〈◊〉 Husbandmans ends do ennoble his Calling And they are these I. The chief end of the Husbandman 〈◊〉 his Calling is To Please and Glorifie God 〈◊〉 he can but attain this he is rich enough Thâ—… is mans greatest duty and highest priviledge 'T is the Christians character and Motto Roâ—… 14.8 9. For none of us liveth to himself 〈◊〉 no man dieth to himself for whether we livâ—… we live unto the Lord c. Mark it 's said none of us of what sort or degree soever livâ—… to himself but to the Lord. It 's true the more noble wise and learned the more they should contribute to these ends but even the poor Husbandman must add his Mite even a Dwarf may shoot at the Zenith and aime as high as the greatest Gyant O therefore stir up your selves and direct your designs on high If thou can'st any way magnifie the Wisdome Greatness Holiness and Goodness of thy Maker happy art thou and happy is thy Calling This is an End for an Angel They trumpet forth his Glory and so dost thou they sanctifie his Name in Heaven and thou in thy lower sphear dost sanctifie his Name on Earth And though thou shootest with a weaker bow yet aimest at as high a mark But alas say you How can I glorifie my Maker that am but one remove from a piece of earth yea of sinful earth I answer Not only the Heavens declare the Glory of God Psal. 19.1 but even Beasts and all Cattel creeping things and flying fowle Psal. 148.10 and would you know how See vers 8. The fire and hail snow and vapour stormy wind fulfilling his word How manifestly does the snow hail and tempest preach the power justice and wisdom of God I say they do plainly preach them and that by doing his Will hanging in the sky and falling on the earth as he pleaseth As well taught Children or Servants do honour and magnifie their superiours by their ready obedience Even so at least may the poor Husbandman glorifie his Father in Heaven by an obedient departing himself in his place and doing the will of God in his vocation And therefore this he should aime at in his Calling why here I am here I work and sweat chiefly to please my God who hath set my lines and carved me out my imployment and hence even Servants must do service with good will as to the Lord and not to men Eph. 6.7 as if God himself did every 〈◊〉 ing set the Husbandman his task and at night survey his work with what care and delight should such a man follow his business that hath such a Master as God himself Lord sayes the Husbandman I am but a mean creature but yet I will honour thee as well as a mean man may do I 'le work to please thee and by consequence no harder nor easier than will please thee I 'le yoke and unyoke when thou wouldst have me as exactly as I can discern by that prudence I have and those rules of Religion to be observed to thee and pitty to the Creatures When I come home I have but a mean feast but yet Whether I eat or drink or whatsoever I do it shall some way be terminated in that end of ends the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 When I go to bed I will not forget that whether I wake or sleep I should live to thee for thee with thee 1 Thef 5.10 Though my work be mean yet my aimes are excellent and brass guilded with God will make it glister A poor man with rich ends is of good account in Heaven It is certain that the holiest action of an Hypocrite if you ravel it to the bottom ends at self and the meanest action of a Saint ends at God for example why doth the Hypocrite pray that he may pass well with others or satisfie the cryes of his Conscience And why aimes he at these That he may have repute without or quiet within And why doth he desire these Why because they do gratifie carnal self On the other side why doth the Husbandman work to provide for his family And why that That he may educate and dispose his Children And why so That they may honour and serve their heavenly Father when their Earthly Parents are dead and gone Well then let this End surmount all others and be diligent and faithful in your Calling to please that God who hath set you therein and to glorifie him what in you lies by setting forth his Wisdome Power and Goodness that when he changes your Countenances and sends you away you may sing that sweet song John 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do And now Father glorifie me with thy self SECT II. II. THe second design of the Christian Husbandman is The Salvation of his Soul This he studies upon night and day He knows that estate is ill got that beggars the Soul That Rent sorrily paid that makes him run in arrears with God And therefore
THE Husbandmans CALLING Shewing the Excellencies Temptations Gracés Duties c. of the CHRISTIAN HUSBANDMAN Being the Substance of XII SERMONS Preached to a Country Congregation By RICHARD STEELE M. A. and Minister of the Gospel Cant. 1. 6. They made me keeper of the Vineyards but mine own Vineyard have I not kept Math. 6. 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added to you LONDON Printed by M. S. and are to be sold by E. Calvert at the sign of the Black spread Eagle in Barbican 1668. To all the Faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ in this our English Israel Reverend Fathers and Brethren IT is not out of Presumption the Lord he knoweth that I make this Address unto you as if I were worthy to bespeak much less instruct Such and So many but from a sincere Love to mens souls attended with a profound Respect unto you all 'T is you that have the charge to bring this our Husbandman to Heaven from his care and labour most of your subsistance comes You are strictly bound by all Laws Divine and Humane to help them to live in Heaven that help you to live on earth nay you are obliged by express Scripture to give your selves wholly to this business and you must certainly give an exact account of your Stewardship God knows how soon Now I only undertake to be your Remembrancer and my own Monitor in these two main things 1. That we would often consider the Great End of our worthy Ministry which is not to please men but Christ Jesus the Lord not to obtain applause from the Vulgar or respect from Great Men or to make ample worldly provision for our selves but we are purposely sent from God to save mens souls from death and to carry if it be possible all our flock with us to Heaven Let us revive this often upon our souls especially when we are casting the Net of the Gospel among a Sea of Sinners in our actuall Ministration wherein we must consider that our Husbandmans soul is as precious to God as the soul of a greater man and should the rather be holpen because he wants often the benefit of Education Learning and Ingenuity to help himself O let 's think before their Passing-bell do startle us whether we have done our utmost for the saving of the Man or Woman that is now sailing for eternity 2. That in our retired throughts we duly weigh and then put in practise the fittest Means to accomplish this great End 1. In Sermons what Texts and Subjects are most needful to ground them to awaken them to convert them and to strengthen them what Method is most useful to clear the will of God to them and settle it in their memories what words and affections are most effectual to declare their duty and perswade them to it In short how we may so paint to the life Grace and Glory that the people may fall in love with them and purchase them at any rate and then so describe Sin and Hell that they may tremble to think of them and go from the Ordinances with their hearts penetrated amazed melted and changed That we may not fill our Sermons with sapless niceties impertinent quotations cholerick reflections or with that unquiet controversal Divinity especially about points less momentous which hardly ever produce any effect save Exasperation And for as much as experience hath taught us that private and particular â—…dvice and Reproof doth catch many that have slipped through more general means let us labour as far as we are able to take a particular care of each member of those flocks where any of us are Overseers that we may warn every man and teach every man that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus How many Drunkards Swearers Covetous Trouble some persons are there under our charge that either know not or mind not the evil of their way whom one quarter of an hours serious Advice might cure and how well generally do men take such Counsels from us because we are doing the Duties of our Office and their faithfullest part to wit their Consciences are on our side If it be possible therefore let us spare some time to go among them to see how our Husbandry prospers so shall we best be acquainted with their condions and soonest gain their affections Alas if we do not know them we must shoot our Arrow at adventure and if they do not love us they will hardly heed what we say And then 2. In our Lives O that they may be a Commentary on our Sermons full of Gravity Humility Piety Peace and Love Let our words and waies savour of the Sermons we preach that our Lives may convince those whom our Lips cannot perswade Alas we see that one irregular practice doth undermine throw down that which many Sermons have been building they will not believe that which we plainly show we do not believe our selves Though this be their mistake to take sanctuary in our sinnes who must be judged by our Sermons yet 't is a distemper that will not easily be cured and wo will be to them by whom offences come as well as wo to them that are offended with the Truth Let us remember Excellent Mr. Herberts Advice whose Tract called the Country-Parson is richly worth our frequent reading that the Minister should be a pattern of all goodness to all the Men in the Parish and his Wife to all the Women in the Parish and his Children and Servants to all the Children and Servants in the Parish and particularly that we be far from Prophaneness Covetousness Contention direct or indirect opposition to serious Piety or the Professors thereof And lastly 3. For our Inward Affections that we may keep alwaies flaming in our hearts a sincere and Paternal Love to all our Flock that our counsels reproofs and Sermons may flow from a real and dear Love to them and then they can hardly miscarry in their effects upon them that our Real and Visible design may not be to seek theirs but them That our Behaviour degrade us not from that Authority wherewith we are vested nor Pride keep us from that seasonable condescention that is so necessary among the people But that we may be wholly taken up with our great work and make our other circumstances attend and further this that by any means we may save our selves and them that hear us And let 's not think much of all this work for we were told it before and we shall be richly rewarded for every drop of Spirits yea for every drop of sweat yea for every drop of ink that is spent rightly in our Masters Service and doubly damn'd if persons of our Knowledge and Imploâ—…ment or Others by our Neglect Ignorance Non-residence or Evil Example miscarry â—…verlastingly In a word that we may all in earnest advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and keep up the Credit of the
If any will not work neither shall be eâ—…t God may justly say Look to your selves you live under no promise or protection of mine Let this Note stand to convince all idle and useless persons cyphers that stand for nothing but to eat and talk and dress and laugh and dye that never spend a drop of sweat unless to pursue their pleasures nor a considering thought unless to provide for them that bestow the one half of the day to deck their bodyes and the other half to defile their souls Alass Sirs what do you think on if indeed you dare think of any thing unseen If you would not be Brutes and love not to be Saints refuse not to be Men and Women refuse not to obey Reason you that scorn 〈◊〉 submit to Religion Can you imagine that such noble Souls were given you for such worthless lives will such accounts as these pass before the Judge of Heaven and Earth Item †Spent each day from five of the Clock in the Morning to Three afternoon in dressing painting and perfuming and three hours more at Night in unpasting and undressing again Item spent all one day in hunting all the next in drinking c. How would Adam admire that such Sons and Eve that such Daughters should proceed from them How would Abraham and Sarah be asham'd of them How will God and Christ be asham'd to own them or glorifie them in Heaven that never considered to glorifie him on Earth They then shall know that unprofitable Servants and Prodigals shall be packt together and he that did not his Masters will shall go to hell as well as he that crost it Receive then a word of Exhortation hence O all Parents and Children that would go to Heaven you Parents get your Children into Christs School and into honest Callings and then leave them to God whether ye be rich or poor cast imployments for them most sutable for their Outward most safe for their Inward Man When Adam had but two Sons Cain and Abel they had each a Calling though Cain was born to more Land than any man ever since yet he had an imployment Gen. 4. 2. Abel was a Keeper of the Sheep but Cain was a Tiller of the Ground And then ye Children be willing and earnest for honest Callings Idleness is sweet but the bread of idleness hath no tast Think not that your Priviledge which is your Punishment Alass on t of imployment and then you are tinder for every spark and if you be not fit for Earth you are not fit for Heaven This in General Our Father Adam iu Innocency had a Calling and let every one that descends from him write after him SECT III. But to be a little more particular from the Author of this imployment we may observe That its sweet to beled and put into a Calling by the Lord. As our Father Adam here God took him by the hand and led him into his Calling He that is disposed by the Lord is well provided for Hagar was hard pos'd Gen. 16. 8. Hagar saith God whence comest thou and whither wilt thougo She was disposing her self without her Maker or her Masters leave and so back again she is sent Now you are led into a Calling by the Lord when your Prayers and his Providence have made the way When good Jacob was turned into the wide world he goes straight to Heaven and there vowed this vow Gen. 28. 20. If God will be with me and keep me in this way that I go c. Then shall the Lord be my God Was this vow in vain In no wise for his God kept him and disposed of him well as heart could wish and sent him back in two Bands though all his stock when he went abroad was his Staff He that ventures into a Calling without God goes without his guide who hath said Prov. 3. 6. In all thy wayes acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths And so when His Providence hath led the way We have in the disposing of Isaac into the world both these together Gen. 24. 14. Prayer went before and Providence followed after And vers 50. It is agreed saith Laban and Bethuel The thing proceedeth from the Lord we cannot speak a word against it It is a sweet thing to sail with the gale of Providence and sharp to sail against it And then when thy Calling is lawful and thy ends right it strongly argues that God leads thee into it and this is a sweet thing For then you will bring honour to God and that is the honour of a Calling For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whatsoever we do it ought to be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 God hath a greater Rent of glory from a poor Thresher then from many a Prince in the world And then when you are led into your Callings by the Lord you will better brook the inconveniences thereof for every Calling hath some of these which you will digest the better when you are led into them by such an hand The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink who can but cheerfully drink the Cup that comes out of so good an hand Lord Here thou hast put me though my work be hard fare hard usage hard yet here I 'le stay till the same hand fetch me off again And so holy Jacob Gen. 31.40 In the day the drought consumed him and the frost by night and his sleep departed from his eyes and yet twenty years he stuck to it God had disposed him there and his God should dismiss him thence for so saith the story Gen. 31.3 And the Lord said unto Jacob Return to the Land of thy fathers and to thy kindred and I will be with thee And therefore let me advise all that make any reckoning of God or of his blessing Let him carve out Callings for you and not carnal policy or carnal friends without him Crave his direction and benediction your wisest contrivances he can blast with a breath and demolish your Castles in the Air with half a word whereas if thou acknowledge him though thy beginning be small thy latter end he will make great and they that are ruled by him he will never see them want SECT IV. IN the next place let us observe from the Place of his imployment The Lord put him into the Garden of Eden That its a great priviledge to be placed in an Eden that is Comfortably Our Father Adam had the finest Seat in all the Countrey the sweetest on Earth and the nighest unto Heaven he had the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth Now when your temporal corporal and spiritual conveniences are greater then their contrary inconveniences then is your scituation comfortable And God expects that you praise him more and serve him better then others Psal. 16. 6 7. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places I will bless the Lord. The sweeter
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
look to him that is poor and contrite and that trembles at his word Isa. 66. 2. SECT VI. THe Sixth Inconvenience of the Calling of an Husbandman is The infelicity of a rustick unrefined Breeding and his inability to help his children with any better We are naturally like the wild asses Colt A Colt is a rude creature much more an Asses Colt and most of all a wild Asses Colt Education breaks us Breeding and Behaviour do pollish that rude mass in which man comes into the world And as in the Creation God did let in Light and put beauty upon the Original Chaos so right breeding opens a Casement into the mind and sayes Let there be Light and there comes Light let there be shape order and beauty and behold it comes accordingly And this is a great mercy to those that have it and improve it It pares off that roughness of disposition and ruggedness of carriage it moralizes it civilizes yea it almost spiritualizes the party that one can hardly discern where Nature leaves and where Grace begins Now the Husbandman seldome meets with this ingenuous breeding in so much as in respect of understanding he is rather-ignorant than knowing in Wisdom rather simple than Judicious in his Will rather surly than malleable in his behaviour rather rude and homely than smooth and polite In Learning the highest degree he hath taken is in Writing and Arithmetick and by reason of his hand-work and small estate he can seldome bring up his children further and no small pains he takes to help his children to write and read and then puts them to a Trade and it is good Mr Dods phrase gives them each a Bible and God be with them Not but that excellent Parts are somtimes found in persons and children of this rank and excellent Schollars have proceeded hence that have honoured every of the Liberal Arts and the more honourable imployments but the usual genius and breeding of the Husbandman is but rustick Quest. If you ask what Remedy there is for this Inconvenience Answ. I answer The wealthier sort must be advised to accomplish their children with better breeding that being a portion as far beyond richâ—…s as the Soul is beyond the Body as an entailed estate is beyond a few moveable goods They who read the History of the Worthies of England shall find some of our greatest Divines Lawyers and Physitians had their Originals from the Plough and why may not God do as much for yours and thereby make them more publick Goods to their Generation But for your selves and for them that are born and likely to live and dye Rusticks you must make up your want of outward accomplishment with inward integrity The less smooth and pollisht you are in behaviour the more sincere and plain be you in your heart It was the Character of the Athenians that they could speak well there was the University of Learning but the Character of the Lacedemonians was that they could do well So though you cannot speak eloquently yet if you can walk uprightly and faithfully you will be Courtiers in Heaven at the last Though you cannot read a letter in the book yet if you can by true Assurance read your Name in the Book of life your Scholarship will serve Though you cannot couch your words in order to men yet if you can say your Errand unto God he will accept you If you cannot write a word yet see you transcribe the fair Copy of a godly righteous and sober life and you have done well Christ Jesus was not Magister Scholae ' sed vitae And if you never get to be good Scholars yet see you be good Christians and then you 'l fit above your Landlords in Heaven if they do not look about them And thus you see the Inconveniences of the Husbandmans Calling which I have described to be an allay to ballast him lest he should be proud of his Excellencies and forget himself lest being so well on earth he should forget Heaven And that by feeling the effects he may be sensible of the evil of our first Fall and mourn for it which hath made his labour painful his gain doubtful his troubles great and his ability small And yet if he lift up the Scales he will perceive the comforts of his Calling many and the Inconveniences few and that the Lord hath tempered his Cup with great wisdom and loving kindness and left the best for him in the bottome CHAP. V. The Temptations of the Husbandman and the Preservatives WE are now arrived at the Fifth Head which is to inquire into the Temptations incident to this Calling Paradise it self was not without them and in every Calling he must expect them There are Temptations to suffering and Temptations to sin the one mentioned James 1. 2. The other vers 13. It is cause of joy when we fall into temptations of suffering especially for Christ many account it all joy when they escape such temptations but we should rather account it all joy when we meet with them It 's cause of sorrow when we are tempted to sin though we are apt to think our selves made with such Temptations And many of these have invaded the harmless Calling of the Husbandman But to be forewarn'd is the way to be fore-arm'd and though he be assaulted yet he is not forsaken He hath a Father that will not lead him into temptation which is not only his daily prayer but his chiefest care That though his Mothers children have him Keeper of the Vineyards yet his own Vineyard may be kept SECT 1. THe First Temptation of the Husbandman is Earthly-mindedness The Earth is his Element therein is his business and there he is in danger to lose his heart as it is said John 3. 31. He that is of the Earth is earthly and speaketh of the Earth The Husbandman is sprung as it were out of the Earth and the frame of his heart is prone to be earthly and his words are much of the same subject As it is impossible to behold the Heavens above us with one Eye and Earth under our feet with the other so it is a very hard business to have the Eye of the Soul upward and the Eye of the Body downward at the same time â—…e World looks little when one is in Heaven a great way off it but while on it it looks vast and great On a Mountain whole Fields at a distance look no bigger than a leaf of this book but he that is at them finds them bigger And a small Hatt held near our Eye will hinder our sight of the Sun more than a great Mountain at a distance O Sirs the Husbandman is near the Earth and it looks great in his eye and indangers to fill the heart and all it swallows up his heart and devours his time and dulls his spirits he is ready to account these things the greatest things because they are next him and
it him again Prov. 19.17 There is his Bond. Though all be his yet he will accept of it as lent Think when the poor crave God hath sent them to borrow for him who will not take it kindly to be denyed It 's true it seems lost and you think its as good to cast it down the River as give it to them O no it is not lost it 's Book't in Heaven and shall be paid on Earth Cast thy bread on the Waters and it shall return after many dayes Eccl. 11.1 most commonly in this life but the longer it s unpaid the greater will the sum be at last The man is yet unborn that hath lost any thing by God If you can but trust him you may gain sufficiently by him And to this do all good men set their Seal That the charitable hand is blessed of the Lord and he that loves to give seldom is in need to receive Alas God doth littâ—…e less thâ—…n miracles in the Husbandmans house every day So much Rent to pay so many Children to maintain so many payments without any breathing time and yet he lives and is cheerful and for the most part dies less in debt than his Landlord Whence comes this but from the wonderful Providence and Blessing of God A man would wonder whence every peny and penyworth comes that he gives and spends and payes why the Scripture will tell you He that watereth shall be watered also himself Sirs charity is good Husbandry for it brings a certain and plentiful Harvest Let the man come forth that can say he ever was loser by Christ at the long run If every bit of bread nay if every cup of cold water nay if every cheerful word nay if every charitable thought be not now or shortly rewarded then murmure and hold your hand but till then open your purse open your hands open your hearts and hide not your self from your own flesh SECT VII VII THe Seventh Temptation of the Husbandman is Distracting Care He hath so much to do and so little to do it on much Brick to make and little straw to make it with that he is apt to be overful of cares What shall we eat and what shall we drink and wherewithall shall we be cloathed Martha and he are sick of the same disease to whom Christ thus Luke 10.40 Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things Thy care divides thy heart it divides it from me it divides it from its self it is a care that troubles thee that 's naught There is a care of the Head a care of Providence Prov. 31.16 That 's commendable There is a care of the Hand a care of diligence Prov. 21.5 That 's profitable And a care of the Heart a care of diffidence Phil. 4.6 That 's abominable Much of this care molests our Husbandman many cares about his house many about his ground care fills his heart in Seed time care overfills it in Harvest but when his Rent day approaches his cares press him down care somtimes to borrow it and then care to repay it These invade him in the worship of God and make long Parentheses in his Prayers these wait upon him to his bed and somtimes trouble him in it and these visit him next his heart in the Morning When he should be full of the thoughts of Heaven these fill him with thoughts of the Earth and the Body robs the Soul of the cares that are needful for it as how it should be fâ—…d wherewith it should be cloathed or how its deadly wounds shall be healed how seldome do these break his sleep When the Husbandman is Reading or at Praâ—…r and running quite towards Heaven these like a rubb to the Bowl make him fall short of his Mark. O sayes he if this Rent were paid or if I had no Rent at all to pay how freely and cheerfully could I serve God and take care about my soul but this world this world takes me off and whatsoever my soul doth Rent must be paid and care must be taken As if he should say If I were a Gentleman I would be a Christian I would take care of my soul if I had nothing else to do It 's true care must be taken how to live in the world but not distracting care not excluding care not unseasonable care not immoderate care not distrustful care Not distracting when the mind is drawn this way and then drawn that way hurryed uncomfortably and indisposed to any good Not excluding care whereby the thoughts and cares of Heaven are shut out For as a reverend Divine sayes either men must use the world as if they used it not or they will serve the Lord as if they serv'd him not If thou hast need to pay man his due sure much more care is to be taken to pay unto God his due if care how to live thirty or forty years much more to live forty thousand years If you must take care to escape the Prison much more to escape Hell Again it must not be unseasonable care when the body should be refreshed by meet or sleep for it is comly and good for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labour nor when the soul should be refreshed with the Ordinances of God for one thing is needful to wit that better patt Not immoderate care whereby the body is distempered or the soul unfitted for the comfortable discharge of your heavenly or earthly Callings Nor lastly distrustful care when you trust too much in your own understanding and too little in the Wisdom and Providence of God And this Temptation is so much the stronger in that it carries so fair a pretence and is really spent about honest and lawful things for about lawful things we most often miss it and endanger our souls where there seems least danger at all More men you know dye by meat than by Poyson As that great Politician used to pray that God would deliver him from his friends for he should take care himself to avoyd his enemies So we have great need to be careful about lawful things for less care will save us harmless from things plainly evil And so we shall proceed to lay down some effectual Preservatives against this Temptation of distracting care Namely 1. Learn to cast your care upon God 1 Pet. 5.7 Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you A most rare Duty and a most excellent Promise Cast not only put or lay it on in part or at leisure but cast it wholly and speedily Cast what why your care your distracting care so the word signifies your necessary cares you must grapple with as well as you can but when they squeeze torment divide distract the heart then cast them away and not one or two of them but All your care In six troubles and in seaven go the same way knock at the same door throw them on the same
shoulder where 's that Vpon him one able to bear and order them all and not only able but very willing For he careth for you It is his business to care for you his business and design is to order all things for your eternal good What needs the child torture himself about a business when the Father that is wise and loving sends him word that he will take care thereof Sayes God Let present duty be your care and future events shall be mine If you will trust me I will order it well for you How can you pretend to trust him for the things of another life that you never saw if you cannot trust him for the things of this life wherein you have seen his Providence over and over Learn then to use a moderate care about your affairs but when your cares oppress and disturb the quiet of your heart bring faith to such promises as Rom. 8.28 Heb. 13.5 Psal. 84.11 and rest thereby upon them quietly expecting in the use of all good means a comfortable issue If the success suit not with thy expectation believe that God saw thy desire was not for thy advantage If the issue fall out to thy mind it is in mercy thou didst thy duty and trustedst in thy God to which he hath annext a certain Promise Psal. 37.3 Tâ—…ust in the Lord and do good besure you do both so shalâ—… thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed 2. Consider the unprofitableness of distracting cares It is certain they never do you good Your design in them is for your good for your advantage but they advantage you not for Psal. 127.1 Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it and it is in vain to eat the bread of sorrows Is it not as good to lay those cares aside as vex your selves with them in vain If indeed they could bring your matters to pass and that success would stil attend upon your carking thoughts somwhat might be said for them But alas it is so far from that effect that the ready way to blast any business is to bestow immoderate care about it The Lord taketh the wise in their own craftiness and bringeth their devises to nought that all men may know that it is not of him that runneth but of God that blesseth that any thing comes well to pass More Prayers and less cares will do your business And therefore when they crowd in upon you and overpress you let out your hearts to God in prayer lay your straits and business before him commit thy way to the Lord trust also in him and see if he do not bring it to pass Say Lord my heart is overwhelmed in me out of the Depths I cry unto thee I can do no good of it but thou canst this knot thou canst unty my carking snarls it the faster I 'le trouble my self no more but to do my duty my contrivances are Castles in the Air but thy Understanding is infinite And at long run you will find this that Real Piety is the truest Pollicy Alas the Husbandmans head is not shap'd for worldly wisdom he is plain and simple and again he is spent sufficiently by his labour hath no need to break his head and disturb his sleep and mirth with these distractions especially while they will do him no good and therefore go thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink that thou hast with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy work Eccl. 9.7 SECT VIII VIII THe Eight Temptation of the Husbandman is Slavish fear of Man It is true he must keep a due Reverence for the Magistrate for he is the Minister of God and therefore to contemn him secretly or disdain him openly is no little crime And a just fear and respect he must have for his Landlord or the Gentleman his Neighbour because God hath placed them above him and he hath learnt that by the Father he ought to honour is meant all his Superiours and himself expects the like from his children and servants and therefore he is far from that clownish humour of those that will make no difference between the King and the Beggar knowing that would bring confusion into the world and break that order that God hath plac'd among men And therefore in all worldly matters no man more respective to his Superiours than the Husbandman none more ready to all those services and offices due from him to those above him He 's ready and his children are ready his Horses ready and any thing he hath and that not out of base fear or other self-ends but out of a principle of ingenuity and kindness and a frame of heart to be doing good to every one Here is his temper and duty but now his Temptation lyes in this That when his Landlord or other great men about him do discountenance the practise of piety and that holy strictness which is undoubtedly the will of God and necessary to salvation he is apt either to take down his Colours and either to waste his oyl or hide his Lamp lest he should bring anger or trouble upon himself He hath a mind to have constant prayer in his family and reading the Scriptures and singing Psalms and would do so if that course were held in the Hall that 's near him but he is loth to go before a Gentleman no not to Heaven and hath cause to fear a frown or worse for so doing And then having but little Faith he apprehends God far off and his Landlord near and will rather venture the loss of his House in Heaven than his House upon Earth and so neglects those Duties And so likewise in the practice of sobriety circumspection and watchfulness the example and fear of Superiours do lay a strong siege to his convictions and resolutions and make him if strength of grace uphold him not hazzard the Peace of a good Conscience to keep the peace and quiet of his outward Estate Fain he would go to Heaven if he durst and enjoy the smiles of God and great men also He thinks without the favour of man he cannot live and without the favour of God he dare not dye and so would conjoyn that which seldome meets the love of God and the love of the World too Thus is that Scripture fulfilled Prov. 29.25 The fear of man causeth a snare He would fast with his Family but he dare not He would read good Books the best Books and hear the best Ministers but he dare not he would go to Heaven but he dare not he is in the snare The Lord of Heaven help him out Not that all of this Rank are taken in this Temptation for there are many that go to Gods house for their Religion and not to their Landlords that if their Prayers will not bring him with them to Heaven his frowns shall not bring them to Hell with him That resolve to be in Gods Books though they never be in
great mens And these somtimes suffer for their presumption their Rents raised or themselves dismist but they have cast up their accounts and do know that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer for it and are content Now to fence and Preserve the Husbandman from this slavish fear of man consult 1. The Providence 2. The Promise of God 1. Consult the Providence of God Thou look'st at man and fearest him If thou wouldst look at God thou wouldst trust in him thou wouldst see a thousand times more cause to trust in God then to fear man For the hearts and hands of all men are in the hands of your God Great men are in the hand of a great God And your greatest enemies are in the hands of your châ—…ycest friend and he will bend their hearts to do thee good or bind their hands that they can do thee no hurt He commonly makes their foes their friends that walk uprightly with him And those that turn aside for fear he suffers them to lose the favour of great ones some other way and the love of God also It comes often to pass that they who will not suffer for Christ come to suffer for themselves that they who are afraid to suffer for their holiness prove to suffer for their wickedness as that Black-smith in the Acts and Monuments that when he was put to it told them he could not burn and so escaped the Fire of Honour but ere long a spark kindled in his shop and burnt him and shop and all in the Fire of Judgment and so he burnt for himself that would not burn for Jesus Christ. Believe this therefore if all the Great Ones on earth were set against you they shall not touch an hair of your head no not an hair of your Head till God for your good give them a Commission One cringe would have secured those three Princes Dan. 3.15 from a most dreadful peril but behold their integrity constancy and courage and it is hard to say which was the strongest O Nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship thy golden Image which thou hast set up And did God forsake them in their need not at all Alas he hath fire and water in his hands and can make a Gridiron to be a bed of Down when he pleaseth And therefore look not at man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Look not at the stone but at the hand in which it is for as the stone cannot stir unless it be moved by the hand so no man can stir one jot against you unless God stir him up Hence we have so oft that phrase in the old Testament that God stirred up this and that enemy against his people Instead of pleasing this or that great man whom it may be thou canst never please or if thou dost yet there 's another may do thee a mischief as well as he Do thou study to please God who can according to that Prov. 16.7 make thy Enemies to be at peace with thee Man sayes Augustine fear God and thou maist smile at the world Alas it lyes in the breast of any wretch is he will come and swear against thee whether thou shalt be worth a groat before night and what foresight can arm a man against such mishaps No no It is the Lord that must be your refuge and portion in the Land of the living And therefore rely and rest which you may safely do in the way of your duty upon his All-ruling Providence 2. Consult the Promise of God 1. The Promises he hath made to keep you from the troubles that your Superiours would bring on you Isa. 41.10 Fear thou not for I am with thee Lord who can fear when thou art with them be not dismayed for I am thy God O blessed Word if a weak Husbandman can get a strong God for his God what need he fear I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea let not down thy heart man I will uphold thee with the right hand of my Righteousness Behold all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded they shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish If thy name be in the Eight and Ninth verses of that Chapter these Promises are as surely entail'd upon thee as if thy Name were inserted and they only made to thee Again vers 14. Fear not thou worm Jacob I will help thee saith the Lord and thou shalt thresh the Mountains Hear this thou that sayest O I am but a worm to them how soon may a man crush a worm under his feet and so soon may these great Mountains fall upon me and crush me Why sayes God though thou art but a worm to them yet I will help thee to thresh the mountains God and a worm can do much Somwhat a strange sight to see a worm threshing a mountain yet so it is Many a poor upright Husbandman by his Prayers and convincing life doth conquer silence tame or destroy many a wicked Nimrod that would destroy him Hath not God said Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye And will God suffer the proudest of them all to fly at the apple of his eye So that except it be for your great glory and good you may râ—…st securely and build upon it That no hand of violence shall touch you however shall never do you hurt This is a maxime No men or menaces or miseries can do a Saint hurt They may kill you but they cannot hurt you Away therefore with that flavish fear that hinders or discomforts you in your duty God will not see his Husbandman wrong'd 2. Consult the Promises he hath made to deliver you out of your troubles if they befall you by your Superiours 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished Knoweth how that is can and will do it How many gracious promises hath he made In six troubles and in seaven he will deliver them Thou shalt tread on the Lion and Adder He that hath set his love on me I will deliver him and honour him Why art thou therefore so afraid of troubles of Men or Devils A prison is not Hell Loss of Goods is not loss of the Chief Good He that can turn thee out of thy house cannot turn thee out of Heaven There hee 'l be turn'd out and thou taken in Man can threaten thee but God can destroy thee Thy great Neighbour will trouble thee if thou pray and thy great Maker will damn thee
posterity to lose their souls in the spending of it and so the same purse or house damnes both the Father and the Son the Father by injurious getting it and the Son by ungodly wasting it How many houses have you seen ruined where the oppressor hath dwelt How many unconscioâ—…able Lawyers who like you have made a prey of the simple have built strong houses and made strong entails yet in a few Generations their names are blotted out and they who preferred Earth before Heaven have neither Earth nor Heaven and câ—…n you go by their houses and not receive instruction will you see and know this and yet follow them Alas your thriving is but the fat of a dropsie which makes a great shew but is not sound brings rottenness in the end of it Such is your present estate Your riches are corrupted your Gold and Silver is cankered ye have heaped treasuâ—… together for the last dayes Yea in this life God often sends some to squeeze these muck-worms when they have suck't themselves full And if these things be true O why will will ye defraud any more You build castles but it 's in the air your house wants foundation your title to your estate is nought and as sure as there is a God in Heaven and a curse in this Bible you will be losers by this gain no peny that you have gotten by fraud shall ever do you or yours good God hath said it Psal. 18.25 With an upright man I will shew my self upright and with the froward I will shew my self froward And is not here sufficient ground to move you in the point of Restitution If injurious or deceitful gain in the judgement of God and experience of men and in your own observation do no man good but much hurt and inevitably entail a curse upon the man and all his estate whiles he keep it Is it not Wisdome and Conscience to restore what you have thus gotten Would you keep a sute that has the Pestilence in it will you hold that which God bids you restore and will damn you in hell if you keep it whereas it will do you no good what run a plain hazzard of losing your honest gain by keeping some little which is dishonest and venture hell fire rather than part with some of that estate when as if God say the word to night thou must part with it all before morning Is it not better to bring it back and be saved than have it fetch 't and you be lost If ever God work savingly I say savingly upon your hearts you will make as much hast to restore as ever you did to get it and shake it out of your skirt as you would brush a spark off your clothes as Zacheus Luk. 19.8 No sooner was salvation come to his house but he cryes out Lord if I have taken any thing mark any thing of what kind soever of what quantity soever of any man whether good or bad rich or poor by false accusation I restore him not I 'le do it at my leisure but upon the nail I restore him four-fold I 'le rather be a loser than my Neigbour he shall have four-fold Object You will perhaps object your inability and poverty that you cannot make restitution or at least this would make you poor enough and therefore desire to be excused Answ. Total inability excuses restitution in the Kind but yet there must be restitution in the Mind A will you must have at present and the deed except remitted if ever you be able In the mean time you are to be sorry that you have wrong'd your Neighbour in your actions and can onely-right him in your wishes And sure there is some hand of God in it that your estate though increased by your trespassing upon and wronging of others should be brought to such an ebb that you are unable to make just restitution Surely God hath blown-upon you with the fearfull blast of his curse already and you may find by this that no industry nor intail can assure ill-gotten goods And as sure as this curse follows you externally so surely without repentâ—…nce and restitution will it follow you eternally And therefore you are wide point blank in your argument you cannot restore because it will make you poor for if you do not restore you will be poor Your building now is on a quick-sand pile up your wall as high as you can the quick-sand under it will bring it down and you and yours under it And therefore it s better to be poor with Gods blessing than poor with his curse And grant it do bring you low to restore to every man his own alas it doth but deliver you from that estate which would do you hurt and strip you of some garments that would keep you too hot However the event Duty must be done whether we grow rich or poor by it Poverty and piety are better company than riches and sin And if you can trust God and otherwise you can never come to Heaven he can and will if it be for your good make you amends for your selfdenyal and give you goods and a good conscience also Take therefore thy ill-gotten goods in thy hand as that Phylosopher did his estate when he threw it into the Sea and resolve 't is better these things be lost for me than with me and let God doe his will Object 2. It may be you will say I shall be shamed my name will be posted up for dishonesty and it is a saying that it is a shame to steal or wrong but a worse shame to bring it home again Answ. Sin is worse then shame A man may stand under shame but you cannot stand under the guilt of sin Augustine hath determined long ago That sin is not remitted till the thing be restored wherein you sinned If your consciencewere tender or your eyes open you would more tremble for guilt then shame It was never better with Ephraim than when he was ashamed yea even confounded the highest degree of shame for the sins of his youth Jer. 31. 19. And never worse with Ephraim than when he was given up to sin Hos. 4. 17. How long do you think it will be ere you must be charged before God Angels and all your neighbours with your injurious dealings and then what unspeakable shame will cover your face when it will appear that after all these warnings you lived and dyed in these sins Alas It will be but a while and all your heart and actions shall be laid out to the view of all and were it not better you prevented this your self But to come nearer Pray what shame is it to do that which is good or undoe that which is evil It is a shame indeed to sin but that is past that thou art asham'd of too but now thou art about a work of righteousness equity and honesty there is no shame in this Nay all men at least all wise men will think
danger of the rain Thou long'st till thy corn be in the barn And Christ longs till thou be in heaven He is not compleat without thee John 17.24 Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am haste home my Children unto me And at last welcome O Sons of God you have been long in coming in but out ye shall never go again 5. The Fifth Lesson the Husbandman learns from his Corn is From the Threshing of his Corn. And this teaches him the necessity of affliction He sees that Corn in the Eare will do him no good it must be beaten out by the Flaile though this work be painful yet it is needfull Threshing must be had Grace is in the husk while prosperity lasts appears little works little is little but the flaile of Affliction beats it out makes it sensible and lively How weak are we in faith till God thresh us by some disaster or other God's flaile comes and cryes Come forth thou grain of Faith and when the heart is tough he is inforced to lay on the more and greater blows Isa. 21.10 O my threshing and the corn of my floore At length that Grace that lay hid in the husk comes forth and then O the faith the humility the patience the goodness that appears even where little was dream't of before How mellow and sweet doth a fit of sickness the loss of a child or a prison make the soul to whom it is blessed The sweetest Spices enjoy their own sweetness till they be bruised then they diffuse it and all the room perceive their odour and the most precious Saints are oftentimes hid till they be bruised by the Cross of Christ. Believe every creature that afflicts thee to be Gods flaile and answer his designs therein Fly not in his face like the chaffe but fall down at his feet like the good corn Isa. 10.5 O Assyrian the Rod of mine anger and the staffe in their hand is my indignation And God knows when it's time to thresh thee and how many strokes to give Jer. 51.33 The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor It is time to thresh her Let him alone when how long to thresh his corn An hard heart will not be cured with a little labour How many work-men hath God tired out upon thy heart Repent betimes lest thou be thresht for ever 6. The Sixth Lesson the Husbandman learns from his Corn is From the Winnowing it And therefore he learns the reason of temptation Luk. 22.31 Simon Simon Behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat What an heap of grain seems to lie in the Barn but when a strong wind comes it parts it and leaves the corn in a little room Just so the number of religious persons looks great sometimes Then God suffers Satan to raise a wind of persecution and that doth so sift and fan them that they prove but few that are faithful to the death the greater half was chaff too light for the tryal and they are blown away O Sirs God will have clean wheat for Heaven not a tare that must come there Yea in the hearts of Gods own people there is a great heap but it 's grace and sin together When they are tryed the grace will be found but little and the sin great As in that case of Peter above There appeared a fair show on the floor but it was wheat and chaff together and upon the winnowing of Peter his faith and courage went into a little room and there was much chaff in him But the stronger is the wind the cleaner is the corn and so the sharper the tryal is the purer it leaves them that are upright in heart This temptation made Peter the healthier and the better while he lived and you may observe his future courage made signal amends for his former cowardize And usually one time or other Jesus Christ comes with his fan in his hand and doth throughly purge his floor and then gathers his wheat into the garner and burns the chaff with fire unquenchable And such Lessons as these the Husbandman learns from his Corn. SECT III. III. THe Third Book wherein the Husbandman may learn something of God is from his Flocks The dullest of Cattel may teach their Master somewhat The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters crib but my people doth not know See the misery of poor man that must go to School to the Oxe and Ass yet behold the felicity man that learns somewhat from the meanest creatures It 's sad that we have need to learn of them It 's well we have the Art to learn of them The greatest of men may learn from tâ—…e least of creatures and the silly Ass may reprove a Próphet when God sets in with it 1. The First Lesson the Husbandman may learn is from his Oxen. And there he learns 1. Patient industry He observes his Oxe that 's ignorant of the will of God or the reward of Heaven yet day by day works till he be weary keeps his place and furrow though it toyle him every step carries his yoke without grieving at it and suffers the sharp visits of the Goad without renitency or opposition and expects nothing but food for his labour And this instructs and quiets the Husbandman in his painful Calling He knows he hath as much reason to work for God as his Oxe hath to work for him and that he expects a far greater reward and therefore he is content to weary himself day by day he keeps in his place and furrow though his idle neighbour would tempt him out to vain company His yoke is somewhat heavy but he knows it will grow lighter by bearing it in his youth and though he feel the goad of domestick afflictions sometimes in his side yet he frets not but mends his pace a night will come at length when the weary are at rest 2. He learns hence Justice to his painful Minister 1 Cor. 9.9 It is written in the Law â—…f Moses Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn. Doth God take care for Oxen or saith he it altogether for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written That he that ploweth should plow in hope The Oxe gets thy corn and thou givest him some of the straw at least And thy careful Minister whose charge is weighty and whose pains are great hath as good a right to thy Earthly things as thou hast to his Spirituals The Husbandman therefore that fodders his Oxe will not starve his Minister and therefore what the Law allows or his own heart hath purposed besides he supplies him with all possible speed and alacrity He knows in feeding his Oxe he feeds his own body and children and in supporting his Minister he feeds his own soul and the souls of his 2. The Second Lesson the Husbandman may learn is from his Kine from whom
company the Swine may get into the Parlour and that smooths him again Restraining grace pins him up but after all his filthy Swinish nature remains and the next puddle he comes to he wallows in it again O the endless labour that out God hath with us before we be clean And alas the worst filth is sweet in comparison of sin for that 's the Devils excrements and so most abominable if our spiritual senses were exercised to discern good and evil It were better to tumble in the sink than in thy filthy sins A Swine is a cleanly creature to a filthy sinner Admire then the grace and goodness of God that hath chang'd thy nature And of a Swine made thee a son And beware thou come no more into the mire lest instead of being cleansing in the blood of Christ thou perish in thine own SECT IV. IV. THe fourth Book wherein the Husbandman may learn something for his soul is from his Orchard The word in the Hebrew for a Grove of Trees signifies also contemplation as if a man should never go among his Trees without some contemplation And here in general when he comes into his Orchard he remembers Paradise where he in Adam did once enjoy God and where by eating the forbidden fruit he lost him And this comes in well to qualifie that delight he takes among his Trees It is said that our Father Adam did never look towards Eden the Paradise whence he was cast without a tear to think of the happiness he had lost and the evil he had committed However the Husbandman hath many an aking heart here upon the sad remembrance of his sin and fall and thereupon he examines whether the guilt of that sin be pardoned to him and whether the heart and strength of it be broken in him But the more particular Lessons he learns in his Orchard are 1. From the variety and kinds of Trees and the fruits thereof He observes the diversity and choice of Christians and of their graces shadow'd out in that Cant. 4.13 Thy plants are an Orchard of Pomgranates with pleasant fruits Camphire with Spikenard Spikenard and Saffron Calamus and Cynamon with all Trecs of Frankincense Myrrh and Aloes with all the cheif spices Here 's Christs Orchard every Tree a Saint and every Saint variety of sweet tasting and sweet smelling graces Ah Lord sayes the Husbandman what plenty is here for me but what scarcity have I for thee What a brave sight is a fair Orchard with well-ordered Trees and each filled with fruit How much fairer a sight is a congregation of fruit-bearing Saints that bear the fruits and Spices that God loves What delight doth the Husbandman take in his Orchard and O what delight would your God take to walk with you in your houses and to walk among us here in this house if every Seat here were filled with a row of fruitfull Trees he would pluck our ripe fruits and graces and take them to Heaven with him he would prune and purge us that we might bring forth more fruit And what must young Trees and others that bear nothing be cast into the fire Nay the Husbandman waits upon them with patience and suffers many a Tree that beares nothing grow in hopes but if no industry or patience will cure them then up they go and to the fire And so doth God bear with young ones in hopes and looks for little service from little ones and fences and waters many a Tree that yet brings no fruit but this is in hope that their after-diligence will pay for all But if a man promise little he comes as Luk. 13.7 Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree and find none cut it down why cumbereth it the ground How near thou hast been to stocking up none knows but God and Christ who hath diverted the blow many a long day But if no course will make them fruitful then the ax is laid to the root of the Tree and every Tree that bringeth not forth fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire They which are not good for fruit shall be good for fuell By the leaning of the Tree he knowes which way it will fall and by the leaning of his own heart towards Heaven he trusts it will fall thither But especially the Husbandman in his Orchard thinkes of Christ and his sweetness Cant. 2.3 As the Apple Tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my beloved among the sons I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my tast All the Trees of the Wood must give place to the Apple And all creatures must stand aloof from Christ. His shade and fruit are both sweet O what a treasure thinks the Husbandman have I of my Saviour and thereupon he tasts this Apple of Paradise and as by an Apple death came into the world so by this Celestial Apple he recovers life again O the solace the poor Husbandman hath under Christ's shadow in an Ordinance O the sweetness he tastes from his spirit And so he returns into his house full of Christ and earnestly pressing him upon others 2. The second lesson the Husbandman learns in his Orchard is from the Planting of his Trees and hereby he understands the Nature af regeneration Rom. 6.5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death He sees the Crab-Tree stock must be cut off and then into it must the Scion be ingraffed and inoculated before it can be an Apple in his Orchard Whereby the Husbandman learns that the old man in him though it cannot be stockt up by the rootes in this life yet it must be cut off by compunction humiliation and mortification and the new man ingraffed into his heart by vivification faith and renovation Whereby he concludes I must live in another if I would live for ever Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ that lives in me As if the Crab-Tree stock should cry out I am cut off yet I live but not I but the Scion that is planted in me Old Adam cryes I am wounded and killed nevertheless I live yet not I now but Jesus Christ the second Adam lives in me And he sees that till this work of ingraffing be over no fruits are to be seen but Crabs And thence he gathers that till that change be wrought within no man can bring forth fruit acceptable unto God All his best works are but meer Crabs or the fruit cannot be better then the Tree and therefore he is restless till this work be done in him He reads he inquires he prayes he hears he is never quiet until he also be renewed in the spirit of his mind and be made like that Tree Jerem. 17.8 planted by the waters whose leaf shall be green neither shall it cease from yielding fruit 3. The third Lesson the Husbandman learnes in his Orchard is from
reconciliation after falling out convinces and perswades him to be a child in Malice though he would be a man in Understanding nay he admires at the Providence of God that ties their infant tongues till they have some understanding else many a foolish word would they speak And by seeing their full dependance upon him for meat and clothes and his readiness to give them what they want he learns the like dependance upon God his heavenly Father for all and trusts that he will much more give spiritual things to him that humbly craves them of him By the readiness of his Servants he is convinced into the like to the commands of God and often hath occasion to consider how much Gods service is beyond his The heat of the Fire often preaches to him the intollerableness of that Fire that is never quenched And being so comfortable in the Chimney which would be dangerous in his Thatch teaches him the excellency of true zeal in its place and the danger of zeal when it is out He observes few meats are good and wholesome without some heat from the fire and thence gathers that no duty or work is right good without some zeal therein The fowlness of his Rooms do shew him what need his heart hath of cleansing and each part of his furniture doth furnish him with some celestial lessons each one worth all the estate he hath But more especially 1. From the Inconveniencies of his House he learns the misery of his estate on earth Here is my house sayes he but alas the room is strait the air cold the structure rotten dirty without and empty within Thus all that is in this World is lame and imperfect no profit without pain no pleasure without sting no honour without peril vanity and vexation of spirit I find to be written yea intail'd on all sublunary things now who would be fond on such a life who would choose such a portion If this be the World give me Christ. One Christ is worth many Worlds But then with these add the consideration of â—…in that every day besets me such an house â—…nd such an heart such miseries without and â—…uch wickedness within and then who would live in such a World that could get â—…irly out of it or fall in love with Dirt and â—…weat that believes an Heaven and hath any â—…itle to it Thus all the Husbandmans Inâ—…onveniencies are mortifying and make him â—…ery indifferent to live in a World that is so much his Stepmother and he still looks up â—…nd cries O when shall I come unto thee He comes home weary but this bears up his â—…pirit That there remains a rest for the People â—…f God 2. From the Conveniencies of his House he â—…earns the blessedness of his estate in Heaven Here is my comfortable habitation neat â—…ooms handsome furniture healthful air â—…leasant situation my lines are fallen in pleaâ—…nt places Praised be the Lord but this is â—…ut a Tabernacle not my setled place an â—…arthly tabernacle this house was made with â—…ands but yonder above I have an house â—…ade without hands These my Convenienâ—…es are mixt but there they are abstract and â—…ithout mixture That house I am going to Great without Coldness High without â—…anger Full without Thronging Rich withâ—…ut Vanity Ancient without Decay no need 〈◊〉 repairs no danger of fire no fear of being â—…t out There shall I have my Children aâ—…out me without crying my Wife without sickness my Servants without trouble wheâ—… there is eternal musick eternal feasting etâ—… happiness O that my work were doâ—… that I might go yonder This is but 〈◊〉 Winter house O yonder above is my Suâ—… Parlour yet a little while and I shâ—… inhabit though most unworthy of it as gâ—… an house as my Landlord My fine is paid 〈◊〉 my Saviours blood Possession is taken in 〈◊〉 name by a sure Attourney and the Rent 〈◊〉 be nothing but blessing and praising the Goâ—… of Heaven to eternity Thousands are waiâ—…ing to welcome me to house Christ himseâ—… will let me in and but one life between 〈◊〉 and a Palace And now what though I 〈◊〉 and sweat here a while when my Reversioâ—… falls I shall live like an Angel and then farewell my Plough and Cart I shall sowe 〈◊〉 thresh no more my weary dayes and carefuâ—… nights farewel there 's no husbandry 〈◊〉 Heaven there 's the harvest of all my prayers where Christ shall be All in All. And the pooâ—… Husbandman doth much comfort himself wilâ—… these hopes And we cannot better leave 〈◊〉 than here whither this Lesson hath broughâ—… him And this is the sixth point to wit 〈◊〉 Lessons which the Husbandman may learn 〈◊〉 his Calling Object Perhaps you 'l say I can never léarâ—… these things I am weak and ignorant how should I acquire these things Answ. Though thou art no Scholar yâ—… thou art Christs Scholar and if there be â—…in a willing mind thy work is half done A dull Scholar with a skilful Master may make shift Psal. 32.8 I will instruct and teach thee I will guide thee with mine eye nay God hath particularly professed to help the Husbandman â—…sa 28.26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him Do but your best keep open the eye of Faith to see things unseen pray for skill and fall to practise and it will come The sweetness will pay for the difficulty he that turns Earth into Heaven â—…hath an Heaven upon Earth And so you have the sixth Head CHAP. VII The Husbandmans Graces SECT I. I proceed in the seventh place to prescribe to the Husbandman the special Graces he should get Without Grace the best Calling in the World will be unedifying and uncomfortable Gods Graces in a Calling are the Grace of a Calling True Grace can make the lowest condition happy and Sin can make the highest miserable Without Grace an Husbandman may be undone when an Angel without Grace falls though he were in Heaven And of all men he had need of it 〈◊〉 he be a drudge on earth and then a brand 〈◊〉 hell The Ox he drives will be in a betteâ—… case than he if he live and die without thâ—… true fear of God for that hath meat anâ—… drink and work but no care or grief noâ—… account to make and the Husbandman thaâ—… knows not God in a saving manner hatâ—… work and meat and withal cares and troubles and a sad reckoning to come O that the Husbandman were but acquainted with Jesuâ—… Christ and with his own true state He needs not envy the greatest Prince if he have but Christ in him the hope of Glory But though the Husbandman must have every Grace true Grace comes all together the new man hath all his members yet I shall more especially recommend these seven following Graces to the use of the Husbandman SECT I. I. THe first Grace necessary for the Husbandman is Patience he cannot live comfortably without it 1. He must have
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
faithful Servant Thou hast been faithful in a little I will make thee Ruler over much Whereas if Gods Rent be neglected he will either strain upon thee here by some severe cross or other or take out all his Arrears in Hell Where the worm dieth not and where the fire is not quenched Keep up therefore your daily sacrifices unto God both alone and with your family and there alwayes offer an upright humble and holy heart praises and prayers from thence will be prevalent with the Lord I say both alone and with your family and especially on the Sabbath About each of which it will be necessary to enlarge a little 1. Some Rent you have to pay alone for this the Scripture is as clear as can be Mat. 6.6 When thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut the door pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly And to this agrees the practise of Jesus Christ and of the Saints in Scripture witness Gen. 32.24 Nehem. 1.4 Dan. 9.3 Mark 1.35 And Reason it self perswades seeing that each of you have secret sins secret wants and secret affairs with God which require private converse between God and your Souls I do not resolve that this Duty is indispensable twice a day but I assert that the neglect of it when opportunitie may be gotten argues a prophane spirit and the conscionable practise thereof is a great argument of sinceritie And in short he that loves not uses not secret prayer yea and meditation and self-examination shall never be rewarded openly Foot-steps also of the use thereof in the Morning are Psal. 5.3 And in the Evening Psal. 141.2 2. An Houshold Rent also daily must be paid I mean a sacrifice in and with your family for it is not enough you pray for them but you must pray with them So Josh. 24.15 I and my house will serve the Lord. For the clearing in some measure and setling this family worship too much neglected in the Husbandmans house let these Propositions be laid down 1. God is not only to be worshipped on the Lords day but every day This is not only typified but proved Exod. 29.38 Two Lambs of the first year day by day continually Wherein though the offering was ceremonial yet the time was moral there being as much reason for the Christians offering every day as for the Jews And as works of necessity have room in Gods day so Prayers and Duties of necessitie may command room in our dayes especially seeing we have daily wants sins and mercies and cannot tell what a day may bring forth 2. God is not only to be worshipped alone in a family but joyntly and together For every Christian family should be a little Church like that Rom. 16.5 Now it 's not enough that the members of the Church worship God alone but it ought to be done together The same reason holds in a family namely for mutual Edification that the stronger may help the weaker and that all may worship without fail It is also much for the Honour ofGod that many joyn in his service And the very tenour of that pattern of Prayer Mat. 6.11 runs plural Our Father which art in Heaven And proves beside that daily prayer ought to be used by divers together Give us this day our daily bread 3. The fittest time for family worship is Morning and Evening This time of worshiping in general the light of Nature it self dictates The morning and evening being such signal periods of time as do in their own Nature intimate to man religious duty then to be done Prayer being the Key to unlock the Blessings of the Day and to lock up the Dangers of the Night for alas we walk upon barrels of Gun-powder in the Day our snares are so many and we lie in the shaddow of death at Night our dangers are so great Also at those times we have most opportunity for such work and therefore when the Lord orders Parents to teach their Children Deut. 6.6 he times it thus When you lie down and when you rise up And the Scripture also makes it manifest Exod. 29.39 Also Numb 28.4 The one Lamb shalt thou offer in the Morning and the other Lamb at Evening And thus the Tribes Acts 26.7 are said to serve God instantly night and day that is evening and morning By which things soberly considered together with the practise of Gods people as a Commentary thereupon you may evidently see That to worship God in your families morning and evening is the will of God it is your duty nay it is your priviledge And now to return to the Husbandman This being his Duty no excuse can clear him no plea can excuse him from paying this chief rent to the most High His inability and ignorance in prayer cannot help him for one sin can be no excuse for another Besides there are Helpes for the weak till strength come And above all the Holy Ghost is a very present Help to all that ask him and a sence of sin danger will soon untie your tongues and make you if not eloquent yet effectual in your prayers Want of time or abundance of business can be no excuse for a man must have time to eat and sleep and pray whatever business stay If any thing fall out that will not let you stay to eat in that case perhaps you may omit your prayer provided you pray as well as feed the heartier next time and are truly sorry for your disappointment And you must believe or else you have not a faith to save you that God can and will make you amends for all the time is spent about your souls see Mat. 22.25 and tremble for your neglects The backwardness of your relations and families will be no excuse For Abraham did and every Child of Abraham must command their Children and their houshold and they shall keep the way of the Lord Gen. 18.19 lest God observing you can command and keep them to their work but cannot command them to Prayer see through your hypocrisie and pour out that dreadful curse upon you from which the Lord bless the poor Husbandmans house Jer. 10.25 Pour out thy fury upon the Heathen and upon the families that call not on thy name Set immediately therefore on your duty with sorrow for your former neglects and a setled resolution for the time to come and be assured that God will meet and bless you as he hath promised and what you take in hand shall prosper Our work on earth is done best when our work in heaven is done first The Philosopher could say he had rather neglect his means than his mind and his farm than his soul. And remember good Job though his charge and business was far greater than yours yet Job 1.5 was constant in his religious duties Thus did Job continually 3. And then for the Sabbath Remember it before it
if thou do not pray But he cannot trouble thee whether God will or no but God can damn thee whether he will or no. They that now terrifie thee will run to hide themselves and will none of them come between thee and an angry God for the sins thou hast committed or duties thou hast omitted by their inducement And therefore Math. 10. 28. Fear not them that can kill the body and have no more that they can do but fear him that can cast body and soul into Hell O fear him and let them talk SECT IX IX THe Ninth Temptation of the Husbandman is Affected Ignorance His Intellectuals are but obtuse and Education did not befriend him his occasions many and his time scant whereby ordinarily he wants that necessary knowledge that should light him to Heaven And the abuse of knowledge in others and the excuse his continual labours suggest to him do tempt him to rest in and defend his Ignorance and so it grows Affected ignorance In this he lives and without Gods grace herein he dies But God forbid we should charge all persons of that Calling with this evil no there are many very many have better learned Christ able with much gravity and distinctness to give an account of all material Points of Religion that want not an Argument to dâ—…end the Truth though they cannot put it in Mood and Figure yea divers that in the Arts come not short in the Languages exceed some that sit in Moses seat And as to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ that consists not so much in mental as experimental apprehensions multitudes in this are excellent Schollars that can describe Faith to the life though they cannot define it that can tell how to repent though they know not whether this or Faith precede In short that can feel more than they can speak and that have learn'd to express more in their lives than in their words And some too there are that know too much I mean that have got more notions into their head than they can rule and for want of wisdome and humility grow giddy and conceited that they rather come to the Ordinance to judge their Minister than to be judged by the Word of God and that think they could discharge that Function better than he and these are to be rankt among the most intollerable sort of that Calling of whom it were to be wisht that either they knew less that would make them less elevated or that they knew more that would make them more humble But I hope the number of these are but few Experience of their own infirmities together with further knowledge will cure them of this swelling these Rickets in the head and by degrees they will find that the most they know is the least part of what they are ignorant of No the Epidemical disease of Husbandmen is ignorance affected ignorance Many of them want time to read or think of spiritual matters their Children cry their Business cryes their Creditour cryes and hard it is to read a leaf without many avocations and distractions nay worse many of them cannot read a word they can see no more in a Bible than in a stone nor read one verse therein though the reading and ruminating of it might be as much worth as Heaven to them Ah! that ever Heaven the gate of heaven should be in a Bible and a reasonable creature a Christian should not read it and those that can yet will not labour to find it there Nay worse yet for many of this Extraction and Education are wonderful dull of capacity and apprehend matters spiritual especially with much difficulty and confusion and then such broken mâ—…mories that they can hold nothing without very much a doe so that the Prophet Jâ—…remy mâ—…ght very well conclude of them Jer. 5. 4. Therefore I said Surely these are poor they aâ—…e foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgement of their God I will get me to the great men Alas it is too manifest that ignorance prevails among that sort in all places insomuch that an Ignorant Peasant is the common Epithet Their ambition being only to know their ground their cattel their market and their seat in the Church Who could have believed the sad story that Mr. Pemble tells us in his Sermon about Ignorance if it had not an Author of credit Of an old man on his death bed that had heard in all likelihood two or three thousand Sermons in his life that being then examin'd of his knowledge concerning God should answer he thought him an old man sitting in a chair and about Christ thought him a towardly young Youth And concerning his Soul thought it was some great bone in his body c. O woful story That rational creatures who are able to give account of civil affairs with sufficient discretion and capable of the highest knowledge That professed Christians that have been brought up and taught that sacred Religion should know so little in the faith they must be saved by To expect to be saved by the Son of God and yet think him to be the Sun in the firmament as others have exprest That hope to go to Heaven and yet know neither faith nor repentance the undoubted way thither nor what it is to be justified or born again And more sad that the Husbandman should plead for this his Ignorance that any should imagine his sin should excuse him and bring him off before God That when God saith My people perish for want of Knowledge he should conclude because I want knowledge therefore I shall not perish yea and imagine that he shall speed better than the most knowing and conscionable of his Neighbours what besotted blindness is this Who can have patience to hear this confident folly but who is more bold than blind Bayard Alas it is ignorance that feeds his presumption If he did but see himself in a true glass he would abhor himself in dust and ashes And therefore its time to seek some Cure of this temptation And that is 1. Be perswaded of the absolute necessity of saving Knowledge That no man is excused by his birth poverty or dulness from getting so much knowledge in the fundamentals of Religion as will let Christ into the soul and stear it to Heaven This is certain that as no world was made without Light in the first place so no new world in the soul without the light of Knowledge Gods Method is Acts 26. 18. To turn men from darkness to light and so from the power of Satan unto God This is the way to Eternal Life John 17. 3. To know the onely true God and Jesus Christ. This is the first branch in the New Covenant A heart to know God Jer. 24. 7. not his Name but his Nature to know God in Chriâ—… to know his will Can you think any man goes to Heaven in the dark to Heaven blind Gods children are never born blind
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