much among the Creatures He must study the Earth as well as the Heavens and you know the hired Servanâ—…â—…hat are out in the fields may more easily forget their Lord than they who wait on him in his chamber There are many in the world that have little else to do but think of God and their Souls but the Husbandman he hath many things to think on many things to care for besides and the Moon of the world doth interpose and hide from him the sight and beams of the Sun of Righteousness and because God is out of sight he is too much out of the mind of the Husbandman If the year be fruitfull he is ready to give the honour thereof to the goodness of the Ground or to the skilfull husbandry thereof If it be unfruitful he is apt to conclude such and such a thing was the cause not looking to the First Cause the Mercy or Justice or Providence of God which doth order and govern the growing of every grasse pile and the blasting of every single ear of corn upon the earth But none saith where is God my maker who giveth Songs in the night Job 35. 10. When the rain distills and makes the fields to smile dow readily does the Husbandman cry out O the sweetness of this rain but how unready is he to break forth and say O the sweetness of that God that gives it And to help on this neglect of God most languages have made those words Impersonals that signifies Rain Snow and the like which must have no Nominative case It Rains it Freezes c. as if men were loth to acknowledge God in those peculiar works of his Providence When this part of his field misses he is far proner to take notice of the badness of the Earth than of the Anger of Heaven When his Cattle mismarry his eye is quicker upon the improvidence of his Servants than on the Providence of his Master in Heaven But none saith where is God my Maker And so because we cannot discern his finger he is constrained next time to lay on his hand and awaken us to feel and see him Thus the Honour also which is due to God is often laid at the feet of second Causes and men blesse the hand that reaches and not the Hand that sends it If Grace be not predominant in our Husbandmans heart you shall more commonly hear him when he is reaping his Corn commend the goodness of his ground than the Goodness of his God and declare to his neighbours his own skill with great freedome and frequency but speak of Gods blessing which was All in All seldome and with much straitnesse The Autidotes against this Temptation are 1. A full Perswasion of the General Providence and particular influence of God the First Cause over all and into all Second Causes hence they are called Second Causes because of their relation and dependance on the First See the Genealogy of Corn and Wine resolved into God Hos. 2. 21 22. Hence some of the very Heathen when they went to plow in the morning they laid one hand on the Plough to speak their own part to be painfulness and held the other hand up to Ceres their Goddess of Corn to testifie their expectation of plenty from her It is God alone that crowns the year with his Goodnesse Psal. 65. 〈◊〉 He bringeth the wind out of his treasures he giveth the former latter rain in their season he causeth his wind to blow and the waters flow Psal 147.16 Not a drop of rain but he makes and sends it and tells it where it shall fall When the Sun shines or showers fall do but draw by the curtain and by faith you may see God in the thing Deut. 11. 15. And I will sendgrass in thy fields for thy Cattel that thou mayest eat and be full Does thy Grass grow well God from heaven sent thee that grass Does it wither parch and fail God hath sent for thy grass away and that he never does without good reason And therefore under the Law Exod. 23.16 19. God called for the first fruits of their land partly to let them know who it was that gave them and charges his People Deut. 8. 18. Beware least thou say in thy heart my Power and the Might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth but thou shalt REMEMBER the LORD thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth And all thy Endeavours without his Blessing are as Caesar said of Senecas writings Arenâ—… sine calce they fall asunder Look thou therefore at God in all things The Finger of God may be seen by an eâ—…e of Faith There is no Event so great nor any so â—…nall but the hand of God is in it And O how canst thou forget God when thou mayest hear from him and see him every minute Though you see not his face yet you may discern his foot-steps Go into the field and he hath been there return into thy house among thy children and there hath he â—…en before thee Thou may'st meet him in every mercy and feel him in every Judgment As the Wife therefore is somtimes angry with what the Servant is doing till he tell her that his Master appoynted him then she sayes no more So when cross Accidents fret thee and second Causes walk contrary to thee remember the First Cause hath bidden them and rest content If the Bottles of Heaven be stopped knock at Gods door and he will open them Jer. 14. 22. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain or can the Heavens give Showers Art not thou He O Lord our God Therefore we will wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things Three Keyes the Jewish Rabbins often give him The Key of the Wâ—…mb the Key of the Grave and the Key of the Clouds implying that none but He can unlock these Learn then to see God to seek God in all things Satan cannot enter into an Hogg without divine appoyntment VVhat can one think more casual and independent on God than the Sabeans and Chaldeans taking away Job's Cattle and yet he looks beyond them at God The Lord hath taken away and this contents him This opens our mouths to praise him for mercies and strikes us dumb from repining against him in crosses I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou dâ—…dst it Look through all Creatures and Providences as through a Glass and behold God disposing thee and them with infinite wisdome so wilt thou meet God every step and keep correspondence with him though mediately all the day long As it was with Saul and his fellow travellers Acts 9. 7. They all heard a voice but none save Saul saw Jesus Christ So any man perceives the external sensible effects of providence but it 's the Christian Husbandman that sees God in them and adores him Every Rivulet guides him up to the fountain and seeing his works he presently ascends to
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
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
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
he lives in them and upon them he looks on his money and sees more beauty in it than in the Sun that shines and the face upon his Silver he thinks the beautifullest face in the world The lowing of his Cattel is better Musick to him than the best Musick and a good Crop more welcome suppose him yet without an Eye of Faith than all the Promises in the Bible Psal. 17. 14. Deliver me from men of this world which have their Portion in this life and whose belly thou fillest with hidden treasures When the Belly is full of the hid treasures of the Earth the Heart is often empty of the hidden treasures of Heaven Described again Phil. 3.19 Who mind earthly things To have earthly things is a mercy but to mind earthly things is a curse And this is his Temptation herein is his Calling and herein is his Temptation You know it is hard to touch pitch without defilement where both hands aâ—… full much adoe to keep the heart empty and especially when Riches increase the heart is set on them O what carnal delight hath a man of the world to see his stock of Cattle stand and increase when his fields are well grown and his barns filled The comforts of heaven only exceed it Thou hast put gladness into mine heart more than when their corn and wine increased Psal. 4. 7. The choicest of his thoughts are prone to be spent on these things and his Soul cleaveth to the dust Poor man though he be never likely to have great things in the world yet his head is full of Proclamations as we say and his heart of distractions Much adoe to dwell on Earth and live in Heaven at the same time or for him to have the heart set on the other world that hath this world set in his heart But that I may not discover the diseases of this Calling without prescribing some cure thereof I shall add to each Temptation an Antidote or two if you will resolve not onely to approve them but apply them 1. One Preservative from this Temptation will be to consider the Nature of your souls So excellent that they are capable to know and enjoy God himself they are company for an Angel they are Nobly Descended Now to degrade these to bury them in a furrow to make them stoop to the slavish service of the world is unworthy and unreasonable As if a man had Golden Mills to grind nothing but for Horse-bread with them It 's enough for the Serpent to eat the Dust all his dayes your souls are created for an higher end 2. And then consider the uncertainty of all these Earthly things you set your hearts upon Prov. 23. 5. Wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is not Mark it 's not worth looking at much less setting thy heart thereon that which is not things that fade are not they have no being worth speaking of And it follows For riches certainly make themselves wings if no body steal them or take them away yet they make themselves wings certainly they will away and flee not only depart fairly or run in haste from you but flee from you and who would mind such fading trasn They will sing you a sweet song like the bird by your window but they are gone you have them not in a Cage And who will fall in love with a Sparrow on the house top 3. Be often in the Scriptures That 's an Heavenly Book and will best cure an Earthly heart To converse with the world will make you worldly but to converse with God will make you heavenly There God will tell you the vanity and vexation that is in all earthly things There he will shew better things yea durable riches and righteousness The Devil can shew you on a Mountain all the Glory of the World but on the Pisgah of the Bible God can shew you all the Glory of Heaven You can hardly come out of the Scriptures without a divine frame if you will read them withall your heart The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of Gold and Silver Two or three Scriptum est's dash't and disgraced all the Glory of the World and the God of it also 4. Be exercised oft in Meditation As tillage changes the nature of some barren grounds and makes them better so Meditation changes the complexion of the soul finds it poor and leaves it rich lifts up the soul to converse with God familiarizes the invisible things of God to the soul and makes a man at home in Heaven and a stranger on Earth He that will think with all his heart on God can think but with half an heart on any thing in the world When the Soul hath been a while above what 's a house or field in comparison of God what 's a Crown or a World to Him that sitteth on the Throne Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there 's none on Earth I can desire like thee Psal. 73. 25. SECT II. II. The Second Temptation of the Husbandman is Discontent He hath divers crosses and these provoke him to murmure against God He hath but narrow comforts of this life and this occasions some grudgings at his own Condition His shoe pinches him and he cannot hide it Unless he be Master of much Grace he frets he fumes he thinks the world is unequally divided he takes himself something neglected and injured His house is ready to fall his children want cloaths his rent day is near and his money far off his comforts are discomforts his things are nothings and thus he grudges because he is not satisfied God himself can hardly please him The Lord hath helped him in forty things but he is in a strait again and now that is forgotten God takes no care of poor men his Lot is worse than every ones never man had such a life would he were in his grave he should then be quiet and thus poor man he thinks he hath reason on his side and that he hath cause to be angry And then the injuries caluâ—…ies and trespasses he meets with from his unjust neighbours these grate again upon his angry humour and inflame him again never man had such neighbours one trespasses on him on this side another sues him for trespass on the other side A Thief goes away with a sheep or an horse this way the Fowls and Mice they purloine away his corn another way His Landlord exacts upon him every one wrongs him and he must be a Stock or a Stoick that were insensible But these things meeting with a weak Christian weary with labour tempt him sometimes to say My soul is weary of my life I will speak in the bitterness of my soul Job 10. 1. and alas so he does if Grace prevent not his wife she is chidden his children beaten his servants turned out of doors his neighbours reviled and then after all he 〈◊〉 at himself grieves and
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
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
puts them in his bosome and both feeds his senses and feasts his Soul by the same Creature 2. The Second Lesson the Husbandman learns in his Garden is from the watering of his Garden And thence he learns the benefit of Ordinances He finds that his choicest flowers must have water either by the hand of man or from the hand of God or else they wither When the bottles of heaven fail the flowers on the earth hang their head And this clears it to him That inherent Grace without auxiliary grace will be green but a while That the Soul lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God And this he finds by his constant Experience that the work-dayes are the spreading time for his Grace and the Lords day his storing time and therefore he thinks the week long and the Sabbath short and in his heart cryes out O when shall I come and appear before God Alas he knows that a Garden without a fountain or showers will have beauty or fragrancy but a while And even so he feels his â—…bul to hunger for supplies from heaven and the disappointment of an Ordinance is a sensible want to him and the enjoyment therefore doth manifest it self quickly in his renewed beauty and vigour Isa. 58.11 The Lord shall satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a water'd Garden Here I have set my flowers but they must have water Here my gracious God hath planted the sweet flowers of his grace and now I must see them watered And though he be weary with his hard labour yet up he rises early and labours hard on the Sabbath in the heavenly trade of Religion and comes home at night glad and merry in heart for the goodness of the Lord. His Garden is watered and his Graces are revived 3. The Third Lesson the Husbandman learns in his Garden is from the Weeds therein He finds a little Garden hath many weeds many kinds and many of every kind and they come up without planting and spring much faster then herb or flower He sees if care be not taken they will over-top the flowers and herbs and that it will coâ—… both observation and industry to pluck them up and when at length the Garden is rid of them and is clean and fair yet they will peep up and spring again and renew his trouble over again and this endless business he hath with it onely the winter helps him and pinches these weeds at the roots but yet in the spring they revive again and give him the same trouble he had the year before And this teaches him the Difficulty of a clean heart and the industrious life of a serious Christian. He finds his Garden within as bad as his Garden without What variety of sinful motions and affections are rising there Divers that he knows not whence nor how they come How speedily have some Lusts got a head His pride hath sprung faster than his Humility by the half His passion is at a great height in comparison of his Patience He wonders at the strange growth of his Corruptions he concludes that without a speedy and effectual course his Garden will be a Wilderness and therefore he awakens watchfulness and falls to serious mortification repentance and reformation of his spiritual estate he gets to his Knees prayes and weepes over his evil desires pursues them into every corner and at length hath a clean heart created in him hopes now all is well The old man is dead and gone but ere long he descryes that he was but asleep his corruption returns and exercisesh im in the same trade he was at before Till some happy affliction comes and that with Gods blessing doth break its heart and Death at length puts an end to this weary life Faith is a Rose that growes between two nettles Presumption and Despair And so Humility and Patience Every Flower hath two weeds two extreams about it which are like to grow with them but must not grow over them And this is the good Husbandmans task His Garden findes him work to weed as long as he lives 4. The fourth Lesson that the Husbandman learnes in his Garden is From his Bees He sits down by his Bees and sees their carriage He observes they are ever busie either fetching materials without or working them within they hate a droan they seem to delight in their work they grudg not to fulfil their place they are most industrious in getting most curious in keeping and most provident in spending their wealth and provision And hence again he learns Diligence in his calling and so away he goes and imployes his strength most willingly therein and repines no more at his lot He is loth to be idle any time if he be not labâ—…g witâ—… his hand he is travelling in hiâ—…â—…d anâ—… indeavours to be ever doing oâ—… receivinâ—… good He invents â—…nd finds imployment for every one in his family and except infant that make work he will have all the rest 〈◊〉 some work or other that there may be honey in the hive in winter for them to liâ—… upon And this he doth in obedience untâ—… God He resorts to his Bees at the next lâ—…sure and falls to his Book again And there he takes notice that the Bee gets somethiâ—… out of every Flower visits them for a littâ—… while but dwells upon none yea the veâ—… weeds afford her something but she reâ—… no where till she return to her Hive theâ—… is her place And thence he learns the uâ—…satisfaction of the creature and that God anâ—… Heaven are the only rest of the soul. It mâ—… sometimes fly abroad in the world but theâ—… it extracts what spiritual sweetness will bâ—… gotten from both Flowers and Weeds but 〈◊〉 cannot rest till it return to the Ark tâ—… God alone who is the Center and refuge 〈◊〉 the soul. The Husbandman is angry at himself thâ—… he cannot as well as the Bee suck some advantage out of the weeds of others evil example and actions which he daily sees but he 〈◊〉 far from sucking poyson fron the objects 〈◊〉 goodness In a word his Bees do feed hiâ—… more and more constantly with sweet lessoâ—… and instructions than with their sweetest hoâ—… ney SECT VI. VI. THe sixth Book wherein the Husbandman learns something of God is his House And though he studies to be cheerful at home and be too weary to learn much yet he steals some notes and gathers instructions now and then in his habitation though he have no Study but the Fire-side From the loving obedience of his Wife he learns the like carriage to Jesus Christ his heavenly Head and Husband By the disobedience of his Children he is minded of his own unto God his heavenly Father and laments them with grief The frowardness and follies he sees in them do bring him to remember his own at their age which otherwise he had forgotten but their easie
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
saving stakes in the world is his by-business but saving his soul is his main business For what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul Mat. 16.26 what is he better if he discharge all his debts and die in Gods debt and be cast into the prison of hell for ever What welcome can he have to God that hath done every thing but what was chiefly given him in charge That is good counsel then for the Husbandman Mat. 6.19 20. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where Thiefs break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasure in Heaven Nothing you can get in this world that can be laid up safe but if your soul be saved that will be safe for ever You must remember that you were not made to work and eat but to save your souls in the first place God hath no where promised that if you seek the world and the vanities thereof the things of Gods Kingdom shall be added to you but he hath promised that if you Seek the Kingdome of God and the righteousness thereof all other things shall be added to you Mat. 6.33 And there-therefore the Religious Husbandman will secure the main chance I must part with my house and my ground and my children but my soul I must live with for ever and that I will secure I know many things are useful but one thing is needful And no care enters deeper than the welfare of this no cross lies heavier than the hindrance of this As in a common fire a man will strive to save his building but if he cannot he would not lose his goods yet if these go in the flame he 'l venture far to save his Cash his Writings and his Jewels So our Husbandman is careful of his other concerns but his Soul his Jewel in the thickest of his business he will endeavour to feed and cure and save whatsoever it cost him The soul like some great Personage is somewhat exceptious if she be not regarded in the first place she will not be served with broken meat When that is made a by-business which should be the main business when men are serious in trifles and trivial in serious things that 's wisdom from beneath stark folly before God The Husbandman is loth to end his life with that doleful song Cant. 1.6 My Mothers Children made me keeper of the Vineyards but my own Vineyard I have not kept And yet alas for grief how many such foolish Creatures are there that like Children sent upon some weighty errand fall in love with this and the other gay flower or weed in their way and play with them while their business is neglected how do such Children deserve to be welcom'd home So do they Almighty God hath sent you into this world upon a great errand namely to conquer the Devil exalt the Lord Jesus and climb to Heaven Ah Sirs do not fall in love with the fading flowers of lawful comforts do not play with the stinking weeds of unlawful lusts and forget your errand Remember there 's no conversion after Death no Sermons in the grave no forgiveness in hell lo this is the accepted time this is the day of salvation you must plow and sow for Eternity No seedness here no harvest there SECT III. III. THe Third Design of the Husbandman should be The Publick Good He hath learned but a little way in the book of Christianity that sets his private benefit above the publick good He that will Sleep in Jesus must serve his Generation Acts 13.36 And the Religious Husbandman will serve his God and then will serve his Generation and then will serve himself not himself first no how may I further the common Good He plows and sows not only because he lives by it but because the Common Wealth cannot live without it That was right Husbandry in Joseph Gen. 41. He did not hoard corn and let others starve but he hoarded it lest others should starve It is said Prov. 11.26 He that withholdeth corn people shall curse him but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it and the wise Husbandman more values the blessing of God upon an empty barn than a full barn and a curse therein He is more pleased with the publick wealth though he lie under private wants than if himself had wealth and there were publick want abroad Though he be a private man yet he should have a Publick spirit It is strange what Instances have been of this Excellent Spirit among Heathens One advising his Countrey men for the publick Good though he knew that Advice would speedily cost him his life Another purposely disguising himself in the battel that he might be there to save his Countrey Another venturing to Sea in a dreadful storm to relieve his needy City with Corn with this conclusion it is not necessary that I live but it is necessary that Rome be relieved Shall limping Nature go thus far that had no Bible but the Creatures nor Heaven but the Elysian Fields Surely grace in the Husbandman will not leave him behind For he hath far stronger inducements to be publick spirited to wit The Love of Jesus Christ which love being shed abroad in his heart by the holy Ghost should make him drown his private in the Publick Good Away then with that poorness that baseness of spirit out of this Excellent Calling As David though he had then onely commenc'd Shepheard yet when he heard of Goliah's affront to the publick he had the heart of a King to vindicate that disgrace and took his life in his hands and came off with honour So should the Religious Husbandman look above himself above his own silly interest and design the publick good in his labours And as the least pin is of use in the greatest building so the meanest Husbandman may be of use in the Mightiest State and the Swords that defend us would be of little avail without the Plough-shares to maintain them It were a mercenary Souldier that only would fight for his pay no he must fight for his Country So that 's a Mercenary Husbandman that onely works for riches he must labour for his Countrey else he is not worthy to live in it And therefore wheresoever his private benefit crosses the publick as in hoarding up Corn in a time of dearth or any such like therein he must deny himself and account that sordid yea cursed gain that is obtained with the general loss SECT IV. IV. THe Fourth Design of the Husbandman should be The Education of and Provision for his Children God hath given him Children and fain he would bring them up and bring them up as the Children of the Most High He holds up Abraham for his Copy Gen. 18.19 with whom he resolves to charge all his with the fear of God in the first place and can never look upon them
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
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
Calling This Sweat needs not to be repented of I need not wash this sweat with tears Though this be painful yet it is not sinful The lawfulness of it will make amends for the painfulness thereof And that is the Second Head namely the Lawfulness of the Husbandmans Calling CHAPTER III. The Excellencies of the Husbandmans Calling ANd now let us advance a step higher and for the Glory of God and the incouragement of the Husbandman observe the Excellencies of this Calling yet before I proceed I would lay down these Premises 1. That it hath Inconveniences also for the wise God hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him The imployment without inconvenience is in Heaven There 's Harvest without VVinter a fair Crop and no sweat an House without decayes and Ground paved with Rubies 2. Upon some Callings God hath set a fairer stamp of Honour than on the Husbandmans Though his first created Son were a Tiller of the ground yet his first Begotten Son was an Husbandman of Souls and did sow for Heaven And the Husbandman will now willingly give precedence to the Magistrate and Minister for the Authority of God vested in the one and the Work of God managed by the the other as considering that the Magistrate is a more publick good than he and the Soul wherein the Minister labours more worthy than the body 3. The Difficulties of a Calling do not prejudice the Dignity thereof 2 Cor. 6. 1. We then as workers together with him The Ministry is a most difficult work able to tire an Angels arms but yet being workers together with God this dignifies the Calling again It is a worthy attempt to seek out the Philosophers Stone which would convert Dust into Gold but no attempt is harder In a pit of Marle or Limestone the Husbandman finds it and makes a quicker return of gain by that than the Chymist doth by the other The poorest things are fullest of ease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more honourable the more hard 4. I must premise further That the most profitable Callings are not alwayes the best The Merchant fetches home greater riches but he brings a Disease oftentimes with them The Lawyer makes greater purchases but somtimes purchases a curse with them The Tradesman somtimes leaves a greater Estate behind him but then often takes a wounded Conscience with him Lot Gen 13. 10. had a Plain to live in that was even as the garden of the Lord yet was it the sink of sin and shortly after a Lake of Brimstone The sweetest meats are not alwayes the wholsomest Profit is not the measure of Goodness That is a rich Calling that inriches God himself that is which most glorifies him 5. Though Husbandry be a brave Calling yet the Christian Husbandman makes it much better In this sence also that is true 1 Tim. 4. 8. For bodily increase profiteth little but Godliness is profitable unto all things Thy weary dayes and pamful nights profit but a little and for a little while but Godliness with them brings universal and eternal profit As he that makes Instruments of musick hath a fine imployment but he who hath the Art of Musick that can tune and use them far outstrips him So naked Husbandry is a worthy Calling but the Christian Husbandman that knows how to use it to the best and makes heavenly Musick out of it hath a great advantage Caius Sejus bonus vir et eo melior quod Christianus The meanest Calling is honourable if God be in it Christ in the lowest heart and Christ in the lowest Calling makes it happy 6. Yet no man shall be saved by his Calling You must not conclude from any thing said or to be said that a man of such an excellent imployment must needs be saved No no thy harmless Calling without an holy heart will not save thy soul It is Christ in you that is the Hope of Glory The Crown it self cannot keep from death nor can your Calling save you from hell without the grace of God The Ministers Calling one would think were sure to save him one purposely imployed to describe Heaven and Hell to the life whose proper Subject is Christ and the Soul and another world yet alas all they are not saved Mat. 7. 22. We have prophesied in thy Name VVe have opened the Gates of Heaven to others and must we be shut out our selves And in thy Name we have cast out Devils and must we be cast to the Devil yea sayes Christ I do not know you nor never did if you have been workers of iniquity The poor Prophet 1 Kings 13.24 that had substantially warned others from the Devil could not escape himself from the Lion when he disobeyed And therefore how excellent soever the Husbandmans calling is yet he may go to Hell from the Plough if he have not saving Grace And these things to prevent mistakes being thus premis'd let us view the Excellencies of this Calling SECT I. The First Excellency of the Calling of an Husbandman is That God himself was the immediate Author of it So saith the Text The Lord God put him into the Garden to Dress and to keep it Here are his first Indentures drawn in the state of Innocency And when he had forfelted these and broken one material Clause therein about eating the forbidden fruit yet we find God again after the fall of our Father Adam putting him into this Calling again Gen. 3. 23. So the Lord sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken So that this Calling was of Gods own invention We read Gen. 4. 20 21 22. who were the Fathers or Authors of this and that Calling but the Husbandman is Apprentice to none but God Isa. 28. 24 26. Doth the Plowman plow all day to sow doth he open and break the clods of his ground His God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him And he must be well taught that God teaches Let us advise sayes God what Calling shall we pitch upon for this worthy Creature How shall we dispose most nobly of him what imployment is worthy of him that wears our Image upon him Then falls in this excellent way of Husbandry He shall be an Husbandman Now it is a maxime A summo Bono nil nisi bonum The Sun may sooner send out a Cloud then the Chiefest Good authorize any thing but what is excellent As on the contrary The sin of Lying hath this base preheminence that it was the first-born of the Devil He is a liar and the Father of it He stands the first Liar on record So our Husbandmans Calling hath this high preheminence that God was his only Master and he his first Apprentice And therefore of all imployments he hath most reason to stand up for God and depend on him It was the highest ambition of the heathen Artificer to derive their Arts from
are onely in Wisdomes left hand yet he hath length of dayes which is in her Right and that 's better Prov. 3. 16. Hence it is probable that Vzziah 2 Chro. 26. 3. lived and reigned longer than any King before him for vers 10. it is said He loved Husbandry a calling it seems not unworthy the love of a King Sixteen years old when he began to reign and he reigned fifty two years in â—…erusalem which though we cannot peremptorily ascribe to his love of Husbandry yet considering their wholesome imployment and the refreshing scents from the earth it self together with the long life of most of that calling we may fairly guess at it It is a true saying comparatively taken Qui mediâ—… vivit misere visit He is a woful slave that 's bound to the rules of Physick when a man cannot rise nor walk nor eat without exactest circumstances This is the life of many a Noble Man and sickness is worse than this a Cottage with health is better than a Crown with sickness But our Husbandman is mostly freed from both these he is feasted and physick't too most of the year with the sweet smells of fragrant flowers in the field rare tunes of the sweetest and cheapest Choristers of the Woods refreshing sights of a fair crop and finds more taste in his dinner of herbs than many others in their variety of dainties And when God hath blest him in the labours of the day he can come home and sing and rejoyce with his Wife and Children at night as if he had a set of Minstrels Psal. 147. 12 13 14. Praise the Lord for he hath blessed thy Children within thee He maketh peace in thy borders and filleth theewith the finest of the wheat It is a chearful Calling When Envy gnaws upon the heart of the Great man and fear and care upon the rich Merchant this man commits his affairs to God and layes down his cares with his cloths by his bed side And you shall hear more hearty I am sure more innocent laughter by his fires side than by his Landlords And after all Eccles. 5. 12. The sleep of the labouring man is sweet whether he eat little or much SECT XI THe Eleventh Excellency of the Husbandâ—… mans calling is That it stands on safer grounds than most others The highest steps of Greatness are usually the most shppery and all the ambitious man gets by his climbing is that he hath the further to fall The greatest Statesman stands at the mercy of his Prince and of his Enemy and if he fall he never rises again they meet with martial law where a man can offend but once But the Husbandman if he fall his corn miss or his cattle dye he makes shift to get up again in time Et qui cadit in terram non habet unde cadat his fall is not so high as to break his bones The Merchant he meets with certain losses and uncertain gains one puff of wind sometimes undoes him one Pirate makes him a beggar now the Husbandman hath a ship sayling in his field which though it go slower yet oft moves surer than the other and the Mariner comes for more Collections abroad than the Husbandman If men would be quiet the Lawyer would be troubled and if they would be temperate the Physitian would be sick So that if the World should grow wise in her old age those two callings would be in great hazzard but as long as the world lives it must have meat and the trade of plowing will never be out of request Nay the Husbandman hath many sweet promises for his security God hath promised that the Earth shall increase and multiply that seed-time and harvest shall not cease Gen. 8. 22. That he will give the former and the latter rain in its appointed season That the diligent hand shall be made rich yea that his Oxen shall be strong to labour his sheep shall bring forth thousands in the streets that he shall eat of the fruit of his labour and that it shall be well with him SECT XII The Twelfth Excellency of this Calling of an Husbandman is That it is a greater friend to Piety than most other Callings Others may have more time but this hath as much opportunity to get to Heaven Others may have more religious Notions but he hath more religious Motions Others may out-wit him in Religion but few shall out-pray him The Gentleman his neighbour will have a finer Bible but he will use it oftner to his Comfort His learned Minister will dispute better for the truth than he but he will suffer for the truth as much as he And if you trace him you shall find as Devout a Prayer in his family as feeling a Grace at his Table as where there is a finer House and a fuller Table Nay when others put off God with any scantling of Prayer That day hath seldom past wherein there hath no Chapter been read and Psalm sung among his family Nay his very Calling furthers him much herein Noah that was so perfect and upright a man in that forlorn Generation He Gen. 9. 20. began to be an Husbandman Though I may not say his Calling made him an upright man yet they agreed marvellous well together His Religion is not perhaps so plausible but it is most sound and what he wants in Wording it he hath in Hearting and in Doing the whole will of God I say his calling furthers him in it He hath such need of Gods daily goodness and so duely heares from him in his Mercies That prayers and praises are his constant fare He is pretty well wearied in the world and so Prayer is welcome to him It is an ease and refreshment 〈◊〉 him which is work and trouble to others As sleep is welcome to a labouring man not sâ—… to Children that care not for going to bed because they are not weary So Death is welcome to the Religious Husbandman because henceforth he rests from his labours And while he lives his Dross is onely upon the Earth but his golden precious spirit is soaring into Heaven His spiritual estate like his temporal is herein fully as good as it seems and in short when the Power of Godliness is lost every where you may find it in his house and heart Hence it is probable he hath the name of a Good-man incorporated into his very name Goodman such a One as if the Quintessence of Innocency and Piety were chiefly in the Husbandman And thus you have a view of some of the Excellencies and Advantages of this Calling which I have put down not to puff up the Husbandman with pride he will meet with cares and labours enough to keep him down nor to reflect any disgrace upon other Callings whose honour ease and profit will hold up their hearts well enough but for the Glory of that most gracious God that led our Father Adam into it and for the Comfort and
the workman and finds his God in all things and all things in his God 2. A second Antidote is the Consideration of the folly and danger of depending on Second Causes Folly for nothing can move much less help without God a vain thing to stir the ballance of the Clock or Watch except the Spring and great Wheel stir All Creatures are but poor little Wheels that can do you no Good without the first Cause God must say the word if he hiss to the flies they come amain and therefore lose thy time no more in solliciting poor second causes or depending on them but knock at the right door and you will find God still within Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God In vain is Salvation looked for from the hills from God the Lord is the salvation of his people Make thy Ground as good as thou canst but then trust not in the goodness of thy Ground but in the goodness of thy God for a plentifull crop Non Solum sed Caelum facit fructum It 's not the Earth but the Heaven that sends the Corn. Manure and prune thy Trees with all thy Art but then depend on Gods blessing for store of fruit for the Creature can but do what it 's bidden and therefore its folly to depend thereon And consider the danger also for when it s depended on it is in danger of a blast and you are in danger of a cuâ—…e God will not give his Glory to another nor suffer his Creature to wear his Crown and therefore he many times smites the Field the Beast the Horse whereon you depend too much If you make but a Trench for water and have no dependance on God he takes it ill Isa. 22. 11. Ye make a ditch also for the water of the old Pool but ye have not looked to the Maker thereof neither had respect to him that fashioned it long agoe Hereby also you invite a Curse upon your selves for God hath said Jer. 17. 5. Cursed is the man that maketh flesh his arm that trusteth in man and whose trust departeth from the Lord. And if you run such an hazard by trusting in man how will you escape for depending on any other inferiour creature below God himself Read and believe the whole truth of this and nothing but the truth Psal. 144. 10 12 13. It is He that giveth salvation unto Kings that maketh our Sons as Plants our Daughters as Corner stones our Garners full our Sheep fruitful our Oxen strong Let the Husbandman therefore make God his friend and then he is at league with the very stones of the Field and whatsoever he doth shall prosper Be sure that he be sollicited every day by prayer and crowned with praises and then second Causes are thine own Use means but trust not in them Let not your Faith stifle your Industry nor your Industry blind your Faith Let your hands be busie in the second causes but let your heart be first on the First And as the sweet Psalmist advises Psal. 37.3 Trust in the Lord and do good So mark So and not otherwise thou shalt dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed SECT IV. IV THe Fourth Temptation of the Husbandman is Envy at his Superiours And by this Temptation fell the second Husbandman in the world Abel sat above Cain in the favour and acceptation of God Gen. 4.4 5. and for this Cain was wroth and his countenance fell He that should have blest God for his Brother and examin'd himself he takes it ill at God and ill of his Brother and is the death of him as envy useth to pursue its object to death he kills him down right because he was exalted in Gods esteem above him And ever since the spirit that is in the Husbandman is prone to lust unto envy His Landlords temptation is to despise him and his temptation is to envy his Landlord He can hardly come to Town but he envies the ease of the Tradesman He can hardly see the fine house of the Gentleman his neighbour nor the fine cloaths of his Wife or Children without an envious eye nay the painful life of his faithful Minister he is apt to envy as if he had a degree of ease and honour above himself yea except grace prevent and mortifie there lies at his heart a perpetual grudg and secret spite at all Magistrates Ministers great and wealthy men all which he thinks do him wrong because he sweats and they do not he payes the money and they receive it he gets it and they spend it though most of it returns through his hands again He knows no reason why such being made of the same mold and perhaps born of the same Stock with himself should live in such brave houses wear such costly apparel and fare at such an high rate when he hath his head full of cares his bones full of pain and hath hardly meat to eat or time to eat it when his Landlords Horses lye in a finer House then he and his meanest servant wears a cloth beyond him This Temptation meeting with a proud temper doth much disfigure our Husbandman and makes him speak reproachfully and unadvisedly with his lips This one fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs be a Judge said they of Sodom to Lot the wealthy Gen. 19. 9. What are these idle Gentry good for See their intollerable pride and height What needs such decking of a walking Dunghil worser cloaths might serve Would they were tyed a while to our fare Never good world since there was such a distinctionâ—… between Princes and Peasants between rich and poor Nay if their humour were not curb'd by grace within or fear without they would actually dispossess their Superiours of their right and deal as Abimeleck by Isaac Gen. 26. 16. Go from us sayes he for thou art much mightier than we The rich they are sick of their poor neighbours and the poor are as sick of their rich Superiours and there is a levelling Principle in the hearts of common people that can endure no Superiour as there is an ambitious one in Great Ones to abide no equal Nay the Husbandman is apt to think that he hath Reason on his side yâ—…a and God Almighty also that God loves none that are richer than he and because he finds that the Gospel hath included the poor he thinks to exclude the rich and comforts himself after all with this that in Heaven he shall sit above them if at least any of them come there Thus he pleases but mostly frets himself at the Grandeur of Superiors and instead of chearing himself he torments himself at the comforts of his betters But doth he well this while Is he indeed in the right and hath Providence done him wrong or doth God throw down riches and greatness winking and bestow honours at adventures Nay my Beloved this is but his Temptation The
not strain one sinew for a little grace at night If I have tyred my Legs about the earth shall 〈◊〉 not wear my Knees to get to Heaven If I have wearied my Armes to get a living here shall I not stretch out my Hands to get a Crown hereafter And let all resolve that the Husbandman must give place to the Christian the Plough must submit to the Prayer and your Earthly Vocation to your heavenly Calling SECT VI. VI. THe Sixth Temptation of the Husbandman is Vncharitableness and Nigardliness He can hardly part with that which he hath so hardly gotten That which he hath gotten with the drops of his sweat he is like to part with as the drops of his blood 1 Sam. 25.11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be said that rich Chub Nabal So the Husbandman must I take pains for wealth and give it away when I have done Let all that will eat labour as well as I and herewith he turns off the fittest objects of charity that are and resolves that every man must be for himself and so will he He argues that no body gives him and therefore he will give to none But though this be his Temptation yet I do not assert that Husbandmen are generally conquer'd by it For according to the proportion of his estate he exceeds for the most part the Gentry round about him The poor Criple at his door shall have a larger alms to his power I am sure a quicker dispatch than at the great pair of Gates close by him And in publick Collections for charitable uses the poor Husbandmans Purse is ready with his Mite when hiâ—… Landlord was not at Church that day Neither do I affirm that every one that asks is a fit object for the Charity of our Husbandman especially if our Laws for setting the pooâ—… on work were put in execution no some lusty Beggars he entertains with a charitable Exhortation to honest labour and tells them the benefit and comfort that he finds by it and somtimes sets them on work upon tryal but because he considers that it 's safer to relieve nine needless Beggars than to turn away one needy one therefore he strains himself to help the most that cry for it and refers himself to the Lord his God for recompense But yet he hath much adoe with his heart herein Flesh and Blood looks thrice upon his money ere the Spirit and Grace can once part with it It puts all the Faith he hath to the utmost to give to strangers when perhaps his own children are unprovided for and to relieve others that must come if two or three bad years meet with him to be relieved himself But if he have no Faith but an earthly selfish temper instead of it the poor have cold entertainment at his door He thinks it enough for him to be just to pay every man his own let others be charitable that have greater Estates He must pay Taxes to the King he must pay Rents to his Landlord he must pay Lewnes to the Church and then to the poor of his Parish and by this time he is drained and can do no more And it is to say the truth a lamentable thing that so many wandring Beggars are suffered to be unimployed and yet more that the burden of them falls upon the poor Husbandman for his Landlord lives in the City and visits his Hall only twice a year and the poor are little the better for that yea somtimes their unconscionable Rents make the Beggars and then the Husbandman is forc'd to keep them But yet some Preservatives must be laid before the Husbandman against this Temptation 1. You must consider that you are but Stewards of your Estate The Property is Gods the Possession and use only yours And so what you give is of Gods stock in your hands and what need you be niggardly of anothers stock As long as your Alms and Expences will pass in your accounts it is nothing at all to you how he will have it dispos'd The forgetfulness of this makes men so close-handed They take all they have to be their own so Nabal shall I give my bread and my flesh So the worldling cries This is my house my corn my bread and this locksâ—…up his hand whereas when thou look'st on thy house say This is the Lords who gives me house-room on charity and therefore any Guest he sends must be welcome this Corn is Gods and so is this Bread I have but the disposing of it and so if he order it to a Beggar I will freely part with it for it is none of mine but Gods If some great man give you an Estate oâ—… twenty pounds a year freely only heâ—… layes twenty shillings Rent-charge upon it Were not you unworthy to deny or to grudg the payment of this Rent-charge why this is the case It is the Lord only that hath given you an Estate charitable relief of such as are in want is the Lords Rent-charge which he hath laid upon it and therefore grudg not to pay it lest he re-enter and seize the whole And especially considering that he hath charged thee herein according to thy ability not as earthly Landlords that lay somtimes a great Rent on a small living he would only have thee to suit thy charity to thy ability O but I am a very poor man and can hardly subsist Answ. Art thou poorer than that widow Mark 12.42 She had not much and Christ expected not much from her two Mites shall serve thy turn if thou hast but little And our Lord Jesus himself was low in Stock when he was put to a miracle for money to pay his Tax and yet saith the text he had a Purse for the Poor Joh. 13.29 Think of this when thou hast much a do to pay thy Rent or to pay thy Tax and grudg not somthing to the hungry and naked seeing thy Saviour had a purse for the poor though he somtimes wanted money to pay his Tax 2. You must believe that giving will make you rich Well-ordered charity makes no man poor The way to have full Barns is to have free hands To this both God and Man beaâ—… witness Isa. 32.78 The instruments of the Churl are evil that is he who maketh empty the soul of the hungry vers 6. But the liberal man deviseth liberal things and by liberal things shall he stand He deviseth how he may do good and where and when he lyes in his bed contriving how he may do poor men good in the best manner I say you so he may quickly devise away all that ere he hath Nay saith the Holy Ghost â—…y liberal things shall he stand Piety Equity and Charity are the best Pillars in any mans house None more punctually payes his debts than God now he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord and the Lord he will pay
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
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
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
upon it and bringeth forth herbes meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God Shall my ground be blessed and not my heart Is a fruitful field a pleasant sight O how muc h more blessed sight is a serious growing and holy heart Awake therefore O my soul lest thy ground do shame thee and lest the Earth rise up in Judgement against him that tills it Again when the Husbandman is in his barren ground there he learns the danger of unfruitfulness For saith the Scripture Heb. 6.8 that which beareth thorns and bryars is rejected and nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Doe I turn that ground to Commons that will bring neither Corn nor Grass after all my cost What then will become of me if I be unfruitful Is it intollerable in the ground and is it not much more in earth refined A wake my barreu heart and fall to work I 'le ghome and mend my pace bring forth fruitso meet for repentance lest while I seem blessed on earth I prove to be accursed from Heaven And thus the barren ground reads a fruitful lecture to the observing Husbandman 4. His fourth lesson is from the improving of his ground He finds that the dirty manure is necessary to make his ground fertile Luke 13.8 Not only the fig-tree but the vineyard must be dig'd and dung'd else it wil grow weedy gather moss and be fruitlessâ—… And here our Husbandman learns the necessity and benefit of affliction Here 's a piece of ground alas without much paine I shall reap no profit And here 's an Heart that will bring forth little without much pains and cost Afflictions are profitable but not pleasant at all They fall upon us by a necessity If need be ye are in manifola temptations 1 Pet. 1.6 Let a man live two or three yeares without affliction and he is almost good for nothing he cannot pray nor meditate nor deny himself he gathers abundance of moss and rust but let God smite him in his child or estate or health now heâ—… can find his tongue he is awake and is in good earnest now he is humble and mortified and quite another man O! affliction is the growing soyl God hath now as much honour again from him as he had before Hereupon many good Husbands think that improving is better than purchasing the Lord hath such a large improvement from one of his servants after affliction that it brings in as much as if he had converted a man out of the rough And now thinks the Husbandman my pains and cost is well bestowed this crop rewards me And so sayes God This amendment pleaseth me This rod was well bestowed And thus doth God chide himself friends with his poor children and heales them by his stripes and this the Husbandman learnes from the improving of his Ground 5. The Husbandmans fifth lesson is from fencing of his Ground He observes that after all his cost and labour in his field one gap or breach is able to ruine all his hopes and therefore concludes the necessity of a fence for the receiving of his deserved profit Here my Corn is sown but my labour 's lost without care to preserve it up Sirs let us be doing this field must be fenced or all is lost And hence the Husbandman learnes the duty of watchfulness and concludes that without it an everlasting soul is lost When God himself hath sown the precious seed of Gospel-truth in the heart and plac'd many orient Graces in the soul there is no small need of a serious and constant watch else Satan and his instruments will quickly lay them wast Let the field of your heart be never so richly laden with knowledge love zeal yet if one gap be left open for the Boar out of the Wood or the Foxes of the field to any one conscience-wasting corruption open or secret all will be destroyed Prov. 24.30 I went by the field of the man void of understanding and loe the stone wall thereof was broken down Here was a field without a fence but did the passenger gather nothing hence Yes vers 32. Then I saw and considered it well I was thinking what I might learn from it I looked upon it and received instruction My neighbours folly taught me wisdome I was instructed by it this outward object taught me an inward lesson So should the Husbandman by the breaches in his neighbours wall be taught to repair the neglects of his owâ—… watch How soon is a pair of Flood-Gates 〈◊〉 the fenne-Countries drawn up How hardâ—… can we draw out the waters again Ah so iâ—… is you may beleive sighing experience so iâ—… is with a poor soul you may a thousand timeâ—… more carefully keep out a sin and cruâ—… a Cockatrice in the egg than rid thâ—… soul of its woful chains and fetters afterwards It 's watchfulness and prayer that only caâ—… keep temptation out 6. The Husbandmans fixth lesson is from the Grass of his ground Thus he hath daily a pleasant view of and now and then makes a Book of it and every Grass is a Letter yeâ—… 〈◊〉 word yea a Sermon to him A Sermon sometimes of his own frailty For how doth it flourish in the morning and the many coloured weeds therein â—…ile and dance and at night they are cut down and withered their beauty gone in a few dayes and then he remeâ—…bers what is said Isa. 40.6 7. All flesh is Grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the Grass The Grass withereth the flower fadeth Sure the people is Grass And so he goes his way with an heart mortifyed and weaned to the world and all things in it seeing there is so little difference between his Grass and him The Grass sprung lately out of the ground and so did he only he is the Senior Grass and the Grass is resolv'd into the earth again and so must he onely he lives a while longer And more particularly the Husbandman learnes hence the short-liv'd happiness of wicked men that rise up suddâ—…ly in the world and rage as they were woo'd but like the Grass they perish out of hand and their places forget them God lets them alone a while as the Husbandman doth his Meadow eates them not down by afflictions but hedges them by his providence as if he had more care of them then of all his deâ—…esne besides but mowes them down at length and cuts them off in a moment Psal. 92.7 When the wicked spring as the Grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever And then again the Grass Preaches to the Husbandman Relyance upon the providence of God Thinkes he here I have a great family and many Children and certain provision for them I have none but Math. 6.30 If God thus cloath the Grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the Oven shall be not much more cloath me and mine
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
patience to wait Jam. 5.7 Be patient therefore Brethren to the coming of the Lord. Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fâ—…uits of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain And Clemens is of opinion that the Apostles James and Jude were Husbandmen Well we see here the Husbandman hath need of patience long patience to wait for the fruits of the Earth Many a long day and night there is between Seedness and Harvest and yet he is not in despair he waites and hopes Harvest will come at length The Heavens they frown upon the Earth the Corn mourns the Grasse withers but yet he waits with patience upon God He knows the bottles of Heaven are in a good hand and therefore relyes on God and does his duty His ground is sometimes chok't for Rain and sometimes again chok't with over-much Rain But he frets not at all but quietly waits on Gods pleasure He goes into his Barne and sees his Corn almost gone and then goes into the Field and there its slow in ripening He looks into his purse and there 's no money and now his patience is tryed Yet in this case he considers the wisdom providence of God arms his mind with patience till Harvest comes and then sometimes excessive Rain keeps him and his Corn asunder Week after Week and when it comes sometimes the poor yieldance of it utterly disappoints him so that he hath need of patience to last another year by that time his borrowed Corn is paid and his Ground Seeded his stock is almost gone And therefore the Husbandman hath need of patience great long patience patience to wait 2. He must have Patience to bear He meets with a dear bargain a hard Rent heavy Taxes tempests without doors and storms sometimes within But this is his Cloak to bear off all weathers this is his harness he dare not go without If he fret it will gall him worse And he is then undone when the back of his patience is broken His provocations are many his neighbours wrong him but he licks himself whole by his patience his servants are surly his children oft displease him yea his wife sometimes le ts fly her tongue against him But he hath his Armour on He knows they have little wit to provoke him but he thinks he should have less alwayes to observe it According to that Eccles. 7.21 He takes not heed to all words that are spoken lest he hear his servant curse him He finds a time to acquaint them with their duties and miscarriages and bears what cannot be helped with Patience Alas his whole life is a tryal and exercise of this grace He works hard and fares hard and lodges hard but patience is the pillow he lies on the only Bootes he hath to ride with in the mire yea the Horse he rides on The linnen of his every day clothes It s all the Table cloth and napkin he uses in a word it s the very food he lives by And therefore as ever you hope for comfort in this calling labour for this grace of patience meditate of it pray for it when it fails renew it study the precept plead the promise consider that grand pattern of Patience our Lord Jesus Christ. And oft think that there is more real good in it than there is evil in that which tryes it That you are in a better condition when you have patience under a tryal than if you were without the tryall And seeing you possess but little in the World resolve to possess your own souls in Patience SECT II. II. THe second Grace necessary for the Husbandman is Discretion 1. In his affairs Isa. 28.25 Doth the Plowman Plow all day to sow Doth he open and break the clods of his Ground When he hath made plain the face thereof doth he not cast abroad the Fitches and scatter the Cummin and and cast in the principalWheat and the appointed Barley Rye in their place Here you see the Holy Ghost himself guiding the Husbandman in his Tillage he should be wise to manage his business in due season and order And then vers 27. The Fitches must he beaten out with a staff Bread Corn must be bruised c. And even this Discretion must be taught of God so saith this Scripture vers 29. This also cometh from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in Counsel and Excellent in working He doth well therefore to be inquisitive of his elder neighbours but he must not neglect to seek this skill of God who is wonderful in counsel And then he finds that wise fore-casting is as necessary as working that things may be done in their place that he neither entertain confusion nor idleness but that businesses may fall in one after another and still there may be fit time for religious duties And thus a good man orders his affairs with discretion 2. He must have discretion about his Family that he may therein be neither a Tyrant nor a Cypher that he may educate and dispose his children with that prudence and circumspection he ought Discretion also to correct in prudence not in passion and to add sweet lessons as God doth to sharp lashes to keep them at a sufficient distance and yet not discourage them to preserve his authority in hischeerfulness to choose fit Callings for them or matches when they are ready and to load them from him at least with good counsel There is nothing harder than for an indiscreet man to command due reverence in his house And therefore the wise Husbandman considers that if his Authority in his house be gone he is buried alive and the life of a slave will be better then his that hath all the charge and none of the rule And this can never be obtained by imperiousness or correction but by discretion 3. He must have discretion for his estate that he may neither live above it nor below it That in his clothing house-keeping and spending he may neither be guilty of pride nor baseness His incomes are not great and therefore that States-mans Rule that the ordinary expences of him who would keep even with the World must be but the one half of their income and of him that would thrive but the third part thereof I say this Rule stands him in little stead If he can pay his Rent and Taxes feed and cloath his family you shall not hear him complain But if with all he can yearly lay by a little towards the better education or disposal of his children then you shall hear him sing Well all the Discretion he hath is needful hereunto Partly to take such bargaines that may afford a livelihood and yet herein he is afraid of weakning the estate of him that sells as well as his own Partly in observing the Markets for the vending of his commodities and other wayes unless he will outlive his livelihood and leave his Children beggars 4. He
hath need of discretion in Religion to regâ—…te his zeal with wisdom to carry the ballances even between his general and particular calling that he be neither Monk nor Matchevellian To know when to work and when to pray when to be chearful and when severe In a word his Family and his Farm are his Kingdome and he hath need of Christian politicks as well as a Prince And what need have ye then to study and pray and seek after wisdom First knock at Gods door for he hath bid us come to him before we trouble any body else and his word is past that he will give and give liberally and never upbraid All other means also must be used especially deliberation and advisedness He that thinkes much shall doe more then he that can only talk or work SECT III. III. THe third special Grace that the Husbandman should get is Heavenliness He hath weights to press him down and therefore hath need of wingsto lift him up Both his nature and his calling would conform him to the world and without a Divine principle there 's no rowing against these It s a hard thing to be in the Earth and not of it and to live above that which he cannot live without He must have heavenly affections and those set and fixed that will do it Coloss. 3.2 Set your affections on things in Heaven and not on things on Earth Mark we must not only have our thoughts on Heaven but our affections affectionate working thoughts without frequent and lively indeavours this way thy mind will be sadly earthified and sunk down to a brutish temper thy heart will be where thy heeles should be As he that 's alwayes conversant with Books will have his mind exceedingly filled with Notions and Observations so much more will the poor Husbandmans heart be prest down and the frame of it bent earthward unless he study this Grace To be earthly in earthly business is humane To be Heavenly in Heavenly business is divine To be earthly in Heavenly business is brutish to be Heavenly in earthly business is Christian. O therefore get thy ends alwayes thy heart frequently spiritual and Heavenly so will you do two works in one and get Heaven and earth at once Look up often to the Heavens and withal think who dwells there what they are doing there what thou wilt be abont a thousand years hence how a man should do to get thither and how a man may know he shall dwell for ever there No creature upon earth hath an upright countenance as man hath on purpose that he might look up to that God that made him and not to the earth whereof he is made Resolve with an Heavenly magnanimity when thou art plowing or digging in the earth and say Oearth I am not now thy equal By Grace I am advanced to reach after higher things then thou canst yield me any Here I have pibbles but yonder are pearles here I have clods of dust but yonder there are Crowns of Glory here 't is true are my Wife and children to cherish and nourish whom I could be content to live but that yonder is my Father my Christ my noble friend my true joyes my real treasure my God and that 's enough And therefore up O my leaden heart and make thee wings and fly away to rest For where the treasure is there should the heart be also Consider that God is alwayes in thy company and who can be cold that lives in the Sun though thy imployment be mean and thou go sometimes into the lonesome fields or the lowest imployments yet having such Royal company such a God and alwayes within the hearing within a call of thee how canst thou be dull and earthly Think would I flag thus and have my heart under my feet thus if some excellent Minister were in my company what questions would I be asking him whatconverse would there pass between us O how much more Heavenly should I be that have a Heaven so nigh me if not a Heaven in me Put it therefore into your prayers O all ye poor Husbandmen whose Calling lyes in that which is vanity and vexation of spirit Lord turn away my eyes from heholding vanity and quicken me in thy way Psal. 119.37 SECT IV. IV. THe Fourth special Grace the Husbandman should get is Vprightness Uprightness toward God and down uprightness towards men to live a plain even Scripture course To be a Jacob a plain man â—…hough he dwell in Tents Behold this is the Husbandmans motto To be poor and honest â—…t is a criticall thing to be a Politician but there are few criticismes in the sincerity of an Husbandman He is one that will rather lose all he hath then God and a good Conscience And this he follows not as an heathen â—…rtue but as a Christan Grace He walks in the uprightness of his heart for Conscience sake This is his Argument with God this is his Bond to men Lord remember how I have walked before thee in Truth Isa. 38.3 He cannot boast of many works but he can glory in an upright walk And this pleads with God for him even when many infirmities â—…ccompany his actions his heart is right And the observation of this even and downright carriage of his is as good as other mens bonds If he verefie it no body doubts the truth of what he asserts His motto is Menâ—…iri non possum Prodere nolo I cannot frame to lye If he promise any thing every one beleives him for he had rather break his head than break his word In his discourse he is not elegant but he is honest and when his phrases and expressions are ridiculous his integrity makes them lovely In his bargains he studies Justice and strives to do by others as he would be done by In a word he is â—…onest without welt or gard And this is a â—…lessed Grace Isa. 33.14 Who among us â—…all dwell with devouring fire That is approach the just and holy God He that wâ—…eth righteously and speaketh uprightly that 〈◊〉 spiseth the gain of oppression He shall 〈◊〉 on high Bread shall be given him his 〈◊〉 shall be sure If Heaven and Earth can 〈◊〉 him amends he shall have it he shall dwâ—… with God on high in Heaven he shall want Bread on Earth Mark the perfect man 〈◊〉 behold the upright for the end of that 〈◊〉 is peace The poor Husbandman hath livâ—… to see the fall of many a cunning companion that could stretch his Conscience to 〈◊〉 interest and cogg and swear and lye 〈◊〉 his gain And them he hath seen like green Laurel Tree but the curse was amoâ—… his goods and all is gone he is not woâ—…th groat The little estate he hath as it was 〈◊〉 hastily gotten so he hopes it will be slow 〈◊〉 spending and like a low house with a gooâ—… foundation stand when the fine house 〈◊〉 him will have a dreadful fall having 〈◊〉 foundation in injustice
Why among the Herdmen of Tekoa Amos 1.1 And where was Elisha when the Lord called him to his own work why plowing with twelve Yoke of Oxen before him and himself with the twelfth 1 Kings 19.9 O therefore use thy best Art and Industry Adam's sin hath hardened the ground and now thy sweat must soften it but this is thy comfort it is sanctified sweat and every drop of it spent in a right manner and to a right end shall be rewarded with a thousand years in Glory And thy Diligence on Earth will make thee long to be in Heaven SECT II. II. THe Second Rule for the Husbandman in his Calling is Submit unto Providence Be convinced that there is a Supream Providence that directs and orders all and every event in the world and be satisfied therein as that which is best for you Psal. 115.3 Our God is in the Heavens he hath done whatsoever he pleased Read more in the Book of Gods Providence and less in the books of mens Prognostications And this I do purposely instance in because the common use of these books is most foolish and fallible for how can One of them tell the whole Nation of rain such and such a day when there is usually rain in one Country and fair weather in another the same day Besides the Lord doth very often alter the Scene of these things either upon the prayers of his people or the sins of his enemies Hence that Challenge Isa. 47.13 Let now the Astrologers the Star-gazers the monthly Prognosticators stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee And this was spoken to the Chaldeans the best in those Arts in all the world And yet there is a good use to be made of them for signs and seasons and days and years but as to any certain foretelling of weathers or other events that depend on casual or voluntary causes they are matters beyond their line And if you can know your present Duty no matter for fore-knowing future Events And then submit to the same hand of God in all things It 's mans Prudence to submit to Gods Providence Labour to sec God in every thing is thy promising Crop blasted it's Gods wisdome that hath done it Doth the Rain cross thee why the rain that hindred thee hath furthered some greater affairs There is mention Ezek. 1.16 of a Wheele in the middle of a wheele It is thought to set forth the invisible Providence of God that acts and over-rules all second causes for good ends And you must still remember that Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God and therefore say and that withall thy heart Father thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Alas Sirs will your repining make the matter better Is Sin a proper cure for Affliction No no. The ordering of Gods affairs belong to God and of your affairs to you let it rain when God will let snow and ice come when God will and then heat and drought when he will for that belongs to him And do you plow and sow when you can and reap when you can for this is the will of God that you be dependent creatures and live on him seeing you cannot live upon your selves Let not a grudging thought therefore arise in your hearts against the Providence of God I say not a grudging thought for even that doth plainly tax his Wisdome and Government Who can send a drop of rain without the direction of God Jer. 14. last Are there any among the Vanities of the Gentiles that can cause Rain as if God should say where are they let them come forth and answer now if any such there be or can the Heavens give showers alas not a drop art not thou he O Lord our God therefore we will wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things Repine not therefore in the least at any of these Events It is the Lord let him do what seems good to him Do thy part and he 'l be sure to do his Nay in those injuries that are put upon thee the over-ruling and well ordering hand of Providence doth guide and dispose the same to the best 2 Sam. 16.10 Let him curse saith David of Shimei that reviled him bitterly without a cause because the Lord hath said to him Curse David who then shall say wherefore hast thou done so O study Providence believe Providence submit to Providence God is Righteous in mens Unrighteousness and he never permits any evil to befall thee except he can bring out of it some greater good SECT III. III. THe Third Rule of the Husbandman in his Calling is Make a treasure of God You are likely to be but mean and poor in the things of this World O labour to be rich in the possession of that God that made it Your harvest is doubtful your comforts are uncertain O make sure of God and then you have something sure A few hard years will bring the Husbandman to bread and water had not he need then to be sure of Christ He whose treasure is above can never be undone It was the saying of an Holy Man to one whose crosses and troubles were so great that he cried out O I am quite undone why says he is not God in Heaven Who can sink that hath Caesar with him in the ship or be miserable that hath the possession of happiness it self Hab. 3.18 Although the Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be found in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Fields shall yield no meat the Flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no Herd in the stall yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and will joy in the God of my Salvation O blessed frame O divine Spirit like that of God himself that is content and satisfied in and with himself though there were nothing else in the world And thus the holy and mortified Husbandman sits down with God and sings chearfully The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore I will hope in him If I had nothing in the world if there were no world at all yet my soul is compleatly happy in my God I have enough and enough and enough Thus a true Saint is under his condition by Humility but above it by Faith and can make a living not out of bread only but out of every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God And therefore he fears God in prosperity and loves him in Adversity he trembles the more for his mercy and loves him never the less for his frowns And when the Barn is empty then he can live by Faith My God is riches enough for any man The Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want One Jewel is worth an hundred load of lumber Others can boast of their fair houses large demesnes Noble Alliances and numerous Friends and I can glory in the Lord that
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