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
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
great mens And these somtimes suffer for their presumption their Rents raised or themselves dismist but they have cast up their accounts and do know that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer for it and are content Now to fence and Preserve the Husbandman from this slavish fear of man consult 1. The Providence 2. The Promise of God 1. Consult the Providence of God Thou look'st at man and fearest him If thou wouldst look at God thou wouldst trust in him thou wouldst see a thousand times more cause to trust in God then to fear man For the hearts and hands of all men are in the hands of your God Great men are in the hand of a great God And your greatest enemies are in the hands of your châ—…ycest friend and he will bend their hearts to do thee good or bind their hands that they can do thee no hurt He commonly makes their foes their friends that walk uprightly with him And those that turn aside for fear he suffers them to lose the favour of great ones some other way and the love of God also It comes often to pass that they who will not suffer for Christ come to suffer for themselves that they who are afraid to suffer for their holiness prove to suffer for their wickedness as that Black-smith in the Acts and Monuments that when he was put to it told them he could not burn and so escaped the Fire of Honour but ere long a spark kindled in his shop and burnt him and shop and all in the Fire of Judgment and so he burnt for himself that would not burn for Jesus Christ. Believe this therefore if all the Great Ones on earth were set against you they shall not touch an hair of your head no not an hair of your Head till God for your good give them a Commission One cringe would have secured those three Princes Dan. 3.15 from a most dreadful peril but behold their integrity constancy and courage and it is hard to say which was the strongest O Nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship thy golden Image which thou hast set up And did God forsake them in their need not at all Alas he hath fire and water in his hands and can make a Gridiron to be a bed of Down when he pleaseth And therefore look not at man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Look not at the stone but at the hand in which it is for as the stone cannot stir unless it be moved by the hand so no man can stir one jot against you unless God stir him up Hence we have so oft that phrase in the old Testament that God stirred up this and that enemy against his people Instead of pleasing this or that great man whom it may be thou canst never please or if thou dost yet there 's another may do thee a mischief as well as he Do thou study to please God who can according to that Prov. 16.7 make thy Enemies to be at peace with thee Man sayes Augustine fear God and thou maist smile at the world Alas it lyes in the breast of any wretch is he will come and swear against thee whether thou shalt be worth a groat before night and what foresight can arm a man against such mishaps No no It is the Lord that must be your refuge and portion in the Land of the living And therefore rely and rest which you may safely do in the way of your duty upon his All-ruling Providence 2. Consult the Promise of God 1. The Promises he hath made to keep you from the troubles that your Superiours would bring on you Isa. 41.10 Fear thou not for I am with thee Lord who can fear when thou art with them be not dismayed for I am thy God O blessed Word if a weak Husbandman can get a strong God for his God what need he fear I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea let not down thy heart man I will uphold thee with the right hand of my Righteousness Behold all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded they shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish If thy name be in the Eight and Ninth verses of that Chapter these Promises are as surely entail'd upon thee as if thy Name were inserted and they only made to thee Again vers 14. Fear not thou worm Jacob I will help thee saith the Lord and thou shalt thresh the Mountains Hear this thou that sayest O I am but a worm to them how soon may a man crush a worm under his feet and so soon may these great Mountains fall upon me and crush me Why sayes God though thou art but a worm to them yet I will help thee to thresh the mountains God and a worm can do much Somwhat a strange sight to see a worm threshing a mountain yet so it is Many a poor upright Husbandman by his Prayers and convincing life doth conquer silence tame or destroy many a wicked Nimrod that would destroy him Hath not God said Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye And will God suffer the proudest of them all to fly at the apple of his eye So that except it be for your great glory and good you may râ—…st securely and build upon it That no hand of violence shall touch you however shall never do you hurt This is a maxime No men or menaces or miseries can do a Saint hurt They may kill you but they cannot hurt you Away therefore with that flavish fear that hinders or discomforts you in your duty God will not see his Husbandman wrong'd 2. Consult the Promises he hath made to deliver you out of your troubles if they befall you by your Superiours 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished Knoweth how that is can and will do it How many gracious promises hath he made In six troubles and in seaven he will deliver them Thou shalt tread on the Lion and Adder He that hath set his love on me I will deliver him and honour him Why art thou therefore so afraid of troubles of Men or Devils A prison is not Hell Loss of Goods is not loss of the Chief Good He that can turn thee out of thy house cannot turn thee out of Heaven There hee 'l be turn'd out and thou taken in Man can threaten thee but God can destroy thee Thy great Neighbour will trouble thee if thou pray and thy great Maker will damn thee