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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A78149 Behold the husbandman S. James 5.7. Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687. 1677 (1677) Wing B791; ESTC R232418 7,512 42

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BEHOLD THE HUSBANDMAN S. James 5. 7. Ora Labora LONDON Printed for John Barksdale next the Five Bells in New-street 1677. To his Loving Friends and Parishioners THis short Discourse I offer you in remembrance of my Care to have you be delighted with your daily Labours and withal to raise up your thoughts from Earth to Heaven to that God who maketh his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon your Fields and giveth you to eat the Labors of your hands with comfort To his continued favor I daily commend you and yours C. B. S. James 5. 7. Behold the Husbandman THe word Behold is usually set before things of our careful Observation I invite you therefore to a serious view of Husbandry the consideration whereof as it may be delightful to all so will it be especially useful to them whose business is to labor and spend most of their time in tilling of the earth For whose sake I intend in a plain order to declare these two points 1. The commendations and praise of Husbandry 2. The complaints and grievances of it together with the Remedies and Answers I. Of the commendation and praise of Husbandry 1. HEre we will look upon the original and beginning of this employment We read in Gen. 2. 15. The Lord God took the man Adam our first Father from whom all Mankind was descended and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it This was the calling this the imployment of Man in the state of Innocency wherein he was created to keep and dress a Garden a piece of Husbandry And this no small commendation that it was the first imployment the first business God himself put man upon before the Fall An innocent Labor well became the state of Innocency After the Fall when Adam had sinned by eating the forbidden Fruit as we read Genesis 3. God dispossessed Adam of that pleasant Garden and instead of that easie and delightful exercise of dressing the Garden and keeping it put him to plow bound him to this harder labor of raising Corn of barren ground by the sweat of his brows For the earth was Cursed for the sin of Man and would not yield Fruit to him that had rebelled against his Maker until it was overcome by laborious tillage In the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat thy bread Gen. 3. 19. However though the Calling be laborious you see it is by Gods appointment and it was the work wherein the Father of all Mankind was imployed to till the ground This Antiquity and beginning of Husbandry is that we observe in the first place It is the most antient Calling 2. Next to the Antiquity of this imployment you may take notice of the necessity thereof Bread is the staff of life and therefore where we are taught in the Lords Prayer to ask for maintenance we are commanded to say Give us Bread And when Jacob desired of God to sustain him in his Travels and promised that for such a favor he would be Gods faithful Servant Bread is named If the Lord saith he will give me Bread to eat Gen. 28. 20. Bread is the most substantial food that which is of most concernment to us and for this reason it goes for all Now Bread is that which God hath ordained to be the fruit of the Husbandmans labor The Husbandman plows the ground the ground yieldeth Corn by Gods blessing on it and of Corn is made Bread Many other things may be spared but Bread may not be wanting The profit of the earth is for all the King himself is served by the Field Eccles. 5. 9. From the highest to the lowest all have need of Bread it is our daily sustenance Husbandry therefore is the most necessary Calling 3. If Husbandry be so antient and so necessary it must needs be Honorable And so it hath been of high esteem in the most famous Kingdoms and Commonwealths You heard but now from Ecclesiastes That the King himself is saved by the Field A just cause it is that the King should respect and hold with tillage In the 2 Chron. 26. We find a great commendation of one of the good Kings of Judah by name Uzziah and among the rest of his noble acts it is mentioned for his Honor That he loved Husbandry v. 10. This is something out of the sacred History For other Nations none was so rich in good Examples as the old Commonwealth of Rome none ever set a greater esteem on Husbandry The Senators themselves and Fathers of their Country such as were most valiant in Arms did not disdain Agriculture but made the tilling of their tract a great part of their care and exercise Most memorable is that related by the Roman Histories of one of their Dictators that was called from the Plow and sent to command their Army When he had conquered the enemy and delivered his Country from great danger Rediit ad boves triumphata Agricola This triumphant Husbandman returned to his Plow again I may add to this that in antient times Plow-men were so much regarded by Armies of Soldiers near each other in the Field that the Husbandman followed his work without disturbance Husbandry is an honorable Calling 4. Not only most antient necessary honorable but it is pleasant also The pleasantness of Husbandry that 's the fourth Commendation of it See here the goodness of God mixt with his severity You heard before out of Gen. 3. that the ground was Cursed for Mans sin and that Man was sentenced to sweat for his Bread Here is you will say the severity of God But let us observe his goodness too in turning their labor and pains into the delight and pleasure of the honest Husbandman He submits willingly to Gods Ordinance and seeing God has commanded him to labor hard labor he will and it is more pleasant a great deal to him to labor than to be idle He sweats but his sweat is sweet He plows either in the clay or the stony ground the Birds of the air in the mean time make him musick yea and he makes himself musick at his work and either sings or whistles his melodious Notes whilst his eye and his hand direct the Plow When he returns home from the Field he brings a good stomach with him which makes even the coursest fare more delightful than the dainties of other men and after all The sleep of the laboring man is sweet whethether he eat little or much Eccles 5. 12. Hence it is from his daily labor and exercise of body from the wholsome air he breaths in the open Field from his plain Diet and the good rest attending it That the Husbandman usually enjoys that which is the most valuable and sweetest blessing of this life constant health and vigor and strength of body which makes him not only the more chearful in his own vocation but more able to serve his King and Country when he is called to it And this might be