untilled desart is of Corn. The earlier the Seed is sown the better it is rooted and enabled to endure the asperities of the Winter so when grace is early infused when nature is sanctified in the bud grace is thereby exceedingly advantaged 'T was Timothies singular advantage that he knew the scriptures of a Child Frosts and snows conduce very much to the well rooting of the seed and makes it spread and take root much the better So do Sanctified afflictions which usually the people of God meet with after their calling and often in their very Seed-time 1 Thes. 1. 6. And you became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction But if they have fair weather then to be sure they shall meet with weather hard enough afterwards Heb. 10. 32 But call to remembrance the former dayes in which after ye were illuminated ye indured a great fight of afflictions When the Seed is cast into the earth it must be covered up by the harrow the use whereof in Husbandry is not only to lay a plain floor as they speak but to open and let in the Corn to the bosome of the earth and there cover it up for its security from birds that would devour it Thus doth the most wise God provide for the security of that grace which he at first disseminated in the hearts of his people He is as well the finisher as the Author of their grace Heb. 12. 2. And of this they may be confident that he that hath begun a good work in them will perform it unto the day of Christ. The care of God over the graces of his people is like the covering of the seed for security Seed-Corn is in its own nature of much more value and worth than other Corn the Husbandman casts in the principal wheat So are the seeds of grace sown in the renewed soul for it 's called The seed of God 1 Iohn 3. 9. The Divine natuâ—e 2 Pet. 1. 4. One dram o grace is far beyond all the glory of this world it s more precious than gold which perishes I Pet. 1. 7. The price of it is above rubies and all that thou canst desire is not to be compâ—red with it Pro. 3. 15. There is a great deal of Spirit and vigour in a little Seed though it be small in bulk yet it is great in vertue and efficay Gracious habits are also vigorous and efficatious things Such is their efficacy that they overcome the world 1 Ioh. 5. 4. Whatsoeve is born of God overcometh the world They totally alter and change the person in whom they are He that persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed They enable the soul to do and suffer great things for God Heb. 11. 33 34 35. The stalk and â—ar are potentially and virtually in a small grain of Corn. So are all the fruits of obedience which believers afterwards bring forth to God vertually contained in those habits of seeds of grace 'T is strange to consider that from a mustard-seed which as Christ saith is the least of all seeds should grow such great branches that the birds of the Air may build their nests in them Surely the heroical and famous acts and atchievements of the most renowed believers sprang from sinall beginnings at first to that eminency and glory The fruitfulness of the seed depends upon the Sun and rain by which they are quickened as is opened largely in the next Chapter And the principles of grace in us have as necessary a dependance upon the assisting and exciting grace without us For though it be true they are immortal seeds yet that is not so much from their own strength as from the promises made to them and that constant influx from above by which they are revived and preserved from time to time The seed is fruitful in some soyls more than in others prospers much better and comes sooner to maturity So doth grace thrive better and grow faster in some persons than in others Your faith groweth exceedingly 2 Thes. 1. 3. Whilst the things that are in others are ready to die Rev. 3. 2. Though no mans heart be naturally a kind soyl to grace yet doubtless grace is more advantaged in some dispositions than in others And lastly their agreement as Seed appears in this the Seed-corn is scattered into all parts of the field as proportionably and equally as may be So is grace diffus'd into all the faculties judgment will and all the affections are sowed with these new principles The God of peace sanctifie you wholly 1 Thes. 5. 23. And thus you see why principles of grace are called seed Now in the next place which is the second thing promised and mainly designed in this Chapter to shew you the choiceness and excellency of these holy principles with which sanctified souls are embellisht and adorned and to convince you that true grace excels all other principles by which other persons are acted even as the principal wheat doth the chaff and refuse stuff I shall here institute a comparison betwixt grace and the most splendid common gifts in the world and its transcendent excellency above them all will evidently appear in the seven following particulars The most excellent common gifts come out of the common treasury of God's bounty and that in a natural way they are but the improvement of a mans natural abilities or as one calls them the sparks of nature blown up by the wind of a more benign and liberal education but principles of grace are of a divine and heavenly original and extraction not educed or raised from nature but supernaturally infused by the Spirit from on high Ioh. 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit When a soul is sanctified by them he partakes of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Is born not of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man but of God Ioh. 1. 13. In this respect they differ from gifts as the heavenly Manna which was rained down from heaven differs from common bread which by paines and industry the earth produces in a natural way The best natural gifts afford not that sweetness and solid comfort to the soul that grace doth they are but a dry stalk that affords no meat for a soul to feed on A man may have an understanding full of light and an heart void of comfort at the same time but grace is a fountain of purest living streams of peace and comfort 1 Pet. 1. 8. Believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart All true pleasures and delights are seminally grace Psal. 97. 11. they are sown for them in these divine and heavenly graces which are glory in the bud Gifts adorn the person but do not secure the soul from wrath A man may be admired for them
The Motives inducing me to this undertakement was the Lords owning with some success my labours of a like nature together with the desire and inclination stirr'd up in me I hope by the Spirit of the Lord to devote my vacant hours to his service in this kind I considered that if the Pharisees in a blind zeal to a faction could compass Sea and Land to Proselyte men to their party though thereby they made them sevenfold more the children of the Devil than before How much more was I obliged by true love to God and zeal to the everlasting happiness of souls to use my utmost endeavours both with Seamen Husbandmen to win them to Christ and there by make them more than seventy-seven-fold happier than before Not to mention other incouragements to this work which I received from the earnest desires of some Reverend and worthy Brethren inviting thereunto all which I hope the event will manifest to be a call from God to this work I confess I met with some discouragement in my first attempt from my unacquaintedness with rural affairs and because I was to travel in a path to me untrodden but having once engaged in it those discouragements were soon overcome and being now brought to what you here see I offer to your hands these first fruits of my spare hours I presume you will account it no disparagement that I dedicate a Book of Husbandry to Gentlemen of your quality This is Spiritual Husbandry which is here taught you and yet I must tell you that great persons have accounted that civil employment which is must inferior to this no disparagement to them The King himself is served by the field Eccl. 5. 9. Or as Montanus renders the Hebrew Text Rex agro fit servus The King himself is a servant to the field And of King Uzziah it is written 2 Chron. 26. 10. That he loved Husbandry And Amos 7. 1. we read of the Kings mowings Yea Pliny hath observed That Corn was never so plentiful at Rome as when the same men tilled the Land that rul'd the Commonwealth Quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere scilicat aratore triumphali As though the earth it self rejoyced in the Laurel Plow-share and the triumphant Plowman What pleasure you will find in reading it I know not but to me it hath been a pleasant path from first to last who yet have been at far greater expence of time and pains in compiling it than you can be in reading it The Husbandmans work you know is no easie work and the Spiritualizing of it hath greater difficulties attending it but yet the pleasure hath abundantly recompensed the pains I have found Erasmus his Observation experimentally true Qui literis addicti summus animi lassitudinem à studiis gravioribus contractam ab iisdem studiis sed amaenioribus recreamus Those that are addicted to study saith he when they have wearied their spirits with study can recreate them again with study by making a diversion from that which is severe and knotty to some more facile and pleasant Subject But to hear that God hath used and honoured these papers to the good of any soul will yield me the highest content and satisfaction imaginable May you but learn that Lesson which is the general Scope and Design of this Book viz. How to walk with God from day to day and make the several Objects you behold Scalae alae Wings and Ladders to mount your souls neerer to Him who is the Center of all blessed Spirits How much will it comfort me and confirm my hope that it was the Call of God indeed which out me upon these endeavours O Sirs What an excellent thing would it be for you to make such holy improvements of all these earthly Objects which daily incur your senses and cause them to proclaim and preach to you Divine and heavenly Mysteries whilst others make them groan by abusing them to sin and subjecting them to their lusts A man may be cast into such a condition wherein he cannot enjoy the blessing and benefit of a pious and powerful Ministry but you cannot ordinarily fall into such a condition wherein any thing except a bad heart can deprive you of the benefits and comforts of those excellent Sermâ—ns and Divinity Lectures which the creatures here offer to preach and read to you Content not your selves I beseech you with that natural sweetness the creatures afford for thereof the beasts are capable as much if not more than you but use them to those spiritual ends you are here directed and they will yield you a sweetness for transcending that natural sweetness you ever relished in them and indeed you never use the creatures as their Lord's till you come to see your Lord in and by them I confess the discoveries of God in the Word are far more excellent cleer and powerful He hath magnified his Word above all his Name And therein are the unsearchable riches of Christ or rich discoveries of that grace that hath no footsteps in nature as the Apostles expression signifies Eph. 3. 8. And if that which might be known of God by the Creatures leave men without excuse as it 's manifest Rom. 1. 20. How inexcusable then will those be who have received not only the teachings of the creature but also the grace of the Gospel in vain How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation They that are careless in the day of grace shall be speechless in the day of judgment I am sensible of many defects in these Papers as well as in my self they have doubtless a taste of the distractions of the times wherein they were written nor was I willing to keep them so long under-hand as the accurateness and exactness with which such a subject ought to be handled did require Had I designed my own credit I should have observed that counsel Nonnumque prematur in annum i. e. To have kept in much longer under the file before I had exposed it to publick view but I rather inclined to Solomons counsel Whatever thy hand finds out to do do it with all thy might for there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor device in the grave whither thou art going Eccles. 9. 10. I apprehended a necessity of some such means to be used for the instruction and conviction of countrey people who either are not capable of understanding truth in another Dialect or at least are less affected with it The Proposition in every Chapter consists of an Observation in Husbandry Wherein if I have failed in using any improper expression your candour will cover it and impute it to my unacquaintedness in rural affairs In magnis voluisse sat est The Reddition or Application you will find I hope both pertinent and close The Reflections serious and such as I hope your Consciences will faithfully improve I have shut up every Chapter with a Poem an innocent Bait to catch the Readers Soul That of Herbert is
of earthly things That Underfoot doe lye Noe Bird that flyes beneath the skies But by this holy craft will lend a feather To help it thither And give the heart a waft The string and stone shews every one When faith mounts up and sings How carnall sence can draw it hence Pinnion and clip its wings Birds beasts and trees teach mysteries If sinners be not blocks They 'l quickly mend when God doth send Teachers in droves and Flocks T Cross sculpsit THE EPISTLE TO THE Intelligent Countrey READER THOV hast here the fruit of some of my spare hours which were thus imployed when by a sad providence I was thrust from the society of many dear friends into a solitary countrey dwelling I hope none will envy me these innocent delights which I made out of my lonely walks whereby the Lord sweetned my solitudes there 'T is like thou wilt find some passages here that are harmlesly pleasant yet I assure thee I know of none that the most Cynical Reader can censure as sinfully light and vain I must acknowledge to the praise of God that I have found some of those which possibly some of my Readers will call the slightest and most trifling subjects of meditation to be the Ordinances for Instruction Caution and Consolation to my own soul yea such a degree of comfort I do profess to have found by these things as hath much endeared the countrey life to me and made me much better to understand that saying of Horace than when I learn'd it at school Novistine locum potiorem rure beato Est ubi plus tapeant hyems ubi gracior aura O rus quando te ad spiciam quandoque licebit Nunc veterum libris nunc somno inertibus hortis Ducere solicitae jucunda oblivio vitae i. e. What life can with the Country life compare Where breaths the purest and most healthful Air. Where undisturb'd my studies I pursue And when I sleep bid all my cares adieu And what I have found so beneficial to my self I cannot but think may be so to others I assure thee Reader I am not fond of any of these conceptions and yet I think I may modestly enough say that the emptiest leaf in this book may serve for more and better uses than a meer diversion when thou canst find leisure to peruse it I know your troubles and cares are many and though your condition of lif hath many innocent comforts and outward mercies to sweeten it yet I believe most of you have found that ancient saying of Anaxion experimentally true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some bitter troubles Countrey men do meet Wherewith the Lord doth intermix their sweet The cares of your minds are commonly no less than the paines of your Bodies it concerns you therefore to sweeten what you cannot avoid and I know no better way for that than what is here directed to O friends what advantages have you for a spiritual life Why may you not have two harvests every year one for your Souls another for you bodies if you could thus learn to husband your Husbandry Methinks spiritual Meditations do even put themselves upon you Husbandmen of old were generally presumed to be honest and good men what else means that saying of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Profess thy self an Husbandman And wicked too believ 't that can What you are godly or wicked is not for me that am a stranger to most of you to determine but if you are not godly it s my desire design to make you so and I could not think on a more probable means to accomplish this honest design than what I have here used Methinks it should be a pleasure to you when you come weary out of the fields from plow or any other labour to sit down in the evening and read that chapter which concerns that particulars business refresh your Souls even from that which hath wearied your bodies Were your hearts but heavenly more time allowed for spiritual husbandry your inward comforts would be much more your out ward gains not a jot less for it the success of all your civil labours and imployments depend upon the pleasure will of God as all that are not Atheists do acknowledge then certainly your business can succeed never the worse for your endeavours to please him upon whose pleasure it so intirely depends I have many times liâ—ted up my heart to heaven whilst these papers were under my hand for a special blessing to accompany them when they should be in yours If the Lord accomplish my desires by them upon your souls you shall enjoy two heavens one here and another hereafter Would not that be sweet The Historian tells us that Altitius Serarius was sowing corn in the field when Q. Cincinnatus came to him bare headed with letters from the Senate signifying that he was chosen to the Dictatorship I hope the Lord will so bless and succeed these labours that many of you will be called from holding the Plow on earth to wear the Crown of glory in heaven which is the sincere desire Of Your hearty Well-wisher IOHN FLAVELL THE AUTHOR TO THE READER COme you whose listning ears do even itch To hear the way prescrib'd of growing rich I 'le shew you how to make your Tenements Ten thousand times more worth and yet your rents Not rais'd a farthing here my Reader sees A way to make his dead and barren trees Yield precious fruit his Sheep though ne're so bad Bear golden fleeces such ne're Iason had In every thing your gain shall more than double And all this had with far less toyl and trouble Methinks I hear thee say this cannot be I 'le ne're believe it well read on and see Reader hadst thou but senses exercis'd To judge aright were spiritual things but priz'd At their just value thou wouldst quickly say 'T is so indeed thou wouldst not go thy way Like one that 's disappointed and so fling The book aside I though 't was some such thing Time was when Countrey Christians did afford More hours and pains about God's holy Word Witness the man who did most gladly pay For some few leaves his whole Cart load of Hay And time shall be when heavenly truth that warms The heart â—hall be prefer'd before your Farms When HOLINESS as sacred Scripture tells Shall be engraven on the Horses bells Lord hasten on those much desired times And to that purpose bless these rural Rimes THE PROEM 1 COR. 3. 9. Ye are God's Husbandry THE scope and design of the following Chapters being the spiritual improvement of Husbandry it will be necessary by way of Proem to acquaint the Reader with the Foundation and general Rules of this Art in the Scriptures thereby to procure greater respect unto and prevent prejudice against composures of this kind To this end I shall entertain the Reader a little while upon what this Scripture affords us which will give a fair Introduction
his work so according to proportion are those that are sent by him Ioh. 20. 21 22. As my Father hath sent me so send I you And as for those that run before they are sent and understand not the Mysteries of the Gospel I shall say no more of them but this Father forgive them for they know not what they do The Fifth Corrolary To conclude If the Church be God's Husbandry that is if Husbandry have so many resemblances of Gods works about the Church in it then how inexcusable is the ignorance of Husbandmen in the things of God who besides the word of the Gospel have the teachings of the Creatures and can hardly turn their hands to any part of their work but the Spirit hints one spiritual use or other from it to their souls How do the Scriptures abound with Parables and lively similitudes taken from Husbandry from the field the seed the plow the barn from threshing and winnowing similitudes also from planting graffing and pruning of trees and not a few from the ordering of Cattel So that to what business soever you turn your hands in any part of your calling still God meets you with one heavenly instruction or other But alas How few are able to improve their civil imployments to such excellent ends These things are but briefly hinted in the Scriptures and those hints scattered up and down that they know not where to find them and if they could yet would it be difficult so to methodize them as it is necessary they should be in order to their due improvement by Meditation And therefore I judged it necessary to collect and prepare them for your use and in this manner to present them to you as you find them in the following Chapters Read consider and apply and the Lord make you good Husbands for your own souls THE FIRST PART OF HUSBANDRY Spiritualized CHAP. I. In the laborious Husbandman you see What all true Christians are or ought to be OBSERVATION The imployment of the Hsbandman is by all acknowledged to be very laborious there is a multiplicity of business incumbent on him The end of one work is but the beginning of another Every season of the year brings its proper work with it Sometimes you find him in his Fields dressing plowing sowing harrowing weeding or reaping and sometimes in his Barn threshing or winnowing sometimes in his Orchard planting graffing or pruning his trees and sometimes among his Cattel so that he hath no time to be idle And as he hath a multiplicity of business so every part of it is full of toyl and spending labour He eats not the bread of idleness but earns it before he eats it and as it were dips it in his own sweat whereby it becomes the sweeter to him Though sin brought in the Husbandmans sweat Gen. 3. 19. yet now not to sweat would increase his sin Ezek. 16. 49. APPLICATION BEhold here the life of a serious Christian shadowed forth to the life As the life of a Husbandman so the life of a Christian is no idle or easie life They that take up Religion for ostentation and not for an occupation and those that place the business of it in notions and idle speculations in forms gestures and external observances may think and call it so but such as devote themselves unto it and make Religion their business will find it no easie work to exercise themselves to godliness Many there are that affect the reputation and sweet of it who cannot endure the labour and sweat of it If men might be indulged to divide their hearts betwixt God and the World or to cull out the cheap and easie duties of it and neglect the more difficult and costly ones it were an easie thing to be a Christian but surely to have respect to all God's commandments to live the life as well as speak the language of a Christian to be holy in all manner of conversation is not so easie This will be evident by comparing the life of a Christian with the life of a Husbandman in these five particulars Wherein it will appear that the work of a Christian is by much the hardest work of the two The Husbandman hath much to do many things to look after but the Christian more If we respect the extensiveness of his work he hath a large field indeed to labour in Psal. 119. 96. The commandment is exceeding broad of a vast extent and latitude comprizing not only a multitude of external acts and duties and guiding the Offices of the outward man about them but also taking in every thought and motion of the inner man within its compass You find in the Word a world of work cut out for Christians there 's hearing work praying work reading meditating and self-examining work it puts him also upon a constant watch over all the corruptions of his heart Oh what a world of work hath a Christian about them For of them he may say as the Historian doth of Hannibal They are never quiet whether conquering or conquered How many weak languishing graces hath he to recover improve and strengthen There is a weak faith a languishing love dull and faint desires to be quickned and invigorated And when all this is done what a multitude of work do his several relations exact from him he hath a world of business incumbent on him as a parent child husband wife master servant or friend yea not only to friends but enemies And beside all this how many difficult things are there to be born and suffered for Christ and yet will not God allow his people in the neglect of any one of them neither can he be a Christian that hath not respect to every command and is not holy in all manner of conversation Psal. 119. 6. 2 Pet. 3. 11. every one of these duties like the several spokes in a wheel come to bear in the whole round of a Christians conversation so that he hath more work upon his hands than the Husbandman The Husbandman's work is confessed to be Spending work but not like the Christians What Augustus said of the young Roman is verified in the true Christian Quicquid vult válde vult Whatsoever he doth in Religion he doth to purpose Under the Law God rejected the Snail and the Ass Levit. 11. 30. Exod. 13. 13. And under the Gospel he allows no sluggish lazy Professor 1 Tim. 5. 11 13. Sleepy duties are utterly unsuitable to the living God he will have the very spirits distilled and offered up to him in every duty Ioh. 4. 24. he bestows upon his people the very substance and kernel of mercies and will not accept from them the shells and shadows of duties not the skin but the inwards and the fat that covereth the inwards was required under the Law Exod. 29. 30. And every sacrifice under the Gospel must be sacrificium medullatum a sacrifice full of marrow observe the manner in which their work is to be performed
among men and rejected eternally by God Who can considerately read that sixth Chapter of the Hebrews and not tremble to think in what a forlorn case a soul may be though set off and accomplisht with the rarest endowments of this kind Mat. 7. 22. We read that many shall say to Christ in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils c. and yet themselves at last cast out as a prey to Devils How divinely and rhetorically did a Balaam speak and prophesie Num. 23. What rare and excellent parts had the Scribes and Pharisees Who upon that account were stiled principes seculi the Princes of the world 1 Cor. 2. 8. What profound and excellent parts had the Heathen Sages and Philosophers These things are so far from securing the soul against the wrath to come that they often expose it unto wrath and are as oyl to encrease the eternal burnings but now gracious principles are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls them Heb. 6. Things that accompany and have salvation in them These are the things on which the promises of Salvation run and these treasures are never found but in elect vessels Glory is by promise assured and made over to him that possesses them There is but a little point of time betwixt him and the glorified spirits above And how inconsiderable a matter is a little time which contracts and winds up apace For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed And hence the scriptures speaks of them as already saved Rom. 8. 24. We are saved by hope because it s as sure as if we were in heaven We are made to sit in heavenly places Gifts may damnifie the person that possesses them and it may be better in respect of a mans own condition he had never had them Knowledge saith the Apostle Puffeth up 1 Cor. 8. 1. maketh the soul proud and flatulent 'T is a hard thing to know much and not to know it too much The Saints knowledge is better than the Schollars for he hath his own heart instead of a Commentary to help him Aristotle said a little knowledge about heavenly things though conjectural is better than much of earthly things though certain The world by wisdom knew not God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 21. i. e. their learning hanged in their light they were too wise to submit to the simplicity of the Gospel The excellent parts of the old Hereticks did but serve to midwiâ—e into the world the monstrous birth of soul-damning heresies Cupit abs te ornari diabolus as Austin said to that ingenious young Scholler The devil desires to be adorned by thee But now grace in its self is not subject to such abuses it cannot be the proper univocal cause of any evil effect It cannot puff up the heart but alwayes humbles it nor serve the devils designs but ever opposes them Gifts may be given a man for the sake of others and not out of love to himself they are but as an excellent dish of meat which a man sends to nurse not for her sake so much as for his Child that sucks her God indeed makes use of them to do his children good the Church is benefitted by them though themselves are but like Cooks they prepare excellent dishes on which the Saints feed and are nourished though themselves tast them not They dona ministrantia non sanctificantia ministring but not sanctifying gifts proceeding not from the good will of God to him that hath them but to those he benefits by them And oh what a sad consideration will this be one day to such a person to think I helped such a soul to heaven while I my self must lodg in hell Sin in the raign and power of it may cohabit with the most excellent natural gifts under the same roof I mean in the same heart A man may have the tongue of an Angel and the heart of a Devil The wisdome of the Philosophâ—rs saith Eactantius non excindit vitia sed abscondit did not root out but hide their vices The learned Pharisees were but painted sepulchers gifts are but as a fair glove drawn over a foul hand But now grace is incompatible with Sin in dominions it purifies the heart Act. 15. 9 cleanses the conscience Heb. 9. 14. Crucifies the affections and lusts of the flesh Gal. 5. 24. is not content with the concealment but ruine of corruptions Lastly Gifts must leave us at last Whether there be knowledge that shall cease All flesh is grass and the goodliness of it as the flower of the grass the grass withers the flower fadeth but the word of the Lord abideth for ever Isa. 40. 6 8. Many times they leave a man before death One knock if it hit right as one saith may make a wise man a fool but to be sure they all leave us at death Doth not his excellency which is in him go away Iob 4. 21. yea then all natural excellency departs Death strips the soul of all those splendid ornaments then the rhetorical tongue is struck dum the nimble wit and curious phansie shall entertain your ears with no more pleasant discourses Nunquam jâ—cos dabis as Adrian said to his departing soul but grace ascends with the soul into eternity and there receives its perfection and accomplishment Gifts take their leave of the soul as Orpha did of Naomi but grace saith then as Ruth where thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge and nothing shall separate thee and me Now pâ—â— all this together and then judge whether the Apostle spake hyperbolyes when he said Covet earnestly the best gifts and yet I shew unto you a more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. ult And thus you have the choiceness of these principles also REFLECTIONS The lines are fallen to me in a pleasant place may the gracious soul say How defective soever I am in gifts yet blessed be the Lord who hath sown the seeds of true grace in my heart What though I am not famed and honoured among men let it suffice me that I am precious in the eyes of the Lord. Though he hath not abounded to me in gifts of nature yet blessed be the God and Father of my Lord Iesus Christ who hath abounded to me in all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Iesus Eph. 1. 3. Is not a true jewel though spurn'din the dirt more precious than a false one though set in gold Why art thou troubled O my soul for the want of these things which reprobates may have and art not rather admiring and blessing God for those things which none but the darlings and favourites of heaven can have is not an ounce of pure gold more valuable than many pounds of guilded brass what though the dews of Helicon descend not upon my head if in the mean time the sweet influences of Sion fall upon my heart O my God!
experimentally true A Verse may find him that a Sermon flies And turn delight into a Sacrifice I should never have been perswaded especially in this scribling Age wherein we may complain with the Poet. Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim To have set my dull fancy upon the Rack to extort a Poem to entertain my Reader for I cannot say with Ovid Sponte sua carmen c. but that I have been informed that many Seamen induced by the pleasure of a Verse have taken much pains to learn the Poems in their Compass by heart and I hope both the Children at home and the Servants in the fields will learn to exercise themselves this way also O how much better will it be so to do than to stuff their memories with obscene Ballads and filthy Songs which corrupt their minds and dispose them to much wickedness by irritating their natural corruption But these are purer flames you will find nothing here of such a tendency 'T is guilt not Poetry to be like those Whose wit in Verse is downright sin in Prose Whose studies are prophaneness as if then They only were good Poets when bad men I shall add no more but to beg that God who instructeth the Husbandman in his civil Calling to teach him wisdom spiritually to improve it and particularly that you may reap a crop of much spiritual benefit from that seed which is here sown by the hand of the Lords unprofitable servant and in him Your very affectionate Friend and Servant IOHN FLAVELL TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THere are three things wherein as it hath been said long before my day the exercise of Godliness doth chiefly consist Prayer Temptation Meditation Meditation is the Subject of this following Manual The Object of Meditation is twofold First The Word Secondly The Works of God The Works of God are twofold First Internal Secondly External The External Works of God are twofold First Of Creation Secondly of Providence The works of Providence are likewise twofold First In things Civil the Lord ordering and over-ruling all the affairs and motion of single Persons Families and Nations in a subserviency to his own most holy Ends Designs and Purposes Secondly In things Natural the Lord instructing the Husbandman to discretion and teaching him how to Dress and Till the Earth that it may give Seed to the Sower and Bread to the Eater as also how to breed up and manage the Beasts of the field both greater and lesser Cattel for the use and service of Man Meditation upon this lower part of the Works of God and his wonderful Providences about them may raise our souls very high and while we wisely consider these natural things we may grow more and more wise in and for Spirituals and Eternals The worthy and ingenious Author of the ensuing Discourse hath supplied us with an excellent help for the Spiritualizing of the providential Works of God in natural things by godly Meditation we chiefly want the help of the holy Spirit without which all other helps and helpers are altogether insufficient to frame and wind up our hearts for this both profitable and delightful duty yet the help which the Lord is pleased to give us for our direction in it by the Ministery of man is not only not to be refused but thankfully received and improved and all little enough to bring our minds to or keep them at this work The best of Saints on this side heaven have though they are not earthly minded much earth in their minds which like a heavy clog at their heels or a weight at their hearts presseth them down when they would make an Essay to mount upward in Meditation We find it no easie matter to keep off earthly thoughts when we are most seriously engaged in heavenly work how hard is it then to get in and be fixed upon heavenly thoughts while we are engaged about earthly work yea are for so is the Husbandman working the very earth and raking in the bowels of it 'T is a great part of our holiness to be spiritually minded while we are conversing with God through Iesus Christ in spiritual duties but to be spiritually minded and to mind spiritual things when we are conversing with the clods of the earth and the furrows of the field when we have to do with Corn and Grass with Trees and Plants with Sheep and Oxen when we behold the birds and fowls of the Air the worms and all that creep upon the ground then I say to be spiritually minded and thence to have our thoughts ascending and soaring up to God in heart-affecting and quickning contemplations witnesseth an high degree of holiness and of gracious attainments To make a ladder out to earthly materials for the raising of our selves in spirit up to heaven is the Art of Arts. Holy and happy indeed are they who being taught of God have learned this Art and live in the daily practise of it Earthly objects usually hinder us in our way sometimes turn us quite out of our way to heaven Many plow and sow dig and delve the earth till their hearts become as earthly as the earth it self many deal about the beasts of the field till themselves become even brutish Is it not then a blessed design which this Author aims and drives at so to spiritualize all sorts or the whole compass of earthly Husbandry that all sorts of husbandmen may become spiritual and heavenly It seems to me a taken for good that God hath an intendment of some special good to the souls of such as are by profession proper Husbandmen seeing he hath lately put it into the hearts of two faithful Ministers who with all of that profession are Husbandmen in a figure to undertake though in a different way this Subject to publish their labours in print that they may be of use not only for the present age but for posterity And that the Husbandman may be pleased as well as profited in perusing the labours of this Author he hath with singular aptness and acuteness contrived and contracted the sum or scope of every Chapter into an elegant Distich or pair of Verses placed at the head of it and concluded it with a choice melodious Poem sutable to and dilating upon the whole matter of it These the Husbandman who can but read may quickly learn and sing for his solace instead of those vain Ballads and corrupting Rimes which many of that rank are apt to buy and solace themselves withal without any benefit yea much to their hurt making their hearts more corrupt carnal and vain thereby Let me add one word more to the Reader This Book of Husbandry Spiritualized is not calculated only for the common Husbandman persons of any calling or condition may find the Author working out such searching Reflections and strong Convictions from almost every part and particular of the Husbandmans work as may prove if faithfully improved very useful to them to some for their