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Farewel, dear Sir, I take my leave, and now Will fay no more than this, God speed the plow.

EDWARD JEFFERY.

The EPISTLE, to the intelligent Country READER.

TH

HOU haft here the fruit of fome of my fpare hours, which were thus employed, when, by a fad providence, I was thrust from the society of many dear friends, into a folitary country dwelling. I hope none will envy me these innocent delights, which I made out of my lonely walks, whereby the Lord fweetened my folitudes there. It is like thou wilt find some paffages here, that are harmlefly pleasant; yet, Iaffure thee, I know of none that the most Cynical Reader can cenfure, as finfully light and vain. I must acknowledge, to the praise of God, that I have found fome of thofe (which poffibly fome of my readers will call the slightest, and most trifling subjects of meditation) to be the ordinances for inftruction, caution, and confolation to my own foul: yea, fuch a degree of comfort, I do profefs to have found by these things, as hath much indeared the country-life to me, and made me much better to underftand that faying of Horace, than when I learned it at school, Noviftine locum potiorem rure beato?

Eft ubi plus tepeant hyems? Ubi gratior aura?
O rus, quando ego te adfpiciam? Quandoque licebit
Nunc veterum libris, nunc fomno, et inertibus hortis
Ducere folicitae jucunda oblivio vitae. (i. e.)

Hor. Sat. 6.

What life can with the country life compare ? Where breathes the pureft, and moft healthful air. Where, undisturb'd, my study I pursue, And, when I fleep, bid all my cares adieu. And what I have found fo beneficial to myself, I cannot but think may be fo to others. I affure thee, reader, I am not fond of any of these conceptions; and yet I think I may modeftly enough fay, That the emptieft leaf in this book may ferve for more, and better uses, than a mere diverfion, when thou canst find leisure to peruse it. I know, your troubles and cares are many; and though your condition of life hath many innocent comforts, and outward mercies to fweeten it, yet I believe most of you have found that ancient saying of Anacreon experimentally true: Εχει τι πίχρον της λεωργίας γλυκυ. • Some bitter troubles countrymen do meet, Wherewith the Lord doth intermix their fweet.'

The cares of your minds are commonly no less than the pains of your bodies; it concerns you, therefore, to fweeten 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 fpiritual life? Why may you not have two harvefts every year? One for your fouls, another for your bodies; if you could thus learn to hufband your husbandry. Methinks spiritual meditations do even put themfelves upon yon. Huf bandmen of old were generally prefumed to be honest and good men; what else means that faying of Menander, Axpaces eval πρισποινή πανερος ων.

6. Profess thyself an husbandman,

And wicked too! believe't that can.'

What 'you are, godly or wicked, is not for me (that am a ftranger to most of you) to determine; but if you are not godly, it is my defire and defign 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 fhould be a pleasure to you, when you come weary out of the fields from plow, or any other labour, to fit down in the evening, and read that chapter which concerns that particular bufinefs, and refresh your fouls, even from that which hath wearied your bodies. Were your hearts but heavenly, and more time allowed for fpiritual husbandry, your inward comforts would be much more, and your outward gains not a jot lefs; for if the fuccefs of all your civil labours, and employments, depend upon the pleasure and will of God (as all that are not Atheists do acknowledge) then, certainly, your business can fucceed never the worse for your endeavours to please him, upon whose pleafure it fo entirely depends. I have many times lifted up my heart to heaven, whilft thefe papers were under my hand, for a fpecial bleffing to accompany them, when they should be in yours. If the Lord accomplish my defires by them upon your fouls, you fhall enjoy two heavens, one here, and another hereafter. Would not that be fweet? The hiftorian tells us, that Altitus Serarius was fowing corn in the field, when Q Cincinnatus came to him bare-headed, with letters from the fenate, fignifying, that he was chofen to the dictatorship. I hope the Lord will fo blefs, and fucceed thefe 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 fincere defire of

Your hearty well-wifber,

JOHN FLAVEL.

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The AUTHOK to the READER.

Ome you, whofe lift'ning ears do ever itch
To hear the way prefcrib'd of growing rich;
I'll thew you how to make your tenements

Ten thousand times more worth, and yet your rents
Not rais'd a farthing; here my reader fees

A

way to make his dead and barren trees
Yield precious fruit; his fheep, though ne'er so bad,
Bear golden fleeces, fuch ne'er Jafon had :

In ev'ry thing your gain fhall more than double,
And all this had with far lefs toil and trouble.
Methinks I hear thee fay, this cannot be,
I'll ne'er believe it. Well, read on, and see.
Reader, hadft thou but fenfes exercis'd

To judge aright; were spiritual things but priz'd
At their juft value, thou wouldst quickly fay,
"Tis fo indeed; thou would not go thy way
Like one that's disappointed, and so fling
The book afide. I thought 'twas fome fuch thing.
Time was when country Chriftians did afford
More hours and pains about God's holy word:
Witness the man who did most gladly pay
For fome few leaves his whole cart-load of hay.
And time fhall be, when heav'nly truth that warms
The heart, fhall be preferr'd before your farms;
When holiness, as facred feripture tells,

Shall be engraven on the horses bells.

Lord, haften on those much defired times,
And, to that purpose, blefs thefe rural rhimes.

THE PROE M.

1 Cor. iii. 9. Te are God's Hufbandry.

HE scope and defign of the following chapters, being the

by way of proem, to acquaint the reader with the foundation, and general rules of this art in the fcriptures, thereby to procure greater refpect unto, and prevent prejudice against compofures of this kind.

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To this end, I fhall entertain the reader a little while upon

what this fcripture affords us, which will give a fair introduction to the following difcourfe.

The apostle's fcope in the context being to check and reprefs the vain glory and emulation of the Corinthians, who, inftead of thankfulness for, and an humble and diligent improvement of the excellent bleffings of the ministry, turned all into vain oftentation and emulation, one preferring Paul, and another Apollos; in the mean time depriving themselves of the choice bleffings they might have received from them both.

To cure this growing mischief in the churches, he checks their vanity, and difcovers the evil of such practices by several arguments, amongst which this is one.

Ye are God's Hufbandry, q. d.

What are ye, but a field, or plot of ground, to be manured and cultivated for God? And what are Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, but fo many workmen and labourers, employed by God, the great husbandman, to plant and water you all?

If, then, you fhall glory in fome, and despise others, you take the ready way to deprive yourselves of the benefits and mercies you might receive from the joint ministry of them all. God hath used me to plant you, and Apollo to water you; you are obliged to bless him for the ministry of both, and it will be your fin if you defpife either. If the workmen be discouraged in their labours, it is the field that lofes and fuffers by it; fo that the words are a fimilitude, ferving to illustrate the relation,

1. Which the churches have to God.

2. Which God's minifters have to the churches.

1. The relation betwixt God and them is like that of an husbandman to his ground or tillage. The Greek word fignifies God's † arable, or that plot of ground which God manures by the ministry of pastors and teachers.

2. It ferves to illuftrate the relation that the minifters of Christ sustain to the churches, which is like that of the husband's fervants to him, and his fields; which excellent notion carries in it the perpetual neceffity of a gospel-ministry. (For what fruit can be expected, where there are none to till the ground?) As also the diligence, accountableness, and rewards which thefe labourers are to give to, and receive from God, the bandman. All runs into this,

great

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*The faithful (or believers) are called God's husbandry (o, georgeon) because Cod cultivates them as land by means of fpiritual teachers (or paftors.) Rav.

That the life and employment of an husbandman, excellently fhadows forth the relation betwixt God and his church, and the relative duties betwixt its minifters and members. Or more briefly thus:

The church is God's husbandry, about which his ministers are employed.

I fhall not here obferve my ufual method, (intending no more but a preface to the following difcourfe) but only open - the particulars wherein the refemblance confifts; and then draw fome Corollaries from the whole. The first I fhall dispatch in these twenty particulars following:

1. Prop. The husbandman purchases his fields, and gives a valuable confideration for them, Jer. xxxii. 9, 10.

Reddit. So hath God purchafed his church with a full valuable price, even the precious blood of his own Son, Acts xx. 28. "Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased, or, "acquired with his own blood." O dear-bought inheritance, how much doth this befpeak its worth? Or rather, the high esteem God hath of it, to pay down blood, and fuch blood for it; never was any inheritance bought at fuch a rate: every particular elect perfon, and none but fuch, are comprehended in this purchase; the reft ftill remain in the devil's right. Sin made a forfeiture of all to juftice, upon which Satan entered, and took poffeffion, and, as a strong man armed, ftill keeps it in them, Luke xi. 21. but upon payment of this fum to justice, the elect (who only are intended in this purchase) pafs over into God's right and property, and now are neither Satan's, Acts xxvi. 18. nor their own, 1 Cor. vi. 19. but the Lord's peculiar, 1 Pet. ii. 6. And to fhew how much they are his own, you have two poffeffives in one verfe, Cant. viii. 12. "My vineyard, which is mine, is before me, mine, which is "mine."

2. Prop. Husbandmen divide and feparate their own lands from other men's, they have their land-marks and boundaries, by which propriety is preferved, Deut. xxvii. 17. Prov. xxii. 28.

Reddit. So are the people of God wonderfully separated and distinguished from all the people of the earth. Pfal. iv. 3. "The "Lord hath fet apart him that is godly for himself. And the "Lord knoweth who are his," 2 Tim. ii. 19. It is a fpecial act of grace, to be inclofed by God out of the wafte howling wilderness of the world, Deut. xxxiii. 16. This did God in VOL. VI. C

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