He was noted for an extraordinary neat Husband about his House and Ground, which he would often say, he could not endure to see like the Field of the Slothful, and the Vineyard of the Man void of Understanding. And it was strange, how easily one that had been bred up utterly a Stranger to such things; yet when God so ordered his Lot, acquainted himself with, and accommodated himself to the Affairs of the Country, making it the Diversion of his vacant Hours, to over-see his Gardens and Fields; when he better understood that known Epode of Horace, Beatus ille qui procul negotiis, than he did when in his Youth; he made an ingenious Translation of it. His care of this kind was an Act of Charity to poor Labourers, whom he employed; and it was a good Example to his Neighbours, as well as for the Comfort of his Family. His Converse likewise with these things was excellently improved, for Spiritual purposes, by occasional Meditations, hints of which there are often in his Diary, as those that Conversed with him had many in Discourse; Instances of this were easy, but endless to give. He used to say, that therefore many of the Scripture Parables and Similitudes are taken from the common Actions of this Life, that when our Hands are employed about them, our Hearts may the more easily pass through them to Divine and Heavenly things. I have heard him often blame those, whose irregular Zeal in the Profession of Religion, makes them to neglect their Worldly Business, and let the House drop through; the affairs of which the good Man will order with Discretion; and he would tell sometimes ⟨p. 128⟩of a Religious Woman, whose Fault it was, how she was convinced of it, by means of an intelligent godly Neighbour; who coming into the House, and finding the good Woman far in the Day, in her Closet, and the House sadly neglected, Children not tended, Servants not minded; What saith he, is there no fear of God in this House? which much startled and affected the good Woman that over-heard him. He would often say, Every thing is beautiful in its Season; and that it is the Wisdom of the Prudent, so to order the Duties of their General Callings as Christians, and those of their particular Callings in the World, as that they may not clash or interfere: I have heard it observed from Eccl. 7. 16. That there may be over-doing in well-doing.
He was noted for an extraordinary neat Husband about his House and Ground, which he would often say, he could not endure to see like the Field of the Sloathful, and the Vineyard of the Man void of Understanding. And it was strange, how easily one that had been bred up utterly a Stranger to such things; yet when God so ordered his Lot, acquainted himself with, and accommodated himself to the Affairs of the Country, making it the Diversion of his vacant Hours, to over-see his Gardens and Fields; when he better understood that known Epode of Horace, Beatus ille qui procul negotiis, than he did when in his Youth; he made an ingenious Translation of it. His care of this kind was an Act of Charity to poor Labourers, whom he employed; and it was a good Example to his Neighbours, as well as for the Comfort of his Family. His Converse likewise with these things was excellently improved, for Spiritual purposes, by occasional Meditations, hints of which there are often in his Diary, as those that Conversed with him had many in Discourse; Instances of this were easie, but endless to give. He us'd to say, that therefore many of the Scripture Parables and Similitudes are taken from the common Actions of this Life, that when our Hands are employed about them, our Hearts may the more easily pass through them to Divine and Heavenly things. I have heard him often blame those, whose irregular Zeal in the Profession of Religion, makes them to neglect their Worldly Business, and let the House drop through; the affairs of which the good Man will order with Discretion; and he would tell sometimes ⟨p. 128⟩of a Religious Woman, whose Fault it was, how she was convinced of it, by means of an intelligent godly Neighbour; who coming into the House, and finding the good Woman far in the Day, in her Closet, and the House sadly neglected, Children not tended, Servants not minded; What saith he, is there no fear of God in this House? which much startled and affected the good Woman that over-heard him. He would often say, Every thing is beautiful in its Season; and that it is the Wisdom of the Prudent, so to order the Duties of their General Callings as Christians, and those of their particular Callings in the World, as that they may not clash or interfere: I have heard it observed from Eccl. 7. 16. That there may be over-doing in well-doing.
