A61391:222
The husbandmans calling showing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandmanThe husbandmans calling shewing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandman
The husbandmans calling showing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandman : being the substance of XII sermons preached to a country congregation / by Richard Steele.The husbandmans calling shewing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandman : being the substance of XII sermons preached to a country congregation / by Richard Steele.
London: printed by M.S., 1668
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And here is the Husbandmans Temptation, Negligence and Deadness in holy Duties. But what Preservative can we prescribe against this ⟨p. 87⟩temptation? These two at present. 1. More Zeal. 2. Less Labour.
1. More Zeal. Zeal is Religion boiling hot. And a warm heart in a weary body will be active. Zeal revives the languishing spirits, infuses new spirits, makes a man all spirit for the time. This in a false Religion will raise a man to his Orisons at Midnight, send him some hundreds of miles on Pilgrimage, make him sweep the Church with the Hair of his Head, lame his Knees with Prayers, and blind his Eyes with tears. In the true Religion this works more languidly, it's true, (men swim faster down then up the stream) but more regularly, and doth animate a gracious heart wonderfully in the ways of God; makes the lame man to leap as an H•rt, and the tongue of the dumb to sing.
1. More Zeal. Zeal is Religion boyling hot. And a warm heart in a weary body will be active. Zeal revives the languishing spirits, infuses new spirits, makes a man all spirit for the time. This in a false Religion will raise a man to his Orisons at Midnight, send him some hundreds of miles on Pilgrimage, make him sweep the Church with the Hair of his Head, lame his Knees with Prayers, and blind his Eyes with tears. In the true Religion this works more languidly, it's true, (men swim faster down then up the stream) but more regularly, and doth animate a gracions heart wonderfully in the wayes of God; makes the lame man to leap as an H•rt, and the tongue of the dumb to sing.
The godly Husbandman remembers, that his chiefest business every day is with God, and the hardest of his work is on his knees; and so buckles to it, and is in good earnest, and sweats even at his eyes. The more zeal, the more forward to what is good, and the more unwearied in it. And it is good to be always zealously affected in a good matter,