A61391:254
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.
Believe this therefore, if all the Great Ones on earth were set against you, they shall not touch an hair of your head, no not an hair of your Head, till God for your good give them a Commission. One cringe would have secured those three Princes, Dan. 3.15. from a most dreadful peril; but behold their integrity, constancy, and courage, and it is hard to ⟨p. 108⟩say which was the strongest. O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy Gods, nor worship thy golden Image which thou hast set up. And did God forsake them in their need? not at all. Alas he hath fire and water in his hands, and can make a Gridiron to be a bed of Down, when he pleaseth.
And therefore look not at man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of: Look not at the stone, but at the hand in which it is: for as the stone cannot stir, unless it be moved by the hand; so no man can stir one jot against you, unless God stir him up. Hence we have so oft that phrase in the old Testament, that God stirred up this and that enemy against his people. Instead of pleasing this or that great man, whom it may be thou canst never please; or if thou dost, yet there's another may do thee a mischief as well as he: Do thou study to please God, who can according to that, Prov. 16.7. make thy Enemies to be at peace with thee. Man (says †Augustine) fear God, and thou mayest smile at the world. Alas, it lies in the breast of any wretch (is he will come and swear against thee) whether thou shalt be worth a groat before night; and what foresight can arm a man against such mishaps! No, no, It is the ⟨p. 109⟩