A61391:258
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.
SECT. IX.1
- 1§. 9.
IX. The Ninth Temptation of the Husbandman 1is, Affected Ignorance. His Intellectuals are but obtuse, and Education did not befriend him; his occasions many, and his time scant, whereby ordinarily he wants that necessary knowledge, that should light him to Heaven. And the abuse of knowledge in others, and the excuse his continual labours suggest to him, do tempt him to rest in and defend his Ignorance, and so it grows Affected ignorance. In this he lives, and (without Gods grace) herein he dies. But God forbid, we should charge all persons of that Calling ⟨p. 112⟩with this evil: no, there are many, very many have better learned Christ, able with much gravity and distinctness to give an account of all material Points of Religion; that want not an Argument to d•end the Truth, though they cannot put it in Mood and Figure; yea divers that in the Arts come not short, in the Languages exceed some, that sit in Moses seat. And as to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, that consists not so much in mental, as experimental apprehensions; multitudes in this are excellent Scholars, that can describe Faith to the life, though they cannot define it; that can tell how to repent, though they know not whether this or Faith precede. In short, that can feel more than they can speak, and that have learned to express more in their lives, than in their words.
IX. THe Ninth Temptation of the Husbandman 1is, Affected Ignorance. His Intellectuals are but obtuse, and Education did not befriend him; his occasions many, and his time scant, whereby ordinarily he wants that necessary knowledge, that should light him to Heaven. And the abuse of knowledge in others, and the excuse his continual labours suggest to him, do tempt him to rest in and defend his Ignorance, and so it grows Affected ignorance. In this he lives, and (without Gods grace) herein he dies. But God forbid, we should charge all persons of that Calling