A61391:303
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.
6. The Husbandmans sixth lesson is, from the Grass of his ground. Thus he hath daily a pleasant view of, and now and then makes a Book of it, and every Grass is a Letter, ye• […] word, yea a Sermon to him? A Sermon sometimes of his own frailty: For how doth it flourish in the morning, and the many coloured weeds therein •ile and dance? and at night they are cut down and withered, their beauty gone in a few days, and then he reme• bers what is said Isa. 40.6, 7. All flesh is Grass, and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the Grass: The Grass withereth, the flower fadeth: Sure the people is Grass. And so he goes his way with an heart mortified, and weaned to the world, and all things in it, seeing there is so little difference between his Grass and him. The Grass sprung lately out of the ground, and so did he, only he is the Senior Grass; and the Grass is resolved into the earth again, and so must he; only he lives ⟨p. 139⟩a while longer. And more particularly, the Husbandman learns hence the short-lived happiness of wicked men, that rise up sudd•ly in the world, and rage as they were woo'd, but like the Grass they perish out of hand, and their places forget them. God lets them alone a while, as the Husbandman doth his Meadow, eats them not down by afflictions, but hedges them by his providence, as if he had more care of them then of all his demesne besides; but mows them down at length, and cuts them off in a moment, Psal. 92.7. When the wicked spring as the Grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever.
6. The Husbandmans fixth lesson is, from the Grass of his ground. Thus he hath daily a pleasant view of, and now and then makes a Book of it, and every Grass is a Letter, ye• 〈…〉 word, yea a Sermon to him? A Sermon sometimes of his own frailty: For how doth it flourish in the morning, and the many coloured weeds therein ile and dance? and at night they are cut down and withered, their beauty gone in a few dayes, and then he reme bers what is said