N02451:139
Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business…
Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business and language of husbandry. A work adapted unto the grand purposes of piety; and commended therefore by a number of ministers, to be entertained in the families of the country. : [One line from I Corinthians]Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business and language of husbandry. A work adapted unto the grand purposes of piety; and commended therefore by a number of ministers, to be entertained in the families of the countrey. : [One line from I Corinthians]
Boston: printed by T. Fleet for D. Henchman, 1727
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Georgica Sacra. The SOWING Of the Field. › The Stony Ground.
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.
II. Some Hearers of the Word whose Hearts are like Stones under it, yet may with some Faith and some Joy seem to Receive the good Seed of the Word that falls upon them. This is as much as to say, That there are some Dissemblers, (we may call them, shining Stones) among the Hearers of the ⟨p. 43⟩Word, who may go a great way in the Religion which the Word calleth for, and yet perish after all. There is not a more lawful Meditation for a Christian to affect himself withal, than This; How far a Man may go in Christianity, and yet after all be found among the False-hearted Hearers of the Word. There is no Grace, but what may have a Counterfeit. A Stony Heart, is a Cheating one; 'Tis Deceitful above all things. Others, and even ourselves too, may be deceived by it. It will out do, even the Spirit that is called, The Deceiver of the Nations.
First; There is a Faith which False-hearted Hearers of the Word may pretend unto. We read, Luk. VIII. 13. For a while they believe. A True Justifying Faith will be for more than a while; By its Uniting the Believer to his Redeemer, it brings him into those Hands, from whence nothing ever can pull him away. The mere Stony Ground has not this Faith growing in it. But there is a Temporary Faith may look like a Justifying Faith; and mere Stony Ground, may have a Weed, that shall seem this Herb of Grace. A False-Hearted Hearer of the Word, may yield some Assent unto the Truth of the Word: Which indeed the very Devils do, with Trembling at it. Yea, he may profess to yield some Consent unto it. Every Baptised Person is a Professed Servant of GOD. But, alas, how many under the Livery of CHRIST in their Baptism, have their Souls Unbaptized, Unpurified, Unsanctified. Indeed, if a Man give a Real and Hearty Consent unto the Methods of Grace in our Salvation by a Glorious CHRIST, such a Man shall be undoubtedly Saved and Happy. But a sincere Consent ⟨p. 44⟩is one thing, and a professed Consent is another. Some do Profess to Consent unto the Covenant of GOD, and yet continue in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity. Behold, A Tragical Example;