N02451:222
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.
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.
III. Tho' all the Good Hearers of the Gospel, must be Really Fruitful, yet they are not Equally so. We read, They bring forth, some Thirty fold, some Sixty, some an Hundred. Our SAVIOUR made His Allusion to the Grain then most usual in that Country. For tho' Wheat, which is the Best Grain, and affords the Best Bread, for the Sons of Men, and which by an observable Providence of GOD, grows in almost all Climates! Will, one Bushel of it, sometimes yield, One hundred and Fifty; yet, I suppose, the ordinary Increase is not above an Hundred. Indeed, of our Indian Corn, one Grain will produce above a Thousand; and of Guinea-Corn, one Grain has been known to produce Ten Thousand; but in Wheat it is not so. And in this, every Soil is not alike Fertile; does not yield alike. I take notice, that in one Evangelist, there is no mention of the Thirty fold, and the Sixty fold produce. It is only said, Luk. VIII. 8. The Good Ground bare Fruit an Hundred fold. This may be to note, That tho' this Uttermost Fruitfulness, be not the Attainment, yet it is the Endeavour of every Godly Man: And our Good GOD makes a gracious Construction of the Endeavour, and Accepts the willing Mind. The Endeavour of every Godly Man, in Hearing the Word, is to bring forth as much Fruit, as the most Fruitful Saint that ever lived. He does not stint himself, as to the Fruit of the Word upon him. He can say of the uttermost Fruitfulness; as in Phil. III. 14. I press toward ⟨p. 82⟩the Mark. Yea, But this, even the Hundred fold, is not the Attainment of every Godly Man. There is as much Difference between the Fruits found in the Good Hearers of the Word, as between Thirty and an Hundred. Some good Men are not one Third part so Fruitful as others are. As we read, 1 Cor. XV. 41. One Star differs from another Star in Glory: So, One Saint also differs from another Saint in Glory. 'Tis our Fruitfulness that is our Glory. Our David has many Worthies; But there is a First Three, which all do not come up unto.
III. Tho' all the Good Hearers of the Gospel, must be Really Fruitful, yet they are not Equally so. We read, They bring forth, some Thirty fold, some Sixty, some an Hundred. Our SAVIOUR made His Allusion to the Grain then most usual in that Countrey. For tho' Wheat, which is the Best Grain, and affords the Best Bread, for the Sons of Men, and which by an observable Providence of GOD, grows in almost all Climates! Will, one Bushel of it, sometimes yield, One hundred and Fifty; yet, I suppose, the ordinary Increase is not above an Hundred. Indeed, of our Indian Corn, one Grain will produce above a Thousand; and of Guiny-Corn, one Grain has been known to produce Ten Thousand; but in Wheat it is not so. And in this, every Soil is not alike Fertile; does not yield alike. I take notice, that in one Evangelist, there is no mention of the Thirty fold, and the Sixty fold produce. It is only said,