N02451:255
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.
Our COMPANY will be a Thing of more than a little Consequence to our PIETY. Our Fruitfulness in all the Good Works of PIETY, will very much depend on the Company with which we choose to be most Familiar. A Grand Maxim of Wisdom, and of the best Husbandry, is, Forsake the Foolish and live. We have read of one whose Field was in a Bad Condition, He got it by being Amongst those who were not as they should be.
Our COMPANY will be a Thing of more than a little Consequence to our PIETY. Our Fruitfulness in all the Good Works of PIETY, will very much depend on the Company with which we chuse to be most Familiar. A Grand Maxim of Wisdom, and of the best Husbandry, is, Forsake the Foolish and live. We have read of one whose Field was in a Bad Condition, He got it by being Amongst those who were not as they should be.
For the Inculcation of this Caution, I will set before you Two Laws, which the Holy One of Israel gave to His People concerning the Ancient Husbandry.
One Law was; Deut. XXII. 10. Thou shalt not Plough with an Ox and an Ass together. The Conjunction of Animals that are of so unequal a Nature and Size and Strength, was doubtless a Magical Rite, invented by the Devil to be used by Men, in Token of their Dependence on him for Fruitful Fields. There can be no Reason but Magic found for such an improper Conjugation. Homer, and all the World, have decried the Nonsense and Folly and Madness of it; and it was looked upon as enough to proclaim Ulysses a Madman. But the Devil singularly delights in Confusion, and in all Contradiction to the GOD of Order. The Ox was a Sacrifice to the Dii Superi; the Ass, a Sacrifice to the Dii Inferi. Both sorts of Deities were Sacramentally called upon, when these were in the Yoke together.