N02451:282
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.
By the Rain here spoken of, tis agreed among Expositors, That Coelestis Doctrina, or, Heavenly Instructions are intended. It is well known, That in the Hebrew Language, both the Raining of Heaven, and the Teaching of Heaven, are expressed in Terms that come from the same Root. Even the Margin of the Bible in our Translation, gives us a notable intimation of This; at Joel II. 23. He hath given you the former Rain. In your Margin tis, A Teacher of Righteousness.
In the Sacred Scriptures, we find the Teachers of Truth, resembled unto the Clouds of Heaven. To these there may be applied that Word, Isa. LX. 8. Who are these, that fly as a Cloud? No wonder then, that the Word of GOD, which is taught by these, is resembled unto Rain. These are they who may say, Deut. XXXII. 2. My Speech shall distil as the small Rain upon the tender Herb, and as the Showers upon the Grass. Now,
First; When the Glorious GOD bestows not Able and Faithful Ministers of His Gospel on a People, then He commands the Clouds to distil no Rain upon them. The more Useful Ministers of the Gospel, are sometimes taken away from a People. Perhaps Persecution Banishes them, or Silences them; The Tail of the Dragon strikes them down from Heaven. Or, the ordinary Course of ⟨p. 101⟩Mortality takes them off, without Successors coming on. The Teachers are no more to be seen, because of their being removed into the Dark Corner of the Grave. The Clouds that should have Rained the Word of Life upon a People, are blown out of the World, when they have no Ministers, to be the Dispensers of the Gospel unto them. Yea, a People may have pretended Ministers, and yet have this Curse upon them. They may have Men in Black, that yet shall be no Divines, nor any better than so many Chemarims unto them: Or, Men that wear Garments only to deceive: And, Men that being the Corruption of the Best Thing, are the worst Thing that can be; Mankind has a Transcendent Pest in such Dissemblers and Stage players. Of such we read,