N02451:34
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.
First; A Repenting Sinner will acknowledge This; My Heart is a very barren Soil. Fallow Ground has growing upon it, none of those good things which we set a value on. It has enough of those things which are good for nothing, or, perhaps worse than so. Our Heart is this fallow Ground. It is an Heart that is destitute of good Principles; and good Ends, and good Frames, and good Thoughts, are not now the natural Growth of the Soil. Our Nature being woefully corrupted by our fall from GOD, our complaint must be That; Rom. VII. 18. I know, that in me, (that is, in my Flesh,) there dwelleth no good thing. O Wretched Heart that thou art; How empty of all that is Good! It must come from an Hand which takes pains for thy good, if any good be found in thee. But for the Reverse thereof, enough of that! The Thorns & the Thistles of the cursed Ground are not such unhappy things as what our Heart is over grown withal. What naturally grows in our Heart, & appears without our taking any pains to bring it forward, is, what will be yielded, by an Heart fully set in us to do evil. What can be imagined, but what is Evil enough in an Heart, ⟨p. 5⟩whereof every Imagination is Evil continually? What will be the growth of a carnal Mind that is full of Enmity against GOD; and of an Heart, that is desperately wicked? The growth of such a Soil has been told us, by Him who searches the Heart; Mat. XV. 19. Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts, Murders, Adult Fornications, Thefts, False Witness, Blasphemies; The Things which defile a Man. What Thorns, what Hen-bane, and Hemlock!
First; A Repenting Sinner will acknowledge This; My Heart is a very barren Soyl. Fallow Ground has growing upon it, none of those good things which we set a value on. It has enough of those things which are good for nothing, or, perhaps worse than so. Our Heart is this fallow Ground. It is an Heart that is destitute of good Principles; and good Ends, and good Frames, and good Thoughts, are not now the natural Growth of the Soyl. Our Nature being wofully corrupted by our fall from GOD, our complaint must be That; Rom. VII. 18. I know, that in me, (that is, in my Flesh,) there dwelleth no good thing. O Wretched Heart that thou art; How empty of all that is Good! It must come from an Hand which takes pains for thy good, if any good be found in thee. But for the Reverse thereof, enough of that! The Thorns & the Thistles of the cursed Ground are not such unhappy things as what our Heart is over grown withal. What naturally grows in our Heart, & appears without our taking any pains to bring it forward, is, what will be yielded, by an Heart fully set in us to do evil. What can be imagined, but what is Evil enough in an Heart,