N02451:353
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.
Desector. The GRASS before the MOWER.
Psal. XXXVII. 2. They shall soon be cut down as the Grass.
OF whom speaks the Psalmist This? Those whom the SPIRIT of GOD calls, Evil Doers, and, Workers of Iniquity, are more distinguishingly and immediately referred unto. But it is the Common Lot of Mankind, wherein such have their Share, that is thus described unto us. Even Good Livers, They also who do no Iniquity, have their Share in it. But it is mentioned on this Occasion. Besides and beyond the more Private Interpretation of the Psalm, we are to apprehend the Song of Zion before us, as consisting of proper Instructions for the Holy People under the Reign of Antichrist, who holds Pres•ity to be a Mark of the True Church. We find here foretold the Ruin of Antichrist, in a ⟨p. 133⟩Tremendous Conflagration, wherein the Enemies of GOD shall be consumed as the Fat of Lambs; into Smoke they shall consume away: And we find foretold, the Bright Prosperity of the Holy People, after the wicked one shall be destroyed by the Brightness of the coming of the Lord. There is a Passage of the Apocrypha, in which the Son of Sirach, has given us the Sum of the Psalm now before us, wherein we enjoy a Rich Portion of our Canonical Scripture. That Passage is this; A patient Man will bear a long time, and afterward Joy shall spring up unto him In the wretched Ethics taught by the Adored Aristotle, whom yet we may too justly call, a A great Apostle of Satan, it is commended as a Virtue, To have an Indignation at the Prosperity of Unworthy Men. This Aristotelian Virtue is here Cens•red, Rebuked, forbidden, as a Distemper. Fret not thy self because of Evil doers, neither be thou Envious against the workers of Iniquity: Let not the Prosperity of wicked People be any Disturbance to thee. There is this Reason why we should not be disturbed at it; They shall soon be cut down as the Grass: It will be but a short-lived Prosperity. And yet the difference between the Godly and wicked, lies not in the Resemblance which the moveable Grass bears to their Condition. So far the Rod of the wicked is but in the Lot of the Righteous. They are both of them soon cut down as the Grass, in the quick Advances of Mortality. But herein they differ. When the Godly are cut down as the Grass, 'is that they may be lodged in the House of GOD; Yea, that our SAVIOUR may fill His Hand with them. When the wicked are cut down as the Grass, 'tis that they may be cast