N02451:368
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.
Blessed, Blessed be my SAVIOUR, who has made such an horrible thing as Death to become so welcome to me, that in the dark Valley of the shadow of Death, I have no more Horror of Darkness upon me!
V. The Stroke which brings our Death, may be a very sudden stroke; the Sith which cuts down the Grass, may do it very suddenly, and with a quick Dispatch. The Sith is not long adoing what it has to do; One Touch of it upon the Leaf, and it ⟨p. 144⟩goes down at once. It is a Case propounded; Num. VI. 9. If any Man die very suddenly. How frequent a Case! Yea, any Man may do so. The greatest, the strongest, the youngest may do so; and often does it. The Death of People may be sudden, in this regard, that it surprises them, even when they fancied, Goods laid up for many Years, and could perhaps impiously say of a Thing they thought nothing of, I thought no more of it than of my dying Day: They are surprised, with the Bow-string served upon them. They are engaged in a most Eager Pursuit of This World; full of its Projections, full of its Amusements; But, the Sith unexpectedly comes at them; and that Word is fulfilled upon them; A Desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know of. Yea, their Death may be sudden in regard of the quick Work it makes with them; One Blow does it: They are gone on the sudden. They this Week make a lively, perhaps, a Busy Appearance. The next Week they Disappear, and their place knows them no more. Well one Day, Dead the next. Yea, Well one Hour, Dead the next. So we read of some; GOD shall shoot at them with an Arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded. They are talking, and walking, and working, and perhaps diverting themselves; And within a few Minutes they are gone into Eternity. They go to Bed well in the Evening, but there is a Midnight-Cry heard in the Family. They go abroad well in the Morning. But some Wound, or Fall, or Pit brings a Night before Sunset upon them. The Sith takes them, as the Hook does the Fish, or the Shot the Fowl. So the Sons of Men are taken in an evil time, when it cometh suddenly upon ⟨p. 145⟩