To the CHRISTIAN READER
Whose studies are profaneness, as if then They only were good poets, when bad men.
D. DIGS.
I shall add no more, but to beg that God who instructeh the husbandman in his civil calling, to teach him wisdom spiritually to improve it, particularly, that you may reap a crop of much spiritual benefit, from that seed which is here sown by the hand of the Lord's unprofitable servant, and in him, Your very affectionate Friend and Servant,
JOHN FLAVEL.
To the CHRISTIAN READER THERE are three things wherein (as it hath been said long before my day) the exercise of godliness doth chiefly consist: Prayer, temptation, meditation: Meditation is the subject of the following manual. The object of meditation is twofold. First, The word.
Secondly, The works of God. The works of God are twofold. First, Internal. Secondly, External. The External works of God are twofold.
First, Of creation, Secondly, Of providence. The works of providence are likewise twofold. First, In things civil, the Lord ordering and over-ruling all the affairs and motions of single persons, families, and nations, in a subserviency to his own most holy ends, designs, and purposes. Secondly, In things natural, the Lord instructing the husbandman to discretion, and teaching him how to dress and till the earth, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater;
as also how to breed up and manage the beasts of the field, both greater and lesser cattle, for the use and service of man.
Meditation upon this lower part of the works of God, and his wonderful providences about them, may raise our souls very high; and while we wisely consider these natural things, we may grow more and more wise, in and for spirituals and eternals.
The worthy and ingenious Author of the ensuing discourse hath supplied us with an excellent help, for the spiritualizing of the providential works of God in natural things, by godly meditations; we chiefly want the help of the Holy Spirit (without which all other helps and helpers are altogether insufficient) to frame and wind up our hearts for this both profitable and delightful duty; yet the help which the Lord is pleased to give us for our direction in it, by the ministry of man, is not only not to be refused, but thankfully received and improved; and all little enough to bring our minds to, or keep them at this work: The best of saints, on this side heaven, have, though they are not earthly-minded only, much earth in their minds; which like a heavy clog at their heels, or a weight at their hearts, presseth them down when they would make an essay to mount upward in meditation. We find it no easy matter to keep off earthly thoughts, when we are most seriously engaged in heavenly work; how hard is it then to get in, and be fixed upon heavenly thoughts, while we are engaged about earthly work; yea, are (for so is the husbandman) working the very earth, and raking in the bowels of it?
It is a great part of our holiness to be spiritually-minded, while we are conversing with God through Jesus Christ in spiritual duties; but to be spiritually minded, and to mind spiritual things, when we are conversing with the clods of the earth, and the furrows of the field; when we have to do with corn and grass, with trees and plants, with sheep and oxen; when we behold the birds and fowls of the air, the
worms, and all that creep upon the ground; then, I say, to be spiritually-minded, and thence to have our thoughts ascending, and soaring up to God, in heart-affecting and quickening contemplations, witnesseth an high degree of holiness, and of gracious attainments.
To make a ladder out of the earthly materials, for the raising of ourselves in spirit up to heaven, is the art of arts. Holy and happy indeed are they who, being taught of God, have learned this art, and live in daily practice of it. Earthly objects usually hinder us in our way, sometimes turn us quite out of our way to heaven. Many plow and sow, dig and delve the earth, till their hearts become as earthly as the earth itself: Many deal about the beasts of the field till themselves become even brutish. Is it not then a blessed design which this Author aims and drives at, so to spiritualize all sorts, or the whole compass of earthly husbandry, that all sorts of husbandmen may become spiritual and heavenly? It seems to be a token of good, that God hath an intendment of some special good to the souls of such as are by profession proper husbandmen, seeing he hath lately put it into the hearts of two faithful* ministers (who with all of that profession, are husbandmen in a figure) to undertake, though in a different way, this subject, and to publish their labours in print, that they may be of use, not only for the present age, but for posterity.
And that the husbandman may be pleased as well as profited, in perusing the labours of this author; he hath, with singular aptness and acuteness, contrived and contracted the sum and scope of every chapter into an elegant distich, or pair of verses, placed at the head of it, and concluded it with a choice melodious poem suitable to, and dilating upon the whole matter of it. These the husbandman, who can but read, may quickly learn and sing for his solace, instead of those vain ballads and corrupting rhymes, which many of that rank are apt to buy and solace themselves withal, without any benefit, yea,