PART III
Husbandry Spiritualized; or, AN
INTRODUCTION
• To the THIRD PART of
HUSBANDRY.
NOW, from the pleasant orchard let us walk A turn i' th' fields, and there converse and talk
With cows and horses ; they can teach us some Choice lessons, though irrational and dumb.
My reader's weary ; yet I do not fear To be forsaken by one reader here :
He'll doubtless stay to hear what questions I Propound to beasts, and how theymakereply.
The fattedox, and pamper'd horse you ride ; Their careless master for his care thus chide.
CHAP.
Upon the Husbandman's Care for his Cattle.
More care for horse and oxen many take, Than for their souls, or dearest childrens fake.
OBSERVATION.
ANY husbandmen are excessively careful about their cattle, rifingthemselves early, or causing their servants torife betimes, to provender and dress them.
Much time is spent in some countries, in trimming and adorning their horses with curious trappings and plumes of feathers ; and if at anytime their beasts be sick, what care is taken to recover and heal them : you will be sure they shall want nothing that is necessary for them ; yea, many will chuse rather to want themselves, than suffer their horses so to do ; and take a great deal of comfort to fee them thrive and prosper under their hands.
APPLICATION.
Wh HAT one said of bloodyHerod, who flew so many children at Bethlehem, That it were better to be his fwinethanhis son, may truly enough be applied to some parents and masters, who take less care forthesavingthefouls of
The Heaventy Use of Eathly Things.
their children and servants, than they do for the bodies of those beasts which daily feed at their italls and cribs. Many there be who do in reference to their souls,as Jacob did with respect to thepreservationoftheir bodies,when he put all the herds of cattle before, and his wives and little ones behind, as hewenttomeet his brotherEfau.
It is a weighty saying ofa grave * author: ' It is vile ingratitude to rejoice when cattle
•multiply, and repine when children increase; it is heathen- • ish distrustfulness,to fear that he who provides for your beasts, will not provide for your children; and it is noless than un- • natural cruelty, to be careful of the bodies of beasts, and careless of the souls of children.'
Let us but a little compare your care and diligence in both respects, and fee, in a few particulars, whether you do indeed value your own, or your children and servants fouls, as you do the life and health of a beast.
1. Your care for your very horses is expressed early, whilst they are but colts, and not come to do you any service ; you are willing to be at pains and cost, to have them broken and brought to their way.
This is more than ever many of them did for their children; they can fee them wild and profane, naturally taking a stroke or way of wickedness, but yet never wereatanypains or coast to break them; these must be fondledandcockeredup in the natural way of their own corruption and wickedness, and not at odor reproofusedtobreak them of it.
It isobservedofthe Persians, † that they put out their children to school, as soon as they can speak, and will not fee them insevenyears after, left their indulgence should do them hurt.
2. You keep your constant set times, morning and evening, to feed,water,and dress your cattle, and will by no means neglect it once: but how many times have you neglected morning and evening-duties in your families ? Yea, howmanybe there, whose very tables, in respect of any worship God hath there, do very little differ from the very cribs and mangers at which their horses feed ? As soon as you are up in a morning, you are with your beasts, before you have beenwithyourGod.
How little do such differ from beasts ? And happy were it, if theywereno more accountable to God than their beasts are,
The end of your care, cost, and pains about your cattle is, that they maybe strong for labour, and the more serviceableto you: thus you comply with the end of their beings. But how
1 * fenk, on Jude, part 2. p. 170.
†Clark's Mir. p. 506.
VOL. VI.
Husbandry Spiritualized; or, rare athing is it to find these men as careful to fit theirpofterity to be useful and serviceable to God in their generations, which is the end of their beings ? If you can make them rich, ard provide good matches for them,you reckon that you have fully discharged the duty of parents : if they will learn to hold the plow, that you are willing to teach them : but, when did youspendanhourto teach them the way offalvation.?
Now to convince such careless parents of the heinousness of their fin, let these queries be solemnly considered.
Qu. 1. Whether this be a sufficient discharge of that great dutywhichGodhath laid upon Christian parents, in reference to their families ? That God hath charged them with thefouls of their families, is undeniable, Deut. vi. 6, 7. Eph. vi. 4.
If God had not cloathed you with his authority, to command them in the way of the Lord, he would never have charged them so strictly to yield you obedience as he hath done, Eph.
vi. 1. Col. iii. 20.
Well, a great trust is reposed in you, look to your duty ; for, withoutdifpute,you shall answer for it.
Qu. 2. Whether it be likely, if the timeofyouth (which is themouldingage)be neglected, they will be wrought upon to any good afterwards ? Husbandmen, letmeput a fenfiblecafe to you ; do you not fee in your very horses,that whilst they are young, you can bring them to any way ; but ifoncetheyhave got a false stroke, and by long custom it be grown natural to them, then there is no breaking them of it: yea, you fee it in yourveryorchards; youmaybring a tender twig to grow in what form you please; but when it is grown to a sturdy limb, there is no bending it afterwards to any other form than what it naturally took.
Thus it is with children, Prov. xxii. 6.
" Train up a childinthewayhe should go, and when he is " old, he will not depart from it."
Qu . 3. Whether if you neglect to instruct them in the way of the Lord, Satan,and their own natural corruptions,will not instruct them inthewayto hell? Confider this,ye careless parents : if you will not teach your children, the devil will teach them : if you shewthem not how to pray, he will shew them how to curse and swear, and take the name of the Lordinvain : if you grudge time and pains about their souls, the devil doth not. Oh ! it is a fad consideration, that so many children shouldbeput to school to the devil.
Qu. 4. What comfort are you like to have from them when they are old, if you bring them not up in the nurtureandadmonitionof the Lord, when they are young ? Many parents have livedtoreap in their old age the fruit of their own folly
The Heavenly Use of Earthly Things.
and-carelesness, in the loose and vain education of their children. By Lycurgus his law, no parent was to be relieved by his children in age, if he gave them not good education in their youth ; and it is a law at this day among the Switzers, That if anychildbe condemnedtodiefor acapitaloffence, the parents of that child are to be his executioners : these laws were made to provoke parents to look better to their charge. Believe this as an undoubtedtruth, That that child which becomes, through thy default, an instrument todishonourGod,shall prove, sooner or later afon or daughter of sorrow to thee.
1. God hath found out my sin this day. A reflection for This hath been mypracticeever since I had careless parents. a family committed to my charge ; I have spentmoretimeandpains about the bodies of my beasts, than the souls of my children: beast that I am for so doing ! little have I consideredthepreciousness of my own, or their immortalfouls. HowcarefulhaveI been to provide fodder to preserve my cattle in the winter, whilst I leave my own and their souls to perish to eternity, and make no provision for them ? Surely my children willone day curse the time that ever they were bornuntosuch a cruel father, or offuch a merciless mother.
Should Ibringhomethe plague intomyfamily, and live to fee all my poor children lie dead by the walls ; ifI had not the heart ofa tyger, such a fight would melt my heart : and yet the death of their souls, by the sin which Ipropagated to them, affects me not. Ah ! that I could say, I had done as much for them, as I have done for a beast that perisheth !
2. But, unhappy wretch that I am !
God cast abetter lot for me , I am the A reflection for thedifoff-spring of religious and tender parents, who have always deeply concerned themselves in the everlasting state of my foul; many prayers and tears have they poured out obedient child of agraciousparent. to God for me, both in my hearing, as well as in secret ;many holy and wholesome counsels have they from time to time droptuponme ; many precious examples have they set in their ownpracticebefore me; many a time when I have finned against the Lord, have they stood over me, with a rod in their hands, and tears in their eyes, using all means to reclaim me; but, like an ungracious wretch, I have flighted all their counsel, grieved their hearts, and imbittered their lives to them by my sinful courses. Ah, my foul ! thou art a degenerate plant ; better will it be with the off-spring of infidels than with thee,
Husbandry Spiritualized; or, ifrepentancepreventnot:now I live in one fan.ilywith them, but shortly I shall be feparatedfrom them, as far as hell is from heaven; they now tenderly pitymymisery,but then they shall approve and applaud the righteous sentence of Christ upon me: so little privilege shall I then have from my relation to them, that they shall be produced as witnesses against me, and all their rejected counsels, reproofs and examples, charged home upon me, as the aggravations of my wickedness ; and better it will be,when it shall come to that, that I had been brought forth by a beast, than sprung from the loins of such parents.
The POEM.
There's nothingwantingthat should make them fo.
The pamper'dhorsecommends his master's care, Whoneitherpains or cost doth grudge or spare.
But artnotthou meanwhile the vilest fool, "That pamper'st beasts, and starves thy precious soul ?
Twerewell if thou couldst die as well as live Like beasts, and had no more account to give.
Othat these lines your folly might detect!
Whobothyourown and children's fouls neglect To care for beasts. O man ! prepare to hear
Thedoleful'st language that e'er pierc'd thine ear; When you your children once in hell shall meet,
And with such language their damn'd parents greet :
" O cursed father ! wretched mother! why " Was I your off-spring ? Would to God that I "Had sprung from tygers, who more tender be
"Unto their young than you have been tome.
" Howdidyouspendyour thoughts, time, care, and cost " About my body, whilst my foul was loft?
" Did you not know I had a soul, that must " Live, when this body was diffolv'd to dust?
"You could not chusebut understand if I, " Without an interest in Christ did die, " It needs muftcome to this. Ohowcouldyou "Prove fo remorseless, and no pity shew ?
"O cruel parents! I may curse the day " That I was born of such as did betray " Their child to endless torments.
Now must I "With, and through you, in flames for ever lie."
Let this make every parent tremble, left IHe lose his child, whilst caring for his beast :
The Heavenly Use of Earthly Things.
Or left his own poor foul do starve and pine, Whilfthetakes thought for horses,sheep and kine.
CHAP.
II.
Upon the hard Labour and cruel Usage of Beaftss When under loads your beasts do groan, think then
How great a mercy 'tis that you are men.
OBSERVATION.
Hough some men be excessively careful and tender over their beasts, as was noted in the former chapter; yet others are cruel and merciless towards them, not regarding how they ride or burden them. How often have I seen them fainting under their loads, wrought off their legs, and turned out with galledbacks, into the fields or high-ways to shift for a little grass,manytimeshave I heard and pitied them, groaning under unreafouableburdens, and beaten on by merciless drivers, till at last,by such cruel usage, theyhavebeen destroyed, and then cast into a ditch for dogs meat.
APPLICATION.
Uch fights as these should make men thankful for the mercy of their creation, and bless their bountiful Creator, that they were not made such creatures themselves.
Some beasts are made ad efum,only for food, being no otherwise useful to man,as swine, &c. These are only fed for slaughter ; wekillandeat them, and regard not their cries andstrugglings when the knife is thrust to their very hearts ! others are only ad ufum, for service, whilst living, but unprofitable when dead, as horses; these we make to drudge and toil for us from day to day,but kill them not: others are both ad efum, et ufum, for foodwhendead, and service whilst alive, as the ox ; these we make to plow our fields, draw our carriages, and afterwards prepare them for the slaughter.
But man was made for nobler ends, created lord of the lower world; not to serve, but to be served by other creatures ; amercyableto melt the hardest heart into thankfulness. I remember, * Luther pressingmen to be thankful, that they are not brought into the lowest condition of creatures, and to bless
God that they can fee any creature below themselves, gives us a famous instance in the following story : Two cardinals, faith he riding in agreatdealofpomptothe council of Constance,
* Luther in 3d Precept,
Husbandry Spiritualized; or, bythewaytheyheard am an in the fields,weeping andwailingbitterly; theyrodetohim,and ask'dhim what he ailed ?
Perceiving his eye intently fixed upon anuglytoad,he to led them that his heart melted with the consideration of this mercy, that God had not made him such a deformed and loathsome creature, though he were formed out of the fame clay with it: Hoc eft quod amarefleo, said he, this is that which makes me weep bitterly.
Whereupon one of the Cardinals cries out, well, said the Father, the unlearned will rise and take heaven,when we with all our learning shall be thrust into hell. That which melted the heart of this poor man, should melt everyheartwhen we behold the misery to which these poor creatures are subjected. And this will appear amercyofno flight consideration, if we but draw a comparison betwixt ourselves and these irrational creatures, in these three particulars.
1. Though they and weweremadeofthe same mould and clay,yet how much better hathGoddealtwith us, even as to the outward man? The structure of our bodies is much more excellent;God made other good creatures bya word of command, but man by counsel ; it was not, Be thou, but, Let us makeman. Wemighthavebeenmade stones without sense, or beasts without reason, but we were mademen. The noble structure and symmetryofourbodies invites our souls not only tothankfulness but admiration. David, speaking of the curious frame of the body, faith, " I am wonderfully made," Psal. cxxxix. 14. or, as the vulgar reads it, painted as with a needle, like some rich piece of needle-workcuriouflyembroideredwith nerves and veins. Was any part of the common lump of clay thus fashioned? Galen gave Epicurus an hundred years time to imagine a more commodious situation, configuration, or composition of any one part ofahumanbody; and (as one faith) if all the angels in heaven had studied to this day, they couldnothavecaftthe bodyofman into a more curious mold.
2.How little ease or rest have they? They live not many years,and those they do are in boudage and misery, groaning under the effects of sin; butGodhath provided better for us even as to our outward condition in the world; we have the more rest,because they have so little. Howmanyrefreshments and comforts hath God provided for us, of which they are uncapable? If we be weary with labour, we can take our reft ; but fresh or weary, they must stand to it, or sink under it from day today.
A 3. What a narrow capacity hath God given to beasts !
The Heavenly Use of Earthly Things.
What a large capacity to man ! Alas, they are only capable of a little sensitive pleasure ; as you shallfeesometimes,how they will frisk inagreenpasture; this is all they be capable of, and this death puts an end to: but how comprehensive are our souls in their capacities ! We are made in the imageofGod; we can lookbeyondpresentthings,and are capableofthehighesthappiness,and that to all eternity: the foulofabeast is but a material form,which, whollydependingupon, must needs diewiththebody; butourfouls area divine spark or blast ; and when the body dies, it dies not with it,but subsists even in its separated state.
REFLECTIONS.
1.How great a fin is ingratitudetoGod, for suchacommon,but choice mercyofcreationand
A reflection for an unprovifion for me in this world? There is no creature made worse by kindness, but man.
There isakindofgratitude which I may observe thankfulfinner. eveninthesebrute beasts ; they do in their way acknowledge their benefactors; " The ox knows his owner,
" and the ass his master's críb."
How readyarethey to serve such as feed and cherish them ? But I havebeenboth unthankfuland unserviceable to my Creator and Benefactor,that hath done me good all my days ; those poor creatures that sweat and groan under the load that I lay upon them, never finned against God, nor tranfgreffed the laws of their creation, as I have done; andyetGod hath dealt better with me than with them. O that the bounty of God, and his distinguishing mercybetweenme andthebeafts that perish, might move and melt my heart into thankfulness! O that I might considerferiously whatthehigher and more excellentendofmycreation is, andmightmore endeavour to answer and live up to it! Or else,O my soul! it will be worse with thee than the beasts : it is true,theyareunderbondageandmisery; but it is but for a little time; death will end all their pains, and ease them of all their heavy loads; but I shall groanto all eternity, under aheavierburdenthan ever they felt ; they have no account to give,butfohave I. What comfort is it that I have a larger capacity than abeaft hath ? ThatGodhath endowed me with reason, which is denied to them? Alas ! this will but augment my misery,andenlargemetotakein agreatermeasureofanguish.
2. But how many steps,O my foult mayst A reflection thou ascend in the praisesofthyGod, when thou for an elect confide rest the mercies that God hath bestowed foul. upon thee ; not only in that he made thee not a
Husbandry Spiritualized; or, stone or tree without sense,oran horse or dog without reason; but that thou art not an infidel without light, or an unregenerate person without grace ? What! to have sense, and all the delights of it,which stones have not ! Reason, with themorehigh and noble pleasures of it, which beasts have not, the light and knowledge of the great things of the gospel, which the heathens have not ! and such an expectation and hope ofunconceivable glory and felicity, which the unsanctifiedhavenot ! O my foul ! how rich,how bountiful hath thy
God been to thee! These are the overflowings of his love to thee who wast moulded out of the fame lump with the beasts that groanon earth, yea, with the damned that howhn hell: well may IfaythatGodhathbeen agoodGodto me !
W The POEM.
HEN I behold a tiredjade put on With whip and spur,till all his strength be gone; See streams of sweat rundown his bleeding fides,
How little mercy's shewn by him that rides.
If I more thankful to my Godwou'd prove, Thanfuch a rider merciless, 'twillmove My foultopraife: For who fees this,and can But bless the Lord that he was made am an.
And such a fight the rider ought to move Thismeditationduly to improve.
What hath this creature done, that he should be Thus beaten, wounded, and tir'd out by me ?
He is my fellow-creature ; 'tismere grace Ihadnotbeen in his,he in my case.
Ungrateful ,stupid man! God might have made Me bear the saddle,as I see thisjade, He never finn'd, but for my fin doth lie
Subjected unto all this misery.
Lord,make my heart relent, that I should be Totheemoreuseless,than my horse tome :
He did his utmost,went as long as ever His legs cou'd bear him ; but for me I never Thus spent my strength for God,but ofthave been
Tooprodigalthereofinways of fin.
Though he's the horse, and I the man, 'twill be Farbetterwith my house onedaythanme:
Unlessthygrace prevent and fuperadd Anew creation unto that I had.
Could every rider fix a serious thought On such afubject, and hereby be taught )