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Firft, In meditation argue thus, as in the prefent ca fe and fimil tude of the apoftle. If an husbandman upon the ordinary principles of reason can wait for the harveft, fhall not I wait for the coming of the Lord, the day of refreshing? the corn is precious to him, and fo is the coming of Chrift to me. Shall he be fo patient, and endure so much for a little corn? and fhall not I for the kingdom of heaven? He is willing to ftay till all caufes have had their operations, till he hath received the former and the latter rain; and fhall not I, till the Divine decrees be accomplished ?

Secondly, In meditation, make the resemblance, and difcourfe thus within yourselves: This is my feed-time, heaven is my harvest; here I muft labour and toil, and there reft. I fee the husbandman's life is a great toil: no excellent thing can be obtained without labour, and an obftinate patience. I fee the feed inuft be hidden in the furrows, rotten and corrupted, e'er it can spring forth with any increase. Our hopes are hidden, light is fown for the righteous; all our comforts are buried under the clods, and after all this there must be long waiting, we cannot fow and reap in a day; effects cannot follow till all neceffary causes have first wrought. It is not in the power of hufbandmen to ripen fruits at pleasure, our times are in the hands of God, therefore it is good to wait; a long-fuffering patience will reap the defired fruit. Thus you have fome hints of this heavenly art of improving the creatures.

The motives inducing me to this undertaking, were the Lord's owning with some fuccefs, my labours of a like nature*, together with the defire and inclination (ftirred up in me, I hope, by the Spirit of the Lord) to devote my vacant hours to his service in this kind. I confidered, that if the Pharifees in a blind zeal to a faction, could compafs fea and land to profelyte men to their party, though thereby they made them fevenfold more the children of the devil than before; how much more was I obliged, by true love to God, and zeal to the everlasting happiness of fouls, to ufe my utmost endeavours both with feamen and husbandmen, to win them to Christ, and thereby make them more than feventy-feven fold happier than before? Not to mention other encouragements to this work, which I received from the earneft defires of fome reverend and worthy brethren inviting thereunto; all which I hope the event will manifeft to be a call from God to this work.

I confefs I met with fome difcouragement in my first attempt, from my unacquaintedness with rural affairs; and because I was to travel in a path (to me) untrodden; but having once engaged in it, thofe difcouragements were foon overcome. and being now brought to what you here fee, I offer to your hands these first fruits of my fpare hours.

I prefume you will account it no difparagement, that I dedicate a

• Navigation Spiritualized.

book of husbandry to gentlemen of your quality. This is fpiritual bufbandry, which here is taught you; and yet I tell you, that great perfons have accounted that civil employment (which is much inferior to this) no difparagement to them. "The king himself is ferved "by the field," Ecclef. v. 9. Or, as Montanus renders the Hebrew text, Rex agro fit fervus; The king himself is a fervant to the field. And of king Uzziah it is written, 2 Chron. xxvi. 10. "That he "loved husbandry." And Amos vii. 1. we read of the king's mowings. Yea, Pliny hath obferved, that corn was never so plentiful at Rome, as when the fame men tilled the land that ruled the commonwealth. Quafi gauderet terra laureato vomere, fcilicet et aratore triumphali; as though the earth itself rejoiced in the laurelled plow-fhare, and the triumphant plowman.

What pleasure you will find in reading it I know not; but to me it hath been a pleasant path from first to last; who yet have been at far greater expence of time and pains in compiling it, than you can be in reading it. The hufbandman's work, you know, is no easy work, and the spiritualizing of it hath greater difficulties attending it; but yet the pleasure hath abundantly recompenfed the pains. I have found Erasmus's obfervation experimentally true; Qui literis addicti fumus, animi laffitudinem a ftudiis gravioribus contractam ; ab iifdem ftudiis, fed amonioribus recreamus: Thofe that are addicted to study, (faith he) when they have wearied their spirits with study, can recreate them again with study, by making a diversion from that which is fevere and knotty, to fome more facile and pleasant subject.

But to hear that God hath ufed and honoured thefe papers to the good of any foul, will yield me the highest content and fatisfaction imaginable.

May you but learn that leffon, which is the general scope and defign of this book, viz. How to walk with God from day to day, and make the several objects you behold, fcala et ala, wings and ladders to mount your fouls nearer to him, who is the centre of all bleffed fpirits. How much will it comfort me, and confirm my hope, that it was the call of God indeed, which put me upon these endeavours!

O Sirs! What an excellent thing would it be for you, to make fuch holy improvements of all these earthly objects which daily occur to your fenfes, and caufe them to proclaim and preach to you divine and heavenly mysteries; whilst others make them groan, by abufing them to fin, and fubjecting them to their lufts. A man may be caft into fuch a condition, wherein he cannot enjoy the bleffing and benefit of a pious and powerful miniftry; but you cannot (ordinarily) fall into fuch a condition, wherein any thing (excepting a bad heart) can deprive you of the benefits and comforts of thofe excellent fermons, and divinity lectures, which the creatures here offer to preach and read to you.

Content not yourselves, I beseech you, with that natural sweetness the creatures afford; for thereof the beafts are capable, as much, if

not more, than you; but use them to those spiritual ends you are here directed, and they will yield you a sweetness far transcending that natural sweetness you ever relifhed in them; and indeed, you never use the creatures as their Lord's, till you come to fee your Lord in and by them. I confefs the difcoveries of God in the word are far more excellent, clear, and powerful; "He hath mag"nified his word above all his name." And therein are the unfearchable riches of Chrift, or rich discoveries of that grace that hath no footsteps in nature, as the apoftle's expreffion fignifies, Eph. iii. 8.

And if that which might be known of God by the creatures, leave men without excufe, as it is manifeft, Rom. i. 20. how inexcufable then will thofe be, who have received not only the teachings of the creature, but alío the grace of the gospel in vain! "How

hall we escape if we neglect fo great falvation ?" They that are careless in the day of grace, fhall be fpeechlefs in the day of judg

ment.

I am fenfible of many defects in thefe papers, (as well as in myself.) They have doubtlefs, a tafte of the diftractions of the times wherein they were written; nor was I willing to keep them fo long under hand as the accurateness and exactnefs with which such a subject ought to have been handled, did require. Had I defigned my own credit, I should have obferved that counfel, Nenumque prematur in annum, i. e. To have kept it much longer under the file, before I had expofed it to public view; but I rather inclined to Solomon's counsel, "Whatever thy hand "finds out to do, do it with all thy might; for there is no wisdom, "nor knowledge, nor device in the grave, whither thou art going," Eccl. ix. 10.

I apprehend a neceffity of fome fuch means to be used for the instruction and conviction of country people; who either are not capable of understanding truth in another dialect, or at least are less affected with it. The propofition in every chapter consists of an observation in husbandry; wherein, if I have failed in ufing any improper expreffion, your candour will cover it, and impute it to my unacquaintedness in rural affairs:

-In magnis voluiffe fat eft.

The reddition or application, you will find, I hope, both pertinent and clofe. The reflections ferious, and fuch as (I hope) your confciences will faithfully improve. I have fhut up every chapter with a Poem, an innocent bait to catch the reader's foul.

That of Herbert is experimentally true:

A verfe may find him that a fermon fiies,
And turn delight into a facrifice.

I should never have been perfuaded (especially in this fcribling age, wherein we may complain with the poet,

Scribimus indocti, doctique poemata paffim)

to have fet my dull fancy upon the rack to extort a poem to entertain my reader'; for I cannot fay with Ovid, Sponte fua carmen, &c. but that I have been informed, that many feamen, induced by the pleasure of a verfe, have taken much pains to learn the poems in their compass by heart; and I hope both the children at home, and the fervants in the fields, will learn to exercise themselves this way also. O, how much better will it be fo to do, than to ftuff their memories with obfcene ballads, and filthy fongs, which corrupt their minds, and difpofe them to much wickednefs, by irritating their natural corruption! But these are purer flames, you will find nothing here of fuch a tendency.

'Tis guilt, not poetry, to be like those,

Whose wit in verfe is downright fin in profe.
Whofe ftudies are profanenefs, as if then
They only were good poets, when bad men.
D. DIGS,

I fhall add no more, but to beg that God who instructeth the husbandman in his civil calling, to teach him wifdom fpiritually to improve it, particularly, that you may reap a crop of much spiritual, benefit, from that feed which is here fown by the hand of the Lord's unprofitable fervant, and in him,

Your very affectionate

Friend and Servant,

JOHN FLAVEL.

To the CHRISTIAN READER.

HERE are three things wherein (as it hath been faid long be

TH fore my day) the exercife of godlinefs doth chiefly confift:

Prayer, temptation, meditation: Meditation is the fubject 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 likewife twofold. First, In things civil, the Lord ordering and over-ruling all the affairs and motions of fingle perfons, families, and nations, in a fubferviency to his own moft holy ends, defigns, and purposes. Secondly, In things natural, the Lord inftructing the hufbandman to difcretion, and teaching him how to drefs and till the earth, that it may give feed to the fower, and bread to the eater; as alfo how to breed up and manage the beasts of the field, both greater and leffer 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 fouls very high;

and while we wifely confider these natural things, we may grow more and more wife, in and for fpirituals and eternals.

The worthy and ingenious Author of the enfuing difcourfe hath fupplied us with an excellent help, for the fpiritualizing 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 infufficient) 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 miniftry of man, is not only not to be refufed, but thankfully received and improved; and all little enough to bring our minds to, or keep them at this work: The best of faints, on this fide 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, preffeth them down when they would make an essay to mount upward in meditation. We find it no eafy 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 fo is the hufbandman) 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 converfing with God through Jefus Chrift in fpiritual duties; but to be spiritually minded, and to mind fpiritual things, when we are converfing with the clods of the earth, and the furrows of the field; when we have to do with corn and grafs, 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 fpiritually-minded, and thence to have our thoughts afcending, and foaring 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 raifing of ourfelves 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 ufually hinder us in our way, fometimes turn us quite out of our way to heaven. Many plow and fow, dig and delve the earth, till their hearts become as earthly as the earth itself: Many deal about the beafts of the field, till themselves become even brutish. Is it not then a blessed design which this Author aims and drives at, fo to fpiritualize all forts, or the whole compass of earthly bufbandry, that all forts of hufbandmen may become fpiritual and heavenly? It seems to be a token of good, that God hath an intendment of fome special good to the fouls of fuch as are by profeffion proper husbandmen, feeing he hath lately put it into the hearts of two faithful minifters (who with all of that profeffron, are husbandmen in a figure) to undertake, though in a different

Mr Richard Steel, and this Author.

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