THE Husbandmans COMPANION : CONTAINING One Hundred Occasional Medirations Reflections and Ejaculations , Especially Suited to Men of that Employment .

Directing them how they may be Heavenly-minded while about their Ordinary Calling .

By Edward Bury Late Minister of Great Bolas in Shropshire .

LONDON , Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and 3 Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel , and at the Bible on London-bridge , 1677.

Licensed , and Entred according to Order .

I Foresee there may two or three questions arise upon this my undertaking , in which you may desire satisfaction ; the first may be , why I write at all ? the second , why I write on this subject ? and the last , why I prefix your Names to what I write ? To these I shall answer in order : For the first , though I hope Gods glory and the publique good , be chiefly intended , yet my own satisfaction is also included ; for I being set apart in my Education for the work of the Ministry , and dedicated thereunto in my Ordination ; and though I have but one talent , I would not have it wrapt in a napkin , when an account is required how I have employed it , lest I be found speechless , Aulaedus sit , qui Citharaedus esse non potest , a man may be useful that is not excellent , and therefore I thought it my duty what howrs I could spare from my secular employments , should be improved , and employed for the good of souls : as for your second demand , why I write upon this subject , seeing so many have gone before me , and what I do is but Alcinoo pomo dare , or in our English dialect , to light a candle when the sun shines , or bring coals to Newcastle ? to this I answer , if this lesson be so well taught , it is a shame it is no better learnt : I fear there is not one of ten amongst Christians , but are guilty of the neglect of this profitable duty , which I suppose would bring the soul more real benefit , then many litigious controversies about the modes and circumstances of worship , about which many argue themselves not only out of Charity , but out of their Christianity , and lose the substance , while they strive about the shadow , and fill their heads with notions , rather then their hearts with graces : I conceive it is real communion with Christ , and the life of faith , that makes the soul fat and flourishing , and I think that meditation doth conduce as much to this as any duty whatsoever : prayer I know brings in supplys from heaven , and so doth this ; and these two usually are concomitant , and where the one is neglected , the other is seldome well performed : Meditation like the Bee fetches honey both from flowers and weeds , yea , this divine Alchymist extracts gold out of the coursest Mettles , and is the true Philosophers stone that turns all into gold , and gold it self into a spiritual substance ; those books which reduce religion into practice ( which in our days lyes much in the theorick ) and serve to reconcile the head and the heart , and maintain the vitals of religion , and the power of godliness , and further our great designe for heaven , should be well studied , and of them I think store is no sore : By this heavenly art of divine meditation , wisdome may be extracted out of folly , as Solomon gained instruction by beholding the field of the sluggard , Pro. 24.30 . &c. and doubtless man was not plac't in the world as Leviathan in the Sea , to play therein ; nor indowed with so many excellent faculties to be like bruit beasts , only idle spectatours of the works of God ; The use of reason doubtless was given for an higher end , to help us to view the Creator in the glass of the creature , and every thing lends a helping hand to a willing minde in this work ; There is no man so busy if not sinfully employed , but may finde some time every day to converse with God , and now and then make a journey to heaven , and view those Caelestial mansions prepared for those that love God ; There is none so dull-witted , if honest hearted , but may learn some profitable lessons in natures school ; the least worm or gnat , or leaf of a tree , will point out God , to an observant Christian : That Meditation is a Christian duty ; none that pretend to religion or to reason it self , will deny , and that to meditate upon Gods works as well as his word , is our duty , is evident ; God sometimes sends us to the oxe , and ass , to learn our duty , Jsay . 1.3 . sometimes to fowls of heaven , the stork , the crane , and the swallow , Jer. 8.7 . sometimes to the pismire or ant , those despicable insects , Pro. 6.6 . and 30.25 . and all to learn our duty ; David learned humility by beholding the moon and the stars , Psal. 8.3 , 4. and Christ grounds many of his excellent sermons upon the various occurrences that dayly fell out , as we see in the parable of the sower and the seed , the tares of the field , and the draw-net cast into the Sea , the leaven , the mustard seed , the fruitless figtree , and many others : what heavenly use doth he make of earthly things , and all this is for our imitation , that by this means we may of these earthly materials frame to our selves a Jacobs ladder to ascend to heaven ; for all those visibles will mount us up to beholde invisibles , and give us a Pisgah sight of the heavenly Canaan , even of those things within the vail : And that soul that hath this heavenly art , can set it self on work , and need not be idle or ill imployed , for time will fail us , and death surprize us , before we can have searched natures garden from end to end , or gathered hony from the several flowers : here we may walk at liberty , and crop what flowers we please , and no man is damnified thereby ; in other respects our bounds are set , hitherto may we go and no further , but in this we have an unlimitted circuit : meum & tuum , which hath set the world in a flame , hinders not in this case , the poor here hath as much liberty as the rich , and the servant as his master , for with the Bee we may suck sweetness from our neighbours fields and flowers , without his leave or licence , and feed upon his pasture without any dammage to him ; 'T is true in these my meditations I have contented my self with a small plot , and but seldome past the bounds of a garden or orchard , but had the publishing of it been designed at the first , I should not have tied up my self in so short a lether , when the whole creation lay before me ; The book of the creature stands open to us , and God may be read in every line of it , otherwise why doth God discover to us the state of the fallen angels , and of the rich glutton , and the state of the damned , if no profitable use could be made of it : no place is so barren as a barren heart , each dead tree will yield some fruit to us , if the soul be not dead : I have pluckt here and there a flower , as others have done before me , and he that comes after us may finde as good as any we have gotten : Those I have gathered are rather to comfort the heart , then to please the fancy , rather to benefit the soul with their vertue , then to please the eye with their beauty ; their nature ( if I mistake them not ) is to draw the heart and affections to God , and cool and deadden it to the world and sin ; But a gracious heart is then required to make the extraction , for if it be mixt with the dregs of hypocrisy it will prove useless : The hypocrite like a puppet in a play , may counterfeit mans shape and gestures , yea , like a parrat his voice , when he understands not what he saith or doth , yea , such a one mars all he sets his hands to ; but a good man hath an holy heart , as well as a holy tongue , and this will prove a soul-satting Ordinance to such a man ; this will raise up the heart to hoaven , which is one of our surest evidences for heaven ; If any yet pleade , there are too many books on this subject extant already , the more shame for us then that the duty is so much neglected , that is not sufficiently taught , that is not sufficiently learnt , and I fear those that are readiest to make the objection , are not the most conscientious in the performance of the duty : There are many that make conscience of morning and evening prayers in their families , that spend little time in this duty ; if any quarrel at the language these meditations speak , let them know , my designe is , to make men live better , and not to make them speak better ; if they speak the language of Canaan they will be understood by true Israelites , and will be owned by those that had rather be fed then flattered ; it is a distempered stomack that must be fed with kickshaws , truth looks best in the plainest dress , and a diamond needs no painting , via trita est via tuta , and plain sence is the best orthography of an honest heart . In short , the reason why I write upon this subject is , not to please mens humours , or satisfy squeasy stomacks , but because I judge this to be a necessary , though much neglected duty , and therefore most necessary to be treated of .

As for the last of your demands , why I praefix your names to it , I think there are none that knows both you and me , and my engagements to you , that need stumble at it ; but I shall answer it , first negatively , and then affirmatively , I do it not , because I think you have more need of it then others , for I know but few better able then you to gather such flowers as these for your selves ; But it is , because I think you are better able to judge of it then most are , and if you think I have not mist my way , I care not much what those say , that never travailed in this road : I speak to those that understand the language , for to others , haply I may seem a barbarian : A hypocrite may pretend to the language , but understands it not , he spoils this as well as all his other duties ; I present this first to you , for if it pass this text , I matter not much what many others say of it ; And also that thereby I may tell the world , rather then you , what my thoughts are of you , and to point them out a pattern for their imitation ; for I verily believe , and I think upon serious observation , that the several branches of both your families , do maintain the vitals of religion , and the power of godliness in as eminent a manner , as any family of your rank that I know in the Nation , and keep themselves as unspotted in the world , and as free from the contagious diseases of the times : And he that is the searcher of all hearts , knows , I speak my thoughts without flattery or fauning , and I do it for no sinister end : but ( as Solomon did commend the good huswife , Pro. 31.29 . that God may be glorifyed for his bounty to you , and your hands may be strengthned in well doing , and others may take example by you , and your lives may be for their imitation . I cannot praise my present any further , then from the truth of the heart that sends it ; had it been better , it had been sent with a better will : I send it as a poor man doth a present to his superiour , not to supply his wants , but to manifest his love , thankfulness and dependence upon him ; or as a debtor to his creditor , who when he cannot pay the debt , pays the interest , or at least testifyes his willingness , if ability be wanting : What I have done in this my undertaking , I judged to be my duty ; David bids us , commune with our own hearts , Psal. 4.4 . and he calls upon others , Psal. 66.16 . come and hear all ye that fear the Lord , and I will declare what he hath done for my soul : I have not the confidence to think , that this or any thing I can do can pass the test of this critical age , or indeed can contribute much to the adorning of the spouse of Christ , I know a handfull of goats-hair was not formerly rejected , neither will a cup of cold water where there is no better , nor two mites where there is no more , by him from whom I expect my reward : When you can write fairer then the Copy which will quickly be , you may lay it aside , and give it to some one that cannot , for whose sake it was chiefly written : but that it may prove beneficial both to you , and yours , and to the Church of God , for the advancing of the the power of godliness , and the life of religion , and the restoring this too much neglected duty of holy meditation , shall be , and is , the desire and prayer of him , who is

I Have here presented thee with a bundle of Meditations , most of them occasional ; I am not so conceited as to imagine there is any great excellency in them , nor so foolish to trouble my self to write or others to reade them , did I judge them altogether useless ; the duty I know is necessary and beneficiall , and many Christians can write a probatum est upon it , and say it hath been so to them , however it is too much neglected by the most ; I have not long since published some directions how to perform the several parts of Gods worship ; amongst the rest this of meditation was one ; and that which is set or solemn was chiefly insisted upon , but that which is occasional more briefly touch't , which indeed cannot well be bounded , but is varied according as the time , place , object , and other circumstances vary , and as the will or capacity of the person requireth , and therefore may be better taught by example then rule : This minded me of some occasional Meditations that had formerly warmed my heart , and not knowing but they might warm others also , and might be a means to restore this beneficiall though too much neglected duty , and therefore gathering together , and reveiwing my scattered papers , and making some additions , substractions , and alterations , I reduced them to the method here presented : that it is every Christians duty I think none will deny , and that it hath been the practice of believers is easy to prove : this was Isaac's practice , Gen. 24.63 . and it was Davids work , as the whole book of Psalmes testify , see Psal. 63.6 . and 77.12 . and 119.15 . and 143.5 . and many other places , wherein we see he meditated both on Gods word , and on his works , both by night and by day , and makes it the character of a childe of God or a blessed man so to do , Psal. 1.2 . and a mark of one ripe for destruction not to regard the works of the Lord , nor the operation of his hands , Psal. 28.5 . What I have here written is chiefly for thy imitation , and my desire is that thou maist take out this lesson , prove an artist , and set up for thy self , and follow this gainfull trade that hath formerly brought so much glory to God , and so much profit to poor souls : The method herein propounded is easy , and the duty to an honest heart not hard , yet remember it is the practick part that is like to do thee most good ; here maist thou learn to spend thy time , and pass away thy solitary hours better then most men do , for whether thou be at home , or abroad , in publick or in private ; this duty may be in some measure performed , yea , by every man , in every place , in every company , and in every employment , though all places are not alike , a gracious heart can steal a thought into heaven , and by a Meditation , and private ejaculation hold converse wtth God , at any time , neither slave nor servant , though in a Turky-gally can be deprived of this liberty ; The want of this heavenly art , or the not using of it is the cause of the mispence of so much precious time , and that there are so many barren empty hearts as we dayly finde ; for as the Bee gathers honey both from flowers and weeds , so doth a diligent man from every thing he sees , hears of , or observes ; time is such a precious jewel , that it should not be squandred away , and I know not well how it may be better improved then by Meditation , for this spiritualizeth all we set or hear of ; it makes a man never idle , nor ill employed , and drives on a rich trade for the soul , and either leads the soul to heaven , or brings heaven to it ; I know meditation may be abused , some meditate how they may be rich , either by hook or by crook , the ambitious man how he may be honourable , the voluptuous man how he may enjoy his pleasure , but a Christian how he may enjoy his God , and secure his soul ; some study mischief upon their beds , some with the spiders gather poyson , where the Christian like the bee gathers honey , and the very business a Christian is about will furnish him with matter sufficient for his work ; if the heart be not barren every thing will be fruitful , and there is none so dull if not spiritually dead , but may gather something from visibles to minde him of invisibles ; No ship that sails either to the East or West Indies , brings home richer lading then meditation doth , if rightly steered ; This is the chewing of the cud , that turns all to nourishment , the true Philosophers stone that turns all to gold ; by this means the spirits and quintescence of all earthly things are extracted ; 't is true of a Christian endowed with his heavenly art , what the Poets feign of Midas , every thing they touch turns to gold , and gold it self into a better substance ; the hardest flint , the barrenest tree , the most withering branch , or fading leaf , will yield good fruit to this artist , yea , better fruit then the gardens of the Hesperides , which are feigned to bear golden apples , and every sheep will bear a golden fleece , better then ever Jason fetcht from Colchis ; By meditation a Christian is carried into the third heaven , with Paul , whether in the body , or out of the body be scarcely knows , and there is enabled to see things inutterable , this makes invisible things visible , and gives a man a Pisgah-sight of the heavenly Canaan : This heavenly artist can with Daedalus make himself wings to fly aloft , and can break prison at his pleasure , neither need he fear the melting of the wax : This keeps the heart in order , and prevents its strayings , it keeps vain thoughts from rising , or at best from roosting : There mans heart is like a mill , if it want grist , it sets it self on fire , and if there be no corn to grinde for God , the devil will throw his tares into the hopper : The heart it always well or ill-employed , and will never be idle ; holy meditation puts a man out of satans road , when otherwise he is in continuall danger of falling into his snares , or by being surprized by his wiles , when the idle person is commonly snared and taken ; by this grace is strengthened , and corruption weakned , our evidences cleared , communion with God maintained , and acquaintance with our own hearts gained ; it is the way to store the understanding with knowledge , to subject the will to Gods will , to warm the ●ffections , and to put life and heat into all our duties ; this discovers to us the sinfulness of sin , and vanity of the creatures , and the fulness of Christ ; this reacheth out to us some of Canaans grapes , some Pisgah-sights of glory , even of those things within the veil , and a taste of those pleasures which are at the right hand of God ; such a taste as this , made Moses despise the pleasures of Pharaohs court , and Galeacius esteem all the wealth in the world not worth one days communion with God ; this lets us see , there is a worm of vanity bred in our cheifest earthly enjoyments , and eats out the very heart of them , and if they are abused , they will breed and feed the worm that never dies , and kindle that fire that never shall go out ; These and a thousand such lessons meditation will teach us , and fastens every lesson upon the heart ; who then would not follow so gainfal a trade , and practice so fruitful a calling ? Did it enrich the body as it doth the soul , we should have many proficients in this School ; some pretenders there are to this duty , but they rather pretend then intend it , they throw down the hammer before they have driven the nail to the head , and lay down the premises , but stay not to raise the conclusion ; they follow not the work till they come to resolution and practice ; they are like a man that strikes fire , gathers wood , but leaves off before it be kindled , and so all his labour is lost ; This duty enables a man with Paul to die dayly , and with Stephen to see God , with Moses to talk with God , and with Enoch to walk with God ; It fits a Minister to preach , and the people to hear , neither of which can be well done without it ; that sermon that is not well set on by meditations , seldom heats the preachers heart , and then the people seldom feel it , for a dull and drowsy preacher , makes a dull and sleepy people ; when the minister preaches his own life and experiences , this is the life of preaching ; This meditation is a serious bending of the minde upon some useful subject till we bring it to some profitable issue ; Occasionall meditation ( which is it we now treat of ) ariseth from some occasionall object presented to our sences or understanding , by divine providence , of which though examples may be given , yet hardly can it be restrained , or brought under rules , for it may be varied according to the variety of the objects presented , or other accidents , occurrences , or circumstances that offer themselvs , or the will of the person , or his ability ; the objects that offer themselves are various and innumerable , for there is nothing in rerum natura , but may be a fit object for occasional meditations ; God hath given us a large field to walk in , and choise of flowers , pluck what we will , to put into our nose-gay ; we may gather honey from flowers and weeds , out of our own or neighbours fields without offence ; which way soever we look , within us , or without us , above us , or below us , before us , or behinde us , or on either side , we may see suitable matter for our meditation ; above us we may see the sun , moon and stars , those glorious lamps of heaven , who offer themselves not only to our view , but also to our contemplation , their light , their heat , their influence , their various though unerring motions , their magnitude , altitude , number , nature , splendor , vertue and effects may breed admiration in us , as well as in David , Psal. 8.3 , 4. and 19.1 . or should we descend to sublunary things , to the fiery or ayery regions , and observe the several meteors in both , that present themselves to our view , we may finde matter not only for meditation , but also for admiration ; if we consider a while the winde , the snow , the rain , the frost , the ice , &c. all brought out of Gods treasury , Psal. 135.7 . the thunder , and lightning with their strange effects , the strange apparitions often seen in the air , comets , blazing-stars , dragons , fire-drakes , &c. armies fighting in the air , Lyons , bears , horses , and many other things there resembled , raining bloud , wheat , frogs , stones , &c. all this may raise our admiration ; veiw but the rain bow in its shape and various colours ; it deserves our consideration ; The powerful influence of these superiour bodies , in exhaling , and retaining those hugh weighty and towring clouds , those bottles of heaven in the open air , and watering the earth with them at their makers pleasure , without which neither man nor beast could subsist ; who can view those things without consideration ? or if we look upon the earth out of which we were taken , we may finde matter enough to exercise our thoughts ; observe this huge and massy globe hanging in the air upon nothing ; consider it as it is distinguished into hills and dales , and woods and forrests , adorned with sumptuous buildings , Towns and Castles , abounding with trees of all sorts , with corn and grass , with herbs and flowers , watered with rain and showers , rivers , springs , and fountains , inhabited with a thousand times ten thousand living creatures of all sorts , men and beasts , fowls , and creeping things , all maintained at the great housholders charge , who preserves them in their several kindes ; consider also the perenity of rivers , the cause , and perpetuity of springs of all sorts , some hot , some cold , some sweet , some bitter , some salt , some fresh , some medicinal , some not , this observation may take up some time : or should we consider the several minerals lodged in the concaves of the earth , as of gold , silver , brass , tin , iron , lead , allom , brimstone , coals , lime , stone , and much more , and how useful and necessary these are to human life ; This may teach us many profitable lessons : Or should we go to sea to see the wonders of the deep , and observe how the huge and roaring element is restrained and bounded by an almighty arm , that saith , hitherto shalt thou go and no further ; or if we consider the ebbing and flowing of it , a wonder in nature , or the numberless number of living creatures therein , which are fed and cherished by those salt and brackish waters , yet retain their sweetness , or if we consider the cause why those waters alone are salt , and so remain , though a thousand fresh rivers dayly run into it , together with their strange creatures therein produced : these considerations will take up much time , but of all the creatures God hath made , none yield more matter for meditation , then angels and men ; Angels , both the good and the bad , their nature , essence , and offices , and man considered in his body and soul , the order , use , comliness and proportion of the several parts , the vegetative , sensitive , and rational faculties of the soul , the understanding , will and affections , the memory , conscience , and many more , the several sences whereby the soul comes to understand things here below , these things deserve consideration ; but to let pass the works of creation , and consider a while Gods works of providence , these will take up much of our time ; we may see and observe the course of nature , the generation and production of the several species , with their preservation , protection , and the provision made for them , by their Creator ; he maintains the several species by his providence , that for ought we know there is not one kinde of them extinct since the creation ; nay , the power of man was never able to destroy those kindes that are noxious to man , and therefore hated by him ; yet are these maintained by divine providence at his own cost and charges ; But his providence is more clearly seen and discovered in his providence to man , especially to his own Church , in maintaining a handfull of men against their numerous enemies ; these are preserved as lambs amongst wolves , and is the bush that is ever burning , yet never consumed : he spred a table for them in the wilderness , in dispight of their enemies ; the wonderful providence of God for his Church in all ages , in Scripture-times , and down to this day , may fir us with much matter for meditation : The word of God also as well as his works may yield much matter for contemplation ; it furnished David for meditation day and night , every Book , every Chapter , yea every verse is fruitful abundantly , that had we the years of Methusalem , the time would be too little to run through the Scripture , and to consider of all that is held forth therein ; here are precepts and promises , threats and examples , for our good , here is the great work of our redemption treated of , which the angels desire to pry into , and eternity is little enough to admire : herein we may behold the subtilty of Satan in tempting man , mans frailty in yielding to the temptation , the nature of sin in throwing man out of paradice , and angels out of heaven ; the wisdome of God in finding out a remedy to save some , the love of Christ in dying for them , &c. Nay by meditation we have liberty to ascend heaven also , and veiw those caelestial mansions prepared for those that love and fear God ; but I shall add no more , lest I make the gate too big for the structure , only this is my desire , and shall be my prayer , that it may tend to Gods glory , and his Churches good , and so I rest ,