Husbandry spiritualized, or, The heavenly use of earthly things consisting of many pleasant observations, pertinent applications, and serious reflections and each chapter concluded with a divine and suitable poem : directing husband-men to the most excellent improvements of their common imployments : whereunto is added ... several choice occasional meditations / by John Flavell.

APPLICATION.

SUch sights as these should make men thankful for the mercy of their Creation, and bless their bountiful Crea∣tor, that they were not made such creatures themselves. Some beasts are made ad esum, only for food, being no other∣wise useful to man, as swine,&c. these are only fed for slaugh∣ter we kill and eat them, and regard not their cryes and struglings when the knife is thrust to their very hearts; others are only ad usum, for service, whilst living, but unprofitable when dead; as Horses, these we make to drudge and toyl for us from day to day, but kill them not; others are both ad esum, & usum, for food when dead, and service whilst alive, as the Ox. These we make to plow our fields, draw our car∣riages, and afterwards prepare them for slaughter.

But man was made for nobler ends, created Lord of the lower world; not to serve, but to be served by other crea∣tures; a mercy able to melt the hardest heart into thankful∣ness. I remember, Luther pressing men to be thankful, that they are not brought into the lowest condition of creatures,* 1.1 and to bless God that they can see any creature below them∣selves, gives us a famous instance in the following story: Two Cardinals (saith he) riding in a great deal of pomp to the Council of Constance, by the way they heard a man in the fields; weeping and wailing bitterly, they rode to him, and asked what he ailed? perceiving his eye intently fixed upon an ugly toad, he told them that his heart was melted with the consideration of this mercy, that God had not made him such

a deformed and loathsom creature, though he were formed out of the same clay with it: Hoc est quod amare fleo, said he, This is that, that makes me weep bitterly. Whereupon one of the Cardinals cryes out, Well said the Father, the un∣learned 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 every heart when we behold the misery to which these poor creatures are subject∣ed, And this will appear a mercy of no slight consideration, if we but draw a comparison betwixt our selves, and these irrational creatures, in these three particulars.

Though they and we were made of the same mould and [ 1] clay, yet how much better hath God dealt with us, even as to the outward man? the structure of our bodies is much more excellent. God made other creatures by a word of command, but man by counsel; it was not be Thou, but let us make man. We might have been nude stones without fence, or beasts without reason, but we were made men. The noble structure and symetry of our bodies invites our souls, not only to thankfulness, but admiration. David speaking of the curious frame of the body, saith, I am wonderfully made, Psal. 139. 14. or as the vulgar reads it, painted as with a needle; like some rich piece of needle-work curiously em∣broydered with nerves and veins. Was any part of the com∣mon lump of clay thus fashioned? Galen gave Epicu••us an hundred years time to imagine a more commodious situation, configuration, or composition of any one part of a humane body; and (as one saith) of all the Angels in heaven had studied to this day, they could not have cast the body of man into a more curious mould.

How little ease or rest have they? they live not many [ 2] years, and those they do is in bondage and misery, groaning under the effects of sin; but God hath provided better for us, even as to our outward condition in the world; we have the more rest, because they have so little. How many re∣fre••hments and comforts hath God provided for us, of which they are uncapable? if we be weary with labour, we can take

our rest; but fresh or weary, they must stand to it, or sink under it from day to day.

[ 3] What a narrow capacity hath God given to beasts! what a large capacity to man! Alas! they are only capable of a lit∣tle sensitive pleasure; as you shall see sometimes, how they will frisk in a green pasture, 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 image of God; we can look beyond present things, and are capable of the highest happiness, and that to all eternity; the soul of a beast is but a material form, which wholly depending upon, must needs dye with the body; but our souls are a divine spark or blast; and when the body dyes, it dyes not with it, but subsists even in its separated state.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Luth••r in 3. pre••••pt.