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<DATE>2012-05-22</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B120410.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<BIBNO T="oclc">45578504</BIBNO>
<VID>172418</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>The Charitable Farmer of <HI>Somer&s;et&s;hire: OR, GOD'S Great and VVonderful VVork&punc;</HI></P>
<P>Being a True Relation of an Hone&s;t, Godly Man, that lived at <HI>Welling,</HI> within three Miles of the City of <HI>Wells,</HI> which &s;old his Wheat to poor people at Six Shillings a Bu&s;hel, when the Market price was Ten and Eleven Shillings, for which he was much deri|ded and &s;coft at, by his Rich Neighbours: but was recompenced by an extraordinary Crap of Wheat, the like never before heard of, each Stolk of Straw, having divers full large Ears, &s;ome Seven, &s;ome Eight, Nine, and Ten, &s;o to Thirteen, but generally Ten Ears on every Straw throughout the Field, which was Ten Acres and upwards, of which, divers Ears are to be &s;een at divers Coffee-hou&s;es in the City of <HI>London.</HI></P>
<P>Likewi&s;e a pattern for all Covetous Greedy-minded men, to be Cha|ritable unto their poor Neighbours, from the con&s;ideration of &s;o Remarkable an Example.</P>
<P>By <HI>Law. White.</HI></P>
<Q><P>He findeth Seed to the Sower, and Bread for food, and will multiply your Seed, and increa&s;eth fruits of your Benevolence.</P>
<BIBL>2 Cor. 9.10.</BIBL></Q>
<Q><P>He that with-holdeth Corn, the people &s;hall cur&s;e, but ble&s;&s;ing &s;hall be upon the head of him that &s;elleth it,</P>
<BIBL>Prov 11.26.</BIBL></Q>
<P><FIGURE>
<FIGDESC>four corn plants, an illustration of the foregoing quotations</FIGDESC>
</FIGURE></P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<P>GOOD People, I would de&s;ire you to draw neer, and &s;pare &s;o much time as the Reading of this little Book will take reading over, to ye. For 'tis &s;uch a Subject that the Olde&s;t Man or Woman living, never heard the like, nor Chronicles do not make mention of &s;uch another Wonder.</P>
<P>I think 'tis very well known to any &s;ober Chri&s;tian, that the wickedne&s;s of the times has draw'd Gods judgements on us &s;uf|ficiently of late days, that is, I mean within the&s;e ten years, when fir&s;t the &s;ickne&s;s the Lord poured on us, which made thou&s;ands of rich people fall from all their pride and bravery into a &s;hrowd and Coffin, and their carca&s;&s;es that in their life time was &s;o pom|par'd up with the be&s;t that this &s;inful world could afford, yet at la&s;t in a &s;hort time became a pray for worms, but no &s;ooner the Lord had cau&s;ed the de&s;troying Angle to cea&s;e, but we like di&s;|obedient children as &s;oon as the rod of correction was over, returned to our old &s;inful ways, which rais'd the Lords indig|nation again&s;t us, and even for&s;t the Lord to kindle a fire among&s;t us, as we found to the ruine of many thou&s;ands of them, whom he pre&s;erved alive in the &s;ickne&s;s time, methinks the thoughts of tho&s;e high &amp; dreadful flames &s;hould never be out of your minds, methinks I hear &s;till the great craking of the timber, and the noi&s;e of people, &s;ome crying, I am undone, others praying it might not come to their hou&s;e, others crying a hundred pound for a cart to carry but one load of goods away, the &s;hrieks and crys of women in child-bed in the fields, poor infants crying with hunger to their Parents.</P>
<P>But alas what do I talk of the&s;e, I &s;hall be but laught at by &s;ome for rehear&s;ing of this judgment, for I believe 'tis no more thought on by &s;ome as if it had never been, and I fear by too many of them that &s;uffered by this calamity.</P>
<PB N="2" REF="2">
<P> But now behold the mercy of the Lord what a great ble&s;&s;ing he be&s;towed on the builders of this City to rai&s;e &s;o many great and &s;tately fabricks out of a heap of rubbi&s;h to the wonderment of the whole world, for which his holy name be prai&s;ed for ever, e|ver, Amen.</P>
<P>But neither mercies nor Judgements of God will work upon &s;ome peoples con&s;ciences, 'tis but the other day &s;ince the Warrs killed &s;o many of our brave Sea-men, both Knights, Squires, and Gentlemen, and many others, who&s;e lives were as &s;weet to them as the re&s;t.</P>
<P>Which hath left a many poor Widdows and fatherle&s;s Chil|dren behind, that now &s;tands in great need of their Husbands, and Children their fathers, that is fain to pinch and go with many hungry belly over they did before the wars came.</P>
<P>But now for me to come to my intended matter, which is a thing &s;o &s;trange that will cau&s;e a wonderment from all tho&s;e that knows what belongs to the &s;ubject which I am ready to declare, if you will have the patience to &s;tay but a &s;hort time till I rehear&s;e it over, I hope you will not think much of your time, nor your pen|ny neither if you buy the book, I believe 'tis very well known to all by &s;ad experience I fear too many of the poorer &s;ort that mo&s;t kinds of provi&s;ion have of late been deer, and more particularly bred, which is the &s;taff of life. Wheat being &s;old in &s;everal pla|ces of England, for ten and eleven &s;hillings a bu&s;hel or &s;trike, in which &s;carcity many poor people &s;uffered through the wretched covetou&s;ne&s;s of &s;ome rich Farmers, who kept up their Corn on purpo&s;e to make a Dearth, and would not bring it to market till they had got it to &s;uch a rate that the poor could not reach, as if it had been their Delight to &s;tarve the poor, it ri&s;ing from ten to eleven, and &s;o to twelve and upwards, all the la&s;t &s;pring in many places in this Kingdom, which cau&s;ed many ri&s;ings by the poorer &s;ort of people in &s;everal Markets to cut the Bagars &s;acks in pieces that is, tho&s;e men that buys Corn in cheap Markets, and carries it
<PB N="3" REF="3">to other places, &amp; there makes their prizes on it and &s;o hoy&s;ts up the market in both places, where they buy it and &s;ell it: I &s;ee one Wedne&s;day in VVoolverhampton market this &s;pring above an hundred of men, old and young in arms, and cut tho&s;e Bagers &s;acks, and took their corn, and filled their pockets with it, and &s;aid their wives and children was ready to &s;tarve. And at O&s;ter in VVo&s;ter&s;hire was another ri&s;ing by the poor again&s;t the rich Far|mers for hoarding up their Corn, and at Wa&s;tle was the &s;ame, at Sturbridge, and Brom&s;grove, and many other Markets in and a|bout <HI>England,</HI> which are too many to &s;et down here. For &s;hall I tell you, the poor &s;uffered &s;o much Hunger, that they were fain to make Bread for their poor Children with Pea&s;e and Beans, and were expo&s;ed to much want and hard&s;hip, &amp; yet poor &s;ouls after it was bakt it went down with poor little Babes as &s;weet as Honey, when they were fain to take a Hatchet and Chop it to pieces: and truely they might have eaten Stones, if it had been po&s;sible, before they could have found any love or charity from the&s;e greedy covetous men, that &s;old their Corn at &s;uch a deer rate, as one above all the re&s;t, that brought his Corn to &s;ell in <HI>VVolverhampton</HI> Market, in the County of <HI>Stafford,</HI> having &s;old his Wheat three or four Market-days together for Nine or Ten Shillings a Strike: when the fifth day he had brought a great|quantity of Corn to &s;ell, expecting it would have ri&s;en &s;till, but it did not fall out according to his de&s;ire, but fell &s;ix pence in a &s;trike, to the great content of the poor, which did &s;o heart-burn this Greedy, covetous Mi&s;er, that he would not &s;ell one peck of his Corn that day, but cau&s;ed it all to be &s;et up, &amp; &s;aid, <HI>Let who&s;e will &s;ell, for he would not, for if he kept it but two or three years longer, he hopt to &s;ell it as dear as Mercers do their Pepper, which is after the Rate of &s;ixteen-pence the pound:</HI> This was told me by one that heard the words &s;poke. And truely I fear their be too many &s;uch greedy covetous hounds as he, that had rather &s;ee the poor &s;tarve, then relieve them with one Quart of Corn, or thinnk
<PB N="4" REF="3">it better to keep a pack of dogs then maintain a fatherle&s;s child or two, but though there be &s;o many &s;uch ba&s;e men as they, yet God hath planted his grace in &s;ome mens hearts, and awaken their con&s;ciences in the&s;e Deer and bad times that poor People now goes through, as one I &s;hall in&s;tance unto you, which is this.</P>
<P>An hone&s;t godly Farmer living at a &s;mall Village called Wel|ling, within three miles of the City of VVells, in the county of Somer&s;et, who&s;e name I am oblieged to conceal, having no leave from him to publi&s;h it, he taking into con&s;ideration the deplora|ble condition of many poor familles round about him, that was almo&s;t ready to &s;tarve, he re&s;olved to afford them all the pitty &amp; charity he could to relieve their want and mi&s;ery, and al&s;o to contribute what he could &s;pare to their relief; And to that pur|po&s;e having a con&s;iderable &s;tore of wheat by him, he freely &s;old it to all &s;uch as he knew to be poor people after the rate of &s;ix &s;hillings a bu&s;hel, although it were generally &s;eld by all others in the Markets thereabouts at ten and eleven &s;hillings at lea&s;t, and thus he continued &s;elling mo&s;t part of the winter in the year of our Lord, 1673; And the Spring following in the year, 1674. As long as he had any wheat left that he could &s;pare from his own nece&s;&s;ary u&s;e, and by this Chri&s;tian compa&s;&s;ionate Dealing 'tis verily believed he was under God a means to pre&s;erve above an hundred families.</P>
<P>This good <HI>Samaritan,</HI> though he had a competent e&s;tate to live contented and comfortable with, yet he was no great Rich man, which occa&s;ioned &s;everal of his rich Neighbours to look upon them&s;elves far beyond him in point of e&s;tate, and thus forth they began to envy and deride him, as acting very fooli&s;hly, in not making the mo&s;t of his own, as they vainly called it, forgeting that what&s;oever we enjoy, 'tis but lent us by the Lord, who ex|pects it to be improved to his &s;ervice, and the good of our fellow creatures: One of the&s;e churli&s;h-<HI>Nabals,</HI> as 'tis &s;aid, one day tel|ing him that if he parted with his Corn &s;o &s;illily, he would &s;hort|ly
<PB N="5" REF="4">come to want Bread him&s;elf: To all which this good man meekly an&s;wered, that he thought it his duty to relieve people in di&s;tre&s;s, to his ability: that he reckoned that he might afford it at that rate he &s;old it for, and verily believed he &s;hould never be the poorer for nor exacting tho&s;e unrea&s;onable prizes which others took for that God was able to make up to him &s;ome other way, and that he would ca&s;t him&s;elf wholly on the Lords good Provi|dence.</P>
<P>And now Chri&s;tian Hearers, prepare your attentions to ob|&s;erve Gods wonderful making good that promi&s;e in his Holy Word.</P>
<P>That he will never deceive them that tru&s;t in him, for by a &s;trange means he hath been plea&s;ed to return to this Charitable Farmer ten fold, in a marvellous Crop of Wheat, &s;uch as never was in any age before, for having &s;own a piece of ground with Wheat, containing above Ten Acres, though the foil were but mean, and not any way con&s;iderable repared by amendment, yet the blades came up very thick, and promi&s;ing a good crap, but what was more infinitely wonderful, when it came to Ear, there came forth &s;everal and di&s;tinct Ears upon one &s;traw, &s;ome having &s;eaven, &s;ome eight, &s;ome nine, and &s;o to thirteen upon &s;ome, &s;o that throughout all that Ten Acres of Corn, every &s;talk one with another may be ju&s;tly reckoned to Produce Ten Ears a Piece, the Wheat is of that kind which they call bearded, and has many bri&s;tles growing up with the Ears, the &s;traws are &s;omewhat bigger then Ordinary, yet not much, and 'tis very wonderful to think how they &s;hould be able to &s;upport &s;uch a weight, for the Ears are generally large and full of excellent Wheat, &s;o that it is rea&s;onably computed by the mo&s;t mode&s;t Gue&s;&s;ers, that there is as much VVheat produced upon the&s;e Ten Acres, as ever there vvas before upon Ten times the &s;ame quantity of ground, for that it yeilds in Thre&s;hing an&s;vverable to the bulk and grovvth of it. This Rela|tion
<PB N="6" REF="4">is a truth known and admired throughout mo&s;t of the we&s;t of England, and to &s;everal per&s;ons in this City of London, who has brought up divers lately from tho&s;e parts, and are to be &s;een in divers Coffee-hou&s;es about the City: &s;ome &s;coffing Athie&s;t may by chance render it to be a lye, and will not believe it to be a thing of truth, for &s;ome be more like Jews then Chri&s;tians, and will not believe any thing but what their own eyes do &s;ee, but I hope the more &s;ober finding it an undoubted reality of which they can|not but be &s;atisfied, upon a &s;mall inquiry will regard it with more con&s;ideration, and give glory to God, who by &s;o remarkable an in&s;tance hath been plea&s;ed to declare his providence and make known, not only that he is, as to his exi&s;tence, that he is a reward|er &s;ometimes even in this life of all tho&s;e that tru&s;t in him and obey his commandments, and may this pre&s;ident awaken all to a|bandon their cruelty &amp; uncharitablene&s;s, &amp; learn to do good with what the Lord hath be&s;towed and given unto them in temperate ble&s;&s;ings, for where the Lord gives much, much he expects of them again, to the u&s;e of the poor, as you may &s;ee in <HI>Bro.</HI> 19, 17. <HI>He that hath pitty on the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will he pay him again.</HI> But men are grown to that pa&s;s they will not believe God, but rather tru&s;t to their own wicked and &s;inful lu&s;ts, and &s;pend pounds on their ba&s;e corrupt wills, in fea&s;ting and junketing, to fill their &s;tinking bodies full of di&s;ea&s;es, with exce&s;sive eating and drinking, whil&s;t many would be glad of the lea&s;t of that to refre&s;h them vvith, as many gluts, and gives up again, and whil&s;t they be thus merry, with Warm Lodging, Good Fires, fine Apparel, and as is &s;aid, has the world in a Sling, and makes &s;o much of them&s;elves, the&s;e I &s;ay will hardly give a Meals Meat to a hungry belly, or an old Coat to Chiver the Na|kedne&s;s of a poor fatherle&s;s Child, or a peck of coals to a di&s;tre&s;&s;ed widdow to undre&s;s her poor babes by: No, no, I &s;ay, the&s;e love &s;o much of plea&s;ure, they can't indure the poor at their Doors, but like <HI>Dives,</HI> &s;et their Dogs to drive them away. There is, I fear,
<PB N="7" REF="5">too many that be like unto that greedy young man in the Go&s;pel, that came to our Ble&s;&s;ed Saviour to know how he might be &s;a|ved, and when he had heard that he mu&s;t give all to the poor, he went away with a &s;orrowful heart, for he had great Po&s;&s;e&s;sions, as you may read more at large, in <HI>Mat.</HI> 9.21. Men are grown &s;o greedy of gain, that they will with a willing mind deceive the poor laborors of their wages: gripe them of that which is their due, &amp; think they never work cheap enough to inrich their co|vetous de&s;ires, for they lie hoarding up their money, &amp; make it their god, for where their riches lyes there their heart is al&s;o, but know, oh man, that the Lord will bring you to a reckoning at la&s;t, then you will cur&s;e the day that ever you was born, &amp; wi&s;h you had never known what riches was, without thou had&s;t made better u&s;e of it, as the Lord had commanded thee. The Prophet <HI>Jerimiah</HI> complaineth of this &s;in greatly, as you may &s;ee in <HI>Jer.</HI> 6.13. For from the lea&s;t of them even unto the greate&s;t of them, every one is given unto covetou&s;ne&s;s, &amp; from the prophet even unto the Prie&s;t, every one dealeth fal&s;ely, many more places in Scripture could I give to this purpo&s;e, as in Hebrews 13.5. Luke 12.15. Ephe&s;. 5.3. and in Prov. 21.26. He coveteth gree|dily all the day long, but the righteous giveth and &s;pareth not: all along the Scripture, you &s;hall not find one word of comfort for a covetous man, but to the charitable per&s;on there is a many good proofs; as you may find, Pro. 11.25. <HI>The liberal &s;oul &s;hall be made fat, and he that watereth &s;hall be watered al&s;o him&s;elf.</HI> Thus you may &s;ee how he that is bountiful to the poor God will never let want, neither in this world nor that to come, &s;ome thinks if they give but a &s;hilling or two in 7 year tis enough, but if they &s;pend 10 or 20 &s;hillings in 2 or 3 hours idly, that is not thought too much, I wi&s;h that men would be wi&s;er, &amp; lay up for their own &s;alvation, which charity is the bond of perfectne&s;s, Colo&s;. 3.14.</P>
<P>Thus to conclude, I de&s;ire all good Chri&s;tians to be charitable to their poor brethren, and God will re&s;tore again to them tenfold.</P>
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