soul of thy servant fain would I serve glorifie and enjoy thee but a distempered body will not let me However it is reviving to think that though I am now forced to crawl like a worm in the discharge of my duties I shall shortly fly like a Seraphim in the execution of thy will Cheer up drooping soul the time is at hand when thou shalt be made more willing than thou art and thy flesh not so weak as now it is And is it so indeed then let the dying Saint like Iacob rouze up himself upon his bed and incourage himself against the fears of death by this refreshing consideration Let him say with holy dying Musculus Why tremblest thou O my soul to go forth of this Tabernacle to the Land of rest hath thy body been such a pleasant habitation to thee that thou shouldst be so loath to part with it though but for a time and with assurance of receiving it again with such a glorious improvement I know O my soul that thou hast a natural inclination to this body resulting from the dear and strict union which God himself hath made betwixt thee and it yea even the holiest of men do sometimes sensibly feel the like in themselves but beware thou love it not immoderately of inordinately 't is but a creature how dear soever it be to thee yea a fading creature and that which now stands in thy way to the full enjoyment of God But say my soul why are the thoughts of parting with it so burdensom to thee Why so loath to take death by its cold hand Is this body thy old and dear friend True but yet thou partest not with it upon such sad terms as should deserve a tear at parting For mayest thou not say of this departure as Paul of the departure of Onesimus Philem. v. 15. It therefore departeth for a season that thou mayest receive it for ever The daye of re-espousals will quickly come and in the mean time as thy body shall not be sensible of the tedious length of interposing time so neither shalt thou be solicitous about thine absent friend for the fruition of God in that thine unbodied state shall fill thee with infinite satisfaction and rest Or is it not so much simply for parting with it as for the manner of thy parting either by the slow and lingring approaches of a natural or the quick and terrible approaches of a violent death Why trouble not thy self about that for if God lead thee through the long dark lane of a tedious sickness yet at the end of it is thy fathers house And for a violent death 't is not so material whether friends or enemies stand weeping or triumphing over thy dead body Nihil corpus sentit in nervo cum anima sit in coelo When thy soul shall be in heaven 't will not be sensible how the body is used on earth But oh what an uncomfortable parting will mine be and how much more sad our meeting again how will this soul and body blush yea tremble when they meet who have been copartners in so much guilt I damn'd my soul to please my flesh and now have ruin'd both thereby had I denied my flesh to serve Christ worn out my body in the service of my soul I had thereby happily provided for them both but I began at the wrong end and so have ruin'd both eternally The Poem BAre seeds have no great beauty but inhum'd That which they had is lost and quite consum'd They soon corrupt and grow more base by odds When dead and buried underneath the clods It falls in baseness but at length doth rise In glory which delights beholders eyes How great a difference have a few dayes made Betwixt it in the bushel and the blade This lovely lively emblem aptly may Type out the glorious Resurrection day Wherein the Saints that in the dust do lye Shall rise in glory vigour dignity With singing in that morning they arise And dazling glory such as mortal eyes Ne're viewed on earth The sparkling buties here No more can equalize their splendor there Than glimmering glow-worms do the fairest star That shines in heaven or the stones that are In every street may competition hold With glittering diamonds in rings of gold For unto Christ's most glorious body they Shall be conform'd in glory at that day Whose lustre would should it on mortals fall Transport a Stephen and confound a Paul 'T is now a course and crazy house of clay But O! how dear do souls for lodging pay Few more than I for thou my soul hast bin Within these tents of Kedar cooped in Where with distempers clog'd thou mak'st thy moans And for deliverance with tears and groans Hast often sued cheer up the time will be When thou from all these troubles shalt be free No jarring humours cloudy vapours rheum Pains aches or what ever else consumes My dayes in grief whil'st in the Christian race Flesh lags behing and can't keep equal pace With the more willing spirit none of these Shall thenceforth clog thee or disturb thine ease CHAP. XII As wheat resembled is by viler tares So vile hypocrisie like grace appears OBSERVATION It is Ieroms Observation that wheat and tares are so much alike in their first springing up that it is exceeding difficult to distinguish the one from the other These are his words Inter triticuâ— lolium quamdiu herba est nondum culmus venit ad spicam grandis similitudo est indiscernendo aut nulla aut perdifficilis distantia The difference saith he between them is either none at all or wonderful difficult yo discern which those words of Christ Mat. 13. 30. plainly confirm Let them both alone till the Harvest thereby intimating both the difficulty of distinguishing the tares and wheat as also the unwarrantable rashness of bold and hasty censures of mens sincerity or hypocrisie which is there shadowed by them APPLICATION HOw difficult soever it be to discern the difference betwixt wheat and tares yet doubtless the eye of sence can much easier discriminate them than the most quick and piercing eye of man can discern the difference betwixt special and common grace for all saving graces in the Saints have their counterfeits in hypocrites There are similar works in these which a spiritual and very judicious eye may easily mistake for the saving and genuine effects of the sanctifying Spirit Doth the Spirit of God convince the consciences of his people of the evil of sin Rom. 7. 9. Hypocrites have their convictions too Exod. 10. 16. Then Pharoah called for Moses and Aaron in hast and he said I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you Thus was Saul also convicted 1 Sam. 15. 24. Doth true conviction and compunction work reformation of life in the people of God even hypocrites also have been famous for their reformations The unclean spirit often goes out of the
traveller this world 's my way A single staff may be of use to stay My feeble body if it do not crack By too hard leaning on it but my back Will bear no more Alas I soon should tire And more than one I cannot well desire Lord to prescribe to thee becomes me not I rather do submit unto my lot But yet let condescending grace admit Thy servants suit this once and this is it The staff of bread convenient let me have And manage it discreetly so 't will save Thy feeble servant from the mire and dirt But more or less than this may do me hurt Or if thou say thy servant shall have none Then strengthen faith that I may go alone CHAP. IV. Spent barren Land you can restore and nourish Decayed Christians God can cause to flourish OBSERVATION WHen Land is spent out by â—illage or for want of manuring the careful husbandman hath many wayes to recover and bring it in heart again He lets it lye follow to give it rest and time to recover it self carries out his sand lime and compost to refresh and quicken it again and in pasture and medow ground will wash it if possible with a current of water or the float of the wayes after a fall of rain which is to the earth as a spring of new blood to a consumptive body He cuts down and kills the weeds that suck it out and cause them to make restitution of what they have purloined from it by rotting upon the place where they grew As careful are they to recover it when it is spent as an honest Physician is of his patient in a languishing condition for the knows his field will be as grateful to him and fully requite his care and cast APPLICATION AS man's so God's Husbandry is sometimes out of case not by yielding too many crops but too few The mystical Husbandman hath some fields I mean particular societies and persons who were once fragrant and fruitful like a field which God had blessed but are now decayed and grown barren whose gleanings formerly were more than their vintage now the things that are in them are ready to dye Rev. 3. 3. ' Tispossible yea too common for gracious souls to be reduced to a very low ebb both of graces and comforts how low I will not say Our Brittish Divines tell us That grace indeed cannot be totally intermitted nor finally lost but there may be an omission of the act though not an amission of the habit the act may be perverted though the faith cannot be subverted it may be shaken in though not shaken out its fruits may fall but its sap lyes hid in its root they demerit the loss of the kingdom but lose it not effectively the effect of justification may be suspended but the state of the justified cannot be dissloved Certain it is one that like Paul hath been rapt up with joy even to the third heavens and cryed I am more than a conqueror who can separate me from the love of God May at another time lye mourning as at the gates of death crying O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death One that hath walked in sweet communion with God sunning himself in the light of his countenance may afterwards walk in dark ness and see no light Isa. 50. 10. He that hath cast anchor within the vail and rode securely in the peaceful harbour of assurance may seem to feel his anchor of hope come home to him and go adrift into the stormy Ocean again crying with the Church Lam. 3. 18. My hope is perished from the Lord. His calm and clear Air may be overcast and clouded yea filled with storms and tempests lightnings and thunders his graces like under-ground flowers in the Winter may all disappear and hide their beautiful heads To God he may say I am cast out of thy sight I know thou canst do much but wilt thou shew wonders to the dead To the Promises he may say you are sweet things indeed but what have I to do with you I could once indeed rejoyce in you as my portion but now I doubt I grasped a shadow a fancy instead of you To Saints he may say turn away from me labour not to comfort me O do not spill your precious ointment of consolation upon my head for what have I to do with comfort to former experiences he may say in his haft you are all lyars To the light of God's countenance he may say farewell sweet light I shall behold thee no more To Saâ—an he may say O mine enemy thou haâ—t at last prevailed against me thou art stronger than I and haft overcome To duties and ordinances he may say where is the sweetness I once found in you you were once sweeter to me than the hony comb but now as tastless as the white of an egg O sad relaspe deplored change quantum mutatus ab illo But will God leave his poor creatures helpless in such a case as this Shall their leaf fall their branches wither their joy their life their heart depart will he see their graces fainting their hopes gasping the new creature panting the things that are in them ready to dye and will he not regard it yes yes There is hope of a tree if it be cut down and the root thereof wax old in the earth yet by the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant Iob 14. 89. This poor declined soul as sad as it sits at the gates of hell may rouze up it self at last and say to Satan that stands triumphing over him Rejoyce not over me O mine enemy for though I fall yet I shall arise though I sit in darkness the Lord will be a light unto me Mich. 7. 8. He may raise up himself upon his bed of languishing for all this and say to God though thou hast chastened me sore yet hast thou not given me over unto death He may turn about to the Saints that have mourned for him and with a lightsome countenance say I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord. He may say to the Promises you are the true and faithful sayings of God my unbelief did bely you I said in my hast you were lyars but I eat my words I am ashamed of my folly Surely O Soul there is yet hope in thine end thou mayst be restored Psal. 23. 3. Thou mayst yet recover thy verdure and thy dew be as the dew of herbs For Is he not thy father and a father â—ull of compassions and bowels And can a father stand by his dying Child see his fainting fits hear his melting groans and pitty begging looks and not help him especially having restoratives by him that can do it Surely as a father pities his own Children so will thy God pitty thee Psal. 103. 12 13. He Will spare thee as a father
unable to withstand that stroke as the weak reeds or feebleâ—stalks of the corn are to resist the keen Sithe and sharp Sickle The reapers receive the wheat which they cut down into their armes and bosom Hence that expression by way of imprecation upon the wicked Psal. 129. 7. Let them be as the grass upon the house top which withers before it grows up wherewith the mower filleth not his hand nor be that bindeth sheaves his bosom Such withered grass are the wicked who are never taken into the reapers bosom but as soon as Saints are cuâ— down by death they fall into the hands and bosoms of the Angels of God who bear them in their arms and bosoms to God their father Luke 16. 22. For look as these blessed spirits did exceedingly rejoyce at their conversion Luke 15. 10. and thought it no dishonour to minister to them whilst they stood in the field Heb. 1. 14. So when they are cut down by death they will rejoyce to be their convoy to heaven When the corn and weeds are reap'd or mowed down they shall never grow any more in that field neither shall we ever return to live an animal life any more after death Iob 7. 9 10. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Lastly to come home to the particular object of this Chapter the reapers are never sent to cut down the harvest till it be fully ripe neither will God reap down Saints or sinners till they be come to a maturity of grace or wickednâ—ss Saints are not reap'd down till their grace be ripe Iob. 5. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age as a shock of corn cometh in in his season Not that every godly man dies in such a full old age saith Mr. Caryl on the place but yet in one sense it is an universal truth and ever fulfilled for whensoever they die they die in a good age yea though they die in the spring and flower of their youth they die in a good old age i. e. they are ripe for death when ever they die When ever a godly man dies it 's harvest time with him though in a natural capacity he be cut down while he is green and cropt in the bud or blossom yet in his spiritual capacity he never dies before he be ripe God ripens his speedily when he intends to taks them out of the world speedily he can let out such warm rayes and beams of his spirit upon them as shall soon maturate the seeds of grace into a preparedness for glory The wicked also have their ripening time for hell and judgement God doth with much longâ—suffering endure the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction Of their ripeness for judgment the scripture often speaks Gen. 15. 16. The sin of the Amorites is not yet full And of Babilon it 's said Ier. 51. 13. O thou that dwellest upon many waters thine end is come and the measure of thy covetousness 'T is worth remarking that the measure of the sin and the end of the sinner come together So Ioel 3. 13. Put ye in the sickle for the harvest of the earth is ripe for the press is full the fats overflow for their wickedness is great Where note sinners are not cut down till they be ripe and ready Indeed they are never ripe for death nor ready for the grave that is fit to die yet they are alwayes ripe for wrath and ready for hell before they die Now as Husbandmen judge of the ripeness of their harvest by the colour and hardness of the grain so may we judge of the ripeness both of Saints and Sinners for heaven or hell by these following signs Three Signs of the maturity of grace VVHen the Corn is near ripe it blows the head and stoops lower than when it was green When the people of God are near ripe for heaven they grow more humble and self-denying that in the dayes of their first profession The longer a Saint grows in this world the better he is still acquainted with his own heart and his obligations to God both which are very humbling things Paul had one foot in heaven when he called himself the chiefest of sinners and least of Saints 1 Tim. 1. 15. Eph. 3. 8. A Christian in the progress of his knowledge and grace is like a vessel cast into the Sea the more it fills the deeper it sinks Those that went to study at Athens saith Plutarch at first coming seemed to themselves to be wise men afterwards only lovers of wisdom and after that only thetoricians such as could speak of wisdom but knew little of it and last of all Ideots in their apprehensions still with the increase of learning laying aside their pride and arrogancy When harvest is nigh the grain is more solid and pithy than ever it was before green corn is soft and spungy but ripe corn is substantial and weighty So it is with Christians the affâ—ctions of a young Christian perhaps are more ferverous and sprightly but those of a grown Christian are more judicious and solid their love to Christ abounds more and more in all judgment Phil. 1. 9. The limbs of a Child are more active and plyable but as he grows up to a perfect state the parts are more consolidated and firmly knit The fingers of an old Musician are not so nimble but he hath a more judicious ear in musick than in his youth When Corn is dead ripe it 's apt to fall of its own accord to the ground and there shed whereby it doth as it were anticipate the harvest man and calls upon him to put in the sickle Not unlike to which are the lookings and longings the groanings and hastenings of ready Christians to their expected glory they hasten to the coming of the Lord or as Montanus more 〈◊〉 renders it they hasten the coming of the the Lord i. e. they are urgent and instant in their desires and cryes to hasten his coming their desires sally forth to meet the Lord they willingly take death by the hand as the corn bends to the earth so do these souls to heaven This shews their harvest to be near Six signs of the maturity of Sin WHen â—inners are even dead ripe for hell these â—igns appear upon them or by these at least you may conclude those souls not to be far from wrath upon whom they appear When conscience is wafted and grown past feeling having no remorse for â—in when it ceases to check reprove and smite for sin any more the day of that sinner is at hand his harvest is even come The greatest violation of conscience is the greatest of sins this was the case of the forlorn Gentiles among whom Satan had such a plentiful harvest the patience of God suffered them to grow till their consciences were grown
when he goes to preach the Gospel I am now going to preach that word which is to be a savour of life or death to these souls upon how many of my poor hearers may the curse of perpetual barrenness be executed this day O how should such a thought melt his heart into compassion over them and make him beg hard and plead earnestly with God for a better issue of the Gospel than this upon them The Poem YOu that besides your pleasant fruitful fields Have useless bogs and rocky ground that yields You no advantage nor doth quit your cost But all your pains and charges on them 's lost Hearken to me I le teach you how to get More profit by them than if they were set At higher Rents than what your Tenants pay For your most â—ertile Lands and here 's the way Think when you view them why the Lord hath chose These as Emblems to decipher those That under Gospel-grace grow worse and worse For means are fruitless where the Lord doth curse Sweet showers descend the Sun his beams reflects on both alike but not with like effects Observe and see how after the sweet showers The grass and corn revive the fragrant flowers Shoot forth their beauteous heads the valleys sing All fresh and green as in the verdant spring But rocks are barren still and bogs are so Where nought but flags and worthless rushes grow Upon these marish grounds there lyes this curse The more rain falls by so much more the worse Even so the dews of grace that sweetly fall From Gospel clouds are not alike to all The gracious soul doth germinate and bud But to the Reprobate it doth no good He 's like the withered fig-tree void of fruit Afearful curse hath smote his very root The heart 's made â—at the eyes with blindness seal'd The piercingst truths the Gospel ere reveal'd Shall be to him but as the Sun and rain Are to obdurate rocks fruitless and vain Be this your meditation when you walk By rocks and fenny grounds thus learn to talk With your own souls and let it make you fear Lest that 's your case â—haâ— is described here This is the best improvement you can make Of such bad ground good soul I pray thee take Some pains about them though they barren be Thou seest how they may yield sweet fruits to thee CHAP. VII The Plowman guides his Plow with care and skill So doth the Spirit in sound conviction still OBSERVATION IT requires not only strength but much skill and judgment to manage and guide the plow The Hebrew word which we translate to plow signifies to be intent as an Artificer is about some curious piece of work The plow must neither go too shallow nor too deep in the earth it must not indent the ground by making crooked furrows nor leap and make baulks in good ground but be guided as to a just depth of earth so to cast the furrow in a straight line that the floor or surface of the field may be made plain As it is Isa. 28. 25. And hence that expression Luke 9. 62. He that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven The meaning is that as he that plows must have his eyes alwayes forward to guide and direct his hand in casting the furrows straight and even for his hand will be quickly out when his eye is off So he that heartily resolves for heaven must addict himself wholly and intently to the business of Religion and not have his mind intangled with the things of this world which he hath left behind him whereby it appears that the right management of the plow requires as much skill as strength APPLICATION THis Observation in nature serves excâ—llently to shadow forth this proposition in Diviâ—ity That the work of the Spirit in convincing and humbling the heart of a sinner is a work wherein much of the wisdom as well as power of God is discovered The work of repentance and saving contrition is set forth in Scripture by this Metaphor of plowing Ier. 4. 3. Hos. 10. 12 Plow up your fallow ground that is be convinced humbled and broken hearted for fin And the resemblance betwixt both these works appears in the following particulars 1 'T is a hard and difficult work to plow it 's reckoned one of the painâ—ullest manual labours It is also a very hard thing to convince and humble the heart of a secure stout and proud sinner indurate in wickedness What Luther saith of a dejected soul That it is as easie to raise the dead as to comfort such a one The same I may say of the secure confident sinner 'T is as easie to rend the rocks as to work saving contrition upon such a heart Citius expâ—mice aquam all the melting language and earnest intreaties of the Gospel cannot urge such a heart to shed a tear Therefore it 's called a heart of stone Ezek. 36. 26. A firm rock Amos 6. 12. Shall horses run upon the Rock will one plow there with Oxen yet when the Lord comes in the power of his Spirit these rocks do rend and yield to the power of the word 2 The plow pierces deep into the bosome of the earth makes as it were a deep gash or wound in the heart of it So doth the Spirit upon the hearts of Sinners he pierces their very souls by conviction Act. 2. 37. When they heard this they were pricked or pierced point blank to the heart Then the word divides the soul and Spirit Heb. 4. 12. It comes upon the conscience with such pinching dilemma's and tilts the sword of conviction so deep into their souls that there is no stenching the bloud no healing this wound till Christ himself come and undertake the cure Hâ—reâ— lateri lethalis arundo this barbed arrow cannot be pulled out of their hearts by any but the hand that shot it in Discourse with such a soul about his troubles and he will tell you that all the sorrows that ever he had in this world loss of estate health children or whatever else are but flea-bitings to this this swallows up all other troubles See how that Christian Niobe Luke 7. 38. is dissolved into tears Nâ—w deep calleth unto deep at the noise of his water spouts when the waves and billows of God go over the soul. Spiritual sorrows are deep waters in which the stoutest and most magnanimous soul would sink and drown did not Iesus Christ by a secret and supporting hand hold it up by the chin 3. The plow rends the earth in parts and pieces which before was united and makes those parts hang loose which formerly lay closs Thus doth the spirit of conviction rend in sunder the heart and its most beloved lusts Ioel. 2. 13. Rent your hearts and not your garments that is rather then
your garments for the sense is comparative though the expression be negative And this rending implyes not only acute pain flesh cannot be rent asunder without anguish nor yet only force and violence the heart is a stubborn and knotty piece and will not easily yield but it also implies a dis-union of parts united as when a garment or the earth or any continuous body is rent those parts are separated which fomerly cleaved together Sin and the Soul were glewed fast together before there was no parting of them they would as soon part with their lives as with their lusts but now when the heart is rent for them truely it is also rent from them everlastingly Ezek. 7. 15. to 19. 4 The plow turns up and discovers such things as lay hid in the bosome of the earth before and were covered under a fair green surface from the eyes of men Thus when the Lord plows up the heart of a sinner by conviction then the secrets of his heart are made manifest 2 Cor. 14. 24 25. the most secret and shameful sins will then our for the word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing of the soul and spirit the joynts and merrow and is a quick discerner of the thoughts and secret intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. It makes the fire burn inwardly so that the soul hath no rest till confession give a vent to trouble Fain would the shuffling sinner conceal and hide his shame but the word follows him through all his sinful shifts and brings him at last to be his own both accuser witness and judge â— The work of the plow is but opus ordinabile a preparative work in order to fruit Should the Husbandman plow his ground never so often yet if the seed be not cast in and quickned in vain is the Harvest expected Thus conviction also is but a preparative to a farther work upon the soul of a sinner If it stick there and go no farther it proves but an abortive or untimely birth Many have gone thus far and there they have stuck they have been like a field plowed but not sowed which is a matter of trembling consideration for hereby their sin is greatly aggravated and their eternal misery so much the more increased O when a poor damned creature shall with horror reflect upon himself in hell how near was I once under such a Sermon to conversion My sins were set in order before me my conscience awakened and terrified with the guilt of them many pâ—rposes and resolves I had then to turn to God which had they been perfected by answerable executions I had never come to this place of torment but there I stuck and that was my eternal undoing Many souls have I known so terrified with the guilt of sin that they have come roaring under horrors of conscience to the Preacher so that one would think such a breach had been made between them and sin as could never be reconciled and yet as angry as they were in that fit with sin they have hug'd and imbraced them again 6 'T is best plowing when the earth is prepared and mollified by the showers of rain then the work goes on sweetly and easily And never doth the heart so kindly melt as when the Gospel clouds dissolve and the free grace and love of Iesus Christ comes sweetly showing down upon it then it relents and mourns ingeniously Ezek. 16. 63. That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy moâ—th any more of thy shame when I am pocified towards thee for all that thou hast done So it was with that poor penitent Luke 7. 38. when the Lord Iesus had discovered to her the super-abounding riches of his grace in the pardon of her manisold abominations her heart melted within her she washed the feet of Christ with tears And indeed there is as much difference betwixt the tears which are forced by the terrors of the law and those which are extracted by the grace of the Gospel as there is betwixt those of a condemned malefactor who weeps to consider the misery he is under and those of a pardoned malefactor that receives his pardon at the foot of the ladder and is melted by the mercy and clemency of his gracious Prince towards him 7 The plow kills those ranck weeds that grow in the field turns them up by the roots buries and rots them So doth saving conviction kill sin at the root makes the soul sick of it begets indignation in the heart against it 2 Cor. 7. 11. The word there signifies the rising of the stomack any being angry even unto sickness Religious wrath is the fiercest wrath now the soul cannot endure sin trembles at it I find a woman more bitter than death saith penitent Solomon Eccl. 7. 26. Conviction like a surâ—et makes the soul to loath what it formerly loved and delighted in 8 That field is not well plowed where the plow jumps and skips over good ground and makes baulks it must turn up the whole field alike and that heart is not savingly convicted where any lust is spared and lest untouched Saving Conviction extends it self to all sins not only to sin in general with this cold confâ—ssion I am a â—â—nner but to the particulars of 〈◊〉 yea to the particular circumstances and aggravations of time place manner occasions thus and thus have I done to the sin of nature as well as practise behold I was shapen in iniquity Psal. 51. 5. There must be no baulking of any sin the spâ—ring of one sin is a sure argument thou art not truely humbled for any sin So far is the convinced soul from a studious concealment of a beloved sin that it weeps over that more than over any other actual sin 9 New ground is much more easily plowed than that which by long lying out of tillage is more consolidated and clung together by deep rooted thorns and brambles which render it difficult to the Plowman This old ground is like an old sinner that hath layn a long time hardening under the means of grace O the difficulty of convincing such a person Sin hath got such rooting in his heart he is so habituated to the reproofs and calls of the word that â—ew such are wrought upon How many young persons are called to one obdurate inveterate sinner I do not say but God may call home such a soul at the eleventh hour but I may say of these compared with others as Solomon speaks Eccles. 7. 28. One man among a thousand have I found c. Few that have long â—esisted the Gospel that come afterwards to feel the saving efficacy thereof REFLECTIONS OGrace for ever to bâ— admired that God should send forth his Word and Spirit to plow up my hard and stony heart yea mine when he hath lest so many of more tender ingenious sweet and melting tempers without any culture or meanes of grace O
among men and rejected eternally by God Who can considerately read that sixth Chapter of the Hebrews and not tremble to think in what a forlorn case a soul may be though set off and accomplisht with the rarest endowments of this kind Mat. 7. 22. We read that many shall say to Christ in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils c. and yet themselves at last cast out as a prey to Devils How divinely and rhetorically did a Balaam speak and prophesie Num. 23. What rare and excellent parts had the Scribes and Pharisees Who upon that account were stiled principes seculi the Princes of the world 1 Cor. 2. 8. What profound and excellent parts had the Heathen Sages and Philosophers These things are so far from securing the soul against the wrath to come that they often expose it unto wrath and are as oyl to encrease the eternal burnings but now gracious principles are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls them Heb. 6. Things that accompany and have salvation in them These are the things on which the promises of Salvation run and these treasures are never found but in elect vessels Glory is by promise assured and made over to him that possesses them There is but a little point of time betwixt him and the glorified spirits above And how inconsiderable a matter is a little time which contracts and winds up apace For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed And hence the scriptures speaks of them as already saved Rom. 8. 24. We are saved by hope because it s as sure as if we were in heaven We are made to sit in heavenly places Gifts may damnifie the person that possesses them and it may be better in respect of a mans own condition he had never had them Knowledge saith the Apostle Puffeth up 1 Cor. 8. 1. maketh the soul proud and flatulent 'T is a hard thing to know much and not to know it too much The Saints knowledge is better than the Schollars for he hath his own heart instead of a Commentary to help him Aristotle said a little knowledge about heavenly things though conjectural is better than much of earthly things though certain The world by wisdom knew not God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 21. i. e. their learning hanged in their light they were too wise to submit to the simplicity of the Gospel The excellent parts of the old Hereticks did but serve to midwiâ—e into the world the monstrous birth of soul-damning heresies Cupit abs te ornari diabolus as Austin said to that ingenious young Scholler The devil desires to be adorned by thee But now grace in its self is not subject to such abuses it cannot be the proper univocal cause of any evil effect It cannot puff up the heart but alwayes humbles it nor serve the devils designs but ever opposes them Gifts may be given a man for the sake of others and not out of love to himself they are but as an excellent dish of meat which a man sends to nurse not for her sake so much as for his Child that sucks her God indeed makes use of them to do his children good the Church is benefitted by them though themselves are but like Cooks they prepare excellent dishes on which the Saints feed and are nourished though themselves tast them not They dona ministrantia non sanctificantia ministring but not sanctifying gifts proceeding not from the good will of God to him that hath them but to those he benefits by them And oh what a sad consideration will this be one day to such a person to think I helped such a soul to heaven while I my self must lodg in hell Sin in the raign and power of it may cohabit with the most excellent natural gifts under the same roof I mean in the same heart A man may have the tongue of an Angel and the heart of a Devil The wisdome of the Philosophâ—rs saith Eactantius non excindit vitia sed abscondit did not root out but hide their vices The learned Pharisees were but painted sepulchers gifts are but as a fair glove drawn over a foul hand But now grace is incompatible with Sin in dominions it purifies the heart Act. 15. 9 cleanses the conscience Heb. 9. 14. Crucifies the affections and lusts of the flesh Gal. 5. 24. is not content with the concealment but ruine of corruptions Lastly Gifts must leave us at last Whether there be knowledge that shall cease All flesh is grass and the goodliness of it as the flower of the grass the grass withers the flower fadeth but the word of the Lord abideth for ever Isa. 40. 6 8. Many times they leave a man before death One knock if it hit right as one saith may make a wise man a fool but to be sure they all leave us at death Doth not his excellency which is in him go away Iob 4. 21. yea then all natural excellency departs Death strips the soul of all those splendid ornaments then the rhetorical tongue is struck dum the nimble wit and curious phansie shall entertain your ears with no more pleasant discourses Nunquam jâ—cos dabis as Adrian said to his departing soul but grace ascends with the soul into eternity and there receives its perfection and accomplishment Gifts take their leave of the soul as Orpha did of Naomi but grace saith then as Ruth where thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge and nothing shall separate thee and me Now pâ—â— all this together and then judge whether the Apostle spake hyperbolyes when he said Covet earnestly the best gifts and yet I shew unto you a more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. ult And thus you have the choiceness of these principles also REFLECTIONS The lines are fallen to me in a pleasant place may the gracious soul say How defective soever I am in gifts yet blessed be the Lord who hath sown the seeds of true grace in my heart What though I am not famed and honoured among men let it suffice me that I am precious in the eyes of the Lord. Though he hath not abounded to me in gifts of nature yet blessed be the God and Father of my Lord Iesus Christ who hath abounded to me in all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Iesus Eph. 1. 3. Is not a true jewel though spurn'din the dirt more precious than a false one though set in gold Why art thou troubled O my soul for the want of these things which reprobates may have and art not rather admiring and blessing God for those things which none but the darlings and favourites of heaven can have is not an ounce of pure gold more valuable than many pounds of guilded brass what though the dews of Helicon descend not upon my head if in the mean time the sweet influences of Sion fall upon my heart O my God!
I was all the while minding another matter Righteous art thou O Lord in all that is come upon us I am now as a Spring shut up that can yield no refreshment to thirsty souls ready to perish Thou hast said to me as once to Ezekiel Son of man behold I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth and thou shalt be dumb This is a heavy judgment but thou must be justified and cleared in it Although men may not yet God if he please may put a lighted candle under a bushel And herein I must acknowledge thy righteousness Many times have I been sinfully silent when both thy glory and the interest of souls ingaged me to speak Most justly therefore hast thou made my tongue to cleave to its roof Little did I consider the preciousness of souls or the tremenduous account to be given for them at the appearing of the great Shepherd I have now time enough to sit down and mourn over former miscarriages and lost opportunities Lord restore me once again to a serviceable capacity to a larger sphere of activity for thee for I am now become as a broken vessel It grieves me to the heart to see thy flock scattered to hear thy people cry to me as once to Ioseph Give us bread for why should we dye in thy presence Thy word is like fire shut up in my bones and I am weary with forbearing O that thou wouldst once again open the doors of thine house that there may be bread enough in thine house for all thy children The Poem When God doth make the heavens above us brass The earth's lke iron Flowers herbs and grass Have lost their fragrant green are turned yellow The brooks are dry the pining cattel bellow The fat and flowry meadows scorcht and burn'd The Countreys mirth is into mourning turn'd The clefted earth her thirsty mouth sets ope Unto the empty clouds as 't were in hope Of some refreshing drops that might allay Her fiery thirst but they soon pass away The pensive Husbandman with his own eyes Bedews his Land because he sees the skies Refuse to do it just so stands the case When God from souls removes the means of grace God's Ministers are clouds their doctrine rain Which when the Lord in judgment shall restrain The peoples souls in short time will be found In such a case as this dry parched ground When this sad judgment falls on any Nation Let Saints therein take up this lamentation O dreadful dark and dismal day How is our glory fled away Our Sun gone down our stars o'recast God's heritage is now laid wast Our pining souls no bread can get With wantons God hath justly met When we are fed unto the full This man was tedious that was dull But they are gone and there remain No such occasions to complain Stars are not now for lights but signs God knows of what heart-breaking times Sure heaven intends not peace but wars In calling home Ambassadors How long did Sodom's judgment stay When righteous Lot was snatcht away How long remain'd that stately Hall When Sampson made the pillars fall When Horsemen and Commanders fly Wo to the helpless Infantry This is a sad and fatal blow A publick loss and overthrow You that so long have wish'd them gone Be quiet now the thing is done Did they torment you ere your day God hath remov'd them out o'th'way Now sleep in sin and take your ease Their doctrine shall no more displease But Lord what shall become of us Our Teacher's gone and left us thus To whom shall we our selves address When conscience labours in distress O who shall help us at our need Or pour in Balm when wounds do bleed Help Lord for unto thee our eyes Do pour out tears our groans our cryes Shall never cease till thou restore The mercies which we had before Till Sions paths where grass now grows Be trodden by the feet of those That love thy name and long t' enjoy The mercies they have sin'd away CHAP. IX Seeds dye and rot and then most fresh appear Saints bodies rise more orient then they mere OBSERVATION AFter the seed is committed to the earth it seems to perish and dye as our Saviour speaks Iohn 12. 24. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it brings forth much fruit The death of the Corn in the earth is not a total death but only the corruption or alteration of it for if once the seminal life and vertue of it were quite extinguisht it could never put forth blade or ear without a miracle Yet because that alteration is a kind of death therefore Christ here uses it as a fit illustration of the resurrection And indeed there is nothing in nature more apt to illustrate that great mystery What a fragrant green and beautiful blade do we â—ee spring up from a corrupted seed how black and mouldy is that how beautiful and verdant is this APPLICATION EVen thus shall the bodies of the Saints arise in beauty and glory at the resurrection They are sown in dishonour they are raised in glory they are sown natural bodies they are raised spiritual bodies 1 Cor. 15. 43 44. The Husbandman knows that though the seed rot in the earth yet it will rise again And the believer knows That though after his skin worms destroy his body yet in his flesh he shall see God Iob 19. 25 c. and the resemblance betwixt the seed sown and springing up and the bodies of the Saints dying and rising again lyes in these following particulars First the seed is committed to the earth from whence it came so is the body of a Saint earth it was and to earth it is again resolved Grace exempts not the body of the best man from seeing corruption Rom. 8. 10. Though Christ be in him yet the body is dead that is sentenced to death because of sin Heb. 6. ult It is appointed for all men once to dye Secondly The seed is cast into the earth in hope 1 Cor. 9. 10. Were there not a resurrection of it expected the Husbandman would never be willing to cast away his Corn. The bodies of Saints are also committed to the grave in hope I Thes. 4. 13 14. But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning those which are asleep as them which have no hope for if we believe that Iesus dyed and rose again even so also them which sleep in Iesus shall the Lord bring with him This blessed hope of a resurrection sweetens not only the troubles of life but the pangs of death Thirdly the seed is cast into the earth seasonably in its proper season So are the bodies of the Saints Ioh. 5. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age as a shock of corn cometh in in its season They alwayes dye in the fittest time though sometimes they seem
to dye immaturately The time of their death was from all eternity prefixt by God beyond which they cannot go and short of which they cannot come The seed lyes many dayes and nights under the clods before it rise and appear again Even so man lyeth down and riseth not again till the heavens be no more Iob 14. 12. The dayes of darkness in the grave are many When the time is come for its shooting up the earth that covered it can hide it no longer it cannot keep it down a day more it will find or make a way through the clods So in that day when the great trump shall sound bone shall come to his bone and the graves shall not be able to hold them a minute longer Both Sea and earth must render the dead that are in them Rev. 20. 13. When the seed appears above ground again it appears much more fresh and orient than when it was cast into the earth God cloaths it with such beauty that it is not like to what it was before Thus rise the bodies of Saints marvellously improved beautified and perfected with spiritual qualities and rich endowments in respect whereof they are called spiritual bodies I Cor. 15. 43. not properly but analogically spiritual for look as spirits subsist without food raâ—ment sleep know no lassitude weariness or pain so our bodies after the resurrection shall be above these necessities and distempers for we shall be as the Angels of God Mat. 22. 30. Yea our vile bodies shall be changed and made like unto Christs glorious body which is the highest pitch and ascent of glory and honour that an humane body is capable of Phil. 3. 21. Indeed the glory of the soul shall be the greatest glory that 's the orient invaluable jem but God will bestow a distinct glory upon the body and richly enammel the very case in which that precious jewel shall be kept In that glorious morning of the resurrection the Saints shall put on their new fresh suits of flesh richly laid and trimmed with glory Those bodies which in the grave were but dust and rottenness when it delivers them back again shall be shining and excellent pieces absolutely and everlastingly freed 1 From all natural infirmities and distempers death is their good Physician which at once freed them of all diseases 'T is a great Affliction now to many of the Lord's people to be clog'd with so many bodily infirmities which render them very unserviceable to God The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak A crazy body retorts and shoots back its distempers upon the soul with which it is so closely conjoyned but though now the soul as Theophrastus speaks payes a dear rent for the Tabernacle in which it dwells yet when death dissolves that Tabernacle all the diseases and pains under which it groaned shall be buried in the rubbish of its mortality and when they come to be re-united again God will bestow rich gifts and dowries even upon the body in the day of its re-espousals to the soul. 2 It shall be freed from all deformities there are no breaches flaws monstrosities in glorified bodies but of them it may much rather be said what was once said of Absalom 2 Sam. 14. 25. That from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him 3ly It shall be freed from all natural necessities to which it is now subjected in this its animal state How is the soul now disquieted and tortured with cares and troubles to provide for a perishing body Many unbelieving and unbecoming fears it is now vexed with What shall it eat and what shall it drink and wherewithal shall it be cloathed But meats for the belly and the belly for meats God shall destroy both it and them 1 Cor. 6. 13. i. e. as to their present use and office for as to its existence so the belly shall not be destroyed But even as the Masts Poop and Stern of a Ship abide in the harbour after the voyage is ended so shall these bodily members as Tertullian excellently illustrates it 4ly They shall be freed from death to which thenceforth they can be subject no more that formidable adversary of nature shall affault it no more For they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they dye any more for they shall be equal to the Angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection Luk. 20. 35 36 Mark it equal to the Angels not that they shall be separate and single spirits without bodies as the Angels are but equal to them in the way and manner of their living and acting We shall then live upon God and act freely purely and delightfully for God for all kind of living upon and delighting in creatures seems in that Text by a Synechdoche of the part which is ordinarily in Scripture put for all creature-delights dependencies and necessities to be excluded Nothing but God shall enamour and fill the soul and the body shall be perfectly subdued to the spirit Lord what hast thou prepared for them that love thee REFLECTIONS If I shall receive my body again so dignified and improved in the world to come then Lord let me never be unwilling to use my body now for the interest of thy glory or my own Salvation Now O my God it grieves me to think how many precious opportunities of serving and honouring thee I have lost under pretence of endangering my health I have been more solicitous to live long and healthfully than to live usefully and fruitfully and like enough my life had been more serviceable to thee if it had not been so fondly overvalued by me Foolish soul hath God given thee a body for a living tool or instrument and art thou afraid to use it wherein is the mercy of having a body if not in spending and wearing it out in the service of God to have an active vigorous body and not to imploy and exercise it for God for fear of endangering its health is as if one should give thee a handsom and sprightful horse upon condition thou shouldst not ride or work him O! if some of the Saints had enjoyed the blessing of such an healthy active body as mine what excellent services would they have performed to God in it If my body shall as surely rise again in glory vigour and excellent endowments as the seed which I sow doth why should not this comfort me over all the pains weaknesses and dulness with which my soul is now clogged Thou knowest my God what a grief it hath been to my soul to be fettered and intangled with the distempers and manifold indispositions of this vile body It hath made me sigh and say with holy Anselme when he saw the mounting bird weighed down by the stone hanging at her leg Lord thus it fares with the
ponder this great question whether those things whereon I depend as my best evidences for the life to come be the real or only the common works of the Spirit whether they be such as can now endure the test of the Word and abide a fair tryal at the bar of my own conscience Come then my soul set the Lord before thee to whom the secrets of all hearts are manifest and in the awful sence of that great day make true answer to these heart-discovering queries for though thou canst not discern the difference betwixt these things in another yet thou mayest and oughtest to discern it in thy self for what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man that is in him First Is my obedience uniform am I the same man in all times places and companies or rather am I not exact and curious in open and publick remiss and careless in private and secret duties sincere souls are uniform souls Psal. 119. 6. the hypocrite is no closet-man Mat. 6. 5. Secondly Doth that which I call grace in me oppose and mortifie or doth it not rather quietly consist with and protect my lusts and corruptions true grace tollerates no lust Gal. 5. 17. No not the bosom darling-corruption Psa. 18. 23. Thirdly Doth that which I call my grace humble empty and abase my soul or rather doth it not puff it up with self-conceitedness all saving grace is humble grace 1 Cor. 15. 10. But the soul which is lifted up is not upright Hab. 2. 4. Lastly Canst thou my soul rejoyce and bless God for the grace imparted to others and rejoyce if any design for Christ be carried on in world by other hands or rather dost thou not envy those that excel thee and carest for no work in which thou art not seen But stay my soul it is enough If these be the substantial differences betwixt special and common grace I more than doubt I shall not endure the day of his coming Whose fan is in his hand Do not those spots appear upon me which â—re not the spots of his children Wo is me poor wretch the characters of death are upon my soul Lord add power to the form life to the name to live practise to the knowledge or I perish eternally O rather give me the Saints heart than the Angels tongue the poorest breathing of thy Spirit than the richest ornaments of common gifts let me neither deceive my self or others in matters of so deep and everlasting consequence The Poem IN Eastern Countreys as good Authors write Tares in their springing up appear to sight Not like it self a weed but real wheat Whose shape and form it counterfeits so neat Though 't would require a most judicious eye The one from t'other to diversifie Till both to some maturity be grown And then the difference is eas'ly known Even thus hypocrisie that cursed weed Springs up so like true grace that he will need More than a common insight in this case That saith this is not that is real grace Ne're did the cunning Actor though a slave Array'd in princely robes himself behave So like a King as this doth act the part Of saving grace by its deep hellish art Do gracious souls melt mourn and weep for sin The like in hypocrites observ'd hath been Have they their comforts joyes and raptures sweet With them in comforts hypocrites do meet In all religious duties they can go As far as Saints in some things farther too They speak like Angels and you 'l think within The very spirit of Christ and grace hath bin They come so neer that some like Isaac take Iacob for Esau this for that mistake And boldly call their eyes with his being dim True grace hypocrisie and duty sin Yea many also Iacob like imbrace Leah for Rachel common gifts for grace And in their bosoms hug it till the light Discover their mistake and cleer their sight And then like him confounded they will cry Alas 't is Leah curs'd hypocrisie Guide me my God that I may not in stead Of saving grace nurse up this cursed weed O let my heart by thee at last be found Sincere and all thy workings on it sound CHAP. XIII Fowls weeds and blastings do your corn annoy Even so corruptions would your grace destroy OBSERVATION THere are amongst many others three critical and dangerous periods betwixt the seed-time and Harvest The first when corn is newly committed to the earth all that lyes uncovered is quickly pickt up by the birds and much of that which is but slightly covered is stockt up as soon as it begins to sprout by Rooks and other devouring fowls Mat. 13. 4. but if it escape the fowls and gets root in the earth yet then is it hazarded by noxious weeds which purloin and suck away its nourishment whilst it is yet in the tender blade If by the care of the vigilant Husbaâ—dman it be freed from choaking weeds yet lastly as great a danger as any of the former still attends it for oftentimes whilst it is blowing in the ear blastings and mildews smite it in the stalk which cuts off the juice and sap that should ascend to nourish the ear and so shrivels and dries up the grain whilst it is yet immature whereby it becomes like those ears of corn in Pharaohs vision which were thin and blasted with the East-wind or like the ears the Psalmist speaks of upon the house top wherewith the reaper filleth not his arms APPLICATION TRue grace from the infancy to the perfection thereof conflicts with far more greater dangers amongst which it answerably meets with three dangerous periods which marvellously hazard it So that it is a much greater wonder that it ever arrives at its just perfection For 1 no sooner hath the great Husbandman disseminated these holy seeds in the regenerate heart but multitudes of impetuous corruptions immediately assault and would cetainly devour them like the fowls of the air did not the same arm that sowed them also protect them It fares with grace as with Christ its Author whom Herod sought to destroy in his very infancy The new creature is scarce warm in its seat before it must fight to defend its self This conflict is excellently set forth in that famous Text Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would By flesh here understand the corruption of nature by original sin and the sinful motions thereof by spirit not the soul or natural spirit of man but the Spirit of God in man viz. those graces in men which are the workmanship of the Spirit and therefore called by his name The opposition betwixt these two is expressed by lusting i. e. desiring the mutual ruine and destruction of each other for even when they are not acting yet then they are lusting there is an opposite
when shall I return rejoyceing bringing my sheaves with me Their harvest comes when they receive their corn mine comes when I leave it O much desired harvest O day of the gladness of my heart How long Lord How long Here I wait as the poor man Bethesda's pool looking when my turn will come but every one steps into heaven before me yet Lord I am content to wait till my time be fully come I would be content to stay for my glorification till I have finisht the work of my generation and when I have done the will of God then to receive the promise If thou have any work on earth to use me in I am content to abide Behold the Husbandman waiteth and so will I for thou art a God of judgement and blessed are are all they that wait for thee But how doth my sloathful soul sink down into the flesh and settle it self in the love of this animal life How doth it hug and wrap up it self in the garment of this mortality not desiring to be removed hence to the more perfect and blessed state The Husbandman indeed is content to stay till the appointed weeks of the Harvest but would he be content to wait alwayes O my sensual heart is this life of hope as contentful to thee as the life of vision will be Why dost thou not groan within thy self that this mortality might be swallowed up of life Doth not the scripture describe the Saints by their earnest looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus unto eternal life Iude 21. By their hastening unto the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3. 12. What is the matter that my heart hangs back doth guilt lye upon my conscience Or have I gotten into a pleasant condition in the world which makes me say as Peter on the Mount It 's good to be here Or want I the assurance of a better state Must God make all my earthly comforts die before I shall be willing to die Awake Faith awake my Love heat up the drowzy desires of my soul that I may say make hast my Beloved and come away The Poem NO prudent Husbandman expects the fruit of what he sows Till every cause have its effects and then he reaps and mows He works in hope the year throughout and counts no labour lost If when the season comes about His harvest quits his cost This rare example justly may rebuke and put to shame My soul which sows its seed one day and looks to reap the same Is cursed nature now become so kind a soyl to grace That to perfection it should come within so short a space Grace springs not up with speed and ease like mushrooms in a night But rather by degrees increase as doth the morning light Is corn so dear to Husbandmen much more is heaven to me Why should not I have patience then to wait as well as he To promises appointed years by God's decrees are set These once expir'd beyond its fears my soul shall quickly get How small a part of hasty time Which quickly will expire Doth me within this world confine and then comes my desire Come Lord how long my soul hath gasp'd faith my affections warms O when shall my poor â—oul be clasp'd in its redeemers arms The time seems long yet here I 'le lye till thou my God do call It is enough eternity will make amends for all CHAP. XIX Corn fully ripe is reap'd and gather'd in So must your selves when ripe in grace or sin OBSERVATION VVHen the fields are white to harvest then Husbandmen walk through them rub the ears and finding the grain full and solid they presently prepare their Sithes and Sickles send for their harvestmen who quickly reap and mow them down and after these follow the binders who stitch it up from the field where it grew it 's carried to the Barn where it is threshed out the good grain gathered into an heap the chaff separated and burnt or thrown to the dunghil how bare and naked do the fields look after harvest which before were pleasant to behold When the harvest men enter into the field it is to allude to that Ioel 2. 3. before them like the garden of Eden and behind them a desolate wilderness and in some places its usual to set fire to the dry stubble when the corn is housed which rages furiously and covers it all with ashes APPLICATION THe Application of this I find made to my hands by Christ himself in Mat. 13. 38 39. The field is the world the good seed are the Children of the kingdom the tares are the children of the wicked one the enemy that sowed them is the devil the harvest is the end of the world the reapers are the Angels The field is the world there both the godly and ungodly live and grow together till they be both ripe and then they shall both be reaped down by death death is the Sickle that reaps down both I will open this Allegory in the following particulars In a catching harvest when the Husbandman sees the clouds begin to gather and grow black he hurries in his corn with all possible hast and houses day and night So doth God the great Husbandman he hurries the Saints into their graves when judgments are coming upon the world Isa. 57. 1. The righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Methusalah died the year before the flood Augustine a little before the sacking of Hippo Pareus just before the taking of Heidleberge Luther a little before the Wars brake out in Germany but what speak I of single Saints Sometimes the Lord houses great numbers together before some sweeping judgement comes How many bright and glorious stars did set almost together within the compass of a few years to the astonishment of many wise and tender hearts in England I find some of them ranked in a Funeral Elegy The learned Twisse went first it was his right Then holy Palmer Burroughs Love Gouge White Hill Whitaker grave Gataker and Strong Perâ—e Marshal Robinson all gone along I have not nam'd them half their only strife Hath been of late who should first part with life These few who yet survive sick of this age Long to have done their parâ—s and leave the stage The Lord sees it better for them to be under ground than above ground and therefore by a merciful providence sets them out of harms way Neither the corn or tares can possibly resist the sharp and keen Sickle when it 's applyed to them by the reâ—pers hand neither can the godly or ungodly resist the stroke of death when God inflicts it Ecclis 8. 8. No man can keep alive his own soul in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war The frail body of man is as
year if he plow not and sow not in the proper time he loses the harvest of that year 'T is even so as to spiritual seasons Christ neglected and grace despised in the season when God offers them are irrecoverably lost Prov. 1. 28. then that is when the season is over they shall call upon me but I will not hear O there is a great deal of time in a short opportunity that may be done or prevented in an hour rightly timed which cannot be done or prevented in a mans life-time afterwards There was one resolved to kill Iulius Caesar such a day the night before a friend sent him a letter to acquaint him with it but he being at supper and busie in discourse said to morrow is a new day and indeed it was dies novissima his last day to him whence it became a Proverb in Greece To morrow is a new day Our glass runs in heaven and we cannot see how much or little of the sand of God's patience is yet to run down but this is certain when that glass is run there is nothing to be done for our souls Luke 19. 42. O that thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are bid from thine eyes Those Husbandmen that are careful and laborious in the Summer have the comfort and benefit of it in Winter he that then provides fewel shall sit warm in his habitation when others blow their fingers He that provides food for his family and fodder for his cattel in the harvest shall eat the fruit of it and enjoy the comfort of his labours when others shall be exposed to shifts and straits And he that provides for eternity and layes up for his soul a good foundation against the time to come shall eat when others are hungry and sing when others howl Isa. 65. 13. A day of death will come and that will be a day of straits to all negligent souls but then the diligent Christian shall enjoy the peace and comfort that shall flow in upon his heart from his holy care and sincere diligence in duties as 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience that in all sincerity and godly simplicity we have had our conversation in this world So Hezekiah 2 King 20. 3. Remember now O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart A day of judgement will come and then â—oolish virgins who neglected the season of getting oyl in their lamps will be put to their shifts then they come to the wife and say give us of your oyl Mat. 25. 8 9. but they have none to spare and the season of buying is then over No wise Husbandman will neglect a fit opportunity of gathering in his hay and corn upon a presumption of much fair weather to come he will not say the weather is setled and I need not trouble my self though my corn and hay be fit for the house yet I may get it in another time as well as now And no wise Christian will lose a present season for his soul upon the hopes of much more time yet to come but will rather say now is my time and I know not what will be hereafter hereafter I may wish to see one of the dayes of the Son of man and not see it Luke 17. 22. 'T is sad to hear how cunning some men are to dispute themselves out of heaven as if the devil had hired them to plead against their own souls sometimes urging the example of those that were called at the eleventh hour Mat. 20. 6. and sometimes that of the penitent thief But O! to how little purpose is the former pleaded they that were called at the eleventh hour were never called before as these have been no man had hired that is called or invited them to Christ and for the thief as Mr. Fenner rightly observes it was a singular and extraordinary example It was done when Christ hang'd on the Cross and was to be inaugurated then Kings manifest such bounty and pardon such crimes as are never pardoned afterwards Besides God was then in a way of working miracles then he rent the rocks open'd the graves raised the dead and converted this thief but God is now out of that way REFLECTIONS I Have indeed been a good Husband for the world with what care and providence have I looked out for my self and family to provide food to nourish them and cloaths to defend them against the asperities of Winter mean while neglecting to make provision for eternity or take care for my soul. O my destitute soul how much have I slighted and undervalued thee I have taken more care for an horse or an ox than for thee a well stored-barn but an empty soul. Will it not shortly be with me as with that careless Mother who when her house was on fire busily bestir'd her self to save the goods but forgot the child though it were saved by another hand and then minding her child ran up and down like one distracted wringing her hands and crying O my child my child I have saved my goods and lost my child such will be the case of thee my soul Mat. 16. 26. Besides how easie will my conviction be at the Bar of Christ will not my providence and care for the things of this life leave me speechless and self-condemned in that day What shall I answer when the Lord shall say Thou couldst foresee a Winter and seasonably provide for it yea thou hadst so much care of thy very beasts to provide for their necessities and why tookest thou no care for thy soul was that only not worth the caring for Is it so dangerous to neglect a present proper season of grace What then have I done who have suffered many such seasons to die away in my hand upon a groundless hope of future opportunities Ah deluded wretch what if that supposition fail where am I then I am not the Lord of time neither am I sure that he who is will ever vouchsafe an hour of grace in old age to him that hath neglected many such hours in youth neither indeed is it ordinary for God so to do 'T is storied of Caius Marius Victorius who lived about 300 years after Christ and to his old age continued a Pagan but at last being convinced of the Christian verity he came to Simplicianus and told him he would be a Christian but neither he nor the Church could believe it it being so rare an example for any to be converted at his age But at last seeing it was real there was a shouting and gladness and singing of Psalms in all Churches the people crying Caius Marius Victorius is become a Christian. This was written for a wonder and what ground have I to think that God will work such wonders for me who have neglected his ordinary means of salvation Bless the Lord O my
to pray he will shew them how to curse and swear and take the name of the Lord in vain if you grudge time a pains about their souls the Devil doth not Oh 't is a sad consideration that so many children should be put to School to the devil What comfort are you like to have from them when they are old if you bring them not up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord when they are young Many Parents have lived to reap in their old age the fruit of their own folly and carelessâ—ess in the loose and vain education of their children By Lieurgus 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 any child be condemned to die for a capital offence 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 undoubted truth That that child which becomes through thy default an instrument to dishonour God shall prove sooner or later a son or daughter of sorrow to thee REFLECTIONS GOd hath found out my sin this day This hath been my practise ever since I had a family committed to my charge I have spent more time and pains about the bodies of my beasts then the souls of my children beast that I am for so doing little have I considered the preciousness of my own or their immortal souls How careful have I been to provide fodder to preserve my cattel in the Winter whilst I leave my own and their souls to perish to eternity and make no provision for them Surely my children will one day curse the time that ever they were born unto such a cruel fâ—ther or of such a merciless mother Should I bring home the plague into my family and live to see all my poor children lye dead by the walls if I had not the heart of a Tyger such a sight would melt my heart and yet the death of their souls by the sin which I propagated to them affects me not Ah that I could say I had done but as much for them as I have done for a beast that perisheth But unhappy wretch that I am God cast a better lot for me I am the off-spring of religious and tender Parents who have alwayes deeply concerned themselves in the everlasting state of my soul many prayers and tears have they poured out to God for me both in my hearing as well as in secret many holy and wholsom counsels have they from time to tome dropt upon me many precious examples have they set in their own practise before me many a time when I have sinned 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 slighted all their counsels grieved their hearts and imbittered their lives to them by my sinful courses Ah my soul thou art a degenerate Plant better will it be with the off-spring of infidels than with thee if repentance prevent not now I live in one family with them but shortly I shall be separated from them as far as hell is from heaven they now tenderly pity my misery but then they shall approve and applaud the righteous sentence of Christ upon me So little priviledge shall I then have from my relation to them that they shall be produced as witnesses against me and all their rejected counâ—els 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 sprang from the loyns of such Parents The Poem YOur cattel in fat pastures thrive and grow There 's nothing wanting that should make them so The pamper'd horse commends his Masters care Who neither pains or cost doth grudge of spare But art not thou mean while the veriest fool That pamper'st beasts and starv'st thy precious soul 'T were well if you could dye as now you live Like beasts and had no more account to give O that these lines your folly might detect Who both your own and childrens souls neglect To care for beasts O man prepare to hear The doleful'st language that e're 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 to me How did you spend your thoughts time care and cost About my body whilst my soul was lost Did you not know I had a soul that must Live when this body was resolv'd to dust You could not chuse but understand if I Without an interest in Christ did dye It needs must come to this O how could you Prove so remorsless and no pity shew Oh 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 lye Let this make every parent tremble lest He lose his child whilst caring for his beast Or lest his own poor soul do starve and pine Whilst he takes thoughts for Horses Sheep and kine CHAP. II. When under loads your beasts do groan think then How great a mercy 't is that you are men OBSERVATION THough 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 galled backs into the fields or high-wayes to shift for a little grass many times have I heard and pitied them groaning under unreasonable burdens and beaten on by merciless drivers till at last by such cruel usage they have been destroyed and then cast into a ditch for dogs meat APPLICATION SUch sights 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 esum only for food being no otherwise useful to man as swine c. these are only fed for slaughter 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 carriages 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 creatures a mercy able to melt the hardest heart into thankfulness I remember Luther pressing men to be thankful that they are not brought into the lowest condition of creatures and to bless God that they can see any creature below themselves 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 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 every heart when we behold the misery to which these poor creatures are subjected 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 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 embroydered with nerves and veins Was any part of the common lump of clay thus fashioned Galen gave Epicuâ—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 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 refreâ—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 What a narrow capacity hath God given to beasts what a large capacity to man Alas they are only capable of a little 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 REFLECTIONS HOw great a sin is ingratitude to God for such a common but choice mercy of Creation and provision for me in this world There is no creature made worse by kindness but man There is a kind of gratitude which I may observe even in these bruit beasts they do in their way acknowledge their benefactors The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib How ready are they to serve such as feed and cherish them but I have been Both unthankful and unserviceable to my Creator and Benefactor that hath done me good all my dayes those poor creatures that sweat and groan under the loads that I lay upon them never sinned against God nor transgressed the Laws of their Creation as I have done and yet God hath dealt better with me than with them Oh that the bounty of God and his distinguishing mercy between me and the beasts that perish might move and melt my heart into thankfulness O that I might consider seriously what the higher and more excellent end of my Creation is and might more endeavour to answer and live up to it Or else O my soul it will be worse with thee than with the beasts 'T is true they are under bondage and misery 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 groan to all eternity under a heavier burden than ever they felt they have no account to give but so have I. What comfort is it that I have a larger capacity than a beast hath that God hath endowed me with reason which is denied to me Alas this will but augment my misery and enlarge me to take in a greater measure of anguish But how many steps O my soul mayest thou ascend in the praises of thy God when thou considerest the mercies that God hath bestowed upon thee not only in that he made thee not a stone or tree without sense or an horse or dog without reason but that thou art not an infidel without light or an unregâ—nerate person without grace What! to have sense and all the delights of it which stones have not reason with the more high 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 of unconceivable glory and felicity which the unsanctified have not O my soul 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 same lump with the beasts that groan on earth yea with the damned that howl in hell well may I say that God hath been a good God to me The Poem WHen I behold a tyred Iade put on With whip and spur till all his strength be gone See streams of sweat run down his bleeding sides How little marcy's shewn by him that rides If I more thankless to my God don't prove Than such a Rider's merciless 't will move My soul to praise for who sees this and can But bless the Lord that he was
man appears When you have recovered and brought home your lost cattel you may lose them the second time and never recover them again but so cannot Christ. Man once recovered is for ever secured by him All that thou â—ast given me I have kept and not one of them is lost but the son of perdition and he was never savingly found Ioh. 17. 12. Though you prize your cattel yet you will not venture your life for the recovery of them rather let them go than regain them with such an hazard but Iesus Christ not only ventured but actually laid down his life to recover and save lost man He redeemed them at the price of his own blood he is that good Shepherd that laid down his life for the Sheep O the surpassing love of Christ to lost souls REFLECTIONS LOrd I am a lost creature an undone soul and herein lyes my misery that I have not only lost my God but have no heart to return to him Nay I fly from Christ who is come on purpose from heaven to seek and to save me his Messengers are abroad seeking for such as I am but I avoid them or at least refuse to obey their call and perswasions to return Ah what a miserable state am I in every step I go is a step towards hell my soul with the Prodigal is ready to perish in a strange Countrey but I have no mind with him to return home wretched soul what will the end of this be If God have lost thee the Devil hath found thee he takes up all strayers from God yea death and hell will shortly find thee if Christ do not and then thy recovery O my soul will be impossible Why sit I here perishing and dying I am not yet as irrecoverably lost as the damned are O let me delay no longer lest I be lost for ever O my soul for ever bless and admire the love of Iesus Christ who came from heaven to seek and save such a lost soul as I was Lord how marvellous how matchless is thy love I was lost and am found I am found and did not seek nay I am found by him from whom I fled Thy love O my Saviour was a preventing love a wonderful love thou lovedst me much more than I loved my self I was cruel to my own soul but thou wast kind thou soughtest for me a lost sinner and not for lost Angels thy hand of grace caught hold of me and hath let go thousands and ten thousands as good as my self by nature Like another David thou didst rescue my poor lost soul out of the mouth of the destroyer yea more than so thou dist lose thine own life to find mine And now dear Iesus since I am thus marvellously recovered shall I ever straggle again from thee O let it for ever be a warning to me how I turn aside into by-paths of sin any more The Poem VVHen cattel from your fields are gone astray and you to seek them through the Country ride Enquiring for them all along the way tracking their foot-steps where they turn'd aside One servant this way sent another that searching the fields and countrey round about This meditation now falls in so pat as if God sent it to enquire you out My beasts are lost and so am I by sin my wretched soul from God thus wandring went And I seek them so was I sought by him who from the fathers bosom forth was sent Pursu'd by Sermons Follow'd close by grace and strong convictions Christ hath sought for me Yea though I shun him still he gives me chase as if resolv'd I should not damned be When Angels lost themselves it was not so God did not seek or once for them enquire But said let these Apostate creatures go I 'le plague them for it with eternal fire Lord what am I that thou shouldst set thine eyes and still seek after such a wretch as I Whose matchless mercy and rich grace despise as if in spight thereof resolv'd to die Why should I shun thee blessed Saviour why should I avoid thee thus thou dost not chase My soul to slay it O that ever I should fly a Saviour that 's so full of grace Long hast thou sought me Lord I now return O let thy bowels of compassion sound For my departure I sincerely mourn and let this day thy wandring sheep be found CHAP. IV. Fat beasts you kill the lean you use to save God's dispensations some such meaning have OBSERVATION IT is a good Observation of a Father and well applied Vituli triturantes quotidie ligantur vituli mactandi quotidie in pascuis libere relinquntur Oxen for use are daily yoaked and kept short whilst those that are designed for the shambles are let loose in green pastures to fed at pleasure Store beasts fare hard and are kept lean and low feeding beasts are excused from the yoak whilst others are laboured and wrought hard every day the one hath more than he can eat the other would eat more if he had it APPLICATION THus deals the Lord oft-times with his own elect whom he designs for glory and with the wicked who are preparing for the day of wrath Thus are they filled with earthly prosperity and creature-enjoyments like resâ—y and wanton beasts turned out at liberty in a fat pasture whilst poor Saints are kept hard and short Amos. 1. 4. Hear this word ye kine of Bashan that are in the mountains of 〈◊〉 which oppress the poor and crush the needy These metaphorical kine are the prosperous oppressors of the world full fed and wanton wicked men ' This true heaven hath not all the poor nor hell all the rich but it s a very common dispensation of providence to bâ—stow most of the things of this world upon them that have no portion in heaven and to keep them short on earth for whom that kingdom is provided Let me draw forth the similitude in a few particulars The beasts of slaughter have the fâ—ttest pastures so have the ungodly in the world Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish Psal. 73. 7. their hearts are as fat as grease Psal. 119. 7. These be they that fleet off the cream of earthly enjoyments whose bellies are filled with hidden treasures Psal. 17. 14. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked Iob 9. 24. O what full estates what an affluence of earthly delights hath God cast in upon some wicked men there is much wantonness but no want in their dwellings Some that now know not which way to turn themselves in hell once knew not where to bestow their goods on earth Feeding beasts grow wanton in their full pastures there you shall see them tumble and frisk and kick up their heels The same effect hath the prosperity of the wicked it makes them wanton their life is but a diversion from one pleasure to another Iob. 21. 11
their own necessities while living but to lay up something for their posterity when they are gone they do not only leave to their children what their progenitors left them but they desire to leave it improved and bettered None but bad husbands and spend-thirfts are of the mind with that Heathen Emperor Tiberius who having put all into such confusions in the Empire that it might be thought the world would end with him yet pleased himself with this apprehension that he should be out of the reach of it and would often say When I am dead let heaven and earth mingle if the world will but hold my time let it break when I am gone But provident men look beyond their own time and do very much concern themselves in the good or evil of their posterity APPLICATION VVHat careful Husbands do with respect to the provisions they make for their children that all prudent Christians are bound to do with respect to the truths committed to them and do them to be transmitted to succeeding Saints In the first age of the world even till the Law was given faithful men were instead of books and records they did by oral tradition convey the truths of God to posterity but since the sacred truth hath been consigned the writing no such tion except full consentient with that written word is to be received as authentick but the truths therein delivered to the Saints are by verbal declarations open confessions and constant sufferings to be preserved and delivered from age to age This was the constant care of the whole cloud of witnesses both ancient and modern who have kept the word of Gods patience and would not accept their own lives liberties or estates no nor the whole world in exchange for that invaluable treasure of truth they have carefully practised Solomons counsel Prov. 23. 23. Buy the truth but sell it not they would not alienate that fair inheritance for all the inheritances on earth Upon the same reasons that you are refuse to part with or embezel your estates Christians also refuse to part with the truths of God You will not waste or alienate your inheritance because it 's precious and of great value in your eyes but much more precious are Gods truths to his people Luther professed he would not take the whole world for one leaf of his Bible Though some profane persons may say with Pilate What is truth yet know that any one truth of the Gospel is more worth than all the inheritances upon earth they are the great things of Gods Law and he that sells them for the greatest things in this world makes a soul-undoing bargain You will not waste or part with your inheritance because you know your posterity will be much wronged by it They that baffle or drink away an estate drink the tears of their sad widows and the very blood of their impoverished children The people of God do also consider how much the generations to come are concern'd in the conservation of the truths of God for them it cuts them to the heart but to think that their children should be brought up to worship dumb idols and fall down before a wooden or a breaden God The very birds and beasts will expose their own bodies to apparent danger of death to preserve their young Religion doth much more intender the heart and bowels than nature doth You reckon it a foul disgrace to sell your estates and beâ—â—me Bankrupts 't is a word that hears ill among you And a Christian accounts it the highest reproach in the world to be a traitor to or an Apostate from the truths of God When the primitive Saints were strictly required to deliver up their Bibles those that did so were justly branded and husht out of their company under the odiou title of Traditores or deliverers You are so loath to part with your â—states because you know its hard recovering an estate again when once you have lost it Christians do also know how difficult it will be for the people of God in times to come to recover the light of the Gospel again if once it be exinguished There is no truth of God recovered out of Antichrists hands without great wrestlings and much blood The Church may call every point of reformed doctrine and discipline so recovered her Napâ—â—alies for with great wrestlings she hath wrestled for them Earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to them Iude 3. To conclude rather than you will part with your estates you will chuse to suffer many wants and hardships all your lives you will fare hard and go bare to preserve what you have for your posterity But the people of God have put themselves upon far greater hardships than these to preserve truth they have chosen to suffer reproaches poverty prisons death and the most cruel torments rather than the loss of Gods truth All the Martyrologies will inform you what their sufferings have been to keep the word of Gods patience they have boldly told their enemies that they might pluck their hearts out of their bodies but should never pluck the truth out of their hearts REFLECTIONS BAse unbelieving heart how have I flinched and shrunk from truth when it hath been in danger I have rather chosen to leave it than my life liberty or estate as a prey to the enemy I have left truth and just it is that the God of truth should leave me Cowardly soul that durst not make a stand for truth yea rather bold and daring soul that wouldst rather venture to look a wrathful God than an angry man in the face I would not own and preserve the truth and the God of truth will not own me 2 Tim. 2. 12. If we deny him he will deny us Lord unto me hast thou committed the precious treasure and trust of truth and as I received it so do I desire to deliver it to the generations to come that the people which are yet unborn may praise the Lord. God forbid I should ever part with such a fair inheritance and thereby begger my own and thousands of souls Thou hast given me thy truth and the world hates me I well know that is the ground of the quarrel would I but throw truth over the walls how soon would a retreat be sounded to all presecutors But Lord thy truth is invaluably precious what a vile thing is my blood compared with the least of all thy truths Thou hast charged me to sell it and in thy strength I resolve never to lift a fine and cut off that golden line wherey thy truths are entailed upon thy people from generation to generation My friends may go my liberary go my blood may go but as for thee precious truth thou shalt never go How dear hath this inheritance of truth cost some Christians how little hath it cost us We are entred into their labours we reap in peace what they sowed in tears yea in blood O the grievous sufferings
the prejudice of his truth O what rich grace is here that in a general Shipwrack mercy should cast forth a line or plank to save me that when millions perish I with a few more should escape that perdition Was it the Fathers good pleasure to bestow the kingdom upon a little flock and to make me one of that number What singular obligations hath mercy put upon my soul the fewer are saved the more cause have they that are to admire their Saviour If but one of a thousand had been damned yet my salvation would have been an act of infinite grace but when scarce one of a thousand are saved what shall I call that grace that cast my lot among them The Poem HE that with spiritual eyes in Autumn sees The heaps of fruit which fall from shaken trees Like storms of hailstones and can hardly find One of a thousand that remains behind Methinks this Meditation should awake His soul and make it like those trees to shake Of all the clusters which so lately grew Upon these trees how few can they now shew Here one and there another two or three Upon the outmost branches of the tree The greatest numbers to the pound are born Squeez'd in the trough and all to pieces torn This little handful's left to shadow forth To me Gods remnant in this peopl'd earth If o're the whole terrestrial globe I look The Gospel visits but a little nook The rest with horrid darkness overspread Are fast asleep yea in transgressions dead Whole droves to hell the devil daily drives Not one amongst them once resists or strives And in this little heaven-inlightned spot How vast an interest hath Satan got But few of holiness profession make And if from those that do prosess I take The self-deluding hypocrites I fear To think how few remain that are sincere O tax not mercy that it saves so few But rather wonder that the Lord should shew Mercy to any quarrel not with grace But for they self Gods gracious terms embrace When all were Shipwrackt thou shouldst wonder more To find thy self so strangely cast ashore And there to meet with any that can tell How narrowly they also scap'd from hell The smaller numbers mercy saves the higher Ingagements lye on thee still to admire Had the whole species perish'd in their sin And not one individual saved bin Yet every tongue before him must be mute Confess his righteousness but not dispute Or had the hand of mercy which is free Taken another and pass'd over me I still must justifie him and my tongue Confess my maker had done me no wrong But if my name he please to let me see Enroll'd among those few that saved be What admiration should such mercy move What thanks and praise and everlasting love CHAP. IV. Dead barren Trees you for the fire prepare In such a case all fruitless persons are OBSERVATION AFter many years patience in the use of all means to recover a fruit Tree if the Husbandman see it be quite dead and that there can be no more expectation of any fruit from it he brings his ax and hews it down by the root and from the Orchard it s carried to the fire it being then fit for nothing else he reckons it imprudent to let such a useless tree abide in good ground where another might be planted in its room that will better pay for the ground it stands in I my self once saw a large Orchard of fair but fruitless trees all rooted up rived abroad and ricked up for the fire APPLICATION THus deals the Lord by useless and barren Professors who do but cumber his ground Mat. 3. 10. And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire And Luke 13. 7. Then said the dresser of the vineyard Behold this three years I came seeking fruit on this â—ig-tree and find none cut it down why cumbereth it the ground These three years alluding to the time of his Ministery he being at that time entring upon his last half year as one observes by harmonizing the Evangelists so long he had waited for the fruit of his Ministery among those dead-hearted Iews now his patience is even at an end cut them down saith he why cumber they the ground I will plant others viz. the Gentiles in their room This hewing down of the barren tree doth in a lively manner shadow forth Gods judicial proceedings against formal and empty Professors under the Gospel and the resemblance clearly holds in these following particulars The tree that is to be hewen down for the fire stands in the Orchard among other flourishing trees where it hath enjoyed the benefit of a good soyl a strong fence and much culture but being barren these priviledges secure it not from the fire It is not our standing in the visible church by a powerless profession among real Saints with whom we have been associated and enjoyed the rich and excellent waterings of Ordinances that can secure us from the wrath of God Mat. 3. 8. 9. Bring forth fruits meet for repentance and think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our father Neither Abraham nor Abrahams God will acknowledge such degenerate children if Abrahams faith be not in your hearts it will be no advantage that Abrahams bloud runs in your veins 'T will be a poor plea for Iudas when he shall stand before Christ in judgment to say Lord I was one of thy family I preached for thee I did eat and drink in thy presence Let these Scriptures be consulted Mat. 7. 22. Mat. 25. 11 12. Rom. 2. 17. ad 25. The Husbandman doth not presently cut down the tree because it puts not forth as soon as other trees do but waits as long as there is any hope and then cuts it down Thus doth God wait upon barren dead-hearted persons from Sabbath to Sabbath and from year to year for the Lord is long-suffering to us-ward and not willing that any should periâ—h but all come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. Thus the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah upon those dry trees who are now smoaking and flaming in hell 1 Pet. 3. 20. He waits long on sinners but keeps exact accounts of every year and day of his patience Luke 13. 7 These three years And Ier. 25. 3. These 23 years When the time is come to cut it down the dead tree cannot possibly resist the stroke of the ax but receives the blow and falls before it No more can the stoutest sinner resist the fatal stroke of death by which the Lord hews him down Eccles. 8. 8. There is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war When the pale horse comes
away you must into the land of darkness Though thou cry with Adrian O my poor soul whither art thou going die thou must thou barren Professor though it were better for thee to do any thing else than to die What a dreadful screech will thy conscience give when it sees the ax at thy root and say to thee as it is Ezek. 7. 6. An end is come the end is come it watcheth for thee behold it is come O said Henry Beauford that rich and wretched Cardinal Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England when he perceived whereto he must wherefore must I die If the whole Realm would save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it Fye quoth he will not death be hired will riches do nothing No neither riches nor policy can then avail That side to which the Tree leaned most while it stood that way it will fall when it is cut down and as it falls so it lies whether to the South or North Eccles. 11. 3. So it fares with these mystical trees I mean fruitless Professors Had their hearts and affections inclined and bended heaven-ward whilst they lived that way no doubt they had fallen at their death but as their hearts inclined to sin and ever bended to the world so when God gives the fatal stroke they must fall hell-ward and wrath-ward and how dreadful will such a fall be When the dead tree is carried out of the Orchard it shall never be among the living trees of the Orchard any more many years it grew among them but now it shall never have a place there again And when the barren Professor is carried out of the world by death he shall never be associated with the Saints any more He may then say farewell all ye Saints among whom I lived and with whom I so often heard fasted prayed I shall never see your faces more Mat. 8. 11 12. I say unto you that many shall come from the East and West and North and South and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of heaven but the children of the Kingdom shall be cast forth into outer darkness there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth When the dead tree is carried out of the Orchard the Husbandman cuts off his branches and rives him asunder with his wedges This also is the lot of barren Professors The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and will cut him asunder he shall be diffected or cut abroad Luke 12. 46. Now therefore consider this ye that forget God leâ—t I tear or rend you in pieces Psal. 50. 22. O direful day when the same hand which planted pruned and watered thee so long and so tenderly shall now strike mortal strokes at thee and that without pity For be that made them will not have mercy on them and be that formed them will shew them no favour Iâ—a 27. 11. For the day of mercy is over and the day of his wrath is fully come When this tree is cleav'd abroad then itsi rotten hollow inside appears which was the cause of its barrenuess it looked like a Fair and sound bodied tree but now all may see how rotten it is at the heart So will God in that day when he shall diâ—â—ect the barren Professor discover the rottenness of his heart and unâ—oundness of his principles and ends then they who never suspected him before shall see what a hollow and rotten-hearted Professor he was Lastly the fruitless tree is cast into the fire This also is the end and sad issue of formality Iohn 15. 6. He is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned This is an undouâ—tâ—d truth That there is no plant in Gods vineyard but he will have glory from it by bearing fruit or glory on it by burning in the fire In this fire shall they lye gnashing their teeth Luke 13. 38. and that both in indignation against the Saints whom they shall see in glory and against Iesus Christ who would not save them and against themselves for losing so foolishly the opportunities of salvation Do you behold when you sit by the fire the froth that boyles out of those flaming logs O think of that some and rage of these undone creatures foaming and gnashing their teeth in that fire which is not quenched Mark 9. 44. REFLECTION HOw often have I passed by such barren trees with a more barren heart as little thinking such a tree to be the emblem of my self as Nebuchadnezzâ—r did when he saw that tree in a dream which represented himself and shadowed forth to him his ensuing misery Dan. 4. 13. But Oh my conscience my drousie sleepy conscience wert thou but tender and faithful to me thou wouldst make as round and terrible an application of such a spectacle to me as the faithful Prophet did to him v. 22. And thus wouldst thou O my soul bemoan thy condition Poor wretch here I grow for a little time among the trees of righteousness the plants of renown but I am none of them I was never planted a right seed some green and flourishing leaves of profession indeed I have which deceive others but God cannot be deceived he sees I am fruitless and rotten at the heart Poor soul what will thine end be but burning Behold the axlyeth by thy root and wonder it is that there it should lye so long and I yet standing still mercy pleads for a fruitless creature Lord spare it one year longer Alas he need strike no great blow to ruine me his very breath blows to destruction Iob 4. 9. a frown of his face can blast and ruine me Psal. 80. 6. he is daily sollicited by his justice to hew me down and yet I stand Lord cure my barrenness I know thou hadst rather see fruit than fire upon me The Poem IF after pains and patience you can see No hopes of fruit down goes the barren tree You will not suffer trees that are unsound And barren too to cumber useful ground The fatal ax is laid unto the root It 's fit for fire when unfit for fruit But though this be a dead and barren tree Reader I would not have it so to thee May it to thee this serious thought suggest In all the Orchard this dead tree's the best Think on it sadly lay it close to heart This is the case in which thou wast or art If so thou wast but now dost live and grow And bring forth fruit what praise and thanks dost ow To that wise Husbandman that made thee so O think when justice listed up its hand How mercy did then interceding stand How pity did on thy behalf appear To beg reprieval for another year Stop Lord forbear him all hope is not past He can but be for fire at the last Though many