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
of earthly things That Underfoot doe lye Noe Bird that flyes beneath the skies But by this holy craft will lend a feather To help it thither And give the heart a waft The string and stone shews every one When faith mounts up and sings How carnall sence can draw it hence Pinnion and clip its wings Birds beasts and trees teach mysteries If sinners be not blocks They 'l quickly mend when God doth send Teachers in droves and Flocks T Cross sculpsit THE EPISTLE TO THE Intelligent Countrey READER THOV hast here the fruit of some of my spare hours which were thus imployed when by a sad providence I was thrust from the society of many dear friends into a solitary countrey dwelling I hope none will envy me these innocent delights which I made out of my lonely walks whereby the Lord sweetned my solitudes there 'T is like thou wilt find some passages here that are harmlesly pleasant yet I assure thee I know of none that the most Cynical Reader can censure as sinfully light and vain I must acknowledge to the praise of God that I have found some of those which possibly some of my Readers will call the slightest and most trifling subjects of meditation to be the Ordinances for Instruction Caution and Consolation to my own soul yea such a degree of comfort I do profess to have found by these things as hath much endeared the countrey life to me and made me much better to understand that saying of Horace than when I learn'd it at school Novistine locum potiorem rure beato Est ubi plus tapeant hyems ubi gracior aura O rus quando te ad spiciam quandoque licebit Nunc veterum libris nunc somno inertibus hortis Ducere solicitae jucunda oblivio vitae i. e. What life can with the Country life compare Where breaths the purest and most healthful Air. Where undisturb'd my studies I pursue And when I sleep bid all my cares adieu And what I have found so beneficial to my self I cannot but think may be so to others I assure thee Reader I am not fond of any of these conceptions and yet I think I may modestly enough say that the emptiest leaf in this book may serve for more and better uses than a meer diversion when thou canst find leisure to peruse it I know your troubles and cares are many and though your condition of lif hath many innocent comforts and outward mercies to sweeten it yet I believe most of you have found that ancient saying of Anaxion experimentally true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some bitter troubles Countrey men do meet Wherewith the Lord doth intermix their sweet The cares of your minds are commonly no less than the paines of your Bodies it concerns you therefore to sweeten what you cannot avoid and I know no better way for that than what is here directed to O friends what advantages have you for a spiritual life Why may you not have two harvests every year one for your Souls another for you bodies if you could thus learn to husband your Husbandry Methinks spiritual Meditations do even put themselves upon you Husbandmen of old were generally presumed to be honest and good men what else means that saying of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Profess thy self an Husbandman And wicked too believ 't that can What you are godly or wicked is not for me that am a stranger to most of you to determine but if you are not godly it s my desire design to make you so and I could not think on a more probable means to accomplish this honest design than what I have here used Methinks it should be a pleasure to you when you come weary out of the fields from plow or any other labour to sit down in the evening and read that chapter which concerns that particulars business refresh your Souls even from that which hath wearied your bodies Were your hearts but heavenly more time allowed for spiritual husbandry your inward comforts would be much more your out ward gains not a jot less for it the success of all your civil labours and imployments depend upon the pleasure will of God as all that are not Atheists do acknowledge then certainly your business can succeed never the worse for your endeavours to please him upon whose pleasure it so intirely depends I have many times liâ—ted up my heart to heaven whilst these papers were under my hand for a special blessing to accompany them when they should be in yours If the Lord accomplish my desires by them upon your souls you shall enjoy two heavens one here and another hereafter Would not that be sweet The Historian tells us that Altitius Serarius was sowing corn in the field when Q. Cincinnatus came to him bare headed with letters from the Senate signifying that he was chosen to the Dictatorship I hope the Lord will so bless and succeed these labours that many of you will be called from holding the Plow on earth to wear the Crown of glory in heaven which is the sincere desire Of Your hearty Well-wisher IOHN FLAVELL THE AUTHOR TO THE READER COme you whose listning ears do even itch To hear the way prescrib'd of growing rich I 'le shew you how to make your Tenements Ten thousand times more worth and yet your rents Not rais'd a farthing here my Reader sees A way to make his dead and barren trees Yield precious fruit his Sheep though ne're so bad Bear golden fleeces such ne're Iason had In every thing your gain shall more than double And all this had with far less toyl and trouble Methinks I hear thee say this cannot be I 'le ne're believe it well read on and see Reader hadst thou but senses exercis'd To judge aright were spiritual things but priz'd At their just value thou wouldst quickly say 'T is so indeed thou wouldst not go thy way Like one that 's disappointed and so fling The book aside I though 't was some such thing Time was when Countrey Christians did afford More hours and pains about God's holy Word Witness the man who did most gladly pay For some few leaves his whole Cart load of Hay And time shall be when heavenly truth that warms The heart â—hall be prefer'd before your Farms When HOLINESS as sacred Scripture tells Shall be engraven on the Horses bells Lord hasten on those much desired times And to that purpose bless these rural Rimes THE PROEM 1 COR. 3. 9. Ye are God's Husbandry THE scope and design of the following Chapters being the spiritual improvement of Husbandry it will be necessary by way of Proem to acquaint the Reader with the Foundation and general Rules of this Art in the Scriptures thereby to procure greater respect unto and prevent prejudice against composures of this kind To this end I shall entertain the Reader a little while upon what this Scripture affords us which will give a fair Introduction
NO such reward from man Shall others WORK and not regard Their strength TO get a small reward Whilst we TURN slugs and loyter thus Oh that THEIR zeal might quicken us Why are our HANDS and feet so slow When we UNTO our business go How can we THEN Christ's pay expect And yet the CHRISTIANS work reject If this then ALSO that embrace Them both IF not we both disgrace Some if THEY could these two divide T' would PLEASE them well with Christ to side But if they MAY not then it were As good CEASE pleading they 'l not hear Rouze up FROM sloth my soul betake Thee to thy WORK no cavils make O strive AND try Saints say that even The pain they TAKE hath much of heaven But yet THEIR best wine 's kept till last Their rest and EASE comes all so fast CHAP. II. The hardest labourers are the thriving men If you 'l have thriving souls be active then OBSERVATION INdustry and diligence is the way to thrive and grow rich in the world The earth must be manured or its increase is in vain expected Qui fugit molam fugit farinam he that refuses the mill refuses the meal saith the Proverb the diligent soul shall be made fat Solomon hath two proverbs concerning thriftiness and increase in the world In Prov. 10. 4. he saith The hand of the diligent maketh rich And v. 22. he saith The blessing of the Lord maketh rich These are not contradictory but confirmatory each of other one speaks of the principal the other of the instrumental cause Diligence without Gods blessing will not do it and that blessing cannot be expected without diligence therefore Husbandmen ply their business with unwearied pains they do even lodge in the midst of their labours as that good Husband Boaz did Ruth 2. 3. they are parsimonious of their time but prodigal of their sweat and strength because they find this to be the thriving way APPLICATION AS nature opens her treasures to none but the diligent so neither doth grace He that will be rich must be a painful Christian and whosoever will closly ply the trade of godliness shall comfortably and quickly find That in keeping Gods commands there is great reward Psal. 19. 11. God is a bountiful rewarder of such as diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. They must not indeed work for wages nor yet will God suffer their work to go unrewarded yea it sufficiently rewards it self 1 Tim. 6. 6. and its reward is twofold 1 present and in part 2 future and in full Mark 10. 29 30. Now in this time an hundred-fold even from suffering which seems the most unprofitable part of the work and in the world to come life everlasting If you ask what present advantage Christians have by their diligence I answer as much and more than the Husbandman hath from all his toyls and labours Let us compare the particulars and see what the Husbandman gets that the Christian gets not also Compare your gains and you 'l quickly see the odds You get credit and reputation by your diligence 't is a commendation and honour to you to be active and stirring men But how much more honour doth God put upon his laborious servants 'T is the highest honour of a creature to be active and useful for its God Saints are called vessels of honour as they are fitted for the Masters use 2 Tim. 2. 21. Wherein consists the honour of Angels but in this that they are ministring spirits serviceable creatures And all the Apostles gloried in the title of servants The lowest office in which a man can serve God even that of a Nethinim or door-keeper which was the lowest order or rank of officers in the house of God Ezek. 44. 10 11. is yet preferred by David before the service of the greatest Prince on earth Psal. 84. 10. 'T is no small honour to be active for God You have this benefit by your labour that thereby you avoid loose and evil company which would draw you into mischief By diligence for God the Christian also is secured from temptations God is with them while they are with him 2 Chron. 15. 2. Communion with God in the way of duty is a great preservative against temptations The School-men put the question how the Angels and glorified Saints become impeccant and resolve it thus That they are secured from sin by the beatifical vision and sure-I am that the visions of God not only in glory but now also in duty are marvellous defences against sin and they that are most active for God have the fullest and clearest visions of God Ioh. 14. 21. You have this benefit by your labour that it tends much to the health of your bodies The Christian hath this benefit by his labour that it tends to a faithful state of soul The way of the Lord is strength to the upright Prov. 10. 29. As those that follow their daily labours in the field have much more health than Citizens that live idly or Scholars that live a sedentary life So the active Christian enjoys more spiritual health and is troubled with fewer complaints than others By diligence in your civil imployments you preserve your estates and are kept from running behind-hand in the world Bayliffs trouble not such mens doors they usually have the fore-foot of their neighbours And by activity and diligence for God souls are kept from backsliding and runing back in their graces and comforts Remissions and intermissions in our duties are the first steps and degrees by which a soul declines and wastes as to his spiritual estate Your pains and diligence in the fields makes your beds sweet to you at night Eccl. 5. 12. Rest is sweet to a labouring man whether he eat little or much But the diligent life of a Christian makes the clods of the valley his grave sweet unto him 2 Cor. 1. 12. 2 King 20. 3. Remember now O Lord how I have walked before thee c. Think Christian how sweet it will be for thee when thou comest to dye to say then as thy Redeemer did when near his death Ioh. 17. 4 5. I have finished the work thou gavest me to do and now O Father glorifie me with thine own self The expence of your sweat fills your purses you get estates by your diligence and labour but what are your gains to the gains of Christians They can get in an hour that which they will not part with for all the gold and silver on earth Prov. 3. 14. So that compare these labourers as to all their advantages and you shall see that there is no trade like that which the diligent Christian drives REFLECTIONS Blush then O my soul at the consideration of thy laziness and sloth which is attended with so many spiritual wants and can I wonder at it when I refuse the painful way of duty in which the precious fruits of Godliness are
water is mixt together this mixture makes mire So when the truths of God do mix with the corruptions of men that they either hold some truths and yet live in their lusts or else when men do make use of the truths of God to justifie and plead for their â—inâ— Or 3 When as in a miry place the longer the water stands in it the worse it grows so the longer men abide under Ordinances the more filthy and polluted they grow These are the miry places that cannot be healed their disease is incurable desperate O this is a sad case and yet very common Many persons are thus given over as incorrigible and hopeless Rev. 22. 1â— Let him that is filthy be filthy still Ier. 6. 29. Reprobate silver shall men call them for the Lord hath rejected them Isa. 6. Go make the heart of this people fat their ears dull c. Christ executes by the Gospel that curse upon many souls which he denounced against the figtree Mat. 21. 19. Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever and immediately the fig-tree withered away To be given up to such a condition is a fearful judgement indeed a curse with a witness the sum of all plagues miseries and judgments a fatal stroke at the root it self It 's a wo to have a bad heart saith one but it 's the depth of wo to have a heart that shall never be made better To be barren under the Gospel is a sore judgement but to have that pertinax sterilitâ—s a pertinacious barrenness this is to be twice dead and pluckt up by the root as Iude speaks And to shew you the woful and miserable state and plight of such men let the following particulars be weighed 1 It s a stroke at the soul it self an inward spiritual judgement and by how much the more inward and spiritual any judgement is by so much the more dreadful and lamentable As soul mercies are the best of mercies so soul-judgements are the saddest of all judgements If it were but a temporal stroke upon the body the loss of an eye an ear a hand a foot though in it self it would be a considerable loss yet it were nothing to this Omnia Deus dedit duplicia saith Chrysostom speaking of bodily members God hath given men double members two eyes if one be lost the other supplies its wants two hands two ears two feet that the failing of one may be supplyed by the help of the other animam vero unam but one soul if that perish there is not another to supply its loss The soul saith a Heathen is the man that which is seen is not the man The Apostle calls the body a vile body Phil. 3. 21. and so it is compared with the soul and Daniel calls it the Sheath which is but a contemptible thing to the sword which is in it O it were far better that many bodies perish than one soul that every member were made the seat and subject of the most exquisite torture than such a judgement should fall upon the soul. 2 It 's the severest stroke God can inflict upon the soul in this life to give it up to barrenness because it cuts off all hopes frustrates all means nothing can be a blessing to him If one come from the dead if Angels should descend from heaven to preach to him there is no hope of him If God shut up a man who can open Iob 12. 14. As there was none found in heaven or earth that could open the seals of that book Rev. 5. 5. so is there no opening by the hand of the most able and skilful Ministry those seals of hardness blindness and unbelief thus impressed upon the spirit Whom jâ—stice so locks up mercy will never let out This is that which makes up the Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16. 22. which is the dreadfullest curse in all the book of God cacursed till the Lord come 3 'T is the most indiscernable stroke to themselves that can be and by that so much the more desperate Hence there is said to be powred out upon them the spirit of slumber Isa. 29. 10. The Lord hath powred out upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes Montanus renders it The Lord hath mingled upon you the spirit of deep sleep And so it is an allusion to a soporiferous Medicine mingled and made up of opium and such like stupifactive ingredients which casts a man into such a dead sleep that do what you will to him he feels he knows it not Make their eyes heavy and their ears dull lest they should see and hear and be converted Isa. 6. 9 10. This is the heart which cannot repent which is spoken of Rom. 2. 5. For men are not sensible at all of this judgment they do not in the least suspect it and that is their misery Though they be cursed trees which shall never bear any fruit to life yet many times they bear abundance of other fair and pleasant fruits to the eye excellent gifts and rare endowments And these deceive and undo them Mat. 7. 22. We have prophecyed in thy name this makes the wound desperate that there is no finding of it no probe to search it 4 'T is a stroke that cuts off from the soul all the comfort and sweetness of Religion A man may pray hâ—ar and confer but all those duties are dry stalks unto him which yield no meat no solid substantial nutriment some common touches upon the affections he may sometimes find in duty the melting voice or Rhetorick of the Preacher may perhaps strike his natural affections as another Tragical story pathetically delivered may do but to have any real communion with God in Ordinances any discoveries or views of the beauty of the Lord in them that he cannot have for these are the special effects and operations of the Spirit which are alwayes restrained God hath said to such as he did to them Gen. 6. 3. My spirit shall no longer strive with them and then what sweetness is there in Odinances What is the word separated from the Spirit but a dead Letter it's the Spirit that quickens 2 Cor. 3. 2. Friend thou must know that the Gospel works not like a natural cause upon those that hear it if so the efâ—â—ct would alwayes follow unless miraculously stopt and hindred but it works like a moral instituted cause whose efficacy and success depends upon the arbitrary concurrence of the Spirit with it The wind blows where it listeth so is evâ—ry one that is born of the Spirit Ioh. 3. 8. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth Ordinances are as the pool of Bethesda which had its healing vertue only when the Angel moved the waters but the spirit never moves savingly upon the waters of Ordinances for the healing of these souls how many years soever they lye by them Though others feel a Divine power in them yet they shall not As the men that
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
Sermons many a gracious call He hath resisted like a brazen wall The next may win him then thy grace shall raise Unto it self a monument of praise How should this meditation thaw and melt The heart of him that hath such mercy felt But if thou still remain a barren tree Then here as in a mirrour thou may'st see Thy wretched state when justice at a blow Requites Gods patience in thine overthrow And canst thou bear it can thy heart endure To think of everlasting burnings sure This must thy lot thy fearful portion be If thou continue still a barren tree An Introduction TO THE Third PART OF HUSBANDRY NOw from the pleasant Orchard let us walk A turn i' th fields and there converse and talk With Cows and Horses they can teach us some Choice Lessons though irrational and dumb My Reader 's weary yet I do not fear To be forsaken by one Reader here He 'l doubtless stay to hear what questions I Propound to beasts and how they make reply The fatted Ox and pamper'd horse you ride Their careless Master for his care thus chide CHAP. I. More care for Horse and Oxen many take Than for their Souls or dearest Childrens sake OBSERVATION MAny Husbandmen are excessively careful about their cattel rising themselves early or causing their servants to rise betimes to provender and dress them Much time is spent in some Countreys in trimming and adorning their Horses with curious trappings and plumes of feathers and if at any time a beast be sick what care is taken to recover and heal them you will be sure they shall want nothing that is necessary for them yea many will chuse rather to want themselves than suffer their Horses so to do and take a great deal of comfort to see them thrive and prosper under their hands APPLICATION VVHat one said of bloudy Herod who slew so many children at Bethlehem That it were better to be his swine than his Son may be truly enough applyed to some Parents and Masters who take less care for the saving the souls of their children and servants than they do for the bodies of those beasts which daily feed at their stalls and cribs Many there be who do in reference to their souls as Iacob did with respect to the preservation of their bodies when he put all the herds of cattel before and his Wives and little ones behind as he went to meet his brother Esau. 'T is a weighty saying of a grave Author It 's vile ingratitude to rejoyce when cattel multiply and repine when children increase its Heathenish distrustfulness to fear that he who provides for your beasts will not provide for your children and it 's no less than unnatural cruelty to be careful of the bodies of beasts careless of the souls of children Let us but a little compare your care and diligence in both respects and see in a few particulars whether you do indeed value your own or your children and servants souls as you do the life and health of a beast Your care for your very Horses is expressed early whilst they are but Colts and not come to do you any service you are willing to be at pains and cost to have them broken and brought to their way This is more than ever many of them did for their children they can see them wild and profane naturally taking a stroke or way of wickedness but yet never were at any pains or cost to break them these must be fondel'd and cockered up in the natural way of their own corruption and wickedness and not a rod or reproof used to break them of it 'T is observed of the Persians that they put out their children to School as soon as they could speak and would not see them in seven years after lest their indulgence should do them hurt You keep your constant set times morning and evening to feed water and dress your cattel and will by no means neglect it once but how many times have you neglected morning and evening duties in your families yea how many be there whose very tables in respect of any worship God hath there do very little differ from the very cribs and mangers at which their horses feed As soon as you are up in a morning you are with your beasts before you have been with your God how little do such differ from beasts and happy were it if they were no more accountable to God than their beasts are The end of your care cost and pains about your cattel is that they may be strong for labour and the more serviceable to you thus you comply with the end of their beings But how rare a thing is it to find these men as careful to fit their posterity to be useful and serviceable to God in their generations which is the end of their beings If you can make them rich and provide good matches for them you reckon that you have fully discharged the duty of parents if they will learn to hold the Plow that you are willing to teach them But when did you spend an hour to teach them the way of salvation Now to convince such careless Parents of the heinousness of their sin let these four Queries be solemnly considered Whether this be a sufficient discharge of that great duty which God hath laid upon Christian Parents in reference to their families That God hath charged them with the souls of their families is undeniable Deut. 6. 6 7. Eph. 6. 4. If God had not cloathed you with his authority to command them in the way of the Lord he would never have charged them so strictly to yield you obedience as he hath done Eph. 6. 1. Col. 3. 20. Well a great trust is reposed in you look to your duty for without dispute you shall answer for it Whether it be likely if the time of youth which is the moulding age be neglected they will be wrought upon to any good afterwards Husbandmen let me put a sensible case to you Do yo not see in your very horses that whilst they are young you can bring them to any way but if once they have got a false stroke and by long custom it be grown nutural to them then there is no breaking them of it yea you see it in your very Orchards you may bring a tender twig to grow in what form you please but when it s grown to a sturdy limb there is no bending it afterwards to any other form than what it naturally took Thus it is with children Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Whether if you neglect to instruct them in the way of the Lord Satan and their own natural corruptions will not instruct them in the way to hell Consider this ye careless Parents if you will not teach your children the Devill will teach them if you shew them not how
12 13. They send forth their little ones like a flock and their children dance they take the timbrel and harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ they spend their dayes in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave The same character doth the Prophet Amos give of them Amos 6. 4 5 6. They stretch themselves upon beds of Ivory drink Wine in bowls c. and no sorrow goes to their hearts These are they that live in pleasures upon earth as a fish in the water Iam. 5. 5. These fat pastures do but the sooner hasten the death of these cattle the sooner they are fatted the sooner they are slaughtered and the prosperity of the wicked serves to the same end The prosperity of fools shall destroy them i. e. it shall be the means and instruments of heating and hightening their lusts and thereby fitting them for destruction their prosperity is â—ood and fewel to their corruptions Many wicked men had not been so soon ripe for hell had they not grown in the Sun-shine of prosperity Fatted beasts do not in the least understand the intent and meaning of the Husbandman in allowing them such large and fat pastures which he denyes to his other cattle and as little as beasts do wicked men understand the scope and end of Gods providences in casting prosperity and wealth upon them little do they think their tables are a snare a gin and a trap for their souls they only like beasts mind what is before them but do not at all understand the tendency and end of these their sensual delights Though the Husbandman keep his store cattle in short commons yet he intends to preserve them these shall remain with him when the others are driven to the slaughter Such a design of preservation is carried on in all those outward straits wants and hardships which the Lord exposes his people to I confess such dispensations for present are very stumbling and puzling things even to gracious and wise persons To see wicked men not only exempted from their troubles but even oppressed with prosperity to see a godly man in wants and straits and a wicked man have more than his heart can wish is a case that poses the wisest Christian till he consider the design and issues of both those providences and then he acquiesces in the wisdom of God so ordering it Psal. 73. 5 14 18 23. REFLECTIONS DOth my prosperity fat me up for hell and prepare me for the day of slaughter little cause have I then to glory in it and lift up my heart upon these things Indeed God hath given I cannot say-blessed me with a fulness of creature-enjoyments upon these my carnal heart seizeth greedily and securely not at all suspecting a snare lying in these things for the ruin of my soul. What are all these charming pleasures but so many rattles to quiet my soul whilst its damnation steals insensibly upon it What are all my businâ—â—â—es and imployments in the world but so many diversions from the business of life There are but two differences betwixt me and the poorest slave the devil hath on earth such are whipt on to hell by outward miseries and I am coached to hell in a little more pomp and honour these will have a less and I a greater account in the day of reckoning O that I had never known prosperity I am now trumbling in a green pasture and shortly shall be hanging up in the shambles in hell if this be the best fruit of my prosperity if I were taken capitive by cruel Canibals and fed with the richest fare but withal understood that the design of it were to â—at me up like a beast for them to feed upon how little stomack should I have to their dainties O my soul it were much better for thee to have a sanctified poverty which is the portion of many Saints than an ensnaring prosperity set as a trap to ruin thee for ever The wisdom of my God hath allotted me but short commons here his providence feeds me but from hand to mouth but I am and well may be contended with my present state that which sweetens it is that I am one of the Lords preserved How much better is a morsel of bread and a draught of water here with an expectancy of glory hereafter than a fat pasture given in and fitting for the wrath to come Well since the case stands thus blessed be God for my present lot though I have but little in hand I have much in hope my present troubles will serve to sweeten my future joyes and the sorrows of this life will give a lustre to the glory of the next that which is now hard to suffer will them be sweet to remember my songs then will be louder than my groans now The POEM THose beasts which for the shambles are design'd In fragrant flowry Meadows you shall find Where they abound with rich and plenteous fare Whilst others graze in commons thin and bare Those live a short and pleasant life but these Protract their lives in dry and shorter leas Thus live the wicked thus they do abound With earthly glory and with honour crown'd Their lofty heads unto the stars aspire And radiant beams their shining brows attire The fattest portion 's serv'd up in their dish Yea they have more than their own hearts can wish Dissolv'd in pleasures crown'd with buds of May They for a time in these fat pastures play Frisk dance and leap like full fed beasts and even Turn up their wanton heels against the heaven Not understanding that this pleasant life Serves but to fit them for the Butchers knife In fragrant Meads they tumbling are to day Tomorrow to the slaughter led away Their pleasure 's gone and vanish'd like a bubble Which makes their future torments on them double Mean while Gods little flock is poor and lean Because the Lord did ner'e intend or mean This for their portion and besides doth know Their souls prove best where shortest grass doth grow Cheer up poor flock although your fare be thin Yet here is something to take comfort in You here securely feed and need not fear Th' infernal butcher can't approach you here 'T is somewhat that but O which far transcends Your glorious Shepher'ds coming who intends To lead you hence unto that fragrant hill Where with green pastures he his flocks will fill On which he from celestial casements pours The sweetest dews and constant gracious sâ—owres Along whose banks rivers of pleasures slide There his bless'd flocks for ever shall abide O envy not the worldlings present joys Which to your future mercies are but toyes Their pasture now is green your's dry and burn'd But then the Scene is chang'd the tables turn'd CHAP. V. Good Husbands labour for posterity To after ages Saints must have an eye OBSERVATION PRovident and careful Husbandmen do not only labour to supply
Rom. 12. 11. in serving God servent in spirit or hissing hot 2 Pet. 1. 10. in securing salvation diligent or doing it throughly and enough 1 Tim. 4. 7. in godliness exercising or stripping themselves as for a race Luke 13. 24. in the pursuit of happiness striving even to an agony Act. 26. 7. in prayer serving God instantly or in a stretched-out manner yea pouring out their hearts before him Psal. 62. 8 as if the body were left like a dead corps upon the knees whilst the spirit is departed from it and ascended to God This is the manner of his work judge then how much harder this work is than to spend the sweat of the brow in manual labour The Husbandman finds his work as he left it he can begin one day where he left the other but it is not so with the Christian a bad heart and a busie devil disorder and spoyl his work every day The Christian finds not his heart in the morning as he left it at night and even when he is about his work how many set-backs doth he meet with Satan stands at his right hand the working hand to resist him Zech. 3. 1. when he would do good evil the evil of his own heart and nature is present with him The Husbandman hath some resting days when he throws aside all his work and takes his recreation but the Christian hath no resting day till his dying day and then he shall rest from his labours Religion allows no idle dayes but requires him to be always abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. When one duty is done another calls for him the Lord's day is a day of rest to the Husbandman but no day in the week so laborious to the Christian. O 't is a spending day to him When he hath gathered in the crop of one duty he is not to sit down satisfied therewith or say as that rich worldling did Luke 12. 19. Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years but must to plow again and count it well if the Vintage reach to the seed-time Lev. 26. 5. I mean if the strength influence and comforts of one duty hold out to another duty and that it may be so and there be no room left for idleness God hath appointed ejaculatory prayer to fill up the intervals betwixt stated and the more solemn duties These are to keep in the fire which kindled the morning sacrifice to kindle the evening sacrifice When can the Christian sit down and say now all my work is ended I have nothing to do without doors or within Lastly There is a time when the labour of the Husbandman is ended old age and weakness takes him off from all imployment they can only look upon their labourers but cannot do a stroke of work themselves they can tell you what they did in their younger years but now say they we must leave it to younger people we cannot be young always but the Christian is never super-annuated as to the work of Religion yea the longer he lives the more his Master expects from him When he is full of dayes God expects he should be full of fruits Psal. 9. 14. They shall bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing REFLECTIONS HOw hard have I laboured for the meat that perisheth prevented the dawning of the day and laboured as in the very fire and yet is the Christians work harder than mine Surely then I never yet understood the work of Christianity Alas my sleepy prayers and formal duties even all that ever I performed in my life never cost me that pains that one hour at plow hath done I have either wholly neglected or at best so lazily performed religious duties that I may truly say I offer to God what cost me nothing Wo is me poor wretch How is the judgment of Corah spiritually executed upon me The earth opened her mouth and swallowed up his body but it hath opened its mouth and swallowed up my heart my time and all my affections How far am I from the Kingdom of God! And how little better is my case who have indeed professed Religion but never made it my business Will an empty though splendid profession save me How many brave Ships have perished in the storms notwithstanding their fine names the Prosperous the Success the Happy return A fine name could not protect them from the rocks nor will it save me from hell I have done by Religion as I should have done by the world prayed as if I prayed not and heard as if I heard not I have given to God but the shadow of duty and can never expect from him a real reward How unlike a Christian dost thou also O my soul go about thy work though upright in the main yet how little zeal and activity dost thou express in thy duties Awake love and zeal feest thou not the toyl and pains men take for the world how do they prevent the dawning of the day and labour as in the very fire till night and all this for a trifle should not every drop of sweat which I see trickle from their brows fetch as it were a drop of blood from my heart who am thus convinced and reproved of shameful laziness by their indefatigable diligence Do they pant after the dust of the earth Amos 2. 7. and shall not I pant after God Psal. 42. 1. Ah my soul It was not wont to be so with thee in the dayes of my first profession Should I have had no more communion with God in duties then it would have broken my heart I should have been weary of my life Is this a time for one to stand idle who stands at the door of eternity What now slack-handed when so neer to my everlasting rest Rom. 13. 11. or hast thou found the work of God so unpleasant to thee Prov. 3. 17. or the trade of godliness so unprofitable Psal. 19. 11. Or knowest thou not that millions now in hell perished for want of serious diligence in Religion Luke 13. 34. or doth my diligence for God answer to that which Christ hath done and suffered to purchase my happiness or to the preparations he hath made in heaven for me or dost thou forget that thy Masters eye is alwayes upon thee whilst thou art lazing and loytering or would the damned live at this rate as I do if their day of grace might be recalled for shame my soul for shame rouze up thy self and fall to thy work with a diligence answerable to the weight thereof for it is no vain work concerning thee it is thy life The Poem Religion WHEN advanc'd in power Will make you HUSBAND every hour 'T will make MEN strive with all their might And therein FIND a sweet delight If there were NOUGHT besides that pay Christ gives TO cheer us in our way Should we not DO the best we can For there 's
only to be found If these fruits lay upon the surface of duty or could be had with wishes I should not want them but to dig deep and take pains I cannot My desires like those of the sloathful man kill me because my hands refuse to labour Pro. 21. 25. If every duty were to be rewarded presently with gold would I not have been more assiduous in them than I have been And yet I know that a heart full of the grace and comfort of the holy Ghost is better than a house full of gold and silver O what a composition of stupidity and sloth am I I have been all for the short cut to comfort when constant experience teacheth that the farther way about by painful duty is the nearest way to it What pains do Husbandmen take what perils do Seamen run for a little gain O sluggiâ—h heart wilt thou do nothing for eternal treasures Secondly if there be such great rewards attending diligence in duty then why art thou so apt O my soul to cast off duty because thou findest not present comfort in it how quickly am I discouraged if I presently find not what I expect in duty Whereas the Well is deep and much pains must be taken to draw up those waters of joy Isa. 12. 3. there is a golden vein in the mount of duty but it lyes deep and because I meet not with it as soon as I expect my lazy heart throws by the shovel and cryes Dig I cannot Thirdly if this be indeed the rich and thriving trade why do I peddle about the poor low things of the world so much neglecting the rich trade of godliness for it O how much of my time and strength have these things devoured Had I imployed that time in communion with God would it not have turn'd to a better account Think'st thou in earnest O my soul that God hath indowed thee with such excellent faculties capable of the most divine and heavenly imployments or that Iesus Christ hath shed his invaluably precious bloud or that he hath sent forth the glorious spirit of holiness and all this to fit men for no higher or nobler imployments than these Is this the end of thy wonderful creation Doth God whirl about the heavens in endless revolutions to beget time for this or doth he not rather expect that the weightiest work should engross thy greatest strength and choicest hours O that I could once consider what a good Master Christians serve who will not only abundantly reward them at night but brings them their food into the field to incourage them in their labour What pity is it that so good a Master should be so badly served as he hath been by me Heark how he pleads to gain my heart The POEM by way of Dialogue betwixt Christ and the world CHRIST O Why so free of sweat and time For what e're long will not be thine Or if it might thou sell'st to loss A precious soul for lasting dross Those weary hands and toyling brains Might be imploy'd for better gains Wouldst thou but work as hard for me As for the world which cozens thee Thy gains should be a thousand fold For my revenues more then gold WORLD Soul I have alwayes found thee willing Rather by me to earn a shilling Than trust uncertain things which lye Beyond thee in eternity Shall things unseen now tempt thee tush A bird in hand 's worth two i' th bush I pay thy wages down in hand This thou canst feel taste understand O let not such a vain pretence Prevail against thy very sence CHRIST Thus beasts are led thus birds are snar'd Thus souls for ruine are prepar'd What trust no farther then you see You 'l trust a thief as far as me Deluded wretch will naught but fight And sence convince thee O how right How just is God whose direful scourge Such Arguments in hell shall urge WORLD Christ threatens wrath to come but I Do threaten thee with poverty And why wilt thou thy self and those That are so dear to want expose Come sâ—e the Saints for all their brags How well they thrive they 'r cloath'd with rags CHRIST If my dear Saints in rags do go 'T is not Religion cloaths them so But by such wants the Lord preparâ—s Their souls against thy killing snares They all are heirs though under age Expectants of their heritage Kept short for present yet contemn A change with those that scoff at them WORLD It is in vain to plead for I With present things charm powerfully What e're thou offer'st they 'l despise I hold them prisoners by their eyes CHRIST If they will serve no other Lord Then let it stand upon record Against their souls that they refus'd My wages and my grace abus'd Remember this when they shall see All turn'd to ashes that's in thee ANOTHER NOne will deny but those are blessed pains Which are attended with the richest gains Grant this and then most clearly 't is inferr'd Soul-work to all deserves to be preferr'd This is an unknown trade Oh who can count To what the gains of godliness amount For one poor shilling O what resks some run Some toyling as i' th fire from Sun to Sun Whereas one hour spent with God brings in Such heavenly treasures that poor souls have been Inrich'd for ever Even as you see A Princes Favourite upon the knee Can in an hours time more wealth obtain Than all your lives by labour you can gain Prayer gains are great and quick returns are made Sure then the Christian drives the richest trade 'T is true the hypocrite that never drove A serious trade for heaven may bankrupt prove But holy souls which mind and closely ply Their business greatly are enrich'd thereby The difference 'twixt the one and t'others best By such a Simile as this exprest As in a Summers day you often see The wanton Butterfly and painful Bee On fragrant flowers fix whence one doth strive To bear his precious burden to the Hive The others pains no profit with it brings His time is spent in painting of his wings When winter comes the Bee hath full supplies The other creeps into an hole and dyes Like different events shall be betwixt The painful Saint and lazy Notionist CHAP. III. The plowman sings and whistles though he sweat Shall Christians droop because their work is great OBSERVATION THough the labours of Husbandmen are very great and toylsom yet with what cheerfulness do they go through them It is very delightful to hear the melody they make by whistling as they follow the Plow yea the very horses have their Bells which make a pleasant noise Horses saith Mr. Fuller will do more for a whistle than a whip and their Bells do as it were gingle away their weariness I have been often delighted with this Country musick whereby they sweeten their hard labours with
an innocent pleasure and verifie the saying of the Poet Ovid. Tempus in agrorum cultu confumere dulce est Although they plow from morning until night Time steals away with pleasure and delight APPLICATION BUt how much greater cause have the people of God to address themselves unto his work with all cheerfulness of spirit And indeed so far as the heart is spiritual it delights in its duties 'T is true the work of a Christian is painful and much more spending than the Husbandmans as was opened Chap. 1. but then it as much exceeds in the delights and pleasures that attend it What is the Christians work but with joy to draw water out of the wells of salvation Isa. 12. 3. You may see what a pleasant path the path of duty is by the cheerfulness of those that have walked in them Psal. 119. 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy judgment as much as in all riches And by the promises that are made to such Psal. 13 8. 5. Yea they shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. And again You shall have a song as in the night when an holy solemnity is kept and gladness of heart as when one goeth with a pipe to come to the mountain of the Lord to the mighty one of Israel Isa. 30. 29. And lastly by the many commands whereby joy in the wayes of the Lord is made the duty of the Saints Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Psa. 97. 12. Rejoyce and again I say rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. Where the command is doubled yea not only simple rejoycing but the highest degree of that duty comes within the command Psal. 132. 9 16. Shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart And Luke 6. 22 23. they are bid to leap for joy when about the difficult'st part of their work and that you may see there is sufficient ground for it and that it is not like the mad mirth of sinners be pleased to consider The nature of the work about which they are employed it is the most excellent and heavenly employment that ever souls were acquainted with O what a ravishing and delightsome thing it is to walk with God! and yet by this the whole work of a Christian is expressed Gen. 17. 1. Can any life compare with this for pleasure Can they be chill that walk in the Sun-shine or sad that abide in the fountain of all delights and walk with him whose name is the God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. In whose presence is the fulness of joy Psal. 16. 11. O what an Angelical life doth a Christian then live Or 2ly If we consider the variety of spiritual imployments varietas delectat Change of employment takes off the tediousness of Labour Variety of voices please the ear variety of colours delight the eye the same meat prepared several wayes pleases the palate more and clogs it less Bâ—t O the variety of choice dishes wherewith God entertains his people in a Sâ—bbath as the Word Prayer Sacraments c. Isa. 58. 13. If thou call the Sabbath thy delights or as Tremelius renders it thy delicate things My soul saith David shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness Psal. 63. 5. Or lastly if we consider the suitableness of this work to a regenerate soul. Is it any pain for a bird to flye or a fish to swim Is the eye tired with beautiful objects or the ear with melodious sounds As little can a spiritual soul be wearied with spiritual and heavenly exercises Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inner man Gravia non gravitant in eorâ—m loco saith the Philosopher weighty things are not heavy in their own element or center And surely God is the center of all gracious spirits A Saint can sit from morning to night to hear discourses of the love and loveliness of Iesus Christ. The fight of your thriving flocks and flourishing fields cannot yield you that pleasure which an upright soul can find in one quarter of an hours communion with God They that are after the flesh saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 5. do mind the things of the flesh and they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit But then look how much heavenly objects transcend earththly ones and how much the soul is more capable of delight in those objects than the gross and duller senses are in theirs so much doth the pleasure arising from the duty excel all sensitive delights on earth REFLECTIONS How am I cast and condemned by this may I say who never favoured this spiritual delight in holy duties When I am about my earthly employments I can go on unweariedly from day to day all the way is down hill to my nature and the wheels of my affections being oyled with carnal delight run so fast that they have need most times of trigging Here I rather need the curb than the spur O how fleet and nimble are my spirits in these their pursuits But O what a slug am I in religious duties Sure if my heart were renewed by grace I should delight in the law of God Rom. 7. 22. All the world is alive in their wayes every creature injoyes his proper pleasure and is there no delight to be found in the paths of holiness Is godliness only a dry root that bears no pleasant fruits No no there are doubtless incomparable pleasures to be found therein but such a carnal heart as mine favours them not I cannot say but I have found delight in Religious duties but they have been only such as rather sprang from the ostentation of gifts and applauses of men than any sweet and real communion I have had with God through them they have rather proved food and fewel to my pride than food to my soul. Like the Nightingale I can sing sweetly when I observe others to listen to me and be affected with my musick O â—alse deceitful heart such delight as this will end in howling were my spirit right it would as much delight in retirements for the enjoyment of God as it doth in those duties that are most exposed to the observation of man Wilt such a spring as this maintain a stream of affections when carnal motives fail What wilt thou answer O my soul to that question Ioâ— 27. 9 10. Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him Will he delight himself in the Almighty Will he alwayes call upon God What wilt thou reply to this question Deceive not thou thy self O my soul thou wilt doubtless be easily perswaded to let go that thou never delightedst in and from an hypocrite in Religion quickly become an Apostate from Religion From all this the upright heart takes advantage to rouze up its delight in God and thus it expostulateth with it self Doth the Plowman sing amidst his drudging labours and whistle away his weariness in
and such a state is best accommodated both to the condition and to the desires of a Saint 1. To his condition for what is a Saint but a Stranger and Pilgrim upon earth a man in a strange Countrey travelling homeward So David professed himself Psal. 119. 19. I am'a stranger in this earth And so those worthies who are now at home in heaven Heb. 11. 13. they professed themselves to be strangers and Pilgrims upon earth and to seek a Countrey a viaticum contents a traveller he will not cumber himself with superfluous things which would rather clog and tire than expedite and help him in his journey It suits best with his desires I mean his regular and advised desires For A gracious soul earnestly desires a free condition in the world he is sensible he hath much work to do a race to run and is loath to be clog'd or have his foot in the snare of the cares or pleasures of this life He knows that fulness exposes to wantonness and irreligion Deut. 6. 12. Hos. 13. 6. T is hard in the midst of so many tempting objects to keep the golden bridle of moderation upon the affections The heart of a Christian like the Moon commonly suffers an eclipse when it is at the full and that by the interposition of the earth It was Solomons fulness that drew out and dissolved his spirits and brought him to such a low ebb in spirituals that it remaines a question with some Whether he ever recovered it to his dying day As it is the misery of the poor to be neglected of men so it is the misery of the rich to neglect God Who can be poorer than to have the world and love it Or richer than to enjoy but little of it and live above it And on the other side extream poverty is no less exposed to sin and danger Levit. 6. 2 3 4. As high and lofty trees are subject to storms and tempests so the lowest shrubs to be brows'd on by every beast and therefore a Saint desires a just competency as the fittest because the freest estate A gracious person desires no more but a competency because there is most of God's love and care discovered in giving in our daily bread by a daily providence It is betwixt such a condition and a fulness of creature-provisions in our hand as it was betwixt Egypt and Canaan Egypt was water'd with the foot from the River Nilus and little of God was seen in that mercy but Canaan depended upon the dews and showers of heaven and so every shower of rain was a refreshing shower to their souls as well as bodies Most men that have a stock of creature-comforts in their hands look upon all as coming in an ordinary natural course and 〈◊〉 very little of God in their mercies Pope Adrian built a Colledge at Lovain and caused this inscription to be written in letters of Gold on the gates thereof Trajectum plantavit Lovanium rigavit Caesar dedit incrementum i. e. Vtrecht planted me Lovain water'd me and Caesar gave the increase One to reprove his folly wrote underneath Hic Deus Nihil fecit Here God did nothing Carnal men they sow and reap and eat and look no farther But now when a man sees his mercies come in by the special and assiduous care of God for him there is a double sweetness in those mercies the natural sweetness which comes from the creature it self every one even the beasts can tast that as well as thee but besides that there is a spiritual sweetness far exceeding the former which none but a believer tasts and much of that comes from the manner in which he receives it because it comes be it never so course or little as a Covenant mercy to him He hath given bread to them that fear him he is ever mindful of his Covenant Psal. 111. 5. Luther who made many a meal upon a broiled Herring was wont to say Mendicato pane hic vivamus an non hoc â—ulchre sarcitur in eo quod pascimur pane cum angelis vita aeterna Christo Sacramentis Let us be content with course fare here have we not the bread that came down from heaven do we not feed with Angels a pregnant instance of the sweetness of such mercies is given us by a worthy Divine of our own Mr. Isaac Ambross For mine own part saith he however the Lord hath seen cause to give me but a poor pittance of outward things for which I bless his name yet in the income thereof I have many times observed so much of his peculiar providence that thereby they have been very much sweetned and my heart hath been raised to admire his grace When of late under an hard dispensation which I judge not meet to mention wherein I suffered with inward peace conscienciously all streams of wonted supplies being stopt the waters of relief for my self and family did run low I went to bed with some staggerings and doubtings of the fountains letting out its â—elt for our refreshing but ere I did awake in the morning a Letter was brought to my bedside which was signed by a choice friend Mr. Anthony Ash which reported some unexpected breakings out of God's goodness for my comfort There are some of his lines Your God who hath given you an heart thankfully to record your experiences of his goodness doth renew experiences for your encouragement Now I shall report one which will raise your spirit towards the God of your mercy c. whereupon he sweetly concludes One morsel of God's Provision especially if it come unexpected and upon Prayer when wants are most will be more sweet to a spiritual relish than all former full injoyments were Many mercies come unask'd for and they require thankfulness but when mercies come in upon prayer and as a return of prayer their sweetness more than doubles for now it s both God's blessing upon his own institution and a seal set to his promise at once Psal. 66. 16 17. Doubtless Hannah found more comfort in her Samuel and Rachel in her Naphthali the one being ask'd of God and the other wrastled for with God as their names import than mothers ordinarily do in their Children REFLECTIONS Do the people of God desire only so much of the Creature as may fit them for the service of God what a wretch then am I that have desired only so much of Religion as may fit me to gain the creature As God's people have subjected all their creature injoyments to Religion so oppositely O my soul thou hast subjected Religion to thy wordly interest and designs Instead of eating and drinking to serve God I have served God that I might eat and drink yea I have not only acted below Religion but below reason also for reason dictates plainly that the meanes must never be more excellent than the end Wretch taht I am to make Religion a slave to my lust a stirrup to advancement an artifice to
carry on my carnal designs verily I have my reward and this is all the good I am ever like to get by it And no less should be worldling tremble to consider how he hath cast off the duties of religion made them stand aside and give place to the world Instead of desiring so much only as might make him serviceable to God he thrusts aside the service of God to get as much of the world as he can who is so far from making godliness the end of his creature-comforts that he rather looks upon it as an obstacle and hinderance to them May not the very heathens make me blush could Aristotle deliver this as a true rule to prosperity to make Religion our first and chief care could Aristippus say he would rather neglect his means than his mind his Farm than his soul Will the very Mahometans how urgent soever their business be lay it all aside five times in the day to pray yea is it common to a Proverb among the very Papists that Mass and meat hinders on man and yet I that prosess my self a Christian thrust out duty for every trifle Oh wretched soul how hath the God of this World blinded mine eyes can the world indeed do that for me that Christ can do hath it ever proved true to them that trusted it and doted on it Hath it not at last turn'd them off as men turn off a Sumpter horse at night that hath been a drudge to carry their Gold and silver for them all day and at last is turn'd out with an empty belly and a galled back O how righteous will that sentence of God be Go cry to the gods whom thou hast served And may not many gracious hearts turn in upon themselves with shame and sorrow to consider how unsatisfied they have been in that condition that others have prefer'd and esteem'd as the greatest of all outward mercies I have indeed been fed with food convenient but not contented How hath my heart been tortured from day to day with anxious thoughts what I shall eat and drink and wherewith I and mine should be clothed I pretend indeed that I care but for a competency of the world but sure I am my cares about it have been incompetent Come my distrustful earthly heart let me propound a few questions to thee about this matter and answer truly to what I shall now demand of thee Hast thou here a continuing City or art thou at home upon thy journey that thou art so solicitous about the world thy profession indeed speaks thee a stranger upon earth but thy conversation a home-dweller Erasmns said he desired honours and riches no more than a weary horse doth a heavy Cloak-bag Wouldst thou not account him a fool that would victual his Ship as much to cross the Channel to France as if she were bound for the East-Indies Alas it will be but a little while and then there will be no more need of any of these things 'T is sad that a soul which stands at the door of eternity should be perplexing it self about food and raiment Or 2ly Which of all the Saints hast thou known to be the better for much of the world it hath been some mens utter ruin Seldom doth God suffer men to be their own carvers but they cut their own fingers To give riches and pleasures to an evil man saith Aristotle is but to give wine to one that hath a Fever Where there is no want there is usually much wantonness What a sad story was that of Pius Quintus When I was in a low condition said he I had some comfortable hopes of my salvation but when I came to be a Cardinal I greatly doubted of it but since I came to the Popedom I have no hope at all Though this poor undone wretch spake it out and others keep it in yet doubtless he hath many thousand fellows in the world that might say as much would they but speak the truth And even Gods own people though the world hath not excluded them out of heaven yet it hath sorely clog'd them in the way thither Many that have been very humble holy and heavenly in a low condition have suffered a sad ebb in a â—ull condition What a cold blast have they felt coming from the cares and delights of this life to I hill both their graces and comforts it had been well for some of God's people if they had never known what prosperity meant Is not this a sad simptom of a declining state of soul to be so hot eager and anxious about the superfluous trifles of this life Think'st thou O my soul that one who walks in the views of that glory above and maintains a conversation in heaven can be much taken with these vanities do not the visions of God vail the tempting splendour of the creature It was the opinion of some of the Schoolmen that the reason why Adam in Paradise was not sensible of is nakedness was because he was wholly taken up in conversing with God But this is certain lively and sweet communion with God blunts and duls the edge of the affections to earthly things and canst thou be satisfied my soul with such gains as are attended with such spiritual losses To conclude is it not dishonourable to God and a justification of the way of the world for me that profess my self a Christian to be as eager after riches as other men After all these things do the nations seek Mat. 6. 32. If I had no father in heaven nor promise in the word it were another matter but since my heavenly father knows what I have need of and hath charged me to be careful in nothing but only tell him my wants Phil. 4. 6. How unbecoming a thing is it in me to live and act as I have done Let me henceforth learn to measure and estimate my condition rather by its usefulness to God than its content and ease to my flesh The Poem IF fruit and service be indeed the end To which my being and edemption tend Reason concludes that state of all the rest Which is most serviceable to be best And such a state experience shews to lye 'Twixt fulness and a pinching poverty This golden Mean is worth a golden Mine He that hath this should be asham'd to whine The full-fed Christian like the Ox i' th stall Is no way fit to work or plow withal And penury like Pharaob's leaner kine Devours the fattest portions of our time That man with whom this earthly pleasure 's found Or in whose heart those anxious cares abound And yet can walk by Scripture rule and line Will need a better head and heart than mine A single staff the traveller many find Of use and service but if you should bind A bundle of them to his back they 'l make Him stack his pace and cry my shoulders ake I am a
spareth his own son that serves him Mal. 3. 17. Heark how his bowels yearn I have surely heard Ephraim bemâ—aning himself it not Ephraim my dear son is he not a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still I will surely have mercy on him Ier. 31. 20. Doth he not know thy life would be altogether useless to him if he should not restore thee what service art thou fit to perform to him in such a condition Thy dayes will consume like smoak whilst thy heart is smitten and withered like grass Psal. 102. 3 4. Thy months will be months of vanity they will fly away and see no good Iob 7. 3. If he will but quicken thee again then thou must call upon his name Psal. 80. 18. but in a dead and languishing condition thou art no more fit for any work of God than a sick man is for manual labours and surely he hath not put those precious and excellent graces of his Spirit within thee for nothing they were planted there for fruit and service and therefore doubtless he will revive thee again Yea dost thou not think he sees thine inability to bear such a condition long he knows thy Spirit would fail before him and the soul which he hath made Isa. 57. 16. David told him as much in the like condition Psal. 143. 7 8. Hear me speedily O Lord for my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto those that go down into the pit q. d. Lord make hast and recover my languishing soul otherwise whereas thou hast now a sick child thou wilt shortly have a dead child And in like manner Iob expostulated with him Iob 6. 1 2 3 11 12 My grief is heavier than the sand of the Sea my words are swallowed up for the arrows of the Almighty are within me and the poyson thereof drinks up my spirits the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me what is my strength that I should hope is my strength the strength of stones or are my bones of brass So Chap. 7. 12. Am I a Sea or a Whale c. Other troubles a man may but this he cannot bear Prov. 18. 14. And therefore doubtless seasonable and gracious revivings will come He will not stir up all his wrath for he remembers thou art but flesh a wind that passeth away and cometh not again Psal. 78. 38. 39. He hath wayes enough to do it if he do but unvail his blessed face and make it thine again upon thee thou art saved Psal. 80. 3. the manifestations of his love will be to thy soul as showers to the parched grass thy soul that now droops and hanges the wing shall then revive and leap for joy Isa. 61. 1. A new face shall come upon thy graces they shall bud again and blossom as a Rose if he do but send a spring of auxiliary grace into thy soul to actuate the dull habits of inherent grace the work is done then shalt thou return to thy first works again Rev. 2. 4 5. and sing as in the dayes of thy youth REFLECTIONS O this is my very case saith many a poor Christian thus my soul languishes and droops from day to day 't is good new indeed that God both can and will restore my soul but sad that I should fall into such a state How unlike am I to what once I was Surely as the old men wept when they saw how short the second Temple came of the glory of the first so may I sit down and weep bitterly to consider how much my first love and first duties excelled the present For. Is my heart so much in heaven now as it was wont to be Say O my soul dost thou not remember when like the beloved Disciple thou layest in Iesus bosome how didst thou sweeten communion with him how restless and impatient wast thou in his absence Divine withdrawments were to thee as the hell of hell What a burden was the world to me in those dayes Had it not been for conscience of my duty I could have been willing to let all lye that communinion with Christ might suffer no interruption When I awaked in the night how was the darkness enlightned by the heavenly glimpses of the countenance of my God upon me How did his company shorten those hours and beguile the tediousness of the night O my soul speak thy experience is it now as it was then No no those dayes are past and gone and thou become much a stranger to that heavenly life Art thou able with truth to deny this charge When occasionally I pass by those places which were once to me as Iacob's Bethel to him I sigh at the remembrance of former passages betwixt me and heaven there and say with Iob Chap. 29. O that it were with me as in moneths past as in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head when by his light I walked through darkness when the Almighty was yet with me when I put on righteosness and it cloathed me when my glory was fresh in me when I remember these things my soul is poured out within me Is thy obedience to the commands of Christ and motions to duty as free and cheerful as they were wont to be Call to mind my soul the times when thou wast born down the stream of love to every duty if the spirit did but whisper to thee saying Seek my face how did my spirit eccho to his calls saying Thy face Lord will I seek Psal. 27. 8. If God had any work to be done how readily did I offer my service Here am I lord send me My soul made me as the chariots of Aminadab love oyled the wheels of my affection and his commandments were not grievous 1 Iohn 5. 3. Non tardat uncta rota There were no such quarrellings with the command no such excuses and delayes as there are now No such was my love to Christ and delight to do his will that I could no more keep back my self from duty than a man that 's carried away in a crowd Or lastly tell me O my soul dost thou bemoan thy self or grieve so tenderly for sin and for grieving the holy Spirit of God as hou wa st wont to do When formerly I had fallen by the hanbd of a temptation how was I wont to lye in tears at the Lord's feet bemoaning my self how did I hasten to my closet and there cry like Ezra Chap. 9. 6. O my God I am ashamed and blush to look up unto thee How did I sigh and weep before him and like Ephraim smite upon my thigh saying What have I done Ah my soul how didst thou work strive and cast about how to recover thy self again hast thou forgotten how thou wouldst sometimes look up and sigh bitterly Ah! what a God have I provoked whjat love and goodness have I abused sometimes look in and weep Ah! what
motions did I withstand what a good spirit have I grieved Ah! my soul thou wouldst have abhor'd thy self thou couldst never have born it had thy heart been as stupid and as relentless then as now If ever a poor soul had reason to dissolve it self into tears for its sad relapses I have But yet mourn not O my soul as one without hope Remember There is hope in Israel concerning this thing As low as thy condition is it is not desperate it is not a disease that scorns a Remedy many a man that hath been stretcht out for dead hath revived again and lived many a comfortable day in the world many a tree that hath cast both leaf and fruit by the skill of a prudent Husbandman hath been recovered again and made both flourishing and fruitful Is it not easier think'st thou to recover a languishing man to health than a dead man to life and yet this God did for me Epâ— 2. 1. Is any thing too hard for the Lord Though my soul draw nigh to the pit and my life to the destroyers yet he can send me a messenger one among a thousand that shall declare to me my uprightness then shall be deliver me from going down into the pit my flesh shall be fresher than a Childes and I shall return to the dayes of my youth Iob 33. 21. Though my flourish and much of my fruit too be gone and I am a withering tree yet as long as the root of the matter is in me there is more hope of such a poor decayed withered tree than of the hypocrite that wants such a root in all his glory and bravery His Sun shall set and never rise again but I live in expectation of a sweet morning after this dark night Rouze up therefore O my soul set thy faith awork on Christ for quickning grace for he hath life in himself and quickens whomsoever he will Ioâ— 7. 38. Stir up that little which remains Rev. 3. 2. Hath thou not seen lively flames proceed from glimmering and dying sparks when carefully collected and blown up get amongst the most lively and quickening Christians as iron sharpens iron so will these set an edge upon thy dull affections Prov. 27. 17. Acts 18. 15. But above alL cry mightily to the Lord for quickening he will not despise thy cry The moans of a Distressed Child work upon the bowels of a tender father And be sure to keep within thy view the great things of eternity which are ready to be revealed live in the believing and serious contemplations of them and be dead if thou canst 'T is true thou hast reason enough from they condition to be for ever humbled but no reason at all from thy God to be in the least discouraged The Poem THou art the Husbandman and I A worthless plot of Husbandry Whom special love did ne'retheless Divide from natures wilderness Then did the Sun-shine of thy face And sweet illapses of thy grace Like April showers and warming gleams Distil its dews reflect its beams My dead affections then were green And hopeful buds on them were seen These into duties soon were turn'd In which my heart within me burn'd O halcyon dayes Thrice happy slate Each place was Bethel heavens gate What sweet discourse What heavenly talk Whilst with thee I did daily walk Mine eyes o'reflow my heart doth sink As oft as on those dayes I think For strangeness now is got between My God and me as may be seen By what is now and what was then 'T is just as if I were two men My fragrant branches blasted be No fruits like those that I can see Some Canker-worm lyes at my root Which fades my leaves destroyes my fruit My soul is banished from thy â—ight For this it mourneth day and night Yet why dost thou desponding lye With Ionah cast a backward eye Sure in thy God help may be had There 's precious balm in Gilead That God that made me spring at first When I was barren and accurst Can much more easily restore My soul to what it was before 'T was Haman's Iob's and David's case Yet all recover'd were by grace A word a smile on my poor soul Will make it perfect sound and whole A glance of thine hath soon dissolv'd A soul in sin and grief involv'd Lord if thou canst not work the cure I am contented to endure CHAP. VI. No skill can mend the miry ground and sure Some souls the Gospel leaves as past a cure OBSERVATION ALthough the industry and skill of the Husbandman can make some ground that was useless and bad good for tillage or pasture and improve that which was barren and by his cost and pains make one Acre worth ten yet such is the nature of some rocky or miry ground where the water stands and there is no way to cleanse it that it can never be made fruitful The Husband-man is fain to let it alone as an incurable piece of wast and worthless ground and though the Sun and clouds shed their influences on it as well as upon better Land yet that doth not at all mend it Nay the more showers it receives the worse it proves For these do no way fecundate or improve it nothing thrives there but worthless flags and rushes APPLICATION MAny also there are under the Gospel who are given over by God to judicial blindness hardness of heart a reprobate sense and perpâ—â—ual barrenness so that how excellent soever the means are which they enjoy and how efficacious soever to the conveâ—sion edification and salvation of others yet they shall never do their souls good Ezek. 47. 9 11. Every thing wheresoever the River comes shall live but the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall never be healed but be given to salâ— i. e. given to an obstinate and everlasting barrenness Compare Deut. 9. 23. By these waters saith judicious Mr. Strong understand the doctrine of the Gospel as Rev. 21. 2. a River of water of life clear as Christal Hic fluvius est uberima doctrina Christi saith Mr. Brighâ—man This River is the most fruitful doctrine of Christ yet these waters do not heal the miry marish places i. e. men that live unfruitfully under Ordinances who are compared to miry and marish places in three respects 1 In miry places the water hath not free passage but stands and settles there So it is with these barren souls therefore the Apostle prayes that the Gospel may run and be glorified 2 Thes. 3. 1. The word is said to run when it meets wiâ—h no stop Cum libere propagatur when it is freely propagated and runs through the whole man when it meets with no stop either in the mouâ—h of the speaker or hearâ—s of the hearers as it doth in these 2 In a miry place the earth and
hungrily upon barly bread and said Cujusmodi voluptatis hactenus in expernus fuit Oh what pleasure have I hitherto been ignorant of when grea◠Darius drank the pudled water that had been defiled with dead carcases which had been slain in that famous battel he professed he never drank more pleasant drink And famous Hunniades said he never fared more daintily than when in a like exigence he supped upon bread onions and water with a poor Shepheard in his cottage Iust so doth the famine of the Word raise the price and esteem of vulgar and despised truths O what would we give for one of those Sermons one of those Sabbaths we formerly enjoyed In those dayes the word of the Lord was precious When God calls to the enemy to take away and remove his contemned but precious dainties from his wanton Children and a spiritual famine hath a little pinched them they will then learn to prize their spiritual food at a higher rate In time of famine some persons suffer more than others It falls heaviest and pincheth hardest upon the poorer sort as long as any thing is to be had for money the rich will have it So it falls out in a spiritual famine although the most experienced and best furnished Christians will have enough to do to live in the absence of Ordinances yet they are like to subsist much better than weak ignorant and unexperienced ones Some Christians have Husbanded their time well and like Ioseph in the seven years plenty laid up for a scarcity The Word of God dwells richly in them Some such there are as Iohn calls young men who are strong and the word of God remaineth in them of whom it may be said as Ierom spake of Nepotianus that by long and assiduous meditation of the Scriptures he had made his breast the very Library of Christ. But others are babes in Christ and though God will preserve that good work which he hath begun in them yet these poor babes will soonest find and be most concerned in the loss of their spiritual Fathers and Nurses In time of famine there are pitiful cryes and heart-breaking complaints where-ever you go O the many pale faces you shall then see and the sad language that rings in your ears in every place One cryes bread bread for Christ's sake one bit of bread another faints and falls down at your door All he◠People sigh Lam. 1. 11. Yea the poor little ones are brought in v. 12. crying to their Mothers where is the Corn and wine and then pouring out their souls into their Mothers bosome Iust so it is in a famine of the Word poor Christians every-where sighing and crying O where are our godly Ministers Our sweet Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments my Fathers my Fathers the Chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof How beautiful were your feet upon the mountains And then weeping like the people at Pauls departure to think they shall see their faces no more Lastly in time of famine there is nothing so costly or precious but people will part with it to purchase bread They have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve their souls Lam. 1. 11. And doubt less when a spiritual famine shall pinch hard those that have been close-handed to maintain a-Gospel Ministry will account it a choice mercy to enjoy them again at any rate Though the Lord feed you with the bread of affliction and give you the watres of adversity yet it will sweeten that bread and water to you if your teachers be no more removed into corners Isa. 30. 20. REFLECTIONS Is the famine of the word such a fearful judgment then Lord pardon my unthankfulness for the plentiful and long continued injoyment of such a precious and invaluable mercy How lightly have I esteemed the great things of the Gospel O that with eyes and hands lifted up to heaven I might bless the Lord that ever I was brought forth in an age of so much light in a valley of visions in a Land flowing with Gospel-mercies Hath not God made of one bloud all the Nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth and determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation Act. 17. 26. Many of these great and populous Nations are involved in gross darkness Now that of all the several ages of the world and places in it God should espy the best place for me and bring me forth into it in such an happy nick of time as can hardly be paralleld in History for the plenty of Gospel-mercies that this age and Nation hath enjoyed that my Mother did not bring me forth in the desarts of Arabia or wastes of America but in England where God hath made the Sun of the Gospel to stand still as the natural Sun once did over Gibeon and that such a mercy should no more affect my soul let shame cover my face for this and trembling seize my heart Is the Gospel indeed departed its sweet influences restrained and a famine worse than that of bread come upon us Alas for the day for it is a great day so that none is like it it is even the day of Iacob 's trouble Wo is me that ever I should survive the Gospel and the precious liberties and mercies of it What horrid sins have been harboured amongst us for which the Lord contends by such an unparalleld judgment Lord let me justifie thee even in this severe dispensation the provocation of thy Sons and of thy daughters have been very great and amongst them none greater than mine May we not this day read our sin in our punishment O what nice and wanton appetites what curious and itching ears had thy people in the dayes of plenty Methods tones and gestures were more regarded than the excellent treasures of divine truths Ah my soul I remember my fault this day little did I then consider that Sermons work not upon hearts as they are thus elegant thus admirable but as they are instruments in the hand of God appointed to such an end Even as Austin said of the Conduits of water though one be in the shape of an Angel another of a beast yet the water refreshes as it is water and not as it comes from such a Conduit By this also O Lord thou rebukest the supiness and formality of thy people How drowsie dull and careless have they been under the most excellent and quickning means few more then I. Alas I have often presented my body before the Lord in Ordinances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but my soul hath been wandring abroad as Chrysostom speaks I should have come from under every Sermon as a sheet comes from the press with all the stamps and lively impressions of the truths I heard upon my heart But Alas If it had been demanded of me as once it was of Aristotle after a long and curious Oration how he liked it I might have answered as he did Truly I did not hear it for
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
merits hell sweetens present difficulties So to come home to the present similitude do the expectations and hopes of a blessed harvest and reward in heaven This made Abraham willing to wander up and down many years as a stranger in the world for he looked for a City that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God The hopes of such a harvest is incouragement enough to work hard and wait long yet some Christians are so impatient of it that they would fain be reaping before the time but as God hath by an unalterable law of nature appointed both the seasons of seed time and harvest which are therefore called the appointed weâ—ks of the harvest Ier. 5. 24. and these cannot be hasten'd but when we have done all that we can on our part must wait till God send the former and latter rain and given every natural cause its effect So is it in reference to our spiritual harvest we are appointed to sweat in the use of all God's appointments and when we have done all must patiently wait till the divine decrees be accomplished and the time of the promise be fully come In due time we shall reap if we faint not To which patient expectation and quiet waiting for the glory to come these following considerations are of excellent use As the Husbandman knows when the Seed-time is past it will not be long to the harvest and the longer he waits the neerer still it is So the Christian knows It is but yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10. 37. And that now his salvation is nearer than when he first believed Rom. 13. 11. What a small point of time is our waiting time compared with eternity yet a few dayes more and then comes the long expected and welcome harvest The Husbandman can find other work to do before the reaping time come he need not stand idle though he cannot yet reap And cannot a Christian find any work to do for God till be come to heaven O there is much work to do and such work as is only proper to this season You may now reprove sin exhort to duty succour the distressed this is good work and this is your only time for such work the whole of eternity will be taken up in other imployments I think it meet saith Peter as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir up your minds knowing shortly that I must put off this tabernacle 2 Pet. 1. 13 14. q. d. I know I have but a little time to work among you I am almost at heaven and therefore am willing to husband this present moment as well as I can for you O Christians you need not stand idle look round about you upon the multitude of forlorn sinners speak now to them for God speak now to God for them for shortly you shall so speak more you shall see them no more till you see them at Christâ—s Bar God leaves you here for their sakes up and be doing If you had done all you were to do for your selves and them he would have you to heaven immediately you should not wait a moment longer for your glory Husbandmen know though they cannot yet gather in the precious fruits of the earth yet all this while they are ripening and preparing for the harvest they would not house it green or take it before its time And is not this also my preparation time for glory As God prepared heaven for his people by an eternal decree Mat. 25. 34. by an act of creation Heb. 11. 10. by the death of Christ which made a purchase of it Heb. 10. 19 20. and by his ascension into it Ioh. 14. 2 3. So the reason why we are kept here is in order to our sitting for it Heaven is ready but we are not fully ready the Barn is fit to receive the corn but the corn is not yet fit to be gathered into it But for this self same thing God is now working us 2 Cor. 5. 5. he is every day at work by Ordinances and by providences to perfect his work in us and as soon as that is finished we shall hear a voice like that Rev. 11. 12 Come up hither and immediately we shall be in the spirit for how ardently soever we long for that desirable day Christ longs for it more than we can do The Husbandman is glad of the first fruits that incourages him though the greatest part be yet out and have not you received the first fruits of that glory have you no earnests pledges and first fruits of it 'T is your own fault if every day you feed not upon such blessed comforts of the spirit Rom. 8. 23. Rom. 5. 2. 1 Pet. 8. 9. O how might the interposing time even all the dayes of your patience here be sweetned with such prelibations of the glory to come Husbandmen know 't is best to reap when 't is fit to reap one handful fuly ripe is worth many sheaves of green corn And you know heaven will be sweetest to you when you are fittest for it the child would pluck the apple while it 's green but he might gather it easier and taste it sweeter by tarrying longer for it We would fain be glorified per saltum When we have got a taste of heaven we are all in hast to be gone Then O that I had wings as a dove I would flie away and be at rest Then we cry to God for our selves as Moses for his sister Miriam Heal her now O God I beseech thee Num. 12. 13. Clorifie me now O Lord I pray thee But surely as God hath contrived thy glory in the best of wayes so he hath appointed for thee the fittest of seasons and when ever thou art gathered into glory thou shalt come as a shock of corn in its season REFLECTIONS I Have waited for thy salvation O God! Having received thy first fruits my soul longs to fill its besome with the full ripe sheaves of Glory As the Hart panteth for the water brooks so panteth my soul for thee O God! O when shall I come and appear before God I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. When shall I see that most lovely face When shall I hear his soul-transporting voice Some need patience to dye I need it as much to live Thy sights O God by faith have made this world a burden this body a burden and this soul to cry like thirsty David O that one would give me of the waters of Bethlehem to drink The Husbandman longs for his Harvest because it is the reward of all his toyl and labour but what is his harvest to mine what is a little corn to the enjoyment of God What is the joy of harvest to the joy of heaven what are the shoutings of men in the fields to the acclamations of glorified spirits in the kingdome of God Lord I have gone forth bearing more precious â—eed that they
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
seared and past feeling Eph. 4. 19. When a member is so mortified that if you lanâ—e and cut it never so much no fresh blood or quick flesh appears nor doth the man feel any pain in all this then it 's time to cut it off When men give themselves over to the satisfaction of their lusts to commit sin with greediness then are they grown to a maturity of sin when men have slipt the reins of conscience and rush headlong into all impiety then the last sands of Gods patience are running down Thus Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner gave themselves over to wickedness and strange sins and then justice quickly truss'd them up for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire That man is even ripe for hell that is become a contriver of â—in a designer a studentin wickedness one would think it strange that any man should set his invention on work upon such a subject as sin is that any should study to become a dexterous artist this way and yet the Scripture frequently speaks of such whose bellies prepare deceit Iob 15. 35. who travel in pain to bring forth this deformed birth ver 20. who wink with their eyes whilst plodding wickedness as men use to do when they are most intent upon the study of any knotty problem Prov. 6. 13. These have so much of hell already in them that they are more than half in hell already He that of a forward Professor is turn'd a bitter persecutor is also within a few rounds of the top of the ladder the contempt of their light the Lord hath already punished upon them in their obduracy and madness against the light Reader if thou be gone thus far thou art almost gone beyond all hope of recovery Towards other sinners God usually exercises more patience but with such he makes short work When Iudas turns Traitor to his Lord he is quickly sent to his own place Such as are again intangled and overcome of those lusts they once seemed to have clean escaped these bring upon themselves swift damnation and their Iudgment lingers not 2 Pet. 2. 3 20. He that can endure no reproof or controul in the way of his sin but derides all counsel and like a strong current rages at and sweeps away all obstacles in his way will quickly fall into the dead lake Prov. 29. 1. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy This is a death spot a hell spot where ever it appears From this very sypmtom the Prophet plainly predicted the approaching ruine of Amaziah 2 Chron. 25. 16. I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and hast not hearkened to my voice He that will not be timely counselled shall be quickly destroyed Lastly when a man comes to glory in his sin and boast of his wickedness then its time to cut him down whose end is destruction whose glory is in their shame Phil. 3. 16. This is a braving a daring of God to his face and with whomsoever he bears long to be sure these are none of them You see now what are the signs of a full ripe sinner and when it comes to this either with a Nation or with a single person then ruine is near Ioel. 3. 13. Gen. 15. 16. It is in the filling up of the measure of sin as in the filling of a vessel cast into the Sea which rowls from side to side taking in the water by litle and litle till it be full and then down it sinks to the bottom Mean while admirable is divine patience which bears with these vessels of wrath whilst fitting for destruction REFLECTIONS CHear thy self O my soul with the heart strengthening bread of this divine meditation Let faith turn every drop of this truth into a soul-reviving cordial God hath sown the precious seed of grace upon my soul and though my heart hath been an unkind soyl which hath kept it back and much hindered its growth yet blessed be the Lord it still grows on though by slow degrees and from the springing of the seed and shootings forth of those gracious habits I may conclude an approaching harvest Now is my salvation nearer than when I believed every day I come nearer to my salvation Rom. 13. 11. O that every day I were more active for the God of my salvation grow on my soul and add to thy faith vertue to thy vertue knowledge c. Grow on from faith to faith keep thy self under the ripening influences of heavenly Ordinances the faster thou growest in grace the sooner thou shalt be reaped down in mercy and bound up in the bundle of life 1 Sam. 25. 29. I have not yet attained the measure and proportion of grace assigned to me neither am I already perfect but am reaching forth to the things before me and pressing towards the mark for the prize of my heavenly calling Phil. 3. 12 13. O mercy to be admired that I who lately had one foot in hell stand now with one foot in heaven But the case is far different with me whilst others are ripening apace for heaven I am withering many a soul plowed up by conviction and sown by sanctification long after me hath quite over-topt and out-grown me my sweet and early blossoms were nipt and blown off my bright morning overcast and clouded had I kept on according to the rate of my first growth I had either now been in heaven or at least in the suburbs of it on earth but my graces wither and languish my heart contracts and cools to heavenly things the Sun and rain of ordinances and providences improve not my graces how sad therefore is the state of my soul Thy case O declining Saint is sad but not like mine thine is but a temporary remission of the acts of grace which is recoverable but I am judicially hardening and treasuring up to my self wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. Time was when I had some tender sense of sin when I could mourn and grieve for it now I have none at all My heart is grown stupid and sottish Time was when I had some consciencious care of duty and my heart would smite me for the neglect of it but now none at all Wretched soul what wilt thou do thou art gone far indeed a few steps farther will put thee beyond hope hitherto I stand in the field the long-suffering God doth yet spare me yea spare me whiles he hath cut down many of my companions in sin round about me What doth this admirable patience this long-suffering drawn out to a wonder speak concerning me Doth it not tell me that the Lord is not willing I should perish but rather come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. And what argument is like his pity and patience to lead a soul to repentance Rom. 2. 4. O that I may not frustrate at last the end
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
soul who gave thee a season a day for eternal life which is more than he hath done for thousands yea bless the Lord for giving thee an heart to understand and improve that season I confess I have not improved it as I ought yet this I can through mercy say that how ever it fare in future times with my outward man though I have no treasures or stores laid up on earth or if I have they are but corruptible yet I have a blessed hope laid up in heaven Col. 1. 5. I have bags that wax not old Whilst worldlings rejoyce in their stores and heaps I will rejoyce in these eternal treasures The Poem OBserve in Summers sultry heat how in the hottest day The Husbandman doth toyl and sweat about his Corn and Hay If then he should not reap and mow and gather in his store How should he live when for the snow he can't move out of door The little Ants and painful Bees by natures instinct led These have their Summer granaries for Winter furnished But thou my soul whose Summers day is almost past and gone What soul-provision dost thou lay in stock to spend upon If nature teacheth to prepare for temporal life much rather Grace should provoke to greater care soul food in time to gather Dayes of affliction and distress are hasting on apace If now I live in carelessness how sad will be my case Unworthy of the name of man who for that soul of thine Wil t not do that which others can do for their very kine Think frugal Farmers when you see your mows of Corn and Hay What a conviction this will be to you another day Who ne're were up before the Sun nor break an hours rest For your poor souls as you have done so often for a beast Learn once to see the difference betwixt eternal things And these poor transient things of sence that fly with eagles wings CHAP. XVII When from Tare seeds you see choice Wheat to grow Then from your lusts may joy and comfort flow OBSERVATION GOd gives to every seed it s own body 1 Cor. 15. 38. At first he created every Tree and herb of the field having its seed in it self for the conservation of the species and they all inviolably observe the Law of their Creation All fruits naturally rise out of the seeds and roots proper to them Men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles Such productions would be monstrous in nature and although the juice or sap of the earth be the common matter of all kind of fruits yet it is specificated according to the different sorts of Plants and seeds it nourishes Where Wheat is sown it 's turned into Wheat in an apple Tree it becomes an apple and so in every sort of Plants or seeds it 's concocted into fruit proper to the kind APPLICATION TRanslate this into spirituals and the proposition shadowed forth by it is fully expressed by the Apostle Gal. 6. 7. What a man sows that shall be reap they that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and they that sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting And as sure as the harvest follows the seed-time so sure shall such fruits and effects result from the seeds of such actions He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity Prov. 22. 8. And they that now go forth weeping and bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoycing bringing their sheaves with them Psal. 126. 5. The sum of all is this That our present actions have the same respect and relation to future rewards and punishments as the seed we sow in our fields hath to the harvest we reap from it Every gracious action is the seed of joy and every sinful action the seed of anguish and sorrow to the soul that sowed it Two things are sensibly presented to us in this â—imilitude That as the seed sown is presently covered from our sight under the clods and for some time after we see no more of it and yet at last it appears again by which it's evident to us that it is not finally lost So our present actions though physically transient and perhaps forgotten yet are not lost but after a time shall appear again in order to a retribution If this were not so all good and holy actions would be to the loss of him that performed them All the self-denial spending duties and sharp sufferings of the people of God would turn to their damage though not in point of honesty yet in point of personal utility and then also what difference would there be betwixt the actions of a man and a beast with respect to future good or evil yea man would then be more feared and obeyed than God and souls be swayed in all their motions only by the influence of present things and where then would Religion be found in the world 'T is an excellent note of Drexellius Our works saith he do not pass away as soon as they are done but as seed sown shall after a time rise up to all eternity whatever we think speak or do once spoken thought or done is eternal and abides for ever What Zeuxes the famous Limner said of his work may be truly said of all our works Aeternitati pingo I paint for eternity O how careful should men be of what they speak and do whilst they are commanded so to speak and so to do as those that shall be judged by the perfect law of liberty Iam. 2. 12. What more transient than a vain word and yet for such words men shall give an account in the day of judgment Mat. 12. 36. That 's the first thing Actions like seed shall rise and appear again in order to a retribution The other thing held forth in this similitude is That according to the nature of our actions now will be the fruit and reward of them then Though the fruit or consequence of holy actions for the present may seem bitter and the fruit of sinful actions sweet and pleasant yet there is nothing more certain that that their future fruits shall be according to their present nature and quality 2 Cor. 5. 10. Then Dionisius shall retract that saying Ecce quam prospera navigatio a Deo datur sacrilegis Behold how God favours our sacriledge Sometimes indeed though but rarely God causes sinners to reap in this world the same that they have sown as hath been their sin such hath been their punishment It was openly confessed by Adonibezek Iudg. 1. 7. as I have done so hath God requited me Socrates in his Church History furnishes us with a pertinent passage to this purpose concerning Valens the Emperor who was an Arrian and a bitter persecutor of the Christians This man when eighty of the Orthodox Christians failed from Constantinople to Nicomedia to treat with him about the points of Arrianism and to settle the matter by
away and their joy ceases Earthly hearts are acquainted with no higher comforts but the people of God can joy in him and take comfort in their earthly enjoyments too and what comfort they take in these things is much more refined and sweet than yours for they enjoy all these things in God and his love in giving them puts a sweetness into them that you are unacquainted with Thus you see how far your joy falls short of theirs REFLECTIONS HOw have I rejoyced in a thing of nought and pleased my self with a vanity God hath blessed me in my fields and in my stores but not with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. My Barns are full of corn but my soul is empty of grace common bounty hath given me a fulness of the things of this life but what if the meaning of it should be to fat me for the day of slaughter what if this be the whole of my portion from the Lord what if the language of his providences to my soul should be this Lo here I have given thee with Ishmael the fatness of the earth Thou shalt not say but thou hast tasted of thy Creator's bounty but make the most of it for this is all that ever thou shalt have from me There be others in the world to whom I have denyed these things but for them I have reserved better for the most part they are poor in this world but rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom Is not this enough to damp all my carnal mirth Should my conscience give me such a memento as Abraham in the parable gave to Dives Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things Ah what a cut would that be to all my comforts A man in a Fever hath a lively colour but a dying heart I have an appearance a shadow of comfort but a sad state of soul. Blessed be the God and father of my Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Eph. 1. 3. Though he hath not seen fit to give me much of this world in hand yet it hath pleased him to settle a rich inheritance upon me by promise the hopes and expectations whereof yield my soul more true comfort than all the present enjoyments of this world could have done Blessed be the Lord who hath not given me my portion in this life that by keeping me from the enjoyment hath also preserved me from the snares of a prosperous estate Lord Iesus I have no bags I have no Barns but thou shalt be to me instead of all those things When others rejoyce in the fulness of their earthly comforts I will rejoyce in the fulness of my Christ they have that which though I have not I shall not want and I have that which all their riches cannot purchase Bless the Lord O my soul But Lord how am I obliged above thousands to love and praise thee to bless and admire thee who hast not only plentifully provided for my soul but for my body too who hast given me both the upper and the neather springs heaven and earth things present and things to come Thou hast not dealt so with all no not with all thine own people many of them are strangers to the mercies which I enjoy God hath done great things for me O my soul what wilt thou do for God The freer the condition is he hath placed me in the more am I both obliged and advantaged for his service and yet I doubt it will be found that many a poor Christian that labours with his hands to get his bread redeems more hours for God than I do Lord make me wise to understand and answer the double end of this gracious dispensation Let me bestow the more of my time on God and stand ready to Minister to the necessities of his people Oh what an unhappy wretch am I that have nothing either in hand or in hope am miserable here and like to be so for ever Had I but an interest in Christ as the godly poor have that would sweeten all present troubles and shew me the end of them But alas I am poor and wicked contemned of men and abhorred of God an object of contempt both to heaven and earth Lord look upon such a truly miserable object with compassion give me a portion with thy people in the world to come if thou never better my outward condition here O sanctifie this poverty bless these straits and wants that they may necessitate my soul to go to Christ make this poverty the way to glory and I shall bless thee to eternity that I was poor in this world The Poem OFt have I seen when harvest's almost in The last load coming how some men have bin Rapt up with joy as if that welcom cart Drew home the very treasure of their heart What joyful shoutings hooping hollowing noise With mingled voices both of men and boyes To carnal minds there is no greater mirth No higher joy nor greater heaven on earth He speaks pure Paradoxes that shall say These are but trifles to what Saints enjoy But they despise your sparks as much as you Contemn their Sun Some that could never shew A full stuft Barn on which you set yourt hear But glean perhaps the ears behind your cart Yet are the gleanings of their comfort more Than all your harvest and admired store Your mirth is mixt with sorrow theirs is pure Yours like a shadow fleets but theirs indure God gives to you the husk to them the pith And no heart-string sorrow adds therewith Though at the gates of death they sometimes mourn No sooner doth the Lord to them return But sorrow 's banisht from their pensive breast Ioy triumphs there and smiles their cheeks invest Have you beheld when with perfumed wings Out of the balmy East bright Phoebus springs Mounting th' Olympick hill with what a grace He views the throne of darkness and doth chase The shades of night before him having hurl'd His golden beams about this lower world How from sad Groves and solitary Cells Where horrid darkness and confusion dwells Batts Owles and doleful creatures fly away Resigning to the cheerful birds of day Who in those places now can sit and chaunt Where lately such sad creatures kept their haunt Thus grief resigns to joy sighs groans and tears To songs triumphant when the Lord appears O matchless joy O countenance divine What are those trifles to these smiles of thine May I with poor Mephibosheth be blest With these sweet smiles let Ziba take the rest My life my treasure thou shalt ne'r be sold For silver hills or rivers pav'd with gold Wer 't thou but known to worldlings they would scorn To stoop their hearts to such poor things as corn For so they do because thou art above That sphere wherein their low conceptions move CHAP. XIX More solid grain with greater
Christ is really communicated to a believer I live saith Paul yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Ioh. 4. 16. Graffs are bound to the stock by bonds made of hay or flags these keep it steddy else the wind would loose it out of the stock The believing soul is also fastened to Christ by bands which will secure it from all danger of being loosed off from him any more There are two bonds of this union the Spirit on God's part this is the firm bond of union without which we could never be made one with Christ Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and faith on our part Eph. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith These hold strongly Though the stock be one and the same yet all graffs do not thrive and flourish alike in it some out-grow the rest and those that grow not so well as the others do the fault is in them and not in the stock So it is with souls really united to Christ all do not flourish alike in him the faith of some grows exceedingly 2. Thes. 1. 3. the things that be in others are ready to die Rev. 3. 2. and such souls must charge the fault upon themselves Christ sends up living sap enough not only to make all that are in him living but fruitful branches REFLECTIONS IS it so indeed betwixt Christ and my soul as it is betwixt the ingraffed cyence and the stock what honour and glory then hath Christ conferred upon me a poor unworthy creature What! to be made one with him to be a living branch of him to be joyned thus to the Lord. Oh! what a preferment is this it is but a little while since I was a wild and cursed plant growing in the wilderness amongst them that shall shortly be cut down and faggotted up for hell for me to be taken from amongst them and planted into Christ O my soul fall down and kiss the feet of free grace that moved so freely towards so vile a creature the dignities and honours of the Kings and Nobles of the earth are nothing to mine 't was truly confessed by one of them that it is a greater honour to be a member of Christ than the head of an Empire Do I say a greater honour than is put upon the Kings of the Earth I might have said it 's a greater honour than is put upon the Angels of heaven for to which of them said Christ at any time thou art bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Behold what manner of love is this 1 Ioh. 3. 1. Look again upon the ingraffed cyences O my soul and thou shalt find that when once they have taken hold of the stock they live as long as there is any sap in the root and because he liveth I shall live also for my life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 3. The graff is preserved in the stock and my soul is even so preserved in Christ Iesus Iude 1. Am I joyned to the Lord as mystical part or branch of him how dear art thou then O my soul to the God and father of my Lord Iesus Christ What! a branch of his dear Son What can God with-hold from one so ingrafted Eph. 1. 6. All is yours saith my God for ye are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. 23. Once more draw matter of instruction as well as comfort from this sweet observation Seeing God hath put all this honour upon thee by this most intimate union with his Christ look to it my soul that thou live and walk as becomes a soul thus one with the Lord be thou tender over his glory doth not that which strikes at the root strike at the very life of the graff and shall not that which strikes at the very glory of Christ tenderly touch and affect thee yea be thou tenderly affected with all the reproaches that fall upon him from abroad but especially with those which redound to him from thine own unfruitfulness O disgrace not the root that bears thee let it never be said that any evil fruit shall be found upon a branch that lives and is fed by such a root The Poem OH what considering serious man can see The close conjunction of the graff and tree And whilst he contemplates he doth not find This meditation graffed on his mind I am the branch and Christ the vine thy gracious hand did pluck Me from that native stock of mine that I his sap might suck The bloudy spear did in his heart a deep incision make That grace to me he might impart And I thereof partake The spirit and faith is that firm band which binds us fast together Thus we are clasped hand in hand and nothing us can sever Bless'd be that hand which did remove me from my native place This was the wonder of thy love the triumph of thy grace That I a wild and cursed plant should thus preferred be Who all those ornaments do want thou may'st in others â—ee As long as e're the root doth live the branches are not dry Whilst Christ hath grace and life to give my soul can never dye O blessed Saviour never could a graff cleave to the tree More closs than thy poor creature would united be with thee My soul dishonour not thy root 't will be a shame for thee To want the choicest sorts of fruit and yet thus graffed be Thus you may shake from graffs before they blow More precious fruit than e're on trees did grow CHAP. III. When Trees are shak'd but little fruit remains Iust such a remnant to be Lord pertains OBSERVATION IT is a pleasant sight in Autumn to see the fruitful branches hanging full of clusters which weigh the boughs to the ground Aspice curvatos pomorum pondere ramos Vt sua quod peperit vix ferat arbor onus Which I may thus English O what a pleasant sight it is to see The fruitâ—ul clusters bowing down the tree But these laden branches are soon eased of their burden for as soon as they are ripe the Husbandman ascends the tree and shaking the limbs with all his might causes a fruitful shower to fall like hailstones upon the ground below which being gather'd to a heap are carried to the pound broken all to pieces in the trough and squeez'd to a dry lump in the press whence all their juice and moisture runs into the Fat How few escape thiâ— Fat of all those multitudes that grew in the Orchard If you now look upon the Trees you may possibly see here one and there another two or three upon the outmost branches but nothing in comparison to the vast numbers that are thus used APPLICATION THis small remains of fruit which are either left upon the tree or gather'd in for an hoard
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
made a man And such a sight the Rider ought to move This Meditation duly to improve What hath this creature done that he should be Thus beaten wounded and tyr'd out by me He is my fellow-creature 't is meer grace I had not been in his he in my case Ungrateful stupid man God might have made Me bear the saddle as I see this Iade He never sin'd but for my sin doth lye Subjected unto all this misery Lord make my heart relent that I should be To thee more useless than my horse to me He did his utmost went as long as ever His legs could bear him but for me I'never Thus spent my strength for God but oft have bim Too prodigal thereof in wayes of sin Though he 's the horse and I the man 't will be Far better with my horse one day than me Unless thy grace prevent and super-add A new Creation unto that I had Could ev'ry Rider fix a serious thought On such a subject and hereby he taught To spiritualize it and improve it thus How sweet would tedious journeys be to us But such a task a graceless heart dogs out More than the tyred horse I write about CHAP. III. When seeking your lost Cattel keep in mind That thus Christ Iesus seeks your souls to find OBSERVATION WHen Cattel are strayed away from your fields you use all care and diligence to recover them again tracing their footsteps crying them in Market-Towns sending your servants abroad and inquiring your selves of all that you think can give news of them What care and pains men will take in such cases was exemplified in Saul 1 Sam. 9. 4 5. who with his servant passed through Mount Ephraim to seek the Asses that were strayed from his father and through the Land of Shalisha and through the Land of Shalim and they were not there and through the Land of the Benjamites but found them not APPLICATION THe care and pains you take to recover your lost cattel carries a sweet and lively representation of the love of Iesus Christ in the recovery of lost sinners Iesus Christ came on purpose from heaven upon a like errand to seek and to save that which was lost Mat. 18. 11. There are several particulars in which this glorious design of Christ in seeking and saving lost man and the care and pains of Husbandmen in recovering their lost cattel do meet and touch though there be as many particulars also in which they differ all which I shall open under the following heads We sometimes find that cattel will break out of those very fields where they have been bred and where they want nothing that is needful for them Iust thus lost man departed from his God brake out of that pleasant enclosure where he was abundantly provided for both as to soul and body yet then he brake over the hedge of the command and went astray Eccles. 7. 29. Lo this only have I found that God made man upright but he sought out to himself many inventions He was not content and satisfied with that blessed state God had put him into but would be trying new conclusions to the loss and ruin both of himself and his posterity Strayers are evermore sufferers for it all they get by it is to be pinned and pounded and what did man get by departing from his God but ruin and misery to soul and body Will you have an abreviate of his sufferings and losses the full account none can give you why by straying from his God he lost the rectitude and holiness of his nature like a true strayer he is all dirty and miry overspread and besmeared both in soul and body with the odious filthiness of sin he lost the liberty and freedom of his will to good a precious jewel of inestimable value This is a real misery incurr'd by the fall though some have so far lost their understandings and humility as not to own it he hath lost his God his soul his happiness and his very bowels of compassion towards himself in this miserable state When your cattel are strayed yea though it be but one of the Flock or Herd you leave all the rest and go after that which is lost So did Iesus Christ who in the fore-cited place Mat. 18. 12. compares himself to such a Shepherd he left heaven it self and all the blessed Angels there to come into this world to seek lost man O the precious esteem and dear love that Christ had to poor man How did his bowels yearn towards us in our lost state How did he pity us in our misery As if he had said Poor creatures they have lost themselves and are become a prey to the devil in a perishing state I will seek after them and save them The Son of man is come to seek and to save You are glad when you have found your strayers much more is Christ when he hath found a lost soul. O 't is a great satisfaction to him to see the fruit of the travel of his soul Isa. 53. Yea there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth than ninety nine just persons that need no repentance What demonstrations of joy and gladness did the father of the Prodigal give when he found his Son that was lost Lukâ— 15. 20. When you have brought home your strayers you sometimes clog them to prevent their wandring again and stop up the gaps with thorns and so doth God oftentimes by such souls as are recovered and brought home to Christ he hangs a clog of affliction to prevent their departure from God again 2 Cor. 12. 7. But then there are five particulars in which Christ seeking lost souls and your seeking lost cattel differ Your cattel sometimes find the way home themselves and return to you of their own accord but lost man never did nor can do so he was his own destroyer but can never be his own Saviour it was impossible for him to have lost his God but having once lost him can never find him again of himself Alas his heart is bent to backsliding he hath no will to return Hear how Christ complains Ioh. 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me Mans recovery begins in God not in himself Your servants can find and bring back your lost cattel as well as you but so cannot Christs servants Ministers may discover but cannot recover them they daily see but cannot save them lament them they can but help them they cannot intreat and beg them to return they can and do but prevail with them they cannot Melancthon thought when he began to preach to perswade all but old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon You seek all the cattel that are strayed from you especially the best but Iesus Christ only seeks poor lost man There were other creatures and such as by nature were more excellent that lost their God and themselves I mean the Apostate Angels but he came not to seek them Herein his singular love to
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
know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any way of wickedness in me You have little quiet in your spirits till the Case be resolved your meat and drink doth you little good you cannot sleep in the night because these troubled thoughts are ever returning upon you What if I should be turn'd out of all at last So it is with gracious souls their eyes are held waking in the night by reason of the troubles of their hearts Psal. 77. 4. Such fears as these are frequently returning upon their hearts What if I should be found a self-deceiver at last What if I do but hug a phantasm instead of Christ how can this or that consist with grace Their meat and drink doth them little good their bodies are often macerated by the troubles of their souls You will not make the best of your condition when you state your case to a faithful Councellor neither will they but oft-times poor pensive souls they make it much worse than indeed it is charge themselves with that which God never charged them with though this be neither their wisdom nor their duty but the fears of miscarrying make them suspect fraud in all they do or have Lastly when your title is cleared your hearts are eased yea not only eased but overjoyed though not in that degree nor with the same kind of joy that the hearts of Christians are overflowed when the Lord speaks peace to their souls O welcome the sweet morning light after a tedious night of darkness now they can eat their bread with comfort and drink their wine yea if it be but water with a merry heart Eccles. 9. 7. REFLECTIONS O How hath spirit been tossed and hurried when I have met with troubles and clamours about my estate but as for spiritual troubles and those soul-perplexing cases that christians speak of I understand but little of them I never called my everlasting state in question nor brake an hours sleep upon any such account Ah my supine and careless soul I little hast thou regarded how matters stand in reference to eternity I have strongly conceited but never throughly examined the validity of my title to Christ and his promises nor am I able to tell if my own conscience should demand whereupon my claim is grounded O my soul why art thou so unwilling to examine how matters stand betwixt God and thee art thou afraid to look into thy condition least by finding thine hypocrisie thou shouldest lose thy peace or rather thy security To what purpose will it be to shut thine eyes against the light of conviction unless thou couldst also find out a way to prevent thy condemnation Thou seest other souls how attentively they wait under the word for any thing that may speak to their conditions Doubtless thou hast heard how frequently and seriously they have stated their conditions and opened their cases to the Ministers of Christ. But thou O my soul hast no such cases to put no doubts to be resolved thou wilt leave all to the decision of the great day and not trouble thy self about it now Well God will decide it but little to thy comfort I have heard how some have been perplexed by litigious adversaries but I believe none have been so tossed with fears and distracted with doubts as I have been about the state of my soul. Lord what shall I do I have often carried my doubts and scruples to thine Ordinances waiting for satisfaction to be spoken there I have carried them to those I have judged skillfull and faithful begging their resolution and help but nothing will stick Still my fears are daily renewed O my God do thou decide my case tell me how the state stands betwixt thee and me my dayes consume in trouble I can neither do or enjoy any good whilst things are thus with me all my earthly enjoyments are dry and uncomfortable things yea which is much worse all my duties and thine Ordinances prove so too by reason of the troubles of my heart I am no ornament to my profession nay I am a discouragement and stumbling-block to others I will hearken and hear what God the Lord will speak O that it might be peace if thou do not speak it none can and when thou doest keep thy servant from returning again to solly lest I make fresh work for an accusing conscience and give new matter to the adversary of my soul But thou my soul enjoyest a double mercy from thy bountiful God who hath not only given thee a sound title but also the clear evidence and knowledge thereof I am gathering and daily feeding upon the full ripe fruits of assurance which grow upon the top boughs of faith whilst many of my poor brethren drink their own tears and have their teeth broken with gravel stones Lord thou hast set my soul upon her high places but let me not exalt my self because thou hast exalted me nor grow wanton because I walk at liberty lest for the abuse of such precious liberty thou clap my old chains upon me and shut up my soul again in prison The Poem MEn can't be quiet till they be assur'd That their estate is good and well secur'd To able Counsel they their Deed submit Intreating them with care t' examine it Fearing some clause an enemy may wrest Or find a flaw whereby he may devest Them and their children O who can but see How wise men in their generation be But do they equal cares fears express About their everlasting happiness In spiritual things 't would grieve ones heart to see What careless fools these careful men can be They act like men of common sense bereaven Secure their Lands and they 'l trust God for heaven How many cases ave you to submit To Lawyers judgments Ministers may sit From week to week and yet not see the face Of one that brings a soul concerning Case Yea which is worse how seldom do you cry To God for counsel or beg him to try Youâ— heartâ— and strictest inquisition make Into your state discover your mistake O stupid souls clouded with ignorance Is Christ and heaven no fair inheritance Compar'd with yours or is eternity A shorter term than yours that you should ply The one so close and totally neglect The other as not worth your least respect Perhaps the Dâ—vil whose plot from you's conceal'd Perswades your title 's good and firmly seal'd By Gâ—â—'s own Spirit though you never found One act of saving grace to lay a ground For that perswasion Soul he hath thee fast Though he 'l not let thee know it till the last Lord waken sinners make them understand 'Twixt thee and them how rawly matters stand Give them no quiet rest until they see Their souls secur'd better than Lands can be Occasional Meditations UPON BIRDS BEASTS TREES FLOWERS RIVERS and other objects MEDITATIONS on BIRDS MEDIT. I. Vpon the singing of a Nightingale
of such Tyrants is both inglorious and unlamented When the wicked perish there is shouting Prov. 11. 10. Which was exemplified to the life at the death of Nero of whom the Poet thus sings Cum mors crudelem rapuisset saeva Neronem Credibile est multos Roman agitasse jacos When cruel Nero dy'd th' Historian tells How Rome did mourn with Bonefires plays and bells Remarkable for contempt and shame have the ends of many bloudy Tyrants been so Pompey the great of whom Clau dian the Poet sings Nudus pascit aves jacet en qui pâ—ssidet orbem Exiguae telluris inops Birds eat his flesh lo now he cannot have Who rul'd the world a space to make a grave The like is storied of Alexander the great who lay unburied thirty dayes and William the Conquerer with many other such Birds of prey whilst a beneficial and holy life is usually closed up in an honourable and much lamented death For mine own part I wish I may sooder my conversation in the world that I may live when I am dead in the affâ—ctions of the best and leave an honourable testimony in the consciences of the worst that I may oppress none do good to all and say when I dye as good Ambrose did I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to dye MEDIT. III. Vpon the sight of a Black-bird taking sanctuary in a bush from a pursuing Hawk VVHen I saw how hardly the poor Bird was put to it to save her self from her enemy who hover'd just over the bush in which she was fluttering and squeeking I could not but hasten to relieve her pity and succour being a due debt to the distressed which when I had done the bird would not depart from the bush though her enemy were gone this act of kindness was abundantly repaid by this Meditation with which I returned to my walk My soul like this Bird was once distressed pursued yea seized by Satan who had certainly made a prey of it had not Iesus Christ been a sanctuary to it in that hour of danger How ready did I find him to receive my poor soul into his protection then did he make good that sweet promise to my experience Those that come unto me I will in no wise cast out It call'd to mind that pretty and pertinent story of the Philosopher who walking in the fields a Bird pursued by a Hawk flew into his bosom her took her out and said Poor bird I will neither wrong thee nor expose thee to thine enemy since thou camest unto me for refuge So tender and more than so is the Lord Iesus to distressed souls that come unto him Blessed Iesus how should I love and praise thee glorifie and admire thee for that great salvation thou hast wrought for me If this Bird had faln into the claws of her enemy she had been torn to pieces indeed and devoured but then a few minutes had dispatcht her and ended all her pain and misery but had my soul fallen into the hand of Satan there had been no end of its misery Would not this scared Bird be flusht out of the Bush that secured her though I had chased away her enemy and wilt thou my soul ever be enticed or scared from Christ thy refuge O let this for ever ingage thee to keep close to Christ and make me say with Ezra and now O Lord since thou hast given me such a deliverance as this should I again break thy commandments MEDIT. IV Vpon the sight of diver Lennets intermingling with a flock of Sparrows ME thinks these Birds do fitly resemble the gaudy Gallant and the plain peasants how spruce and richly adorned with shining and various coloured feathers like scarlet richly laid with gold and silver lace are those how plainly clad in a home-spun countrey russet are these Fine feathers saith our proverb make proud Birds and yet the feathers of the Sparrow are as useful and beneficial both for warmth and flight though not so gay and ornamental as the others and if both were stript out of their feathers the Sparrow would prove the better Bird of the two by which I see that the greatest worth doth not alwayes lye under the finest cloaths And besides God can make mean and homely garments as useful and beneficial topoor despised Christians as the ruffling and shining garments of wanton Gallants are to them and when God shall strip men out of all external excellencies these will be found to excel their glittering neighbours in true worth and excellency Little would a man think such rich treasures of grace wisdom humility c. lay under some russet coats Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste Under poor garments more true worth may be Than under silks that whistle who but he Whilst on the other side the heart of the wicked as Solomon hath observed is little worth how much sover his cloaths be worth Alas it falls out two frequently among us as it doth with men in the Indies who walk over the rich veins of gold and silver Oar which lyes hid under a ragged and barren surface and know it not For my how pâ—rt I desire not to value any man by what is extrinsecal and worldly but by that true internal excellency of grace which makes the face to shine in the eyes of God and good men I would contemn a vile person though never so glorious in the eye of the world but honour such as fear the Lord how sordid and despicable soever to appearance MEDIT. V. Vpon the sight of a Robbin-red-breast picking up a worm from a mole-hill then raising OBserving the Mole working industriously beneath and the Bird watching so intently above I made a stand to observe the issue When in a little time the bird descends and seizes upon a worm which I perceived was crawling apace from the enemy below that hunted her but fell to the share of another which from above waited for her My thoughts presently suggested these Meditations from that occasion me thought this poor worm seem'd to be the Emblem of my poor soul which is more endangered by its own lusts of pride and covetousness than this worm was by the Mole and Bird my pride like the aspiring Bird watches for it above my covetousness like this subterranean Mole digging for it beneath Poor soul what a sad Dilemma art thou brought to If thou go down into the caverns of the earth there thou art a prey to thy covetousness that hunts thee and if thou aspire or but creep upward there thy pride waits to ensnare thee Distressed soul whither wilt thou go ascend thou mayest not by a vain elation but by a heavenly conversation beside which there is no way for thy preservation the way of life is above to the wise c. Again I could not but observe the accidental benefit this poor harmless Bird obtained by the labour of the Mole who hunting intentionally for her self unburroughed and ferrited out this
that first flourish is gone my heart is like the Winters earth because thy face Lord is to me like a Winter Sun Awake O Northwind and come South wind blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out then let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruit MEDIT. II. Vpon the knitting or setting of fruit I Have often observed that when the blossoms of a tree set and knit though the flourish thereof be gone and nothing but the bare rudiment of the expected fruit be left yet then the fruit is much better secured from the danger of frosts and winds than whilst it remained in the flower or blossom for now it hath past one of those critical periods in which so many trees miscarry and lose their fruit And methought this natual Observation fairly led me to this Theological Proposition That good motions and holy purposes in the soul are never secured and past their most dangerous Crisis till they be turned into fixed resolutions and answerable execution which is as the knitting and setting of them Upon this Proposition my melting thoughts thus dilated Happy had it been for thee my soul had all the blessed motions of the Spirit been thus knit and fixed in thee O how have mine affections blown and budded under the warm beams of the Gospel but a I hill blast from the cares troubles and delights of the world without and the vanity and deadness of the heart within have blasted all my goodness hath been but as a morning dew or early cloud that vanisheth away And even of divine Ordinance I may say what is said of humane Ordinances They have perished in the using A blossom is but fruâ—tus imperfectus ordinabilis an imperfect thing in it self and something in order to fruit a good motion and holy purpose is but opus imperfectum ordinabile an imperfect work in order to a compleat work of the Spirit When that primus impetus those first motions were strong upon my heart had I then pursued them in the force and vigour of them how many difficulties might I have overcome Revive thy work O Lord and give not to my soul a miscarrying womb or dry breasts MEDIT. III. Vpon the sight of a fair spreading Oak WHat a lofty flourishing Tree is here It seems rather to be a little Wood than a single Tree every limb thereof having the dimensions and branches of a Tree in it and yet as great as it is it was once but a little slip which one might pull up with two fingers this vast body was contained virtually and potentially in a small Acorn Well then I will never despise the day of Small things nor despair of arriving to an eminency of grace though at present it be but as a bruised reed and the things that are in me be ready to dye As things in nature so the things of the Spirit grow up to their fulness and perfection by flow and insensible degrees The famous and heroical acts of the most renowned believers were such as themselves could not once perform or it may be think they ever should Great things both in nature and grace come from small and contemptible beginnings MEDIT. IV. Vpon the sight of many sticks lodged in the branches of a choice fruit Tree HOw is this Tree batter'd with stones and loaded with sticks that have been thrown at it whilest those that grow about it being barren or bearing harsher fruit escape untouched Surely if its fruit had not been so good its usage had not been so bad and yet it is affirmed that some trees as the Walnut c. bear the better for being thus bruised and battered Even thus it fares in both respects with the best of men the more holy the more envied and persecuted every one that passes by will have a fling at them Methinks I see how devils and wicked men walk round about the people of God whom he hath enclosed in armes of power like so many boys about an Orchard whose lips water to have a fling at them But God turns all the stones of reproach into precious stones to his people they bear the better for being thus batter'd And in them is that ancient observation verified Creseunt virtutem palmae crescuntque Coronae Mutantur mundipraelia pace Dei The Palmes and Crowns of virtue thus increase Thus persecution's turned into peace Let me be but fruitful to God in holiness and ever abounding in the work of the Lord and then whilst devils and men are flinging at me either by hand or tongue persecutions I will sing amidst them all with the divine Poet What open force or hidden charm Can blast my fruits or bring me harm Whilst the inclosure is thine arm MEDIT. V. Vpon the gathering of choice fruit from a scrubbed unpromising Tree VVOuld any man think to find such rare delicious fruit upon such an unworthy Tree to appearance as this is I should rather have expected the most delicious fruit from the most handsome and flourishing Trees but I see I must neither judge the worth of Tree or Men by their external form and appearance This is not the first time I have been deceived in judging by that rule under fair and promising out-sides I have found nothing of worth and in many deformed despicable bodies I have found precious richly furnished souls The sap and juice of this scrubbed Tree is concocted into rare and excellent fruits whilst the juice and sap of some other fair but barren Trees serves only to keep them from rotting which is all the use that many souls which dwell in beautâ—uâ—l bodies serve for they have as one saith animam pro sale their souls are butsalt to their bodies Or thus The only use to which their souls do serve Is but like salt their bodies to preserve If God have given me a sound soul in a sound body I have a double mercy to bless him for but whither my body be vigorous and beautiful or not yet let my soul be so For as the esteem of this Tree so the esteem and true honour of every man rises rather from his fruitfulness and usefulness than from his shape and form MEDIT. VI. Vpon an excellent but irregular Tree SEeing a Tree grow somewhat irregular in a very neat Orchard I told the Owner it was pity that Tree should stand there and that if it were mine I would root it up and thereby reduce the Orchard to an exact uniformity It was replyed to this purpose that he rather regarded the fruit than the form and that this slight inconveniency was abundantly preponderated by a more considerable advantage This Tree said he which you would root up hath yielded me more fruit than many of those Trees which have nothing else to commend them but their regular scituation I could not but yield to the reason of this answer and could wish it had been spoken so loud that all our Uniformity men had
upon them and squeeze them too hard they quickly wither in our hands and we lose the comfort of them and that either through the souls surfeiting upon them of the Lord 's righteous and just removal of them because of the excess of our affections to them earthly comâ—orts like pictures shew best at a due distance It was therefore a good saying of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Mihi nunquam is placet hospes Qui valde preterque modum odid vel amat I like him not who at the rate Of all his might doth love or hate 'T is a point of excellent wisdom to keep the golden bridle of moderation upon all the affections we exercise upon earthly things and never to slip those reins unless when they move towards God in whose love there is no danger of excess MEDIT. VI. Vpon the sudden withering of beautiful flowers HOw fresh and orient did these Flowers lately appear when being dash'd over with the morning dew they stood in all their pride and glory breathing out their delicious odours which perfumed the air round about them but now are daver'd and shrivelled up and have neither any desirable beauty of savour in them So vain a thing is the admired beauty of creatures which so captivates the hearts and exercises a pleasing tyranny over the affections of vain man yet is as suddenly blasted as the beauty of flower Formâ— bonum fragile est quantumque aâ—â—â—dit ad annos Fit minor spacio carpitur ipsa suo Nec semper violae nec semper lilia florent Et riget amissa spina relicta rosa Tempus erit quo vos speculum vidisse pigebit I am veniunt rugae quae tibi corpus arent c. How frail is beauty in how short a time It fades like Roses which have past their prime So wrinckled age the fairest face will plow And cast deep â—urrows on the smoothest brow Then where 's that lovely tempting face alas Your selves would blush to view it in a glass If then thou delightest in beauty O my soul chuse that which is lasting There is a beauty which never fades even the beauty of holiness upon the inner man this abides fresh and orient for ever and sparkles gloriously when thy face the seat of natural beauty is become an abhorrent and loathsome spectacle Holiness enammels and sprinkles over the face of the soul with a beauty upon which Christ himself is enammour'd even imperfect holiness on earth is a Rose that breaths sweetly in the bud in heaven it will be full blown and abide in its prime to all eternity MEDIT. VII Vpon the tenderness of some choice Flowers HOw much care is necessary to preserve the life of some Flowers They must be boxed up in the Winter others must be covered with glasses in their springing up the finest and richest mould must be sifted about the roots and assiduously watered and all this little enough and sometimes too little to preserve them whilst other common and worthless flowers grow without any help of ours yea we have no less to do to rid our gardens of them than we have to make the former grâ—w there Thus stands the case with our hearts in reference to the motions of grace and sin Holy thoughts of God must be assiduously watered by prayer earthed up by Meditation and defended by watchfulness and yet all this is sometimes too little to preserve them alive in our souls Alas the heart is a soyl that agrees not with them they are tender things and a small matter will nip and kill them To this purpose is the complaint of the divine Poet. Who would have thought a joy so coy To be offended so and go So suddenly away Hereafter I had need take heed Ioyes among other things have wings And watch their opportunities of flight Converting in a moment day to night But vain thoughts and unholy suggestions these spread themselves and root deep in the heart they naturally agree with the soyl so that it is almost impossible at any time to be rid of them 'T is hard to forget what is our sin to remember MEDIT. VIII Vpon the strange means of preserving the life of Vegetables I Observe that plants and herbs are sometimes killed by frosts and yet without frosts they would neither live nor thrive they are sometimes drowned by water and yet without water they cannot subsist they are refreshed and cheered by the heat of the Sun and yet that heat sometimes kills and scorches them up Thus lives my soul troubles and afflictions seem to kill all its comforts and yet without these its comforts could not live The Sun-blasts of prosperity sometimes refresh me and yet those Sun-blasts are the likeliest way to wither me By what seeming contradictions is the life of my spirit preserved what a mistery what a Paradox is the life of a Christian Welcome my health this sickness makes me well Med'cines adieu When with diseases I have list to dwell I 'le wish for you Welcome my strength this weakness makes me able Powers adieu When I am weary grown of standing stable I 'le wish for you Welcome my wealth this loss hath gain'd me more Riches adieu When I again grow greedy to be poor I 'le wish for you Welcome my credit this disgrace is glory Honours adieu When for renown and fame I shall be sorry I 'le wish for you Welcome content this sorrow is my joy Pleasures adieu When I desire such grief as may annoy I 'le wish for you Health strength and riches credit and content Are spared best sometimes when they are spent Sickness and weakness losse disgrace and sorrow Lend most sometimes when most they seem to borrow And if by these contrary and improbable wayes the Lord preserves our souls in life no marvel then we find such strange and seemingly contradictory motions of our hearts under the various dealings of God with us and are still restless in what condition soever he puts us which restless frame was excellently expressed in that pious Epigram of reverend Gattaker made a little before his death I thirst for thirstiness I weep for tears well pleas'd I am to be displeased thus The only thing I fear is want of fears suspecting I am not suspicious I cannot chuse but live because I dye And when I am not dead how glad am I Yet when I am thus glad for sense of pain and careful am lest I should careless be Then do I grieve for being glad again and fear lest carelessness take care for me Amidst these restless thoughts this rest I find For those that rest not here there 's rest behind Iam tetigi portum valete FINIS A TABLE of the Contents of this Treatise both Natural and Spiritual Natural Spiritual A ABuse of Cattel Page 205 206 Actions and seed resembled 147 148 Accountableness of workmen to their Masters 8 Arable Land how qualified 36 37 Altitude of the clouds 87 B Barns when
judicious 14. Compared with clouds in three particulars 86 87. Their Reflections 61 86 87 Ministry its scope and end what 8 Moral persons reflections 150 N Names what vain things in Religion 22 Neglecting soul seasons dangerous 142 143 O Obedience must be free and chearful 50 Ordinances their influences what and whence 81 82 97 Original sin compared with sop 175 P Parents convinced of their sin 203 Pains of Ministers visible sometimes in the peoples lives 9 Patience of Saintsits grounds 122 123 124 125 Poor if godly incouraged greatly 219 Presumptuous persons Reflections 112 113 144 Presence of God singular in his Church 13 Proâ—ane persons Reflection 149 Persecutors Reflections 163 Prayer the golden key to open mystical clouds 8 Professors barren fewel for hell 193 194 Prosperous sinners and feeding beasts parallel'd in five particulars 217 218 Prudence in Christians commended and urged 14 141 R Regenerate souls their reflections 183 184 Recovery of lost sinners by Christ opened and parallel'd with seeking of lost Cattel 210 211 212 Resurrection parallel'd with springing Corn 101 102 Resurrection the glory of that state 107 108 S Seed-corn how to be steeped before it be sown 81 Sickly Christians their comfort 105 Sincere souls Reflection 59 170 77 Sloth inexcusable in Christians 22 23 26 Straying from God its emblem 211 Stock advantaged to be removed from our natural stock 176 Support for declining souls 51 T Tree the emblem of the world 188 Toad how the sight of a Toad affected a shepherd 206 Thief on the cross no president to careless ones 143 To morrow a new day the first ground of that proverb in Greece 141 142 V Unregenerate persons cannot bring forth good fruit 174 175 Ungodly persons Reflections 106 Voluptuous sinners Reflections 218 Upright ones Reflections 34 Union with Christ in eight resemblances 181 182 283 W Wages what offered by Christ and the world 28 29 Weak gifts sanctified yield strong consolation 178 Winnowing of souls by judgment 166 167 Worldlings Reflections 27 41 FINIS Cicero Caryl in loc Mr. Manton Navigation Spiritualized D. Dig. Mr. Richard Steel and this Author * Navigation Spiritualized Hor. Sat 6. * Fideles vocantur dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia a Deo per pastores tanquam arvum excoluntur Rav. 1. Prop. Reddit 2. Prop. Reddit 3. Prop. Reddit 4. Prop. Reddit Loâ—kier in Coâ—oâ— p. 5 52. 5. Prop. Reddit 6. Prop. Reddit 7. Prop. Reddit 8. Prop. Reddit Pascitur Christus quando suorum virtutes videt lillia decerpit quando optimum quemque ex hac vita traducit Trap. in loc 9. Prop. Reddit 10. Prop. Reddit 11. Prop. Reddit * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12. Prop. Reddit 13. Prop. Reddit 14. Prop. Reddit 15. Prop. Reddit 16. Prop. Reddit 17. Prop. Reddit 18. Prop. Reddit 19. Prop. Reddit 20. Prop. Reddit Speeds Chron. Upon the industry of the Husbandman The worldlings Reflection The Formalists Reflection The Reflection of a slothful Christian. Eph. 5. 15. Luke 13. 24. Psal. 119. 47. Psal. 19. 9. Psal. 73. 25. Amos 2. 7. Eccles. 6. 7. Psal. 4. 6. Rom. 12. 11. Gal. 6. 16. Heb. 12. 24. Mat. 20. 21 22. Mat. 19. 22. Gal. 6. 9. Luke 13. 24. Psal. 19. 10. Ioh. 20. 10. Heb. 4. ult Upon the thriftiness of the Husbandman Non mercurii sed operarii Reflections of the slothful soul. The worldlings Reflection Iohn 6. 27. 1 Cor. 7. 31. Mat. 16. 26. 1 Tim. 6. 6. Mark 4. 19. Prov. 8. 19. Iob 35. 11. Eccles. 11. 9. Iohn 20. 29. 2 Tim. 3. 13. Rom. 2. 5. Mark 6. 16. 1 Tim. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 28 29. 1 Tim. 6. 9. Iames 2. 5. Iude 21. Psal. 17. 13 14. Luke 19. 27. Isa. 30. 8 9. Iude 5. 2 Pet. 3 7. Upon the cheerfulness of the Husbandman The carnal hearts Reflection The hypocrites Reflection The upright hearts Reflection 1 Isa. 68. 7. 2 Ps. 94. 19. 3 Ps. 145. 10. 4 Rev. 5. 11 12 13. 5 Mat. 25. 21. 6 1 Peâ— 1. 8 9. 7 Act. 14. 17. 8 Iob. 2â— 11. 9 Iam. 5. 18. 1 Ps. 10. 4. 12. 2 Ps. 104 11. 3 Ps. 11. 4. 6. 4 Ier. 2. â—3 5 Isa. 30. 29. 6 Psal. 4. 7. 7 Ioh. 15. 11. Upon the due quality of arable Land cibus potus sunt Divitiae Christianorum Epistle to the Earl of Bedford ante ultima The reflection of the designing Hypocrite The Worldlings Reflection The gracious soul's reflection 1. Quest. 2. Quest. 3. Quest. 4. Quest. 1 Isa. 5. 2. 2 Prov. 30. 7 8 9. 3 Heb. 13. 5. 4 Deu. 32. 15. 5 Prov. 30. 9. 6 Luk. 8. 14. 7 Luk. 8. 14. 8 Mark 6. 8. 9 Hab. 2. 6. 1 Ps. 119. 19. Heb. 11. 13 14. 2 Iob 8. 15. Isa. 36. 6. 3 Heb. 13. 5. 4 Iob 21. 22. 5 Isa. 47. 4. 6 Psa. 1â— 6 7. 7 Gen. 18. 32 8 Prov 30. 8. 9 Eccl. 6. 2. 1 Prov 30. 9. 2 Hab. 3. 17. Upon the improvement of bad ground Gratia nec totaliter intermittitur nec finalitur amittitâ—r Actus omittitur habitâ—s non amittitur Actio pervertitur sides non subvertitur Concutitur non excutitur Deâ—luit fructus latet succus Ius ad regnum amittunt demeritorie non effective Effectus justificationis suspenditur at status justificati non dissolvitur Suff. Britt How far true grace in a believer may fail Gratia gratiam postulat A convictive Reflection A supporting Reflection 1 Ioh 15. 1. 2 1 Cor. 3. 9. 3 Psa. 4. 3. 4 Iob 29. 3 4. 5 Hos. 14. 5 6 6 Hos. 6. 3. 7 Ier. 2. 3. 8 Cant. 7. 12. 9 Acts 9. 11. 10 Lu. 24. 32. 1 Gen. 28. 16. 17. 2 Exod. 34. â—9 3 Gen. 6. 7. 4 Psa. 42. 6. 5 Cant. 5. 6. 6 Rev. 2. 5. 7 2 Chr. 17. 3. 8 Psa. 102. 4. 9 Isa. 59. 2. 1 Isa. 64. 6. 2 Psa. 88. 6 14. 3 Psal. 77. 2. 4 Psa. 42. 11. 5 Ion. 2 4. 6 Ier. 8. 22. 7 Eze. 16. 4. 8 Psa. 23. 3. 9 Psal. 88. 1 Iob 14. 2 Psa. 30. 3 Psa. 80. 3. 4 Luk. 22. 61 62. 5 Ier. 22. 17. Upon the uncurableness of some bad ground Spiritual barrenness p. 8. The sincere souls Reflection The formal Professors Reflection The less fruitful Christians Reflection Romanae leges poenam pregnanti deferâ—nt Chrysost. The Gospel Preachers Reflection 1 Eze. 47. 11 2 2 Tim. 3. 13. 3 Heb. 6. 8. 4 Mat. 5. 45. 5 2 Sam. 23. 4. 6 Cant. 2. 12. 7 Psal. 65. 13. 8 Eze. 47. 11. 9 Iob 8. 11. 1 Deut. 22. 2. 2 Isa. 5. 6. 3 2Cor 2. 16. 4 Psa. 92. 13. 5 Isa. 6. 9 10. 6 Mar. 11. 20. 7 Isa. 5. 24. 9 Isa. 6. 10. 10 Luk. 8. 14. Ier. 17. 5 6. Upon the plowing of Câ—rn-land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glassius Rhet. sacra p. 300. Caryl on Iob Chap. 4. v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punctim cedo pungendo penetro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
formal hypocrite by an external reformation and yet still retains his propriety in them Mat. 12. 43 44. For that departure is indeed no more than a politick retreat Many that shall never escape the damnation of hell have yet escaped the pollutions of the world and that by the knowledge of the Son of God 2 Pet. 2. 20. Doth the Spirit of the Lord produce that glorious and supernatural work of faith in convinced and humbled souls in this also the hypocrite apes and imitates the believer Acts 8. 13. Then Simon himself believed also Luke 8. 13. These are they which for a while believe and in time of temptation fall away Doth the precious eye of faith discovering the transcendent excellencies that are in Christ inflame the affections of the believing soul with vehement desires and longings after him Strange motions of heart have also been found in hypocrites towards Christ and heavenly things Iohn 6. 34. Lord evermore give us this bread Mat. 25. 8. Give us of your oyl for our lamps are gone out With what a rapture was Balaam transported when he said Let me dye the death of the righteous and my last end be like his Numb 23. 10. Doth the work of faith in some believers bear upon its top branches the full ripe fruits of a blessed assurance Lo What strong confidences and high-built perswasions of an interest in God have sometimes been found even in unsanctified ones Ioh. 8. 54. Of whom you say that he is your God and yet ye have not known him To the same height of confidence arrived those vain souls mentioned in Rom. 2. 19. Yea so strong may this false assurance be that they dare boldly venture to go to the judgment seat of God and there defend it Mat. 7. 22. Lord Lord have we not prophecyed in thy name Doth the Spirit of God fill the heart of the assured believer with joy unspeakable and full of glory giving them through faith a prelibation or foretaste of heaven it self in those first fruits of it How near to this comes that which the Apostle supposes may be found even in Apostates Heb. 6. 8 9. who are there said to taste the good word of God and the powers of the world to come What shall I say if real Christians delight in Ordinances those that are none may also delight in approaching to God Ezek. 33. 32. It may be you will say though the difference be not easily discernable in their active obedience yet when it shall come to suffering there every eye may discern it the false heart will then flinch and cannot brook that work And yet even this is no infallible rule neither for the Apostle supposes that the Salamander of hypocrisie may live in the very flames of Martyrdom 1 Cor. 13. 3. If I give my body to be burnt and have not charity And it was long since determined in this cafe Non paena sed causa facit Martyrem so that without controversie the difficulty of distinguishing them is very great And this difference will yet be more subtile and undiscernable if I should tell you that as in so many things the hypocrite resembles the Saint so there are other things in which a real Christian may act too like an hypocrite When we find a Pharoah confessing an Herod practising as well as hearing a Iudas preaching Christ an Alexander ventring his life for Paul and on the other side shall find a David condemning that in another which he practised himself an Hezekiah glorying in his riches a Peter dissembling and even all the Disciples forsaking Christ in an hour of trouble and danger O then how hard is it for the eye of man to discern betwixt chaff and wheat how many upright hearts are now censured whom God will clear how many false hearts are now approved whom God will condemn men ordinarily have no clear convictive proofs but only probable symptoms which at most can beget but a conjectural knowledge of anothers state And they that shall peremptorily judge either way may possibly wrong the generation of the upright or on the other side absolve and justifie the wicked And truly considering what hath been said it is no great wonder that dangerous mistakes are so frequently made in this matter But though man cannot the Lord both can and will perfectly discriminate them The Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. He will have a day perfectly to sever the tares from the wheat to melt off the varnish of the most resplendent and refined hyocrite and to blow off the ashes of infirmities which have covered and obscured the very sparks of sincerity in his people He will make such a division as was never yet made in the world how many divisions soever there have been in it And then shall men indeed return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked betwixt him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Mean while my soul thou canst not better imploy thy self whether thou be sound or unsound than in making these reflections upon thy self REFLECTIONS ANd is this so then Lord pardon the rashness and precipitancy of my censorious spirit for I have often boldly anticipated thy judgment and assumed thy prerogative although thou hast said Why dost thou judge thy brother and why dost thou set at nought thy brother we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ for it is written as I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Let ut not therefore judge one another any more Rom. 14. 10 11 12 13. And again He that judgeth me is the Lord. Let us therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God 1 Cor. 4. 4 5. What if God will own some of them for his Sons to whom I refuse to give the respect of brethren I may pass hasty and headlong censures upon others but where is my commission for so doing I want not only a commission but fit qualifications for such a work as this Can I pierce into the heart as God can I infallibly discover the hidden motives ends and principles of actions Besides O my soul thou art conscious of so much falsness in thy self that were there no other consideration that alone might rest in a thee from all uncharitable and hasty censures If others knew but what I know of my self would they not judge as severely of me as I do of others Though I may not judge the final state of another yet I may and ought to judge the state of my own soul which is doubtless a more necessary and concerning work to me For since every saving grace in a Christian hath its counterfeit in the hypocrite how needful is it for thee O my soul to make a stand here and solemnly to