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
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
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
traveller this world 's my way A single staff may be of use to stay My feeble body if it do not crack By too hard leaning on it but my back Will bear no more Alas I soon should tire And more than one I cannot well desire Lord to prescribe to thee becomes me not I rather do submit unto my lot But yet let condescending grace admit Thy servants suit this once and this is it The staff of bread convenient let me have And manage it discreetly so 't will save Thy feeble servant from the mire and dirt But more or less than this may do me hurt Or if thou say thy servant shall have none Then strengthen faith that I may go alone CHAP. IV. Spent barren Land you can restore and nourish Decayed Christians God can cause to flourish OBSERVATION WHen Land is spent out by â—illage or for want of manuring the careful husbandman hath many wayes to recover and bring it in heart again He lets it lye follow to give it rest and time to recover it self carries out his sand lime and compost to refresh and quicken it again and in pasture and medow ground will wash it if possible with a current of water or the float of the wayes after a fall of rain which is to the earth as a spring of new blood to a consumptive body He cuts down and kills the weeds that suck it out and cause them to make restitution of what they have purloined from it by rotting upon the place where they grew As careful are they to recover it when it is spent as an honest Physician is of his patient in a languishing condition for the knows his field will be as grateful to him and fully requite his care and cast APPLICATION AS man's so God's Husbandry is sometimes out of case not by yielding too many crops but too few The mystical Husbandman hath some fields I mean particular societies and persons who were once fragrant and fruitful like a field which God had blessed but are now decayed and grown barren whose gleanings formerly were more than their vintage now the things that are in them are ready to dye Rev. 3. 3. ' Tispossible yea too common for gracious souls to be reduced to a very low ebb both of graces and comforts how low I will not say Our Brittish Divines tell us That grace indeed cannot be totally intermitted nor finally lost but there may be an omission of the act though not an amission of the habit the act may be perverted though the faith cannot be subverted it may be shaken in though not shaken out its fruits may fall but its sap lyes hid in its root they demerit the loss of the kingdom but lose it not effectively the effect of justification may be suspended but the state of the justified cannot be dissloved Certain it is one that like Paul hath been rapt up with joy even to the third heavens and cryed I am more than a conqueror who can separate me from the love of God May at another time lye mourning as at the gates of death crying O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death One that hath walked in sweet communion with God sunning himself in the light of his countenance may afterwards walk in dark ness and see no light Isa. 50. 10. He that hath cast anchor within the vail and rode securely in the peaceful harbour of assurance may seem to feel his anchor of hope come home to him and go adrift into the stormy Ocean again crying with the Church Lam. 3. 18. My hope is perished from the Lord. His calm and clear Air may be overcast and clouded yea filled with storms and tempests lightnings and thunders his graces like under-ground flowers in the Winter may all disappear and hide their beautiful heads To God he may say I am cast out of thy sight I know thou canst do much but wilt thou shew wonders to the dead To the Promises he may say you are sweet things indeed but what have I to do with you I could once indeed rejoyce in you as my portion but now I doubt I grasped a shadow a fancy instead of you To Saints he may say turn away from me labour not to comfort me O do not spill your precious ointment of consolation upon my head for what have I to do with comfort to former experiences he may say in his haft you are all lyars To the light of God's countenance he may say farewell sweet light I shall behold thee no more To Saâ—an he may say O mine enemy thou haâ—t at last prevailed against me thou art stronger than I and haft overcome To duties and ordinances he may say where is the sweetness I once found in you you were once sweeter to me than the hony comb but now as tastless as the white of an egg O sad relaspe deplored change quantum mutatus ab illo But will God leave his poor creatures helpless in such a case as this Shall their leaf fall their branches wither their joy their life their heart depart will he see their graces fainting their hopes gasping the new creature panting the things that are in them ready to dye and will he not regard it yes yes There is hope of a tree if it be cut down and the root thereof wax old in the earth yet by the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant Iob 14. 89. This poor declined soul as sad as it sits at the gates of hell may rouze up it self at last and say to Satan that stands triumphing over him Rejoyce not over me O mine enemy for though I fall yet I shall arise though I sit in darkness the Lord will be a light unto me Mich. 7. 8. He may raise up himself upon his bed of languishing for all this and say to God though thou hast chastened me sore yet hast thou not given me over unto death He may turn about to the Saints that have mourned for him and with a lightsome countenance say I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord. He may say to the Promises you are the true and faithful sayings of God my unbelief did bely you I said in my hast you were lyars but I eat my words I am ashamed of my folly Surely O Soul there is yet hope in thine end thou mayst be restored Psal. 23. 3. Thou mayst yet recover thy verdure and thy dew be as the dew of herbs For Is he not thy father and a father â—ull of compassions and bowels And can a father stand by his dying Child see his fainting fits hear his melting groans and pitty begging looks and not help him especially having restoratives by him that can do it Surely as a father pities his own Children so will thy God pitty thee Psal. 103. 12 13. He Will spare thee as a father
I was all the while minding another matter Righteous art thou O Lord in all that is come upon us I am now as a Spring shut up that can yield no refreshment to thirsty souls ready to perish Thou hast said to me as once to Ezekiel Son of man behold I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth and thou shalt be dumb This is a heavy judgment but thou must be justified and cleared in it Although men may not yet God if he please may put a lighted candle under a bushel And herein I must acknowledge thy righteousness Many times have I been sinfully silent when both thy glory and the interest of souls ingaged me to speak Most justly therefore hast thou made my tongue to cleave to its roof Little did I consider the preciousness of souls or the tremenduous account to be given for them at the appearing of the great Shepherd I have now time enough to sit down and mourn over former miscarriages and lost opportunities Lord restore me once again to a serviceable capacity to a larger sphere of activity for thee for I am now become as a broken vessel It grieves me to the heart to see thy flock scattered to hear thy people cry to me as once to Ioseph Give us bread for why should we dye in thy presence Thy word is like fire shut up in my bones and I am weary with forbearing O that thou wouldst once again open the doors of thine house that there may be bread enough in thine house for all thy children The Poem When God doth make the heavens above us brass The earth's lke iron Flowers herbs and grass Have lost their fragrant green are turned yellow The brooks are dry the pining cattel bellow The fat and flowry meadows scorcht and burn'd The Countreys mirth is into mourning turn'd The clefted earth her thirsty mouth sets ope Unto the empty clouds as 't were in hope Of some refreshing drops that might allay Her fiery thirst but they soon pass away The pensive Husbandman with his own eyes Bedews his Land because he sees the skies Refuse to do it just so stands the case When God from souls removes the means of grace God's Ministers are clouds their doctrine rain Which when the Lord in judgment shall restrain The peoples souls in short time will be found In such a case as this dry parched ground When this sad judgment falls on any Nation Let Saints therein take up this lamentation O dreadful dark and dismal day How is our glory fled away Our Sun gone down our stars o'recast God's heritage is now laid wast Our pining souls no bread can get With wantons God hath justly met When we are fed unto the full This man was tedious that was dull But they are gone and there remain No such occasions to complain Stars are not now for lights but signs God knows of what heart-breaking times Sure heaven intends not peace but wars In calling home Ambassadors How long did Sodom's judgment stay When righteous Lot was snatcht away How long remain'd that stately Hall When Sampson made the pillars fall When Horsemen and Commanders fly Wo to the helpless Infantry This is a sad and fatal blow A publick loss and overthrow You that so long have wish'd them gone Be quiet now the thing is done Did they torment you ere your day God hath remov'd them out o'th'way Now sleep in sin and take your ease Their doctrine shall no more displease But Lord what shall become of us Our Teacher's gone and left us thus To whom shall we our selves address When conscience labours in distress O who shall help us at our need Or pour in Balm when wounds do bleed Help Lord for unto thee our eyes Do pour out tears our groans our cryes Shall never cease till thou restore The mercies which we had before Till Sions paths where grass now grows Be trodden by the feet of those That love thy name and long t' enjoy The mercies they have sin'd away CHAP. IX Seeds dye and rot and then most fresh appear Saints bodies rise more orient then they mere OBSERVATION AFter the seed is committed to the earth it seems to perish and dye as our Saviour speaks Iohn 12. 24. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it brings forth much fruit The death of the Corn in the earth is not a total death but only the corruption or alteration of it for if once the seminal life and vertue of it were quite extinguisht it could never put forth blade or ear without a miracle Yet because that alteration is a kind of death therefore Christ here uses it as a fit illustration of the resurrection And indeed there is nothing in nature more apt to illustrate that great mystery What a fragrant green and beautiful blade do we â—ee spring up from a corrupted seed how black and mouldy is that how beautiful and verdant is this APPLICATION EVen thus shall the bodies of the Saints arise in beauty and glory at the resurrection They are sown in dishonour they are raised in glory they are sown natural bodies they are raised spiritual bodies 1 Cor. 15. 43 44. The Husbandman knows that though the seed rot in the earth yet it will rise again And the believer knows That though after his skin worms destroy his body yet in his flesh he shall see God Iob 19. 25 c. and the resemblance betwixt the seed sown and springing up and the bodies of the Saints dying and rising again lyes in these following particulars First the seed is committed to the earth from whence it came so is the body of a Saint earth it was and to earth it is again resolved Grace exempts not the body of the best man from seeing corruption Rom. 8. 10. Though Christ be in him yet the body is dead that is sentenced to death because of sin Heb. 6. ult It is appointed for all men once to dye Secondly The seed is cast into the earth in hope 1 Cor. 9. 10. Were there not a resurrection of it expected the Husbandman would never be willing to cast away his Corn. The bodies of Saints are also committed to the grave in hope I Thes. 4. 13 14. But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning those which are asleep as them which have no hope for if we believe that Iesus dyed and rose again even so also them which sleep in Iesus shall the Lord bring with him This blessed hope of a resurrection sweetens not only the troubles of life but the pangs of death Thirdly the seed is cast into the earth seasonably in its proper season So are the bodies of the Saints Ioh. 5. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age as a shock of corn cometh in in its season They alwayes dye in the fittest time though sometimes they seem
to dye immaturately The time of their death was from all eternity prefixt by God beyond which they cannot go and short of which they cannot come The seed lyes many dayes and nights under the clods before it rise and appear again Even so man lyeth down and riseth not again till the heavens be no more Iob 14. 12. The dayes of darkness in the grave are many When the time is come for its shooting up the earth that covered it can hide it no longer it cannot keep it down a day more it will find or make a way through the clods So in that day when the great trump shall sound bone shall come to his bone and the graves shall not be able to hold them a minute longer Both Sea and earth must render the dead that are in them Rev. 20. 13. When the seed appears above ground again it appears much more fresh and orient than when it was cast into the earth God cloaths it with such beauty that it is not like to what it was before Thus rise the bodies of Saints marvellously improved beautified and perfected with spiritual qualities and rich endowments in respect whereof they are called spiritual bodies I Cor. 15. 43. not properly but analogically spiritual for look as spirits subsist without food raâ—ment sleep know no lassitude weariness or pain so our bodies after the resurrection shall be above these necessities and distempers for we shall be as the Angels of God Mat. 22. 30. Yea our vile bodies shall be changed and made like unto Christs glorious body which is the highest pitch and ascent of glory and honour that an humane body is capable of Phil. 3. 21. Indeed the glory of the soul shall be the greatest glory that 's the orient invaluable jem but God will bestow a distinct glory upon the body and richly enammel the very case in which that precious jewel shall be kept In that glorious morning of the resurrection the Saints shall put on their new fresh suits of flesh richly laid and trimmed with glory Those bodies which in the grave were but dust and rottenness when it delivers them back again shall be shining and excellent pieces absolutely and everlastingly freed 1 From all natural infirmities and distempers death is their good Physician which at once freed them of all diseases 'T is a great Affliction now to many of the Lord's people to be clog'd with so many bodily infirmities which render them very unserviceable to God The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak A crazy body retorts and shoots back its distempers upon the soul with which it is so closely conjoyned but though now the soul as Theophrastus speaks payes a dear rent for the Tabernacle in which it dwells yet when death dissolves that Tabernacle all the diseases and pains under which it groaned shall be buried in the rubbish of its mortality and when they come to be re-united again God will bestow rich gifts and dowries even upon the body in the day of its re-espousals to the soul. 2 It shall be freed from all deformities there are no breaches flaws monstrosities in glorified bodies but of them it may much rather be said what was once said of Absalom 2 Sam. 14. 25. That from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him 3ly It shall be freed from all natural necessities to which it is now subjected in this its animal state How is the soul now disquieted and tortured with cares and troubles to provide for a perishing body Many unbelieving and unbecoming fears it is now vexed with What shall it eat and what shall it drink and wherewithal shall it be cloathed But meats for the belly and the belly for meats God shall destroy both it and them 1 Cor. 6. 13. i. e. as to their present use and office for as to its existence so the belly shall not be destroyed But even as the Masts Poop and Stern of a Ship abide in the harbour after the voyage is ended so shall these bodily members as Tertullian excellently illustrates it 4ly They shall be freed from death to which thenceforth they can be subject no more that formidable adversary of nature shall affault it no more For they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they dye any more for they shall be equal to the Angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection Luk. 20. 35 36 Mark it equal to the Angels not that they shall be separate and single spirits without bodies as the Angels are but equal to them in the way and manner of their living and acting We shall then live upon God and act freely purely and delightfully for God for all kind of living upon and delighting in creatures seems in that Text by a Synechdoche of the part which is ordinarily in Scripture put for all creature-delights dependencies and necessities to be excluded Nothing but God shall enamour and fill the soul and the body shall be perfectly subdued to the spirit Lord what hast thou prepared for them that love thee REFLECTIONS If I shall receive my body again so dignified and improved in the world to come then Lord let me never be unwilling to use my body now for the interest of thy glory or my own Salvation Now O my God it grieves me to think how many precious opportunities of serving and honouring thee I have lost under pretence of endangering my health I have been more solicitous to live long and healthfully than to live usefully and fruitfully and like enough my life had been more serviceable to thee if it had not been so fondly overvalued by me Foolish soul hath God given thee a body for a living tool or instrument and art thou afraid to use it wherein is the mercy of having a body if not in spending and wearing it out in the service of God to have an active vigorous body and not to imploy and exercise it for God for fear of endangering its health is as if one should give thee a handsom and sprightful horse upon condition thou shouldst not ride or work him O! if some of the Saints had enjoyed the blessing of such an healthy active body as mine what excellent services would they have performed to God in it If my body shall as surely rise again in glory vigour and excellent endowments as the seed which I sow doth why should not this comfort me over all the pains weaknesses and dulness with which my soul is now clogged Thou knowest my God what a grief it hath been to my soul to be fettered and intangled with the distempers and manifold indispositions of this vile body It hath made me sigh and say with holy Anselme when he saw the mounting bird weighed down by the stone hanging at her leg Lord thus it fares with the
their own necessities while living but to lay up something for their posterity when they are gone they do not only leave to their children what their progenitors left them but they desire to leave it improved and bettered None but bad husbands and spend-thirfts are of the mind with that Heathen Emperor Tiberius who having put all into such confusions in the Empire that it might be thought the world would end with him yet pleased himself with this apprehension that he should be out of the reach of it and would often say When I am dead let heaven and earth mingle if the world will but hold my time let it break when I am gone But provident men look beyond their own time and do very much concern themselves in the good or evil of their posterity APPLICATION VVHat careful Husbands do with respect to the provisions they make for their children that all prudent Christians are bound to do with respect to the truths committed to them and do them to be transmitted to succeeding Saints In the first age of the world even till the Law was given faithful men were instead of books and records they did by oral tradition convey the truths of God to posterity but since the sacred truth hath been consigned the writing no such tion except full consentient with that written word is to be received as authentick but the truths therein delivered to the Saints are by verbal declarations open confessions and constant sufferings to be preserved and delivered from age to age This was the constant care of the whole cloud of witnesses both ancient and modern who have kept the word of Gods patience and would not accept their own lives liberties or estates no nor the whole world in exchange for that invaluable treasure of truth they have carefully practised Solomons counsel Prov. 23. 23. Buy the truth but sell it not they would not alienate that fair inheritance for all the inheritances on earth Upon the same reasons that you are refuse to part with or embezel your estates Christians also refuse to part with the truths of God You will not waste or alienate your inheritance because it 's precious and of great value in your eyes but much more precious are Gods truths to his people Luther professed he would not take the whole world for one leaf of his Bible Though some profane persons may say with Pilate What is truth yet know that any one truth of the Gospel is more worth than all the inheritances upon earth they are the great things of Gods Law and he that sells them for the greatest things in this world makes a soul-undoing bargain You will not waste or part with your inheritance because you know your posterity will be much wronged by it They that baffle or drink away an estate drink the tears of their sad widows and the very blood of their impoverished children The people of God do also consider how much the generations to come are concern'd in the conservation of the truths of God for them it cuts them to the heart but to think that their children should be brought up to worship dumb idols and fall down before a wooden or a breaden God The very birds and beasts will expose their own bodies to apparent danger of death to preserve their young Religion doth much more intender the heart and bowels than nature doth You reckon it a foul disgrace to sell your estates and beâ—â—me Bankrupts 't is a word that hears ill among you And a Christian accounts it the highest reproach in the world to be a traitor to or an Apostate from the truths of God When the primitive Saints were strictly required to deliver up their Bibles those that did so were justly branded and husht out of their company under the odiou title of Traditores or deliverers You are so loath to part with your â—states because you know its hard recovering an estate again when once you have lost it Christians do also know how difficult it will be for the people of God in times to come to recover the light of the Gospel again if once it be exinguished There is no truth of God recovered out of Antichrists hands without great wrestlings and much blood The Church may call every point of reformed doctrine and discipline so recovered her Napâ—â—alies for with great wrestlings she hath wrestled for them Earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to them Iude 3. To conclude rather than you will part with your estates you will chuse to suffer many wants and hardships all your lives you will fare hard and go bare to preserve what you have for your posterity But the people of God have put themselves upon far greater hardships than these to preserve truth they have chosen to suffer reproaches poverty prisons death and the most cruel torments rather than the loss of Gods truth All the Martyrologies will inform you what their sufferings have been to keep the word of Gods patience they have boldly told their enemies that they might pluck their hearts out of their bodies but should never pluck the truth out of their hearts REFLECTIONS BAse unbelieving heart how have I flinched and shrunk from truth when it hath been in danger I have rather chosen to leave it than my life liberty or estate as a prey to the enemy I have left truth and just it is that the God of truth should leave me Cowardly soul that durst not make a stand for truth yea rather bold and daring soul that wouldst rather venture to look a wrathful God than an angry man in the face I would not own and preserve the truth and the God of truth will not own me 2 Tim. 2. 12. If we deny him he will deny us Lord unto me hast thou committed the precious treasure and trust of truth and as I received it so do I desire to deliver it to the generations to come that the people which are yet unborn may praise the Lord. God forbid I should ever part with such a fair inheritance and thereby begger my own and thousands of souls Thou hast given me thy truth and the world hates me I well know that is the ground of the quarrel would I but throw truth over the walls how soon would a retreat be sounded to all presecutors But Lord thy truth is invaluably precious what a vile thing is my blood compared with the least of all thy truths Thou hast charged me to sell it and in thy strength I resolve never to lift a fine and cut off that golden line wherey thy truths are entailed upon thy people from generation to generation My friends may go my liberary go my blood may go but as for thee precious truth thou shalt never go How dear hath this inheritance of truth cost some Christians how little hath it cost us We are entred into their labours we reap in peace what they sowed in tears yea in blood O the grievous sufferings
WHO that hears such various ravishing and exquisite melody would imagine the bird that makes it to be of so small and contemptible a body and feather her charming voice ingaged not only mine attentive ear but my feet also to make a nearer approach to that shady bush in which that excellent Musician sate vailed and the nearer I came the sweeter the melody still seemed to be but when I had described the bird her self and found her to be little bigger and no better feather'd than a sparrow it gave my thoughts the occasion of this following application This Bird seems to me the lively emblem of the formal hypocrite 1 In that she is more in found than substance a loud and excellent voice but a little despicable body and it recal'd to my thoughts the story of Plutarch who hearinâ— a Nightingale desired to have one killed to feed upon not questioning but she would please the pallat as well as the ear but when the Nightingale was brought him and he saw what a poor little creature it was truly said he thou art vox preterea nihil a meer voice and nothing else So is the hypocrite did a man hear him something in more publick duties and discourses O thinks he what an excellent man is this what a choice and rare spirit is he of but follow him home observe him in his private conversation and retirements and then you will judg Plutarchs note as applicable to him as the Nightingale 2 This Bird is observed to charm most sweetly and set her spirit all on work when she perceives she hath ingaged attention so doth the hypocrite who lives and feeds upon the applause and commendation of his admirers and cares little for any of those duties which bring in no returns of praise from men he is little pleased with a silent melody and private pleasure betwixt God and his own soul. Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter Alas his knowledge is not worth a pin If he proclaim not what he hath within He is more for the Theatre than the Closet and of such Christ saith Verily they have their reward 3 Naturalists observe the Nightingale to be an ambitious Bird that cannot endure to be out-vied by any she will rather chuse to die than be excell'd a notable instance whereof we have in the following pleasant Poem translated out of Strada concerning the Nightingale and a Lutanist Now the declining Sun did downward bend From higher heavens and from his locks did send A milder flame when neer to Tibers flow A Lutanist allayed his careful wo With sounding charms and in a greeny seat Of shady Oak took shelter from the heat A Nightingale o'reheard him that did use To sojourn in the neighbour Groves the muse That fill'd the place the Syrene of the wood Poor harmless Syrene stealing near she stood Close lurking in the leaves attentively Recording that unwonted melody She con'd it her self and every strain His fingers play'd her throat return'd again The Latanist perceiv'd an answer sent From th'imitating Bird and was content To shew her play more fully then in haste He tryes his Lute and giving her a tast Of the ensuing quarrel nimbly beats On all his strings as nimbly she repeats And wildly ranging o're a thousand keys Sounds a shrill warning of her after layes With rowling hand the Lutanist then plyes The trembling threeds sometimes in scornful wise He brushes down the strings and strikes them all With one even stroke then takes them several And culls them o're again his sparkling joynts With busie descant mincing on the points Reach back again with nimble touch then stayes The Bird replies and art with repays Sometimes as one unexpert and in doubt How she might weild her voice she draweth out Her tone at large and doth at first prepare A solemn strain nor wear'd with winding air but with an equal pitch and constant throat Makes clear the passage for her gliding note Then cross division diversly she playes And loudly chanting out her quickest layes Poyses the sound and with a quivering voice Falls back again he wondering so choice So various harmony could issue out From such a little throat doth go about Some harder Lessons and with wondrous art Changing the strings doth up the treble dart And downward smite the Base with painful stroke He beats and as the Trumpet doth provoke Sluggards to fight even so his wanton skill With mingled discord joyns the hoarse and shrill The Bird this also tunes and whilst she cuts Sharp notes with melting voice and mingled puts Measures of middle sound then suddenly She thunders deep and jugs it inwardly With gentle murmur clear and dull she sings By course as when the martial warning rings Believ 't the Minstrel blusht with angry mood Inflam'd quoth he thou Chantress of the wood Either from thee I 'le bear the price away Or vanquisht break my Lute without delay Unimitable accents then he strains His hand flyes on the strings in one he chains Far different numbers chasing here and there And all the strings he labours every where Both flat and sharp he strikes and stately grows To prouder strains and backward as he goes Doubly divides and closing up his layes Like a full Quire a shivering consort playes Then pausing stood in expectation Of his corrival nor durst answer on But she when practise long her throat had whet Enduring not to yield at once doth set Her Spirits all to work and all in vain For whilst she labours to express again With Natures simple voice such divers keys With slender pipes such losty notes as these O're matcht with high designs o're matcht with wo Iust at the last encounter of her foe She saints she dyes falls on his instrument That conquer'd her a fitting monument So far even little souls are driven on Struck with a vertuous emulation And even as far are hypocrites driven on by their ambition and pride which is the spur that provokes them in their religious duties MEDIT. II. Vpon the sight of many small Birds chirping about a dead Hawk HEaring a whole quire of Birds chirping and twinking together it ingaged my curiosity a little to enquire into the occasion of that convocation which mine eye quickly inform'd me of for I perceived a dead Hawk in the bush about which they made such a noise seeming to triumph at the death of their enemy and I could not blame them to sing his knell who like a Cannibal was wont to feed upon their living bodies tearing them limb from limb and scaring them with his frightful appearance This Bird which living was so formidable being dead the poorest Wren or Titmouse fears not to chirp or hop over This brings to my thoughts the base and ignoble ends of the greatest Tyrants and greedy ingroffers of the world of whom whilst living men were more afraid than birds of a Hawk but dead became objects of contempt and scorn The death