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
unable to withstand that stroke as the weak reeds or feebleâ—stalks of the corn are to resist the keen Sithe and sharp Sickle The reapers receive the wheat which they cut down into their armes and bosom Hence that expression by way of imprecation upon the wicked Psal. 129. 7. Let them be as the grass upon the house top which withers before it grows up wherewith the mower filleth not his hand nor be that bindeth sheaves his bosom Such withered grass are the wicked who are never taken into the reapers bosom but as soon as Saints are cuâ— down by death they fall into the hands and bosoms of the Angels of God who bear them in their arms and bosoms to God their father Luke 16. 22. For look as these blessed spirits did exceedingly rejoyce at their conversion Luke 15. 10. and thought it no dishonour to minister to them whilst they stood in the field Heb. 1. 14. So when they are cut down by death they will rejoyce to be their convoy to heaven When the corn and weeds are reap'd or mowed down they shall never grow any more in that field neither shall we ever return to live an animal life any more after death Iob 7. 9 10. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Lastly to come home to the particular object of this Chapter the reapers are never sent to cut down the harvest till it be fully ripe neither will God reap down Saints or sinners till they be come to a maturity of grace or wickednâ—ss Saints are not reap'd down till their grace be ripe Iob. 5. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age as a shock of corn cometh in in his season Not that every godly man dies in such a full old age saith Mr. Caryl on the place but yet in one sense it is an universal truth and ever fulfilled for whensoever they die they die in a good age yea though they die in the spring and flower of their youth they die in a good old age i. e. they are ripe for death when ever they die When ever a godly man dies it 's harvest time with him though in a natural capacity he be cut down while he is green and cropt in the bud or blossom yet in his spiritual capacity he never dies before he be ripe God ripens his speedily when he intends to taks them out of the world speedily he can let out such warm rayes and beams of his spirit upon them as shall soon maturate the seeds of grace into a preparedness for glory The wicked also have their ripening time for hell and judgement God doth with much longâ—suffering endure the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction Of their ripeness for judgment the scripture often speaks Gen. 15. 16. The sin of the Amorites is not yet full And of Babilon it 's said Ier. 51. 13. O thou that dwellest upon many waters thine end is come and the measure of thy covetousness 'T is worth remarking that the measure of the sin and the end of the sinner come together So Ioel 3. 13. Put ye in the sickle for the harvest of the earth is ripe for the press is full the fats overflow for their wickedness is great Where note sinners are not cut down till they be ripe and ready Indeed they are never ripe for death nor ready for the grave that is fit to die yet they are alwayes ripe for wrath and ready for hell before they die Now as Husbandmen judge of the ripeness of their harvest by the colour and hardness of the grain so may we judge of the ripeness both of Saints and Sinners for heaven or hell by these following signs Three Signs of the maturity of grace VVHen the Corn is near ripe it blows the head and stoops lower than when it was green When the people of God are near ripe for heaven they grow more humble and self-denying that in the dayes of their first profession The longer a Saint grows in this world the better he is still acquainted with his own heart and his obligations to God both which are very humbling things Paul had one foot in heaven when he called himself the chiefest of sinners and least of Saints 1 Tim. 1. 15. Eph. 3. 8. A Christian in the progress of his knowledge and grace is like a vessel cast into the Sea the more it fills the deeper it sinks Those that went to study at Athens saith Plutarch at first coming seemed to themselves to be wise men afterwards only lovers of wisdom and after that only thetoricians such as could speak of wisdom but knew little of it and last of all Ideots in their apprehensions still with the increase of learning laying aside their pride and arrogancy When harvest is nigh the grain is more solid and pithy than ever it was before green corn is soft and spungy but ripe corn is substantial and weighty So it is with Christians the affâ—ctions of a young Christian perhaps are more ferverous and sprightly but those of a grown Christian are more judicious and solid their love to Christ abounds more and more in all judgment Phil. 1. 9. The limbs of a Child are more active and plyable but as he grows up to a perfect state the parts are more consolidated and firmly knit The fingers of an old Musician are not so nimble but he hath a more judicious ear in musick than in his youth When Corn is dead ripe it 's apt to fall of its own accord to the ground and there shed whereby it doth as it were anticipate the harvest man and calls upon him to put in the sickle Not unlike to which are the lookings and longings the groanings and hastenings of ready Christians to their expected glory they hasten to the coming of the Lord or as Montanus more 〈◊〉 renders it they hasten the coming of the the Lord i. e. they are urgent and instant in their desires and cryes to hasten his coming their desires sally forth to meet the Lord they willingly take death by the hand as the corn bends to the earth so do these souls to heaven This shews their harvest to be near Six signs of the maturity of Sin WHen â—inners are even dead ripe for hell these â—igns appear upon them or by these at least you may conclude those souls not to be far from wrath upon whom they appear When conscience is wafted and grown past feeling having no remorse for â—in when it ceases to check reprove and smite for sin any more the day of that sinner is at hand his harvest is even come The greatest violation of conscience is the greatest of sins this was the case of the forlorn Gentiles among whom Satan had such a plentiful harvest the patience of God suffered them to grow till their consciences were grown
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
do well resemble that small number of Gods elect in the world which free grace hath reserved out of the general ruine of mankind Four things are excellently shadowed forth to us by this similitude You see in a fruitful Autumn the trees even opprest and overladen with the weight of their own fruits before the shaking time come and then they are eased of their burden Thus the whole creation groans under the weight of their sins who inhabit it Rom. 8. 22. the creatures are in bondage and by an elegant Prosopopeia are said both to groan and wait for deliverance The original sin of man brought an original curse which burdens the creature Gen. 3. 17. Cursed is the ground for thy sake and the actual sin of man brings actual curses upon the creature Psal. 107. 34. Thus the inhabitants of the world load and burden it as the limbs of a tree are burdened and sometimes broken with the weight of their own fruit You may observe it in your Orchards every year what abundance of fruits daily fall either by storms or of their own accord but when the shaking time comes then the ground is covered all over with fruit Thus it is with the world that mystical tree with respect to men that inhabit it there is not a year day or hour in which some drop not as it were of their own accord by a natural death and sometimes wars and Epidemical plagues blow down thousands together into their graves these are as high winds in a fruitful Orchard but when the shaking time the Autumn of the world comes then all its inhabitants shall be shaken down together either by death or a translation equivolent thereunto When fruits are shaken down from their trees then the Husbandman separates them the far greatest part for the pound and some few he reserves for an hoard which are brought to his table and eaten with pleasure This excellently shadows forth that great separation which Christ will make in the end of the world when some shall be cast into the wine-press of the Almighties wrath and others preserved for glory Those fruits which are preserved on the tree or in the hoard are comparatively but an handful to those that are broken in the pound Alas 't is scarce one of a thousand and such a small remnant of Elected souls hath God reserved for glory I look upon the World as a great Tree consisting of four large limbs or branches this branch or division of it on which we grow hath doubtless a greater number of Gods elect upon it than the other three and yet when I look with a serious and considering eye upon this fruitful European branch and see how much rotten and withered fruit there grows upon it it makes me say as Chrysostom did of his populous Antioch Ah how small a remnant hath Iesus Christ among these vast numbers Many indeed are called but ah how few are chosen Mat. 20. 16. Alas they are but as the gleanings when the vintage is done here and there one upon its outmost branches To allude to that Isa. 17. 6. it was a sad Observation which that searching Scholar Mr. Brierwood long since made upon the world that dividing it into thirty equal parts he found no less than nineteen of them wholly overspread with Idolatry and Heathenish darkness and of the eleven remaining parts no less than six are Mahumetans so that there remain but five of thirty which profess the Christian Religion at large and the far greater part of these remaining five are invellop'd and drowned in Popish darkness so that you see the reformed Protestant Religion is confined to a small spot of ground indeed Now if from these we substract all the grosly ignorant openly profane meerly civil and secretly hypocritical judge then in your selves how small a scantling of the world falls to Christs share Well might Christ say Mat. 7. 14. Narrow is the way and strait is the gate that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it And again Luke 12. 32. Fear not little little flock The large piece goes to the devil a little remnant is Christs Rom. 9. 27. Saints in Scripture are called jewels Mal. 3. 17. Precious pearls and diamonds which the Latines call Uniones Quia nulli duo simul reperiuntur saith Pliny because nature gives them not by pairs but one by one How many pebbles to one pearl Sutable to this notion is that complaint of the Prophet Mich. 7. 1 2. Wâ— is me for I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits as the grape gleanings of the vintage there is no cluster to eat my soul desired the first ripe fruits the good man is perished out of the earth and there is none i. e. none comparatively upright among men The Prophet alludes to a poor hungry man that after the gathering time is past comes into an Orchard desiring some choice fruits to eat but alas he finds none there is no cluster possibly here and there a single Saint like a single apple here and there one after the shaking time True Saints are the worlds rarities REFLECTIONS WHat then will be my lot when that great shaking time shall come who have followed the multitude and gone with the tyde of the world how even when I have been pressed to strictness and singular diligence in the matters of salvation and told what a narrow way the way of life is have I put it off with this If it be so then wo to thousands Ah foolish heart thousands and ten thousands shall be woful and miserable indeed to all eternity Will it be any mitigation to my misery that I shall have thousands of miserable companions with me in hell or will it be admitted for a good plea at the Iudgment-seat Lord I did as the generality of my neighbours in the world did except it were here and there a more precise person I saw none but lived as I lived Ah foolish â—inner Is it not better go to heaven alone than to hell with company the worst courses have alwayes the most imitators and the road to destruction is thronged with passengers And how little better is my condition who have often fathered the wickedness of my own heart upon the incouragements of mercy Thus hath my heart pleaded against strictness and duty God is a merciful God and will not be so severe with the world to damn so many thousands as are in my condition Deluded soul if God had damned the whole race of Adam he had done them no wrong yea there is more mercy in saving but one man than there is of severity and rigour in damning all how many drunkards and adulterers have lived and dyed with thy plea in their mouths God is a merciful God but yet his word expresly saith Be not deceived such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9. God indeed is a God of infinite mercy but he will never exercise his mercy to
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
much the dearer shalt thou be to me MEDIT. IX Vpon the early singing of birds HOw am I reproved of sluggishness by these watchful Birds which cheerfully entertain the very dawning of the morning with their cheerful and delightful warblings they set their little spirits all awork betimes whilst my nobler spirits are bound with the bonds of soft and downy slumbers For shame my soul suffer not that Publican sleep to seize so much of thy time yea thy best and freshest time reprove and chide thy sluggish body as a good Bishop once did when upon the same occasion he said Surrexerunt passeres sterâ—unt Pontifices The early chirping Sparrows may reprove Such lazy Bishops as their beds do love Of many slâ—ggards it may be said as Tully said of Verres the Deputy of Sicily Quod nunquam solem nec orientem nec occidentem viderat that he never saw the Sun rising being in bed after nor setting being in bed before 'T is pity that Christians of all men should suffer sleep to cut such large thongs out of so narrow a hide as their time on earth is But alas it is not so much early rising as a wise improving those fresh and free hours with God that will inrich the soul else as our Proverb saith a man may be early up and never the neer yea far better it is to be found in bed slâ—eping than to be up doing nothing or that which is worse than nothing O my soul learn to prepossess thy self every morning with the thoughts of God and suffer not those fresh and sweet operations of thy mind to be prostituted to earthly things for that is experimentally true which one in this case hath pertinently observed That if the world get the start of Religion in the morning it will be hard for Religion to overtake it all the day after MEDIT. X. Vpon the haltering of birds with a grain of hair Observing in a snowy season how the poor hungry Birds were haltred and drawn in by a grain of hair cunningly cast over their heads whilst poor creatures they were busily feeding and suspected no danger and even whilst their companions were drawn away from them one after another all the interruption it gave the rest was only for a minute or two whilest they stood peeping into that hole through which their companions were drawn and then fell to their meat again as busily as before I could not chuse but say Even thus surprizingly doth death steal upon the children of men whilst they are wholly intent upon the cares and pleasures of this life not at all suspecting its so neer approach These Birds saw not the haâ—d that insnared them nor do they see the hand of death plucking them one after another into the grave Ovid. Omnibus obscur as injecit illa manus Death 's steps are swift and yet no noise it makes Its hand unseen but yet most surely takes And even as the surviving Birds for a little time seemed to stand affrighted peeping after their companions and then as busie as ever to their meat again Iust so it fares with the careless inconsiderate world who see others daily dropping into eternity round about them and for the present are a little startled and will look into the grave after their neighbours and then fall as busily to their earthly imployments and pleasures again as ever till their own turn comes I know my God! that I must die as well as others but O let me not die as do others let me see death before I feel it and conquer it before it kill me let it not come as an enemy upon my back but rather let me meet it as a friend half way Die I must but let me lay up that good treasure before I go Mat. 6. 19. carry with me a good conscience when I go 2 Tim. 4. 6 7. and leave behind me a good example when I am gone and then let death come and welcom MEDITATIONS upon Beasts MEDIT. I. Vpon the clogging of a straying Beast HAd this Bullock contented himself and remained quietly within his own bounds his Owner had never put such an heavy clog upon his neck but I see the prudent Husbandman chuses rather to keep him with his clog than lose him for want of one What this clog is to him that is affliction and trouble to me had my soul kept close with God in liberty and prosperity he would never thus have clogged me with adversity yea and happy were it for me if I might stray from God no more who hath thus clogged me with preventive afflictions If with David I might say Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy word Psal. 119. 67. O my soul 't is better for thee to have thy pride clogged with poverty thy ambition with reproach thy canal expectancies with constant disappointments than to be at liberty to run from God and duty 'T is true I am sometimes as weary of these troubles as this poor Beast is of the clog he draws after him and often wish my self rid of them but yet if God should take them off for ought I know I might have cause to wish them on again to prevent a greater mischief 'T is storied of Basil that for many years he was sorely afflicted with an inveterate head-ach that was his clog he often prayed for the removal of it al last God removed it but instead thereof he was sorely exercised with the motions and temptations of lust which when he perceived he as earnestly desired his head-ach again to prevent a greater evil Lord if my corruptions may be prevented by my affliction I refuse not to be clogged with them but my soul rather desires thou wouldst hasten the time when I shall be for ever freed from them both MEDIT. II. Vpon the love of a Dog to his Master HOw many a weary step through mire and dirt hath this poor Dog followed my horse to day and all this for a very poor reward for all be gets by it at night is but bones and blows yet will he not leave my company but is content upon such hard terms to travel with me from day to day O my soul what conviction and shame may this leave upon thee who art often times even weary of following thy Master Christ whose rewards and incourage ments of obedience are so incomparably sweet and sure I cannot beat back this dog from following me but every inconsiderable trouble is enough to discourage me in the way of my duty Ready I am to resolve as that Scribe did Mat. 8. 19. Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest but how doth my heart faulter when I must encounter with the difficulties of the way O! let me make a whole heart-choice of Christ for my portion and happiness and then I shall never leave him nor turn back from following him though the present difficulties were much more and the present incouragments much less