that at its first transplanting into Italy 't was watered with wine I cannot say saith he that you have been so watered by me I dare not but this I can humbly and truly say that if our choicest strength and spirits may be named instead of water wine or if the blessing which hath gone along with these waters at any time hath turned them into wine in vigour upon your souls then hath God by me watered your roots with wine The Husbandman builds his house where he makes his purchase dwells upon his Land and frequently visits it he knows that such as dwell far from their Lands are not far from loss So doth God where-ever he plants a Church there doth he fix his habitation intending there to dwell Psal. 46. 5. God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved Thus God came to dwell upon his own Fee and Inheritance in Iudea Levit. 26. 11 12. And I will set my tabernacle amongst you and will be your God and ye shall be my people Which promise is again renew'd to his Churches of the New Testament 2 Cor. 6. 16. And when the Churches shall be in their greatest flourish and purity then shall there be the fullest and most glorious manifestation of the divine presence among them Rev. 21. 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and be their God Hence the Assemblies are called the places of his feet And there they behold the beauty of the Lord Psal. 27. Husbandmen grudge not at the cost they are at for their tillage but as they lay out vast sums upon it so they do it cheerfully And now O inhabitants of Ierusalem and men of Iuda judge I pray you betwixt me and my vineyard what could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it And as he bestows upon his heritage the choicest mercies so he doth it with the greatest cheerfulness for the saith Ier. 32. 41. I will rejoyce over them to do them good and I will plant them in this Land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. It is not the giving out of mercy saith one that grieveth God but the recoyling of his mercies back again upon him by the creatures ingratitude When Husbandmen have been at cost and pains about their Husbandry they expect fruit from it answerable to their pains and expences about it Behold saith Iames the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth Iam. 5. 7. And he looked that it should bring forth fruit Isa. 5. 2. This heavenly Husbandman waits for the fruits of his fields also never did any Husbandman long for the desired Harvest more than God doth for the fruits of holiness from his Saints great are the expectations of God from his people And when the time of the fruit drew near he sent his servants to the Husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it Husbandman are much delighted to see the success of their labours it comforts them over all their hard pains and many weary dayes to see a good increase Much more is God delighted in beholding the flourishing graces of his people it pleases him to see his plants laden with fruit and his valleys sing with corn Cant. 6. 2. My beloved is gone down into his garden into his beds of spices to feed in the gardens and to gather lillies These beds of spices say Expositors are the particular Churches the companies of Believers he goes to feed in these gardens like as men go to their gardens to make merry or to gather fruit Cant. 4. 16. He eats his pleasant fruit viz. His peoples holy performances sweeter to him than any Ambrosia thus he feeds in the gardens and he gathers lillies when he translates good souls into his Kingdom above For the Lord taketh pleasure in his Saints and will beautifie the meek with salvation The Husbandman is exceedingly grieved when he sees the hopes of a good crop disappointed and his fields prove barren or blasted So the Lord expresses his grief for and anger against his people when they bring forth no fruits or wilde fruits worse than none Hos. 9. 16. Ephraim is smitten their root is dryed up Christ was exceedingly displeased with the fig-tree and cursed it for its barrenness it grieves him to the heart when his servants return to him with such complaints as these We have laboured in vain we have spent our strength for nought Husbandmen imploy many labourers to work in their fields there is need to many hands for such a multiplicity of business God hath diversity of workmen also in the Churches whom he sends forth to labour in his spiritual fields Eph. 4. 12. He gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry Amos 3. 7. I have sent my servants the Prophets 'T is usual with the Apostles to place this title of servant among their honorary titles though a prophane mouth once called it Probosum artificium a sordid artifice Christ hath stampt a great deal of dignity upon his Ministers in retaining them for the nearest service to himself 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ they are workers together with God the Husbandman works in the field among his labourers and the great God disdaineth not to work in and with his poor servants in the work of the Ministry The work about which Husbandmen imploy their servants in the field is toylsom and spending You see they come home at night as weary as they can draw their legs after them But Gods workmen have a much harder task than they Hence they are set forth in Scripture by the laborious ox 1. Cor. 9. 9. Rev. 4. 7. Some derive the word Deacon from a word that signifies dust to shew the laboriousness of their imployment labouring till even choaked with dust and sweat 'T is said of Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 13. That for the work of Christ he was sick and nigh unto death not regarding his life to supply their lack of service The Apostles expression Col. 1. ult is very emphatical Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily The word signifies such spending labour as puts a man into an agony and blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh small find so doing The immediate end of the Husbandmans labour and his servants labour is for the improvement of his Land to make it more flourishing and fruitful The scope and end of the Ministry is for the Churches benefit and advantage They must not lord it over God's heritage as if the Church were for them and not they for the Church nor serve themselves of it but
when he goes to preach the Gospel I am now going to preach that word which is to be a savour of life or death to these souls upon how many of my poor hearers may the curse of perpetual barrenness be executed this day O how should such a thought melt his heart into compassion over them and make him beg hard and plead earnestly with God for a better issue of the Gospel than this upon them The Poem YOu that besides your pleasant fruitful fields Have useless bogs and rocky ground that yields You no advantage nor doth quit your cost But all your pains and charges on them 's lost Hearken to me I le teach you how to get More profit by them than if they were set At higher Rents than what your Tenants pay For your most â—ertile Lands and here 's the way Think when you view them why the Lord hath chose These as Emblems to decipher those That under Gospel-grace grow worse and worse For means are fruitless where the Lord doth curse Sweet showers descend the Sun his beams reflects on both alike but not with like effects Observe and see how after the sweet showers The grass and corn revive the fragrant flowers Shoot forth their beauteous heads the valleys sing All fresh and green as in the verdant spring But rocks are barren still and bogs are so Where nought but flags and worthless rushes grow Upon these marish grounds there lyes this curse The more rain falls by so much more the worse Even so the dews of grace that sweetly fall From Gospel clouds are not alike to all The gracious soul doth germinate and bud But to the Reprobate it doth no good He 's like the withered fig-tree void of fruit Afearful curse hath smote his very root The heart 's made â—at the eyes with blindness seal'd The piercingst truths the Gospel ere reveal'd Shall be to him but as the Sun and rain Are to obdurate rocks fruitless and vain Be this your meditation when you walk By rocks and fenny grounds thus learn to talk With your own souls and let it make you fear Lest that 's your case â—haâ— is described here This is the best improvement you can make Of such bad ground good soul I pray thee take Some pains about them though they barren be Thou seest how they may yield sweet fruits to thee CHAP. VII The Plowman guides his Plow with care and skill So doth the Spirit in sound conviction still OBSERVATION IT requires not only strength but much skill and judgment to manage and guide the plow The Hebrew word which we translate to plow signifies to be intent as an Artificer is about some curious piece of work The plow must neither go too shallow nor too deep in the earth it must not indent the ground by making crooked furrows nor leap and make baulks in good ground but be guided as to a just depth of earth so to cast the furrow in a straight line that the floor or surface of the field may be made plain As it is Isa. 28. 25. And hence that expression Luke 9. 62. He that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven The meaning is that as he that plows must have his eyes alwayes forward to guide and direct his hand in casting the furrows straight and even for his hand will be quickly out when his eye is off So he that heartily resolves for heaven must addict himself wholly and intently to the business of Religion and not have his mind intangled with the things of this world which he hath left behind him whereby it appears that the right management of the plow requires as much skill as strength APPLICATION THis Observation in nature serves excâ—llently to shadow forth this proposition in Diviâ—ity That the work of the Spirit in convincing and humbling the heart of a sinner is a work wherein much of the wisdom as well as power of God is discovered The work of repentance and saving contrition is set forth in Scripture by this Metaphor of plowing Ier. 4. 3. Hos. 10. 12 Plow up your fallow ground that is be convinced humbled and broken hearted for fin And the resemblance betwixt both these works appears in the following particulars 1 'T is a hard and difficult work to plow it 's reckoned one of the painâ—ullest manual labours It is also a very hard thing to convince and humble the heart of a secure stout and proud sinner indurate in wickedness What Luther saith of a dejected soul That it is as easie to raise the dead as to comfort such a one The same I may say of the secure confident sinner 'T is as easie to rend the rocks as to work saving contrition upon such a heart Citius expâ—mice aquam all the melting language and earnest intreaties of the Gospel cannot urge such a heart to shed a tear Therefore it 's called a heart of stone Ezek. 36. 26. A firm rock Amos 6. 12. Shall horses run upon the Rock will one plow there with Oxen yet when the Lord comes in the power of his Spirit these rocks do rend and yield to the power of the word 2 The plow pierces deep into the bosome of the earth makes as it were a deep gash or wound in the heart of it So doth the Spirit upon the hearts of Sinners he pierces their very souls by conviction Act. 2. 37. When they heard this they were pricked or pierced point blank to the heart Then the word divides the soul and Spirit Heb. 4. 12. It comes upon the conscience with such pinching dilemma's and tilts the sword of conviction so deep into their souls that there is no stenching the bloud no healing this wound till Christ himself come and undertake the cure Hâ—reâ— lateri lethalis arundo this barbed arrow cannot be pulled out of their hearts by any but the hand that shot it in Discourse with such a soul about his troubles and he will tell you that all the sorrows that ever he had in this world loss of estate health children or whatever else are but flea-bitings to this this swallows up all other troubles See how that Christian Niobe Luke 7. 38. is dissolved into tears Nâ—w deep calleth unto deep at the noise of his water spouts when the waves and billows of God go over the soul. Spiritual sorrows are deep waters in which the stoutest and most magnanimous soul would sink and drown did not Iesus Christ by a secret and supporting hand hold it up by the chin 3. The plow rends the earth in parts and pieces which before was united and makes those parts hang loose which formerly lay closs Thus doth the spirit of conviction rend in sunder the heart and its most beloved lusts Ioel. 2. 13. Rent your hearts and not your garments that is rather then
your garments for the sense is comparative though the expression be negative And this rending implyes not only acute pain flesh cannot be rent asunder without anguish nor yet only force and violence the heart is a stubborn and knotty piece and will not easily yield but it also implies a dis-union of parts united as when a garment or the earth or any continuous body is rent those parts are separated which fomerly cleaved together Sin and the Soul were glewed fast together before there was no parting of them they would as soon part with their lives as with their lusts but now when the heart is rent for them truely it is also rent from them everlastingly Ezek. 7. 15. to 19. 4 The plow turns up and discovers such things as lay hid in the bosome of the earth before and were covered under a fair green surface from the eyes of men Thus when the Lord plows up the heart of a sinner by conviction then the secrets of his heart are made manifest 2 Cor. 14. 24 25. the most secret and shameful sins will then our for the word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing of the soul and spirit the joynts and merrow and is a quick discerner of the thoughts and secret intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. It makes the fire burn inwardly so that the soul hath no rest till confession give a vent to trouble Fain would the shuffling sinner conceal and hide his shame but the word follows him through all his sinful shifts and brings him at last to be his own both accuser witness and judge â— The work of the plow is but opus ordinabile a preparative work in order to fruit Should the Husbandman plow his ground never so often yet if the seed be not cast in and quickned in vain is the Harvest expected Thus conviction also is but a preparative to a farther work upon the soul of a sinner If it stick there and go no farther it proves but an abortive or untimely birth Many have gone thus far and there they have stuck they have been like a field plowed but not sowed which is a matter of trembling consideration for hereby their sin is greatly aggravated and their eternal misery so much the more increased O when a poor damned creature shall with horror reflect upon himself in hell how near was I once under such a Sermon to conversion My sins were set in order before me my conscience awakened and terrified with the guilt of them many pâ—rposes and resolves I had then to turn to God which had they been perfected by answerable executions I had never come to this place of torment but there I stuck and that was my eternal undoing Many souls have I known so terrified with the guilt of sin that they have come roaring under horrors of conscience to the Preacher so that one would think such a breach had been made between them and sin as could never be reconciled and yet as angry as they were in that fit with sin they have hug'd and imbraced them again 6 'T is best plowing when the earth is prepared and mollified by the showers of rain then the work goes on sweetly and easily And never doth the heart so kindly melt as when the Gospel clouds dissolve and the free grace and love of Iesus Christ comes sweetly showing down upon it then it relents and mourns ingeniously Ezek. 16. 63. That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy moâ—th any more of thy shame when I am pocified towards thee for all that thou hast done So it was with that poor penitent Luke 7. 38. when the Lord Iesus had discovered to her the super-abounding riches of his grace in the pardon of her manisold abominations her heart melted within her she washed the feet of Christ with tears And indeed there is as much difference betwixt the tears which are forced by the terrors of the law and those which are extracted by the grace of the Gospel as there is betwixt those of a condemned malefactor who weeps to consider the misery he is under and those of a pardoned malefactor that receives his pardon at the foot of the ladder and is melted by the mercy and clemency of his gracious Prince towards him 7 The plow kills those ranck weeds that grow in the field turns them up by the roots buries and rots them So doth saving conviction kill sin at the root makes the soul sick of it begets indignation in the heart against it 2 Cor. 7. 11. The word there signifies the rising of the stomack any being angry even unto sickness Religious wrath is the fiercest wrath now the soul cannot endure sin trembles at it I find a woman more bitter than death saith penitent Solomon Eccl. 7. 26. Conviction like a surâ—et makes the soul to loath what it formerly loved and delighted in 8 That field is not well plowed where the plow jumps and skips over good ground and makes baulks it must turn up the whole field alike and that heart is not savingly convicted where any lust is spared and lest untouched Saving Conviction extends it self to all sins not only to sin in general with this cold confâ—ssion I am a â—â—nner but to the particulars of 〈◊〉 yea to the particular circumstances and aggravations of time place manner occasions thus and thus have I done to the sin of nature as well as practise behold I was shapen in iniquity Psal. 51. 5. There must be no baulking of any sin the spâ—ring of one sin is a sure argument thou art not truely humbled for any sin So far is the convinced soul from a studious concealment of a beloved sin that it weeps over that more than over any other actual sin 9 New ground is much more easily plowed than that which by long lying out of tillage is more consolidated and clung together by deep rooted thorns and brambles which render it difficult to the Plowman This old ground is like an old sinner that hath layn a long time hardening under the means of grace O the difficulty of convincing such a person Sin hath got such rooting in his heart he is so habituated to the reproofs and calls of the word that â—ew such are wrought upon How many young persons are called to one obdurate inveterate sinner I do not say but God may call home such a soul at the eleventh hour but I may say of these compared with others as Solomon speaks Eccles. 7. 28. One man among a thousand have I found c. Few that have long â—esisted the Gospel that come afterwards to feel the saving efficacy thereof REFLECTIONS OGrace for ever to bâ— admired that God should send forth his Word and Spirit to plow up my hard and stony heart yea mine when he hath lest so many of more tender ingenious sweet and melting tempers without any culture or meanes of grace O
among men and rejected eternally by God Who can considerately read that sixth Chapter of the Hebrews and not tremble to think in what a forlorn case a soul may be though set off and accomplisht with the rarest endowments of this kind Mat. 7. 22. We read that many shall say to Christ in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils c. and yet themselves at last cast out as a prey to Devils How divinely and rhetorically did a Balaam speak and prophesie Num. 23. What rare and excellent parts had the Scribes and Pharisees Who upon that account were stiled principes seculi the Princes of the world 1 Cor. 2. 8. What profound and excellent parts had the Heathen Sages and Philosophers These things are so far from securing the soul against the wrath to come that they often expose it unto wrath and are as oyl to encrease the eternal burnings but now gracious principles are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls them Heb. 6. Things that accompany and have salvation in them These are the things on which the promises of Salvation run and these treasures are never found but in elect vessels Glory is by promise assured and made over to him that possesses them There is but a little point of time betwixt him and the glorified spirits above And how inconsiderable a matter is a little time which contracts and winds up apace For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed And hence the scriptures speaks of them as already saved Rom. 8. 24. We are saved by hope because it s as sure as if we were in heaven We are made to sit in heavenly places Gifts may damnifie the person that possesses them and it may be better in respect of a mans own condition he had never had them Knowledge saith the Apostle Puffeth up 1 Cor. 8. 1. maketh the soul proud and flatulent 'T is a hard thing to know much and not to know it too much The Saints knowledge is better than the Schollars for he hath his own heart instead of a Commentary to help him Aristotle said a little knowledge about heavenly things though conjectural is better than much of earthly things though certain The world by wisdom knew not God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 21. i. e. their learning hanged in their light they were too wise to submit to the simplicity of the Gospel The excellent parts of the old Hereticks did but serve to midwiâ—e into the world the monstrous birth of soul-damning heresies Cupit abs te ornari diabolus as Austin said to that ingenious young Scholler The devil desires to be adorned by thee But now grace in its self is not subject to such abuses it cannot be the proper univocal cause of any evil effect It cannot puff up the heart but alwayes humbles it nor serve the devils designs but ever opposes them Gifts may be given a man for the sake of others and not out of love to himself they are but as an excellent dish of meat which a man sends to nurse not for her sake so much as for his Child that sucks her God indeed makes use of them to do his children good the Church is benefitted by them though themselves are but like Cooks they prepare excellent dishes on which the Saints feed and are nourished though themselves tast them not They dona ministrantia non sanctificantia ministring but not sanctifying gifts proceeding not from the good will of God to him that hath them but to those he benefits by them And oh what a sad consideration will this be one day to such a person to think I helped such a soul to heaven while I my self must lodg in hell Sin in the raign and power of it may cohabit with the most excellent natural gifts under the same roof I mean in the same heart A man may have the tongue of an Angel and the heart of a Devil The wisdome of the Philosophâ—rs saith Eactantius non excindit vitia sed abscondit did not root out but hide their vices The learned Pharisees were but painted sepulchers gifts are but as a fair glove drawn over a foul hand But now grace is incompatible with Sin in dominions it purifies the heart Act. 15. 9 cleanses the conscience Heb. 9. 14. Crucifies the affections and lusts of the flesh Gal. 5. 24. is not content with the concealment but ruine of corruptions Lastly Gifts must leave us at last Whether there be knowledge that shall cease All flesh is grass and the goodliness of it as the flower of the grass the grass withers the flower fadeth but the word of the Lord abideth for ever Isa. 40. 6 8. Many times they leave a man before death One knock if it hit right as one saith may make a wise man a fool but to be sure they all leave us at death Doth not his excellency which is in him go away Iob 4. 21. yea then all natural excellency departs Death strips the soul of all those splendid ornaments then the rhetorical tongue is struck dum the nimble wit and curious phansie shall entertain your ears with no more pleasant discourses Nunquam jâ—cos dabis as Adrian said to his departing soul but grace ascends with the soul into eternity and there receives its perfection and accomplishment Gifts take their leave of the soul as Orpha did of Naomi but grace saith then as Ruth where thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge and nothing shall separate thee and me Now pâ—â— all this together and then judge whether the Apostle spake hyperbolyes when he said Covet earnestly the best gifts and yet I shew unto you a more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. ult And thus you have the choiceness of these principles also REFLECTIONS The lines are fallen to me in a pleasant place may the gracious soul say How defective soever I am in gifts yet blessed be the Lord who hath sown the seeds of true grace in my heart What though I am not famed and honoured among men let it suffice me that I am precious in the eyes of the Lord. Though he hath not abounded to me in gifts of nature yet blessed be the God and Father of my Lord Iesus Christ who hath abounded to me in all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Iesus Eph. 1. 3. Is not a true jewel though spurn'din the dirt more precious than a false one though set in gold Why art thou troubled O my soul for the want of these things which reprobates may have and art not rather admiring and blessing God for those things which none but the darlings and favourites of heaven can have is not an ounce of pure gold more valuable than many pounds of guilded brass what though the dews of Helicon descend not upon my head if in the mean time the sweet influences of Sion fall upon my heart O my God!
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