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
strength you thrash The ablest Christians have the hardest lash OBSERVATION HUsbandmen having to do with divers sorts of grain some more tough and stubborn others more free and tender do not beat all alike in the threshing floor but as they have threshals of several sizes so they bestow on some grain more on other fewer strokes according to the different qualities of the grain to the threshed This observation the Prophet Isaiah hath Chop 28. v. 27. The Fitches are not thereshed with a threshing instrument neither is the Cart-wheel turn'd about upon the Cummin but the Fitches are beaten out with a staff and the Cummin with a rod. The manner of beating out the corn in ancient times was far different from that which is now in use among us they had the Cart-wheel which was full of iron spokes or teeth and the hoofs of beasts for the harder sort of grain as Wheat Rye and Barley a staff or flail for the Fitches and a rod or twig for the Cummin all which instruments were proportioned according to the nature of the grain APPLICATION GOd having to do in a way of correction with divers sorts of offenders doth not use the like severity with them all but proportions his correction to their abilities and strength Ier. 30. 11. I will not make a full end of thee but will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished q. d. afflicted thou must be my respect to my own glory and thy good puts a necessity upon that but yet I will do it moderately I will not lay on without measure or mercy as I intend to do upon the enemies but will mete out your sufferings in a due proportion even as a careful Physician in prescribing pills or potions to his Patients hath regard as well to the ability of the Patient as to the nature and quality of the disease even so thy God O Israel will not afflict thee according to the greatness of his power and his wrath answerable thereunto Psal. 90. 11. that would break thee to pieces Psal. 78. 38. Nor yet will he afflict thee according to the demerit of thy sin As it shall be much less than what I could inflict so it shall be less than thine iniquities deserve Ezra 9. 13. Neither my power nor thy desert shall be the rule of my proceedings but I will do it with moderation and mercy as thou art able to bear I that have instructed the Husbandman to proportion his instruments to the quality of the grain before him will exercise the like wisdom and mildness towards the thee and the similitude betwixt the Husbandmans threshing his corn and the Lords afflicting his people stands in these particulars The Husbandmans end in threshing the corn is to separate it from the husks and chaff and God's end in afflicting his people is to separate them from their sins Isa. 27. 9. In measure when it shooteth forth he will debate with it i. e. he will moderately correct them and what the end of those corrections are the next words inform us By this therefore shall the iniquity of Iacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin God uses afflictions as we use sope to cleanse away filthiness and fetch out spots Dan. 11. 35. he aimes not at the destruction of their persons but of their lusts If the Husbandman have cockle darnel or pernicious tares before him in the floor among his corn he little regards whether it be bruised and battered to pieces by the threshold or no 't is a worthless thing and he spares it not Such cockle and tares are the enemies of God and when these come under his flail he strikes them without mercy for these the Lord prepares a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth which shall beat them to dust Isa. 41. 15. The daughter to Babylon is like a threshing floor 't is time to thresh her Ier. 51. 33. And when that time is come then in allusion to the beast that was to tread out the corn Sion's horn shall be of iron and her hoofs brass Mich. 4. 13. He smites not his people according to the stroke of them that smote them the meaning is his strokes on them shall be dâ—adly strokes They shewed no mercy to Sien and God will shew no mercy to them When the husks and chaff are perfectly separated from the grain then the Husbandman beats it no more When God hath perfectly purged and separated the sins of his people then afflictions shall come to a perpetual end he will never smite them again there is no noise of the threshing instrument in heaven he that beat them with his flail on earth will put them into his bosom in heaven Though the Husbandman layes on and beates his corn as if he were angry with it yet he loves and highly prizes it and though God strike and afflict his people yet he sets a great value upon them and it is equally absurd to infer God's hatred to his people from his afflicting of them as the Husbandmans hatred of his corn because he threshes and beats it Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth and chasteneth every son whom he receiveth Though the Husbandman thresh and beat the corn yet he will not bruise or hurt if he can help it though some require more and harder strokes that others yet none shall have more than it can endure And though the Lord afflict his servants yet he will do them no hurt Ier. 25. 6. Some need more rods that others but none shall have more than they can bear the Lord knows the measures and degrees of his servants faith and patience and accordingly shall their tryals be Psal. 103. 13 14. Like as a father pities his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him for he knows their frame he remembers they are but dust he makes a way to escape that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10. 13. This care and tenderness of God over â—is afflicted is eminently discovered in three particulars 1 In not exposing them to till he have prepared them for their tryals Luke 24. 49. Tarry ye at Ierusalem until ye be endued with power from on High He gives them sometimes eminent discoveries of his love immediately before and as a preparative to their sufferings in the strength whereof they are carried through all 2 Or if not so then he intermixeth supporting comfort with their troubles as you sometimes see the Sun shine out while the rain falls 'T was so with Paul Act. 27. 23. This night and it was a sad night indeed there stood by me the Angel of the Lord whose I am 3. In taking off the affliction when they can bear it no longer 1 Cor. 10. 13. He makes a way to escape that they may be able to bear it Psal. 125. 3. The rod is taken off when the righteous is even ready to put forth his hand to iniquity 'T is a
know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any way of wickedness in me You have little quiet in your spirits till the Case be resolved your meat and drink doth you little good you cannot sleep in the night because these troubled thoughts are ever returning upon you What if I should be turn'd out of all at last So it is with gracious souls their eyes are held waking in the night by reason of the troubles of their hearts Psal. 77. 4. Such fears as these are frequently returning upon their hearts What if I should be found a self-deceiver at last What if I do but hug a phantasm instead of Christ how can this or that consist with grace Their meat and drink doth them little good their bodies are often macerated by the troubles of their souls You will not make the best of your condition when you state your case to a faithful Councellor neither will they but oft-times poor pensive souls they make it much worse than indeed it is charge themselves with that which God never charged them with though this be neither their wisdom nor their duty but the fears of miscarrying make them suspect fraud in all they do or have Lastly when your title is cleared your hearts are eased yea not only eased but overjoyed though not in that degree nor with the same kind of joy that the hearts of Christians are overflowed when the Lord speaks peace to their souls O welcome the sweet morning light after a tedious night of darkness now they can eat their bread with comfort and drink their wine yea if it be but water with a merry heart Eccles. 9. 7. REFLECTIONS O How hath spirit been tossed and hurried when I have met with troubles and clamours about my estate but as for spiritual troubles and those soul-perplexing cases that christians speak of I understand but little of them I never called my everlasting state in question nor brake an hours sleep upon any such account Ah my supine and careless soul I little hast thou regarded how matters stand in reference to eternity I have strongly conceited but never throughly examined the validity of my title to Christ and his promises nor am I able to tell if my own conscience should demand whereupon my claim is grounded O my soul why art thou so unwilling to examine how matters stand betwixt God and thee art thou afraid to look into thy condition least by finding thine hypocrisie thou shouldest lose thy peace or rather thy security To what purpose will it be to shut thine eyes against the light of conviction unless thou couldst also find out a way to prevent thy condemnation Thou seest other souls how attentively they wait under the word for any thing that may speak to their conditions Doubtless thou hast heard how frequently and seriously they have stated their conditions and opened their cases to the Ministers of Christ. But thou O my soul hast no such cases to put no doubts to be resolved thou wilt leave all to the decision of the great day and not trouble thy self about it now Well God will decide it but little to thy comfort I have heard how some have been perplexed by litigious adversaries but I believe none have been so tossed with fears and distracted with doubts as I have been about the state of my soul. Lord what shall I do I have often carried my doubts and scruples to thine Ordinances waiting for satisfaction to be spoken there I have carried them to those I have judged skillfull and faithful begging their resolution and help but nothing will stick Still my fears are daily renewed O my God do thou decide my case tell me how the state stands betwixt thee and me my dayes consume in trouble I can neither do or enjoy any good whilst things are thus with me all my earthly enjoyments are dry and uncomfortable things yea which is much worse all my duties and thine Ordinances prove so too by reason of the troubles of my heart I am no ornament to my profession nay I am a discouragement and stumbling-block to others I will hearken and hear what God the Lord will speak O that it might be peace if thou do not speak it none can and when thou doest keep thy servant from returning again to solly lest I make fresh work for an accusing conscience and give new matter to the adversary of my soul But thou my soul enjoyest a double mercy from thy bountiful God who hath not only given thee a sound title but also the clear evidence and knowledge thereof I am gathering and daily feeding upon the full ripe fruits of assurance which grow upon the top boughs of faith whilst many of my poor brethren drink their own tears and have their teeth broken with gravel stones Lord thou hast set my soul upon her high places but let me not exalt my self because thou hast exalted me nor grow wanton because I walk at liberty lest for the abuse of such precious liberty thou clap my old chains upon me and shut up my soul again in prison The Poem MEn can't be quiet till they be assur'd That their estate is good and well secur'd To able Counsel they their Deed submit Intreating them with care t' examine it Fearing some clause an enemy may wrest Or find a flaw whereby he may devest Them and their children O who can but see How wise men in their generation be But do they equal cares fears express About their everlasting happiness In spiritual things 't would grieve ones heart to see What careless fools these careful men can be They act like men of common sense bereaven Secure their Lands and they 'l trust God for heaven How many cases ave you to submit To Lawyers judgments Ministers may sit From week to week and yet not see the face Of one that brings a soul concerning Case Yea which is worse how seldom do you cry To God for counsel or beg him to try Youâ— heartâ— and strictest inquisition make Into your state discover your mistake O stupid souls clouded with ignorance Is Christ and heaven no fair inheritance Compar'd with yours or is eternity A shorter term than yours that you should ply The one so close and totally neglect The other as not worth your least respect Perhaps the Dâ—vil whose plot from you's conceal'd Perswades your title 's good and firmly seal'd By Gâ—â—'s own Spirit though you never found One act of saving grace to lay a ground For that perswasion Soul he hath thee fast Though he 'l not let thee know it till the last Lord waken sinners make them understand 'Twixt thee and them how rawly matters stand Give them no quiet rest until they see Their souls secur'd better than Lands can be Occasional Meditations UPON BIRDS BEASTS TREES FLOWERS RIVERS and other objects MEDITATIONS on BIRDS MEDIT. I. Vpon the singing of a Nightingale
of such Tyrants is both inglorious and unlamented When the wicked perish there is shouting Prov. 11. 10. Which was exemplified to the life at the death of Nero of whom the Poet thus sings Cum mors crudelem rapuisset saeva Neronem Credibile est multos Roman agitasse jacos When cruel Nero dy'd th' Historian tells How Rome did mourn with Bonefires plays and bells Remarkable for contempt and shame have the ends of many bloudy Tyrants been so Pompey the great of whom Clau dian the Poet sings Nudus pascit aves jacet en qui pâ—ssidet orbem Exiguae telluris inops Birds eat his flesh lo now he cannot have Who rul'd the world a space to make a grave The like is storied of Alexander the great who lay unburied thirty dayes and William the Conquerer with many other such Birds of prey whilst a beneficial and holy life is usually closed up in an honourable and much lamented death For mine own part I wish I may sooder my conversation in the world that I may live when I am dead in the affâ—ctions of the best and leave an honourable testimony in the consciences of the worst that I may oppress none do good to all and say when I dye as good Ambrose did I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to dye MEDIT. III. Vpon the sight of a Black-bird taking sanctuary in a bush from a pursuing Hawk VVHen I saw how hardly the poor Bird was put to it to save her self from her enemy who hover'd just over the bush in which she was fluttering and squeeking I could not but hasten to relieve her pity and succour being a due debt to the distressed which when I had done the bird would not depart from the bush though her enemy were gone this act of kindness was abundantly repaid by this Meditation with which I returned to my walk My soul like this Bird was once distressed pursued yea seized by Satan who had certainly made a prey of it had not Iesus Christ been a sanctuary to it in that hour of danger How ready did I find him to receive my poor soul into his protection then did he make good that sweet promise to my experience Those that come unto me I will in no wise cast out It call'd to mind that pretty and pertinent story of the Philosopher who walking in the fields a Bird pursued by a Hawk flew into his bosom her took her out and said Poor bird I will neither wrong thee nor expose thee to thine enemy since thou camest unto me for refuge So tender and more than so is the Lord Iesus to distressed souls that come unto him Blessed Iesus how should I love and praise thee glorifie and admire thee for that great salvation thou hast wrought for me If this Bird had faln into the claws of her enemy she had been torn to pieces indeed and devoured but then a few minutes had dispatcht her and ended all her pain and misery but had my soul fallen into the hand of Satan there had been no end of its misery Would not this scared Bird be flusht out of the Bush that secured her though I had chased away her enemy and wilt thou my soul ever be enticed or scared from Christ thy refuge O let this for ever ingage thee to keep close to Christ and make me say with Ezra and now O Lord since thou hast given me such a deliverance as this should I again break thy commandments MEDIT. IV Vpon the sight of diver Lennets intermingling with a flock of Sparrows ME thinks these Birds do fitly resemble the gaudy Gallant and the plain peasants how spruce and richly adorned with shining and various coloured feathers like scarlet richly laid with gold and silver lace are those how plainly clad in a home-spun countrey russet are these Fine feathers saith our proverb make proud Birds and yet the feathers of the Sparrow are as useful and beneficial both for warmth and flight though not so gay and ornamental as the others and if both were stript out of their feathers the Sparrow would prove the better Bird of the two by which I see that the greatest worth doth not alwayes lye under the finest cloaths And besides God can make mean and homely garments as useful and beneficial topoor despised Christians as the ruffling and shining garments of wanton Gallants are to them and when God shall strip men out of all external excellencies these will be found to excel their glittering neighbours in true worth and excellency Little would a man think such rich treasures of grace wisdom humility c. lay under some russet coats Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste Under poor garments more true worth may be Than under silks that whistle who but he Whilst on the other side the heart of the wicked as Solomon hath observed is little worth how much sover his cloaths be worth Alas it falls out two frequently among us as it doth with men in the Indies who walk over the rich veins of gold and silver Oar which lyes hid under a ragged and barren surface and know it not For my how pâ—rt I desire not to value any man by what is extrinsecal and worldly but by that true internal excellency of grace which makes the face to shine in the eyes of God and good men I would contemn a vile person though never so glorious in the eye of the world but honour such as fear the Lord how sordid and despicable soever to appearance MEDIT. V. Vpon the sight of a Robbin-red-breast picking up a worm from a mole-hill then raising OBserving the Mole working industriously beneath and the Bird watching so intently above I made a stand to observe the issue When in a little time the bird descends and seizes upon a worm which I perceived was crawling apace from the enemy below that hunted her but fell to the share of another which from above waited for her My thoughts presently suggested these Meditations from that occasion me thought this poor worm seem'd to be the Emblem of my poor soul which is more endangered by its own lusts of pride and covetousness than this worm was by the Mole and Bird my pride like the aspiring Bird watches for it above my covetousness like this subterranean Mole digging for it beneath Poor soul what a sad Dilemma art thou brought to If thou go down into the caverns of the earth there thou art a prey to thy covetousness that hunts thee and if thou aspire or but creep upward there thy pride waits to ensnare thee Distressed soul whither wilt thou go ascend thou mayest not by a vain elation but by a heavenly conversation beside which there is no way for thy preservation the way of life is above to the wise c. Again I could not but observe the accidental benefit this poor harmless Bird obtained by the labour of the Mole who hunting intentionally for her self unburroughed and ferrited out this