ponder this great question whether those things whereon I depend as my best evidences for the life to come be the real or only the common works of the Spirit whether they be such as can now endure the test of the Word and abide a fair tryal at the bar of my own conscience Come then my soul set the Lord before thee to whom the secrets of all hearts are manifest and in the awful sence of that great day make true answer to these heart-discovering queries for though thou canst not discern the difference betwixt these things in another yet thou mayest and oughtest to discern it in thy self for what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man that is in him First Is my obedience uniform am I the same man in all times places and companies or rather am I not exact and curious in open and publick remiss and careless in private and secret duties sincere souls are uniform souls Psal. 119. 6. the hypocrite is no closet-man Mat. 6. 5. Secondly Doth that which I call grace in me oppose and mortifie or doth it not rather quietly consist with and protect my lusts and corruptions true grace tollerates no lust Gal. 5. 17. No not the bosom darling-corruption Psa. 18. 23. Thirdly Doth that which I call my grace humble empty and abase my soul or rather doth it not puff it up with self-conceitedness all saving grace is humble grace 1 Cor. 15. 10. But the soul which is lifted up is not upright Hab. 2. 4. Lastly Canst thou my soul rejoyce and bless God for the grace imparted to others and rejoyce if any design for Christ be carried on in world by other hands or rather dost thou not envy those that excel thee and carest for no work in which thou art not seen But stay my soul it is enough If these be the substantial differences betwixt special and common grace I more than doubt I shall not endure the day of his coming Whose fan is in his hand Do not those spots appear upon me which â—re not the spots of his children Wo is me poor wretch the characters of death are upon my soul Lord add power to the form life to the name to live practise to the knowledge or I perish eternally O rather give me the Saints heart than the Angels tongue the poorest breathing of thy Spirit than the richest ornaments of common gifts let me neither deceive my self or others in matters of so deep and everlasting consequence The Poem IN Eastern Countreys as good Authors write Tares in their springing up appear to sight Not like it self a weed but real wheat Whose shape and form it counterfeits so neat Though 't would require a most judicious eye The one from t'other to diversifie Till both to some maturity be grown And then the difference is eas'ly known Even thus hypocrisie that cursed weed Springs up so like true grace that he will need More than a common insight in this case That saith this is not that is real grace Ne're did the cunning Actor though a slave Array'd in princely robes himself behave So like a King as this doth act the part Of saving grace by its deep hellish art Do gracious souls melt mourn and weep for sin The like in hypocrites observ'd hath been Have they their comforts joyes and raptures sweet With them in comforts hypocrites do meet In all religious duties they can go As far as Saints in some things farther too They speak like Angels and you 'l think within The very spirit of Christ and grace hath bin They come so neer that some like Isaac take Iacob for Esau this for that mistake And boldly call their eyes with his being dim True grace hypocrisie and duty sin Yea many also Iacob like imbrace Leah for Rachel common gifts for grace And in their bosoms hug it till the light Discover their mistake and cleer their sight And then like him confounded they will cry Alas 't is Leah curs'd hypocrisie Guide me my God that I may not in stead Of saving grace nurse up this cursed weed O let my heart by thee at last be found Sincere and all thy workings on it sound CHAP. XIII Fowls weeds and blastings do your corn annoy Even so corruptions would your grace destroy OBSERVATION THere are amongst many others three critical and dangerous periods betwixt the seed-time and Harvest The first when corn is newly committed to the earth all that lyes uncovered is quickly pickt up by the birds and much of that which is but slightly covered is stockt up as soon as it begins to sprout by Rooks and other devouring fowls Mat. 13. 4. but if it escape the fowls and gets root in the earth yet then is it hazarded by noxious weeds which purloin and suck away its nourishment whilst it is yet in the tender blade If by the care of the vigilant Husbaâ—dman it be freed from choaking weeds yet lastly as great a danger as any of the former still attends it for oftentimes whilst it is blowing in the ear blastings and mildews smite it in the stalk which cuts off the juice and sap that should ascend to nourish the ear and so shrivels and dries up the grain whilst it is yet immature whereby it becomes like those ears of corn in Pharaohs vision which were thin and blasted with the East-wind or like the ears the Psalmist speaks of upon the house top wherewith the reaper filleth not his arms APPLICATION TRue grace from the infancy to the perfection thereof conflicts with far more greater dangers amongst which it answerably meets with three dangerous periods which marvellously hazard it So that it is a much greater wonder that it ever arrives at its just perfection For 1 no sooner hath the great Husbandman disseminated these holy seeds in the regenerate heart but multitudes of impetuous corruptions immediately assault and would cetainly devour them like the fowls of the air did not the same arm that sowed them also protect them It fares with grace as with Christ its Author whom Herod sought to destroy in his very infancy The new creature is scarce warm in its seat before it must fight to defend its self This conflict is excellently set forth in that famous Text Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would By flesh here understand the corruption of nature by original sin and the sinful motions thereof by spirit not the soul or natural spirit of man but the Spirit of God in man viz. those graces in men which are the workmanship of the Spirit and therefore called by his name The opposition betwixt these two is expressed by lusting i. e. desiring the mutual ruine and destruction of each other for even when they are not acting yet then they are lusting there is an opposite
untilled desart is of Corn. The earlier the Seed is sown the better it is rooted and enabled to endure the asperities of the Winter so when grace is early infused when nature is sanctified in the bud grace is thereby exceedingly advantaged 'T was Timothies singular advantage that he knew the scriptures of a Child Frosts and snows conduce very much to the well rooting of the seed and makes it spread and take root much the better So do Sanctified afflictions which usually the people of God meet with after their calling and often in their very Seed-time 1 Thes. 1. 6. And you became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction But if they have fair weather then to be sure they shall meet with weather hard enough afterwards Heb. 10. 32 But call to remembrance the former dayes in which after ye were illuminated ye indured a great fight of afflictions When the Seed is cast into the earth it must be covered up by the harrow the use whereof in Husbandry is not only to lay a plain floor as they speak but to open and let in the Corn to the bosome of the earth and there cover it up for its security from birds that would devour it Thus doth the most wise God provide for the security of that grace which he at first disseminated in the hearts of his people He is as well the finisher as the Author of their grace Heb. 12. 2. And of this they may be confident that he that hath begun a good work in them will perform it unto the day of Christ. The care of God over the graces of his people is like the covering of the seed for security Seed-Corn is in its own nature of much more value and worth than other Corn the Husbandman casts in the principal wheat So are the seeds of grace sown in the renewed soul for it 's called The seed of God 1 Iohn 3. 9. The Divine natuâ—e 2 Pet. 1. 4. One dram o grace is far beyond all the glory of this world it s more precious than gold which perishes I Pet. 1. 7. The price of it is above rubies and all that thou canst desire is not to be compâ—red with it Pro. 3. 15. There is a great deal of Spirit and vigour in a little Seed though it be small in bulk yet it is great in vertue and efficay Gracious habits are also vigorous and efficatious things Such is their efficacy that they overcome the world 1 Ioh. 5. 4. Whatsoeve is born of God overcometh the world They totally alter and change the person in whom they are He that persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed They enable the soul to do and suffer great things for God Heb. 11. 33 34 35. The stalk and â—ar are potentially and virtually in a small grain of Corn. So are all the fruits of obedience which believers afterwards bring forth to God vertually contained in those habits of seeds of grace 'T is strange to consider that from a mustard-seed which as Christ saith is the least of all seeds should grow such great branches that the birds of the Air may build their nests in them Surely the heroical and famous acts and atchievements of the most renowed believers sprang from sinall beginnings at first to that eminency and glory The fruitfulness of the seed depends upon the Sun and rain by which they are quickened as is opened largely in the next Chapter And the principles of grace in us have as necessary a dependance upon the assisting and exciting grace without us For though it be true they are immortal seeds yet that is not so much from their own strength as from the promises made to them and that constant influx from above by which they are revived and preserved from time to time The seed is fruitful in some soyls more than in others prospers much better and comes sooner to maturity So doth grace thrive better and grow faster in some persons than in others Your faith groweth exceedingly 2 Thes. 1. 3. Whilst the things that are in others are ready to die Rev. 3. 2. Though no mans heart be naturally a kind soyl to grace yet doubtless grace is more advantaged in some dispositions than in others And lastly their agreement as Seed appears in this the Seed-corn is scattered into all parts of the field as proportionably and equally as may be So is grace diffus'd into all the faculties judgment will and all the affections are sowed with these new principles The God of peace sanctifie you wholly 1 Thes. 5. 23. And thus you see why principles of grace are called seed Now in the next place which is the second thing promised and mainly designed in this Chapter to shew you the choiceness and excellency of these holy principles with which sanctified souls are embellisht and adorned and to convince you that true grace excels all other principles by which other persons are acted even as the principal wheat doth the chaff and refuse stuff I shall here institute a comparison betwixt grace and the most splendid common gifts in the world and its transcendent excellency above them all will evidently appear in the seven following particulars The most excellent common gifts come out of the common treasury of God's bounty and that in a natural way they are but the improvement of a mans natural abilities or as one calls them the sparks of nature blown up by the wind of a more benign and liberal education but principles of grace are of a divine and heavenly original and extraction not educed or raised from nature but supernaturally infused by the Spirit from on high Ioh. 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit When a soul is sanctified by them he partakes of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Is born not of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man but of God Ioh. 1. 13. In this respect they differ from gifts as the heavenly Manna which was rained down from heaven differs from common bread which by paines and industry the earth produces in a natural way The best natural gifts afford not that sweetness and solid comfort to the soul that grace doth they are but a dry stalk that affords no meat for a soul to feed on A man may have an understanding full of light and an heart void of comfort at the same time but grace is a fountain of purest living streams of peace and comfort 1 Pet. 1. 8. Believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart All true pleasures and delights are seminally grace Psal. 97. 11. they are sown for them in these divine and heavenly graces which are glory in the bud Gifts adorn the person but do not secure the soul from wrath A man may be admired for them
soul who gave thee a season a day for eternal life which is more than he hath done for thousands yea bless the Lord for giving thee an heart to understand and improve that season I confess I have not improved it as I ought yet this I can through mercy say that how ever it fare in future times with my outward man though I have no treasures or stores laid up on earth or if I have they are but corruptible yet I have a blessed hope laid up in heaven Col. 1. 5. I have bags that wax not old Whilst worldlings rejoyce in their stores and heaps I will rejoyce in these eternal treasures The Poem OBserve in Summers sultry heat how in the hottest day The Husbandman doth toyl and sweat about his Corn and Hay If then he should not reap and mow and gather in his store How should he live when for the snow he can't move out of door The little Ants and painful Bees by natures instinct led These have their Summer granaries for Winter furnished But thou my soul whose Summers day is almost past and gone What soul-provision dost thou lay in stock to spend upon If nature teacheth to prepare for temporal life much rather Grace should provoke to greater care soul food in time to gather Dayes of affliction and distress are hasting on apace If now I live in carelessness how sad will be my case Unworthy of the name of man who for that soul of thine Wil t not do that which others can do for their very kine Think frugal Farmers when you see your mows of Corn and Hay What a conviction this will be to you another day Who ne're were up before the Sun nor break an hours rest For your poor souls as you have done so often for a beast Learn once to see the difference betwixt eternal things And these poor transient things of sence that fly with eagles wings CHAP. XVII When from Tare seeds you see choice Wheat to grow Then from your lusts may joy and comfort flow OBSERVATION GOd gives to every seed it s own body 1 Cor. 15. 38. At first he created every Tree and herb of the field having its seed in it self for the conservation of the species and they all inviolably observe the Law of their Creation All fruits naturally rise out of the seeds and roots proper to them Men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles Such productions would be monstrous in nature and although the juice or sap of the earth be the common matter of all kind of fruits yet it is specificated according to the different sorts of Plants and seeds it nourishes Where Wheat is sown it 's turned into Wheat in an apple Tree it becomes an apple and so in every sort of Plants or seeds it 's concocted into fruit proper to the kind APPLICATION TRanslate this into spirituals and the proposition shadowed forth by it is fully expressed by the Apostle Gal. 6. 7. What a man sows that shall be reap they that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and they that sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting And as sure as the harvest follows the seed-time so sure shall such fruits and effects result from the seeds of such actions He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity Prov. 22. 8. And they that now go forth weeping and bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoycing bringing their sheaves with them Psal. 126. 5. The sum of all is this That our present actions have the same respect and relation to future rewards and punishments as the seed we sow in our fields hath to the harvest we reap from it Every gracious action is the seed of joy and every sinful action the seed of anguish and sorrow to the soul that sowed it Two things are sensibly presented to us in this â—imilitude That as the seed sown is presently covered from our sight under the clods and for some time after we see no more of it and yet at last it appears again by which it's evident to us that it is not finally lost So our present actions though physically transient and perhaps forgotten yet are not lost but after a time shall appear again in order to a retribution If this were not so all good and holy actions would be to the loss of him that performed them All the self-denial spending duties and sharp sufferings of the people of God would turn to their damage though not in point of honesty yet in point of personal utility and then also what difference would there be betwixt the actions of a man and a beast with respect to future good or evil yea man would then be more feared and obeyed than God and souls be swayed in all their motions only by the influence of present things and where then would Religion be found in the world 'T is an excellent note of Drexellius Our works saith he do not pass away as soon as they are done but as seed sown shall after a time rise up to all eternity whatever we think speak or do once spoken thought or done is eternal and abides for ever What Zeuxes the famous Limner said of his work may be truly said of all our works Aeternitati pingo I paint for eternity O how careful should men be of what they speak and do whilst they are commanded so to speak and so to do as those that shall be judged by the perfect law of liberty Iam. 2. 12. What more transient than a vain word and yet for such words men shall give an account in the day of judgment Mat. 12. 36. That 's the first thing Actions like seed shall rise and appear again in order to a retribution The other thing held forth in this similitude is That according to the nature of our actions now will be the fruit and reward of them then Though the fruit or consequence of holy actions for the present may seem bitter and the fruit of sinful actions sweet and pleasant yet there is nothing more certain that that their future fruits shall be according to their present nature and quality 2 Cor. 5. 10. Then Dionisius shall retract that saying Ecce quam prospera navigatio a Deo datur sacrilegis Behold how God favours our sacriledge Sometimes indeed though but rarely God causes sinners to reap in this world the same that they have sown as hath been their sin such hath been their punishment It was openly confessed by Adonibezek Iudg. 1. 7. as I have done so hath God requited me Socrates in his Church History furnishes us with a pertinent passage to this purpose concerning Valens the Emperor who was an Arrian and a bitter persecutor of the Christians This man when eighty of the Orthodox Christians failed from Constantinople to Nicomedia to treat with him about the points of Arrianism and to settle the matter by
his hand upon his birth-sin Or secondly which speaks to my purpose it may refer to the action of the same man man being unclean cannot bring forth a clean thing i. e. a clean or holy action that which is originated is like its Original And that this sower sap of the first stock I mean Adams sin is transmitted into all mankind not only corrupting their fruit but ruining and withering all the branches the Apostle shews us in that excellent parallell betwixt the two Adams Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man one not only in individuo sed in specie one representing the whole root or stock sin entered into the world not by imitation only but by propagation and this brought death and ruine upon all the branches Although these wild hedge-fruits be unwholsom and unpleasant to the taste yet they are fair and beautiful to the eye a man that looks upon them and doth not know what fruit it is would judge it by its shew and colour to be excellent fruit for it makes a fairer shew oftentimes than the best and most wholsome fruit doth Even so those natural gifts and endowments which some unregenerate persons have seem exceeding fair to the eye and a fruit to be desired What excellent qualities have some meer natural men and women what a winning affability humble condescention meekness righteousness ingenious tenderness and sweetness of nature As it was hyperbolically enough said of one In hoc homine non peccavit Adam Adam never sinned in this man meaning that he excelled the generality of Adams children in sweetness of temper and natural endowments What curious phantasies imble wits solid judgments tenacious memories rare elocution c. are to be found among meer natural men by which they are assisted in discoursing ' praying preaching and writing to the admiration of such as know them But that which is highly esteemed of men is abomination to God Luke 16. 15. it finds no acceptance with him because it springs from that cursed root of nature and is not the production of this own spirit If such a stock were removed into a better soyl and graâ—â—ed with a better kind it might bring forth fruit pleasant and grateful to the Husbandman and if such persons before described were but regenerated and changed in their spirits and principles what excellent and useful persons would they be in the Church of God and then their fruits would be sweet and acceptable to him One observes of Tertullian Origen and Ierome that they came into Canaan laden with Egyptian gold i. e. they came into the Church full of excellent humane learning which did Christ much service When the Husbandman cuts down his woods or hedges he cuts down these Crab-stocks with the rest because he values them not any more than the thorns and brambles among which they grow and as little will God regard or spare these natural branches how much soever they are laden with such fruit The threatning is universal Iohn 3. 3. Except you be regenerate and born again you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven And again Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness no man be his natural gifts never so excellent shall see God Imbellished nature is nature still That which is born of the flesh is but flesh however it be set off with advantage to the eye of man REFLECTIONS TO what purpose then do I glory in my natural accomplishments Though I have a better nature than some others have yet it is a cursed nature still These sweet qualities and excellent gifts do only hide but not kill the corruption of nature I am but a rotten post gilded over and all my duties but hedge fruit which God makes no account of O cutting thought that the unlearned shall rise and take heaven when I with all my excellent gifts shall descend into hell Heaven was not made for Scholars as such but for believers as one said when they comforted him upon his death-bed that he was a knowing man a Doctor of Divinity O said he I shall not appear before God as a Doctor but as a man I shall stand upon a level with the most illiterate in the day of judgment what doth it avail me that I have a nimble with whilst I have none to do my self good Will my Iudge be charm'd with a rhetorical tongue Things will not be carried in that world as they are in this If I could with Berengarius discourse de omni scibile of every thing that is knowable or with Solomon unravel nature from the Cedar to the Hysop what would this advantage me as long as I am ignorant of Christ and the mystery of Regeneration My head hath often aked with study but when did my heart ake for sin Methinks O my soul thou trimmest up thy self in these natural ornaments to appear before God much as that delicate Agag did when he was to come before Samuel and fondly conceitest that these things will procure favour or at least pity from him but yet think not for all that the bitterness of death is past say not within thy self Will God cast such a one as a I into hell Shall a man of such parts be damned Alas justice will hew thee to pieces as Samuel did that spruce King and not abate thee the least for these things many thousand branches of nature as fair and fruitful as thy self are now blazing in hell because not transplanted by regeneration into Christ and if he spared not them neither will he spare thee I am a poor despised Shrub which have no beauty at all in me and yet such a one hath the Lord chosen to transplant into Christ whilst he left many fragrant branches standing on their native stock to be fuel of his wrath to all eternity O grace for ever to be admired Ah what cause have I to be thankful to free grace and for ever to walk humbly with my God the Lord hath therefore chosen an unlikely rugged unpolisht creature as I am that pride may for ever be hid from mine eyes and that I may never glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. I now have the advantage of a better root and soyl than any carnal person hath it will therefore be greater shame to me and a reproach to the root that bears me if I should be out-stript and excelled by them yet Lord how often do I find it so I see some of them meek and patient whilst I am proud and passionate gentle and affable whilst I am rough and surly generous and noble whilst I am base and penurious Truly such a branch as I am is no honour to the root that bears it The Poem I Am a branch of that fair Eden Tree Which to mankind God had ordain'd to be The common stock his scituation good His branches many of himself a wood And like a Cedar by the River fed Unto the clouds his ample branches spread Sin smote his root then