formal hypocrite by an external reformation and yet still retains his propriety in them Mat. 12. 43 44. For that departure is indeed no more than a politick retreat Many that shall never escape the damnation of hell have yet escaped the pollutions of the world and that by the knowledge of the Son of God 2 Pet. 2. 20. Doth the Spirit of the Lord produce that glorious and supernatural work of faith in convinced and humbled souls in this also the hypocrite apes and imitates the believer Acts 8. 13. Then Simon himself believed also Luke 8. 13. These are they which for a while believe and in time of temptation fall away Doth the precious eye of faith discovering the transcendent excellencies that are in Christ inflame the affections of the believing soul with vehement desires and longings after him Strange motions of heart have also been found in hypocrites towards Christ and heavenly things Iohn 6. 34. Lord evermore give us this bread Mat. 25. 8. Give us of your oyl for our lamps are gone out With what a rapture was Balaam transported when he said Let me dye the death of the righteous and my last end be like his Numb 23. 10. Doth the work of faith in some believers bear upon its top branches the full ripe fruits of a blessed assurance Lo What strong confidences and high-built perswasions of an interest in God have sometimes been found even in unsanctified ones Ioh. 8. 54. Of whom you say that he is your God and yet ye have not known him To the same height of confidence arrived those vain souls mentioned in Rom. 2. 19. Yea so strong may this false assurance be that they dare boldly venture to go to the judgment seat of God and there defend it Mat. 7. 22. Lord Lord have we not prophecyed in thy name Doth the Spirit of God fill the heart of the assured believer with joy unspeakable and full of glory giving them through faith a prelibation or foretaste of heaven it self in those first fruits of it How near to this comes that which the Apostle supposes may be found even in Apostates Heb. 6. 8 9. who are there said to taste the good word of God and the powers of the world to come What shall I say if real Christians delight in Ordinances those that are none may also delight in approaching to God Ezek. 33. 32. It may be you will say though the difference be not easily discernable in their active obedience yet when it shall come to suffering there every eye may discern it the false heart will then flinch and cannot brook that work And yet even this is no infallible rule neither for the Apostle supposes that the Salamander of hypocrisie may live in the very flames of Martyrdom 1 Cor. 13. 3. If I give my body to be burnt and have not charity And it was long since determined in this cafe Non paena sed causa facit Martyrem so that without controversie the difficulty of distinguishing them is very great And this difference will yet be more subtile and undiscernable if I should tell you that as in so many things the hypocrite resembles the Saint so there are other things in which a real Christian may act too like an hypocrite When we find a Pharoah confessing an Herod practising as well as hearing a Iudas preaching Christ an Alexander ventring his life for Paul and on the other side shall find a David condemning that in another which he practised himself an Hezekiah glorying in his riches a Peter dissembling and even all the Disciples forsaking Christ in an hour of trouble and danger O then how hard is it for the eye of man to discern betwixt chaff and wheat how many upright hearts are now censured whom God will clear how many false hearts are now approved whom God will condemn men ordinarily have no clear convictive proofs but only probable symptoms which at most can beget but a conjectural knowledge of anothers state And they that shall peremptorily judge either way may possibly wrong the generation of the upright or on the other side absolve and justifie the wicked And truly considering what hath been said it is no great wonder that dangerous mistakes are so frequently made in this matter But though man cannot the Lord both can and will perfectly discriminate them The Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. He will have a day perfectly to sever the tares from the wheat to melt off the varnish of the most resplendent and refined hyocrite and to blow off the ashes of infirmities which have covered and obscured the very sparks of sincerity in his people He will make such a division as was never yet made in the world how many divisions soever there have been in it And then shall men indeed return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked betwixt him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Mean while my soul thou canst not better imploy thy self whether thou be sound or unsound than in making these reflections upon thy self REFLECTIONS ANd is this so then Lord pardon the rashness and precipitancy of my censorious spirit for I have often boldly anticipated thy judgment and assumed thy prerogative although thou hast said Why dost thou judge thy brother and why dost thou set at nought thy brother we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ for it is written as I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Let ut not therefore judge one another any more Rom. 14. 10 11 12 13. And again He that judgeth me is the Lord. Let us therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God 1 Cor. 4. 4 5. What if God will own some of them for his Sons to whom I refuse to give the respect of brethren I may pass hasty and headlong censures upon others but where is my commission for so doing I want not only a commission but fit qualifications for such a work as this Can I pierce into the heart as God can I infallibly discover the hidden motives ends and principles of actions Besides O my soul thou art conscious of so much falsness in thy self that were there no other consideration that alone might rest in a thee from all uncharitable and hasty censures If others knew but what I know of my self would they not judge as severely of me as I do of others Though I may not judge the final state of another yet I may and ought to judge the state of my own soul which is doubtless a more necessary and concerning work to me For since every saving grace in a Christian hath its counterfeit in the hypocrite how needful is it for thee O my soul to make a stand here and solemnly to
spareth his own son that serves him Mal. 3. 17. Heark how his bowels yearn I have surely heard Ephraim bemâ—aning himself it not Ephraim my dear son is he not a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still I will surely have mercy on him Ier. 31. 20. Doth he not know thy life would be altogether useless to him if he should not restore thee what service art thou fit to perform to him in such a condition Thy dayes will consume like smoak whilst thy heart is smitten and withered like grass Psal. 102. 3 4. Thy months will be months of vanity they will fly away and see no good Iob 7. 3. If he will but quicken thee again then thou must call upon his name Psal. 80. 18. but in a dead and languishing condition thou art no more fit for any work of God than a sick man is for manual labours and surely he hath not put those precious and excellent graces of his Spirit within thee for nothing they were planted there for fruit and service and therefore doubtless he will revive thee again Yea dost thou not think he sees thine inability to bear such a condition long he knows thy Spirit would fail before him and the soul which he hath made Isa. 57. 16. David told him as much in the like condition Psal. 143. 7 8. Hear me speedily O Lord for my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto those that go down into the pit q. d. Lord make hast and recover my languishing soul otherwise whereas thou hast now a sick child thou wilt shortly have a dead child And in like manner Iob expostulated with him Iob 6. 1 2 3 11 12 My grief is heavier than the sand of the Sea my words are swallowed up for the arrows of the Almighty are within me and the poyson thereof drinks up my spirits the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me what is my strength that I should hope is my strength the strength of stones or are my bones of brass So Chap. 7. 12. Am I a Sea or a Whale c. Other troubles a man may but this he cannot bear Prov. 18. 14. And therefore doubtless seasonable and gracious revivings will come He will not stir up all his wrath for he remembers thou art but flesh a wind that passeth away and cometh not again Psal. 78. 38. 39. He hath wayes enough to do it if he do but unvail his blessed face and make it thine again upon thee thou art saved Psal. 80. 3. the manifestations of his love will be to thy soul as showers to the parched grass thy soul that now droops and hanges the wing shall then revive and leap for joy Isa. 61. 1. A new face shall come upon thy graces they shall bud again and blossom as a Rose if he do but send a spring of auxiliary grace into thy soul to actuate the dull habits of inherent grace the work is done then shalt thou return to thy first works again Rev. 2. 4 5. and sing as in the dayes of thy youth REFLECTIONS O this is my very case saith many a poor Christian thus my soul languishes and droops from day to day 't is good new indeed that God both can and will restore my soul but sad that I should fall into such a state How unlike am I to what once I was Surely as the old men wept when they saw how short the second Temple came of the glory of the first so may I sit down and weep bitterly to consider how much my first love and first duties excelled the present For. Is my heart so much in heaven now as it was wont to be Say O my soul dost thou not remember when like the beloved Disciple thou layest in Iesus bosome how didst thou sweeten communion with him how restless and impatient wast thou in his absence Divine withdrawments were to thee as the hell of hell What a burden was the world to me in those dayes Had it not been for conscience of my duty I could have been willing to let all lye that communinion with Christ might suffer no interruption When I awaked in the night how was the darkness enlightned by the heavenly glimpses of the countenance of my God upon me How did his company shorten those hours and beguile the tediousness of the night O my soul speak thy experience is it now as it was then No no those dayes are past and gone and thou become much a stranger to that heavenly life Art thou able with truth to deny this charge When occasionally I pass by those places which were once to me as Iacob's Bethel to him I sigh at the remembrance of former passages betwixt me and heaven there and say with Iob Chap. 29. O that it were with me as in moneths past as in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head when by his light I walked through darkness when the Almighty was yet with me when I put on righteosness and it cloathed me when my glory was fresh in me when I remember these things my soul is poured out within me Is thy obedience to the commands of Christ and motions to duty as free and cheerful as they were wont to be Call to mind my soul the times when thou wast born down the stream of love to every duty if the spirit did but whisper to thee saying Seek my face how did my spirit eccho to his calls saying Thy face Lord will I seek Psal. 27. 8. If God had any work to be done how readily did I offer my service Here am I lord send me My soul made me as the chariots of Aminadab love oyled the wheels of my affection and his commandments were not grievous 1 Iohn 5. 3. Non tardat uncta rota There were no such quarrellings with the command no such excuses and delayes as there are now No such was my love to Christ and delight to do his will that I could no more keep back my self from duty than a man that 's carried away in a crowd Or lastly tell me O my soul dost thou bemoan thy self or grieve so tenderly for sin and for grieving the holy Spirit of God as hou wa st wont to do When formerly I had fallen by the hanbd of a temptation how was I wont to lye in tears at the Lord's feet bemoaning my self how did I hasten to my closet and there cry like Ezra Chap. 9. 6. O my God I am ashamed and blush to look up unto thee How did I sigh and weep before him and like Ephraim smite upon my thigh saying What have I done Ah my soul how didst thou work strive and cast about how to recover thy self again hast thou forgotten how thou wouldst sometimes look up and sigh bitterly Ah! what a God have I provoked whjat love and goodness have I abused sometimes look in and weep Ah! what
blessed Gospel heart dissolving voice I have felt thine efficacy I have experienced thy divine and irresistible power thou art indeed sharper than any two edged sword and woundest to the heart but thy wounds are the wounds of a friend All the wounds thou hast made in my soul were so many doors opened to let in Christ all the blows thou gavest my consciences were but to beat off my soul from sin which I embraced and had retained to my everlasting ruine hadst thou not separated them and me O wise and merciful Phyâ—â—â—ian thou didst indeed bind me with cords of conviction and sorrow but it was only to cut out that stone in my heart which had killed me if it had continued there O how did I struggle and oppose thee as if thou hadst come with the sword of an enemy rather than the lancâ— and probe of a skilful and tender hearted Physician Blessed by the day wherein my sin was discovered and imbittered O happy sorrows which prepared for such matchless joyes O blessed hand which turned my salt waters into pleasant wine and after many pangs and sorrows of souâ— didst â—ring forth the man child of deliverance and peace 〈◊〉 But O what a Rock of Adamant is this 〈◊〉 of mine that never yet was wounded and savingly pierced for 〈◊〉 the terrors of the Law or melting voice of the Gospel long have I sate-under the word but when did I feel a relenting pang O my soul my stupified soul thou hast got an Antidote against repentance but hast thou any against â—ell thou canst keep out the sense of sin now but art thou able to keep off the terrors of the Lord hereafter If thou couldst turn a deaf ear to the sentence of Christ in the day of judgment as easily as thou dost to the intreaties of Christ in the day of grace it were somewhat but surely there is no defence against that Ah fool that I am to quench these convictions unless I knew how to quench those flames tâ—ey warn me of And may not I challenge the first place among all the mourners in the world who have lost all those convictions which at several times came upon me under the word I have been often awakened by it and filled with terrors and tremblings under it but those troubles have soon worn off again and my heart like water removed from the fire return'd to its native coldness Lord what a dismal case am I in Many convictions have I choaked and strangled which it may be shall never more be revived until hou revive them against me in judgment I have been in pangs and brought forth nothing but wind my troubles have wrought no deliverance neither have my lusts fallen before them my conscience indeed hath been sometimes sick with sin yea so sick as to vomit them up by an external partial reformation but then with the dog have I returned again to my vomit and now I doubt am given over to an heart that cannot repent Oh that those travelling pangs could be quickened again but alas they are ceased I am like a prisoner escaped and again recovered whom the Iaylor loads with double Irons Surely O my soul if thy spiritual troubles return not again they are but gone back to bring eternal troubles It is with thee O my soul as with a man whose bones have been broken and not well set who must how terrible soever it appear to him endure the pain of breaking and setting them again if ever he be made a sound man O that I might rather chuse to be the Object of thy wounding mercy than of thy sparing cruelty if thou plow not up my heart again by compunction I know it must be rent in pieces at last by desperation The Poem THere 's skill in plowing that the Plowman knows For if too shallow or too deep he goes The seed is either buried or else my To â—ooks and Daws become an easie prey This as a lively emblem fitly may Describe the blessed spirits work and way Whose work on souls with this doth symbolize Betwixt them both thus the resemblance lyes Souls are the soyl conviction is the plow Gods workmen draw the spirit shews them how He guides the work and in good ground doth bless His workmens paines with sweet and fair success The heart prepar'd he scatters in the seed Which in it's season springs no fowl nor weed Shall pick it up or choak this springing coâ—n Till it be housed in the heavenly barn When thus the spirit plows up the â—allow ground When with such fruits his servants work is crown'd Let all the friends of Christ and soul say now As they pass by these fields God speed the plow Sometimes this plow thin shelfy ground doth turn That little seed which springs the Sun-beams burn The rest uncovered lies which fowls devour Alas their hearts were touched but not with power The cares and pleasures of this world have drown'd The seed before it peep'd above the ground Some springs indeed the scripture saith that some Do taste the powers of the world to come These Embroy's never come to timely birth Because the seed that 's sown wants depth of earth Turn up O God the bottom of my heart And to the seed that 's sown do thou impart Thy choicest blessing Though I weep and mourn In this wet seed-time if I may return With sheaves of joy these fully will reward My paines and sorrows be they ne're so hard CHAP. VIII The Choicest wheat is still reserv'd for seed But gracious principles are Choice indeed OBSERVATION HUsbandmen are very careful and curious about their Seed-corn that it may not only be clean and pure but the best and most excellent in its kind Isa. 28. 25. He easteth in the principal Wheat If any be more full and weighty than other that is reserved for Seed 'T is usual with Husbandmen to pick and lease their Seed-corn by hand that they may separate the Cockel and Darnel and all the lighter and hollow grains from it wherein they manifest their discretion for according to the vigor and goodness of the Seed the fruit and production is like to be APPLICATION THe choice and Principal Seed-corn with which the fields are sowed after they are prepared for it doth admimirably shadow forth those excellent principles of grace infused into the regenerate soul. Their agreement as they are both seed is obvious in the ten following particulars and their excellency above other principles in seven more The earth at first naturally brought forth Corn and every Seed yielding fruit without humane industry but since the curse came upon it it must be plowed and sowed or no fruit can be expected So man at first had all the principles of holiness in his nature but now they must be infused by regeneration or else his nature is as void of holiness as the barren and
plentiful harvest Ioel 2. 23 24. Beglad then ye Children of Sion and râ—joyce in the Lord your God for he hath given you the former rain modâ—rately and he will cause to come down for you the rain the former and the latter rain in the first month and the floors shall be full of wheat and the faces shall overflow with wine and Oyl Thus the Gospel hath a double use and benefit also It 's necessary as the former rain at Seed-time it causes the first spring of grace in the heart Psal. 19. 7. And there could be in an ordinary way no spring of grace without it Prov. 29. 18. And as this former rain is necessary to cause the first spring of grace so also it hath the use of the latter rain to ripen those precious fruits of the Spirit in the souls of Belivers Eph. 4. 11 12 13. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Were all the elect converted unto God yet still there would be a necessity of a Gospel Ministry After a great glut of rain usually there comes a drought 't is a common Countrey Proverb Wet and dry pay one another And truly when a people are glutted with a fulness of Gospel-mercies it 's usual with God to shut up and restrain the Gospel-clouds that for a time at least there be no dews upon them and thereby teach them to prize their despised because common mercies at an higher rate For as a good man once said mercies are best known by the back and most prized when most wanted In those dayes the word of the Lord was precious there was no open vision 1 Sam. 3. 1. It is with spiritual as with temporal food slighted when plenteous but if a famine once come then every bit of bread is precious Ierusalem remembred in the dayes of her affiction and of her misery all her pleasant things that she had in the dayes of old Lam. 1. 7. 'T is both a sinflul and dangerous thing to wantonize with Gospel-mercies and dâ—spise the plainest if faithful Minisâ—eâ—s of the Gospel The time may come when you may be glad of the plainst Sermon from the mouth of the meanest Embassador of Christ. To conclude the prayers of Saints are the keys that open and shut the natural clouds and cause them either to givâ— out or with-hold their influences Iames 5. 18. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months and he prayed again and the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth fruit God hath subjected the works of his hands to the prayers of his Saints Isa. 45. 11. Prayer is also the golden key which opens these mystical Gospel clouds and dissolves them into sweet gracious showers God will have the whole work of the Ministry carried on by the prayers of his people they first obtain their Ministers by prayer Luke 10. 2. Pray ye the Lord of the Harvest to sâ—nd forth labourers into the vineyard It is by the help of prayer that they are carried on and enabled to exercise their Ministry They may tell their people as a great General once told his Souldiers That he flew upon their wings Pray for me saith the great Apostle that utterance may be given me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the Mysteries of the Gospel Eph. 6. 19. Yea by the Saints prayers it is that Ministers obtain the success and fruits of their labours Tâ—fse 3. 1. Finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord my have free course and â—e glorified even as it is with you And thus you have the Metaphor opened Now Oh! That these truths migh come down in sweet showers upon the hearts both of Ministers and people in the following Reflections REFLECTIONS Am I then a cloud and is my doctrine as rain to water the Lords inheritance * and yet do I think it much to be tossed up and down by the furious winds and storms of persecution do I not see the clouds above me in continual motions and agitations and shall I dream of a fixed setled state No false Teachers who are clouds without rain are more likely to enjoy that than I. Which of all the Prophets have not been tossed and hurried worse than I Acts 7. 52. He that will not let men alone to be quiet in their lusts must expect but little quiet from men in this life But it is enough Lord that arest remaineth for thy servant let me be so wise to secure a rest to come and not so vain to expect it on earth And O that I might study those instructing clouds from which as from the bottles of heaven God pours down refreshing showers to quench and satisfie the thirsty earth in this may I resemble them and come amongst the people of the Lord in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ Rom. 15. 29. O let not those thirsty souls that wait for me as for the rain Iob 29. 23. Return like the Troops of Tema ashamed with their heads covered Iob 6. 19. O that my lips might refresh many let me never be like those empty clouds which deceive the hopes of thirsty souls but let my doctrine descend as the rain and distil as the dew and let that plot of thine inheritance which thou hast assigned to me be as the field which the Lord hath blessed Once more lift up thine eyes to the clouds and behold to how great an height the Sun hath mounted them for by reason of their sublimity it is that they are called the clouds of heaven Mat. 24. 30. Lord let me be a cloud of heaven too Let my heart and conversation be both there Who is more advantaged for an heavenly life than I heavenly truths are the subjects of my daily study and shall earthly things be the objects of my daily delights and loves God forbid that ever my earthly conversation should contradict and shame my heavenly calling and profession Shine forth thou glorious Suâ— of righteousness and my heart shall quickly be attracted and mounted above these visible clouds yea and above the aspectable heavens Is the Gospel rain and its Ministers clouds Wo is me then that my habitation is upon the mountains of Gilboa where there are no dews Ah sad lot that I should be like Gideons dry fleece whilst the ground round about me is wet with the dew of heaven O thou that commandest the clouds above and openest the windows of heaven remember and refresh this parched wilderness
that first flourish is gone my heart is like the Winters earth because thy face Lord is to me like a Winter Sun Awake O Northwind and come South wind blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out then let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruit MEDIT. II. Vpon the knitting or setting of fruit I Have often observed that when the blossoms of a tree set and knit though the flourish thereof be gone and nothing but the bare rudiment of the expected fruit be left yet then the fruit is much better secured from the danger of frosts and winds than whilst it remained in the flower or blossom for now it hath past one of those critical periods in which so many trees miscarry and lose their fruit And methought this natual Observation fairly led me to this Theological Proposition That good motions and holy purposes in the soul are never secured and past their most dangerous Crisis till they be turned into fixed resolutions and answerable execution which is as the knitting and setting of them Upon this Proposition my melting thoughts thus dilated Happy had it been for thee my soul had all the blessed motions of the Spirit been thus knit and fixed in thee O how have mine affections blown and budded under the warm beams of the Gospel but a I hill blast from the cares troubles and delights of the world without and the vanity and deadness of the heart within have blasted all my goodness hath been but as a morning dew or early cloud that vanisheth away And even of divine Ordinance I may say what is said of humane Ordinances They have perished in the using A blossom is but fruâ—tus imperfectus ordinabilis an imperfect thing in it self and something in order to fruit a good motion and holy purpose is but opus imperfectum ordinabile an imperfect work in order to a compleat work of the Spirit When that primus impetus those first motions were strong upon my heart had I then pursued them in the force and vigour of them how many difficulties might I have overcome Revive thy work O Lord and give not to my soul a miscarrying womb or dry breasts MEDIT. III. Vpon the sight of a fair spreading Oak WHat a lofty flourishing Tree is here It seems rather to be a little Wood than a single Tree every limb thereof having the dimensions and branches of a Tree in it and yet as great as it is it was once but a little slip which one might pull up with two fingers this vast body was contained virtually and potentially in a small Acorn Well then I will never despise the day of Small things nor despair of arriving to an eminency of grace though at present it be but as a bruised reed and the things that are in me be ready to dye As things in nature so the things of the Spirit grow up to their fulness and perfection by flow and insensible degrees The famous and heroical acts of the most renowned believers were such as themselves could not once perform or it may be think they ever should Great things both in nature and grace come from small and contemptible beginnings MEDIT. IV. Vpon the sight of many sticks lodged in the branches of a choice fruit Tree HOw is this Tree batter'd with stones and loaded with sticks that have been thrown at it whilest those that grow about it being barren or bearing harsher fruit escape untouched Surely if its fruit had not been so good its usage had not been so bad and yet it is affirmed that some trees as the Walnut c. bear the better for being thus bruised and battered Even thus it fares in both respects with the best of men the more holy the more envied and persecuted every one that passes by will have a fling at them Methinks I see how devils and wicked men walk round about the people of God whom he hath enclosed in armes of power like so many boys about an Orchard whose lips water to have a fling at them But God turns all the stones of reproach into precious stones to his people they bear the better for being thus batter'd And in them is that ancient observation verified Creseunt virtutem palmae crescuntque Coronae Mutantur mundipraelia pace Dei The Palmes and Crowns of virtue thus increase Thus persecution's turned into peace Let me be but fruitful to God in holiness and ever abounding in the work of the Lord and then whilst devils and men are flinging at me either by hand or tongue persecutions I will sing amidst them all with the divine Poet What open force or hidden charm Can blast my fruits or bring me harm Whilst the inclosure is thine arm MEDIT. V. Vpon the gathering of choice fruit from a scrubbed unpromising Tree VVOuld any man think to find such rare delicious fruit upon such an unworthy Tree to appearance as this is I should rather have expected the most delicious fruit from the most handsome and flourishing Trees but I see I must neither judge the worth of Tree or Men by their external form and appearance This is not the first time I have been deceived in judging by that rule under fair and promising out-sides I have found nothing of worth and in many deformed despicable bodies I have found precious richly furnished souls The sap and juice of this scrubbed Tree is concocted into rare and excellent fruits whilst the juice and sap of some other fair but barren Trees serves only to keep them from rotting which is all the use that many souls which dwell in beautâ—uâ—l bodies serve for they have as one saith animam pro sale their souls are butsalt to their bodies Or thus The only use to which their souls do serve Is but like salt their bodies to preserve If God have given me a sound soul in a sound body I have a double mercy to bless him for but whither my body be vigorous and beautiful or not yet let my soul be so For as the esteem of this Tree so the esteem and true honour of every man rises rather from his fruitfulness and usefulness than from his shape and form MEDIT. VI. Vpon an excellent but irregular Tree SEeing a Tree grow somewhat irregular in a very neat Orchard I told the Owner it was pity that Tree should stand there and that if it were mine I would root it up and thereby reduce the Orchard to an exact uniformity It was replyed to this purpose that he rather regarded the fruit than the form and that this slight inconveniency was abundantly preponderated by a more considerable advantage This Tree said he which you would root up hath yielded me more fruit than many of those Trees which have nothing else to commend them but their regular scituation I could not but yield to the reason of this answer and could wish it had been spoken so loud that all our Uniformity men had
Rom. 12. 11. in serving God servent in spirit or hissing hot 2 Pet. 1. 10. in securing salvation diligent or doing it throughly and enough 1 Tim. 4. 7. in godliness exercising or stripping themselves as for a race Luke 13. 24. in the pursuit of happiness striving even to an agony Act. 26. 7. in prayer serving God instantly or in a stretched-out manner yea pouring out their hearts before him Psal. 62. 8 as if the body were left like a dead corps upon the knees whilst the spirit is departed from it and ascended to God This is the manner of his work judge then how much harder this work is than to spend the sweat of the brow in manual labour The Husbandman finds his work as he left it he can begin one day where he left the other but it is not so with the Christian a bad heart and a busie devil disorder and spoyl his work every day The Christian finds not his heart in the morning as he left it at night and even when he is about his work how many set-backs doth he meet with Satan stands at his right hand the working hand to resist him Zech. 3. 1. when he would do good evil the evil of his own heart and nature is present with him The Husbandman hath some resting days when he throws aside all his work and takes his recreation but the Christian hath no resting day till his dying day and then he shall rest from his labours Religion allows no idle dayes but requires him to be always abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. When one duty is done another calls for him the Lord's day is a day of rest to the Husbandman but no day in the week so laborious to the Christian. O 't is a spending day to him When he hath gathered in the crop of one duty he is not to sit down satisfied therewith or say as that rich worldling did Luke 12. 19. Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years but must to plow again and count it well if the Vintage reach to the seed-time Lev. 26. 5. I mean if the strength influence and comforts of one duty hold out to another duty and that it may be so and there be no room left for idleness God hath appointed ejaculatory prayer to fill up the intervals betwixt stated and the more solemn duties These are to keep in the fire which kindled the morning sacrifice to kindle the evening sacrifice When can the Christian sit down and say now all my work is ended I have nothing to do without doors or within Lastly There is a time when the labour of the Husbandman is ended old age and weakness takes him off from all imployment they can only look upon their labourers but cannot do a stroke of work themselves they can tell you what they did in their younger years but now say they we must leave it to younger people we cannot be young always but the Christian is never super-annuated as to the work of Religion yea the longer he lives the more his Master expects from him When he is full of dayes God expects he should be full of fruits Psal. 9. 14. They shall bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing REFLECTIONS HOw hard have I laboured for the meat that perisheth prevented the dawning of the day and laboured as in the very fire and yet is the Christians work harder than mine Surely then I never yet understood the work of Christianity Alas my sleepy prayers and formal duties even all that ever I performed in my life never cost me that pains that one hour at plow hath done I have either wholly neglected or at best so lazily performed religious duties that I may truly say I offer to God what cost me nothing Wo is me poor wretch How is the judgment of Corah spiritually executed upon me The earth opened her mouth and swallowed up his body but it hath opened its mouth and swallowed up my heart my time and all my affections How far am I from the Kingdom of God! And how little better is my case who have indeed professed Religion but never made it my business Will an empty though splendid profession save me How many brave Ships have perished in the storms notwithstanding their fine names the Prosperous the Success the Happy return A fine name could not protect them from the rocks nor will it save me from hell I have done by Religion as I should have done by the world prayed as if I prayed not and heard as if I heard not I have given to God but the shadow of duty and can never expect from him a real reward How unlike a Christian dost thou also O my soul go about thy work though upright in the main yet how little zeal and activity dost thou express in thy duties Awake love and zeal feest thou not the toyl and pains men take for the world how do they prevent the dawning of the day and labour as in the very fire till night and all this for a trifle should not every drop of sweat which I see trickle from their brows fetch as it were a drop of blood from my heart who am thus convinced and reproved of shameful laziness by their indefatigable diligence Do they pant after the dust of the earth Amos 2. 7. and shall not I pant after God Psal. 42. 1. Ah my soul It was not wont to be so with thee in the dayes of my first profession Should I have had no more communion with God in duties then it would have broken my heart I should have been weary of my life Is this a time for one to stand idle who stands at the door of eternity What now slack-handed when so neer to my everlasting rest Rom. 13. 11. or hast thou found the work of God so unpleasant to thee Prov. 3. 17. or the trade of godliness so unprofitable Psal. 19. 11. Or knowest thou not that millions now in hell perished for want of serious diligence in Religion Luke 13. 34. or doth my diligence for God answer to that which Christ hath done and suffered to purchase my happiness or to the preparations he hath made in heaven for me or dost thou forget that thy Masters eye is alwayes upon thee whilst thou art lazing and loytering or would the damned live at this rate as I do if their day of grace might be recalled for shame my soul for shame rouze up thy self and fall to thy work with a diligence answerable to the weight thereof for it is no vain work concerning thee it is thy life The Poem Religion WHEN advanc'd in power Will make you HUSBAND every hour 'T will make MEN strive with all their might And therein FIND a sweet delight If there were NOUGHT besides that pay Christ gives TO cheer us in our way Should we not DO the best we can For there 's
only to be found If these fruits lay upon the surface of duty or could be had with wishes I should not want them but to dig deep and take pains I cannot My desires like those of the sloathful man kill me because my hands refuse to labour Pro. 21. 25. If every duty were to be rewarded presently with gold would I not have been more assiduous in them than I have been And yet I know that a heart full of the grace and comfort of the holy Ghost is better than a house full of gold and silver O what a composition of stupidity and sloth am I I have been all for the short cut to comfort when constant experience teacheth that the farther way about by painful duty is the nearest way to it What pains do Husbandmen take what perils do Seamen run for a little gain O sluggiâ—h heart wilt thou do nothing for eternal treasures Secondly if there be such great rewards attending diligence in duty then why art thou so apt O my soul to cast off duty because thou findest not present comfort in it how quickly am I discouraged if I presently find not what I expect in duty Whereas the Well is deep and much pains must be taken to draw up those waters of joy Isa. 12. 3. there is a golden vein in the mount of duty but it lyes deep and because I meet not with it as soon as I expect my lazy heart throws by the shovel and cryes Dig I cannot Thirdly if this be indeed the rich and thriving trade why do I peddle about the poor low things of the world so much neglecting the rich trade of godliness for it O how much of my time and strength have these things devoured Had I imployed that time in communion with God would it not have turn'd to a better account Think'st thou in earnest O my soul that God hath indowed thee with such excellent faculties capable of the most divine and heavenly imployments or that Iesus Christ hath shed his invaluably precious bloud or that he hath sent forth the glorious spirit of holiness and all this to fit men for no higher or nobler imployments than these Is this the end of thy wonderful creation Doth God whirl about the heavens in endless revolutions to beget time for this or doth he not rather expect that the weightiest work should engross thy greatest strength and choicest hours O that I could once consider what a good Master Christians serve who will not only abundantly reward them at night but brings them their food into the field to incourage them in their labour What pity is it that so good a Master should be so badly served as he hath been by me Heark how he pleads to gain my heart The POEM by way of Dialogue betwixt Christ and the world CHRIST O Why so free of sweat and time For what e're long will not be thine Or if it might thou sell'st to loss A precious soul for lasting dross Those weary hands and toyling brains Might be imploy'd for better gains Wouldst thou but work as hard for me As for the world which cozens thee Thy gains should be a thousand fold For my revenues more then gold WORLD Soul I have alwayes found thee willing Rather by me to earn a shilling Than trust uncertain things which lye Beyond thee in eternity Shall things unseen now tempt thee tush A bird in hand 's worth two i' th bush I pay thy wages down in hand This thou canst feel taste understand O let not such a vain pretence Prevail against thy very sence CHRIST Thus beasts are led thus birds are snar'd Thus souls for ruine are prepar'd What trust no farther then you see You 'l trust a thief as far as me Deluded wretch will naught but fight And sence convince thee O how right How just is God whose direful scourge Such Arguments in hell shall urge WORLD Christ threatens wrath to come but I Do threaten thee with poverty And why wilt thou thy self and those That are so dear to want expose Come sâ—e the Saints for all their brags How well they thrive they 'r cloath'd with rags CHRIST If my dear Saints in rags do go 'T is not Religion cloaths them so But by such wants the Lord preparâ—s Their souls against thy killing snares They all are heirs though under age Expectants of their heritage Kept short for present yet contemn A change with those that scoff at them WORLD It is in vain to plead for I With present things charm powerfully What e're thou offer'st they 'l despise I hold them prisoners by their eyes CHRIST If they will serve no other Lord Then let it stand upon record Against their souls that they refus'd My wages and my grace abus'd Remember this when they shall see All turn'd to ashes that's in thee ANOTHER NOne will deny but those are blessed pains Which are attended with the richest gains Grant this and then most clearly 't is inferr'd Soul-work to all deserves to be preferr'd This is an unknown trade Oh who can count To what the gains of godliness amount For one poor shilling O what resks some run Some toyling as i' th fire from Sun to Sun Whereas one hour spent with God brings in Such heavenly treasures that poor souls have been Inrich'd for ever Even as you see A Princes Favourite upon the knee Can in an hours time more wealth obtain Than all your lives by labour you can gain Prayer gains are great and quick returns are made Sure then the Christian drives the richest trade 'T is true the hypocrite that never drove A serious trade for heaven may bankrupt prove But holy souls which mind and closely ply Their business greatly are enrich'd thereby The difference 'twixt the one and t'others best By such a Simile as this exprest As in a Summers day you often see The wanton Butterfly and painful Bee On fragrant flowers fix whence one doth strive To bear his precious burden to the Hive The others pains no profit with it brings His time is spent in painting of his wings When winter comes the Bee hath full supplies The other creeps into an hole and dyes Like different events shall be betwixt The painful Saint and lazy Notionist CHAP. III. The plowman sings and whistles though he sweat Shall Christians droop because their work is great OBSERVATION THough the labours of Husbandmen are very great and toylsom yet with what cheerfulness do they go through them It is very delightful to hear the melody they make by whistling as they follow the Plow yea the very horses have their Bells which make a pleasant noise Horses saith Mr. Fuller will do more for a whistle than a whip and their Bells do as it were gingle away their weariness I have been often delighted with this Country musick whereby they sweeten their hard labours with
an innocent pleasure and verifie the saying of the Poet Ovid. Tempus in agrorum cultu confumere dulce est Although they plow from morning until night Time steals away with pleasure and delight APPLICATION BUt how much greater cause have the people of God to address themselves unto his work with all cheerfulness of spirit And indeed so far as the heart is spiritual it delights in its duties 'T is true the work of a Christian is painful and much more spending than the Husbandmans as was opened Chap. 1. but then it as much exceeds in the delights and pleasures that attend it What is the Christians work but with joy to draw water out of the wells of salvation Isa. 12. 3. You may see what a pleasant path the path of duty is by the cheerfulness of those that have walked in them Psal. 119. 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy judgment as much as in all riches And by the promises that are made to such Psal. 13 8. 5. Yea they shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. And again You shall have a song as in the night when an holy solemnity is kept and gladness of heart as when one goeth with a pipe to come to the mountain of the Lord to the mighty one of Israel Isa. 30. 29. And lastly by the many commands whereby joy in the wayes of the Lord is made the duty of the Saints Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Psa. 97. 12. Rejoyce and again I say rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. Where the command is doubled yea not only simple rejoycing but the highest degree of that duty comes within the command Psal. 132. 9 16. Shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart And Luke 6. 22 23. they are bid to leap for joy when about the difficult'st part of their work and that you may see there is sufficient ground for it and that it is not like the mad mirth of sinners be pleased to consider The nature of the work about which they are employed it is the most excellent and heavenly employment that ever souls were acquainted with O what a ravishing and delightsome thing it is to walk with God! and yet by this the whole work of a Christian is expressed Gen. 17. 1. Can any life compare with this for pleasure Can they be chill that walk in the Sun-shine or sad that abide in the fountain of all delights and walk with him whose name is the God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. In whose presence is the fulness of joy Psal. 16. 11. O what an Angelical life doth a Christian then live Or 2ly If we consider the variety of spiritual imployments varietas delectat Change of employment takes off the tediousness of Labour Variety of voices please the ear variety of colours delight the eye the same meat prepared several wayes pleases the palate more and clogs it less Bâ—t O the variety of choice dishes wherewith God entertains his people in a Sâ—bbath as the Word Prayer Sacraments c. Isa. 58. 13. If thou call the Sabbath thy delights or as Tremelius renders it thy delicate things My soul saith David shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness Psal. 63. 5. Or lastly if we consider the suitableness of this work to a regenerate soul. Is it any pain for a bird to flye or a fish to swim Is the eye tired with beautiful objects or the ear with melodious sounds As little can a spiritual soul be wearied with spiritual and heavenly exercises Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inner man Gravia non gravitant in eorâ—m loco saith the Philosopher weighty things are not heavy in their own element or center And surely God is the center of all gracious spirits A Saint can sit from morning to night to hear discourses of the love and loveliness of Iesus Christ. The fight of your thriving flocks and flourishing fields cannot yield you that pleasure which an upright soul can find in one quarter of an hours communion with God They that are after the flesh saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 5. do mind the things of the flesh and they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit But then look how much heavenly objects transcend earththly ones and how much the soul is more capable of delight in those objects than the gross and duller senses are in theirs so much doth the pleasure arising from the duty excel all sensitive delights on earth REFLECTIONS How am I cast and condemned by this may I say who never favoured this spiritual delight in holy duties When I am about my earthly employments I can go on unweariedly from day to day all the way is down hill to my nature and the wheels of my affections being oyled with carnal delight run so fast that they have need most times of trigging Here I rather need the curb than the spur O how fleet and nimble are my spirits in these their pursuits But O what a slug am I in religious duties Sure if my heart were renewed by grace I should delight in the law of God Rom. 7. 22. All the world is alive in their wayes every creature injoyes his proper pleasure and is there no delight to be found in the paths of holiness Is godliness only a dry root that bears no pleasant fruits No no there are doubtless incomparable pleasures to be found therein but such a carnal heart as mine favours them not I cannot say but I have found delight in Religious duties but they have been only such as rather sprang from the ostentation of gifts and applauses of men than any sweet and real communion I have had with God through them they have rather proved food and fewel to my pride than food to my soul. Like the Nightingale I can sing sweetly when I observe others to listen to me and be affected with my musick O â—alse deceitful heart such delight as this will end in howling were my spirit right it would as much delight in retirements for the enjoyment of God as it doth in those duties that are most exposed to the observation of man Wilt such a spring as this maintain a stream of affections when carnal motives fail What wilt thou answer O my soul to that question Ioâ— 27. 9 10. Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him Will he delight himself in the Almighty Will he alwayes call upon God What wilt thou reply to this question Deceive not thou thy self O my soul thou wilt doubtless be easily perswaded to let go that thou never delightedst in and from an hypocrite in Religion quickly become an Apostate from Religion From all this the upright heart takes advantage to rouze up its delight in God and thus it expostulateth with it self Doth the Plowman sing amidst his drudging labours and whistle away his weariness in
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
conclude let all doubting Christians reflect seriously upon this truth and suck marrow and fatness out of it to strengthen and establish them against all their fears your life your spiritual life hath for many years hanged in suspence before you and you have often said with David I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul Desponding trembling soul lift up thine eyes and look upon the fields the corn lives still and grows up though birds have watcht to devour it snows have covered it beasts have cropt it weeds have almost choakt it yet it 's preserved And hath not God more care of that precious seed of his own spirit in thee than any Husbandman hath of his corn hath he not said That having begun the good work in thee he will perfect it to the day of Christ Phil. 2. 6. Hath he not said I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Iohn 12. 28. Hast thou not many times said and thought of it as thou dost now and and yet it lives O what matter of unspeakable joy and comfort is this to upright souls Well then be not discharged for thou dost not run as one uncertain nor fight as one that beats the air 1 Cor. 9. 26. but the foundation of God stands sure having this seal the Lord knows who are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. Though thy grace be weak thy God is strong though the stream seem sometimes to fail yet it 's fed by an ever-flowing fountain The Poem 'T Is justly wondered that an ear of corn Should come at last in safety to the Barn It runs through many hazards threatning harms Betwixt the sowers hands and reapers arms The earth no sooner takes it from the sack But you may see behind the sowers back A troop of thieves which would at once destroy That seed in which lyes hid the seed of joy This dangerous period past it soon doth fall Into a second no less critical It shooteth forth the tender blade and then The noxious weeds engender it again These clasp about it till they kindly choak The corn as flattering Ivy doth the oak Are weeds destroyed and all that danger past Lo now another comes the worst at last For when i' th ear it blow begins to kern As mildew smites it which you can't discern Nor any way prevent till all be lost The corn destroy'd with all your hopes and cost Thus saving grace that precious seed of joy Which hell and nature plot how to destroy Escapes ten thousand danger 's first and last O who can say now all the danger 's past 'T is like a crazy bark tost in a storm Or like a taper which is strangely born Without a lanthorn in a blustring night Or like to glimmering sparks whose dying light Is still preserv'd The roaring waves swell high Like moving mountains in the darkned sky On their proud back the little bark is even Mounted unto the battlements of heaven From thence dismounted to the deeps doth slide Receiving water upon every side Yet he whose voice the proudest waves obey Brings it at last into the quiet key The blustring winds strive with a fatal puff To bring the tapor to a stinking snuff Their churlish blasts extinguish it and then Our gentle breath recovers it agen The fainting sparks beneath the ashes lye Where choakt and smother'd they begin to dye But these collected we do gently blow Till from faint sparks to lively flames they grow Even thus is grace preserv'd thus kept alive By constant wonders Grace doth live and thrive CHAP. XIV Our Husbandmen for Harvest wait and stay O let not any Saint do less than they OBSERVATION THe expectation of a good Harvest at last makes the Husbandman with untired patience to digest all his labours He that plows plow in hope 1 Cor. 6. 19. and they are not so irrational to think they shall presently be partakers of their hope nor so foolish to anticipate the Harvest by cutting down their corn before it be fully ripened but are content to plow sow and weed it and when it 's fully ripe then they go forth into their fields and reap it down with joy APPLICATION CAn a little Corn cause men to digest so many difficult labours and make them wait with invincible patience till the reaping time come much more should the expectation of eternal glory steel and fortifie my spirit against all intercurrent hardships and difficulties It least of all becomes a Christian to be of a hasty and impatient spirit Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart Psal. 92. 11. Behold the Husbandman waiteth c. Iam. 5. 7. Be patient therefore my Brethren for the coming of the Lord draws neer There are three great Arguments to perswade Christians to a long-suffering and patient frame under sufferings 1 The example of Christ Isa. 53. 7. to think how quietly he suffered all injuries and difficulties with invincible patience is sufficient to shame the best of Christians who are of such short Spirits I have read of one Elezarius a noble man that when his wife wondered at his exceeding great patience in bearinig njuries he thus answered her You know sometimes my heart is ready to rise with indignation against such as wrong me but I presently begin to think of the wrongs that Christ suffer'd and say thus to my self although thy servant should pluck thy beard and smite thee on thy face this were nothing to what thy Lord suffer'd he suffered more and greater things and assure your self wife I never leave off thinking on the injuries done to my Saviour till such time as my mind be still and quiet To this purpose it was well noted by Bernard speaking of Christ's humiliation was Christ the Lord of glory thus humbled and emptied of his fulness of glory and shall such a worm as I swell 2 The desert of sin Lam. 3. 39. Why doth the living man complain It was a good saying of blessed Greenham When sin lyes heavy affliction lyes light And it is a famous instance which Dr. Taylor gives us of the Duke of Condey I have read saith he when the Duke of Condia had voluntarily entred into the incommodities of a religious poverty and retirement he was one day spied and pitied by a Lord of Italy who out of tenderness wisht him to be more careful and nutritive of his person the good Duke answered Sir be not troubled and think not that I am ill provided of conveniences for I send an Harbinger before me that makes ready my lodgings and takes care that I be royally entertained The Lord asked him who was his Harbinger he answered the knowledge of my self and the consideration of what I deserve for my sins whâ—ch is eternal torments and when with this knowledge I arrive at my lodging how unprovided soever I find it methinks it is ever better than I deserve and as the sense of sin which
that they chose to endure rather than to deprive us to such an inheritance those noble souls heated with the love of Christ and care for our souls made many bold and brave adventures for it and yet at what a low rate do we value what cost them so dear like young heirs that never knew the getting of an estate we spend it freely Lord help us thankfully and diligently to improve thy truths while we are in quiet possession of them Such intervals of peace and rest are usually of no long continuance with thy people The Poem A Publick spirit scorns to plant no root But such from which himself may gather fruit For thus he reasons if I reap the gains Of my Laborious predecessors pains How equal is it that posterity Should reap the fruits of present industry Should every age but serve its turn and take No thought for future times it soon would make A Bankrupt world and so entail a curse From age to age as it grows worse and worse Our Christian predecessors careful thus Have been to leave an heritage to us Christ precious truths conserved in their blood For no less price those truths our fathers stood They have transmitted would not alienate From us their children such a fair estate We eat what they did set and shall truth fail In our dayes shall we cut off th' entail Or end the line of honour nay what 's worse Give future ages cause to hate and curse Our memories like Nabotâ— may this age Part with their blood sooner than heritage Let pity move us let us think upon Our childrens souls when we are dead and gone Shall they poor souls in darkness grope when are Put out the light by which they else might see The way to glory yea what 's worse shall it Be said in time to come Christ did commit A precious treasure purchas'd by this blood To us for ours and for our Childrens good But we like cowards false perfidious men For carnal ease lost it our selves and them O let us leave to after ages more Than we receiv'd from all that went before That those to come may bless the Lord and keep Our names alive when we in dust shall sleep CHAP. VI. Deeds for your Lands you prove and keep with care O that for heaven you but as careful were OBSERVATION VVE generally find men are not more careful in trying gold or in keeping it than they are in examining their Deeds and preserving them these are virtually their whole estate and therefore it concerns them to be careful of them If they suspect a flaw in their Lease or Deed they repair to the ablest Counsell submit it to his judgment make the worst of their cause and query about all the supposeable dangers with him if he tell them their case is suspicious and hazardous how much are they perplexed and troubled they can neither eat drink or sleep in peace till they have a good settlement and willing they are to be at much cost and pains to obtain it APPLICATION THese cares and fears with which you are perplexed in such cases may give you a little gimpse of those troubles of soul with which the people of God are perplexed about their eternal condition which perhaps you have been hitherto unacquainted with and therefore slighted them as phansiâ—s and whimsies I say your own fears and troubles iâ— ever you were ingaged by a cunning and powerful adversary in a Law-suit for your estate may give you a little glimpse of spiritual troubles and indeed it is no more but a glimpse of it For as the loss of a earthly though fair inheritance is but a trifle to the loss of God and the soul to eternity so you cannot but imagine that the cares fears and solicitudes of souls about these things are much very much beyond yours Let us compare the cases and see how they answer to each other You have evidences for your estates and by them you hold what you have in the world They also have evidences for their estate in Christ and glory to come they hold all in capite by vertue of their intermarriage with Iesus Christ they come to be enstated in that glorious inheritance conâ—ained in the Covenant of grace You have their tenure in that Scripture 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All is yours for ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Faith unites them to him and after they believe they are sealed by the Spirit of promise Eph. 1. 13. They can lay claim to no promise upon any other ground this is their title to all that they own as theirs It often falls out that after the fealing and executing of your Deeds or Leases an adversary finds some dubious clause in them and thereupon commences a Suit of Law with you Thus it frequently falls out with the people of God who after their believing and sealing time have doubts and scruples raised in them about their title Nothing is more common than for the devil and their own unbelief to start controversies and raise strong objâ—ctions against their interest in Christ and the Covenant of promises There are cunning and potent adversaries and do maintain long debates with the gracious soul and reason so cunningly and sophistically with it that it can by no means extricate and satisfie it self alwayes alledging that their title is worth nothing which they poor souls are but to apt too suspect All the while that a Suit in Law is depending about your title you have but little comfort or benefit from your estate you cannot look upon it as your own nor lay out moneys in building or dressing for fear you should lose all at last Iust thus stands the case with doubting Christians they have little comfort from the most comfortable promises little benefit from the sweetest duties and Ordinances they put ofâ— their own conforts and say If we were sure that all this were ours we could then rejoyce in them But alas our title is dubious Christ is a precions Christ the promises are comfortable things but what if they be none of ours Ah! how little doth the doubting Christian make of his large and rich inhâ—ritance You dare not trust your own judgments in such cases but â—â—ate your case to such as learned in the Laws and are willing to get the ablest counsel you can to advise you So are poor doubting Christians they carry their Cases from Christian to Christian and from Minister to Minister with such requests as these Pray tell me what do you think of my condition deal plainly and faithfully with me these be my grounds of doubting and these my grounds of hope O hide nothing from me And if they all agree that their case if good yet they cannot be satisfied till God say so too and confirm the word of his servants and therefore they carry the case often before him in such words as those Psal. 39. 23 24. Search me O God and
WHO that hears such various ravishing and exquisite melody would imagine the bird that makes it to be of so small and contemptible a body and feather her charming voice ingaged not only mine attentive ear but my feet also to make a nearer approach to that shady bush in which that excellent Musician sate vailed and the nearer I came the sweeter the melody still seemed to be but when I had described the bird her self and found her to be little bigger and no better feather'd than a sparrow it gave my thoughts the occasion of this following application This Bird seems to me the lively emblem of the formal hypocrite 1 In that she is more in found than substance a loud and excellent voice but a little despicable body and it recal'd to my thoughts the story of Plutarch who hearinâ— a Nightingale desired to have one killed to feed upon not questioning but she would please the pallat as well as the ear but when the Nightingale was brought him and he saw what a poor little creature it was truly said he thou art vox preterea nihil a meer voice and nothing else So is the hypocrite did a man hear him something in more publick duties and discourses O thinks he what an excellent man is this what a choice and rare spirit is he of but follow him home observe him in his private conversation and retirements and then you will judg Plutarchs note as applicable to him as the Nightingale 2 This Bird is observed to charm most sweetly and set her spirit all on work when she perceives she hath ingaged attention so doth the hypocrite who lives and feeds upon the applause and commendation of his admirers and cares little for any of those duties which bring in no returns of praise from men he is little pleased with a silent melody and private pleasure betwixt God and his own soul. Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter Alas his knowledge is not worth a pin If he proclaim not what he hath within He is more for the Theatre than the Closet and of such Christ saith Verily they have their reward 3 Naturalists observe the Nightingale to be an ambitious Bird that cannot endure to be out-vied by any she will rather chuse to die than be excell'd a notable instance whereof we have in the following pleasant Poem translated out of Strada concerning the Nightingale and a Lutanist Now the declining Sun did downward bend From higher heavens and from his locks did send A milder flame when neer to Tibers flow A Lutanist allayed his careful wo With sounding charms and in a greeny seat Of shady Oak took shelter from the heat A Nightingale o'reheard him that did use To sojourn in the neighbour Groves the muse That fill'd the place the Syrene of the wood Poor harmless Syrene stealing near she stood Close lurking in the leaves attentively Recording that unwonted melody She con'd it her self and every strain His fingers play'd her throat return'd again The Latanist perceiv'd an answer sent From th'imitating Bird and was content To shew her play more fully then in haste He tryes his Lute and giving her a tast Of the ensuing quarrel nimbly beats On all his strings as nimbly she repeats And wildly ranging o're a thousand keys Sounds a shrill warning of her after layes With rowling hand the Lutanist then plyes The trembling threeds sometimes in scornful wise He brushes down the strings and strikes them all With one even stroke then takes them several And culls them o're again his sparkling joynts With busie descant mincing on the points Reach back again with nimble touch then stayes The Bird replies and art with repays Sometimes as one unexpert and in doubt How she might weild her voice she draweth out Her tone at large and doth at first prepare A solemn strain nor wear'd with winding air but with an equal pitch and constant throat Makes clear the passage for her gliding note Then cross division diversly she playes And loudly chanting out her quickest layes Poyses the sound and with a quivering voice Falls back again he wondering so choice So various harmony could issue out From such a little throat doth go about Some harder Lessons and with wondrous art Changing the strings doth up the treble dart And downward smite the Base with painful stroke He beats and as the Trumpet doth provoke Sluggards to fight even so his wanton skill With mingled discord joyns the hoarse and shrill The Bird this also tunes and whilst she cuts Sharp notes with melting voice and mingled puts Measures of middle sound then suddenly She thunders deep and jugs it inwardly With gentle murmur clear and dull she sings By course as when the martial warning rings Believ 't the Minstrel blusht with angry mood Inflam'd quoth he thou Chantress of the wood Either from thee I 'le bear the price away Or vanquisht break my Lute without delay Unimitable accents then he strains His hand flyes on the strings in one he chains Far different numbers chasing here and there And all the strings he labours every where Both flat and sharp he strikes and stately grows To prouder strains and backward as he goes Doubly divides and closing up his layes Like a full Quire a shivering consort playes Then pausing stood in expectation Of his corrival nor durst answer on But she when practise long her throat had whet Enduring not to yield at once doth set Her Spirits all to work and all in vain For whilst she labours to express again With Natures simple voice such divers keys With slender pipes such losty notes as these O're matcht with high designs o're matcht with wo Iust at the last encounter of her foe She saints she dyes falls on his instrument That conquer'd her a fitting monument So far even little souls are driven on Struck with a vertuous emulation And even as far are hypocrites driven on by their ambition and pride which is the spur that provokes them in their religious duties MEDIT. II. Vpon the sight of many small Birds chirping about a dead Hawk HEaring a whole quire of Birds chirping and twinking together it ingaged my curiosity a little to enquire into the occasion of that convocation which mine eye quickly inform'd me of for I perceived a dead Hawk in the bush about which they made such a noise seeming to triumph at the death of their enemy and I could not blame them to sing his knell who like a Cannibal was wont to feed upon their living bodies tearing them limb from limb and scaring them with his frightful appearance This Bird which living was so formidable being dead the poorest Wren or Titmouse fears not to chirp or hop over This brings to my thoughts the base and ignoble ends of the greatest Tyrants and greedy ingroffers of the world of whom whilst living men were more afraid than birds of a Hawk but dead became objects of contempt and scorn The death
waste So when Churches grow formal and fruitless the Lord removes his Gospel-presence from them plucks up the hedge of his protection from about them and layes them open as waste ground to be over-run by their enemies Ier. 7. 12. Go to Shiloh and see what I did unto it What is become of those once famous and flourishing Churches of Asia Are they not laid waste and trodden down by infidels And now go to saith the great Husbandman I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will pull up the hedge thereof and it shall be laid waste Isa. 5. 5. Thus you see the Allegory opened in its particulars from the whole I shall present you with these five ensuing Corrolaries The First Corrolary How great then are the dignities and priviledges of the Churches of Iesus Christ whom he hath appropriated to himself above all the people of the earth to be his peculiar inheritance The rest of the world is a waste wilderness all other places how pleasant soever in respect of their natural amaenity and delights are truly enough called the dark places of the earth dismal solitary cells where Ziim and Iim Bitterns Cormorants and every doleful creature dwells But the Church is the Paradise of the earth a garden enclosed Cant. 4. 12. in whose hedges the Gospel-birds chirp and sing melodiously Cant. 2. 12. Its beds are beds of spices Cantt 6. 2. and betwixt its pleasant banks a Christal River of living water runs Rev. 22. 1. The streams whereof make glad the City of god in the midst thereof the Lord himself delights to walk O Sion with what pleasures dost thou abound If Bernard were so ravished with the delights of his Monastery because of its green banks and shady bowers and herbs and trees and various objects to feed his eyes and fragrant smells and sweet and various tunes of birds together with the opportunities of devout contemplation that he cryed out admiringly Lord what delights dost thou provide even for the poor How much more should we be ravished with Sion's glory for beautiful for scituation is mount Zion Of whom it may much more truly be said what a Chronicler of our own once said of England that it is the fortunate Island the Paradice of Pleasure the Garden of God whose valleys are like Eden whose hills are as Lebanon whose springs are as Pisgah whose Rivers are as Iordan whose wall is the Ocean and whose defence is the Lord Iehovah Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee Who can count the priviledges wherewith Christ hath invested his Churches O let it never seem a light thing in our eyes that we grow within his blessed inclosure How sweet a promise is that Exod. 19. 5. Ye shall be to me a peculiar treasure above all people for all the earth is mine The Second Corrolary Hence it follows That spiritual barrenness is a great reproach and shame to Christians Shall God's Husbandry which is so planted watered fenced filled with favours and mercies be like the barren heath in the desert Surely it should be said of every soul that grows here as the Historian saith of Spain that there is nihil infructuosum nihil sterile nothing barren or unfruitful in it God's vineyard is planted in a very fruitful hill Isa. 5. 1. And surely they that are planted in the house of the Lord should flourish in the Court of our God they should bring forth fruit even in old age to shew that God is upright Psal. 92. 13 14. They are created in Christ Iesus unto good works which God hath ordained they should walk in Eph. 2. 10. They are married unto Christ that they might bring forth fruit to God Rom. 7. 4. An empty branch is a dishonour to the root that bears it a barren field to the Husbandman that owns it God cannot endure that in his fields which he suffers in the wilderness The third Corrolary If the Church be God's Husbandry then there is such a special gracious presence of the Lord in his Churches as is not to be found in all the world beside Where may you expect to find the Husbandman but in his own fields there lyes his business and there he delights to be And where may we expect to find God but in the Assemblies of his Saints He walks amongst the golden Candlesticks Rev. 2. 1. I. will walk among you saith he and be your God 2 Cor. 6. 16. Upon this account the Church is called Iehovah Shamah the Lord is there Ezek. 48. ult You may see the footsteps of God in the creatures but the face of God is only to be seen in his Ordinances Hence Psal. 27. 4. David long'd for the Temple that he might see the beauty of the Lord. Now what is beauty but a symetry and proportion of parts In the works of Creation you see one attribute manifested in one thing and another in another thing but in the Sanctuary you may see beauty even in all the attributes of God displayed there And indeed we find in Scripture such astonishing expressions about the visioâ—s of God in his Church that in reading them a man can see little difference betwixt it and heaven for as the Church is called heaven Mat. 25. 1. so its description is like that of heaven Heb. 12. 22 23. You are come to the heavenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels c. And Rev. 4. 22. They shall see his face and his name shall be written in their foreheads And v. 24. The Saints are represented standing nearer to the throne of God than the Angels themselves Hence also Ordinances are called Galleries in which both Saints and Angels walk beholding the glory of him that sits upon the throne Zech. 3. 7. If you will keep my wayes I will give you Galleries to walk in among them that stand by The Fourth Corrolary If the Church be God's Husbandry then those that be imployed in Ministerial work ought to be men of great judgment and experience in soul affairs for these are the labourers whom God the mystical Husbandman imploys and entrusts about his spiritual Husbandry Should Husbandmen imploy ignorant persons that neither understand the rules nor proper seasons of Husbandry how much would such workmen damnifie and prejudice him he will not imploy such to weed his fields as know not wheat from tares or to prune his trees that think Midsummer as fit for that work as December much less will God He qualifies all that he sends with wisdom for their work His workmen approve themselves workmen indeed such as need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth 2 Tim. 2. 15. As Bezaleel was furnished with wisdom before he was imployed in Tabernacle-work so Christ instructs his servants with skill and insight before they are imployed in Ministerial-work He gives them a mouth and wisdom Luke 21. 15. indues them with power from on high as Christ was filled abundantly with the Spirit for
his work so according to proportion are those that are sent by him Ioh. 20. 21 22. As my Father hath sent me so send I you And as for those that run before they are sent and understand not the Mysteries of the Gospel I shall say no more of them but this Father forgive them for they know not what they do The Fifth Corrolary To conclude If the Church be God's Husbandry that is if Husbandry have so many resemblances of Gods works about the Church in it then how inexcusable is the ignorance of Husbandmen in the things of God who besides the word of the Gospel have the teachings of the Creatures and can hardly turn their hands to any part of their work but the Spirit hints one spiritual use or other from it to their souls How do the Scriptures abound with Parables and lively similitudes taken from Husbandry from the field the seed the plow the barn from threshing and winnowing similitudes also from planting graffing and pruning of trees and not a few from the ordering of Cattel So that to what business soever you turn your hands in any part of your calling still God meets you with one heavenly instruction or other But alas How few are able to improve their civil imployments to such excellent ends These things are but briefly hinted in the Scriptures and those hints scattered up and down that they know not where to find them and if they could yet would it be difficult so to methodize them as it is necessary they should be in order to their due improvement by Meditation And therefore I judged it necessary to collect and prepare them for your use and in this manner to present them to you as you find them in the following Chapters Read consider and apply and the Lord make you good Husbands for your own souls THE FIRST PART OF HUSBANDRY Spiritualized CHAP. I. In the laborious Husbandman you see What all true Christians are or ought to be OBSERVATION The imployment of the Hsbandman is by all acknowledged to be very laborious there is a multiplicity of business incumbent on him The end of one work is but the beginning of another Every season of the year brings its proper work with it Sometimes you find him in his Fields dressing plowing sowing harrowing weeding or reaping and sometimes in his Barn threshing or winnowing sometimes in his Orchard planting graffing or pruning his trees and sometimes among his Cattel so that he hath no time to be idle And as he hath a multiplicity of business so every part of it is full of toyl and spending labour He eats not the bread of idleness but earns it before he eats it and as it were dips it in his own sweat whereby it becomes the sweeter to him Though sin brought in the Husbandmans sweat Gen. 3. 19. yet now not to sweat would increase his sin Ezek. 16. 49. APPLICATION BEhold here the life of a serious Christian shadowed forth to the life As the life of a Husbandman so the life of a Christian is no idle or easie life They that take up Religion for ostentation and not for an occupation and those that place the business of it in notions and idle speculations in forms gestures and external observances may think and call it so but such as devote themselves unto it and make Religion their business will find it no easie work to exercise themselves to godliness Many there are that affect the reputation and sweet of it who cannot endure the labour and sweat of it If men might be indulged to divide their hearts betwixt God and the World or to cull out the cheap and easie duties of it and neglect the more difficult and costly ones it were an easie thing to be a Christian but surely to have respect to all God's commandments to live the life as well as speak the language of a Christian to be holy in all manner of conversation is not so easie This will be evident by comparing the life of a Christian with the life of a Husbandman in these five particulars Wherein it will appear that the work of a Christian is by much the hardest work of the two The Husbandman hath much to do many things to look after but the Christian more If we respect the extensiveness of his work he hath a large field indeed to labour in Psal. 119. 96. The commandment is exceeding broad of a vast extent and latitude comprizing not only a multitude of external acts and duties and guiding the Offices of the outward man about them but also taking in every thought and motion of the inner man within its compass You find in the Word a world of work cut out for Christians there 's hearing work praying work reading meditating and self-examining work it puts him also upon a constant watch over all the corruptions of his heart Oh what a world of work hath a Christian about them For of them he may say as the Historian doth of Hannibal They are never quiet whether conquering or conquered How many weak languishing graces hath he to recover improve and strengthen There is a weak faith a languishing love dull and faint desires to be quickned and invigorated And when all this is done what a multitude of work do his several relations exact from him he hath a world of business incumbent on him as a parent child husband wife master servant or friend yea not only to friends but enemies And beside all this how many difficult things are there to be born and suffered for Christ and yet will not God allow his people in the neglect of any one of them neither can he be a Christian that hath not respect to every command and is not holy in all manner of conversation Psal. 119. 6. 2 Pet. 3. 11. every one of these duties like the several spokes in a wheel come to bear in the whole round of a Christians conversation so that he hath more work upon his hands than the Husbandman The Husbandman's work is confessed to be Spending work but not like the Christians What Augustus said of the young Roman is verified in the true Christian Quicquid vult válde vult Whatsoever he doth in Religion he doth to purpose Under the Law God rejected the Snail and the Ass Levit. 11. 30. Exod. 13. 13. And under the Gospel he allows no sluggish lazy Professor 1 Tim. 5. 11 13. Sleepy duties are utterly unsuitable to the living God he will have the very spirits distilled and offered up to him in every duty Ioh. 4. 24. he bestows upon his people the very substance and kernel of mercies and will not accept from them the shells and shadows of duties not the skin but the inwards and the fat that covereth the inwards was required under the Law Exod. 29. 30. And every sacrifice under the Gospel must be sacrificium medullatum a sacrifice full of marrow observe the manner in which their work is to be performed