Imatges de pàgina
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"be knowledge, that shall cease. All flesh is grafs, and the "goodlinefs of it as the flower of the grafs; the grafs wither"eth, the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord abideth "for ever," Ifa. xl. 6, 8.`` Many times they leave a man before death. One knock, if it hit right, (as one faith) may make a wife man a fool; but, to be fure, they all leave us at death. "Doth not his excellency which is in him go away?" Job iv. 21. yea, then all natural excellency departs: Death strips the foul of all thofe fplendid ornaments; then the rhetorical tongue is ftruck dumb; the nimble wit, and curious faccÿ, fhall enter tain your ears with no more pleasant difcourfes. Nunquam joces dabis, as Adrian faid to his departing foul; but grace afcends with the foul into eternity, and there receives its perfection, and accomplishment. Gifts take their leave of the foul, as Orpha did of Naomi; but grace faith then, as Ruth, Where thou goest I will go, and, where thou lodgeft I will lodge, and nothing shall separate thee and me. Now put all this togther, and then judge whether the apostle spoke hyperboles, when he faid, "Covet earnefly the beft gifts, and yet I fhew unto you a more excellent way," 1 Cor. xii. ult. And thus you have the choicenefs of these principles also.

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REFLECTION S.

The lines are fallen to me in a pleasant The gracious place, may the gracious foul fay: How defoul's reflection. fective foever I am in gifts, yet blessed be the Lord, who hath fown the feeds of true grace in my heart. What though I am not famed, and honoured among men, let it fuffice me that I am precious in the eyes of the Lord. Though he hath not abounded to me in gifts of nature, "Yet "bleffed be the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, "who hath abounded to me in all fpiritual bleffings, in heaven

ly places in Chrift Jefus," Eph. i. 3. Is not a true jewel, though fpurned in the dirt, more precious than a falfe one, though fet in gold? Why art thou troubled, O my foul, for the want of these things which reprobates may have? and art not rather admiring and bleffing God for those things which none, but the darlings and favourites of heaven can have? Is not an ounce of pure gold more valuable than many pounds of gilded brafs? What though the dews of Helicon defcend not upon my head, if in the mean time the fweet influences of Sion fall upon my heart? O my God! how much foever others are elated by the light of their knowledge, I have caufe, with humility, to adore thee for the heavenly heat with which thou haft warmed my affections.

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Paufe a while, my foul, upon this point:

deceived

With what feed is my heart fown, and of what The kind are those things wherein I excel others? foul's reflection. Are they indeed fpecial feeds of grace, or com

mon gifts, and natural excellencies? If the latter, little cause have I to pride myself in them, were they ten thousand times more than they are. If these things be indeed the things that accompany falvation, the feed of God, the true and real work of grace, then, (1.) How comes it to pass that I never found any throws, or travailing pangs in the production of them? It is affirmed, and generally acknowledged, that the new creature is never brought forth without fuch pain and compunctions of heart, Acts ii. 37. I have indeed often felt an aking head, whilft I have read and ftudied to increafe my knowledge? But when did I feel aa aking heart for fin? OI begin to fufpect, that it is not right. Yea, (2.) And my fufpicion increases while E confider that grace is of an humbling nature, 1 Cor. xv. 10. Lord, how have I been elated by my gifts, and valued myself above what was meet? O how have I delighted in the noife of the Pharifee's trumpet! Mat. vi. 2. No mufic fo fweet as that. Say, O my confcience, have I not delighted more in the theatre than the closet? In the praife of men, than the approbation of God? O how many evidences doft thou produce against me? Indeed thefe are fad fymptoms that I have fhewed thee, but there is yet another, which renders thy cafe more fufpicious yet, yea, that which thou canst make no rational defence against, even the ineffectualnefs of all thy gifts and knowledge to mortify any one of all thy lufts. It is beyond all difpute, that gifts may, but grace cannot confift without mortification of fin, Gal. v. 24. Now what luft hath fallen before these excellent parts of mine? Doth not pride, paffion, covetousness, and indeed the whole body of fin, live and thrive in me as much as ever? Lord, I yield the cause, I can defend it no longer against my confcience, which cafts and condemns me, by full proof, to be but in a wretched, curfed, lamentable flate, notwithstanding all my knowledge, and flourishing gifts. O hew me a more excellent way. Lord! that I had the fincerity of the poorest faint, though I fhould lofe the applaufe of all my parts; with these I fee I may go to hell, but without fome better thing no hope of heaven,

The POEM.

GREAT difference betwixt that feed is found,
With which you fow your fev'ral plots of ground,

Seed-wheat doth far excel in dignity

The cheaper barley, and the coarser rye:

Tho' in themselves they good and wholesome are,
Yet these with choiceft wheat may not compare.
Men's hearts, like fields, are fow'd with diff'rent graio,
Some bafer, fome more noble, fome again
Excelling both the former, more than wheat
Excels that grain your fwine and horses eat.
For principles of mere morality,

Like cummin, barley, fitches, pease, or rye,
In those men's hearts are often to be found,
Whom yet the fcripture calleth curfed ground;
And nobler principles than thefe, fometime
Call'd common grace, and spiritual gifts, which fhine
In fome men's heads, where is their habitation;
Yet they are no companions of falvation..
These purchase honour both from great and small :
But I must tell thee, that if this be all,
Tho' like an angel in these gifts thou shine
Amongst blind mortals, for a little time;
The day's at hand, when, fuch as thou must take
Thy lot with devils in th' infernal lake.
But principles of special faving grace,

Whofe feat is in the heart, not head, or face;
Like folid wheat fown in a fruitful field,
Shall fpring, and flourish, and at last will yield
A glorious harvest of eternal reft,

To him that nourish'd them within his breast.
O grace! how orient art thou! how divine!
What is the glory of all gifts to thine!
Diffeminate this feed within my heart,
My God, I pray thee, tho' thou shouldst impart
The lefs of gifts; then I may truly fay,

That thou haft fhew'd me the more excellent way.

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Upon fpringing-weather after feed-time.

By heaven's influence corn and plants do spring,
God's fbow'rs of grace do make his valleys fing.

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OBSERVATIO N.

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HE earth, after that it is plowed and fowed, must be watered, and warmed with the dews and influences of

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heaven, or no fruit can be expected. If God do not open to you his good treasure, the heavens to give rain unto the land in its feason, and blefs all the work of your hands, as it is Deut. xxviii. 12. the earth cannot yield her increase. The or der and dependence of natural causes in the production of fruit, is excellently defcribed, Hof. ii. 21, 22. "I will hear the heavens, "and they shall hear the earth; and the earth (hall hear the corn, and wine, and oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.” Jezreel muft have corn, and wine, and oil, or they cannot live; they cannot have it unless the earth bring it forth; the earth cannot bring it forth without the heavens; the heavens cannot yield a drop unlefs God hear them, that is, unlock and open them. Nature, and natural caufes, are nothing elfe but the order in which God works.' This fome heathens, by the light of nature, acknowledged, and therefore when they went to plow in the morning, they did lay one hand upon the plow (to fpeak their own part to be painfulnels) and held up the other hand to Ceres, the goddess of corn, to fhew that their expectation of plenty was from their fuppofed deity †. I fear many Chriftians lay both hands to the plow, and feldom lift up heart, or hand to God, when about that work. There was an bufbandman (faith ‡ Mr. Smith) that always fowed good feed, but never had good corn; at laft a neighbour came to him, and faid, I will tell you what probably may be the caule of it; it may be (faid he) you do not fteep your feed: No, truly, faid the other, nor did I ever hear that feed must be fteeped. Yes, furely, faid his neighbour, and I will tell you how; it must be steeped in prayer. When the party heard this, he thanked him for his counfel, reformed his fault, and had as good corn as any man whatsoever. Surely it is not the husbandman's, but God's fteeps, that drop fatnefs. Alma mater terra, the earth indeed is a fruitful mother, but the rain which fecundates, and ferti lizes it, hath no other Father but God, Job xxxviii. 28.

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APPLICATION.

S impoffible it is (in an ordinary way) for fouls to be made fruitful in grace and holiness, without the dews and influences of ordinances, and the bleffing of God upon them, as for the earth to yield her fruit without the natural

* Natura nihil aliud eft quam divinorum operum ordo.

Berentius.

+ Weem's Cerem. Law. VOL. VI.

Smith's Effex Dove.

influences of heaven; for look, what dews, showers, and clear fhinings after rain are to the fields, that the word and ordinances of God are to the fouls of men. 66 My doctrine shall drop

as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the mall rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grafs," Deut. xxxii. 2. "For as the rain cometh down, and the fnow "from heaven, and watereth the earth, and maketh it bring "forth and bud; fo fhall my word be that goeth forth of my "mouth," Ifa. lv. 10, 11. And as the doctrine of the gospel is rain, fo gospel-minifters are the clouds in which thofe heavenly vapours are bound up: the resemblance lies in the following particulars.

You are not to

1. The rain comes from heaven, Acts xiv. 17. "He gave "us rain from heaven, and fruitful feafons," &c. The doctrine of the gospel is alfo of an heavenly extraction and defcent, they are heavenly truths which are brought to you in earthen veffels, things that were hid in God, and come from his bofom, Eph. iii. 8, 9. What Nicodemus faid of Chrift is, in a proportion, true of every faithful difpenfer of the gospel, "Thou art a teacher come from God," John iii. 2. look upon the truths which minifters deliver, as the mere effects and fruits of their inventions and parts, they are but the conduits through which thofe celeftial waters are conveyed to you. It is all heavenly, the officers are from heaven, Eph. iv. 12. their doctrine from heaven, Eph iii. 8, 9. the efficacy and fuccels of it from heaven, 1 Cor. iii. 3. What I received of the "Lord (faith Paul) that have I delivered unto you," 1 Cor. xi. 23. The fame may every gofpel-minifter fay too. That is the firft:

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And then, (2dly.) The rain falls by divine direction and appointment: "He caufes it to rain upon one city, and not upon "another," Amos iv. 7. You fhall often fee a cloud diffolve and fpend itself upon one place, when there is not a drop within a few miles of it. Thus is the gofpel fent to fhed its rich influences upon one place, and not upon another; it pours down fhowers of bleffings, upon one town or parifh, whilft others are dry like the ground which lay near to Gideon's wet fleece. "To you is the word of this falvation fent," Acts xiii. 26. Sent; it comes not by chance, but by commiffion and appointment, and it is fent to you by fpecial direction. Minifters can no more go whither they pleafe, than the failing clouds can move against the wind. Paul and Timothy, two fruitful clouds (that fent down many fweet refreshing showers upon every place whither they came) the Lord fent them through Phrygia and

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