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cannot be loft in it: for "God will not caft away a perfect (i. c. an upright-hearted) man," Job viii. 20. He that is appointed to judge the world is mine; and his imputed righteoufnefs will make me full weight in the balance. Blefs the Lord, O my foul, for fincerity! this will abide, when common gifts and empty names will flee as the chaff before the wind.

TH

THE POEM.

HE winnowing wind first drives the chaff away,
Next light and hollow grains; those only stay
Whose weight and folid substance can endure
This trial, and fuch grains are counted pure.
The corn for ufe is carefully preferv'd;
The ufelefs chaff for burning flames referv'd.
No wind but blows fome good, a proverb is ;
Glad fhall I be if it hold true in this.
O that the wind, when you to winnowing go,
This fpiritual good unto your fouls might blow!
To make you paufe, and fadly ruminate,
In what a doleful plight and wretched state
Their poor fouls are who cannot hope to stand
When he fhall come, whofe fan is in his hand;
His piercing eyes infallibly difclofe
The very reins, and inward part of those
Whofe out-fide feeming grace fo neatly paints,
That, with the beft, they pafs for real faints.
No hypocrite with God acceptance finds,
But, like the chaff, difpers'd by furious winds.
Their guilt shall not that fearching day endure,
Nor they approach th' affemblies of the pure.
Have you obferv'd in autumn, thiftle-down,
By howling Æolus fcatter'd up and down
About the fields? Ev'n fo God's ireful ftorm
Shall chafe the bypocrite, who now can scorn
The breath of clofe reproofs; and like a rock,
Repel reproofs, and juft reprovers mock.
How many that in fplendid garments walk,
Of high profeffions, and like angels talk,
Shail God diveft, and openly proclaim
Their fecret guilt to their eternal fhame?
This is the day wherein the Lord will rid
His church of those false friends, who now lie hid
Among his people; there will not one
Falfe heart remain, to lofe our love upon.
O blefs'd affembly! glorious ftate! when all
In their uprightnefs walk, and ever fhall.

O make my heart fincere, that I may never
Prove fuch light chaff as then thy wind fhall fever
From folid grain! O let my foul deteft
Unfoundnefs, and abide thy ftrictest test!

H

AN

INTRODUCTION

To the Second Part of

HUSBANDRY.

OW is it, reader, have I tired thee,

Whilft through thefe pleasant fields thou walk'ft with me? Our path was pleasant; but if length of way Do weary thee, we'll flack our pace and stay : Let's fit a while, under the cooling fhade Of fragrant trees; trees were for fhadow made. Lo here a pleasant grove, whose shade is good; But more than fo, 'twill yield us fruit for food: No dangerous fruits do on thefe branches grow, No fuakes among the verdant grafs below; Here we'll repofe a while, and then go view The pleafant herds and flocks; and fo adieu.

A

CHAP. I.

Upon the Ingraffing of Fruit-trees.

Ungraffed trees can never bear good fruit;
Nor
we, till graffed on a better root.

OBSERVATION.

WILD tree naturally fpringing up in the wood or hedge, and

never graffed or removed from its native foil, may bear fome fruit, and that fair and beautiful to the eye; but it will give you no content at all in eating, being always harsh, four, and unpleasant to the tafte; but if fuch a stock be removed into a good foil, and graffed with a better kind, it may become a good tree, and yield store of choice and pleasant fruit.

UNRE

APPLICATION.

NREGENERATE men, who never were acquainted with the mystery of spiritual union with Jefus Chrift, but ftill grow up

on their natural root, old Adam, may, by the force and power of natural principles, bring forth fome fruit, which, like the wild hedgefruit we speak of, may, indeed, be fair and pleasant to the eyes of men, but God takes no pleasure at all in it; it is four, harsh, and diftafteful to him, because it fprings not from the Spirit of Chrift, Ifa. i. 13. "I cannot away with it, it is iniquity," &c. But that I may not entangle the thread of my difcourfe, I fhall (as in the former chapters) fet before you a parallel betwixt the best fruits of natural men, and thofe of a wild ungraffed tree.

1. The root that bears this wild fruit is a degenerate root, and that is the cause of all this fourness and harshness in the fruit it bears; it is the feed of fome better tree accidentally blown, or caft into fome wafte and bad foil, where not being manured and ordered aright, it is turned wild: So all the fruits of unregenerate men flow from the first Adam, a corrupt and degenerate root; he was indeed planted a right feed, but foon turned a wild and degenerate plant; he being the root from which every man naturally fprings, corrupts all the fruit that any man bears from him. It is obferved by Gregory pertinently to my prefent purpose, Genus humanum in parente primo, velut in radice putruit: Mankind was putrified in the root of its firft parent; Matth. vii. 18. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit."

2. This corrupt root fpoils the fruit, by the tranfmiffion of its four and naughty fap into all the branches and fruits that grow upon it; they fuck no other nourishment, but what the root affords them, and that being bad, fpoils all; for the fame cause and reason, no mere natural or unregenerate man can ever do one holy or acceptable action, because the corruption of the root is in all thofe actions. The neceffity of our drawing corruption into all our actions, from this curfed root Adam, is expreffed by a quick and fmart interrogation, Job xiv. 4. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an "unclean? Not one." The fenfe of it is well delivered us (by Mr Caryl, in loc.) This queftion (faith he) may undergo a twofold conftruction. First, thus, Who can bring a morally clean perfon out of a person originally unclean? and to he lays his hand upon his birthfin. Or, Secondly, which speaks to my purpofe, it may refer to the action of the fame man; man being unclean, cannot bring forth a clean thing; i. e. a clean or holy action; that which is originated is like its original. And that this four fap of the first stock (I mean Adam's fin) is tranfmitted into all mankind, not only corrupting their fruit, but ruining and withering all the branches, the apoftle fhews us in that excellent parallel betwixt the two Adam's, Rom. v. 12. "Wherefore, as by one man [one, not only in individuo, fed « in fpecie, one representing the whole root or stock,] fin entered in"to the world" not by imitation only, but by propagation; and this brought death and ruin upon all the branches.

3. Although thefe wild hedge-fruits be unwholesome and unpleafant to the taste, yet they are fair and beautiful to the eye: a man

that looks upon them, and doth not know what fruit it is, would judge it by its fhew and colour, to be excellent fruit; for it makes a fairer fhew oftentimes than the best and most wholesome fruit doth: even fo, these natural gifts and endowments which fome unregenerate perfons have, feem exceeding fair to the eye, and a fruit to be defired. What excellent qualities have fome mere natural men and women! what a winning affability, humble condefcenfion, meeknefs, righteousness, ingenuous tenderness, and sweetness of nature! As it was (hyperbolically enough) faid of one, In hoc homine, non peccavit Adam: Adam never finned in this man; meaning that he excelled the generality of Adam's children in sweetness of temper and natural endowments. What curious phantafies, nimble wits, folid judgments, tenacious memories, rare elocution, &c. are to be found among mere natural men! by which they are affifted in discoursing, praying, preaching and writing to the admiration of such as know them. But that which is highly esteemed of men, is abomination to God, Luke xvi. 15. It finds no acceptance with him, because it springs from that curfed root of nature, and is not the production of his own Spirit.

4. If fuch a stock were removed into a better foil, and graffed with a better kind, it might bring forth fruit pleafant and grateful to the husbandman; and if fuch perfons (before described) were but regenerated and changed in their spirits and principles, what excellent and useful perfons would they be in the church of God? And then their fruits would be fweet and acceptable to him. One obferves of Tertullian, Origen, and Jerom, that they came into Canaan laden with Egyptian gold, i. e. they came into the church full of excellent human learning, which did Chrift much service.

5. When the husbandman cuts down his woods or hedges, he cuts down these crab stocks with the reft, because he values them not any more than the thorns and brambles among which they grow; and as little will God regard or fpare these natural branches, how much foever they are laden with fuch fruit. The threatening is univerfal, John iii. 3. "Except you be regenerate, and born again, "you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." And again, Heb. xii. 14. “Without holiness no man (be his natural gifts never so ex"cellent) fhall fee God." Embellished nature, is nature ftill; "That which is born of the flesh, is but flesh," however it be fet off. with advantage to the eye of man.

REFLECTIONS.

1. To what purpose then do I glory in my na

A reflection for tural accomplishments? Though I have a better an accomplished nanature than fome others have, yet it is a curfed turalift. nature still. Thefe fweet qualities and excellent

gifts, do only hide, but not kill the corruption of nature, I am but a rotten poft gilded over, and all my duties but hedge-fruit, which

God makes no account of. O cutting thought! that the unlearned fhall rise and take heaven, when I with all my excellent gifts shall defcend into hell. Heaven was not made for fcholars, as fuch, but for believers; as one faid, when they comforted him upon his deathbed, that he was a knowing man, a doctor of divinity; O, faid he, I fhall not appear before God as a doctor, but as a man, I fhall ftand upon a level with the moft illiterate in the day of judgment. What doth it avail me that I have a nimble wit, whilft I have none to do myfelf good? Will my judge be charmed with a rhetorical tongue? Things will not be carried in that world as they are in this. If I could, with Berengarius, discourse de omni fcibili, of every thing that is knowable; or with Solomon, unravel nature from the cedar to the hyop, what would this advantage me, as long as I am ignorant of Chrift, and the myftery of regeneration? My head hath often ached with ftudy, but when did my heart ach for fin? Methinks, O my foul! thou trimmeft up thyfelf in these natural ornaments, to appear before God, as much as that delicate Agag did, when he was to come before Samuel, and fondly conceited that these things would procure favour, or, at leaft, pity from him; but yet think not, for all that, the bitterness of death is paft: Say not within thyfelf, will God caft fuch a one as I into hell? Shall a man of fuch parts be damned? Alas! Juftice will hew thee to pieces, as Samuel did that fpruce king, and not abate thee the least for these things; many thoufand branches of nature, as fair and fruitful as thyfelf, are now blazing in hell, because not tranfplanted by regeneration into Chrift: and if he fpared not them, neither will he fpare thee.

A reflection for true, but weak believer.

2. I am a poor defpifed flirub, which have no beauty at all in me, and yet fuch a one hath the Lord chofen to transplant into Chrift, whilft he left many fragrant branches flanding on their native stock, to be fuel of his wrath to all eternity! O grace! for ever to be admired! Ah! what caufe have I to be thankful to free grace, and for ever to walk humbly with my God! the Lord hath therefore chofen an unlikely, rugged, and unpolished creature as I am, that pride may for ever be hid from mine eyes, and that I may ever glory in his prefence, 1 Cor. i. 29. I now have the advantage of a better root and foil than any carnal perfon hath; it will therefore be a greater fhame to me, and a reproach to the root that bears me, if I fhould be outftripped and excelled by them; yet, Lord, how often do I find it fo? I fee fome of them meek and patient, whilft I am rough and furly; generous and noble, whilft I am bafe and penurious. Truly fuch a branch as I am, is no honour to the root that bears it.

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