Reddit. The first entertainment of the gospel is commonly the best ; and what good is done by the ministry is often done at its first entrance. New things are pretty, and very taking. *' John at first " was to the Jews a burning and shining light, and they were willing " [for a season] to rejoice in his light," John v. 35, Paul was highly valued among the Galatians at first ; such was their zeal, that they could have plucked out their eyes, and have given them to him f but how quickly did this full tide ebb again ? For he complains. Gal, iv, 15. " Where then is the blessedness ye spake of ,^"
20. Prop. Lasthj, When fields prove barren, and will not quit the b jsbandman's cost, nor answer the seed he gows in them, he plucks up the hedges, and lays it waste.
Reddit. So when churches grow formal and fruitless, the liord re- moves his gospel-presence from them, plucks up the hedge of his protection from about them, and lays them open as waste ground to
be over-riiii by their enemies. Jer. vii. 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. v. 5.
Thus you see the allegory opened in its particulars: from the •whole, I shall present you with these five ensuing coi'oUaries.
The first Corollary. How great then are the dignities and privileges of the churches of Jesus Christ whom he hath appropriated to himself, above all the peo^ p>le of the earth, to he his peculiar inheritance ? The rest of the world is a waste wilderness ; all other places, how pleasant soever, in respect of their natural amenity and delights, are truly enough called the dark places of the eai-th ; dismal, sohtary cells, where Ziim and Urn, Bit- terns, Cormorants, and every doleful creature dwells. But the church is the paradise of the earth, a garden inclosed, Cant. iv. 12. in whose hedges the gospel birds chirp and sing melodiously. Cant. ii. 12. Its beds are beds of spices. Cant. vi. 2. and betwixt its pleasant banks, a crystal river of hving water runs, Rev. xxii. 1. the streams whereof make glad the city of God, in the midst whereof the Lord himself delights to walk. O Zion, with what pleasures doth thou abound? If Bernard was so ravished with the delights of his monastrij, because of its green banks, and shady bowers, and herbs, and trees, and va- rious objects to feed his eyes, and fragrant smells, and sweet and va- rious tunes of birds, together with the opportunities of devout con- templation, that he cried out admiringly. Lord ! xchat delight dost thou provide, even for the poor I How much more should we be ravish- ed \vi:h Zion's glory ? For, beautiful for situation 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 paradise of pleasure, the garden of God, v^^hose vallies are like Eden, whose hills are as Lebanon, whose springs are as Pisgah, whose rivers are as Jordan, whose wall is the ocean, and whose defence is the Lord Je- hovah. Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee.^ AVho can count the privileges 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, Excd. xix. 5. " Ye '* shall be to me a peculiar treasure, above all people ; for all the " earth is mine,"
The second Corollary. Hence it follows. That spiritual barrenness is a great reproach and shame to Christians. Shall God's husbandry, which is planted, wa- tered, fenced, filled with favours and mercies, be like the barren heath in the desart ? Surely it should be said of every soul that grows here,
as the historian saith of Spain, that there is nihil hifnictiiosum, nihil sterile ; nothing barren or unfruitful in it. God's vineyard is planted in a very fruitful hill. Isa. v. 1. " And surely they that are " planted in the house of the Lord, should flourish in the courts of " our God ; they should bring forth fruit, even in old age, to shew " that God is upright," Psal. xcii. 13, 14. " They are created in " Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained they " should walk in,'' Eph. ii. 10. " They are married unto Christ, that " they might bring forth fruit to God," Rom. vii. 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.
if the church be God's husbandry, then there is such a special, gra- cious 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 husband- man but in his own fields ? There lies his business, and there he de- lights to be. And where may we expect to find God but in the as- semblies of his saints ? " He walks among the golden candlesticks," Rev. ii. 1. I will walk among you, (saith he) and be your God, 2 Cor. vi. 16. Upon this account the church is called Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there, Ezek. xlviii. ult. You may see the foot- steps of God in the creatures, but the face of God is only to be seen in his ordinances. Hence, Psal. xxvii. 4. " David longed for the '' temple, that he might see the beauty of the Lord. Now what is beauty, but a symmetry 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 ail the attributes of God displayed there : And, indeed, we find in scripture such astonishing expressions about the visions 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. xxv. 1. sa its description is like that of heaven. Heb. xii. 22, 23. *' You are " come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company " of angels," &c. And Rev. xxii. 4. " They shall see his face, and his " name shall be written in their foreheads." And ver. 6. 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. iii. 7. " If you will keep my ways, I '^ will give you galleries to walk in among them that stand by."
The fourth Corollary.
If the church be God's husbandry, then those that be employed in ministerial work ought to be men of great judgment and experi- ence in soul affairs ; for these are the labourers whom God, the mys« tical Husbandman employs and entrusts about his spiritual husband-^