(5.) The work of the plow is but opus oi'dinabile^ a preparative work in order to fruit. Should the husbandman plow his ground ever so often, yet if the seed be not cast in, and quickened, in vain is the harvest expected. Thus conviction also is but a preparative to a farther work upon the soul of a sinner ; if it stick there, and goes no farther, it proves but an abortive, or untimely birth. Many liave gone thus far, and there they have stuck ; they have been hke a field plowed, but not sowed, which is a matter of trembling consi- deration ; for hereby their sin is greatly aggravated, and their eter- nal nrisery so much the more increased. O when a poor damned creature shall with horror reflect upon himself in hell. How near was I once, under such a sermon, to conversion ! my sins were set in order before me, my conscience awakened, and terrified me with the guilt of them : many purposes and resolves I had then to turn to God, which had they been perfected by answerable execution, I had never come to this place of torment ; but there I stuck, and that was ray eternal undoing. Many souls have I known so terrified with the guilt of sin, that they have come roaring under horrors of con- science to the preacher ; so that one would think such a breach had been made betwixt them and sin, as could never be reconciled ; and yet as angry as they were in that fit with sin, they ha^'e hugged and embraced it again.
(6.) It is best plowing when the earth is prepared and mollified by
C)4< husbandhy spiritualized ; or,
tlie showers of rain ; then the work goes on sweetly and easily, and never cloth the heart so kindly melt, as when the gospel-clouds dis- solve, and the free grace and love of Jesus Christ comes sweetly showering down upon it ; then it relents and mourns ingenuously, Ezek. xvi. 6S. " That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, *' and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when " I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done.'' So it was mth that poor penitent, Luke vii. 38. when the Lord Jesus had discovered to her the superabounding riches of his grace, in the par- don of her manifold abominations, her heart melted v, ithin her, she ■washed the feet of Christ with tears. And indeed, there is as much difference betwixt the tears which are forced by the terrors of the law, and those which are extracted by the grace of the gospel, as there is betwixt those of a condemned malefactor, who weeps to consider the misery he is under, and those of a pardoned malefactor, that receives his pardon at the foot of the ladder, and is melted by the mercy and clemency of his gracious prince towards him.
(7.) The plow kills those rank weeds which grow in the field, turns them up by the roots, buries and rots them. So doth saving conviction kill sin at the root, makes the soul sick of it, begets in- dignation in the heart against it, 2 Cor. vii. 11. The word 'Ayar,azrnff,v^ there signifies the rising of the stomach, and being angry even unto sickness ; religious wrath is the fiercest wrath, now the soul cannot endure sin, it trembles at it. " I find a woman more " bitter than death,'' (saith penitent Solomon) Eccl. vii. 26. Con- viction, hke a surfeit, makes the soul to lothe what it formerly loved and delighted in.
(8.) That field is not well plowed, where the plow jumps and skips over good ground and makes baulks, it must run up the whole field ahke ; and that heart is not savingly convicted, where any lust is spared, and left untouched. Saving conviction extends itself to all gins, not only to sin in general, with this cold confession, lam a sin- ner ; but to the particulars of sin, yea, to the particular circumstances and aggravations of time, place, manner, occasions, thus and thus have I done ; to the sin of nature, as well as practice. " Behold I " was shapen in iniquity,'' Psal. li. 5. There must be no baulking of any sin ; the sparing of one sin, is a sure argument that thou art not truly humbled for any sin. So far is the convinced soul from a fctudious concealment of a beloved sin, that it weeps over that more than over any other actual sin.
(9.) New ground is much more easily plowed, than that which by long lying out of tillage is more consolidated, and clung together, by deep-rooted thorns and brambles, which render it difficult to the plowman. This old ground is like an old sinner, that hath lain a long time hardening under the means of grace. O the difficulty of convincing such a person ! sin hath got such rooting in his heart, he is so habituated to the reproofs and calls of the word, that few such
THE HEAVENLY USE OF EARTHLY THINGS. Co
are wrought upon. How many young persons are called to one ob- durate, inveterate sinner ? I do not say but God may call home such a soul at the eleventh hour, but I may say of these, compared with others, as Solomon speaks, Eccl. vii. 28. " One man among a thou- *' sand have I found," &;c. Few that have long resisted the gospel, that come afterwards to feel the saving efficacy thereof.
1. O grace, for ever to be admu-ed ! that God rpj
should send forth his word and Spirit to plow up ^ '^^, ''*"f ^?^ my hard and stony heart, yea, mine, when he ^^^'^^ rejlectiotu hath left so many of more tender, ingenious, sweet, and melting tempers without any culture or means of grace. O 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 bloAvs thougavest my conscience, were but to beat off my soul from sin, which I em- braced, and had retained to my everlasting ruin, hadst thou not sepa- rated them and me. O wise and merciful Physician ! thou didst in- deed 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 conti- nued there. O how did I struggle and oppose thee, as if thou hadst come with the sword of an enemy, rather than the lance and probe of a skilful and tender-hearted physician ? Blessed be the day wherein my sin was discovered and embittered ! O happy sorrows, which pre- pared for such matchless joys! O blessed hand, which turned m^^ salt waters into pleasant wine ! and after many pangs and sorrows of soul, didst, at length, bring forth deliverance and peace.
2. But O what a rock of adamant is this heart of