mine ! that never yet was wounded, and savingly The stubborn pierced for sin by the terrors of the law, or melt- hearfs reflection, ingvoice of the gospel ! long have I sat under the word, but when did I feel a relenting pang ? O my soul ? my stu- pified soul ! thou hast got an antidote against repentance, but hast thou any against hell ? Thou canst keep out the sense of sin now, but art thou able to keep out the terrors of the Lord hereafter ? If thou couldst turn a deaf ear to the sentence of Christ in the day of judg- ment, as easily as thou dost to the entreaties 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 they warn me of.
3. And may not I challenge the first place a-
mong all the mourners in the world, who have all The miscarrying lost those convictions which at several times came souTs reflection. upon me under the word? I have been often awa-
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kened by it, and filled with terrors and tremblings under it ; but those troubles have soon worn off again, and my heart (like water re- moved from the fire) returned 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 thou revive them against me in judgment. I have been in pangs, and brought forth nothing but wind; my troubles have wrought no deliverance, nei- ther have my lusts fallen before them .'* My conscience, indeed, hath been sometimes sick Avith sin, yea, so sick as to vomit them up by an external, partial reformation ? but then, with the dog, have I turned again to my vomit, and now I doubt I am given over to an heart that cannot repent. O that these travelling pangs could be quickened again ! but alas ! they are ceased, I am like a prisoner escaped, and again recovered, whom the goaler 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 ; w^ho 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 I if thou plow not up my heart again by compunction, I know it must he rent in pieces at last by desperation.
X here's skill in plowing, that the ploAvman knows. For if too shallow, or too deep he goes, The seed is either bury'd, or else may To rooks and daws become an easy prey. This, as a lively emblem, fitly may Describe the blessed Spirif s work and way : Whose work on souls, with this doth symbolize; Betwixt them both, thus the resemblance lies. Souls are the soil, conviction is the plow, God's workmen draw, the Spirit shews them how. He guides the work, and in good ground doth blc?? His workmen's pains, with sweet and fair success. The heart prepard, he scatters in the seed. Which in its season springs, no fowl nor weed Shall pick it up, or choak this springing corn, 'Till it be housed in the heavenly barn. When thus the Spirit plows up the fallow ground, When with such fruits his servant's work is crown'd ; Let all the friends of Christ, and souls say now. As they pass by the fields, God speed the ploic. Sometimes this plow thin shelfy ground doth turn. That little seed which springs, the sun-beams burn.
THE HEAVEKLY USE OF EARTHLY THINGS. Gf
The rest uncover'd lies, which fowls devour. Alas ! their heart was touched, but not with powV. 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 embrios 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 thafs 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 painis and sorrows, be they ne'er so hard,
The choicest wheat is still reserved Jbr seed, But gracious principles are choice indeed,
JljLuSB ANDMEN are very careful and curious about their seed^ corn, that it may not only be clean and j^ure, but the best and most excellent of its kind. Isa. xxviii. 25. " He casteth in the prin- " cipal wheat." If any be more full and weighty than other, that is reserved for seed. It is usual with husbandmen to pick and lease their seed-corn by hand, that they may separate the cockel and dar- nel, and all the lighter and hollow grains from it, wherein they mani- fect their discretion ; for, according to the vigour and goodness of the seedj the fruit and production are hke to be,
jL he choice and principal seed corn, with which the fields are sowed, after they are prepared for it, doth admirably shadow forth those excellent principles of grace infused into the regenerate soul. Their agreement, as they are both seed, is obvious, in the ten fol- lowing particulars ; and their excellency above other principles in seven more.
1. The earth at first naturally brought forth corn, and every seed yielding fruit, without human industry ; but since the curse came
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upon it, it must be plowed and sowed, or no fruit can be expected. So man, at first, had all the principles of holiness iniiis nature, but now they must be infused by regeneration, or else his nature is as void of holiness as the barren and untilled desert is of corn.
2. The earlier the seed is sown, the better it is rooted, and ena- bled to endure the asperities of the winter ; so when grace is early infused, when nature is sanctified in the bud, grace is thereby exceed- ingly advantaged. It was Timothy's singular advantage, that he knew the Scriptures from a child.
3. Frosts and shows conduce very much to the well-rooting of the seed, and make it spread and take root much the better. So do sanctified afflictions, which usually the people of God meet with after their calHng, and often in their very seed time. 1 Thes. i. 6. " And *' you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the " word in much affliction.""' But if they have fair weather then, to be sure they shall meet with weather hard enough afterwards. Heb. X. 32. " But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after " ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of aflJictions."