Soul-food in time to gather. Days of affliction and distress
Are hasting on apace ; If now I live in carelessness.
How sad will be my case ? Unworthy of the name of man.
Who for that soul of thine, Wilt not do that which others can
Do for their very kine. Think, frugal farmers, when you see
Your mows of corn and hay, What a conviction this will be
To you another day : Who ne'er were up before the sun, Nor brake an hour's rest
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For your poor souls, as you have done
So often for a beast. Learn onee to see the difference
Betwixt eternal things, And those poor transient things of sense.
That fly with eagle's wings.
CHAP. XVII. Upon reaping the same we sow,
IV/ien^rom fare-seeds you see choice wheat to groi&^ Then from your lusts may joy and comfort Jlow.
vXOD gives to every seed its own body, 1 Cor. xv. 38. At first he created every tree and herb of the field having its seed in itself, for the conservation of their species^ and they all inviolably observe the law of their creation. All fruits naturally rise out of the seeds and roots proper to them. " Men do not gather grapes of thorns, *' nor figs of thistles i*" such productions would be monstrous in nature ; and although the juice or sap of the earth be the common matter of all kind of fruits, yet it is specificated according to the different sorts of plants and seeds it nourishes. Where wheat is sown it is turned into wheat ; in an apple-tree, it becomes an apple ; and So in every sort of plants or seeds, it is concocted into fruit proper to the kind.
i RANSL ATE this into spirituals, and the proposition shadowed forth by it, is fully expressed by the apostle, Gal. vi. 7, 8. " What a * ■ man sows, that shall he reap : They that sow to the flesh, shall " of the flesh reap corruption ; and they that sow to the Spirit, shall *' of the Spirit reap life everlasting."' And as siu'e as the harvest follows the seed-time, so sure shall such fruits and effects result from the seeds of such actions. " He that soweth iniquity shall reap vani- '' ty,'' Prov. xxii. 8. " And they that now go forth weeping, and bear- '' ing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing their *' sheaves with them,'' Psal. cxxvi. 6. The sum of all this is, that our present actions have the same respect and relation to future re- wards and punishments, as the seed we sow in our fields hath to the harvest we reap from it Every gracious action is the seed of joy ; and every sinful action the seed of anguish and sorrow to the soul that soweth it. Two things are sensibly presented to us in this similitude. 1. That as the seed sown is presently covered from our sight under
THE HEAVENLY USE OP EARTHLY THINGS. 123
the clods, and for some time after we see no more of it, and yet at last it appears again ; by which it is evident to us that it is not finally lost: So our present actions, though physically transient, and perhaps forgotten, yet are not lost, but after a time shall appear again, in order to a retribution.
If this were not so, all good and holy actions would be to the loss of him that performed them. All the self-denial, spending duties, and sharp sufferings of the people of God, would turn to their damage, though not in point of honesty, yet in point of personal uti- lity ; and then also, what difference would there be betwixt the ac- tions of a man and a beast, with respect to future good or evil ? Yea, man would then be more feared and obeyed than God, and all souls be swayed in their motions, only by the influence of present things : And where then would religion be found in the world ? It is an ex- cellent note of Drexellius ; ' Our works (saith he) do not pass away ^ as soon as they are done, but as seed sown, shall, after a time, rise ' up to all eternity : Whatever we think, speak, or do, once spoken, * thought, or done, is eternal, and abides for ever.'
What Zeuxus, the famous limner, said of his work, may be truly said of all our works ; ^ternitati p'mgo, — I paint for eternity. O, how careful should men be of what they speak and do whilst they are commanded so to speak and so to do, as those that shall be judged by the perfect law of liberty ! James ii. 12. What more transient than a vain word ? And yet for such words men shall give an account in the day of judgment, Matth. xii. 36. That is the first thing : Ac- tions, like seed, shall rise and appear again in order to a retribution.
2. The other thing held forth in this similitude is, that according to the nature of our actions now, will be the fruit and reward of them then. Though the fruit or consequence of holy actions, for the present may seem bitter, and the fruit of sinful actions, sweet and pleasant ; yet there is nothing more certain than that their future fruits shall be according to their present nature and quality, 2 Cor. V. 10. Then Dionysius shall retract that saying, F4cce quam prosper a navigatio a Deo datur sacrileges, Behold how God favours our sa- crileges ! Sometimes indeed (though but rarely) God causes sinners to reap in this world the same that they have sown ; as hath been their sin, such hath been their punishment. It was openly confes- ed by Adonibezek, Judg. i. 7. " As I have done, so hath God re- " quited me."
Socrates, in his church history, furnishes us with a pertinent pas- sage to this purpose, concerning Valens the Emperor, who was an Arian, and a bitter persecutor of the Christians : This man, when eighty of the orthodox Christians sailed from Constantinople to Nico^ meda, to treat with him about the points of Arianisra, and to settle
* Drexellius de atcrnilate propejinem.
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the matter by way of dispute ; the emperor hearing of their arrival, while they were yet in the harbour, and not a man landed, caused the ships to be fired wherein they were, and so consumed them all. Not long after, in his wars against the Goths, he was overthrown ; and hiding himself in a little cottage, the enemy coming by, burnt it and him together. Thus this wretch reaped what he sowed, burn- ing for burning, the very same in kind paid him again. It is not al- ways so in this world ; but so it shall be in that to come : The tables shall then be turned, and the scene altered; for shall not the Judge of all the wm'ld do righteously ? * Diogenes was tempted to think, that God had cast off the government of the world when he saw the wick- ed prosper in their wickedness. On the same ground many have been tempted to Atheism ; but then the world shall see distributive justice shining out in its glory, " Tribulation, anguish, and wrath '* to every soul of man that doth evil ; but glory, honour, and peace f' to every man that worketh good," Rom. ii. 9, 10. Then it will appear what sqed we sowed, what lives we lived ; " For God shall " bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether ^' it be good or evil," Eccles. xii. 14.