God makes no account ol". O cunning tliouolit. ! that llic unlearned shall riise and take heaven, when 1 witli all my excellent gifts shall descend into hell. Heaven was not made lor scholars, as such, but for believers ; as one said, when they coniiorted him upon his deatli- bed, that he was a knowing man, a doctor ofd'iv'imty ; (), said he, I shall not appear before God as a doctor^ but as a man ; I shall stand upon a level with the most illiterate in the day of judgment. What doth it avail me that I liavc a nimble wit, wliilst I have none to do myself 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 dcovim .scihilf, of every thing that is knowable ; or with Solomon, unravel nature from the cedar, to the hyssop, what would this advantage me, as long as I am ignorant of Christ, and the mystery of regeneration ? iSIy head hath often ached with study, but when did my heart ach for sin 't Methinks, O- my soul ! thou trinnnest uj) thyself in these natural ornaments, to appear beibre God, as much as thiit delicate Agag did, when he was to come before Samuel, and fondly conceited that tliese things would procure favour, or, at least, pity from him ; but yet think pot, for all that, the bitterness of death is past : Say not within thysell', will God cast such a one as I into hell ? Shall a man of such parts be danmed ? Alas ? Justice will hew thee to pieces, as Sanmel did that spruce king, and not abate thee the least for these things ; many thousand branches of nature, as fair and fruitful as thyself, are now blazing in hell, be- cause not transplanted by regeneration into Christ : and if he spared not them, neither will he spare thee.
2. I am a poor despised shrub which liave no A reflection for beauty at all in me, and yet such a (me hath the a true, but zceak I^ord chosen to transplant into Christ, whilst he believer. left many fragrant branches standing on their
native stock, to be fuel of his wrath to all eter- nity ! O grace ! for ever to be admired ! Ah ! what cause have I to "be thankful to free grace, and for ever to walk humbly with my God ! the Lord hath therefore chosen an unlikely, rugged and un- polished creature as I am, that pride may for ever be hid from mine eyes, and that I may ever glory in his presence, 1 Cor. i. 29- I now have the advantage of a better root and soil than any carnal person hath ; it will therefore ])e a greater shame to me, and a reproach to the root that bears me, if I should be outstripped and excelled by them ; yet. Lord, how often do I iind it so ? 1 see some of them meek and ])atient, whilst I am rough and surly ; generous and noble, whilst I am base and penurious. Truly such a branch as I am, is no honour to the root that bears it.
Jl AM a branch of that fair Eden tree Which to mankind God luith ordain'd to be
THE HEAVENLY USE OV EARTHLY TltlXGS. 145
The common stock : his situation good,
His branches many, of himself* a wood j
And like a cedar by the river fed.
Unto the clouds his ample branches spread '.
Sin smote his root, then justice cut him down,
And leveird with tlie earth his lofty crown.
What hope of branches when the tree's oYrturn'd,
But like dry faggots to be bound and burn'd?
It had been so, had not transcendent love,
Which in a sphere above our thoughts doth move,
Prepared a better stock to save and nourish
Transplanted twigs, which in him thrive and flourish.
In Adam all are curs'd ; no saving fruit
Shall ever spring from tliat sin-blasted root ;
Yea, all the branches that in him are found,
How flourishing soever, must be bound
And pifd together (liorrid news to tell !)
To make an everlasting blaze in hell.
God takes no pleasure in the sweetest bud
Disclosed by nature ; for the root's not gocxl,
Some boughs, indeed, richly adorned are
With natural fruits, which to the eye are fair ;
Rare gifts, sweet dispositions which attract
The love of thousands, and from most exact
Honour and admiration. You'll admire
That such as these are fuel for the fire.
Indeed, ten thousand pities 'tis to see
Such lovely creatures in this case to be.
Did they by true regeneration draw
The sap of life from Jesse's root, the law.
By which they now to wrath condenmed are,
Would cease to curse, and God such buds would «»parc ;
But out of him there's none of these can move
His unrelenting heart, or draw his love.
Then cut me off from this accursed tree,
Lest I for ever be cut off' from thee.
Upon the union of the Graff with the Stock.
WJtene'er you hud and graff, tlie^'eln you see^ How Christ and souls must here united he.
▼ T HEN the husbandman hath prepared liis graffs in the season of the year, he carries them, with the tools that are necessary for that work, to the tree or stock he intends to ingraff*, and
l-i-G IIU3EAXDEY SHr.ITUALIZED ; OT?,
liaving cut off the top of the limb in some smooth part, he cleaves it with his knife or chisel a little beside the pith, knocks in his wedge to keep it open, then (having prepared the graff) he carefully sets it into the cleft, joining the inner side of the barks of graff and stock together (there being the main current of the sap) tiien pulls out his wedge, binds both together (as in barking) and clays it up, to defend the tender graff and wounded stock from the injuries of the sun and rain.
These tender cyons quickly take hold of the stocky, and having im- mediate coalition with it, drink in its sap, concoct it into their own nourishment, thrive better, and bear more and better fruits than ever they would have done upon their natural root ; yea, the smallest bud, being carefully inoculated and bound close to the stock, will, in a short time, become a flourishing and fruitful limb.
HIS carries a most sweet and lively resemblance of the souPs union with Christ by faith ; and indeed there is nothing in nature that shadows forth this great gospel-mystery like it : It is a thousand pities that any who are employed about, or are but spectators of such an action, should terminate their thoughts (as too many do) in that natural object, and not raise up their hearts to these hea- venly meditations, which it so fairly offers them.
L When a twig is to be ingraffed, or a bud inoculated, it is first cut off by a keen knife from the tree on which it naturally grew.
And V. hen the Lord intends to gi-aff a soul into Christ, the first work about it, is cutting work. Acts ii. 37. their hearts were cut by conviction, and deep compunction; no cyon is ingraffed without cutting, no soul united with Christ, without a cutting sense of sin and misery, John xvi. 8, 9.
2. When the tender shoot is cut ofi* from the ti-se, there are, ordinarily, many more left behind upon the same tree, as promising and vigorous as that which is taken ; but it pleaseth the husbandman to chuse this, and leave them.