Even so it is in the removing or transplanting of a soul by con- version ; it leaves many behind it in the state of nature, as likely and promising as itself ; but so it pleaseth God to take this soul, and leave many others ; yea, often such as grew upon the same root ; I mean, the immediate parent, Mai. i. 2. " Was not Esau Jacob's " brother ? saith the Lord : yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau."
3. When the graffs are cut off, in order to this work, it is a critical season with them : if they lie too long before they are ingraffed, or take not with the stock, they die, and are never more to be recover- ed ; they may stand in the stock a while, but are no part of the tree.
So when souls are under a work of conviction, it is a critical time with them ; many a one have I known then to miscarry, and never recover again : they have indeed for a time stoo(i like dead graffs
THE HEAVENLY USE OF EARTHLY THINGS. 147
in the stock, by an external dead-hearted profession, but never came to any thing ; and as such dead graffs, either fall off from the stock, or moulder away upon it; so do these, 1 John ii. 19-
4. The husbandman, when he hath cut off graffs, or tender buds, makes all the convenient speed he can to close them with the stock ; the sooner that is done, the better ; they get no good by remaining as they are. And truly it concerns the servants of the Lord, who are employed in this work of ingraffing souls into Christ, to make all the haste thoy can to bring the convicted sinner to a closure with Christ. As soon as e\ er the trembling jailor cried, " What shall I do to be " saved ?" Paul and Silas immediately direct him to Christ, Acts xvL 30, 31. They do not say, it is too soon for thee to act faith on Christ, thou are not yet humbled enough, but " believe in the Lord Jesus " Christ, and thou shalt be saved.''
5. There must be an incision made in the stock before any bud can be inoculated ; or the stock must be cut and cleaved, before the cyon can be ingraffed ; according to that in the poet,
Venerif insitio^Juc ramum I'amus adoptet ; i. e. To graffs no living sap the stocks impart, Unless you wound and cut them near the heart. Such an incision, or wound, was made upon Christ, in order to our ingrafting into him, John xix, 34. the opening of that deadly wound gives life to the souls of believers.
6. The graff is intimately united, and closely conjoined with the stock ; the conjunction is so close, that they become one tree.
There is also a most close and intimate union betwixt Christ and the soul that believeth in him. It is emphatically expressed by the apostle, 1 Cor. vi. 17. " He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."" The word imports the nearest, closest, and strictest union. Christ and the soul cleave together in a blessed oneness, as those things do that are glued one to another ; so that look as the graff is really in the stock, and the spirit or sap of the stock is really in the graff; so a believer is really (though mystically) in Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is really communicated to a believer. " 1 live, (saith Paul) " yet not I, but Christ hveth in me," Gal. ii. 20. " He that dwelleth ** in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him," 1 John iv. 16.
7. Graffs are bound to the stock by bands made of hay or flags, these keep it steady, else the wind would loose it out of the stock.
The believing soul is also fastened to Christ by bands, which will secure it from all danger of being loosed off from him any more. There are two bands of this union ; the Spirit on God's part, this is the firm bond of union, without which we could never be made one with Christ, Rom. viii. 9. " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, " he is none of his;" and Jaith on our part, Eph. iii. 17. *' That '* Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith." These hold strongly.
8. Though the stock be one and the same, vet all graffs do not Vol. V. K j ^
14)8 HUSBANDRY SPlllITUALlZED ; OKj
thrive and flourish ahke in it ; some outgrow the rest, and those that grow not so well as the others do, the fault is in them, and not in the stock : so it is with souls really united to Christ ; all do not flourish alike in him, the faith of some grows exceedingly, 2 Thess. i. 3. the things that be in others are ready to die. Rev. iii. 2. and such souls must charge the fault upon themselves. Christ sends up living sap enough, not only to make all that are in him living., but fruitful branches. .
1. Is it so indeed betwixt Christ and my soul, as it is betwixt the
ingraffed cyon and the stock .^ AVhat honour and Fou7' comfo7'tahle glory then hath Christ conferred upon me, a reflections for a poor unworthy creature ! What ! to be made one regenerate soul, wuth him, to be a living branch of him, to be
joined thus to the Lord ! Oh ! what a prefer- ment is this ! It is but a little while since I was a wild and cursed plant, growing in the wilderness amongst them that shall shortly be cut down and faggotted up for hell; for me to be taken from amongst them, and planted into Christ. O my soul ! fall down and kiss the feet of free grace, that moved so freely towards so vile a creature ! The dignities and honours of the kings and nobles of the earth, are nothing to mine. It was truly confessed by one of them, that it is a greater honour to be a member of Christ, than the head of an empire. Do I say, a greater honour than is put upon the kings of the earth ? I might have said, it is a greater honour than is put upon the angels of heaven : For " to whom of them said Christ, at any time, thou " art bone of my bone, and fle^h of my flesh ? Behold what manner '' of love is this !" 1 John iii. 1.
2. Look again upon the ingraffed cyons, O my soul ! and thou shalt find, that when once they have taken hold of the stock, they live as long as there is any sap in the root ; and because he liveth, I shall live also, for my life is hid with Christ in God, Col. iii. 3. The graff is preserved in the stock, and my soul is even so preserved "in Christ Jesus !" Jude, ver. 1.
8. Am I joined to the Lord as a mystical part or branch of him ? How dear art thou then, O my soul, to the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ ! What ! a branch of his dear Son ! What can God with-hold from one so ingraffed ? Eph. i. 6. " All is yours, " (saith my God) for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's,'' 1 Cor. iii. 23.
4. Once more, draw matter of instruction as well as comfort from this sweet observation : seeing God hath put all this honour upon thee, by this most intimate union with his Christ, look to it, my soul, that thou live and walk as becomes a soul tlius one v/ith the Lord, be thou tender over his glory : doth not that which strikes at the root, Strike at the very life of the graff .^ And shall not that which strike*
THE HEAVENLY USE OF EAUTHLY THINGS. 14D