2. How little ease or rest have they ? They live not many years, and those they do are in bondage and misery, groaning under the effects of sin ; but God hath provided better for us, even as to our outward condition in the world ; we have the more rest, because they have so little. How many refreshments and comforts hath God provided for us, of which they are incapable ? If we be weary with labour, we can take our rest; but fresh or weary, they must stand to it, or sink under it from day to day.
3. What a narrow capacity hath God given to beasts ! What a large capacity to man ! Alas, they are only capable of a little sensi- tive pleasure ; as you shall see sometimes, how they will frisk in a green pasture ; this is all they are capable of, and this death puts an
THE HEAVEXLY USE OF EAUTHLY THINGS. 165
cikI to : but how comprehensive are our souls in their capacities ? We are made in the image of God ; we can look beyond present things, and ;ire capable of the highest happiness, and that to all eternity : the soul of a beast is but a material form, w hich, wholly depending upon, must needs die with the body ; but our souls are a divine spark or blast ; and when the body dies, it dies not with it^ but subsists even in its separated state.
1. How great a sin is ingratitude to God for A reflection for an such a common, but choice mercy of creation unthankful sinner. and provision for me in this world ? There
is no creature made worse by kindness, but man. Tliere is a kind of gratitude which I may observe, even in these brute beasts : they do in their way acknowledge their benetiictors ; " The ox " knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib."' How ready are they to serve such as feed and cherish them ? But I have been botli unthankful and unserviceable to my Creator and Benefactor, that hath done me good all my days; those poor creatures that sweat and groan under the load that I lay upon them, never sinned against God, nor transgressed the laws of their creation, as I have done ; and yet God hath dealt better with me than with them. O that the bounty of God, and his distinguishing mercy between me and the beasts that perish, might move and melt my heart into thankfulness ! O that I might consider seriously what the higher and more excellent end of my creation is, and might more endeavour to answer and live up to it ! Or else, O my soul, it will be worse with thee than the beasts: it is true, they are under bondage and misery ; but it is but for a little time ; death will end all their pains, and ease them of all their heavy loads ; but I shall groan to all eternit}-, under a heavier bur-i den than ever they felt ; thev have no account to give, but so have I. What comfort is it, that I have a larger capacity than a beast hath ? That God hath endowed me with reason, which is denied to them ? Alas ! this will but augment my misery, and enlarge me to take in a o^reater measure of ansruish.
X.. By how many steps, O my soul ! mayest thou ascend in the praises of thy God, when thou A rcfl,cctionJbr considerest the mercies that God hath bestowed an elect soul. upon thee ; not only in that he made thee not a stone or tree without sense, or an horse or dog without reason ; but that thou art not an infidel without light, or an un regenerate person without grace.? What! to have sense, and all the delights of it, which stones have not ! Reason, with the more high and noble plea- suresof it, which beasts have not ! the light and knowledge of the great things of the gospel, which the heathens have not ! and such an ex- pectation and hope of inconceivable glorv and felicity, which the un-
166 HUSBANDRY SPIRITUALIZED : OK,
sanctified have not ! O my soul ! how rich, how bountiful hath thy God been to thee ! These are the overflowings of his love to thee who wast moulded out of the same lump with the beasts that groan on earth, yea, with the damned that howl in hell : well may I say that God hath been a good God to me !
HEN I behold a tired jade put on With whip and spur till all his strength be gone ; See streams of sweat run down his bleeding sides. How little mercy's shewn by him that rides. If I more thankful to my God would prove Than such a rider merciless, 'twill move My soul to praise : For who sees this, and can But bless the Lord that he was made a man. And such a sight the rider ought to move This meditation duly to improve.
What hath this creature done, that he should be
Thus beaten, wounded, and tir'd out by me ^
He is my fellow-ci-eature ; 'tis mere grace
I had not been in his, he in my case.
Ungrateful, stupid man ! God might have made
Me bear the saddle, as I see this jade.
He never sinn'd, but for my sin doth lie
Subjected unto all this misery.
Lord, make my heart relent, that I should be
To thee more useless than my horse to me :
He did his utmost, went as long as ever
His legs could bear him ; but for me I never
Thus spent my strength for God, but oft have been
Too prodigal thereof in ways of sin.
Though he's the horse, and I the man, 'twill be
Far better with my horse one day than me :
Unless thy grace prevent and superadd
A new creation unto that I had.
Could every reader fix a serious thought
On such a subject, and hereby be taught
To spiritualize it, and improve it thus ;
How sweet would tedious journeys be to us ?
But such a task a graceless heart tires out,
More than the tired horse I write about.
THE HEAVEKLY USE OF EARTHLY THINGS. 167
Upon the seeking of lost Cattle.
When seeking your lost cattle, keep in mind, That thus Christ Jesus seeks your souls to find.
? ▼ HEN cattle are strayed away from your fields, you use all care and diligence to recover them again ; tracing their footsteps, crying them in the market-towns, sending your servants abroad, ^nd enquiring yourselves of all that you tliink can give news of them. What care and pains men will take in such cases, was exemplified in Saul, 1 Sam. ix. 4, 5. who with his servant, passed through mount Ephraim to seek the asses that were strayed from his father, and through the land of Shalisha, and through the land of Shalim, and they were not there, and through the land of the Benjamites, but found them not.
A HE care and pains you take to recover your lost cattle, carries a sweet and lively representation of the love of Jesus Christ, in the recovery of lost sinners. Jesus Christ came on purpose from hea- ven upon a like errand, to seek and to save that which was lost, Matth. xviii. 11. There are several particulars in which this glori- ous design of Christ, in seeking and saving lost man, and the care and pains of husbandmen in recovering their lost cattle, do meet and touch, though there be as many particulars also in which they differ : all which I shall open under the following heads.