Christ's precious truth conserved in their blood,
For no less price those truths our fathers stood.
They have transmitted, would not alienate
From us, their children, such a fair estate.
We eat what they did set : and shall truth fall
In our days ? Shall we cut off th' entail,
Or end the line of honour ? Nay, what's worse.
Give future ages cause to hate, and curse
Our memories? Like Naboth, may this age
Part with their blood sooner than heritage.
Let pity move us, let us think upon
Our children's souls, when we are dead and gone :
Shall they, poor souls, in darkness grope, when we
Put out the light, by which they else might see
The way to glory? Yea, what's worse, shall it
Be said in time to come, Christ did commit
A precious treasure, purchased by his yood,
To us, for ours, and for our children's good I
But we, like cowards, false, perfidious men,
For carnal ease, lost it, ourselves, and them.
0 let us leave, to after ages, more
Than we receiv'd from all that went Ijcfore !
1 hat those to come may bless the Lord, and keep Our names alive, when we in dust .shall sleep.
ITS HUSBANCRY SPIRITUALIZED ; OR,
Upon the Husbandman's care to prove and preserve his Deeds.
Deeds for our lands you prove, and heep 'with care ; O that for heaven you but as careful were I
T ? E generally find men are not more careful in trying gold, or in keeping it, than they are in examining their deeds, and preserving them ; these are virtually their whole estate, and therefore it con- cerns them to be careful of them : if they suspect a flaw in their lease or deed, they repair to the ablest council, submit it to his judgment, make the worst of their cause, and query about all the supposable danger with him. If he tell them their case is suspicious and ha- zardous, how much are they perplexed and troubled .? They can neither eat, drink, nor sleep in peace, till they have a good settle- ment ; and willing they are to be at much cost and pains to obtain it.
X HESE cares and fears with which you are perplexed in such cases, may give you a little glimpse of those troubles of soul, with which the people of God are perplexed about their eternal condition ; which, perhaps you have been hitherto unacquainted with, and there- fore slighted them, as fancies and whimsies : I say, your own fears and troubles, if ever you were engaged by a cunning and powerful adversary in a la vv -suit for your estate, may give you a little glimpse of spiritual troubles ; and indeed it is no more but a glimpse of them : for, as the loss of an earthly, though fair inheritance, is but a trifle to the loss of God and the soul to eternity ; so you cannot but imagine, that the cares, fears, and solicitudes of souls about these things, are much, very much, beyond yours. Let us compare the cases, and see how they answer to each other.
1. You have evidences for your estate, and by them you hold what you have in the world : Thev also have evidences for their estate in Christ, and glory to come ; they hold all in capitc, by vir- tue of their intermarriage witli Jesus Christ; they come to be insta- ted in that glorious inheritance contained in the covenant of grace. You have their tenure in that scripture, 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. " All is *^ yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."" Faith unites them to him, and after they believe, they are sealed by the Spirit of promise, Eph. i. 13. They can lay claim to no promise upon any otlier ground ; this is their title to all that they own as theirs.
2. It often falls out, that after the seahng and executing of your deeds, or leases, an adversary finds some dubious clause in them, and thereupon commences a suit at law with you. Thus it frequently
THE HEAVENLY OSE Of 12ARTHLY THTXGS. 179
falls out with the people of God, who after their believing and sealing time, have doubts and scruples raised in them about their title. No- thing is more common, than for the devil, and their own unbelief, to start controversies, and raise strong objections against their interest in Christ, and the covenant of promises. These are cunning and potent adversaries, and do maintain long debates with the gracious soul, and reason so cunningly and sophistically with it, that it can by no means extricate and satisfy itself; always alleging, that their title is worth nothing, which they, }X)or souls, are but too apt to suspect.
3. All the while that a suit of law is depending about your title, you have but little comfort or benefit from your estate ; you cannot look upon it as your own, nor lay out monies in building or dressino* for fear you should lose all at last. Just thus stands the case with doubting Christians ; they have little comfort from the most comfort- able promises, httle benefit from the sweetest duties and ordinances : They put off their own comforts, and say, if we were sure that all this were ours, we would then rejoice in them. But, alas ! our title is dubious: Christ is a precious Christ; the promises are comfort- able things ; but what, if they be none of ours ? Ah ! how little doth the doubting Christian make of his large and rich inheritance ?
4. You dare not trust your own judgments in such cases, but state your case to such as are learned in the laws, and are willing to get the ablest counsel you can to advise you. So are poor doubting Chris- tians ; they carry their cases from Christian to Christian, and from minister to minister, with such requests as these : Pray tell me, what do you think of my condition .'' Deal plainljr and faithfully with me ; these be my grounds of doubting, and these my grounds of hope. O hide nothing from me ! And if they all agree that the case is good, yet they cannot be satisfied till God say so too, and confirm the word of his servants ; and therefore they carry the case often l>efore him in such words as those. Psalm cxxxix. 23, Si. " Search "' me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thouohts, *' and see if there be any wicked way in me."
5. You have little quiet in your spirits, till the case be resolved ; your meat and drink doth you little good ; you cannot sleep in the night, because these troubled thoughts are ever returning upon you ; what if I should be turned out of all at last ? So it is with gracious soiils ; their eyes are held waking in the night, by reason of the troubles of their hearts. Psalm Ixxvii. 4. Such fears as these are frequently returning upon their hearts, what if I should be found a self-deceiver at last? What if I but hug a phantasm instead of Christ ? How can this, or that, consist with grace ? Their meat and drink doth them little good ; their bodies are often macerated by the troubles of their souls.
6. You will not make the best of your condition, when you state your case to a faithful counsellor ; neither will thev, but oftentimes
180 HUSBANDRY SPIIIITUALIZED ; OR,