and then the blessing, power, and efficacy is gone from them, and ln-» stead thereof a curse seizeth the soul, Heb. vi. 7, 8. and Jer. vi. 29- Therefore it is a matter of high importance to our souls to apprehend these seasons. How pathetically doth Christ bewail Jerusalem upon this account ! Luke xix. 42. " O that thou hadst known at least in " this thy day, the things of thy peace ! but now they are hid from *' thine eyes." If a company of seamen are set a-shore upon some re- mote, uninhabited island, with this advice, to be aboard again exactly at such an hour, else they must be left behind ; how doth it concern them to be punctual to their time ? The lives of those men depend upon a quarter of an hour. Many a soul hath perished eternally, the gospel leaving them behind in their sins, because they knew not the time of their visitation.
What golden seasons for salvation hast thou enjoyed, O my soul ? what halcyon days of gospel-light and grace hast thou had ? How have the precious gales of grace blown to no purpose upon thee ! and the Spirit waited and striven with thee in vain ? " The kingdom of '' heaven, (being opened in the gospel dispensation) hath suffered *' violence.'' Multitudes have been pressing into it in my days, and I myself have sometimes been almost persuaded, and not far from the kingdom of God: I have gone as far as conviction for sin and misery, yea, I have been carried by the power of the gospel, to resolve and purpose to turn to God, and become a new creature ; but sin hath been too subtle and deceitful for me : I see, my resolutions were but as an early cloud, or morning dew; and now my heart is cold and dead again, settled upon its lees. Ah ! I have cause to fear and tremble, lest God hath left me under that curse, Rev. xx. 11. " Let " him that is filthy be filthy still." I fear I am become as that miry place, Ezek. xlvii. 11. that shall not be healed by the streams of the gospel, but given to salt, and cursed into perpetual barrenness. Ah Lord ! wilt thou leave me so ! and shall thy Spirit strive no more with jne ? Then it had been good for me that I had never been born. Ah ! if I have trifled out this season, and irrecoverably lost it, then I may take up that lamentation, Jer. viii. 20. and say, " My harvest ^* is past, my summer is ended, and I am not saved."
Every creature knows its time, even the turtle, crane, and swallow, know the time of their coming, Jer. viii. 7. How brutish am I, that have not known the time of my visitation ! O thou, that art the Lord of life and time, command one gracious season more for me, and make it effectual to me, before I go hence, and be seen no more t
A. FRESH and whisking gale presents to-day, But now the ships not ready ; winds must stay,
NAVIGATI0N SPIRITUALIZED. ^41
And wait the seamen's leisure. Well, to-morrow
They will put out ; but then, unto their sorrow,
That wind is spent, and by that means they gain
Perchance a month's repentance, if not twain.
At last another offers, now they're gone ;
But ere they gain their port, the market's done.
For ev'ry work and purpose under heav'n,
A proper time and season God hath giv'n.
The fowls of heaven, swallow, turtle, crane,
Do apprehend it, and put us to shame.
Man hath his season too, but that mis-spent.
There's time enough his folly to repent.
Eternity's before him, but therein
No more such golden hours as these have been :
When these are pass'd away, then you shall find
That proverb true, — Occasion's bald behind.
Delays are dang'rous, see that you discern
Your proper seasons : O that you would learn
This wisdom from those fools that come too late
With fruitless cries, when Christ hath shut the gate,
By navigation erne place stores another. And by communion we must help each other,
A HE most wise God hath so dispensed his bounty to the several nations of the world, that one standing in need of another's commo» ditios, there might be a sociable commerce and traffick maintained amongst them all, and all combining in a common league, may, by the help of navigation, exhibit mutual succours to each other. The staple commodities proper to each country, I find expressed by th^ poet, Bart. Coll.
Hence comes our sugars from Canary isles ;
From Candy currants, muskadels, and oils ;
From the Molucco's, spices; balsam um,
From Egypt ; odours from Arabia come ;
From India, gums, rich drugs, and ivory;
From Syria, mummy ; black, red ebony,
From burning Chus ; from Peru, pearl and gold ;
From Russia, furs, to keep the rich from cold ;
From Florence, silks; from Spain, fruit, saffron, sacks;
From Denmark, amber; cordage, firs, and flax ;
242 A KEW COMPASS fou seamen ; OK,
From Holland, hops ; horse from the banks of Rhine ; From France and Italy the choicest wine; From England, wool ; all lands as God distributes. To the world's treasure pay their sundry tributes.
Thus hath God distributed the more rich and precious gifts and graces of his Spirit among his people ; some excelling in one grace, some in another, though every grace, in some degree, be in them all ; even as in nature, though there be all the faculties in all, yet some faculties are in some more lively and vigorous than in others ; some have a more vigorous eye, others a more ready ear, others a more voluble tongue; so it is in spirituals. Abraham excelled mjaithy Job in patience, John in love. These were their peculiar excellen- cies. All the elect vessels are not of one quantity ; yet even those that excel others in some particular ..race, come short in other re- spects of those they so excelled in the former, and may be much im- proved by converse with such as in some respects are much below them. The solid, wise, and judicious Christian may want that hve- liness of affections and tenderness of heart that appear in the weak ; and one that excels in gifts and utterance may learn humility from the very babes in Christ.
And one principal reason of this different distribution is to maintain fellowship among them all, 1 Cor. xii. 21. " The head cannot say to " the feet, I have no need of you." As in a family where there is much business to be done, even the little children bear a part, accord- ing to their strength, Jer. vii. 18. " The children gather wood, the " fathers kindle the fire, the women knead the dough."'"' So in the family of Christ, the weakest Christian is serviceable to the strong.