101 CONTEMPLATION VII. ON A FIELD OF SPRINGING CORN. WHAT a delightful prospect is here! the joy of the hufbandman and hope of the poor; even a field of springing corn. Truly grateful to the eye is the blade newly come from the teeming earth, the fight of which inspires with gratitude, and creates throughout all the foul a pleasant fenfation. Beft of vegetables, and staff of life! my contemplations be on thee.---As it is delightful to behold this corn in the blade, growing up to perfection under the influence of the natural heavens: It is certainly ftill more fo to feel and fee the feeds of grace fpringing up in the heart and life, under the influence of the God of heaven. As showers of rain are necessary to refresh, cherish, and promote the growth of the blade; fo are the showers of bleffing which come down in the ordinances of God's grace abfolutely necessary for cherishing and promoting the growth of the good feed. After a long drought, how does the hufbandman rejoice at the appearance of rain, when he fees it come down on the blade? then it is, to ufe the language of the Pfalmift, the vallies fhout for joy, they also fing, Pfal. lxv. 13. And is the husbandman fo glad at the showers of temporal bleffing, and do the vallies themselves thus rejoice? Far more fo doth that heart which is fown with the good feed (in this dry and parched land of the world wherein there is no water, Pfal. lxiii. 1.) at the fhowers of spiritual bleffings: then do these thirsty vallies fhout and fing for joy in the ordinances which the great Husbandman maketh use of to water them with, and he himself rejoiceth at their good. The feed does not lie long hid in the earth, but foon fprings up to view. In like manner, the good feed will not lie long hid in that heart where it is fown, but foon appear in the man or woman's life and converfation. I observe in some places of this field the blade farther advanced than in other fome; here it is pretty long, there it is just but coming through the mold; and this is not owing to any fault in the feed, but to the difference of the foil. Just fo is it in respect to the infant state of grace in the heart: in fome of the faculties of the foul, for a time, it is more readily observed by the believer himself, than in other fome; as for inftance, it may eafier be perceived in the will, confcience and affections, than in the understanding and memory; and this is not owing to any fault in the good feed itfelf, but wholly to the foil where it is fown; for that mind which before was very ignorant and had but a small speculative knowledge of the matters of religion, and that memory which is naturally very weak ; enlightening and fanctifying grace will not so foon be observed in them as in that understanding and memory, which formerly were more naturally enlightened with a greater degree of fpeculative knowledge in these things, and more retentive. But in another part of this field, I obferve the blade has been pretty far advanced, even much farther than any where else, but is now going back again and withering away. Ah! this is the ftony ground which our Lord telleth us of in the parable, where the feed sprang up quickly, and because it had not much root, when the fun arofe it withered. Hear the beautiful inference which he maketh: "But he that re"ceived the feed into stony places, the same "is he that heareth the word, and anon "with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not "root in himself; but dureth for a while, "for when tribulation or pefecution arifeth, "because of the word, by and by he is of"fended," Matt. xiii. 20, 21. At the end of this ridge grow a few perLicious thorns, among which I perceive fome of the feed has fallen, for there is fome of the blade fpringing up; this too will foon be chocked and rendered unfruitful, by these destructive neighbours among which it is involved, agreeable to our Lord and Saviour's defcription in the above parable. Note the ftriking inference: "He "alfo that received feed among the thorns, is "he that heareth the word, and the care of "this world, and the deceitfulness of rich"es choke the word, and he becometh 66 unfruitful," Matth. xiii. 22. As for thofe feeds which the husbandman let fall by the way-fide when coming hither to fow, they are no doubt picked up by the fowls fome time ago; but the inference which our Lord maketh of this part of the parable still abideth for our inftruction. "When any one heareth the word of the H |