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lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not; lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them," 2 Cor. iv. 3. There cannot be a more dreadful character of a person marked out for wrath, than to continue unfruitful under the ordinances, as the rocks and miry places do under the natural influences of heaven. What blessed opportunities had Judas? He was under Christ's own ministry; he often heard the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth; he was day and night in his company; and yet he was never the better; and why? Because he was the son of perdition," that is unfruitful and consequently a man appointed to destruction and wrath.

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It is such a stroke of God upon the souls of men, as immediately foreruns damnation. That which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is "nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burnt." As some saints in this world have had a forestate of heaven, which the scripture "calls the earnest of the Spirit;" so this is a precursor of hell, a sign of wrath at the door. We may say of it what is said of the pale horse in the Revelation, that hell follows it." "If a man abide not in me," says Christ, he is cast forth as a branch, and withered;" which is the very state of these barren, cursed souls. And what follows? "Men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Lo, this is the vengeance which the gospel executes upon this barren ground.

Reflections.-1. Blessed be God, who has made me feel the saving power of the gospel! O, let God be exalted for ever for this mercy, that how defective soever I am in common gifts, though I have a dull understanding, a frail memory, a stammering tongue, yet I have felt and do feel the power of the gospel upon my heart. I bless thee, my God, that although I labor under many spiritual infirmities, yet I am not sick of this incurable disease. I have given thee indeed just cause to inflict and execute this dreadful curse upon me, but thou hast not dealt with me after my deserts, but according to the riches of thy mercy. Some little fruit I bring forth, and this by virtue of my union with Jesus Christ. This has more in it as to my

comfort, than all the glittering gifts and splendid performances of the most glorious hypocrite can yield to him.” "If I might have my choice,' says one, "I would chuse and prefer the most despicable and sordid work of a rustic Christian before all the victories of Alexander and triumphs of Cæsar." "Blessed therefore be the Lord, who hath abounded unto me in all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

2. O then, let the formal professor say, how little cause have I to make my boast of ordinances, and glory in my external privileges, who never bear spiritual fruit under them! If I well consider my condition, there is matter of trembling, and not of glorying, in these things. It may be while I have been glorying in them, the Lord has been secretly blasting my soul under them, and insensibly executing this horrible curse by them. Shall I boast with Capernaum that I am "lifted up to heaven," since I may with her, at last, be cast down to hell? And if so, Lord, what a hell will my hell be! It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for me. It drew tears from the eyes of Christ, when he was looking upon Jerusalem in the same state I fear that my own soul is in; "He wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." So long have I been a hearer, a professor of the gospel, so many years have I enjoyed its ordinances; but have they not been all dry and empty things to me? Have not self-ends and worldly considerations lain at the bottom of my best duties? Have not my discourses, in communion with the saints, been trade words, speaking what I have learnt but not felt? Sad is my condition now, but it would be desperate and irrecoverable shouldst thou execute this curse upon me.

And what, says the less fruitful Christian, may I think of my condition? Lord, I acknowledge that my unprofitableness has been shameful; and this has made my condition doubtful. I have often trembled for fear, lest my root had been blasted by such a curse: but if so, whence is this trembling? Whence these fears and sorrows about it? Does such fruit grow in that soil which thou hast cursed? I am told that on whom this judgment falls,

Lord, I

to them thou givest a heart that cannot repent. bless thee for these evidences of freedom from the curse: for the fruits of fear, sorrow, and holy jealousy.

4. What a serious reflection should this occasion in every dispenser of the gospel! How should he say when he goes to preach the gospel-I am going to preach that word which is to be a savor of life or death unto these souls. Upon how many of my poor hearers may the curse of perpetual barrenness be executed this day! O how should such a thought melt his heart into compassion over them, and make him beg hard, and plead earnestly with God for a better issue of the gospel than this upon them.

CHAPTER VII.

On the plowing of Corn Land.

Observation.-Ir requires not only strength, but much skill and judgment, to manage and guide the plow. The Hebrew word which we translate to plow, signifies to be intent, as an artificer is when about some curious piece of work. The plow must neither go too shallow nor too deep in the earth; it must not indent the ground, by making crooked furrows. Hence that expression in Luke ix. 62; "He that puts his hand to the plow, and looks back, is not fit for the kingdom of heaven;" the meaning is, that as he who plows must have his eyes always forward, to guide and direct his hand in casting the furrows straight and even; so he who heartily resolves for heaven must addict himself wholly and intently to the business of religion, and not have his mind entangled with the things of the world, which he has left behind him. It appears then that the right management of the plow requires as much skill as strength.

Application. This observation in nature serves excellently to shadow forth this proposition in divinity, that the work of the Spirit in convincing and humbling the heart of a sinner, is a work wherein much of the wisdom, as

well as power, of God is discovered. The work of repentance, and saving contrition, is set forth in scripture by this metaphor of plowing, Jer. iv. 3; Hos. x. 12. "Plow up your fallow ground;" that is, be convinced, humbled, and broken-hearted for sin. And the resemblance betwixt both these works appears in the following particulars

1. It is a hard and difficult work to plow; it is also a very hard thing to convince and humble the heart of a secure and proud sinner. What Luther says of a dejected soul, that it is as easy to raise the dead, as to comfort such a one," the same I may say of the secure confident sinner; it is as easy to rend the rocks, as to work saving contrition upon such a heart. All the melting language and earnest entreaties of the gospel, cannot urge such a heart to shed a tear. Therefore it is called a heart of stone, a rock. Yet when the Lord comes in the power of his Spirit, these rocks do rend and yield to the power of the word.

2. The plow pierces deep into the bosom of the earth, makes, as it were, a deep gash or wound in the heart of it. So does the Spirit upon the hearts of sinners; he pierces their very souls by conviction. It comes upon the conscience with such piercing power, and sends the sword of conviction so deep into their souls, that there is no stanching the blood, no healing this wound, till Christ himself come, and undertake the cure. This barbed arrow cannot be pulled out of their hearts by any, but the hand that shot it in. Discourse with such a man about his troubles, and he will tell you, that all the sorrows he ever had in this world, loss of estate, health, children, or whatever else, are but nothing to this; this swallows up all other troubles. "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of his water-spouts, when the waves and billows of God go over the soul." Spiritual sorrows are deep waters, in which the stoutest and most magnanimous soul would sink, did not Jesus Christ, by a secret and supporting hand, hold it up and preserve it.

3. The plow turns up and discovers such things as lay hid before in the bosom of the earth, and were covered under a fair green surface from the eyes of men. Thus when the Lord plows up the heart of a sinner by convic

tion, then the secrets of his heart are made manifest; the most secret and shameful sins will then come out; for "the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of the soul and spirit, the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and secret intents of the heart," Heb. iv. 12. It makes the fire burn inwardly, so that the soul has no rest till confession give a vent to trouble. Fain would the sinner conceal and hide his shame, but the word follows him through all his sinful shifts, and brings him at last to be his own accuser, witness, and judge.

4. The work of the plow is but a preparative work in order to fruit. Should the husbandman plow his ground ever so often, yet if the seed be not cast in and quickened, in vain is the harvest expected. Thus conviction also is but preparative to a farther work upon the soul of a sinner. If it goes no farther, it proves but an abortive or untimely birth. Many have gone thus far, and there they have stopped. They have been like a field plowed, but not sowed, which is a matter of trembling consideration; for hereby their sin is greatly aggravated, and their eternal misery so much the more increased. O with what horror will a poor lost creature reflect in hell-How near was I once, under such a sermon, to conversion! My sins were set in order before me; my conscience terrified me with the guilt of them. Many purposes and resolves I made then to turn to God, which had they been perfected by answerable execution, I had never come to this place of torment; but there I stopped, and that was my eternal undoing.

5. It is best plowing when the earth is prepared and mollified by showers of rain; then the work goes on sweetly and easily, and never does the heart so kindly melt, as when the gospel-clouds dissolve, and the free grace and love of Jesus Christ comes sweetly showering down upon it; then it relents and mourns ingenuously, "That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done," Ezek. xvi. 63. So it was with that poor penitent, Luke vii. 38, When the Lord Jesus had discovered to

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