instrument? and art thou afraid to use it? Wherein is the mercy of having a body, if not in spending and wearing it out in the service of God? To have an active vigorous body, and not to employ and exercise it for God, for fear of endangering its health, is, as if one should give thee a handsome and sprightly horse, upon condition thou shouldst not ride or work him. O if some of the saints had enjoyed the blessing of such a healthy active body as mine, what excellent services would they have performed to God in it!

If my body shall as surely rise again in glory, vigor, and excellent endowments, as the seed which I sow does ; why, says another, should not this comfort me under all the pains, weaknesses, and dulness, with which my soul is now clogged? Thou knowest, my God, what a grief it has been to my soul, to be fettered and entangled with the distempers and manifold indispositions of this vile body. It has made me sigh, and say with holy Anselm, when he saw the mounting bird weighed down by the stone hanging at her leg, "Lord, thus it fares with the soul of thy Fain would I serve, glorify, and enjoy thee, but a distempered body will not let me." However, it is reviving to think, that though I am now forced to crawl, like a worm, in the discharge of my duties, I shall shortly fly like a seraph in the execution of thy will. Cheer up, drooping soul; the time is at hand when thou shalt be made more willing than thou now art, and thy flesh not so weak as now it is.

servant.

And is it so indeed? Then let the dying saint rouse up himself upon his bed, like Jacob, and encourage himself against the fears of death by this refreshing consideration. Let him say with holy dying Musculus, "Why tremblest thou, O my soul, to go forth out of this tabernacle to the land of rest? Has thy body been such a pleasant habitation to thee, that thou shouldest be so loth to part with it, though but for a time, and with assurance of receiving it again with such a glorious improvement?" I know, O my soul, that thou hast a natural inclination to this body, resulting from the dear and strict union which God himself has made betwixt thee and it; yea, even the holiest of men sometimes feel the like in themselves; but

beware that thou love it not immoderately or inordinately It is but a creature, how dear soever it be to thee; yea, a fading creature, and that which now stands in thy way to the full enjoyment of God. But say, my soul, why are the thoughts of parting with it so burdensome to thee? Why so loth to take death by its cold hand? Is this body thy old and dear friend? True, but yet thou partest not with it upon such sad terms, as should deserve a stear at parting. For mayest thou not say of this departure, as Paul at the departure of Onesimus?"It therefore departeth for a season, that thou mayest receive it for ever." The day of re-espousals will quickly come; and in the mean time, as thy body will not be sensible of the tedious length of interposing time, so neither wilt thou be solicitous about thine absent friend; for the fruition of God in thine unbodied state, shall fill thee with infinite satisfaction and rest. Or is it not so much simply for parting with it that thou carest, as for the manner of thy parting, either by the slow and lingering approaches of a natural, or the quick and terrible approaches of a violent, death? Trouble not thyself about that; for if God lead thee through the long dark lane of a tedious sickness, yet at the end of it is thy Father's house. And as for a violent death, it is not so material whether friends or enemies stand weeping or triumphing over thy dead body. When thy soul shall be in heaven, it will not be 'sensible how the body is used on earth.

But O, says the ungodly sinner, what an uncomfortable parting will mine be! and how much more sad our meeting again! How will this soul and body blush, yea, tremble when they meet, who have been co-partners in so much guilt! Ludamned my soul to please my flesh, and now I have ruined both thereby. Had I denied my flesh to serve Christ, worn out my body in the service of my soul, I had thereby happily provided for them both; but I began at the wrong end, and so have ruined both eternally, goskaora 9

CHAPTER XII.

On the Resemblance of Wheat and Tares.

Observation.—IT is Jerome's observation, that wheat and tares are so much alike in their first springing up, that it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish the one from the other." The difference," says he, "between them, is either none at all, or wonderfully difficult to be discerned which those words of Christ, in Mat. xiii. 30. plainly confirm; "Let them alone till the harvest ;" thereby intimating both the difficulty of distinguishing the tares from the wheat, as also the unwarrantable rashness of bold and hasty censures of men's sincerity or hypocrisy.

Application.-How difficult soever it may be to discern the difference betwixt wheat and tares, yet doubtless the eye of sense can much easier discriminate them than the most quick and piercing eye of man can discern the difference betwixt special and common grace; for all saving graces in the saints have their counterfeits in hypocrites, which a spiritual and very judicious eye may easily mistake for the saving and genuine effects of the sanctifying Spirit.

Does the Spirit of God convince the consciences of his people of the evil of sin? Hypocrites have their convictions too." Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you," Exod. x. 16. Thus was Saul also convinced; 1 Sam. xv. 24.

Does true compunction work reformation of life in the people of God? Even hypocrites also have been famous for their reformations. The unclean spirit often goes out of the formal hypocrite, by an external reformation; and yet still retains his propriety in them. Many that will never escape the damnation of hell, have yet escaped the pollutions of the world, and that by the knowledge of the Son of God; 2 Pet. ii. 21. :

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Does the Spirit of the Lord produce the glorious and supernatural work of faith in convinced and humbled souls? In this also the hypocrite imitates the believer. No. XVI.

Div.

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"Then Simon himself believed also," Acts viii. 13. "These are they which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away," Luke viii. 13.

Does the precious eye of faith, discovering the transcendent excellencies that are in Christ, inflame the affections of the believing soul with vehement desires and longings after him? Strange motions of heart have also been found in hypocrites towards Christ and heavenly things. "Lord, evermore give us this bread," John vi. 34. With what a rapture was Balaam transported, when he said, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and my last end be like his!" {

Does the work of faith, in some believers, bear upon its top branches the full ripe fruit of a blessed assurance? Lo! what strong confidences and high-built persuasions of an interest in God, have sometimes been found even in the unsanctified! Yea, so strong may this false assurance be, that they dare boldly venture to go to the judgmentseat of God, and there defend it. "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?" Mat. vii. 22.

Does the Spirit of God fill the heart of the assured believer with joy unspeakable and full of glory, giving him through faith, a foretaste of heaven itself in those first fruits of it? How near to this comes that which the apostle supposes may be found even in apostates, who are said "to taste the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come." If real Christians delight in or+ dinances, those that are not real Christians may also delight in approaching to God, Ezek. xxxiii. 32. You will say, perhaps, though the difference be not easily discernible in their active obedience, yet when it shall come to suffering, there every eye may discern it; the false heart will then fail. And yet even this is no infallible rule; for the apostle supposes, that the salamander of hypocrisy may live in the very flames of martyrdom; "If I give my body to be burnt, and have not charity."

And this difference will yet be more subtile and undiscernible, if I should tell you; that as in so many things the hypocrite resembles the saint, so there are other things which a real Christian may act too like a hypocrite. When we find a Pharaoh confessing, a Herod practising

as well as hearing, a Judas preaching Christ, and an Alexander venturing his life for Paul; and, on the other side, shall find a David condemning that in another which he practised himself, a Hezekiah glorying in his riches, a Peter dissembling, and even all the disciples forsaking Christ in an hour of trouble and danger; O then how hard is it for the eye of man to discern betwixt chaff and wheat! How many upright hearts are now censured, whom God will clear! How many false hearts are now approved, whom God will condemn! Men have ordinarily no clear proofs, but only probable symptoms, which, at most, can beget but a conjectural knowledge of another's state; and they that shall peremptorily judge either way, may possibly wrong the generation of the upright; or, on the other side, absolve and justify the wicked. And truly it is no great wonder that dangerous mistakes are so frequently made in this matter. But though man cannot, the Lord both can and will perfectly discriminate them. "The Lord knoweth who are his." He will have a day perfectly to sever the tares from the wheat, to melt off the varnish of the most resplendent and refined hypocrite, and to blow off the ashes of infirmities which have covered and obseured the very sparks of sincerity in his people. He will make such a division as was never yet made in the world, how many divisions soever there have been in it. "And

then shall men indeed return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked; betwixt him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not." Meanwhile, my soul, thou canst not better employ thyself, whether thou be sound or unsound, than in making those reflections upon thyself.com

Reflections. And is this so? Then, Lord, pardon the rashness and precipitancy of my censorious spirit; for I have often boldly anticipated thy judgment, and assumed thy prerogative, although thou hast said, "Why dost thou judge thy brother? And why dost thou set at nought thy brother? We shall all stand before the judgmentseat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Let us not therefore judge one, another any more," Rom, xiv, 10. And again; "He that judgeth me