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duct of my moral honefty and righteousness; that joy and peace had been feminally contained in thofe actions; but now I fee fuch fruit can fpring from no other root but special grace. Glory is disclosed from no other bud but holinefs. Alas! all my planting and fowing was to little purpose, because I fowed not the right kind of feed; the beft fruit I can expect from this, is but a leffer degree of damnation.

Deluded foul! thy feed is no better than what the moral heathens fowed: And do I expect better fruit than what they reaped? Civility without Chrift,, is but a freer flavery; and Satan holds me as faft in captivity by this, as he doth the prophane by the pleasure of their lufts: Either I muft sow better feed, or look to reap bitter fruit.

3. Mean while, blefs the Lord, O my foul! The holy foul's who enabled thee to fow better feed; who reflection. kept thee watching, humbling thyfelf, and praying, whilft others have been fwearing, drinking and blafpheming: This will yield thee fruit of joy in the world to come; yea, it already yields prefent peace to thy confcience: Thefe revenues are better than gold, fweeter than the honey, and the honey-comb; not that fuch fruits are meritoriously contained in these actions; I fow to myfelf in righteousness, but I reap in mercy, Hof. x. 12. This is the way in which God will fave and glorify me. O then, let me be ever abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that my labour fhall not be in vain in the Lord.

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The POEM.

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Would be a ftrange and monftrous thing, to fee
Cherries or plumbs grow on an apple-tree.
Who ever gather'd from the thistle, figs?
Or fruitful grapes from off the worthlefs twigs
Of pricking thorns? In nature ftill we find
All its productions answering to their kind..
As are the plants we fet, or feeds we sow,
Such is the fruit we shake, and corn we mow :
And canft thou think, that from corruption's root
Thy foul shall pluck the fweet and pleasant fruit
Of fpiritual peace! Whoever, that was wife,
Abus'd himself with fuch abfurdities?
Look what you fow, the very fame you'll reap,
The fruit of what you plant, be fure you'll eat.
How are they baffled by a fubtile devil,

Who hope for heaven, whilft their ways are evil?

Such reafonings here their credulous fouls beguile,
At which, in other things, themselves would fmile.
Our prefent acts, though lightly paffed by,
Are fo much feed fown for eternity.

The feeds of prayers, fecret groans and tears,
Will fhoot at last into the full-blown ears
Of peace and joy. Bleffed are they that fow
Befides these waters, yea, thrice blefs'd, that go
Bearing fuch precious feed: Though now they mourn,
With joyful fheaves they fhortly fhall return.
Needs muft the full-ripe fruits in heaven be good,
When as the feed was glory in the bud.
But, oh! the bitter, baneful fruits of fin,
When all the pleasure finners have therein,
Like faded bloffoms to the ground fhall fall,
Then they will tafte the wormwood and the gall!
What God and confcience now of fin report,
You flight, and with their dreadful threatnings sport:
But he'll convince you then your ways were naught,
As Gideon the men of Succouth taught.

If fermons cannot, fire and brimstone muft
Teach men how good it is to pamper luft.
When confcience takes thee by the throat, and cries,.
Now wretch! now finner! thou that didft despise
My warnings; learn, and ever learning be
That leffon which thou ne'er wouldft learn of me.
The ftouteft finner then would howl and roar,
O fin I never faw thy face before.

Is this the fruit of fin? Is this the place
Where I must lie? Is this indeed the cafe
Of my poor foul? muft I be bound in chains
With these companions? Oh! is this the gains
I get by fin? Poor wretch! I that would never
See this before, am now undone for ever!

CHAP. XVIII.

Upon the Joy of Harvest-men.

Great is the joy of harvest-men; yet less
Than theirs whom God doth with his favour bless.

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OBSERVATION.

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Mong all earthly joys, these four forts are noted in
ture, as the moft excellent and remarkable. (1.) Nup-

tial joys; the day of espousals is the day of the gladness of a man's heart, Cant. iii. 1. (2.) The joy of children: Though now it seems but a common mercy to moft, and a burden to fome, yet the people of God were wont to esteem it a choice mercy, and rejoiced greatly in it, John xvi. 21. there is joy that a man is born into the world. (3.) The joy of conquests and victories, when men divide the fpoil: And, laftly, The joy of harvest. Thefe two we find put together, as principal matters of joy, Ifa. ix. 3. "They joy before thee, according to "the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the fpoil." The joy of harveft is no fmall joy; Gaudium mes eft meffis gaudii; The joy of the harvest, is the harvest of their joy. It is ufual with men, when they have reaped down their harveft (or cut the neck, as they call it) to demonftrate their joy by fhouting, and loud acclamations.

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APPLICATION.

HUS, and unfpeakable more than thus, do faints rejoice and fhout for joy, when they reap the favour and love of God, for which they laboured in many a weary duty. This joy of harvest, as great as it is, and as much as carnal hearts are lifted up with it, is but a trifle, a thing of nought, compared with yours; after they have fown to themselves in righteoufnefs, and waited for the effects and returns of their duties with patience, and at laft come to reap in mercy, either the full harveft in heaven, or but the firft-fruits of it on earth, yet rejoice, "with joy unspeakable and full of glory," 1 Pet. i. 8. "This "puts more gladness into their hearts, than when corn and wine "increase," Pfalm iv. 7. Carnal joys are but as foul-fevers, the agues of the inward man; there is a great difference be twixt the unnatural inflammations of a feverish body, which wafte the fpirits, and drink up the radical moisture, and the kindly well-tempered heart of an healthy body; and as much between the sweet, ferene, and heavenly joy, which flow from the bofom of Chrift in the hearts of believers, and those earthly delights which carnal hearts, in a fenfual way, fuck out of creature enjoyments. I will fhew you the tranfcendency of fpiritual joys, above the joy of harveft, in these eight particulars following.

1. You that joy with the joy of the harvest, are glad, because now you have food for yourfelves and families to live upon all the year; but the Christian rejoiceth, because he hath bread to eat that the world knows not of, Rev. ii. 17. Chrift is the food of his foul, and his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood

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drink indeed, John v. 55. (i. e.) the most real and excellent food. You read, Pfalm lxxviii. 25. that men did eat angels food, (i. e.) Manna; which was fuch excellent bread, that if an gels did live upon material food, this would be chosen for them; and yet this is but a type and dark shadow of Jesus Christ, the food of believers.

2. You rejoice when your harvest is in, because corn is vit tually many other things befides food; you can turn it into cloaths to keep you warm, and many other neceffaries may be purchased by it: but yet it is not like Christ, the object of a faint's joy; though it anfwers many things, it doth not answer all things, as Christ doth; turn it into what you will, it hath but a limited and respective usefulness; but Jefus Chrift is all in all to believers, and out of him their faith can fetch all fupplies; he is their health in sickness, their strength in weaknefs, their ease in pain, their honour in reproach, their wealth in poverty, their friend in friendlesness, their habitation when harbourless, their enlargement in bonds, the strength of their hearts, and life of their life; O! he is a full Chrift! and whatever excellencies are scattered among all the creatures, do meet all in him, and much more.

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3. You rejoice when you have gotten in your harveft, becaufe now you can free thofe engagements, and pay thofe debts which you have contracted. 'Tis a comfort to be out of debt; and you may lawfully rejoice that God gives you wherewith to quit your engagements, that you may owe no man any thing but love: but still the joy of harvest falls fhort of the joy of the faints; for you rejoice that you are, or have wherewith to help yourselves out of mens debt: but they rejoice that they are out of God's debt; that his book is cancelled, and their fins pardoned: that by reason of the imputed righteousness of Christ, the law can demand nothing from them, Rom. viii. Į. O what matter of joy is this!

4. You rejoice, becaufe now your corn is out of danger; all the while it was abroad, it was in hazard, but now it is houfed you fear not the rain: but Chriftians rejoice, not because their corn is fafe, but because their fouls are fo. All the while they abode in an unregenerate state, they were every moment in danger of the ftorms of wrath: but now, being in Chrift, that danger is over; and what compare is there betwixt the fafety of a little corn, and the fecurity of an immortal soul ?

5. Your joy is but a gift of common providence. Turks and Heathens can rejoice with your joy; but the joy of a Chriftian, is a peculiar favour and gift of God. Corn is given to all na

tions, even the most barbarous and wicked have store of it; but Chrift is the portion but of a few, and those the dearly beloved of God. Luther faid of the whole Turkish empire (where is the beft and greateft ftore of corn) that it is but a crumb which the mafter of the family throws to the dogs. He that had more corn than his barns could hold, now wants a drop of water to cool his tongue. Chrift is a gift bestowed only upon God's elect.

6. Your joy will have an end; the time is coming, that when you have reaped down your harvests, yourselves must be reaped down by death, and then you shall rejoice in these things no more: But when your joy is ended, then is the joy of faints perfected; they reap their harvest, when you leave your harvest; their confolation is everlasting.

7. God can separate your joy from these enjoyments, even while you have them, as well as when you leave them. 'Tis one thing for a man to have riches and full barns, and another thing to have comfort in them, Ecclef. v. 19, 20. But now the joy of Chriftians is a thing infeparable from their enjoyment of Chrift: indeed the fenfe of their intereft may be loft, and fo the acts of their joy intermitted: but they always have it in the feed, if not in the fruit, Pfalm xcvii. 11. "Joy is fown "for the upright;" he hath it still in the principle, and in the promise.

8. The joy of harvest-men, for the most part, is only in their harvest, and in fuch earthly things; take that away, and their joy ceafes. Earthly hearts are acquainted with no higher comforts; but the people of God can joy in him, and take comfort in their earthly enjoyments too: And what comfort they take in these things, is much more refined and fweet than yours; for they enjoy all these things in God, and his love in giving them, puts a fweetness into them, that you are unacquainted with. Thus you fee, how far your joys fall short of theirs.

REFLECTIONS.

1. How have I rejoiced in a thing of nought, Areflection and pleased myself with a vanity? God hath for one that hath a full bleffed me in my fields, and in my stores; but not with spiritual bleffings in heavenly places in barn, but no Chrift. My barns are full of corn, but my foul Chrift. is empty of grace; common bounty hath given me a fulness of the things of this life; but what if the meaning of it fhould be to fat me for the day of flaughter? What if this be the whole of my portion from the Lord? What if the lan

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