turn. Ah, what a miserable ftate am I in! Every step I go is a ftep towards hell; my foul, with the prodigal, is ready to perifh in a ftrange country: but I have no mind, with him, to return home. Wretched foul! what will the end of this be? If God have loft thee, the devil hath found thee; he takes up all ftrayers from God: yea, death and hell will fhortly find thee, if Chrift do not; and then thy recovery, O my foul! will be impoffible! Why fit I here perishing and dying? I am not yet as irrecoverably loft as the damned are. O let me delay no longer, left I be loft for ever! A reflection for one that was loft, but is found. 2. Omy foul! for ever blefs and admiré the love of Jefus Chrift, who came from heaven to feek and fave fuch a loft foul as I was. Lord, how marvellous! how matchlefs is thy love! I was loft, and am found: I am found, and did not feek; nay, I am found by him from whom I fled. Thy love, O my Saviour! was a preventing love, a wonderful love; thou lovedft me much more than I loved myfelf; I was cruel to my own foul, but thou waft kind; thou foughteft for me, a loft finner, and hot for loft angels; thy hand of grace caught hold of me, and hath let go thousands, and ten thousands, as good as myself by nature like another David, thou didft rescue my poor loft foul out of the mouth of the destroyer; yea, more than so, thou didft lose thine own life to find mine: And now, dear Jefus, fince I am thus marvelloufly recovered, fhall I ever straggle again from thee? O let it for ever be a warning to me, how I turn afide into by-paths of fin any more. The POE M. Hen cattle from your fields are gone aftray, Wer And you to feek them through the country ride; Enquiring for them all along the way, Tracking their foot-fteps where the turn'd afide; One fervant this way fent, another that, Searching the fields and country round about; This meditation now falls in fo pat, As if God fent it to enquire you out : My beafts are loft, and fo am I by fin; My wretched foul from God thus wandring went; As I feek them, fo was I fought by him, Who from the Father's bofom forth was fent. Parfu'd by fermons, follow'd close by grace, And strong convictions, Chrift hath fought for me; Yea, though I fhun him, ftill he gives me chase, Should fly a Saviour that's fo full of grace! And let this day thy wandring theep be found. I' CHAP. IV. Upon the Feeding of fat Cattle. Fat beafts you kill, the lean you use to savé : OBSERVATION. T is a good obfervation of a Father, and well applied; Vituli triturantes quotidie ligantur, vituli mactandi quotidie in pafcuis libere relinquuntur: Oxen for use are daily yoked and kept fhort, whilft thofe that are defigned for the fhambles, are let loofe in green pastures to feed at pleasure. Store beafts fare hard, and are kept lean and low; feeding beafts are excused from the yoke, whilft others are laboured and wrought hard every day; the one hath more than he can eat, the other would eat more if he had it. TH APPLICATION. HUS deals the Lord oft-times with his own elect, whom he defigns for glory; and with the wicked, who are preparing for the day of wrath: thus are they filled with earthly profperity, and creature-enjoyments, like rufty and wanton beafts turned out at liberty in a fat pafture, whilft poor faints are kept hard and fhort; Amos iv. 1. "Hear this word, ye "kine of Bafhan, that are in the mountains of Samaria, which * opprefs the poor, crush the needy." Thefe metaphorical kine are the profperous oppreffors of the world, full fed, and wanton wicked men. It is true, heaven hath not all the poor, nor hell all the rich; but it is a very common difpenfation of providence, to bestow most of the things of this world upon them that have no portion in heaven; and to keep them short on earth, for whom that kingdom is provided. Let me draw forth the fimilitude in a few particulars. 1. The beasts of flaughter have the fattest pastures; so have the ungodly in the world; "Their eyes ftand out with fatnefs: they have more than heart could wish," Pfal. Ixxiii. 7. Their hearts are as fat as grease, Pfal. cxix. 70. These be they that fleet off the cream of earthly enjoyments, whofe bellies are filled with hidden treasures," Pfal. xvii. 14. "The earth is given into the hand ofthe wicked," Job ix. 24. O what full eftates! what an affluence of earthly delights hath God caft in upon fome wicked men! There is much wantonness, but no want in their dwellings: fome that know not which way to turn themselves in hell, once knew not where to bestow their goods on earth. 2. Feeding beafts grow wanton in their full paftures; there you shall see them tumble and frisk, and kick up their heels. The fame effect hath the profperity of the wicked; it makes them wanton; their life is but a diverfion from one pleasure to another, Job xxi. 11, 12, 13. "They fend forth their little "ones like a flock, and their children dance : they take the tim"brel and harp, and rejoice at the found of the organ: they fpend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the "grave." The fame chacter doth the prophet Amos give of them, Amos vi. 4, 5, 6. "They stretch themselves upon "beds of ivory, drink wine in bowls," &c. and no forrow goes to their hearts. These are they that live in pleasures upon earth, as a fish in the water, Jam. v. 5. 3. These fat paftures do but the fooner haften the death of thefe cattle: the fooner they are fatted, the fooner they are laughtered, and the profperity of the wicked ferves to the fame end: the profperity of fools fhall destroy them; i. e. it shall be the means and inftrument of heating and heightening their lufts, and thereby fitting them for deftruction; their prosperity is food and fewel to their corruptions. Many wicked men had not been fo foon ripe for hell, had they not grown in the funThine of profperity. 4. Fatted beaits do not in the least understand the intent and meaning of the husbandman, in allowing them fuch large and fat paftures, which he denies to his other cattle; and as little as beafts, do wicked men understand the scope and end of God's providences, in cafting profperity and wealth upon them; little do they think their tables are a fnare, a gin, and a trap for their fouls; they only, like beafts, mind what is before them, but do not at all understand the tendency and end of these their fenfual delights. 5. Though the husbandman keeps his ftore-cattle in short commons, yet he intends to preferve them: thefe fhall remain with him, where the others are driven to the flaughter. Such a defign of prefervation is carried on in all thofe out ward straits, wants, and hardships which the Lord expofes his people to. I confefs, fuch difpenfations, for the present, are very stumbling and puzzling things, even to gracious and wife perfons. To fee wicked men, not only exempted from their troubles, but even oppreffed with profperity: to see a godly man in wants and ftraits, and a wicked man have more than his heart can wifh, is a cafe that poses the wifeft Chriftian, til he confiders the defigns and iffues of both thofe providences, and then he acquiefces in the wifdom of God fo ordering it, Pfal. lxxiii. 5, 14, 18, 23 REFLECTION S. A reflection for a voluptuous worldling. 1. Doth my profperity fat me up for hell, and prepare me for the day of flaughter? Little caufe have I then to glory in it, and lift up my heart upon these things. Indeed, God hath given (I cannot say blessed me with) a fulness of creatureenjoyments; upon thefe my carnal heart feizeth greedily and fecurely, not at all fufpecting a fnare lying in these things for the ruin of my foul. What are all these charming pleasures, but fo many rattles to quiet my foul, whilft its damnation steals infenfibly upon it? What are all my bufineffes and imployments in the world, but fo many diverfions from the business of life? There are but two differences betwixt me, and the poorest flave the devil hath on earth; fuch are whipped on to hell by outward miferies, and I am coached to hell in a little more pomp and honour; thefe will have a lefs, and I a greater account in the day of reckoning. O that I had never known profperity! I am now tumbling in a green pafture, and shortly fhall be hanging up in the fhambles in hell: if this be the beft fruit of my profperity, if I were taken captive by cruel canibals, and fed with the richeft fare, but withal understood, that the defign of it were to fat me up like a beast for them to feed upon, how little ftomach fhould I have to their dainties? O my foul! it were much better for thee to have a fanctified poverty, which is the portion of many faints, than an enfuaring profperity, fet as a trap to ruin thee for ever. 2. The wisdom of my God hath allotted A reflection for me but short commons here; his providence a poor Christian. feeds me but from band to mouth; but I am, and well may be, contented with my present state; that which fweetens it is, that I am one of the Lord's preferved. How much better is a morfel of bread, and a draught of water here with an expectency of glory hereafter, than a fat pasture given in, and a fitting for the wrath to come? Well ince the cafe ftands thus, bleffed be God for my prefent lot! Though I have but a little in hand, I have much in hope; my present troubles will ferve to fweeten my future joys; and the forrows of this life will give a luftre to the glory of the next; that which is now hard to fuffer, will then be sweet to remember; my fongs will then be louder than my groans now are. TH The POE M. : HOSE beafts which for the shambles are design'd, And radiant beams their fhining brows attire. Their pleafure's gone, and vanifh like a bubble, נו |