we fhall hear a voice like that, Rev. xi. 12. "Come up hither, "and immediately we fhall be in the fpirit;" for how ardently foever, we long for that defirable day, Chrift longs for it more than we can do.

4. The husbandman is glad of the first-fruits, that encourages him, though the greateft part be yet out: and have not you received the firft-fruits of that glory? Have you not earnests, pledges, and first-fruits of it? "Tis your own fault, if every day you feed not upon fuch bleffed comforts of the fpirit, Rom. viii. 23. Rom. v. 2. 1 Pet. viii. 9. O how might the interpofing time, even all the days of your patience here be sweetned with such prelibations of the glory to come!

When

5. Hufbandmen know 'tis beft to reap, when 'tis fit to reap; one handful fully ripe, is worth many fheaves of green corn. And you know, heaven will be sweetest to you when you are fitteft for it; the child would pluck the apple whilst it's green, but he might gather it eafier, and tafte it sweeter, by tarrying longer for it. We would fain be glorified per faltum. we have got a taste of heaven, we are all in hafte to be gone. Then, O that I had wings as a dove! I would fly away and be at reft. Then we cry to God for ourselves, as Mofes for his fifter Miriam, "Heal her [now], O God, I beseech thee!" Numb. xii. 13. Glorify me now, O Lord, I pray thee! But, furely, as God hath contrived thy glory in the best of ways, so he hath appointed for thee the fitteft of feafons; and whenever thou art gathered into glory, thou shalt come as a fhock of corn in its feason.

REFLECTION S.

The longing I have waited for thy falvation, O God! Hafoul's reflection. ving received thy firft-fruits, my foul longs to fill its bofom with the full ripe fheaves of glory: "As the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so panteth 66 my foul for thee, O God! O when fhall I come and appear "before God!" I defire to be diffolved and to be with Chrift! When shall I fee that most lovely face? When fhall I hear his foul-transporting voice! Some need patience to die: I need it as much to live. Thy fights, O God, by faith, have made this world a burthen, this body a burden, and this foul to cry, like thirfty David, "O that one would give me of

the waters of Bethlehem to drink!" The husbandman longs for his harveft, because it is the reward of all his toil and labour. But what is his harvest to mine? What is a little corn to the enjoyment of God? What is the joy of harweft to the joy of heaven? What are the fhoutings of men

in the fields to the acclamations of glorified fpirits in the kingdom of God? Lord, I have gone forth, bearing more precious feed than they; when fhall I return rejoicing, bringing my Sheaves with me? Their harveft comes when they receive their corn; mine comes when I leave it. O much defired! O day of gladness of iny heart! How long, Lord! how long! Here I wait as the poor man at Bethesda's Pool, looking when my turn will come, but every one steps into heaven before me; yet, Lord, I am content to wait 'till my time is fully come: I would be content to stay for my glorification 'till I have finished the work of my generation; and when I have done the will of God, then to receive the promise. If thou have any work on earth, to use me in, I am content to abide behold, the hufbandman waiteth, and fo will I; for thou art a God of judgment; and bleffed are all they that wait for thee.

The lingring foul's reflection.

But how doth my flothful foul fink down into the flesh, and fettle itself in the love of this animal life? How doth it hug and wrap up itself in the garment of this mortality, not defiring to be removed hence to the more perfect and bleffed ftate? The hufbandman is indeed content to stay 'till the appointed weeks of the harvest; but would he be content to wait always? O my fenfual heart! is this life of hope as contentful to thee, as the life of vifion will be? Why doft thou not groan within thyfelf, that this mortality might be fwallowed up of life? Doth not the fcripture defcribe the faints by their earnest looking for the mercy of our Lord Jefus unto eternal life? Jude 21. "By their haftening unto the coming of the day "of God," 2 Pet. iii. 12. What is the matter, that my heart hangs back? Doth guilt lie upon my confcience? Or, have I gotten into a pleasant condition in the world, which makes me fay as Peter on the mount, It is good to be here? Or want I the affurance of a better state? Muft God make all my earthly comforts die, before I fhall be willing to die? Awake faith, awake my love; beat up the drowsy defires of my foul, that I may say, “Make haste my beloved, and come away.”

If, when the feafon comes about,
His harveft quits his coft.
His rare example juftly may
Rebuke, and put to shame
My foul; which fows its feed one day,
And looks to reap the fame.
Is curfed nature now become
So kind a foil to grace,
That to perfection it should come
Within fo fhort a space?

Grace fprings not up with feed and ease,
Like mushrooms in a night;
But rather, by degrees increase,
As doth the morning light.
Is corn fo dear to hufbandmen ?
Much more is heaven to me.
Why fhould not I have patience, then,
To wait as well as he?
To promises, appointed years

By God's decrees, are fet;
Thefe once expired, beyond its fears
My foul fhall quickly get.
How fmall a part of hafty time,

Which quickly will expire,

Doth me within this world confine,

And then comes my defire.

Come, Lord! how long my foul hath gafp'd!

Faith my affections warms;

O when shall my poor foul be clafp'd

In it's Redeemer's arms!

The time feems long; yet here I'll lie, "Till thou, my God, do call:

It is enough, eternity

Will make amends for all.

CHAP. XV.

Upon the Harvest-Season.

Corn, fully ripe, is reap'd, and gather'd in :
So must yourselves, when ripe in grace, or fin.

WH

OBSERVATION.

HEN the fields are white to harveft, then husbandmen walk through them, rub the ears; and finding

the grain full and folid, they prefently prepare their fcythes and fickles; fend for their harveft-men, who quickly reap and mow them down; and after thefe follow the binders, who tie it up; from the field, where it grew, it is carried to the barn, where it is threshed out; the good grain gathered into an heap, the chaff separated and burnt, or thrown to the dung-hill. How bare and naked do the fields look after harveft, which before were pleafant to behold? When the harvest-men enter into the field, it is (to allude to that, Joel ii. 3.) before them, like the garden of Eden, and behind them a defolate wildernefs; and, in fome places, 'tis ufual to set fire to the dry stubble, when the corn is houfed; which rages furioufly, and covers it all with athes.

TH

APPLICATION.

HE application of this, I find made to my hands by Christ himfelf, in Mat. xiii. 38, 39. "The field is the world; "the good feed are the children of the kingdom; the tares are "the children of the wicked one; the enemy that fowed them is the devil; the harveft is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels."

The field is the world; there both the godly and ungodly. live and grow together, 'till they be both ripe; and then they fhall both be reaped down by death: death is the fickle, that reaps down both. I will open this allegory in the following particulars :

1. In a catching harveft, when the husbandman fees the clouds begin to gather, and grows black, he hurries in his corn with all poffible hafte, and houses it day and night.

So doth God, the great Hufbandman; he hurries the faints into their graves, when judgments are coming upon the world; Ifa. lvii. 1. "The righteous perish, and no man layeth it to "heart; and merciful men are taken away, none confidering "that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." Me thufelah died the year before the flood; Augustin a little before the facking of Hippo; Pareus just before the taking of Heidelburgh; Luther a little before the wars broke out in Germany. But what fpeak I of fingle faints? Sometimes the Lord houses great numbers together, before fome fweeping judgment comes. How many bright and glorious ftars did fet almoft together within the compafs of a few years, to the astonishment of many wife and tender hearts in England? I find fome of them thus ranked in a funeral elegy:

VOL. VI.

The learned Twiffe went first (it was his right :)
Then holy Palmer, Burroughs, Love, Gouge, White,
Hill, Whitaker, grave Gataker and Strong,
Perne, Marthal, Robinfon, all gone along.

I have not nam'd them half; their only strife
Hath been (of late) who fhould first part with life.
These few who yet furvive, fick of this age,

Long to have done their parts, and leave the ftage.

The Lord fees it better for them to be under-ground, than above-ground; and, therefore, by a merciful providence, fets them out of harm's way.

2. Neither the corn, nor tares, can poffibly refift the sharp and keen fickle, when it is applied to them by the reaper's hand; neither can the godly or ungodly refift the stroke of death, when God inflicts it; Eccl. viii 8. "No man can keep ❝ alive his own soul in the day of death; and there is no dif"charge in that war." The frail body of man is as unable to withstand that stroke, as the weak reeds, or feeble stalks of the corn, are to refift the keen fcythe and sharp fickle.

3. The reapers receive the wheat, which they cut down, into their arms and bofom. Hence that expreffion, by way of im precation upon the wicked, Pfalm cxxix. 6, 7. " Let them be as

the grafs upon the houfe-top, which withers before it grows 66 up; wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that "bindeth fheaves, his bofom." Such withered grafs are the wicked, who are never taken into the reaper's bofom; but as foon as faints are cut down by death, they fall into the hands and bofoms of the angels of God, who bear them in their arms and bofoms to God their father, Luke xvi. 22. For look, as thefe bleffed fpirits did exceedingly rejoice at their conversion, Luke xv. 10. and thought it no difhonour to minifter to them, whilft they stood in the field, Heb. i. 14. So when they are cut down by death, they will rejoice to be their convoy to hea

ven.

4. When the corn and weeds are reaped or mowed down, they fhall never grow any more in that field; neither shall we ever return to live an animal life any more after death, Job vii. 9, 10. "As the cloud is confumed, and vanisheth away; "fo he that goeth down to the grave, fhall come up no more; "he fhall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more."

Laftly, (to come home to the particular fubjectof this chapter) the reapers are never fent to cut down the harvest 'till it be fully ripe; neither will God reap down faints or finners 'till