Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

qualities have fome mere natural men and women! what å winning affability, humble condefcenfion, meekness, righteouf nefs, ingenuous tenderness, and sweetness of nature! As it was (hyperbolically enough) faid of one, In boc homine, non peccavit Adam; Adam never finned in this man; meaning that he excelled the generality of Adam's children in fweetnefs of temper and natural endowments. What curious phantasies, nimble wits, folid judgments, tenacious memories, rare e locution, &c. are to be found among mere natural men! by which they are affifted in difcourfing, praying, preaching and writing to the admiration of such as know them. But that which is highly esteemed of men, is abomination to God, Luke xvi. 15. It finds no acceptance with him, because it springs from that curfed root of nature, and is not the production of his own fpirit.

4. If fuch a stock were removed into a better foil, and graffed with a better kind, it might bring forth fruit pleasant and grateful to the husbandman; and if fuch perfons (before defcribed) were but regenerated and changed in their spirits and principles, what excellent and useful perfons would they be in the church of God? And then their fruits would be fweet and acceptable to him. One obferves of Tertullian, Origen, and Jerom, that they came into Canaan laden with Egyptian gold, (i. e.) they came into the church full of excellent human learning, which did Chrift much service.

5. When the husbandman cuts down his woods or hedges, he cuts down these crab stocks with the reft, because he values them not any more than the thorns and brambles among which they grow; and as little will God regard or spare these natural branches, how much foever they are laden with such fruit. The threatning is univerfal, John iii. 3. "Except you be rege"nerate, and born again, you cannot enter into the kingdom "of heaven." And again, Heb. xii. 14. "Without holiness, "no man (be his natural gifts never fo excellent)-shall fee "God." Imbellifhed nature, is nature ftill; "That which is "born of the flesh, is but flesh," however it be fet off with advantage to the eye of man.

A reflection for an accomplished naturalift.

REFLECTION S.

1. To what purpose then do I glory in my natural accomplishments? Though I have a better nature than fome others have, yet it is a cursed nature ftill. Thefe fweet qualities and excellent gifts, do only hide, but not kill the corruption of nature. I am but a rotten poft gilded over, and all my du

res but hedge-fruit, which God makes no account of. O cutting thought! that the unlearned fhall rife and take heaven, when I with all my excellent gifts fhall defcend into hell. Heaven was not made for scholars, as fuch, but for believers; as one faid, when they comforted him upon his death-bed, that he was a knowing man, a doctor of divinity: O faid he, I fhall not appear before God as a doctor, but as a man, I shall stand upon a level with the moft illiterate in the day of judgment. What doth it avail me that I have a nimble wit, whilst I have none to do myself good? Will my judge be charmed with a thetorical tongue? Things will not be carried in that world as they are in this. If I could, with Berengarius, difcourfe de amni fcibile, of every thing that is knowable; or with Solomon, unravel nature from the cedar to the hyop, what would this advantage me, as long as I am ignorant of Chrift, and the mystery of regeneration? My head hath often aked with study, but when did my heart ake for fin? Methinks, O my foul ! thou trimmeft up thyfelf in these natural ornaments, to appear before God, much as that delicate Agag did, when he was to come before Samuel, and fondly conceits that these things will procure favour, or (at least) pity from him; but yet think not, for all that, the bitterness of death is paft: Say not within thyfelf, will God caft fuch a one as I into hell? Shall a man of fuch parts be damned? Alas! juftice will hew thee to pieces, as Samuel did that fpruce king, and not abate thee the leaft for these things; many thousand branches of nature, as fair and fruitful as thyself, are now blazing in hell, because not tranfplanted by regeneration into Chrift; and if he spared not them, neither will he fpare thee.

A reflection for a true, but weak believer

2. I am a poor defpifed fhrub, which have no beauty at all in me, and yet fuch a one hath the Lord chofen to tranfplant into Chrift, whilft he left many fragrant branches standing on their native ftock, to be fuel of his wrath to all eternity! O grace! for ever to be admired! Ah! what cause have I to be thankful to free grace, and for ever to walk humbly with my God! the Lord hath therefore chofen an unlikely, rugged, unpolished creature as I am, that pride may for ever be hid from mine eyes, and that I may ever glory in his prefence, 1 Cor. i. 29. I now have the advantage of a better root and foil than any carnal perfon hath; it will therefore be a greater shame to me, and a reproach to the root that bears me, if I fhould be outftripped and excelled by them: yet, Lord, how often do I find it fo? I fee fome of them meek and patient, whilft I am

[ocr errors]

rough and furly; generous and noble, whilft I am bafe and penurious. Truly fuch a branch as I am, is no honour to the root that bears it.

I

The POE M.

Am' a branch of that fair Eden tree

Which to mankind God hath ordain'd to be
The common ftock; his fituation good,
His branches many, of himself a wood;
And like a cedar by the river fed,.

Unto the clouds his ample branches spread :
Sin fmote his root, then justice cut him down,
And levell'd with the earth his lofty crown.
What hope of branches when the tree's o'erturn'd,
But like dry faggots to be bound and burn'd ?
It had been fo, had not tranfcendent love,
Which in a sphere above our thoughts doth move,
Prepar'd a better ftock to fave and nourish
Tranfplanted twigs, which in him thrive and flourish.
In Adam all are curs'd; no faving fruit
Shall ever spring from that fin-blasted root:
Yea, all the branches that in him are found,
How flourishing foever, muft be bound
And pil'd together (horrid news to tell!)
To make an everlasting blaze in hell.
God takes no pleasure in the fweetest bud
Difclos'd by nature; for the root's not good.
Some boughs indeed richly adorned are
With natural fruits, which to the eye are fair;
Rare gifts, fweet difpofitions, which attract
The love of thousands, and from most exact
Honour and admiration. You'll admire
That fuch as thefe are fewel for the fire:
Indeed, ten thousand pities 'tis to fee
Such lovely creatures in this cafe to be.
Did they by true regeneration draw
The fap of life from Jeffe's root, the law,
By which they now to wrath condemned are,

Would cease to curfe, and God fuch buds would spare

But out of him there's none of thefe can move

His unrelenting heart, or draw his love.

Then cut me off from this accurfed tree,

Left I for ever be cut off from thee.

CHA P. II.

Upon the Union of the Graff with the Stock.
Whene'er you bud and graff, therein you fee,
How Chrift and fouls must here united be.

W

OBSERVATION.

HEN the husbandman hath prepared his graffs in

the season of the year, he carries them, with the tools that are neceffary for that work, to the tree or stock he intends to ingraff, and having cut off the top of the limb in some fmooth part, he cleaves it with his knife or chiffel a little befide the pith, knocks in his wedge to keep it open, then (having prepared the graff) he carefully fets it into the cleft, joining the inner fide of the barks of graff and stock together (there being the main current of the fap) then pulls out his wedge, binds both together (as in barking) and clays it up, to defend the tender graff and wounded stock from the injuries of the fun and rain.

These tender cyons quickly take hold of the ftock, and having immediate coalition with it, drink in its fap, concoct it into their own nourishment, thrive better, and bear more and better fruits than ever they would have done upon their natural root; yea, the smallest bud, being carefully inoculated and bound close to the stock, will, in short time, become a flourishing and fruitful limb.

THU

APPLICATION.

HIS carries a moft fweet and lively resemblance of the foul's union with Chrift by faith; and indeed there is nothing in nature that fhadows forth this great gofpel-mystery like it: It is a thousand pities that any who are employed a bout, or are but fpectators of fuch an action, fhould terminate their thoughts (as too many do) in that natural object, and not raife up their hearts to thefe heavenly meditations, which it fo fairly offers them.

1. When a twig is to be ingraffed, or a bud inoculated, it is firft cut off by a keen knife from the tree on which it naturally grew.

And when the Lord intends to graff a foul into Christ, the first work about it, is cutting work, Acts ii. 37. their hearts were cut by conviction, and deep compunction; no cyon is inVOL. VI.

graffed without cutting, no foul united with Christ, without a cutting fenfe of fin and mifery, John xvi. 8, 9.

2. When the tender fhoot is cut off from the tree, there are, ordinarily, many more left behind upon the fame tree, ás pro mifing and vigorous as that which is taken; but it pleaseth the husbandman to chuse this, and leave them.

Even fo it is in the removing or tranfplanting of a foul by converfion; it leaves many behind it in the state of nature, as likely and promifing as itself; but fo it pleaseth God to take this foul, and leave many others; yea, often fuch as grew upon the fame root; I mean, the immediate parent, Mal. i. 2. "Was "not Efau Jacob's brother? faith the Lord: yet I loved Ja "cob, and I hated Efau."

3. When the graffs are cut off, in order to this work, it is a critical season with them: if they lie too long before they are ingraffed, or take not with the ftock, they die, and are never more to be recovered; they may ftand in the stock a while, but are no part of the tree.

So when fouls are under a work of conviction, it is a critical time with them; many a one have I known then to miscarry, and never recovered again: they have indeed for a time stood like dead graffs in the ftoek, by an external dead-hearted profeffion, but never came to any thing; and as fuch dead graffs, either fall off from the ftock, or moulder away upon it; fo do thefe, i John ii. 19.

4. The husbandman, when he hath cut off graffs, or tender buds, makes all the convenient fpeed he can to close them with the stock; the fooner that's done, the better; they get no good by remaining as they are. And truly it concerns the fervants of the Lord, who are imployed in this work of ingraffing fouls into Christ, to make all, the hafte they can to bring the convicted finner to a closure with Chrift. As foon as ever the trembling jailor cried, "What fhall I do to be faved?" Paul and Silas immediately direct him to Chrift, Acts xvi. 30, 31. They do not fay, it is too foon for thee to act faith on Christ,, thou art not yet humbled enough, but "believe in the Lord Jefus "Chrift, and thou fhalt be faved."

5. There must be an incifion made in the ftock before any bud can be inoculated; or the stock must be cut and cleaved, before the cyon can be ingraffed; according to that in the poet, Venerit infitio, fac ramum ramus adoptet; (i. e.)

To graffs no living fap the stocks impart,
Unless you wound and cut them near the heart.

Such an incifion, c wound, was made upon Chrift, in or

« ElőzőTovább »