fweet, Prov. xxvii. 7. It is the Dutch proverb, and a very true one, Hunger is the best cook*. In time of famine coarseft fare contents, The barking ftomach strains complements.' It is ftoried of Artaxerxes Meinnon, that when he was flying before his enemies, he fed hungrily upon barley-bread, and faid, Cujufmodi voluptatis hactenus inexpertus fui! O what pleafare have I hitherto been ignorant of! When great Darius drank the puddled water, that had been defiled with dead carcafes, which had been flain in that famous battle, he profeffed he never drank more pleafant drink. And tamous Hunniades faid, he never faired more daintily, than when (in a like exigence) he fupped upon bread, onions, and water, with a poor fhepherd in his cottage. Juft fo doth the famine of the word raife the price and esteem of vulgar and defpifed truths. Oh! what would you give for one of thofe fermons, one of thofe fabbaths we formerly enjoyed! In those days the word of the Lord was precious. When God calls to the enemy to take away and remove his contemned, but precious dainties, from his wanton children, and a spiritual famine hath a little pinched. them, they will then learn to prize their fpiritual food at a higher rate. 4. In time of famine fome perfons fuffer more than others: it falls heaviest, and pincheth hardeft upon the poorer fort; as long as any thing is to be had for money, the rich will have it. So it falls out in a fpiritual famine; although the most experienced and beft furnished Chriftians will have enough to do to live in the abfence of ordinances, yet they are like to fubfift much better than weak, ignorant, and unexperienced ones. Some Chriftians have husbanded their time well. and, like Jofeph in the feven years plenty, laid up for a fearcity. The word of God dwells richly in them. Some fuch there are, as John calls young men, who are ftrong, and the word of God remaineth in them; of whom it may be faid, as Jerom fpake of Nepotianus, that by long and affiduous meditation of the fcriptures, he had made his breaft the very library of Chrift. But others are babes in Chrift; and though God will preferve that good work which he hath begun in them, yet thefe poor babes will fooneft find, and be moft concerned in the lofs of their fpiritual fathers and nurfes. 5. In time of famine there are pitiful cries, and heart-breaking complaints wherever you go. Oh the many pale faces you fhall then fee, and the fad language that rings in your ears in every place! One cries, Bread, bread, for Chrift's fake! one bit of bread! another faints and falls down at your door. All her people figh, Lam. i. II. Yea, the poor little ones are brought in, ver. 12. crying to their mothers, Where is the corn and wine? and then pouring out their Jejunus ftomachus raro gulgaria temnit, Horat. fouls into their mother's bofom. Juft fo it is in a famine of the word; poor Chriftians every where fighing and crying, Oh! where are our godly minifters ? our fweet fabbaths, fermons, facraments? My fathers! my fathers! the chariots of Ifrael, and the horsemen thereof! How beautiful were your feet upon the mountains? And then, weeping, like the people at Paul's departure, to think they shall fee their faces no more. 6. Laftly, In time of famine there is nothing fo coftly or precious, but the people will part with it to purchase bread. "They have "given their pleafant things for meat to relieve their fouls," Lam. i. 11. And, doubtlefs, when a fpiritual famine fhall pinch hard, those that have been clofe-handed to maintain a gofpel-miniftry, will account it a choice mercy to enjoy them again at any rate. "Though "the Lord feed you with the bread of affliction, and give you the "waters of adversity; yet it will sweeten that bread and water to you, "if your teachers be no more removed into corners,” Ifa. xxx. 20. REFLECTIONS The ungrateful 1. Is the famine of the word fuch a fearful judg foul's reflection. ment? Then Lord pardon my unthankfulness, for the plentiful and long-continued enjoyment of fuch a precious and invaluable mercy. How long lightly have I esteemed the great things of the gofpel! O that with eyes and hands lifted up to heaven, I might bless the Lord that ever I was brought forth in an age of fo much light, in a valley of vifions, in a land flowing with gofpel-mercies!" Hath not God made of one blood all the nations of "men to dwell on the face of the earth? And determined the times "before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation ?" Acts xvii. 26. Many of these great and populous nations are involved in grofs darkness. Now that of all the feveral ages of the world, and places in it, God fhould efpy the beft place for me, and bring me forth in it, in fuch a happy nick of time, as can hardly be paralleled in hiftory for the plenty of gofpel-mercies that this age and nation hath enjoyed; that my mother did not bring me forth in the deferts of Arabia, or waftes of America, but in England, where God hath made the fun of the gospel to stand still, as the natural fun once did over Gibeon; and that fuch a mercy fhould no more affect my foul, let fhame cover my face for this, and trembling feize my heart! The deprived Chrif tian's reflection. 2. Is the gospel indeed departed? Its sweet influences reftrained? and a famine, worse than that of bread, come upon us? Alas for the day! for it is a great day, fo that none is like it; it is even the day of Jacob's trouble! Woe is me, that ever I fhould furvive the gofpel, and the precious liberties and mercies of it! What horrid fins have been harboured amongst us, for which the Lord contends by fuch an unparalleled judgment? Lord, let me justify thee, even in this fevere difpenfation; the provocation of thy fons and of thy daughters have been very great, and amongst them none greater than mine. May we not this day read our fin in our punishment? O what nice and wanton appetites what curious and itching ears had thy people in the days of plenty! Methods, tones, and gestures were more regarded than the excellent treasures of divine truths. Ah, my foul! I remember my fault this day; little did I then confider, that fermons work not upon hearts, as they are thus elegant, thus admirable, but as they are inftruments in the hand of God appointed to fuch an end. Even as Auftin faid of the conduits of water, though one be in the shape of an angel, another of a beaft, yet the water refreshes as it is water, and not as it comes from fuch a conduit: by this alfo, O Lord, thou rebukest the supineness and formality of thy people. How drowsy, dull, and careless have they been under the most excellent and quickening means? Few more than I. Alas! I have often prefented my body before the Lord in ordinances, neux, but my foul hath been wandering abroad, as Chryfoftom fpeaks. I fhould have come from under every fermon, as a fheet comes from the prefs, with all the ftamps and lively impreffions of the truths I have heard upon my heart. But, alas! if it had been demanded of me, as once it was of Aristotle, after a long and curious oration, how he liked it? I might have answered, as he did, truly I did not hear it, for I was all the while minding another matter. Righteous art thou, O Lord, in all that is come upon us! 3. I am now as a fpring fhut up, that can yield no refreshment to thirsty fouls, ready to perith. Thou haft faid to The filent minifter's reflection. me as once to Ezekiel, "Son of man, behold, I will "make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, " and thou shalt be dumb." This is a very heavy judgment; but thou must be juftified and cleared in it. Although men may not, yet God, if he pleafe, may put a lighted candle under a bufhel. And herein I muft acknowledge thy righteoufnefs. Many times have I been finfully filent, when both thy glory and the interest of fouls engaged me to fpeak. Moft juftly therefore haft thou made my tongue to cleave to its roof. Little did I confider the preciousness of fouls, or the tremendous account to be given for them, at the appearing of the great Shepherd. I have now time enough to fit down and mourn over former mifcarriages and loft opportunities. Lord, reftore me once again to a ferviceable capacity, to a larger sphere of activity for thee, for I am now become as a broken veffel. It grieves me to the heart to fee thy flock scattered; to hear the people cry to me, as once to Jofeph, «Give us bread; for why should we die in "thy presence?" The word is like fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing. Oh! that thou wouldst once again open the doors of thine houfe, that there may be bread enough in thine house for all thy children. W THE POEM. HEN God doth make the heavens above as brafs, Our fun gone down, our ftars o'ercaft? Our pining fouls no bread can get; How long did Sodom's judgments ftay, You that fo long have wifh'd them gone, God hath remov'd them out o'th' way. Now fleep in fin, and take your ease; A CHAP. XI. Upon the Corruption of the Seed before it springs. Seeds die and rot, and then must fresh appear: OBSERVATION. FTER the feed is committed to the earth, it seems to perifh and die, as our Saviour fpeaks, John xii. 24. "Except a corn "of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it "die, it brings forth much fruit." The death of the corn in the earth is not a total death, but only the corruption or alteration of it: for if once the feminal life and virtue of it were quite extinguifhed, it could never put forth blade or ear without a miracle. Yet becaufe that alteration is a kind of death, therefore Chrift here ufes it as a fit illuftration of the refurrection. And indeed there is nothing in nature more apt to illuftrate that great mystery. What a fragrant, green, and beautiful blade do we fee spring up from a corrupted feed? How black and mouldy is that! How beautiful and verdant is this? E APPLICATION. VEN thus fhall the bodies of the faints arife in beauty and glory at the refurrection: "They are fown in dithonour; they are raised in glory; they are fown natural bodies; they are raifed fpiritual bodies," 1 Cor. xv. 43, 44. The hufbandman knows, |