guage of his providences to my foul fhould be this; Lo! here I have given thee (with Ifhmael) the fatnefs of the earth? Thou shalt not fay, but thou haft tafted of thy Creator's bounty; but make the moft of it, for this is all that ever thou fhalt have from me; there be others in the world, to whom I have denied these things, but for them I have referved better; for the most part they are poor in this world, but rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom. Is not this enough to damp all my carnal mirth? Should my confcience give me fuch a Memento as Abraham, in the parable, gave to Dives; "Remember that thou in thy life"time receivedft thy good things;" Ah! what a cut would that be to all my comforts? A man in a fever hath a lively colour, but a dying heart. I have an appearance, a fhadow of comfort, but a fad ftate of foul. 2. A reflection for Chrift but no one that hath barn. "Bleffed be the God and Father of my "Lord Jefus Christ, who hath blessed me with "with all spiritual bleffings in heavenly pla❝ces in Chrift," Ephef. i. 3. Though he hath not feen fit to give me much of this world in hand, yet it hath pleased him to fettle a rich inheritance upon me by promife; the hopes and expectations whereof, yield my foul more true comfort than all the prefent enjoyments of this world could have done. Bleffed be the Lord, who hath not given me my portion in this life, that by keeping me from the enjoyment, hath also preserved me from the fnares of a profperous eftate? Lord Jefus, I have no bags, I have no barns; but thou shalt be to me inftead of all thofe things. When others rejoice in the fulness of their earthly comforts, I will rejoice in the fulnefs of my Chrift: they have that which (though I have not) I shall not want; and I have that which all their riches cannot purchafe. Blefs the Lord, O my foul! A reflection for one that hath a full barn, and Chrift too. 3. But, Lord, how am I obliged, above thousand's, to love and praise thee ! to blefs and admire thee, who haft not only plentifully provided for my soul, but for my body too! who haft given me both the upper and the nether fprings, heaven and earth; things prefent, and things to come! Thou haft not dealt fo with all; no, not with all of shy own people: many of them are ftrangers to the mercies which I enjoy. God hath done great things for me, O my foul! what wilt thou do for God? The freer the condition is he hath placed me in, the more am I both obliged and advantaged for his fervice; and yet, I doubt, it will be found, that many a poor Chriftian, that labours with his hands to get his bread, redeems more hours for God than I do. Lord, make me wife to understand and anfwer the double end of this gracious difpenfation! let me beftow the more of my time upon God, and ftand ready to minifter to the neceffities of his people. Areflection for one that bath neither a barn, nor a Chrift. 4. Oh! what an unhappy wretch am I! that have nothing either in hand, or in hope; am miferable here, and like to be fo for ever: had I but an intereft in Chrift, as the godly poor have, that would sfweeten all present troubles, and fhew me the end of them. But, alas! I am poor and wicked, contemned of men, and abhorred of God; an object of contempt both to heaven and earth. Lord, look upon fuch a truly miferable object with compaffion, give me a portion with thy people in the world to come, if thou never better my outward condition here! O fanctify this poverty; bless these ftraits and wants, that they may neceffitate my foul to go to Christ: make this poverty the way to glory, and I fhall bless thee to eternity that I was poor in this world. The POE M. FT have I feen, when harveft's almost in, The laft load coming, how fome men have been Drew home the very treasure of their heart; Have you beheld, when, with perfumed wings, That fphere wherein their low conceptions move. Upon the Threshing out of Corn. More folid grain with greater frength you thref H OBSERVATION. Ufbandmen having to do with divers forts of grain, fome more tough and ftubborn, others more free and tender, do not beat all alike on the threfhing-floor; but as they have threfhals of feveral fizes, fo they beftow on fome grain more, on others fewer strokes, according to the different qualities of the grain to be threfhed. This obfervation the prophet Ifaiah hath, chap. xxviii. ver. 27. "The fitches are not threshed "with a threfhing-inftrument, neither is the cart-wheel tur"ned about upon the cummin, but the fitches are beaten out "with a ftaff, and the cummin with a rod." The manner of beating out the corn in former times, was far different from that VOL. VI, T which is now in use among us; they had the cart-wheel, which was full of iron fpokes or teeth, and the hoofs of beafts for the harder foat of grain, as wheat, rye, and barley; a staff or flail for the fitches, and a rod or twig for the cummin; all which inftruments were proportioned according to the nature of the grain. G APPLICATIO N. OD having to do, in a way of correction, with divers forts of offenders, doth not use the like severity with them all, but proportions his correction to their abilities and strength, Jer. xxx. 11. "I will not make a full end of thee, [but will cor"rect thee in measure] and will not leave thee altogether unpu"nifhed:" (q.d.) Afflicted thou must be; my respect to my own glory, and thy good, puts a neceffity upon that; but yet I will do it moderately: I will not lay on without measure or mercy, as I intend to do, upon the enemies; but will mete out your fufferings in a due proportion, even as a careful physician, in prefcribing pills, or potions to his patient, hath regard as well to the ability of the patient, as to the nature and quality of the disease; even fo thy God, O Ifrael, will not afflict thee according to the greatness of his power, and his wrath, answerable thereunto, Pfal. xe. 11. that would break thee to pieces, Pfal.. lxxviii. 38. Nor yet will he afflict thee according to the demerit of thy fin: as it thall be much lefs than what I could inflict, so it shall be lefs than thine iniquities deserve, Ezra ix. 13. Neither my power, nor thy defers, fhall be the rule of my proceedings; but I will do it with moderation and mercy, as thou art able to bear. I that have inftructed the husbandman to proportion his inftrument to the quality of the grain before him, will exercise the like wisdoin and mildness towards thee. And the fimilitude betwixt the husbandman's threshing his corn, and the Lord's afflicting his people, ftands in thefe particulars. 1. The husbandman's end in threfhing the corn is, to feparate it from the husks and chaff; and God's end in afflicting his people is, to feparate them from their fins, Ifa. xxvii. 9. "In measure when it fhooteth forth, he will debate with it," (i. e.) he will moderately correct them; and what the ends of those corrections are, the next words inform us, " By this there"fore hall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the "fruit to take away his fin." God ufes afflictions, as we use. foap, to cleanse away filthiness, and fetch out fpots,, Dan. xi.. 35. He aims not at the deftruction of their perfons, but of their lußs. 2. If the husbandman have cockle, darnel, or pernicious tares before him on the floor among his corn, he little regards whe ther it be bruised, or battered to pieces by the thresher or no; it is a worthless thing, and he fpares it not. Such cockle and tares are the enen.ies of God; and when these come under his flail, he strikes them without mercy; for these the Lord prepares a new sharp.threshing instrument, having teeth, which fhall beat them to duft, Ifa. xli. 15. "The daughter of Babylon " is like a threshing-floor; 'tis time to thresh her," Jer. li. 33. And when that time is come, then (in allufion to the beaft that was to tread out the corn) "Sion's horn fhall be ❝of iron, and her hoofs brafs," Mic. iv. 13. He smites not his people according to the stroke of them that smote them the meaning is, his strokes on them fhall be deadly strokes : they shewed no mercy to Sion; and God will fhew no mercy to them. 3. When the husks and chaff are perfectly feparated from the grain, then the husbandman beats it no more. When God hath perfectly purged and feparated the fins of his people, then afflictions fhall come to a perpetual end; he will never fmite them again: there is no noise of the threshing inftrument in heaven; he that beat them with his flail on earth, will *put them into his bofom in heaven. 4. Though the husbandman lays on, and beats his corn, as if he were angry with it, yet he loves and highly prizes it; and though God ftrike and afflict his people, yet he fets a great value upon them; and it is equally abfurd to infer God's hatred to his people from his afflicting of them, as the husbandman's hatred of his corn, because he threshes and beats it; Heb. xii. 6. "Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, and chaf"teneth every fon whom he receiveth." 5. Though the husbandman thresh and beat the corn, yet he will not bruise or hurt it, if he can help it; though fome require more and harder strokes than others, yet none shall have more than it can endure. And though the Lord afflict his fervants, yet he will do them no hurt, Jer. xxv. 6. Some need more rods than others, but none fhall have more than they can bear; the Lord knows the measures and degrees of his fervants faith and patience, and accordingly fhall their trials be, Pfal. ciii. 13, 14. "Like as a father pities his children, fo "the Lord pitieth them that fear him; for he knows their "frame, he remembers they are but duft; he makes a way to "efcape, that they may be able to bear it," I Cor. x. 13. |