tum. 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 perith in a strange country: but I have no mind, with him, to return home. Wretched soul! what will the end of this be? I God have lost thee, the devil hath found thee; he takes up all ftray. ers from God: yea, death and hell will fhortly find thee, if Chrift do not ; and then thy recovery, O my soul! will be impoflible! Why fit I here perifhing and dying? Iam not yet as irrecoverably loft as the damned are. O let me delay no longer, left I be loft for ever!

2. Omy fouł! for eter bless and admire A refletion for the love of Jesus Christ, who came from one that was left, heaven to feek and save fach a loft foul as I but is found. was. Lord, how marvellous! how match.

hefs is thy love! I was loft, and am found : I am found, and did not seek; nay, I am found by him from whom I fled. Thy love, O my Saviour ! was a preventing love, a wonderful love; thou lovedit me much more

than I loved myfelf; I was cruel ro my own foul, but thou wat kind; thou foughteft for me, a loft finner, and not 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 lost foul out of the mouth of the destroyer ; yea, more than so, thot didft lose thine own life to find mine : And now, dear Jefus, fince I am thus marvellously recovered, fhall I ever ftraggle again from thee? O let it for ever be a warning to me, how I turn aside into by-paths of fin any more.

The POEM.
Hen cattle from your fields are gone aftray,

And you to feek them through the country ride ;
Enquiring for them all along the way,

Tracking their foot-fteps where the , tum'd afide ; One servant 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 beasts 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 bosom forth was fent. Parfu'd by fermons, follow'd clofe by grace,

And strong convictions, Chrift hath fought for me;

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Yea, though I thun him, fill he gives me chase,

As if refolv'd I should not damned be. When angels loft themselves, it was not so ;

God did not feek or once for themi enquire ;
But said, Let thefe apoftate creatores go,

I'll plague them for it with eternal fire.
Lord! what am I, that thou shonldft set thine eyes,

And ftill feek after fuch a wretch as I ?
Whofe matchless mercy, and rich grace despise,

As if, in fpight thereof, resolved to die.
Why should I thun thee? - Bleffed Saviour, why

Should I avoid thee thus ? Thou doft not chafe
My foul to say it; 0 that ever I

Should fly a Saviout that's fo full of grace!
Long haft thou fought me, Lord, I now return,

Olet thy bowels of compassion found;
For my departure I fincerely moutn,
And let this day thy wandring iheep be found.

CHA P. IV.

Upon the Feeding of fat Cattle.
Fat beafts you kill, the lear you use to save :
God's difpenfations fome fuch meaning have.

OBSERVATION.
T is a good observation of a Father, and well applied ; Vituli

triturantes quotidie ligantur, vituli mastandi quotidie in pascuis libere relinquuntur : Oxen for use are daily yoked and kept fhort, whilft thofe that are designed for the shambles, are ket loose in green pastures to feed at pleasure. Store beafts fare hard, and are kept lean and low; feeding beasts 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.

APPLICATION.
HUS deals the Lord oft-times with his own elect, whom

he designs 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 rusty and, wanton beafts curned out at liberty in a fat pasture, whilft poor faints are kept hard and short; Amos iv. 1. “ Hear this word, ye « kine of Bafhan, that are in the mountains of Samaria, which ** oppress the poor, cruth the needy." These metaphorical

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kine are the prosperous oppressors 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 dispensation of providence, to bestow most of the things of this world upon them that have no portion in heaven ; and to keep them shor on earth, for whom that kingdom is provided. Let me draw forth the fimilitude in a few particulars.

1. The beasts of Naughter have the fattest pastures; so have the ungodly in the world; “ Their eyes stand out with fat& nefs: they have more than heart could wish," Pfal. Ixxiii. 7. Their hearts are as fat as grease, Psal. cxix. 70. These be they that fleet off the cream of earthly enjoyments, « whose bellies are filled with hidden treasures," Psal. xvii. 14. “ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked,” Job ix. 24. O what full estates ! what an affluence of earthly delights hath God cast in upon some 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 beasts grow wanton in their full pastures; there you shall see them tumble and frisk, and kick up their heels. The fame effect hath the prosperity of the wicked ; it makes them wanton ; their life is but a diversion from one pleasure to another, Job xxi. 11, 12, 13. ^ They send forth their little “ ones like a flock, and their children dance : they take the tim« breland harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ: they « spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the

grave.” The same chazcter 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 pastures do but the fooner haften the death of these cattle: the sooner they are fatted, the sooner they are dlaughtered, and the prosperity of the wicked serves to the same end: the prosperity of fools fhall destroy them ; i. e. it shall be the means and instrument of heating and heightening their Justs, and thereby fitting them for deftruction ; their prosperity is food and fewel to their corruptions. Many wicked men had not been so soon ripe for hell, had they not grown in the funTrine of prosperity

4. Fatted beasts do not in the least understand the intent and meaning of the husbandman, in allowing them fuch large and fat pastures, which he denies to his other cattle, and as little

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as Beasts, do wicked men understand the scope and end of God's providences, in casting prosperity and wealth upon them; little do they think their tables are a snare, a gin, and a trap for their fouls ; they only, like beasts, 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 store-cattle in short commons, yet he intends to preferve them : thefe fhall remain with him, whert the others are driven to the daughter.

Such a design of preservation is carried on in all those out ward straits, wants, and hardships which the Lord exposes his people to. I confess, such dispensations, for the present, are very stumbling and puzzling things, even to gracious and wise persons. To fee wicked men, not only exempted from their troubles, but even oppreffed with prosperity: to see a godly man in wants and straits, and a wicked man have more than his heart can with, is a case that poses the wifeft Chriftian, till he considers the designs and issues of both those providences, and then he acquiesces in the wisdom of God so ordering it, Plal. lxxiii. 5, 14, 18, 23.

REFLECTIONS. 1. Doth my profperity fat me up for hell,

A reflection for and prepare me for the day of ffaughter ? Litile cause have I then to glory in it, and lift

a voluptuous my heart upon these things. Indeed, God worldling. hath given (I cannot fay blessed me with) a fulness of creatureenjoyments; upon these my carnal heart feizeth greedily and fecurely, not at all suspecting a snare lying in these things for the ruin of my foul. What are all these charming pleasures, but so many rattles to quiet my foul, whilft its damnation steals infenfibly upon it? What are all my busineffes and imployments in the world, but so many diverfions from the bulinefs of life? There are but two differences betwixt me, and the poorest fave the devil hath on earth ; such are whipped on to hell by outward miseries, 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 prosperity! I am now tumbling in a green pasture, and shortly Thall be hanging up in the shambles in hell : if this be the beft fruit of my prosperity, if I were taken captive by cruel canibals, and fed with the richest fare, but withal underftood, that the design of it were to fac me up like a beast for them to feed upon, how little ftomach should I have to their dainties ? O my foul! it were much better for thee to have a fanctified poverty,

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which is the portion of many saints, than an enfoaring profperity, set 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,

I and well may be, contented with my present state ; that which fwestens it is, that I am one of the Lord's preserved. How much better is a mortel of bread, and a draught of water here with an expectency of glory hereafter, than a far pasture given in, and a fitting for the wrath to come? Well lince the cafe ftands thus, blefied be God for my present lot! Though I have but a little in hand, I have much in hope ; my present troubles will serve to sweeten my future joys; and the forfows of this life will give a luftre to the glory of the next ; that which is now hard to suffer, will then be Tweet to yemember; my fongs will then be louder than my groans now are.

The PO E M.
HOS E beasts which for the shambles are design'd,
In fragrant flow'ry meadows you shall find,

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Where they abound with rich and plenteous fare,
Whilst others graze in commons thin and bare :
Those live a short and pleafant life, but these
Protract their lives in dry and shorter leas.
Thus lives the wicked; thus they do abound
With earthly glory, and with honour crown'd.
Their lofty heads unto the stars aspire,
And radiant beams their fhining brows attire.
The fattest portion's ferv'd up in their dish;
Yea, they have more than their own hearts can with,
Diffolv'd in pleafures, crown'd with buds of May;
They, for a time, in chefe fat paftures play,
Friik, dance and leap, like full-fed beafts ; and even
Turn up their wanton heels against the heaven ;
Not underftanding that this pleafant life,
Serves but to fit them for the butcher's knife.
In fragrant ineads they tumbling are to-day,
To-morrow to the slaughter led away.

Their pleafure's gone, and vanith like a bubble,
Which makes their future torments on them double.
Mean while God's little flock is poor and lean,
Becanse the Lord did ne'er intend or mean
This for their portion; and besides doth know
Their fouls prove best, where shortest grafs doth grow,

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