From Florence, filks; from Spain, fruit, falfred, facks; From England, wool; all lands as God diftributes, APPLICATION. Thus hath God diftributed the more rich and precious gifts and graces of his Spirit among his people: fome excelling in one gra ce, fome in another, though every grace, in fome degree, be in them all; even as in nature, though there be all the faculties in all, yet fome faculties are in fome more lively and vigo rous than in others; fome have a more vigorous eye, others a more ready ear, others a more voluble tongue; fo it is in fpirituals. Abraham excelled in faith, Job in patience, John in love. Thefe were their peculiar excellencies. All the elect veffels are not of one quantity; yet even thofe that excel others in fome particular grace, come fort in other refpects of thofe they to excelled in the former, and may be much improved by converse with such as in fome respects are much below them. The folid, wife, and judicious Chriftian' may want that liveli pefs of affections, and tenderness of heart, that appears in the weak; and one that excels in gifts and utterance, may learn humility from the very babes in Christ. And one principal reafon of this different distribution is to maintain fellowship among them all, 1 Cor. xii. 21. "The head "cannot fay to the feet, I have no need of you." As in a family where there is much bufinefs to be done, even the little children bear a part, according to their ftrength, Jer. vii. 18, The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, the « women knead the dough." So in the family of Chrift, the weakeft Chriftian is ferviceable to the ftrong. There be precious treasures in thefe earthen veffels, for which we should trade by mutual communion. The preciousness of the treasure, fhould draw out our defires and endeavours after it; and the confideration of the brittlenefs of thofe veffels in which they are kept, fhould caufe us to be the more expeditious n our trading with them, and make the quicker returns. For when those veffels (I mean bodies of the faints) are broken by death, there is no more to be gotten out of them. That trea fure of grace, which made them fuch profitable, pleafant, and defirable companions on earth, then afcends with them into hea vep, where every grace receives its adolefcence and perfection: and then, though they be ten thousand times more excellent and delightful than ever they were on earth, yet we can have no more communion with them, till we come to glory ourselves. Now therefore it behoves us to be enriching ourselves by communication of what God hath dropt into us, and improvement of them, as one well notes: We should do by fairs, as we ufe to do by some choice book lent us for a few days, we should fix in our memories, or transcribe all the choice notions we meet with in it, that they may be our own when the book is called for, and we can have it no longer by us. REFLECTION. 1 Lord, how, fhort do I come of my duty in communicating to, or receiving good by others! My foul is either empty and barren, or if there be any treasure in it, yet it is but as a treasure locked up in fome cheft, whole key is loft, when it should be opened for the ufe of others. Ah Lord! I have finned greatly, not only by vain words, but finful filence. I have been of little ufe in the world. How little alfo have 1 gotten by communion with others? Some, it may be, that are of my own fize, or judgment, or that I am otherwife obliged to, I can delight to converfe with: but, O, where is that largenefs of heart, and general delight I fhould have to, and in all thy people? How many of my old dear acquaintance are now in heaven, whofe tongues were as choice fil ver, while they were here, Prov. x. 20. And blessed fouls! how communicative were they of what thou gaveft them? O what an improvement had I made of my talent this way, had I been diligent! Lord pardon my neglect of those tweet and blessed advantages. O let all my delight be in thy faints, who are the excellent of the earth. Let me never go out of their company, without ap heart more warmed, quickened, and enlarged, than when I came amongst them. סי The POE M. To feveral nations God doth so distribute His bounty, that each one must pay a tributę Which of itself can beft fubfift and live. Each country's want, in fomething, doth maintain Mr. Gurnal. And end of God, who doth difpenfe and give More grace to fome, their brethren to relieve. Its beams are gilded gloriously; but then Should fun, moon, ftars, impropriate all their light, When death hath dasht it, no more can be got CHA P. XI. The rocks abide, though feas against them rage: OBSERVATIO N. THE rocks, though fituate in the boisterous and tempeftuous ocean, yet abide firm and immovable from age to age. The impetuous waves dafh against them with great violence, but cannot remove them out of their place. And although fome. times they wash over them, and make them to disappear, yet there they remain fixed and impregnable. APPLICATION, This is a lively emblem of the condition of the church, amidft all dangers and oppofitions wherewith it is encountered and affaulted in this world. These metaphorical waves roar and beat with violence against it, but with as little fuccefs as the fea against the rocks, Matth. xvi. 18. "Upon this rock will I build "my church, and the [gates] of hell fhall not prevail against "it." The gates of hell, are the power and policy of hell; for it is conceived to be an allufive speech to the gates of the Jews, wherein their ammunition for war was lodged, which also were the feats of judicature, there fat the judges; but yet these gates of hell fhall not prevail. Nay, this rock is not only in vincible, in the midst of their violence, but also breaks all that dash against it, Zech. xii. 3. "In that day I will make Jerufa "lem a burdenfome ftone for all people; all that burden them "felves with it, fhall be cut in pieces, though all the people of "the earth be gathered together against it." An allufion to one that effays to roul fome great stone against the hill, which at last returns upon him, and crushes him to pieces. And the reafon why it is thus firm and impregnable, is not from itself; for alas, so considered, it is weak, and obnoxious to rain; but from the almighty power of God, which guards and preferves it day and night, Pfalm xlvi 5, 6. "God is in the "midst of her, the fhall not be moved: God fhall help her, "and that right early." Vatab. Dum afpicit mane. When the morning appears. Which notes (faith Calvin) God's affiduous and conftant help and fuccour, which is extended in all dangers, as conftantly as the fun arifes. And this affiduous faccour to his people, and their great fecurity thereby, is fet forth in the Scriptures by a pleafant variety of metaphors and emblems, Zech. ii. 5. “1, faith the Lord, will be a wall of fire round a"bout it." Some think this phrafe alludes to the cherubims, that kept the way of the tree of life with flaming fwords: others, to the fiery chariots round about Dathan, where Elisha was; bur moft think it to be an allufion to an antient cuftom of travellers in the defarts; who, to prevent the affaults of wild beafts in the night, made a circular fire round about them, which was as a wall to them. Thus will God be to his people a wall of fire, which none can scale. So Exod. iii. 3, 4, 5. we have an excellent emblem of the church's low and dangerous condition, and admirable prefervation. You have here both a marvel and a mystery. The marvel was to fee a bufh all on fire, and yet not confumed. The mystery is this, the bush represented the fad condition of the church in Egypt; the fire flaming upon it, the grievous afflictions, troubles, and bondage it was in there; the remaining of the bush unconfumed, the frange and admirable prefervation of the church in those troubles. It lived there as the three noble Jews, untouched in the midst of a burning fiery furuace: and the angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire, in the midst of the bufh, was nothing else but the Lord Jefus Chrift, powerfully and gracioufly prefent with his people, amidst all their dangers and fufferings. The Lord is exceeding tender over them, and jealous for them, as that expreffion imports, Zech. ii. 8. He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of "mine eye." He that ftrikes at them, ftrikes at the face of God; and at the moft excellent part of the face, the eye, and at the moft tender and precious part of the eye, the apple of the eye. And yet, as a learned modern obferves, this peo ple, of whom he uses this tender and dear expreflion, were none of the best of Ifrael neither; but the residue that staid behind in Babylon, when their brethren were gone to rebuild the temple; and yet over these, he is as tender as a man is over his eye. REFLECTION. And is the fecurity of the church fo great! and its preferva tion so admirable, amidst all storms and tempests! then why art thou fo prone and fubject to defpond, O my foul, in the day of Sion's trouble? Senfible thon waft, and oughtest to be; but no reason to hang down the hed through difcouragement; much lefs to forfake Zion in ner diltrels, for fear of being ruin ed with her. • What David fpake to Abiathar, r Sam. xxii. a3. that may Zion speak to all her fons and daughters in all their distresses i "Though he that feeketh thy life, feeketh mine alfo; yet with *me fhalt thou be in fafeguard." God hath entailed great falvation and deliverances upon Zion; and bleffed are all her friends and favourers; the Rock of Ages is its defence. Fear not, therefore, O my foul, though the hills be removed out of their place, and caft into the midst of the fea. O let my faith Triumph, and my heart rejoice upon this ground of comfort. I fee the fame rocks now, and in the fame place and condition they were many years ago. Though they have endured many ftorms, yet there they abide; and fo fhall Zion, when the proud waves have spent their fury and rage against it. M The POE M.. Efopotamia, fituate in the feas, May represent the church; or, if you please, They break themselves, but it abides their fhock; |