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The prefumptuous jouk's reflec

tion.

condemned in that day? What shall I anfwer, when the Lord fhall fay, Thou couldeft forefee a winter, and feafonably provide for it; yea, thou hadst fo much care of thy very beafts, to provide for their neceffities: and why tookeft thou no care for thy foul? Was that only not worth the caring for? 2. Is it fo dangerous to neglect a prefent proper feason of grace? What then have I done, who have fuffered many fuch feafons to die away in my hand, upon a groundlefs hope of future opportunities? Al deluded wretch! what if that fuppofition fail? Where an I then? I am not the lord of time, neither am I fure, that he who is, will ever vouchfafe an hour of grace in old age, to him that hath neglected many fuch hours in youth; neither indeed is it ordinary for God fo to do. It is ftoried of Caius Marius. Victorious, who lived about three hundred years after Christ, and to his old age continued a Pagan; but at last being convinced of the Chriftian. verity, he came to Simplicianus, and told him, he would be a Christian; but neither he, nor the church could believe it, it being fo rare an example for any to be converted at his age: but at last, feeing it was real,, there was a fhouting and gladnefs, and finging of pfalms in all churches; the people crying, Caius Marius: Victorius is become, a.Chriftian! This was written for a wonder: and what ground have I to think, that God will work fuch wonders for me, who have neglected his ordinary means of falvation?

The industrious foul's reflection.

3. Blefs the Lord, O my foul who gave thee a season, a day for eternal life, which is more than he hath afforded for thousands; yea, blefs the Lord for giving thee an heart to understand and improve that feafon. I confefs I have not improved it as I ought; yet this I can (through mercy) fay, that however it fare in future times with my outward man, though I have no treasures or ftores laid up on earth, or if I have, they are but corruptible, yet I have a bleffed hope laid up in heaven, Col. i. I have bags that wax not old. Whilft worldlings rejoice in their stores and heaps, I.rejoice in these eternal treasures. and The POE M.

Bferve in fummer's fultry heat,

How in the hottest, day

The husbandman doth toil and fweat

About his corn and hay :

If then he fhould not reap and mow,
And gather in his store,

How fhould he live, when, for the fnow,

He can't move out of door?

The little ants, and painful bees,
By nature's inftinct led,

These have their fummer granaries

For winter furnished.

But thou, my foul, whofe fummer's day
Is almoft paft and gone;
What foul-provision doft thou lay
In ftock to spend upon?
If nature teaches to prepare

For temporal life, much rather
Grace fhould provoke to greater care,
Soul-food in time to gather.
Days of affliction and distress
Áre hafting on apace;
If now I live in carelesness,
How fad will be my cafe!
Unworthy of the name of man,
Who for that foul of thine,

Wilt not do that which others can
Do for their very kine.

Think, frugal farmers, when you fee
Your mows of corn and hay,

What a conviction this will be
To you another day :

Who ne'er were up before the fun,

Nor break an hour's reft

For your poor fouls, as you have done

So often for a beast.

Learn once to fee the difference

Betwixt eternal things,

And those poor tranfient things of sense,

That fly with eagle's wings.

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Upon reaping the fame we fow.

When from tare-feeds you fee choice wheat to grow,
Then from your lufts may joy and comfort flow.

OBSERVATION.

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OD gives to every feed its own body, 1 Cor. xv. 38. At firft he created every tree and herb of the field, having

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its feed in itself, for the confervation of their species, and they all inviolably observe the law of their creation. All fruits na turally rife out of the seeds and roots proper to them : "Men "do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thiftles:" fuch productions would be monftrous in nature; and although the juice or fap of the earth be the common matter of all kind of fruits, yet it is fpecificated according to the different forts of plants and feeds it nourishes. Where wheat is fown, it is turned into wheat; in an apple-tree, it becomes an apple; and so in every fort of plants or feeds, it is concocted into fruit proper to the kind.

T

7.

APPLICATION.

Ranflate this into fpirituals, and the propofition fhadowed forth by it, is fully expreffed by the apoftle, Gal. vi. "What a man fows, that fhall he reap: They that sow to the flesh, fhall of the flesh reap corruption; and they that "fow to the fpirit, fhall of the fpirit reap life everlasting." And as fure as the harvest follows the feed-time, fo fure fhall fuch fruits and effects refult from the feeds of fuch actions. "He that foweth iniquity, fhall reap vanity," Prov. xxii. 8. "And they that now go forth weeping, and bearing precious " feed, shall doubtlefs come again rejoicing, bringing their "fheaves with them," Pfalm cxxvi. 6. The fum of all this is, that our present actions have the same respect and relation to future rewards and punishments, as the feed we fow in our fields hath to the harvest we reap from it. Every gracious action is the feed of joy; and every finful action, the feed of anguish and sorrow to the foul that foweth it. Two things are fenfibly prefented to us in this fimilitude.

1. That as the feed fown is prefently covered from our fight under the clods, and for fome ti me after we fee no more of it, and yet at laft it appears again; by which it is evident to us, that it is not finally loft: So our present actions, though phyfically tranfient, and perhaps forgotten, yet are not loft, but after a time fhall appear again, in order to a retribution.

If this were not fo, all good and holy actions would be to the lofs of him that performed them. All the self-denial, spending duties and fharp fufferings of the people of God, would turn to their damage, though not in point of honefty, yet in point of perfonal utility; and then alfo, what difference would there be betwixt the actions of a man and a beast, with refpect to future good or evil? Yea, man would then be more feared and obeyed than God, and all fouls be swayed in their motions, only by the influence of prefent things: And where then would

religion be found in the world? It is an excellent note of * Drexellius; Our works (faith he) do not pass away as foon as they are done, but as feed fown, fhall, after a time, rife up to all eternity: Whatever we think, fpeak, or do, once fpoken, thought, or done, is eternal, and abides for ever."

What Zeuxes, the famous limmer faid of his work, may be truly faid of all our works; Aeternitati pingo, I paint for eternity. O, how careful fhould men be of what they fpeak and do whilft they are commanded so to speak and fo to do, as those that fhall be judged by the perfect law of liberty! James ii. 12. What more tranfient than a vain word? And yet for fuch words, men fhall give an account in the day of judgment, Matth. xii. 36. That's the first thing: Actions, like feed, fhall rise and appear again in order to a retribution.

2. The other thing held forth in this fimilitude is, that according to the nature of our actions now, will be the fruit and reward of them then. Though the fruit or confequence of holy actions, for the prefent may feem bitter, and the fruit of finful actions, fweet and pleafant; yet there is nothing more certain, than that their future fruits fhall be according to their prefent nature and quality, 2 Cor. v. 10. Then Dionyfius fhall retract that faying, Ecce quam profpera navigatio a Deo datur facrilegis, Behold how God favours our facrileges! Sometimes indeed (though but rarely) God caufes finners to reap, in this world, the fame that they have fown; as hath been their fin, fuch hath been their punishment. It was openly confeffed by Adonibezek, Judg. i. 7. "As I have done, fo hath God requit "ed me."

Socrates, in his church hiftory, furnishes us with a pertinent paffage to this purpose, concerning Valens the Emperor, who was an Arian, and a bitter perfecutor of the Chriftians: This man, when eighty of the orthodox Chriftians failed from Conftantinople to Nicomedia, to treat with him about the points of Arianism, and to fettle the matter by way of dispute; the Emperor hearing of their arrival, while they were yet in the harbour, and not a man landed, caufed the fhips to be fired wherein they were, and fo confumed them all. Not long af ter, in his wars against the Goths, he was overthrown; and hiding himself in a little cottage, the enemy coming by, burnt it and him together. Thus this wretch reaped what he fowed, burning for burning, the very fame in kind paid him again. It is not always fo in this world; but fo it fhall be in

Drexellius de aeternitate prope finem.

that to come: The tables fhall then be turned, and the fcens altered; for fhall not the Judge of all the world do righteously? * Diogenes was tempted to think, that God had caft off the government of the world, when he faw the wicked profper in their wickedness. On the fame ground many have been tempted to Atheism; but then the world fhall fee distributive justice shining out in its glory, "Tribulation, anguish and wrath

to every foul of man that doth evil; but glory, honour and "peace to every man that worketh good," Rom. ii.-9, 10. Then 'twill appear what feed we fowed, what lives we lived; "For God fhall bring every work into judgment, with every "fecret thing, whether it be good or evil," Ecclef. xii. 14. REFLECTION S.

The profane

perfon's reflec

tion.

1. This meditation may be to me what the hand-writing upon the wall was to that profane prince, Dan. v. 5, 6. and a like effect it fhould have upon me; for if all the actions of this life be feed fown for the next, Lord, what a crop, what a dreadful harveft am I like to have! How many oaths and curfes, lies and vain words, have I fown with my tongue! How have I wronged, oppreffed, and over-reached in my dealings! Rushed into all profanenefs, drunkennefs, uncleanness, fabbathbreaking, &c. as the horse rusheth into the battle!" And what thall I reap from fuch feed as this, but vengeance and fury? Thefe fins feemed pleasant in the commiffion, but, oh! how. bitter will it be in their account?"What fhall I do when "God rifeth up; and when he vifiteth, what thall I anfwer "him?" Job xxxi. 14. Is it not reasonable and juft, O my foul! that thou fhouldeft eat the fruit of thine own planting, and reap what thou haft fown? I thought nothing but profit and pleasure would spring from my luft; but now I fee it is a root bearing gall and wormwood, Deut. xxix. 18. Wretched foul! what fhall I do? By thefe actions am I undone. I have been the author of mine own ruin, twisted an halter with mine own fingers for the execution of mine own foul O! let me rather taste the bitterness of fin, by repentance now, than enjoy its prefent pleasures, which betray the foul to endless wrath! 2. How have I also been deceived in this matter? I verily thought that glory and immortality would have been the fruit and pro

The moral man's reflection.

* Cum video mala fata bonis, ignofcite quafo :
Sollicitor nulle, effe putare Deos. Ovid.
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