a

church often helps the world, it receives many benefits from the people of God; and fometimes God over-rules the world to help his church.

5. When the chaff and wheat are both brought forth and held up to the wind in one sieve, they fall two ways; the wheat falls down upon the floor or sheet, the chaff is carried quite away: So that although for a time godly and ungodly abide together, yet when this winnowing-time comes, God's wheat fhall be gathered into his garner in heaven, the chaff shall go the other way, Matth. iii. 12.

6. If there be any chaff among the corn, it will appear when it is fifted in a windy day; it cannot poflibly escape, if it be well winnowed; much more impossible it is for any wicked man to escape the critical search of God in that day; the clo. feft hypocrite shall then be detected, for God will judge the secrets of men, 2 Cor. xvi. “ He will then bring to light the “ hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels “ of the hcart," 1 Cor. iv. 5,

7. Lastly, After corn and chaff are separated by the winnowig wind, they shall never lie together in one heap any more : The wicked shall fee Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but themselves thruft out : There is no chaff in heaven.

REFLECTION S. 1. Am I an empty vain profeffor, that wants the pith and substance of real godliness? Then

A reflection am I but chaff in God's account, though I grow for a close hy. among his corn; of 'man cannot discern

pocrite. my hypocrisy; but when he comes, whose fan is in his hand, · then how plainly will it be detected ? Angels and men shall discern it, and say, “ Lo, this is the man that made not God his “ hope;" How shall I abide the day of his coming ? Christ is the great heart-anatomift: Things thall not be carried then by names and parties, as they are now; every one shall be weigh ed in a juft balance, and a Mene Tekel written upon every false heart: Great will be the perspicuity of that trial : My own conscience shall join with my judge, and shall then acknow. ledge, that there is not one drop of injustice in all that sea of wrah ; and though I am damned, yet I am not wronged: The chaff cannot stand before the wind, nor I before the judgment of Chrift. 2. Is there such a fanning time coming? Why do not I then

? lift my heart every day by serious self-examination ? No work VOL. VI.

U

the eye

a

a

more important to me, and yet for A reflection for one much have I neglected it? O my soul ! that neglects self-ex- thou hadît been better imployed, in amination.

searching thine own estate in reference

to that day, thau in prying finfully into the hearts, and censuring the conditions of other men: Judge thyself, and thou shalt not be condemned with the world, the work indeed is difficult, but the neglect dangerous : Were I within a few days to stand at man's bar, there to be tried for my life, how busy should I be every hour of the day in writing to any that I thought could befriend me, and itudying every advantage to myself? And yet what a vaft difference is there betwixt man's bar and God's? Betwixt a trial for my life, and for my foul? Lord, rouse up my fluggith heart, by awful and folicitous thoughts of that day, lest I be found among that chal which shall be burnt up with unquenchable fire.

5. Fear not, O my soul ! though there be A reflection for a blast coming which thall drive all the chaff a sincere foul. into hell, yet it shall blow thee no harm. “I

« know that when he hath tried me, I shall 66 come forth as gold,” Job xxiii. 10. I confess I have too much shaff about me, but yet I am not altogether chaff, there is a folid work of grace upon my soul that will abide the trial: Let the judgment to come be as impartial and exact as it is possible to be, yet a grain of fincerity cannot be loft in- it ; for “ God 66 will not cast away a perfect (i. e. av upright-hearted) man,'' Job viii. 20. He that is appointed to judge the world is mine ; and his imputed righteoufgefs will make me full weight in the

balance. Bless the Lord, O my foul, for fincerity! this will · abide, when common gifts, and empty names, will fiee as the ehaff before the wind.

The PO E M.
HE winnowing wind first drives the chaff away,
Next light and hollow grains ; those only stay

;
Whose weight and solid substance can endure
This trial, and such grains are countèd pure.
'The corn for use is carefully preferr'd;
The useless chaff for burning flames reserv'd.
No wind but blows some good, a proverb is ;
Glad shall I be if it hold true in this.

that the wind, when you to winnowing go, This spiritual good unto your fouis might blow!

. To make you pause, and sadly ruminate, « In what a doleful plight, and wretched itats

a

Their souls are in, who cannot hope to stand
When he shall come, whose fan is in his hand;
His piercing eyes infallibly disclose
The very reins, and inward part of those
Whofe out-lide seeming grace so neatly paints,
That, with the best, they pass for real saints,
No hypocrite with God acceptance finds,
But, like the chaff, dispers’d by furious winds.
Their guilt shall not that searching day endure,
Nor they approach th' assemblies of the pure.
Have you obferv'd in autumn, thistle-down,
By howling Aeolus, scatter'd up and down
About the fields ? Even so God's ireful storm
Shall chase the hypocrite, who now can scorn
The breath of close reproofs ; and like a rock,
Repel reproofs, and just reprovers mack.
How many that in splendid garments walk,
Of high professions, and like angels talk,
Shall God divest, and openly proclaim
"Their secret guilt, to their etemal Thame?
This is the day wherein the Lord will rid
His church of thofe false friends, who now lie hid
Among his people, there will not be one
False heart remain, to lose our love upon.
Obless'd affembly! glorious state ! when all
In their uprightness walk, and ever that.
O make my heart fincere, that I may never
Prove such light chaff as then thy wind shall fever
From folid grain! Olet my foul detest
Unfoundness, and abide thy fricteft teft!
ооооо

nignon

isiana

A N

INTRODUCTION

To the SECOND PART of

HUSB A N DRY.

OW is it; reader, have I tired thee, H

Whilst thro' these pleasant fields thou walk'st with me? Our path was pleafant; but if length of way

Do weary thee, we'll Pack our pace and stay:
Let's sit a while, under the cooling shade
Of fragrant trees ; trees were for fhadow made.
Lo here a pleasant grove, whose shade is good ;
But more than fo, "twill yield us fruit for food :
No dangerous fruits do on thefe branches grow,
No frakes among the verdant grass below;
Here we'll repose a while, and then go view
The pleasant herds and flocks; and so adieu.

CHAP. I.

Upon the Ingraffing of Fruit-trees

Ungraffed trees can never bear good fruit ;
Nor we, 'till graffed on a better root.

A

UND

OBSERVATION.
Wild tree naturally springing up in the wood or hedge,

and never graffed or renioved from its native fail, may bear tome fruit, and that fair and beautiful to the eye; but it will give you no content at all in cating, being always barsh, four, and unpleasant to the taste; but if fach a stock be removed into a good foil, and graffed with a better kind, it may become a good tree, and yield store of choice and pleafant fruit.

APPLICATION:
Nregenerate men, who never were acquainted with the

mystery of fpiritual union with Jesus Christ, but ftill grow upon their natural root, old Adam, may, by the force and power of natural principles, bring forth foine fruit, which, like The wild hedge-fruit we speak of, may, indeed, be fair and pleasant to the eyes of men, but God takes no pleasure at all in it; it is four, harsh, and distafteful to him, because it springs not from the Spirit of Christ, Ila. i. 13. « I cannog away with it, it “ is iniquity," &c. But that I may not entangle the thread of my discourse, I shall (as in the former chapters) fet before you a parallel betwixt the best fruits of natural men, and those of a wild ungraffed tree.

1. The root that bears this wild fruit is a degenerate root, and that is the cause of all this fourness and harshness in the fruit it bears; it is the feed of fome better tree accidentally blown, or cast into some waste and bad foil, wbere not being manured and ordered aright, it is turned wild : So all the fruits

a

“ Who

of unregenerate men flow from the first Adam, a corrupt and degenerate root; he was indeed planted a right seed, but soon turned a wild and degenerate plant ; he being the root from which every man naturally springs, corrupts all the fruit that any man bears from him. It is observed by Gregory, pertinent to my present purpose, Genus humanum in parente primo, pelut in radice putruit , Mankind was putrified in the root of his first parent; Matth. vii. 18. " A corrupt tree cannot u bring forth good fruit.”

2. This corrupt root spoils the fruit, by the transmission of its four and naughty sap into all the branches and fruits that grow on them; they fuck no other nourishment, but what the root affords them, and that being bad, spoils all : for the same caufe and reason, no mere natural or unregenerate man can ever do one holy or acceptable action, because the corruption of the mot is in all those actions. The necessity of our drawing corruption into all our actions, from this curfed root Adam, is expressed by a quick and smart interrogation, Job xiv. 4. “ can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? Not one.” The sense of it is well delivered us (by Mr. Caryl in loc.) This question (faith he) may undergo a twofold conltruction : First, thus, Who can bring a morally clean person out of a per. {on originally unclean ? and so he lays his hand upon his birthfin. Or, secondly, which speaks to my purpose, it may refer to the action of the fame man; man being unclean, can, not bring forth a clean thing; (i.6.) a clean or holy action ; that which is originated is like its original. And that this four fap of the first stock (I mean Adam's fin) is transmitted into all mankind, not only corrupting their fruit, but ruining and withering all the branches, the apostle shews us in that excellent parallel betwixt the two Adams, Rom. v. 12. “ Wherefore, as by one man” [one, not only in individuo fed in specie, one representing the whole root or stock,] “ sin enter" ed into the world :" not by imitation only, but by proptgation, and this brought death and ruin upon all the branches.

3. Although these wild hedge-fruits be unwholsome and unpleasant to the taste, yet they are fair and beautiful to the eye ; a man that looks upon them, and doth not know what fruit it is, would judge it by its shew and colour, to be excellent fruit; for it makes a fairer shew oftentimes than the best and moft wholesome fruit doth : even so, these natural gifts and endowments which some unregenerate persons have, seem exceeding fair to, the eyes and a fruit to bę degred. What excellent

a