Lord Jefus, I have no bags, I have no barns; but thou shalt be to me instead 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 fhall not want; and I have that which all their riches cannot purchase. Blefs the Lord, O my foul!

3. But, Lord, how am I obliged, above thouA reflection for one fands, to love and praife thee to blefs and adthat hath a full barn mire thee, who haft not only plentifully provi and Chrift too. ded for my foul, 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 thy own people: many of them are strangers 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 answer the double end of this gracious difpenfation! let me bestow the more of my time upon God, and ftand ready to minifter to the neceffities of his people.

A reflection for one that hath 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 fweeten all prefent 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 straits and wants, that they may neceffitate my foul to go to Chrift: make this poverty the way to glory, and I fhall bless thee to eternity that I was poor in this world.

THE POEM.

FT have I feen, when harveft's almost in,

OF

The laft load coming, how fome men have been
Wrapt up with joy, as if that welcome cart

Drew home the very treasure of their heart;
What joyful fhoutings, hoopings, hollowing noise,
With mingled voices both of men and boys!
To carnal minds there is no greater mirth,
No higher joy, no greater heaven on earth.
He fpeaks pure paradoxes, that fhall fay
Thefe are but trifles to what faints enjoy:

But they despise your sparks as much as you
Contemn their fun. Some that could never shew
A full ftuff'd barn, on which you let your heart,
But glean, perhaps, the ears behind your cart ;
Yet are the gleanings of their comfort more
Than all your harvest and admired store.
Your mirth is mix'd with forrow, theirs is pure;
Yours like a fhadow fleets, their joys endure.
God gives to you the hufk, to them the pith,
And no heart-stinging forrows adds therewith.
Though at the gates of death they fometimes mourn,
No fooner doth the Lord to them return,

But forrow's banish'd froin their penfive breast;
Joy triumphs there, and smiles their cheeks invest.
Have you beheld, when, with perfumed wings,
Out of the balmy eaft, bright Phoebus fprings,
Mounting th' Olympic hill, with what a grace
He views the throne of darkness, and doth chase
The fhades of night before him? having hurl'd
His golden beams about this lower world,
How from fad groves, and folitary cells,
Where horrid darkness and confufion dwells,
Batts, owls, and doleful creatures, fly away,
Refigning to the cheerful birds of day:
Who in those places now do fit and chant,
Where lately fuch dire creatures kept their haunt?
Thus grief refigns to joy; fighs, groans, and tears
To fongs triumphant, when the Lord appears.
O matchlefs joy! O countenance divine!
What are those trifles to thefe fmiles of thine?
May I, with poor Mephibofheth, be bleft
With these sweet fmiles; let Ziba take the rest.
My life my treafure! thou fhalt ne'er be fold
For filver-hills, or rivers pav'd with gold.

Wert thou but known to worldlings, they would fcorn
To stoop their hearts to fuch poor things as corn:
For fo they do, because thou art above

That sphere wherein their low conceptions move:

CHAP. XIX.

Upon the Threshing out of Corn.

More folid grain with greater firength you thresh,
The ableft Chriflians have the hardeft lafh.

OBSERVATION,

USBANDMEN having to do with divers forts of grain, fome

HR

more tough and ftubborn, others more free and tender, do not beat all alike on the threshing-floor; but as they have threthals of feveral fizes, fo they beftow on fome grain more, on others fewer ftrokes, according to the different qualities of the grain to be threshed. This obfervation the prophet Ifaiah hath, chap. xxviii. ver. 27. "The fitches are not threshed with a threshing inftrument, neither "is the cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin, but the fitches "are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod." The manner of beating out the corn in former times was far different from that which is now in ufe among us they had the cart-wheel, which was full of iron spokes or teeth, and the hoofs of beasts for the harder fort of grain, as wheat, rye, and barley; a ftaff 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.

APPLICATION.

OD having to do, in a way of correction, with divers forts of

G offenders, doth not ufe the like feverity with them all, but

proportions his corrections to their abilities and strength, Jer. xxx. 11. "I will not make a full end of thee, [but will correct thee in "measure] and will not leave thee altogether unpunished:" (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 prescribing 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 greatnefs of his power, and his wrath anfwerable thereunto, Pfal. xc. 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 fhall be much less than what I could inflict, fo it shall be lefs than thine iniquities deferve, Ezra ix. 13. Neither my power nor thy defert shall 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 exercife the like wisdom and mildness

towards thee. And the fimilitude betwixt the hufbandman's threshing his corn, and the Lord's afflicting his people, ftands in these particulars.

1. The husbandman's end in threshing the corn is, to separate it from the hufks and chaff; and God's end in afflicting his people is, to feparate them from their fins, Ifa. xxvii. 9. " In meafure when it "fhooteth forth, he will debate with it," (i. e.) he will moderately correct them; and what the ends of thofe corrections are, the next words inform us, "By this therefore fhall 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 filthinefs, and fetch out fpots, Dan. xi. 35. He aims not at the deftruction of their perfons, but of their lufts.

2. If the husbandman have cockle, darnel, or pernicious tares before him on the floor among his corn, he little regards whether it be bruifed or battered to pieces by the thresher or not; it is a worthless thing, and he fpares it not. Such cockle and tares are the enemies of God; and when these come under his flail, he strikes them without mercy; for these the Lord prepares a new sharp threshing inftrument, having teeth, which fhall beat them to duft, Ifa. xli. 15. "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor; it is 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)" Zion's horn "fhall be of iron, and her hoofs brafs," Mic. iv. 13. He fmites not his people according to the ftroke of them that fmote them; the meaning is, his ftrokes on them fhall be deadly ftrokes: they fhewed no mercy to Zion; and God will fhew no mercy to them.

3. When the husks and chaff are perfectly separated from the grain, then the hufbandman 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 noife of the threshing inftrument in heaven; he that beat them with his flail on earth, will put them into his bosom in heaven.

4. Though the husbandman lays on, and beats his corn as if he was 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 chasteneth every fon whom he receiveth."

5. Though the husbandman thresh and beat the corn, yet he will not bruife or hurt it, if he can help it; though fome require more and harder strokes than others, yet none fhall 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 shall have more than they can bear; the Lord knows the mea

fures 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 escape, that they may be able to bear it," 1 Cor. x. 13. This care and tenderness over his afflicted, is eminently discovered in three particulars.

(1.) In not expofing them to, until he hath prepared them for, their trials, Luke xxiv. 49. "Tarry ye at Jerufalem, until ye be "endued with power from on high." He gives them fometimes eminent discoveries of his love immediately before, and as a preparative to their fufferings, in the ftrength whereof they are carried through all.

(2.) Or if not fo, then he intermixeth fupporting comfort with their troubles; as you fometimes fee the fun fhine out while the rain falls. It was fo with Paul, Acts xxvii. 23. "This night, (and "it was a fad night indeed) there stood by me the angel of the Lord, "whofe I am."

(3.) In taking off the affliction when they can bear it no longer; 1 Cor. x. 13. "He makes a way to escape, that they may be able to "bear it;" Pfal. cxxv. 3. The rod is taken off, "when the righ"teous is even ready to put forth his hand to iniquity." It is a Jewish proverb, When the bricks are doubled, then comes Mofes. And it is a Chriftian's experience, When the spirit is ready to fail, then comes Jefus, according to that promife, Ifa. lvii. 16.

REFLECTIONS.

A reflection 1. How unlike am I to God, in the afflicting of his for perfecutors. people? The Lord is pitiful when he smites them, but I have been cruel: he is kind to them, when most severe; but the best of my kindness to them, may fitly enough be called feverity: God fmites them in love; I have fmitten them in hatred. Ah! what have I done? God hath used me as his hand, Pfal. xvii. 14. or as his rod to afflict them, Jer. x. 7. but his end and mine have widely differed in that action, Ifa. x. 7. I am but the fullion, or rather the whifp to scour and cleanse the veffels of glory; and when I have done that dirty work, thofe bright fouls fhall be fet up in heaven, and I caft into the fire. If he fhall have judgment without mercy, that fhewed no mercy, how can I expect mercy from the Lord, whofe people I have perfecuted mercilefly for his fake?

A reflection for fuch as meet with no affliction.

2. Is the Lord's wheat thus threshed on the floor of afflictions; what then fhall I think of my condition, who profper and am let alone in the way of fin? Surely the Lord looks on me as on a weed, and not as his corn; and it is too probable, that I am rather referved for burning, than for threshing.