vi. 2. Or, if the outward means of falvation be continued, yet the Spirit many times withdraws from those means, and ceafes any more to ftrive with men; and then the bleffing, power, and efficacy is gone from them, and instead thereof a curfe feizeth the foul, Heb. vi. 7, 8. and Jer. vi. 29.

Therefore it is a matter of high importance to our fouls to apprehend these seasons. How pathetically doth Chrift bewail Jerufalem upon this account! Luke xix. 42. "O that thou hadft known, at "least in this thy day, the things of thy peace! but now they are "hid from thine eyes." fome remote, uninhabited ifland, with this advice, to be aboard again exactly at fuch an hour, elfe they must be left behind; how doth it concern them to be punctual to their time? The lives of those men depend upon a quarter of an hour. Many a foul hath perifhed eternally, the gospel leaving them behind in their fins, because they knew not the time of their vifitation.

"9 If a company of feamen are fet afhore upon

REFLECTION.

What golden feafons for falvation haft thou enjoyed, O my foul? what halcyon days of gofpel-light and grace haft thou had? How have the precious gales of grace blown to no purpose upon thee! and the Spirit waited and striven with thee in vain? "The kingdom of "heaven, (being opened in the gofpel-difpenfation) hath fuffered "violence." Multitudes have been preffing into it in my days, and I myself have fometimes been almoft perfuaded, and not far from the kingdom of God: I have gone as far as conviction for fin and mifery, yea, I have been carried by the power of the gofpel to refolve and purpose to turn to God, and become a new creature; but fin hath been too fubtle and deceitful for me: I fee, my resolutions were but as an early cloud or morning dew; and now my heart is cold and dead again, fettled upon its lees. Ah! I have caufe to fear and tremble, left God hath left me under that curfe, Rev. xx. 11. "Let him "that is filthy be filthy ftill." I fear I am become as that miry place, Ezek. xlvii. 11. that fhall not be healed by the streams of the gofpel, but given to falt, and curfed into perpetual barrenness. Ah Lord! wilt thou leave me fo? and fhall thy Spirit ftrive no more with me? Then it had been good for me that I had never been born. Ah! if I have trifled out this feason, and irrecoverably lost it, then I may take up that lamentation, Jer. viii. 20. and fay, "My "harvest is past, my fummer is ended, and I am not saved."

Every creature knows its time, even the turtle, crane, and swallow, know the time of their coming, Jer. viii. 7. How brutish am I, that have not known the time of my visitation! O thou that art the Lord of life and time, command one gracious season more for me, and make it effectual to me, before I go hence, and be seen no more! THE POEM.

A

Fresh and whisking gale prefents to day,

But now the ship's not ready; winds must stay,

And wait the feaman's leifure. Well, to-morrow
They will put out; but then, unto their forrow,
That wind is fpent, and by that means they gain
Perchance a month's repentance, if not twain.
At laft another offers, now they're gone;
But ere they gain their port, the market's done.
For ev'ry work and purpose under heav'n,
A proper time and feafon God hath giv'n.
The fowls of heaven, fwallow, turtle, crane,
Do apprehend it, and put us to shame.
Man hath his feafon too, but that mif-spent,
There's time enough his folly to repent.
Eternity's before him, but therein

No more fuch golden hours as these have been :
When these are pafs'd away, then you shall find
That proverb true -Occafion's bald behind.
Delays are dang'rous, fee that you discern
Your proper feafons: O that you would learn
This wisdom from thofe fools that come too late
With fruitless cries, when Christ hath shut the gate.

CHAP. X.

By navigation one place ftores another,
And by communion we must help each other.

OBSERVATION.

HE moft wife God hath fo difpenfed his bounty to the feveral

THE

nattons of the world, that one standing in need of another's commodities, there might be a fociable commerce and traffick maintained amongst them all, and all combining in a common league, may, by the help of navigation, exhibit mutual fuccours to each other. The ftaple commodities proper to each country, I find expreffed by the poet, Bart. Coll.

Hence comes our fugars from Canary isles;
From Candy currants, mufkadels, and oils;
From the Molucco's, fpices; balfamum,
From Egypt; odours from Arabia come;
From India, gums, rich drugs, and ivory;
From Syria, mummy; black, red ebony,
From burning Chus; from Peru, pearl and gold;
From Ruffia, furs, to keep the rich from cold;

From Florence, filks; from Spain, fruit, faffron, facks;
From Denmark, amber, cordage, firs, and flax ;

From Holland, hops; horfe from the banks of Rhine;
From France and Italy the choiceft wine;

From England, wool; all lands as God diftributes,
To the world's treasure pay their fundry tributes.

APPLICATION.

Thus hath God distributed the more rich and precious gifts and graces of his Spirit among his people; fome excelling in one grace, 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 vigorous than in others; fame have a more vigorous eye, others a more ready ear, othersa more voluble tongue; fo it is in fpirituals. Abraham excelled in faith, Job in patience, John in love. These were their peculiar excellencies. All the elect veffels are not of one quantity; yet even those that excel others in fome particular grace, come fhort in other refpects of thofe they fo excelled in the former, and may be much improved by converfe with fuch as, in some respects are much below them. The folid, wife, and judicious Christian may want that liveliness of affections and tenderness of heart that appear in the weak; and one that excels in gifts and utterance may learn humility from the very babes in Chrift.

And one principal reafon of this different diftribution is to maintain fellowship among them all, 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 strength, Jer. vii. 18. "The children gather wood, the "fathers kindle the fire, the women knead the dough." So in the family of Chrift, the weakest Chriftian is ferviceable to the strong.

There be precious treasures in these earthen veffels, for which we fhould trade by mutual communion. The preciousness of the treafure 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 in our trading with them, and make the quicker returns. For when thofe veffels (I mean bodies of the faints) are broken by death, there is no more to be gotten out of them. That treasure of grace which made them fuch profitable, pleafant, and defirable companions on earth, then afcends with them into heaven, where every grace receives its adolefcence and perfection: and then, though they be ten thoufand 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 faints, as we ufe to do by fome choice book lent us for a few days, we fhould fix in our memories, or tranf

* Mr Gurnal.

cribe 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.

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, whofe key is loft, when it fhould 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 use in the world.

How little also have I 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 converse 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 filver, while they were here, Prov. x. 20. And bleffed fouls! how communicative were they of what thou gavest them? O what an improvement had I made of my talent this way, had I been diligent! Lord pardon my neglect of thofe fweet and bleffed 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 an heart more warmed, quickened, and enlarged, than when I came amongst them.

T

THE POEM.

O fev'ral nations God doth fo diftribute

His bounty, that each one must pay a tribute
Unto each other. Europe cannot vaunt,

And fay, Of Africa I have no want.
America and Afia need not ftrive,

Which of itfelf can beft fubfift and live.

Each country's want, in fomething, doth maintain
Commerce betwixt them all. Such is the aim
And end of God, who doth dispense and give
More grace to fome, their brethren to relieve.
This makes the fun ten thousand times more bright,
Because it is diffufive of its light;

Its beams are gilded gloriously; but then
This property doth gild them o'er again.

Should fun, moon, ftars, impropriate all their light,
What difmal darkness would the world benight?
On this account men hate the vermin brood,
Because they take in much, but do no good.
What harm, if I at yours my candle light?
Except thereby I make your room more bright.
He that by pumping fucks and draws the fpring,
New ftreams, and fweeter, to the well doth bring.
VOL. V.
I i

Grace is a treasure in an earthen pot;

When death hath dafht it, no more can be got
Out of that vefiel: then, while it is whole,
Get out the treasure to enrich your foul.

THE

CHAP. XI.

The rocks abide, though feas against them rage:
So fhall the church, which is God's heritage.

OBSERVATION.

HE rocks, though fituate in the boisterous and tempeftuous ocean, yet abide firm and immoveable from age to age. The impetuous waves dash against them with great violence, but cannot remove them out of their place. And although fometimes they wash over them, and make them to difappear, yet there they remain fixed and impregnable.

APPLICATION.

This is a lively emblem of the condition of the church, amidst all dangers and oppofitions wherewith it is encountered and affaulted in this world. Thefe metaphorical waves roar and beat with violence against it, but with as little fuccefs as the fea against the rocks, Matt. 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 alfo were the feats of judicature, there fat the judges; but yet thefe gates of hell fhall not prevail. Nay, this rock is not only invincible in the midst of their violence, but also breaks all that dafh against it, Zech. xii. 3. "In that day I will make Jerufalem a bur"denfome ftone for all people; all that burden themselves with "it, fhall he cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be ga"thered together against it." An allufion to one that effays to roll fome great ftone against the hill, which at laft returns upon him, and crufhes him to pieces.

And the reason why it is thus firm and impregnable, is not from itfelf; for alas, fo confidered, it is weak, and obnoxious to ruin; but from the almighty power of God, which guards and preferves it day and night, Pfalm xlvi. 5, 6. "God is in the midft of her, the shall not be moved: God fhall help her, and that right early." Vatab. Dum afpacit mane. When the morning appears. Which notes (faith Calvin) God's affiduous and constant help and fuccour, which is extended in all dangers, as conftantly as the fun arifes. And this affiduous fuccour to his people, and their great fecurity thereby, is fet forth in the fcriptures by a pleasant variety of metaphors and emblems, Zech. ii. 5. "I, faith the Lord, will be a wall of fire round