*The laws of men fpare for the fruit's fake, and wilt thou not spare me alfo, my God, if there be found in me a bleffing in the bud, Ifa. lxv. 8. 4. To conclude, what a ferious reflection fhould this occafion in every difpenfer of the gofpel? How fhould he fay The gospel-preachwhen he goes to preach the gofpel, I am going to er's reflections. preach that word which is to be a favour of life or death unto thefe fouls; upon how many of my poor hearers may the curfe of perpetual barrenness be executed this day! O how should fuch a thought melt his heart into compaffion over them, and make him beg hard, and plead earnestly with God for a better iffue of the gospel than this upon them. THE POEM. OU that befides your pleasant fruitful fields, YOU Have useless bogs, and rocky ground that yields But all your pains and charges on them's loft: For your moft fertile lands; and here's the way. That under gofpel-grace grow worse and worse; The heart's made fat, the eyes with blindness feal'd; The Roman laws defer punishing a woman with child. Chryf. Shall be to him but às the fun and rain CHAP. VII. Upon the plowing of Corn-land. The plowman guides his plow with care and skill; OBSERVATION. T requires not only ftrength, but much skill and judgment, to manage and guide the plow. The Hebrew word was which we tranflate to plow, fignifies to be intent, as an artificer is about some curious piece of work. The plow muft neither go too shallow, nor too deep in the earth; it must not indent the ground, by making crooked furrows, nor leap and make baulks in the good ground; but be guided as to a juft depth of earth, fo to caft the furrow in a straight line, that the floor or furface of the field may be made plain, as it is Ifa. xxxviii. 25. And hence that expreffion, Luke ix. 62. "He that "puts his hand to the plow, and looks back, is not fit for the king"dom of heaven." The meaning is, that as he that plows must have his eyes always forward, to guide and direct his hand in cafting the furrows ftraight and even; (for his hand will be quickly out when his eye is off;) fo he that heartily refolves for heaven, must addict himself wholly and intently to the bufinefs of religion, and not have his mind entangled with the things of this world, which he hath left behind him; whereby it appears, that the right management of the plow requires as much skill as ftrength. TH APPLICATION. HIS obfervation in nature ferves excellently to fhadow forth this propofition in divinity; that the work of the Spirit in convincing and humbling the heart of a finner, is a work wherein much of the wisdom, as well as power of God, is difcovered. The work of repentance, and faving contrition, is fet forth in fcripture by this metaphor of plowing*, Jer. iv. 3. Hof. x. 12. "Plow up your "fallow ground;" that is, be convinced, humbled, and brokenhearted for fin. And the refemblance betwixt both thefe works appears in the following particulars. (1.) It is a hard and difficult work to plow, it is reckoned one of the painfulleft manual labours; it is alfo a very hard thing to convince and humble the heart of a fecure, ftout, and proud finner, indurate in wickednefs. What Luther faith of a dejected foul, That it is as easy to raise the dead, as to comfort fuch a one.' The fame I may fay of the fecure, confident finner; it is as eafy to rend the rocks, as to work faving contrition upon fuch a heart, Citius ex pumice aquam; all the melting language, and earneft entreaties of the gofpel, cannot urge fuch a heart to fhed a tear: Therefore it is called a heart of ftone, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. a firm rock, Amos vi. 12. "Shall horfes run upon the rock? Will one plow there with oxen?" Yet when the Lord comes in the power of his Spirit, thefe rocks do rend, and yield to the power of the word. (2.) The plow pierces deep into the bofom of the earth, makes, as it were, a deep gafh or wound in the heart of it. So doth the Spirit upon the hearts of finners, he pierces their very fouls by conviction. Acts ii. 37. "When they heard this they were pricked, (or* pierced point blank) to the heart." Then the word divides the "foul and fpirit," Hcb. iv. 12. It comes upon the confcience with fuch piercing dilemmas, and tilts the fword of conviction fo deep into their fouls, that there is no ftanching the blood, no healing this wound, till Chrift himself come, and undertake the cure. Hæret lateri lethalis arundo; this barbed arrow cannot be pulled out of their hearts by any, but the hand that thot it in. Difcourfe with fuch a foul about his troubles, and he will tell you, that all the forrows that ever he had in this world, lofs of eftate, health, children, or whatever elfe, are but flea-bitings to this; this fwallows up all other troubles. See how that Chriftian Niobe, Luke vii. 38. is diffolved into tears; "Now deep calleth unto deep at the noife of his water-fpouts, "when the waves and billows of God go over the foul." Spiritual forrows are deep waters, in which the ftouteft and most magnanimous foul would fink and drown, did not Jefus Chrift, by a fecret and fupporting hand. hold it up, and preferve it. (3.) The plow rends the earth in parts and pieces, which before was united, and makes thofe parts hang loofe, which formerly lay clofe. Thus doth the Spirit of conviction rend afunder the heart and its most beloved lufts. Joel ii. 13. "Rend your hearts, and not your garments." That is, rather than your garments; for the fenfe is 64 • Gloffius Rhet. Sacra, p. 300. + Katiyar, punetim cedo, pungendo penetra. comparative, though the expreffion be negative. And this renting implies not only acute pain, flesh cannot be rent asunder without anguish, nor yet only force and violence; the heart is a ftubborn and knotty piece, and will not eafily yield; but it alfo implies a difunion of parts united. As when a garment, or the earth, or any contiguous body is rent, thofe parts are feparated which formerly cleaved together. Sin and the foul were glewed faft together before, there was no parting of them, they would as foon part with their lives as with their lufts; but now when the heart is rent from them truly, it is also rent from them everlaftingly, Ezek. vii. 15, to 19. (4.) The plow turns up and discovers fuch things as lay hid in the bofom of the earth before, and were covered under a fair green furface, from the eyes of men. Thus when the Lord plows up the heart of a finner by conviction, then the fecrets of his heart are made manifest, 2 Cor. xiv. 24, 25. the most secret and shameful fins will then out; for "the word of God is quick and powerful, fharper than any "two-edged fword, piercing even to the dividing of the foul and "fpirit, the joints and marrow, and is a difcerner of the thoughts " and fecret intents of the heart," Heb. iv. 12. It makes the fire burn inwardly, fo that the foul hath no reft till confeffion give a vent to trouble. Fain would the thuffling finner conceal and hide his fhanie, but the word follows him through all his finful shifts, and brings him at last to be his own, both accufer, witness, and judge. (5.) The work of the plow is but opus ordinabile, a preparative work in order to fruit. Should the husbandman plow his ground ever fo often, yet if the feed be not caft in, and quickened, in vain is the harveft expected. Thus conviction alfo is but a preparative to a farther work upon the foul of a finner; if it ftick there, and goes no farther, it proves but an abortive, or untimely birth. Many have gone thus far, and there they have ftuck; they have been like a field plowed, but not fowed, which is a matter of trembling confideration; for hereby their fin is greatly aggravated, and their eternal misery so much the more increased. O when a poor damned creature fhall with horror reflect upon himself in hell, How near was I once, under such a fermon, to conversion! my fins were set in order before me, my confcience awakened, and terrified me with the guilt of them: many purposes and refolves I had then to turn to God, which had they been perfected by anfwerable executions, I had never come to this place of torment; but there I ftuck, and that was my eternal undoing. Many fouls have I known fo terrified with the guilt of fin, that they have come roaring under horrors of confcience to the preacher; fo that one would think fuch a breach had been made betwixt them and fin, as could never be reconciled; and yet as angry as they were in that fit with fin, they have hugged and embraced it again. (6.). It is best plowing when the earth is prepared and mollified by the fhowers of rain; then the work goes on fweetly and eafily, and never doth the heart fo kindly melt, as when the gofpel-clouds diffolve, and the free grace and love of Jefus Chrift comes fweetly thowering down upon it; then it relents and mourns ingenuously, Ezek. xvi. 63. "That thou mayeft remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy fhame, when "I am pacified towards thee for all that thou haft done." So it was with that poor penitent, Luke vii. 38. when the Lord Jefus had difcovered to her the fuperabounding riches of his grace, in the pardon of her manifold abominations, her heart melted within her, the wafhed the feet of Chrift with tears. And indeed, there is as much difference betwixt the tears which are forced by the terrors of the law, and thofe which are extracted by the grace of the gofpel, as there is betwixt thofe of a condemned malefactor, who weeps to confider the mifery he is under, and thofe of a pardoned malefactor, that receives his pardon at the foot of the ladder, and is melted by the mercy and clemency of his gracious prince towards him. (7.) The plow kills thofe rank weeds which grow in the field, turns them up by the roots, buries and rots them. So doth faving conviction kill fin at the root, makes the foul fick of it, begets indignation in the heart againft it, 2 Cor. vii. 11. The word "Ayavaxтn, there fignifies the rifing of the ftomach, and being angry even unto fickness; religious wrath is the fierceft wrath, now the foul cannot endure fin, it trembles at it. "I find a woman more "bitter than death," (faith penitent Solomon) Eccl. vii. 26. Conviction, like a furfeit, makes the foul to lothe what it formerly loved and delighted in. (8.) That field is not well plowed, where the plow jumps and fkips over good ground and makes baulks, it muft run up the whole field alike; and that heart is not favingly convicted, where any luft is fpared, and left untouched Saving conviction extends itself to all fins, not only to fin in general, with this cold confeffion, I am a finner; but to the particulars of fin, yea, to the particular circumstances and aggravations of time, place, manner, occafions, thus and thus have I done; to the fin of nature, as well as practice. "Behold I "was fhapen in iniquity," Pfal. li. 5. There must be no bauking of any fin; the fparing of one fin, is a fure argument that thou art not truly humbled for any fin. So far is the convinced foul from a ftudious concealment of a beloved fin, that it weeps over that more than over any other actual fin. (9.) New ground is much more easily plowed, than that which by long lying out of tillage is more confolidated, and clung together, by deep-rooted thorns and brambles, which render it difficult to the plowman. This old ground is like an old finner, that hath lain a long time hardening under the means of grace. O the difficulty of convincing fuch a perfon! fin hath got fuch rooting in his heart, he is fo habituated to the reproofs and calls of the word, that few fuch |