wherein I live with fhowers of grace, that we may not be as the heath in the defart, which feeth not when good cometh, nor inhabit the parched places of the wilderness.

2. O Lord, thou haft caufed the heavens above For those that me to be black with clouds, thou openeft the celefenjoy a gofpel- tial cafements from above, and daily sendest down miniftry. fhowers of gofpel-bleffings: O that I might be as the parched earth under them! Not for barrennefs, but for thirftinefs. Let me fay, "My foul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the "courts of the Lord:" that I might there fee the beauty of the Lord. Doth the fpungy earth fo greedily fuck up the flowers, and open as many mouths as there are clefts in it, to receive what the clouds difpenfe? And fhall thofe precious foul-enriching fhowers fleet away unprofitably from me? If so, then,

For unprofitable bearers.

5. What an account have I to make for all those gofpel-bleffings that I have enjoyed; for all those gofpel-dews and fhowers wherewith I have been watered! Should I be found fruitlefs at laft, it will fare better with the barren and uncultivated wilderness than with me; more tolerable for Indians and Barbarians that never heard the gofpel, than for me that have been fo affiduoufly and plentifully watered by it. Lord! what a difference wilt thou put in the great day, betwixt fimple and pertinacious barrenefs? Surely, if my root be not rottennefs, fuch heavenly waterings and influences as thefe will make it sprout forth into fruits of obedience.

THE POEM.

HE vegetables here below depend

Upon thofe treafures which the heavens do fpend

Mott bounteously upon them, to preferve

Their being and their beauty. This may ferve
To fhadow forth a heavenly mystery,
Which thus prefents itfelf before your eye.
As when the fun draws near us in the fpring,
All creatures do rejoice, birds chirp and fing.
The face of nature fmiles; the fields adorn
Themfelves with rich embroideries: The corn
Revives, and footeth up; the warm fweet rain
Makes trees and herbs fprout forth, and spring amain.
Walk but the fields in fuch a fragrant morn,
How do the birds your ears with mufic charm!
The flowers their flaming beauties do prefent
Unto your captiv'd eyes; and for their fcent,
The tweet Arabian gums cannot compare,
Which thus perfume the circumambient air.
So when the gospel fheds its cheering beams
On gracious fouls, like thofe fweet-warming gleams

Which God ordains in nature, to draw forth
The virtue feminal that's in the earth;

It warms their hearts, their languid graces cheers,
And on fuch fouls a fpring-like face appears.

The gracious fhowers thefe fpiritual clouds do yield,
Enriches them with fweetnefs, like a field

Which God hath blefs'd. Oh! 'tis exceeding fweet,
When gracious hearts and heavenly truths do meet!
How fhould the hearts of faints within them fpring,
When they behold the meffengers that bring
Thefe gladfome tidings? Yea, their very feet
Are beautiful, because their meffage's sweet.
Oh what a mercy does thofe fouls enjoy,
On whom fuch gofpel-dews fall day by day!
Thrice happy land which in this pleafant fpring,
Can hear thefe turtles in her hedges fing?
O prize fuch mercies! If you ask me, why?
Read on, you'll fee there's reafon by and by.

I

CHAP. X.

Upon a Dearth through want of Rain.

If God refrains the show'rs, you howl and cry:
Shall faints not mourn when spiritual clouds are dry?

OBSERVATION.

Tis defervedly accounted a fad judgment, when God shuts up the heavens over our heads, and makes the earth as brafs under our feet, Deut. xxviii. 23. Then the hufbandmen are called to mourning, Joel i. 11. All the fields do languifh, and the bellowingcattle are pined with thirft. Such a fad ftate the prophet rhetorically defcribes, Jer. xiv. 3, 4, 5, 6. “The nobles have fent their little ones "to the waters; they came to the pits and found no water; they "returned with their veffels empty; they were afhamed and con"founded, and covered their heads, becaufe the ground is chapt; " for there was no rain in the earth; the plowmen were ashamed, "they covered their heads; yea, the hind also calved in the field, " and forfook it, because there was no grafs; and the wild affes did "fand in the high places: They fnuffed up the wind like dragons; "their eyes failed becaufe there was no grafs."

And that which makes the want of rain so terrible a judgment, is the famine of bread, which neceffarily follows thefe extraordinary droughts, and is one of the foreft temporal judgments which God inflicts upon the world.

A

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APPLICATION.

ND, truly as much caufe have they to weep and tremble over whofe fouls God fhuts up the fpiritual clouds of the gospel, and thereby fends a fpiritual famine upon their fouls. Such a judg ment the Lord threatens in Amos viii. 11. “Behold the day is come, "faith the Lord, that I will fend a famine in the land, not a famine " of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the "Lord." The meaning is, I will fend a more fearful judgment than that of the famine of bread; for this particle [not] is not exclufive but exceffive implying, that a famine of bread is nothing, or but a light judgment compared with the famine of the 'word. Parallel to which is that text, Ifa. v. 6. « I will lay it wafte (faith God of the fruitless << church;) it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there fhall come "up briers and thorns; I will alfo command the clouds that they "rain not upon it." And we find both in human and facred hiltories, that when God hath fhut up the fpiritual clouds, removing or filencing his minifters, fenfible Chriftians have ever been deeply affected with it, and reckoned it a moft tremendous judgment. Thus the Chriftians of Antioch, when Chryfoftom their minifter was banifhed, they judged it better to lose the fun out of the firmament, than lofe that, their minifter. And when Nazianzen was taking his leave of Conftantinople, as he was preaching his farewel fermon, the people were exceedingly affected with his lofs; and among the reft, an old man in the congregation fell into a bitter paffion, and cried out, Aude pater, et tecum trinitatem ipfam ejice: i. e. Go, Father, if you dare, and take away the whole trinity with you; meaning, that God would not stay when he was gone. How did the Chriftians of Antioch also weep and lament, when Paul was taking his farewel of them? Acts xx. 37, 38. He had been a cloud of bleffings to that place; but now they must expect no more fhowers from him. Oh! they knew not how to give up fuch a minifter! when the ark of God (which was the fymbol of the Divine prefence among the Jews) was taken, "All the city cried out," 1 Sam. iv. 13. Oh the lofs of a gofpel-miniftry is an ineftimable lofs, not to be repaired but by its own return, or by heaven! Mr Greenham tells us, that in the tinies of popith perfecution, when godly minifters were haled away from their flocks to martyrdom, the poor Chriftians would meet them in the way to the prisons, or ftake, with their little ones in their arms, and throwing themfelves at their feet, would thus befpeak them, What shall be our estate, now you are gone to martyrdom? Who • fhall instruct thefe poor babes? Who fhall ease our afflicted confciences? Who fhall lead us in the way of life? Recompenfe unto them, O Lord, as they have deferved, who are the caufes of this: Lord give them fad hearts. Quis talia fando, temperet a lachrymis ?

It is better for us to want the light of the fun, than the teaching of Chryfoftom.

And to let you fee there is fufficient ground for this forrow, when God restrains the influences of the gofpel, folemnly confider the following particulars.

I. That it is a dreadful token of God's great anger against that people from whom he removes the gofpel. The anger of God was fearfully incenfed against the church of Ephefus, when he did but threaten to come against her, and remove the candlestick out of its place, Rev. ii. 5. It is a ftroke at the foul, a blow at the root; ufually the laft, and therefore the worst of judgments. There is a pedigree of judgments; first, Gomer bears Jezreel; next Lo-ruhama, and at laft brings forth Lo-ammi, Hofea i. 4, 6, 8, 9.

2. There is cause of mourning, if you confider the deplorable estate in which all the unregenerate fouls are left, after the gospel is removed from them. What will become of these? Or by whom fhall they be gathered? It made the bowels of Christ yern within him, when he looked upon the scattered multitude that had no fhepherd, Matth. ix. 36. What an easy conqueft doth the devil now make of them! How fast doth hell fill in fuch times! Poor fouls being driven thither in droves, and none to rescue them? Matthew Paris tells us, that in the year 1073, when preaching was fuppreffed at Rome, letters were then framed as coming from hell, wherein the devil gave them thanks for the multitude of fouls they had fent to him that year. But truly we need not talk of letters from hell, we are told from heaven, how deplorable the condition of fuch poor fouls is; See Prov. xxviii. 19. Hof. iv. 6. Or,

3. The judgment will yet appear very heavy, if you confider the lofs which God's own people fuftain by the removal of the gospel; for therein they lofe, (1.) Their chief glory, Rom. iii. 2. The principal thing in which the peculiar glory of Ifrael confifted was this, "That unto them were committed the oracles of God." On that account it was called the glorious land, Dan. xi. 16. This made them greater than all the nations round about them, Deut. iv. 7, 8. (2.) By lofing the ordinances they lose their quickenings, comforts, and foul-refreshments; for all these are sweet streams from the gofpel-fountain, Pfalm cxix. 50. Col. iv. 8. No wonder then to hear the people of God complain of dead hearts when the gospel is removed. (3.) In the lofs of the gospel they lofe their defence and fafety. This is their hedge, their wall of protection, Ifa. v. 5. Walls and hedges (faith Mufculus in loc.) are the ordinances of God, which ferved both ad feparationem et munitionem, to distinguish and to defend them. When God plucks up this hedge, and breaks down this wall, all mischiefs break in upon us prefently, 2 Chron. xv. 3, 4, 5, 6, "Now for a long season Ifrael hath been without the true God " and without a teaching prieft, and without law.—And in " thofe times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him VOL. V.

M

"that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of "the countries, and nation was deftroyed of nation, and city of "city; for God did vex them with all adverfity." How long did Jerufalem remain after that voice was heard in the temple, Migremus bine? Let us be gone. (4.) With the gofpel, we lofe our temporal enjoyments and creature-comforts. Thefe ufually come and go with the gospel. When God had once written Lo-ammi upon Ifrael, the next news was this, "I will recover my weol and my flax," Hofea ii. 9. (5.) And, laftly, to come up to the very cafe in hand, they lofe with it their spiritual food and foul-fubfiftence, for the gospel is their feaft of fat things, Ila. xxv, 6. their fpiritual wells, Ifa. xii. 3. a dole diftributed among the Lord's poor, Rom. i. 11. In a word, it is as the rain and dews of heaven, as hath been fhewed, which being restrained, a spiritual famine neceffarily follows, a famine, of all the most terrible. Now to fhew you the analogy between this and a temporal famine, that therein you may fee what caufe you have to be deeply affected with it, take it in thefe fix following particulars.

1. A famine caufed by the failing of bread, or that which is in the ftead, and hath the ufe of bread. Daintics and fuperfluous rarities may fail, and yet men may fubfift comfortably. As long as people have bread and water, they will not famifh; but take away bread once, and the fpirit of man faileth. Upon this account bread is called a staff, Pfal. cv. 16. because what a staff is to an aged and feeble man, that bread is to the faint and fecble fpirits, which even fo lean upon it. And look, what bread is to the natural spirits, that, and more than that, the word is to gracious fpirits, Job xxiii. 12. "I have "efteemed the words of thy mouth more than my neceflary food." If once God break this staff, the inner-man, that hidden man of the heart, will quickly begin to fail and faulter.

2. It is not every degree of fcarcity of bread that presently makes a famine, but a general failing of it; when no bread is to be had, or that which is, yields no nutriment. (For a famine may as well be occafioned by God's taking away panis nutrimentum, the nourishing virtue of bread, that it fhall fignify no more, as to the end of bread, than a chip, Hag. i. 6. as by taking away panem nutrientem, bread itfelf, Ifa. iii. 1.) And fo it is in a ipiritual famine, which is occafioned, either by God's removing all the ordinances, and making vi fion utterly to fail, or elfe, though there be preaching, prayer, and other ordinances left, (at leaft the names and fhadows of them) yet the prefence of God is not with them. There is no marrow in the bone, no milk in the breaft; and fo, as to foul-fubfiftence, it is all one, as if there were no fuch things.

3. In a corporeal famine, mean and coarfe things become fweet and pleafant. Famine raifes the price and efteem of them. That which before you would have thrown to your dogs, now goes down pleafantly with yourfelves. To the hungry foul every bitter thing is