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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 fieve, 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 poffibly efcape, if it be well winnowed; much more impoffible it is for any wicked man to escape the critical fearch of God in that day; the clo feft. hypocrite fhall then be detected, for God will judge the fecrets of men, 2 Cor. xvi. "He will then bring to light the "hidden things of darkness, and make manifeft the counfels "of the heart," Cor. iv. 5.

7. Lastly, After corn and chaff are feparated by the winnowing wind, they fhail never lie together in one heap any more: The wicked fhall 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.

A reflection for a close bypocrite.

1. Am I an empty vain profeffor, that wants the pith and fubftance of real godliness? Then am I but chaff in God's account, though I grow among his corn; the eye of man cannot discern my hypocrify; but when he comes, whofe fan is in his hand, then how plainly will it be detected? Angels and men shall difcern it, and fay, "Lo, this is the man that made not God his "hope;" How fhall I abide the day of his coming? Chrift is the great heart-anatomift: Things fhall not be carried then by names and parties, as they are now; every ore fhall be weighed in a juft balance, and a Mene Tekel written upon every heart: Great will be the perfpicuity of that trial: My own confcience fhall join with my judge, and fhall then acknowledge, that there is not one drop of injuftice in all that fea of wrath; and though I am damned, yet I am not wronged: The chaff cannot stand before the wind, nor I before the judgment of Chrift.

falle

2. Is there fuch a fanning time coming? Why do not I then fift my heart every day by ferious felf-examination? No work VOL. VI.

U

A reflection for one that neglects felf-ex

amination.

more important to me, and yet how much have I neglected it? O my foul ! thou hadst been better imployed, in fearching thine own estate in reference to that day, than in prying finfully inco the hearts, and cenfuring the conditions of other men: Judge thyfelf, 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 ftand at man's bar, there to be tried for my life, how bufy fhould I be every hour of the day in writing to any that I thought could befriend me, and ftudying every advantage to myfelf? 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, roufe up my fluggish heart, by awful and folicitous thoughts of that day, left I be found among tl:at chaff which shall be burnt up with unquenchable fire..

A reflection for a fincere foul.

5. Fear not, O my foul! though there be a blaft coming which fhall drive all the chaff into hell, yet it fhall blow thee no harm. “I "know that when he hath tried me, I fhall ❝come forth as gold," Job xxiii. 10. I confefs I have too much chaff about me, but yet I am not altogether chaff; there is a folid work of grace upon my foul that will abide the trial: Let the judgment to come be as impartial and exact as it is poffible to be, yet a grain of fincerity cannot be loft in it; for "God:

will not caft away a perfect (i. e. an upright-hearted) man," Job viii. 20. He that is appointed to judge the world is mine; and his imputed righteoufaefs will make me full weight in the balance. Blefs the Lord, O my foul, for fincerity! this will abide, when common gifts, and empty names, will flee as the chaff before the wind.

The POE M..

THE winnowing wind firft drives the chaff away,

THE

Next light and hollow grains; those only stay

Whose weight and folid fubftance can endure
This trial, and fuch grains are counted pure.
'The corn for ufe is carefully preferv'd;
The useless chaff for burning flames referv'd.
No wind but blows fome good, a proverb is;
: Glad fhall I be if it hold true in this.
O that the wind, when you to winnowing go,
This fpiritual good unto your fouls might blow!
To make you paufe, and fadly ruminate,
In what a doleful plight, and wretched state.

Their fouls are in, who cannot hope to stand
When he fhall come, whose fan is in his hand;
His piercing eyes infallibly disclose

The very reins, and inward part of those
Whofe out-fide feeming grace fo neatly paints,
That, with the best, they pass for real faints,
No hypocrite with God acceptance finds,
But, like the chaff, difpers'd by furious winds.
Their guilt shall not that searching day endure,
Nor they approach th' affemblies of the pure.
Have you obferv'd in autumn, thistle-down,
By howling Aeolus, fcatter'd up and down
About the fields? Even fo God's ireful ftorm
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 fplendid garments walk,
Of high profeffions, and like angels talk,
Shall God diveft, and openly proclaim
Their fecret guilt, to their eternal fhame?
This is the day wherein the Lord will rid
His church of thofe falfe friends, who now lie hid
Among his people; there will not be one
Falfe heart remain, to lose our love upon.
O blefs'd affembly glorious state! when all
In their uprightness walk, and ever fhall.
O make my heart fincere, that I may never
Prove fuch light chaff as then thy wind fhall fever
From folid grain! Olet my foul deteft
Unfoundnefs, and abide thy ftrictest test!

AN

INTRODUCTION

To the SECOND PART of

HUSBANDRY.

H

OW is it, reader, have I tired thee,

Whilft thro' these pleasant fields thou walk'ft with me?

Our path was pleafant; but if length of way
Do weary thee, we'll flack our pace and stay:
Let's fit a while, under the cooling fhade
Of fragrant trees; trees were for fhadow made.
Lo here a pleafant grove, whofe fhade is good;
But more than fo, twill yield us fruit for food:
No dangerous fruits do on thefe branches grow,
No fnakes among the verdant grass below;
Here we'll repofe a while, and then go view
The pleasant herds and flocks; and so adieu.

CHAP. 1.

Upon the Ingraffing of Fruit-trees

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

A

OBSERVATION.

Wild tree naturally fpringing up in the wood or hedge, and never graffed or removed from its native foil, may bear tome fruit, and that fair and beautiful to the eye; but it will give you no content at all in eating, being always harth, four, and unpleasant to the taste; but if fuch a ftock be removed into a good foil, and graffed with a better kind, it may become a good tree, and yield ftore of choice and pleafant fruit.

UN

APPLICATION.

Nregenerate men, who never were acquainted with the mystery of fpiritual union with Jefus Chrift, but fill grow upon their natural root, old Adam, may, by the force and power of natural principles, bring forth fome fruit, which, like the wild hedge-fruit we speak of, may, indeed, be fair and plea. fant to the eyes of men, but God takes no pleasure at all in it; it is four, harfh, and diftafteful to him, because it springs not from the Spirit of Chrift, Ifa. i. 13. «I cannot away with it, it

is iniquity," &c. But that I may not entangle the thread of my difcourfe, I fhall (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 fournefs and harshness in the fruit it bears; it is the feed of fome better tree accidentally blown, or caft into some waste and bad foil, where not being manured and ordered aright, it is turned wild; So all the fruits

of unregenerate men flow from the firft Adam, a corrupt and degenerate root; he was indeed planted a right feed, but foon turned a wild and degenerate plant; he being the root from which every man naturally fprings, corrupts all the fruit that any man bears from him. It is obferved by Gregory, pertinent to my prefent 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 bring forth good fruit."

2. This corrupt root fpoils the fruit, by the tranfmiffion of its four and naughty fap 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, fpoils all: for the fame caufe and reafon, no mere natural or unregenerate man can ever do one holy or acceptable action, because the corruption of the root is in all thofe actions. The neceffity of our drawing corruption into all our actions, from this curfed root Adam, is expreffed by a quick and fmart interrogation, Job xiv. 4." Who "can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." The fenfe of it is well delivered us (by Mr. Caryl in loc.) This question (faith he) may undergo a twofold construction: First, thus, Who can bring a morally clean perfon out of a per fon originally unclean? and fo he lays his hand upon his birthfin. Or, fecondly, which speaks to my purpose, it may refer to the action of the fame man; man being unclean, cannot bring forth a clean thing; (i. c.) 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 apoftle fhews us in that excellent parallel betwixt the two Adams, Rom. v. 12. "Wherefore, as by one man" [one, not only in individuo fed in fpecie, one reprefenting the whole root or stock,]" fin enter

ed into the world:" not by imitation only, but by propt gation; and this brought death and ruin upon all the bran ches.

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3. Although these wild hedge-fruits be unwholfome and unpleasant to the tafte, 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 fhew and colour, to be excellent fruit; for it makes a fairer fhew oftentimes than the best and most wholesome fruit doth: even fo, these natural gifts and endowments which fome unregenerate perfons have, feem exceeding fair to the eye, and a fruit to be defired. What excellent

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