The common stock: his fituation good,
His branches many, of himself a wood;
And like a cedar by the river fed,
Unto the clouds his ample branches spread :
Sin fmote his root, then juftice cut him down,
And levell'd with the earth his lofty crown.
What hope of branches when the tree's o'erturn'd,
But hike dry faggots to be bound and burn'd?
It had been fo, had not tranfcendent love,
Which in a sphere above our thoughts doth move,
Prepar'd a better stock to fave and nourish
Tranfplanted twigs, which in him thrive and flourish.
In Adam all are curs'd; no faving fruit
Shall ever fpring from that fin-blasted root;
Yea, all the branches that in him are found,
How flourishing foever, muft be bound
And pil'd together (horrid news to tell!)
To make an everlasting blaze in hell.
God takes no pleasure in the sweetest bud
Difclof'd by nature; for the root's not good,
Some boughs, indeed, richly adorned are
With natural fruits, which to the eye are fair;
Rare gifts, fweet difpofitions, which attract
The love of thousands. and from most exact
Honour and admiration. You'll admire
That fuch as these are fuel for the fire.
Indeed, ten thousand pities 'tis to fee
Such lovely creatures in this cafe to be.
Did they by true regeneration draw
The fap of life from Jeffe's root, the law,
By which they now to wrath condemned are,

Would cease to curfe, and God fuch buds would fpare:

But out of him there's none of these can move

His unrelenting hear, or draw his love.

Then cut me off from this accurfed tree,

Left I for ever be cut off from thee.

W

CHAP. II.

Upon the union of the Graff with the Stock.

Whene'er you bud and graff, therein you fee,
How Chrift and fouls must here united be.

OBSERVATION.

HEN the hufbandman hath prepared his graffs in the feafon

of the year, he carries them, with the tools that are neceffary for that work, to the tree or ftock he intends to ingraff, and

having cut off the top of the limb in some smooth part, he cleaves it with his knife or chifel a little befide the pith, knocks in his wedge to keep it open, then (having prepared the graff) he carefully fets it into the cleft, joining the inner fide of the barks of graff and stock together (there being the main current of the sap) then pulls out his wedge, binds both together (as in barking) and clays it up, to defend the tender graff and wounded stock from the injuries of the fun and rain.

These tender cyons quickly take hold of the stock, and having immediate coalition with it, drink in its fap, concoct it into their own nourishment, thrive better, and bear more and better fruits than ever they would have done upon their natural root; yea, the smallest bud, being carefully inoculated and bound clofe to the ftock, will, in a fhort time, become a flourishing and fruitful limb.

THIS

APPLICATION.

HIS carries a most sweet and lively refemblance of the foul's union with Chrift by faith; and indeed there is nothing in nature that fhadows forth this great gofpel-mystery like it: It is a thousand pities that any who are employed about, or are but fpectators of fuch an action, fhould terminate their thoughts (as too many do) in that natural object, and not raife up their hearts to these heavenly meditations, which it fo fairly offers them.

1. When a twig is to be ingraffed, or a bud inoculated, it is first cut off by a keen knife from the tree on which it naturally grew.

And when the Lord intends to graff a foul into Chrift, the firft work about it, is cutting work, Acts ii. 37. their hearts were cut by conviction, and deep compunction; no cyon is ingraffed without cutting, no foul united with Chrift, without a cutting fenfe of fin and mifery, John xvi. 8, 9.

2. When the tender hoot is cut off from the tree, there are, ordinarily, many more left behind upon the fame tree, as promifing and vigorous as that which is taken; but it pleaseth the husbandman to chufe this, and leave them.

Even fo it is in the removing or transplanting of a foul by conver fion; it leaves many behind it in the ftate of nature, as likely and promifing as itself; but fo it pleaseth God to take this foul, and leave many others; yea, often fuch as grew upon the fame root; I mean, the immediate parent, Mal. i. 2. «Was not Efau Jacob's brother? "faith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Efau.”

3. When the graffs are cut off, in order to this work, it is a critical season with them: if they lie too long before they are ingraffed, or take not with the ftock, they die, and are never more to be recovered; they may ftand in the stock a while, but are no part of the tree. So when fouls are under a work of conviction, it is a critical time with them; many a one have I known then to miscarry, and never recover again: they have indeed for a time ftood like dead graffs

n the ftock, by an external dead-hearted profeffion, but never came to any thing; and as fuch dead graffs, either fall off from the ftock, or moulder away upon it; fo do thefe, John ii. 19.

4. The husbandman, when he hath cut off graffs, or tender buds, makes all the convenient fpeed he can to close them with the stock; the fooner that's done, the better; they get no good by remaining as they are. And truly it concerns the fervants of the Lord, who are imployed in this work of ingraffing fouls into Chrift, to make all the hafte they can to bring the convicted finner to a clofure with Christ. As foon as ever the trembling jailor cried, "What thall I do to be "faved?" Paul and Silas immediately direct him to Chrift, Acts xvi. 30, 31. They do not fay, it is too foon for thee to act faith on Christ, thou are not yet humbled enough, but "believe in the Lord Jefus "Chrift, and thou shalt be faved."

5. There must be an incifion made in the stock before any bud can be inoculated; or the stock must be cut and cleaved, before the cyon can be ingraffed; according to that in the poet,

Venerit infitio, fac ramum ramus adoptet; i. e.

To graffs no living fap the flocks impart,

Unless you wound and cut them near the heart.

Such an incifion, or wound, was made upon Chrift, in order to our ingrafting into him, John xix. 34. the opening of that deadly wound gives life to the fouls of believers.

6. The graff is intimately united, and clofely conjoined with the ftock; the conjunction is fo close, that they become one tree.

There is also a most close and intimate union betwixt Chrift and the foul that believeth in him. It is emphatically expreffed by the apostle, I Cor. vi. 17. "He that is joined to the Lord is one fpirit." The word imports the neareft, clofeft, and ftricteft union. Chrift and the foul cleave together in a bleffed oneness, as thofe things do that are glued one to another; fo that look as the graff is really in the ftock, and the fpirit or fap of the stock is really in the graff; fo a believer is really (though myftically) in Chrift, and the Spirit of Chrift is really communicated to a believer. I live, (faith Paul) yet not I, "but Chrift liveth in me," Gal. ii. 20. "He that dwelleth in love, "dwelleth in God, and God in him," 1 John iv. 16.

7. Graffs are bound to the ftock by bands made of hay or flags, thefe keep it steady, elfe the wind would loofe it out of the stock. The believing foul is also fastened to Chrift by bands, which will fecure it from all danger of being loofed off from him any more. There are two bands of this union; the Spirit on God's part, this is the firm bond of union, without which we could never be made one with Chrift, Rom. viii. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Chrift, "he is none of his ;" and faith on our part, Eph. iii. 17. "That "Chrift may dwell in your hearts by faith." Thefe hold ftrongly. 8. Though the ftock be one and the fame, yet all graffs do not VOL. V.

"

U

thrive and flourish alike in it; fome outgrow the reft, and thofe that grow not fo well as the others do, the fault is in them, and not in the ftock fo it is with fouls really united to Chrift; all do not flourish alike in him, the faith of fome grows exceedingly, 2 Theff. i. 3. the things that be in others are ready to die, Rev. iii. 2. and fuch fouls muft charge the fault upon themfelves. Chrift fends up living fap enough, not only to make all that are in him living, but fruitful branches.

Four comfortable reflections for a regenerate foul.

REFLECTIONS.

1. Is it fo indeed betwixt Chrift and my foul, as it is betwixt the ingraffed cyon and the ftock? What honour and glory then hath Chrift conferred upon me, a poor unworthy creature! What! to be made one with him, to be a living branch of him, to be joined thus to the Lord! Oh! what a preferment is this! It is but a little while fince I was a wild and cursed plant, growing in the wilderness amongst them that fhall fhortly be cut down and faggotted up for hell; for me to be taken from amongst them, and planted into Chrift. O my foul! fall down and kifs the feet of free grace, that moved fo freely towards fo vile a creature! The dignities and honours of the kings and nobles of the earth, are nothing to mine. It was truly confeffed by one of them, that it is a greater honour to be a member of Chrift, than the head of an empire. Do I fay, a greater honour than is put upon the kings of the earth? I might have said, it is a greater honour than is put upon the angels of heaven: For "to whom of them faid Christ, at any time, thou art "bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh? Behold what manner of "love is this!" 1 John iii. 1.

2. Look again upon the ingraffed cyons, O my foul! and thou fhalt find, that when once they have taken hold of the stock, they live as long as there is any fap in the root; and because he liveth, I fhall live alfo, for my life is hid with Chrift in God, Col. iii. 3. The graff is preferved in the ftock, and my foul is even fo "preserved in "Chrift Jefus !" Jude, ver. 1.

3. Am I joined to the Lord as a mystical part or branch of him? How dear art thou then, O my foul, to the God and Father of my Lord Jefus Chrift! What! a branch of his dear Son! What can God with-hold from one fo ingraffed? Eph. i. 6. "All is yours, (faith my God) for ye are Chrift's, and Chrift is God's," i Cor. 23.

ii.

4. Once more, draw matter of inftruction as well as comfort from this sweet obfervation: feeing God hath put all this honour upon thee, by this most intimate union with his Chrift, look to it, my foul, that thou live and walk as becomes a foul thus one with the Lord: be thou tender over his glory: doth not that which strikes at the root, ftrike at the very life of the graff? And shall not that which strikes

at the very glory of Chrift. tenderly touch and affect thee? Yea, be thou tenderly affected with all the reproaches that fall upon him from abroad, but especially with thofe that redound to him from thine own unfruitfulness. Oh! difgrace not the root that bears thee! let it never be faid, that any evil fruit is found upon a branch that lives and is fed by fuch a root.

O

THE POEM.

H! what confidering ferious man can fee

The clofe conjunction of the graff and tree;
And whilft he contemplates, he doth not find
This meditation graffed on his mind?

I am the branch, and Chrift the vine;
Thy gracious hand did pluck
Me from that native stock of mine,
That I his fap might fuck.

The bloody fpear did in his heart
A deep incifion make,

That grace to me he might impart,
And I thereof partake.

The Spirit and faith are that firm band
Which binds us faft together;
Thus we are clasped hand in hand,
And nothing can us fever.
Blefs'd be that hand which did remove

Me from my native place!
This was the wonder of thy love,
The triumph of thy grace!
That I, a wild and curfed plant
Should thus preferred be,
Who all those ornaments do want,
Thou may'ft in others fee.

As long as e'er the root doth live,

The branches are not dry;

Whilft Chrift hath grace and life to give,

My foul can never die.

O bleffed Saviour! never could

A graff cleave to the tree

More close than thy poor creature would

United be with thee.

My foul, difhonour not the root,

'Twill be a fhame for thee

To want the choiceft forts of fruit,,

And yet thus graffed be.

Thus you may shake from graffs, before they blow,

More precious fruit than e'er on trees did grow.