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The upright heart's reflection.

From all this the upright heart takes advantage to rouze up its delight in God, and thus it expoftulateth with itself: Doth the plowman fing amidst his drudging labours, and whistle away his weariness in the fields; and fhall I droop amidst fuch heavenly employment? O my foul, what wanteft thou here, to provoke thy delight? If there be fuch an affection as delight in thee, methinks fuch an object as the bleffed face of God in ordinances fhould excite it. Ah! how would this ennoble all my fervices, and make them angel-like! how glad are those bleffed creatures to be employed for God! No fooner were they created, but they fang together, and fhouted for joy, Job xxxviii. 7. How did they fill the air with heavenly melody, when fent to bring the joyful tidings of a Saviour to the world! Afcribing glory to God in the higheft, even to the highest of their powers. Yea, this delight would make all my duties Chrift-like; and the nearer that pattern, the more excellent: he delighted to do his Father's will, it was to him meat and drink, Pfalm xl. 7. John iv. 32, 34.

Yea, it would not only ennoble, but facilitate all my duties, and be to me as wings to a bird in flying, or fails to a fhip in motion. Non tardat uneta rota; oiled wheels run freely: "Or ever I was aware, "my foul made me like the chariots of Amminadib." O what is the reafon (my God) my delight in thee fhould be fo little? Is it not becaufe my unbelief is fo great? Roufe up my delights, O thou fountain of pleasure! and let me fwim down the ftream of holy joy in dutý, into the boundlefs ocean of those immenfe delights that are in thy prefence, and at thy right hand for evermore.

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THE POEM.

WHAT a dull, defponding heart is mine!
That takes no more delight in things divine.
When all the creatures, both in heav'n and earth,
Enjoy their pleasures, and are big with mirth.
Angels and faints that are before the throne,
In extafies and raptures every one
Perpetually is held; each bleffed fpirit
The pureft, higheft joys doth there inherit :
The faints on earth, in their imperfect state,
Thofe peerless joys, by faith do antedate.
To natʼral men, who favour not this pleafure,
Yet bounteous nature doth unlock her treasure
Of fenfitive delights; yea, ftrange to tell,
Bold finners rant it all the way to hell.
Like fish that play in Jordan's filver ftream,
So thefe in fenfual lufts, and never dream
Of that dread fea to which the ftream doth tend,
And to their pleasures puts a fatal end.

Yea, birds and beafts, as well as men, enjoy
Their innocent delights: these chirp and play;
The cheerful birds among the branches fing,
And make the neighb'ring groves with mufic ring:
With various warbling notes they all invite
Our ravifh'd ears with pleasure and delight.
The new-fall'n lambs will, in a fun-fhine day,
About their feeding dams jump up, and play.
Are cifterns fweet? and is the fountain bitter?
Or can the fun be dark when glow-worms glitter?
Have inftruments their fweet, melodious airs?
All creatures their delights; and faints not theirs?
Yea, theirs tranfcend thefe fenfual ones as far
As noon-day Phoebus doth a twinkling ftar.
Why droop I then, may any creature have
A life like mine for pleasure? Who e'er gave
The like encouragement that Chrift hath giv'n,
To do his will on earth, as 'tis in heav'n?

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CHAP. IV.

Upon the due Quality of Arable Land.

Corn land muft neither be too fat, nor poor;
The middle fate fuits beft with Chriftians, fure.

OBSERVATION.

USBANDMEN find, by experience, that their arable lands may be dreffed too much, as well as too little; if the foil be over-rank, the feed fhoots up fo much into the ftalk, that it feldom ears well; and if too thin and poor, it wants its due nutriment, and comes not to perfection. Therefore their care is, to keep it in heart, but not to over-drefs, or under-dress it. The end of all their coft and pains about it is fruit; and therefore reafon tells them, that fuch a ftate and temperament of it, as beft fits it for fruit, is beft both for it and them.

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APPLICATION.

ND doth not fpiritual experience teach Chriftians that a mediocrity and competency of the things of this life, best fit them for the fruits of obedience, which is the end and excellency of their beings? A man may be over-mercied, as well as over-afflicted; Raro fumant falicibus are, the altars of the rich feldom fmoke. When our outward enjoyments are by providence shaped, and fitted to our con

dition, as a fuit is to the body, that fits close and neat, neither too fhort, nor too long; we cannot defire a better condition in this world. This was it that wife Agur requested of God, Prov. xxx. 8, 9. "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but feed me with food conve"nient for me, left I be full and deny thee, and fay who is the "Lord? Or left I be poor and fteal, and take the name of my God "in vain." Against both he prays equally, not abfolutely; that had been his fin; but, comparatively, and fubmiffively to the will of God. He had rather, if God fee it fit to avoid both of thefe extremes; but what would he have then? Why, food convenient. Or, according to the Hebrew, give me my prey, or ftatute-bread; which is a metaphor from birds which fly up and down to prey for their young, and what they get they diftribute among them; they bring them enough to preferve their lives, but not more than enough to lie mouldering in the nest. Such a proportion Agur desired, and the reafon why he defired it is drawn from the danger of both extremes. He measured, like a wife Christian, the convenience or inconvenience of his estate in the world, by its fuitableness or unfuitableness to the end of his being, which is the fervice of his God. He accounted the true excellence of his life to confift in its reference and tendency to the glory of his God; and he could not fee how a redundancy, or too great a penury of earthly comforts could fit him for that; but a middle eftate, equally removed from both extremes, beft fitted that end. And this was all that good Jacob, who was led by the fame Spirit, looked at, Gen. xxviii. 20. " And Jacob vowed a vow, faying, "if God will be with me, and keep me in the way that I

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go, and

give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, fo that I come again to my father's house in peace, then fhall the Lord be my God." Poor Jacob, he defires no great matters in the world, food and raiment will fatisfy him; in fpiritual matters his defires are boundless, he is the most greedy and unfatisfied man in the world, Hof. xii. 4. but in the matters of this life, if he can get from God but offam et aquam, a morfel of meat, and a mouthful of water, he will not envy the richest Crœfus, or Craffus upon earth. Cibus et potus funt divitia Chriftianorum; meat and drink are the riches of Chriftians. Divitia funt ad legem naturæ compofita paupertas, faith Pomponius Atticus ; riches are fuch a poverty, or mediocrity, as hath enough for nature's ufes; and fuch a state is beft accommodated, both to the condition, and to the defires of a faint.

1. To his condition, for what is a faint but a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, a man in a ftrange country travelling homeward? So David profeffed himself, Pfalm cxix. 12. "I am a ftranger in this "earth." And fo thofe worthies, who are now at home in heaven, Heb. xi. 13. they profeffed themselves to be ftrangers and pilgrims upon earth, and to seek a country; a viaticum contents a traveller, he will not incumber himself with fuperfluous things, which would rather clog and tire, than expedite and help him in his journey.

2. It fuits best with his defires, I mean his regular and advised defires. For,

1. A gracious foul earneftly defires a free condition in the world; he his fenfible he hath much work to do, a race to run, and is loth to be clogged, or have his foot in the fnare of the cares or pleasures of this life. He knows that fulness exposes to wantonnefs and irreligion, Deut. vi. 12. Hof. xiii. 6. It is hard, in the midst of so many tempting objects, to keep the golden bridle of moderation upon the affections. The heart of a Chriftian, like the moon, commonly fuffers an eclipfe when it is at the full, and that by the interpofition of the earth.

It was Solomon's fulness that drew out and diffolved his fpirits, and brought him to fuch a low ebb in fpirituals, that it remains a question with fome, Whether he ever recovered it to his dying day.

As it is the mifery of the poor to be neglected of men, fo it is the mifery of the rich to neglect God. Who can be poorer than to have the world, and love it? Or richer, than to enjoy but little of it, and live above it?

And, on the other fide, extreme poverty is no less exposed to fin and danger, Lev. vi. 2, 3, 4. As high and lofty trees are subject to storms and tempefts, fo the lower fhrubs to be browsed on by every beaft; and therefore a faint defires a juft competency as the fitteft, becaufe the freeft state.

2. A gracious perfon defires no more but a competency, because there is most of God's love and care difcovered in giving in our daily bread, by a daily providence. It is betwixt fuch a condition, and a fulness of creature-provifions in our land, as it was betwixt Egypt and Canaan; Egypt was watered with the foot from the river Nilus, and little of God was feen in that mercy; but Canaan depended upon the dews and showers of heaven; and fo every fhower of rain was a refreshing shower to their fouls, as well as bodies. Moft men that have a stock of creature-comforts in their hands, look upon all as coming in an ordinary, natural courfe, and fee very little of God in their mercies. Pope Adrian built a college at Louvain, and caused this infcription to be written in letters of gold on the gates thereof; Trajectum plantavit, Louvanium rigavit, Cafar dedit incrementum; (i.e.) Utrecht planted me, Louvain watered me, and Cæfar gave the increase One to reprove his folly wrote underneath, Hic Deus nibil fecit; here God did nothing. Carnal men fow, and reap, and eat, and look no further.

But now, when a man fees his mercies come in by the special and affiduous care of God for him, there is a double fweetnefs in thofe mércies; the natural fweetnefs which comes from the creature ittelf, every one, even the beafts, can taste that as well as thee; but befides that, there is a fpiritual sweetness, far exceeding the former, which none but a believer taftes; and much of that comes from the manner VOL. V.

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in which he receives it, because it comes (be it never fo coarse or little) as a covenant-mercy to him. "He hath given bread to them "that fear him, he is ever mindful of his covenant," Pfal. cxi. 5. Luther, who made many a meal upon a broiled herring, was wont to fay, Mendicato pane hic vivamus, annon hoc pulchre farcitur in eo, quod pafcimur pane cum angelis et vita æterna, Chrifto et facramentie: Let us be content with coarfe fare here, have we not the bread that came down from heaven? Do we not feed with angels? A pregnant inftance of the fweetnefs of fuch mercies is given us by a worthy divine of our own, Mr Ifaac Ambrofe,* For my own part (faith he) however the Lord hath feen caufe to give me but a poor pittance of outward things, for which I blefs his name, yet in the income thereof, I have many times obferved fo much of his peculiar provi dence, that thereby they have been very much fweetened, and my heart hath been raifed to admire his grace. When of late under an hard difpenfation (which I judge not meet to mention, wherein I fuffered with inward peace confcientioufly) all ftreams of wonted fupplies being ftopt, the waters of relief for myfelf and family did run low. I went to bed with fome ftaggerings and doubtings of the fountain's letting out itself for our refreshing; but ere I did awake in the morning, a letter was brought to my bed-fide, which was figned by a choice friend, Mr Anthony Afn, which reported fome unexpected breakings out of God's goodnefs for my comfort. Thefe are fome of his lines,--Your God, who hath given you • an heart thankfully to record your experiences of his goodness, doth renew experiences for your encouragement Now I fhall report one which will raife your fpirit towards the God of your mercy, &c.' Whereupon he sweetly concludes, One morfel of God's provision, (efpecially if it come unexpected, and upon prayer, when wants are most) will be more fweet to a fpiritual relish, than all former full enjoyments were.'

Many mercies come unasked for, and they require thankfulness, but when mercies come in upon prayer, and as a return of prayer, their sweetness more than doubles; for now it is both God's bleffing upon his own inftitution, and a feal fet to his promife at once, Pfal. Ixvi. 16, 17. Doubtlefs Hannah found more comfort in her Samuel, and Leah in her Naphtali, the one being afked of God, and the other wreftled for with God, (as their names import) than mothers ordinarily do in their children.

REFLECTIONS.

The reflection Do the people of God defire only fo much of the creature as may fit them for the fervice of God? of the defigning What wretch am I that have defired only fo much hypocrite. of religion as may fit me to gain the creature! As

Epiftle to the Earl of Bedford; ante ultima.

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