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"not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." He may fay to the promifes, You are the true and faithful fayings of God. My unbelief did bely you; I faid in my hafte you were lyars, but I eat my words, I am afhamed of my folly. Surely, O foul, there is yet hope in thine end, thou mayeft be restored, Pfal. xxiii. 3. Thou mayeft yet recover thy verdure, and thy dew be as the dew of herbs. For,

1. Is he not thy father, and a father full of compaffions, and bowels? And can a father ftand by his dying child, fee his fainting fits, hear his melting groans, and pity-begging looks, and not help him, especially having restoratives by him, that can do it? Surely, "As a father pities his own children, fo will thy God pity thee," Pfal.,ciii. 12, 13. "He will fpare thee as a father fpareth "his own fon that ferves him," Mal. iii. 17. Hark, how his bowels yearn!" I have furely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself. Is not Ephraim my dear fon? Is he not a pleafant child? For fince I "fpake against him, I do earnestly remember him ftill, I will furely "have mercy on him," Jer. xxxi. 20.

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2. Doth he not know thy life would be altogether useless to him, if he should not reftore thee? What fervice art thou fit to perform to him, in fuch a condition?« Thy days will confume like fmoke, "whilft thy heart is fmitten and withered like grats," Pfal. cii. 3, 4. Thy months will be months of vanity, they will fly away, and fee no good, Job vii. 3. If he will but quicken thee again, then thou mayeft call upon his name, Pfal. lxxx. 18. but in a dead and languifhing condition, thou art no more fit for any work of God, than a fick man is for manual labours; and furely he hath not put thofe precious and excellent graces of his Spirit within thee for nothing; they were planted there for fruit and fervice, and therefore, doubtlefs, he will revive thee again.

3. Yea, doft thou not think he fees thine inability to bear fuch a condition long? He knows "thy fpirit would fail before him, and the foul which he hath made;" Ifa. lvii. 16. David told him as much, in the like condition, Pfal. cxliii. 7, 8. "Hear me speedily, "O Lord, for my fpirit faileth; hide not thy face from me, left I "be like unto thofe that go down into the pit:" q. d. Lord, make hafte, and recover my languifhing foul; otherwife, whereas thou haft now a fick child, thou wilt fhortly have a dead child.

II, 12. "

And in like manner Job expoftulated with him, Job vi. 1. 2, 3, My grief is heavier than the fand of the fea, my words are "fwallowed up, for the arrows of the Almighty are within me; and "the poifon thereof drinks up my fpirits: The terrors of God

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do fet themfelves in array against me. What is my ftrength that "I fhould hope? Is my ftrength the ftrength of ftones? or are my bones of brafs?" So chap. vii. 12. “Am I a fea, or a whale ?" &c. Other troubles a man may, but this he cannot bear, Prov. xviii. 14. and therefore, doubtlefs, feasonable and gracious revivings will come,

"He will not ftir up all his wrath, for he remembers thou art but "flesh, a wind that paffeth away, and cometh not again," Pfal. lxxvii. 38, 39. He hath ways enough to do it; if he do but unveil his bleffed face, and make it fhine again upon thee, thou art faved, Pfal. lxxx. 3. The manifeftations of his love, will be to thy foul, as fhowers to the parched grafs; thy foul, that now droops, and hangs the wing, fhall then revive and leap for joy, Ifa. Ixi. 1. a new face shall come upon thy graces, they shall bud again, and bloffom as a rofe. If he do but send a spring of * auxiliary grace into thy soul, to actuate the dull habits of inherent grace, the work is done; then fhalt thou return to thy first works, Rev. ii. 4, 5. and fing, as in the days of thy youth.

REFLECTIONS.

O this is my very cafe, faith many a poor Chriftian; thus my foul languishes and droops from day to day. It is good news indeed, that God both can and will restore my foul; but fad that I should fall into fuch a state; how unlike am I to what I once was! Surely, as the old men wept when they saw how fhort the second temple came of the glory of the first; fo may I fit down and weep bitterly, to confider how much my first love and first duties excelled the present. For,

1. Is my heart fo much in heaven now, as it was wont to be? Say, O my foul! doft thou not remember, when, A convictive like the beloved difciple, thou laidft in Jefus's bofom, how didst thou sweeten communion with him? How reflection. restlefs and impatient waft thou in his abfence! divine withdrawments were to thee as the hell of hell; what a burden was the world to me in those days! Had it not been for conscience of my duty, I could have been willing to let all lie, that communion with Chrift might fuffer no interruption. When I awaked in the night, how was the darkness enlightened by the heavenly glimpfes of the countenance of my God upon me? How did his company fhorten those hours, and beguile the tedioufnels of the night? O my foul, fpeak thy experience; Is it now as it was then? No, those days are past – and gone, and thou art become much a ftranger to that heavenly life. Art thou able with truth to deny this charge? When occafionally I pafs by thofe places, which were once to me as Jacob's Bethel to him; I figh at the remembrance of former paffages betwixt me and heaven there, and fay with Job, chap. xxix. "O that it were with me as in "months paft, as in the days when God preferved me, when his "candle fhined upon my head, when by his light I walked through "darkness, when the Almighty was yet with me, when I put on " righteousness, and it clothed me, when my glory was fresh in me! VOL. V.

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* Grace needs more grace to put it in exercise.

"When I remember these things my foul is poured out within me.”

2. Is thy obedience to the commands of Chrift, and motions to duty, as free and cheerful as they were wont to be? Call to mind, my foul, the times when thou waft borne down the stream of love to every duty. If the Spirit did but whifper to thee, faying, Seek my face, how did my fpirit echo to his calls? faying, "Thy face, Lord, "will I feek," Pfal. xxvii. 8. If God had any work to be done, how readily did I offer my fervice? Here am I, Lord, fend me. My foul made me like the chariots of Amminadib; love oiled the wheels of my affections, and "his commandments were not grievous," 1 John v. 3. Non tardat uncta rota. There were no fuch quarrelings with the command, no fuch excufes and delays as there are now. No, fuch was my love to Chrift, and delight to do his will, that I could no more keep back myself from duty, than a man that is carried away in a crowd.

Or, laftly, tell me, O my foul, doft thou bemoan thyself, or grieve fo tenderly for fin, and for grieving the Holy Spirit of God as thou waft wont to do? When formerly I had fallen by the hand of a temptation, how was I wont to lie in tears at the Lord's feet, bemoaning myself? How did I haften to my closet, and there cry, like Ezra, chap. ix. 6. "O my God, I am afhamed, and blush to look 66 up unto thee." How did I figh and weep before him, and, like Ephraim, fmite upon my thigh, faying, "What have I done?" Ah my foul! how didft thou work, ftrive, and cast about how to recover thyfelf again? Haft thou forgotten how thou wouldst sometimes look up and figh bitterly? Ah! what a God have I provoked? what love and goodness have I abused? Sometimes look in, and weep, Ah! what motions did I withstand? what a good Spirit have I grieved? Ah! my foul, thou wouldest have abhorred thyself, thou couldest never have borne it, had thine heart been as stupid, and as relentless then as now; if ever a poor foul had reason to diffolve itself into tears for its fad relapfes, I have.

A supporting

reflection.

2. But yet mourn not, O my foul, as one without hope. Remember, "There is hope in Ifrael concerning this "thing." As low as thy condition is, it is not defperate, it is not a disease that scorns a remedy; many a man that hath been ftretched out for dead, hath revived again, and lived many a comfortable day in the world; many a tree that hath caft both leaf and fruit, by the skill of a prudent husbandman, hath recovered again, and been made both flourishing and fruitful. Is it not easier, thinkeft thou, to recover a languishing man to health, than a dead man to life? And yet this God did for me, Eph. ii. 1. Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" Though my "foul draw nigh to the pit, and my life to the deftroyers, yet he "can fend me a meffenger, one among a thoufand, that fhall declare "to me my uprightnefs; then fhall he deliver me from going down "into the pit, my flesh shall be fresher than a child's, and I shall re

"turn to the days of my youth," Job xxxiii. 22. Though my flourish, and much of my fruit too be gone, and I am a withering tree; yet as long as the root of the matter is in me, there is more hope of fuch a poor, decayed, withered tree, than of the hypocrite that wants such a root in all his glory and bravery. His fun fhall fet, and never rife again; but I live in expectation of a sweet morning after this dark night.

Roufe up, therefore, O my foul, fet thy foul a work on Christ for quickening grace, for he hath life in himself, and quickens whomsoever he will, John vii. 38. Stir up that little which remains, Rev. iii. 2. haft thou not feen lively flames proceed from glimmering and dying sparks, when carefully collected and blown up? Get amongst the most lively and quickening Chriftians; "as iron fharp"ens iron, fo will thefe fet an edge upon thy dull affections," Prov. xxvii. 17. Acts xviii. 15. But, above all, cry mightily to the Lord for quickening; he will not defpife thy cry. The moans of a diftreffed child work upon the bowels of a tender father. And be fure to keep within thy view the great things of eternity, which are ready to be revealed; live in the believing and ferious contemplations of them, and be dead if thou canst. It is true, thou haft reason enough from thy condition, to be for ever humbled, but no reason at all from thy God to be in the least discouraged.

THOU

THE POEM.

HOU art the Husbandman, and I
A worthless plot of husbandry,

Whom fpecial love did, ne'ertheless,
Divide from nature's wilderness.
Then did the fun-fhine of thy face,
And fweet illapfes of thy grace,
Like April fhow'rs, and warming gleams,
Diftil its dews, reflect its beams.
My dead affections then were green,
And hopeful buds on them were seen ;
These into duties foon were turn'd,
In which my heart within me burn'd.
O halcyon days! thrice happy ftate!
Each place was Bethel, heaven's gate.
What fweet difcourfe, what heav'nly talk,
Whilft with thee I did daily walk!
Mine eyes o'erflow, my heart doth fink,
As oft as on those days I think.
For ftrangeness now is got between
My God and me, as may be seen
By what is now, and what was then :
"Tis juft as if I were two men.

My fragrant branches blafted be,
No fruits like thofe that I can fee.
Some canker-worm lies at my root,
Which fades my leaves, deftroys my fruit.
My foul is banish'd from thy fight,
For this it mourneth day and night.
Yet why doft thou defponding lie?
With Jonah caft a backward eye.
Sure in thy God help may be had,
There's precious balm in Gilead.
That God that made me fpring at first,
When I was barren and accurft,
Can much more easily restore
My foul to what it was before;
'Twas Heman's, Job's, and David's cafe,
Yet all recover'd were by grace.
A word, a fmile on my poor foul,
Will make it perfect, found, and whole.
A glance of thine hath foon diffolv'd
A foul in fin and grief involv'd.
Lord, if thou canst not work the cure,
I am contented to endure.

CHAP. VI.

Upon the incurableness of fome bad Ground.

No fkill can mend the miry ground; and fure
Some fouls the gofpel leaves as paft a cure.

A

OBSERVATION.

LTHOUGH the industry and skill of the husbandman can

make fome ground that was ufelefs and bad, good for tillage and pasture, and improve that which was barren; and by his coft and pains make one acre worth ten: yet fuch is the nature of fome rocky or miry ground, where the water ftands, and there is no way to cleanse it, that it can never be made fruitful. The hufbandman is fain to let it alone, as an incurable piece of wafte or worthlefs ground; and though the fun and clouds fhed their influences on it, as well as upon better land, yet that doth not at all mend it. Nay, the more fhowers it receives, the worse it proves. For thefe do no way fecundate or improve it; nothing thrives there but worthlefs flags and rufhes.

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