her the superabounding riches of his grace in the pardon of her manifold abominations, her heart melted within her; she washed the feet of Christ with tears. And indeed, there is as much difference betwixt the tears which are forced by the terrors of the law, and those which are extracted by the grace of the gospel, as there is betwixt those of a condemned malefactor who weeps to consider the misery he is under, and those of a pardoned malefactor who receives his pardon at the foot of the ladder, and is melted by the mercy and clemency of his gracious. prince towards him.

6. The plow kills those rank weeds which grow in the field, turns them up by the roots, buries and rots them. So does saving conviction kill sin at the root, makes the soul sick of it, begets indignation in the heart against it.

any

7. That field is not well plowed, where the plow jumps and skips over the ground; it must run up the whole field alike; and that heart is not savingly convicted, where lust is spared and left untouched. Saving conviction extends itself to all sins; not only to sin in general, with this cold confession, "I am a sinner," but to the particulars of sin, yea, to the particular circumstances and aggravations of time, place, manner, occasions; to the sin of nature, as well as practice. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity," Psal. li. 5. There must be no hiding of any sin. The sparing of one sin, is a sure argument that thou art not truly humbled for any sin. So far is the convinced soul from a studious concealment of a beloved sin, that it weeps over that more than over any other actual sin.

8. New ground is much more easily plowed, than that which by long lying out of tillage is more fastened together by deep-rooted thorns and brambles, which render it difficult to the plowman. This old ground is like an old sinner, who has been long time hardening under the means of grace. O the difficulty of convincing such a person! Sin has got such root in his heart, he is so habituated to the reproofs and calls of the word, that few such are wrought upon. How many young persons are called to one obdurate, inveterate sinner! I do not say but God may call home such a soul at the eleventh hour, but

I may say of these, compared with others, "One man among a thousand have l'found.”

Reflections.-1. O grace, says the true convert, for ever to be admired, that God should send forth his word and Spirit to plow up my hard and stony heart, yea, mine, when he has left so many of more tender, ingenuous, sweet, and melting tempers without any culture or means of grace! O blessed gospel, heart-dissolving voice! I have felt thine efficacy, I have experienced thy divine and irresistible power. Thou art indeed sharper than any two-edged sword, and woundest to the heart; but thy wounds are the wounds of a friend. All the wounds thou hast made in my soul, were so many doors opened to let in Christ; all the blows thou gavest my conscience, were but to beat off my soul from sin, which I embraced, and had retained to my everlasting ruin, hadst thou not separated them and me. O wise and merciful Physician! Thou didst indeed bind me with cords of conviction and sorrow, but it was only to cut out that stone in my heart, which had killed me if it had continued there. O how did I struggle and oppose thee, as if thou hadst come with the sword of an enemy, rather than the probe of a skilful and tender-hearted physician! Blessed be the day wherein my sin was discovered and embittered! O happy sorrows, which prepared for such matchless joys! O blessed hand, which turned my salt waters into pleasant wine! After many pangs and sorrows of soul, thou didst, at length, bring forth deliverance and peace.

2. But O, let the stubborn sinner say, what a rock of adamant is this heart of mine, that never yet was wounded, and savingly pierced for sin by the terrors of the law, or melting voice of the gospel! Long have I sat under the word, but when did I feel a relenting pang? O my soul! my stupified soul, thou hast got an antidote against repentance, but hast thou any against hell? Thou canst keep out the sense of sin now, but art thou able to keep out the terrors of the Lord hereafter? If thou couldst turn a deaf ear to the sentence of Christ in the day of judgment, as easily as thou dost to the entreaties of Christ in the day of grace, it were somewhat; but surely there is no defence against that. Ah fool that I am, to quench

these convictions, unless I knew how to quench those flames they warn me of!

3. And may not I, says another, challenge the first place among all the mourners in the world, who have lost all those convictions which at several times came upon me under the word? I have been often awakened by it, and filled with terrors and tremblings under it; but those troubles have soon worn off again, and my heart, like water removed from the fire returned to its native coldness. Lord, what a dismal case am I in! Many convictions have I stifled, which, it may be, shall never more be revived, until thou revive them against me in judgment. My troubles have wrought no deliverance, neither have my lusts fallen before them. My conscience, indeed, hath been sometimes sick with sin, but then, with the dog, have I turned again to my vomit; and now I fear I am given over to a heart that cannot repent. O that these pangs could be quickened again! but, alas, they are ceased! I am like a prisoner escaped, and again retaken, whom the goaler loads with double irons. Surely, O my soul, if thy spiritual troubles return not again, they are but gone back to bring eternal troubles. It is with thee, O my soul, as with a man whose bones have been broken, and not well set; who must, how terrible soever it appear to him, endure the pain of breaking and setting them again, if ever he be made a sound man. O that I might rather chuse to be the object of thy wounding mercy, than of thy sparing cruelty! If thou plow not up my heart again by compunction, I know it must be rent in pieces at last by desperation.

CHAPTER VIII.

On the Seed Corn.

Observation.-HUSBANDMEN are very careful and curious about their seed-corn, that it may not only be clean and pure, but the best and most excellent of its kind; "He casteth in the principal wheat."

Application. The choice and principal seed corn, with which the fields are sowed, after they are prepared for it, admirably shadows forth those excellent principles of grace which are infused into the regenerate soul. Their agreement is obvious in the ten following particulars; and their excellency above other principles in seven more.

1. The earth at first brought forth corn and every seed yielding fruit naturally, without human industry; but since the curse came upon it, it must be plowed and sowed, or no fruit can be expected. So man, at first, had all the principles of holiness in his nature, but now they must be infused by regeneration, or else his nature is as void of holiness as the barren and untilled desert is of corn.

2. The earlier the seed is sown, the better it is rooted, and more able to endure the asperities of the winter; so when grace is early infused, when nature is sanctified in the bud, grace is thereby exceedingly advantaged. It was Timothy's singular advantage, that he knew the scriptures from a child.

3. Frosts and snows conduce very much to the wellrooting of the seed. So do those sanctified afflictions, which the people of God usually meet with after their calling, and often in their very seed time. "And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction," 1 Thes. 1, 6. But if they have fair weather then, they will meet with weather hard enough afterwards. "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions," Heb. x, 32.

4. When the seed is cast into the earth, it must be covered up by the harrow, the use whereof in husbandry is to open and let in the corn into the bosom of the earth, and there cover it up for its security from birds that would devour it. Thus does the most wise God provide for the security of that grace which he at first disseminates in the hearts of his people. He is the finisher as well as the author of their grace. The care of God over the graces of his people, is like the covering of the seed for security. Div.

No. XVI.

E

5. Seed-corn is in its own nature of much more value and worth than other corn; the husbandman casts in the principal wheat. So is the seed of grace sown in the renewed soul; for it is called "the seed of God," 1 John iii. 9; "the divine nature," 2 Pet. i. 4. Grace is far beyond all the glory of this world; it is more precious than gold. "The price of it is above rubies, and all that thou canst desire is not to be compared with it," Prov. iii. 15.

6. There is a great deal of spirit and vigor in a little seed; though it be small in bulk, yet it is great in virtue and efficacy. Gracious habits are also vigorous and efficacious things. Such is their efficacy that they overcome the world; "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." They totally alter and change the person in whom they are. "He that persecuted us in time past, now preacheth the faith which he once destroyed." They enable the soul to do and suffer great things for God.

7. The stalk and ear are virtually in a small grain of corn. So are all the fruits of obedience which believers afterwards bring forth to God, virtually contained in these seeds of grace. It is strange to consider, that from a mustard-seed, which, as Christ says, is the least of all seeds, should grow such great branches that the birds of the air may build their nests in them. Surely, the heroic acts and achievements of the most renowned believers sprang from small beginnings at first, to eminency and glory.

8. The fruitfulness of the seed depends upon the sun and rain. And the principles of grace in us have as necessary a dependence upon the assisting and exciting grace of God. For though it be true, that they are immortal seed, yet that is not so much from their own strength as from the promises made to them, and that constant influx from above, by which they are revived and preserved from time to time.

9. The seed is more fruitful in some soils than in others, prospers much better, and comes sooner to maturity. So do graces thrive better and grow faster in some persons than in others. "Your faith groweth ex