This world's the field, and they that dwell therein
The corn and tares, which long have rip'ning been:
Angels the reapers, and the judgment day
The time of harveft, when, like corn and hay,
The fading flowers of earthly glory muft
Be mowed down, and levell'd with the duft:
The barns are heaven and hell, the time draws nigh,
When through the darkned clouds, and troubled fky,
The Lord fhall break; a dreadful trumpet fhall
Sound to the dead; the ftars from heaven fall;
The rowling spheres with horrid flames fhall burn;
And then the tribes on earth fhall wail and mourn.
The judgment fet, before Chrift's awful throne
All flefh fhall be conven'd, and every one
Receive his doom; which, done, the just shall be
Bound in life's bundle, even as you fee

The full ripe ears of wheat bound up and borne
In theaves with joy into the owner's barn.
This done, the angels next in bundles bind
The tares together; as they had combin'd
In acting fin, fo now their lot must be
To burn together in one mifery.

Drunkards with drunkards pinion'd, fhall be fent
To hell together in one regiment.

Adulterers and fwearers there fhall lie

>In flames amongst their old fociety.

O dreadful howlings! O the hideous moans
Of fetter'd finners! O the tears! the groans!
The doleful lamentations as they go

Chain'd faft together to their place of woe!
The world thus clear'd, as fields when harveft's in,
Shall be no more a stage, for acting fin.
With purifying flames it fhall be burn'd,
Its ftately fabrics into ashes turn'd.

Ceafe then, my foul, to dote on 'or admire
This fplendid world, which is referv'd for fire.

Decline the company of finners here,

As thou would't not be fhackled with them there.

CHA P. XVI.

Upon the Care of Hufbandmen to provide for Winter.

Your winter ftore in fummer you provide :
To Chriftian prudence this must be apply'd.

Go

OBSERVATION.

OOD hufbands are careful in fummer to provide for winter; then they gather in their winter ftore: food and fewel for themselves, and fodder for their cattle. "He that "gathers in fummer, is a wife fon: but he that fleeps in har❝ veft, is a son that causeth fhame," Prov. x. 5. A well chofen feafon is the greatest advantage to any action; which, as It is feldom found in hafte, so it is often loft by delay. "Tis a good proverb which the frugal Dutch have among them: Bonus fervatius faciet bonum bonifacium; A good faver, will make a good benefactor. And 'tis a good proverb of our own, he that neglects the occafion, the occafion will neglect him. Hufbandmen know that fummer will not hold all the year; neither will they truft to the hopes of a mild and favourable winter, but in feafon provide for the worft.

W

APPLICATIO N.

Hat excellent Chriftians fhould we be, were we but as provident and thoughtful for our fouls? "Tis doubtless a fingular point of Chistian wifdom, to foresee a day of spiritual ftraits and neceffities; and, during the day of grace, to make provifion for it. This great gofpel-truth is excellently fhadowed forth in this natural obfervation, which I fhall branch out into these feven particulars.

1. Hufbandmen know there is a change and viciffitude of feafons and weather; though it be pleasant fummer weather now, yet winter will tread upon the heel of fummer: frofts, fnows, and great falls of rains must be expected. This alternate courfe of feasons, in nature, is fettled by a firm law of the God of nature, to the end of the world, Gen. viii. 22. “Whilst "the earth remaineth, feed-time, and harveft, cold and heat, "winter and fummer, day and night, fhall not cease."

And Christians know, that there are changes in the right, hand of the moft High, in reference to their fpiritual feafons, If there be a pring-time of the gospel, there will be also an VOL. VI.

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autumn; if a day of profperity, it will fet in a night of adverfity:" for God hath fet the one over against the other," Ecclef. vii. 14. In heaven there is a day of everlasting serenity; in hell a night of perfect endless horror and darkness; on earth, light and darkness take their turns, profperity and adverfity, even to fouls as well as bodies, fucceed each other. If there be a gofpel-day, a day of grace now current, it will have its period and determination, Gen. iii. 6.

2. Common prudence and experience enable the husbandman, in the midft of fummer, to foresee a winter, and provide for it before he feel it; yea, natural instinct teaches this to the very birds of the air, and beafts of the field.

And fpiritual wisdom should teach Chriftians to exercise their foreseeing faculties, and not fuffer them to feel evil before they fear it. But, oh! the stupifying nature of fin! Though the ftork in the heavens knows her appointed time, and the turtle, crane and swallow the time of their coming, yet man, whom God hath made wifer than the fowls of the air, in this, acts quite below them, Jer. viii. 7.

3. The end of God's ordaining a fummer feafon,and fending warm and pleafant weather, is to ripen the fruits of the earth, and give the husbandman fit opportunity to gather them in.

And God's defign of giving men a day of grace, is to furnish them with an opportunity for the everlasting happiness and falvation of their fouls; Rev. ii. 21. "I gave her a space to re"pent." It is not a mere reprival of the foul, or only a delay of the execution of threatned wrath, though there be much mercy in that; but the peculiar aim of this patience and bounty of God, is to open for them a way to efcape the wrath to come, "by leading them to repentance," Rom. ii. 4.

4.

A. The hufbandman doth not find all harvest-feafons alike favourable; fometimes they have much fair weather, and meet with no hindrance in their business; othertimes it is a catching harvest, but now and then a fair day, and then they must be nimble, or all is loft.

There is also a great difference in foul-feafons; fome have had a long and fair feafon of grace; a hundred and twenty years.did God wait upon the old world, in the miniftry of Noah. Long did God wait on the gainfaying Ifraelites, Ifa. xlii. 14. "I have a long time held my peace;, I have been ftill, and "refrained myself." Others have a fhort and catching feafon, all lies upon a day, upon a nick of time, Acts xvii. 30.

5. A proper feafon neglected, and loft, is irrecoverable. Many things in husbandry must be done in their season, or caunet

be done at all for that year: if he plow not, and fow not, in the proper feason, he lofes the harvest of that year.

It is even fo as to fpiritual-feafons: Chrift neglected, and grace defpifed, in the feafon when God offers them, are irrecoverably loft, Prov.i. 28. "Then (that is when the season is over) "they fhall call upon me, but I will not hear." Oh! there is a great deal of time in a fhort opportunity; that may be done, or prevented, in an hour rightly timed, which cannot be done, or prevented, in a man's life-time afterwards. There was one refolved to kill Julius Cæfar fuch a day: the night before a friend fent him a letter to acquaint him with it: but he being at fupper, and bufy in difcourfe, faid, to-morrow is a new day; and indeed it was dies noviffima, his last day to him. Whence it became a proverb in Greece, To-morrow is a new day. Our glafs runs in heaven, and we cannot see how much or little of the fand of God's patience is yet to run down; but this is certain, when that glafs is run, there is nothing to be done for our fouls, Luke xix. 42. "O that thou hadft known, at least, "in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace; but "now they are hid from thine eyes.”

6. Those husbandmen that are careful and laborious in the fummer, have the comfort and benefit of it in winter: he that then provides fewel, shall fit warm in his habitation, when others blow their fingers. He that provides food for his family, and fodder for his cattle, in the harveft, fhall eat the fruit of it, and enjoy the comfort of his labours, when others shall be expofed to fhifts and ftraits. And he that provides for eternity, and lays up for his foul a good foundation against the time to come, fhall eat when others are hungry, and fing when others howl, Ifa. lxv. 13. A day of death will come, and that will be a day of straits to all negligent fouls; but then the diligent Chriftian fhall enjoy the peace and comfort that shall flow in upon his heart, from his holy care and fincere diligence in duties; as 2 Cor. i. 12. This is our rejoicing, the tefti"mony of our confcience, that in fincerity and godly fimpli"city, we have had our conversation in this world." So Hezekiah, 2 Kings xx. 3. "Remember now, O Lord, how I "have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart." A day of judgment will come, and then foolish virgins, who neglected the season of getting oil in their lamps, will be put to their fhifts; then they come to the wife, and fay, Give us of your oil, Matth. xxv. 8, 9. but they have none to spare, and the feafon of buying is then over.

7. No wife husbandman will neglect a fit opportunity of garthering in his hay and corn, upon a prefumption of much fair weather to come: he will not fay, The weather is fettted, and I need not trouble myfelf; though my corn and hay be fit for the house, yet I may get it in another time as well as now.

And no wife Chriftian will lofe a prefent feason for his foul, upon the hopes of much more time, yet to come; but will rather fay, Now is my time, and I know not what will be hereafter hereafter. I may wish to fee one of the days of the Son of man, and not fee it, Luke xvii. 22. It is fad to hear how cunning some men are to dispute themselves out of heaven, as if the devil had hired them to plead against their own fouls; fometimes urging the example of thofe that were cal led at the eleventh hour, Mat. xx. 6. and sometimes that of the penitent thief: but, oh! to how little purpose is the former pleaded? they that were called at the eleventh hour were never cal led before, as thefe have been; no man had hired, that is, cal led or invited them to Chrift; and for the thief (as Mr. Fenner rightly obferves) it was a fingular and extraordinary example. It was done when Chrift hanged on the cross, and was to be inaugurated; then kings manifest such bounty, and pardon fuch crimes as are never pardoned afterwards. Befides, God was then in a way of working miracles; then he rent the rocks, opened the graves, raised the dead, and converted this thief; but God is now out of that way.

REFLECTION.

The careless foul's I. I have indeed been a good husband for the world: with what care and providence reflection. have I looked out for myfelf and family, to provide food to nourish them, and cloaths to defend them a gainst the afperities of winter? mean while, neglecting to make provifion for eternity, or take care for my foul. O my deftitute foul! how much have I flighted and undervalued thee? I have taken more care for an horse, or an ox, than for thee: a well ftored barn, but an empty foul. Will it not shortly be with me, as with that carelefs mother, who, when her houfe was on fire, bufily beftirred herself to fave the goods, but forgot the child (though it were faved by another hand)? and then minding her child, ran up and down like one distracted, wringing her hands, and crying, O my child! my child! I have faved my goods, and loft my child! Such will be the cafe of thee my foul, Matth. xvi. 26. Befides, how eafy will my conviction be at the bar of Chrift? Will not my providence and care for the things of this life, leave me fpeechless and self