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der 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 closely conjoined with the stock; the conjunction is fo clofe, 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, 1 Cor. vi. 17. "He that is joined to the Lord,

is one fpirit." The word imports the neareft, closest and ftricteft union. Chrift and the foul cleave together in a bleffed oneness, as those things do that are glued one to another; so that look as the graff is really in the stock, and the fpirit or fap of the ftock is really in the graff; fo a believer is really (though myftically) in Chrift, and the spirit of Chrift is really commu nicated to a believer.." I live, (faith Paul) yet not I, but Chrift "liveth in me," Gal. ii. 20. "He that dwelleth'in love, dwel"leth in God, and God in him," 1 John iv. 16.

7. Graffs are bound to the stock by bands made of hay or flags; these keep it fteady, elfe the wind would loose it out of the ftock.

The believing foul is alfo faftened 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 he 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 stock be one and the fame, yet all graffs do not thrive and flourish alike in it; fome outgrow the reft, and those that grow not fo well as the others do, the fault is in them, and not in the stock: fo it is with fouls really united to Chrift; all do not flourish alike in him, the faith of fome grows exceedingly, 2 Thef. i. 3. the things that be in others, are ready to die, Rev. iii. 2. and fuch fouls must charge the fault upon themselves. Chrift fends up living fap enough, not only to: make all that are in him living, but fruitful branches.

REFLECTION S. II. 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

Four comfortable: reflections for a regenerate foul.

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 curfed plant, growing in the wilderness amongst them that shall shortly be cut down and faggotted up for hell; for me to be taken from amongst them, and planted into Christ. O my foul! fall down and kifs the feet of free grace, that moved so 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 which of them faid "Chrift, at any time, thou art bone of my bone, and flesh of y 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 ftock, 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 stock, and my foul is even for " preferved in Chrift Jefus !" Jude, ver. 1.

my

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," 1 Cor. iii. 23.

4. Once more, draw matter of instruction, as well as comfort, from this fweet obfervation: seeing 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 ftrikes at the root, ftrike at the very life of the graff? And fhall not that which ftrikes 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 those 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 such a root.

O

The POE M.

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 ftock 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.

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The Spirit and faith is that firm band
Which binds us faft together;
Thus we are clafped 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 these ornaments do want,
Thou may'ft in others fee.
As long as e'er the root doth live,
The branches are not dry;

Whilst Christ 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.

I

CHAP. III.

Upon the Gathering in of Fruits in Autumn.

When trees are fhak'd, but little fruit remains
Juft fuch a remnant to the Lord pertains.

OBSERVATION.

T is a pleasant fight in autumn to fee the fruitful branches hanging full of clusters, which weigh the boughs to the ground.

Afpice curvatos pomorum pondere ramos,
Ut Jua quod peperit vix ferat arbor onus.
Which I may thus English.

O what a pleasant fight it is to fee,

The fruitful clusters bowing down the tree!

But these laden branches are foon eased of their burden; for as foon as they are ripe, the husbandman ascends the tree, and fhaking the limbs with all his might, cause a fruitful shower to fall like hail-ftones upon the ground below; which being gathered to a heap, are carried to the pound, broken all to pieces in a trough, and squeezed to a dry lump in the press, whence all their juice and moisture runs into the fat. How few escape this fat, of all thofe multitudes that grow in the orchard? If you look upon the trees, you may poffibly fee here one, and there another, two or three upon the utmost branches, but nothing in comparison to the vast number that are thus ufed. APPLICATION.

TH

the

His fmall remains of fruit, which are either left upon tree, or gathered in for an hoard, do well resemble that fmall number of God's elect in the world, which free-grace hath referved out of the general ruin of mankind. Four things are excellently fhadowed forth to us by this fimilitude.

1. You fee in a fruitful autumn, the trees even oppreffed and over-laden with the weight of their own fruits, before the fhaking time comes, and then they are eafed of their burden. Thus, the whole creation groans under the weight of their fins who inhabit it, Rom. viii. 22. the creatures are in bondage, and by an elegant Profopopeia, are faid, both to groan and wait for deliverance. The original fin of man brought an original curfe, which burdens the creature, Gen. iii. 17. "Curfed is the

ground for thy fake; and the actual fin of man brings actual curfes upon the creature, Pfalm cvii. 34. Thus the inhabitants

of the world load and burden it, as the limbs of à tree are burdened, and fometimes broken with the weight of their own fruit.

2. You may obferve in your orchards every year, what abundance of fruits daily fall, either by ftorms, or of their own accord; but when the fhaking time comes, then the ground is covered all over with fruit. Thus it is with the world, that myftical tree, with refpect to men that inhabit it; there is not a year, a day, or hour, in which fome drop not, as it were, of their own accord, by a natural death; and sometimes wars, and epidemical plagues blow down thousands together into their graves; thefe are as high winds in a fruitful orchard; but when the fhaking time, the autumn of the world, comes, then all its inhabitants fhall be fhaken down together, either by death, or a tranflation equivalent thereunto.

3. When fruits are fhaken down from their trees, then the husbandman separates them; the far greater part for the pound,. and some few referves for an hoard, which are brought to his table, and eaten with pleasure. This excellently fhadows forth that great feparation, which Chrift will make in the end of the world, when fome fhall be caft into the wine-prefs of the Almighty's wrath, and others preferved for glory.

4. Thofe fruits which are preferved on the tree, or in the hoard, are comparatively but an handful to those that are broken in the pound; alas! it is scarce one of a thousand, and fuch a small remnant of elected fouls hath God referved for glory.

I look upon the world as a great tree, confifting of four large limbs or branches; this branch or division of it on which we grow, hath doubtlefs, a greater number of God's elect upon it than the other three; and yet, when I look with a ferious and confidering eye upon this fruitful European branch, and fee how much rotten and withered fruit there grows upon it, it makes me fay, as Chryfoftom did of his populous Antioch; Ah, how small a remnant hath Jefus Chrift among these vaft numbers! "Many indeed are called, but ah! how few are "chofen ?" Matth. xx. 16. Alas! they are but as the gleanings when the vintage is done; here and there one upon its utmost branches to allude to that, Ifaiah xvii. 6. It was a fad obfervation which that fearching fcholar, Mr. Brerewood, long fince made upon the world; that, dividing it into thirty equal parts, he found no less than nineteen of them wholly overfpread with idolatry, and heathenifh darknefs; and of the eleven remaining parts, no lefs than fix are Mahometans; so that there

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