CHAPTER V: Upon the Improvement of bad Ground
But more or less than this may do me hurt.
Or if thou say, thy servant shall have none, Then strengthen faith, that I may go alone.
CHAPTER V:
Upon the Improvement of bad Ground Spent barren land you can restore, and nourish,
Decayed Christians God can cause to flourish.
OBSERVATION
WHERE land is spent out by tillage for want of manuring, the careful husbandman hath many ways to recover and bring it in heart again.
He lets it lie fallow, to give it rest, and time to recover itself: carries out to his sand, lime, and compost, to refresh and quicken it again; and in pasture and meadow ground, will wash it, (if possible) with a current of water, or the float of the ways after a fall of rain, which is to the earth as a spring of new blood to a consumptive body. He cuts down and kills the weeds that suck it out, and causes them to make restitution of what they have purloined from it, by rotting upon the place where they grew. As careful are they to recover it, when it is spent, as an honest physician is of his patient in a languishing condition; for he knows his field will be as grateful to him, and fully requite his care and cost.
APPLICATION
AS man's, so God's husbandry is sometimes out of case, not by yielding too many crops, but too few. The mystical husbandman hath some fields, (I mean particular societies and persons, who were once fragant and fruitful like a field) which God had blessed, but are now decayed and grown barren; whose gleanings formerly were more than their vintage now; the things that are in them are ready to die,
Rev. 3:3. It is possible, yea, too common for gracious souls to be reduced to a very low ebb, both of graces and comforts; how low I will not say. Our British divines tell us, that grace indeed cannot be totally intermitted, nor finally lost; but there may be an omission of the act, though not an omission of the habit: The act may be perverted, though the faith cannot be subverted; it may be shaken in, though not shaken out: Its fruits may fall, but its sap lies hid in the root. They demerit the loss of the kingdom, but lose it not effectively; the effect of justification may be suspended, but the state of the justified cannot be dissolved*.
Certain it is, one that, like Paul, hath been wrapped up with joy, even to the third heavens, and cried, "I am more than a conqueror, who shall separate me from the love of Christ?" may, at another time lie mourning, as at the gates of death, crying, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" One that hath walked in sweet communion with God, sunning himself in the light of his countenance, may afterwards "walk in darkness, and see no light," Isa. 1:10. He that hath cast anchor within the veil, and rode securely in the peaceful harbour of assurance, may seem to feel his anchor of hope come home to him, and go a-drift into the stormy ocean again, crying with the church, Lam. 3:18. "My hope is perished from the Lord." His calm and clear air may be overcast and clouded, yea, filled with storms and tempests, lightnings and thunders; his graces, like under-ground flowers in the winter, may all disappear, and hide their beautiful heads.
To God he may say, I am cast out of thy sight. I know thou canst do much, but wilt thou shew wonders to the dead?
To the promises he may say, you are sweet things indeed, but what have I to do with you? I could once, indeed, rejoice in you, as my portion; but now I doubt I grasped a shadow, a fancy instead of you.
To saints he may say, turn away from me, labour not to comfort me, O do not spill your precious ointment of consolation upon my head; for what have I to do with comfort? To former experiences, he may say in his haste, you are all liars. To the light of God's countenance may say, farewell sweet light, I shall behold thee no more. To Satan he may say, O mine enemy, thou hast at last prevailed against me, thou art stronger than I, and hast overcome. To duties and ordinances, he may say, Where is the sweetness I once found in you?
You were once sweeter to me than the honey-comb; but now as tasteless as the white of an egg. O sad relapse! deplorable change! quantum mutatus ab illo?
But will God leave his poor creatures helpless, in such a case as this?
Shall their leaf fall, their branches wither, their joy, their life, their hearts depart? Will he see their graces fainting, their hopes grasping, the new creature panting, the things that are in them ready to die, and will he not regard it? Yes; "there is hope of a tree if it be cut down, and the root thereof wax old in the earth, yet by the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant," Job 14:8, 9.
This poor declined soul, as sad as it sits at the gates of hell, may rouse up itself at last, and say to Satan, that stands triumphing over him, "Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy, for though I fall, yet I shall arise; though I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me," Micah 7:8. He may raise up himself upon the bed of languishing for all this, and say to God, "Though thou hast chastened me sore, yet
hast thou not given me over unto death." He may turn about to the saints that have mourned for him, and with a lightsome countenance say, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." He may say to the promises, You are the true and faithful sayings of God.
My unbelief did bely you; I said, in my haste you were liars, but I eat my words, I am ashamed of my folly. Surely, O soul, there is yet hope in thine end, thou mayest be restored, Psal. 23:3. Thou mayest 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 compassions, and bowels?
And can a father stand by his dying-child, see 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, so will thy God pity thee," Psal. 103:12,
13. "He will spare thee as a father spareth his own son that serves him, Mal. 3:17. Hark, how his bowels yearn! "I have surely heard
Ephraim bemoaning himself. Is not Ephraim my dear son? Is he not a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still, I will surely have mercy on him," Jer. 31:20.
2. Doth he not know thy life would be altogether useless to him, if he should not restore thee? What service art thou fit to perform to him, in such a condition? "Thy days will consume like smoke, "whilst thy heart is smitten and withered like grass, Psal. 102:3, 4. Thy months will be months of vanity, they will fly away, and see no good, Job 7:3.
If he will but quicken thee again, then thou mayest call upon his name, Psal. 80:18. but in a dead and languishing condition thou art no more fit for any work of God, than a sick man is for manual labours; and surely he hath not put those precious and excellent graces of the Spirit within thee for nothing; they were planted there for fruit and service, and therefore, doubtless, he will revive thee again.
3. Yea, doth thou not think he sees thine inability to bear such a condition long? He knows "thy spirit would fail before him, and the soul which he hath made;" Isa. 57:16. David told him as much in the like condition, Psal. 143:7, 8. "Hear me speedily, O Lord, for my spirit faileth; hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto those that go down into the pit:" q. d. Lord, make haste, and recover my languishing soul; otherwise, whereas thou hast now a sick child, thou wilt shortly have a dead child.
And in like manner Job expostulated with him, Job 6:1, 2, 3, 11, 12.
"My grief is heavier than the sand of the sea, my words are swallowed up, for the arrows of the Almighty are within me; and the poison thereof drinks up my spirits: The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. What is my strength that I should hope? Is my strength the strength of stones? or are my bones of brass?" So chap.
7:12. "Am I a sea, or a whale?" &c. Other troubles a man may, but this he cannot bear, Prov. 18:14. and therefore, doubtless, seasonable and gracious revivings will come. "He will not stir up all his wrath, for he remembers thou art but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again," Psal. 77:38, 39. He hath ways enough to do it; if he do but unveil his blessed face, and make it shine again upon thee, thou art saved, Psal. 80:3. The manifestations of his love, will be to thy soul, as showers to the parched grass; thy soul, that now droops, and hangs the wing, shall then revive and leap for joy, Isa. 61:1 a new face shall come upon thy graces, they shall bud again, and blossom as a rose. 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 shalt thou return to thy first works, Rev. 2:4, 5 and sing, as in the days of thy youth.
REFLECTIONS
O this is my very case, saith many a poor Christian; thus my soul languishes and droops from day to day. It is good news indeed, that God both can and will restore my soul; but sad that I should fall into such a state; how unlike am I to what I once was! Surely, as the old men wept when they saw how short the second temple came of the glory of the first; so may I sit down and weep bitterly, to consider how much my first love and first duties excelled the present. For,
1. Is my heart so much in heaven now, as it was wont to be? Say, O my soul! Dost thou not remember, when, like the beloved disciple, thou laidst in Jesus's bosom, how didst thou sweeten communion with him? How restless and impatient wast thou in his absense! divine with-drawments 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 Christ might suffer no interruption. When I awaked in the night, how was the darkness enlightened by the heavenly glimpses of the countenance of my God upon me? How did his company shorten those hours, and beguile the tediousness of the night? O my soul, speak thy experience; Is it now as it was then? No, those days are past and gone, and thou art become much a stranger to that heavenly life. Art thou able with truth to deny this charge? When occasionally
I pass by those places, which were once to me as Jacob's Bethel to him; I sigh at the remembrance of former passages betwixt me and heaven there, and say with Job, chap. 29 "O that it were with me as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me, when his candle shined 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!
When I remember these things my soul is poured out within me."
2. Is thy obedience to the commands of Christ and motions to duty, as free and cheerful as they were wont to be? Call to mind, my soul, the times when thou wast borne down the stream of love to every duty. If the Spirit did but whisper to thee, saying, Seek my face, how did my spirit echo to his calls? saying, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek,"
Psal. 27:8. If God had any work to be done, how readily did I offer my service? Here am I, Lord, send me. My soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib; love oiled the wheels of my affections, and "his commandments were not grievous," 1 John 5:3. Non tardat uncta rota. There were no such quarrelings with the command, no such excuses and delays as there are now. No, such was my love to Christ, 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, lastly, tell me, O my soul, dost thou bemoan thyself, or grieve so tenderly for sin, and for grieving the Holy Spirit of God as thou wast 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 hasten to my closet, and there cry, like Ezra, chap. 9:6. "O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to look up untothee." How did I sigh and weep before him, and, like Ephraim, smite upon my thigh, saying, "What have I done?" Ah my soul! how didst thou work, strive, and cast about how to recover thyself again? Hast thou forgotten how thou wouldst sometimes look up and sigh 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 soul, 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 soul had reason to dissolve itself into tears for its sad relapses, I have.
2. But yet mourn not, O my soul, as one without hope. Remember, "There is hope in Israel concerning this thing," As low as thy condition is, it is not desperate, it is not a disease that scorns a remedy; many a man that hath been stretched out for dead, hath revived again, and lived many a comfortable day in the world; many a tree that hath cast 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, thinkest thou, to recover a languishing man to health, than a dead man to life? And yet this God did for me,
Eph. 2:1. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? "Though my soul draw nigh to the pit, and my life to the destroyers, yet he can send me a messenger, one among a thousand, that shall declare to me my uprightness; then shall lie deliver me from going down into the pit, my flesh shall be fresher than a child's, and I shall return to the days of my youth," Job 33:22. 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 such a poor, decayed, withered tree, than of the hypocrite that wants such a root in all his glory and bravery. His sun shall set, and never rise again; but I live in expectation of a sweet morning after this dark night.
Rouse up, therefore, O my soul, set thy soul a work on Christ for quickening grace, for he hath life in himself, and quickens whomsoever he will, John 7:38. Stir up that little which remains,
Rev. 3:2 hast thou not seen lively flames proceed from glimmering and dying sparks, when carefully collected and blown up? Get amongst the most lively and quickening Christians; "as iron sharpens iron, so will these set an edge upon thy dull affections," Prov. 27:17.
Acts 18:15. But, above all, cry mightily to the Lord for quickening; he will not despise thy cry. The moans of a distressed child work upon the bowels of a tender father. And be sure to keep within thy view the great things of eternity, which are ready to be revealed; live in the
believing and serious contemplations of them, and be dead if thou canst. It is true, thou hast reason enough from thy condition, to be for ever humbled, but no reason at all from thy God to be in the least discouraged.
THE POEM THOU art the Husbandman, and I A worthless plot of husbandry, Whom special love did, ne'ertheless, Divide from nature's wilderness.
Then did the sun-shine of thy face, And sweet illapses of thy grace, Like April show'rs, and warming gleams, Distil its dews, reflect its beams.
My dead affections then were green, And hopeful buds on them were seen; These into duties soon were turn'd, In which my heart within me burn'd.
O halcyon days! thrice happy state!
Each place was Bethel, heaven's gate.
What sweet discourse, what heav'nly talk,
Whilst with thee I did daily walk!
Mine eyes o'erflow, my heart doth sink, As oft as on those days I think.
For strangeness now is got between My God and me, as may be seen By what is now, and what was then:
'Tis just as if I were two men.
My fragrant branches blasted be, No fruits like those that I can see.
Some canker-worm lies at my root, Which fades my leaves, destroys my fruit.
My soul is banish'd from thy sight, For this it mourneth day and night.
Yet why dost thou desponding lie?
With Jonah cast a backward eye.
Sure in thy God help may be had, There's precious balm in Gilead.
That God that made me spring at first,