many are deceived, and too often, it is much to be doubted, the person himself that hath these outward appearances, thinking that his heart is sown with the good seed, but by a more strict examination of it, made by the man himself, he may know whether the good seed be in him. How careful then ought I to be, not to stand at a distance, as it were, from myself, but to enter into the field of my own heart, which appeareth to be thus cultured and sown, and turn up the secret recesses thereof, to try if it be so in reality. Have I ever experienced any saving work there? are the faculties of my soul renewed? is the hard and stony heart taken away, with many of the foul weeds of sin and corruption? and are the remainder a burden under which I groan, and of which I long to be rid, chiefly because they are offensive to God, and cost my Lord and Saviour so dear? If so, I may conclude I am certainly sown with the good seed, which will never perish, but spring up to eternal life, John iv. 14.

CONTEMPLATION VII.

ON A FIELD OF SPRINGING CORN.

WHAT a delightful prospect is here! the joy of the husbandman and hope of the poor; even a field of springing corn.

Truly grateful to the eye is the blade newly come from the teeming earth, the sight of which inspires with gratitude, and creates throughout all the soul a pleasant sensation.

Best of vegetables, and staff of life! my contemplations be on thee. As it is delightful to behold this corn in the blade, growing up to perfection under the influence of the natural heavens, it is certainly still more so to feel and see the seeds of grace springing

up in the heart and life, under the influence of the God of heaven.

As showers of rain are necessary to refresh, cherish, and promote the growth of the blade; so are the showers of blessing, which come down in the ordinances of God's grace, absolutely necessary for cherishing and promoting the growth of the good seed.

After a long drought, how does the husbandman rejoice at the appearance of rain, when he sees it come down on the blade! Then it is, to use the language of the Psalmist, the vallies shout for joy, they also

66

"sing," Psalm lxv. 13. And is the husbandman so glad at the showers of temporal blessing, and do the vallies themselves thus rejoice? Far more, so do those hearts which are sown with the good seed (in the dry and parched land of the world, wherein there is no water, Psalm lxiii. 1.) at the showers of spiritual blessings; then indeed these thirsty vallies shout and sing for joy in the ordinances which the great Husbandman maketh use of

to water them with, and he himself rejoiceth at their good.

The seed does not lie long hid in the earth, but soon springs up to view. In like manner, the good seed will not lie long hid in that heart where it is sown, but soon appear in

the man or woman's life and conversation.

I observe in some places of this field the blade farther advanced than in other some; here it is pretty long, there it is but just coming through the mould; and this is not owing to any fault in the seed, but to the difference of the soil. Just so is it in respect to the infant state of grace in the heart: in some of the faculties of the soul, for a time, it is more readily observed by the believer himself, than in others; as for instance, it may more easily be perceived in the will, conscience, and affections, than in the understanding and memory; and this is not owing to any fault in the good seed itself, but wholly to the soil where it is sown; for that mind which before was very ignorant, and had

but a small speculative knowledge of the matters of religion, and that memory which is naturally very weak; enlightening and sanctifying grace will not so soon be observed in them as in that understanding and memory, which formerly were more naturally enlightened with a greater degree of speculative knowledge in these things, and more retentive.

Ah!

But, in another part of this field, I observe the blade has been pretty far advanced, even much farther than any where else, but is now going back again and withering away. this is the stony ground which our Lord telleth us of in the parable, where the seed sprang up quickly, and because it had not much root, when the sun arose it withered. Hear the beautiful inference which he maketh: "But "he that received the seed into stony places, "the same is he that heareth the word, and

66

anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself; but dureth for a while, for "when tribulation or persecution ariseth, "because of the word, by and by he is of"fended." Matt. xiii. 20, 21.