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time is our waiting time, compared with eternity? Yet a few days more, and then comes the long expected and welcome harvest.

2. The husbandman can find other work to do, before the reaping-time come; he need not stand idle, though he cannot yet reap. And cannot a Christian find any work to do for God till he come to heaven? O there is much work to do, and such work as is only proper to this season! You may now reprove sin, exhort to duty, succour the distressed; this is good work, and this is your only time for such work; the whole of eternity will be taken up in other employments. "I think it meet," saith Peter," as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir up your minds, knowing shortly that I must put off this tabernacle." I know I have but a little time to work among you, I am almost at heaven, and therefore am willing to husband this present moment as well as I can for you. Christians! you need not stand idle; look round about you upon the multitude of forlorn sinners; speak now to them for God; speak now to God for them; for shortly you shall speak so no more, you shall see them no more till you see them at Christ's bar; God leaves you here for their sakes, up and be doing: If you have done all you were to do for yourselves and them, he would have you to heaven immediately; you should not wait a moment longer for your glory.

3. Husbandmen know, though they cannot yet gather in the precious fruits of the earth, yet all this while they are ripening and preparing for the harvest; they would not house it green, or take it before its time. And is not this also my preparation time for glory? As God prepared heaven for his people, by an eternal decree, Matt. xxv. 34. by an act of creation, Heb. xi. 10. by the death

of Christ, which made a purchase of it, Heb. x. 19, 20. and by his ascension into it, John xiv. 2, 3. so the reason why we are kept here is in order to our fitting for it. Heaven is ready, but we are not fully ready; the barn is fit to receive the corn, but the corn is not fit to be gathered into it. "But for this self same thing God is now working in us." He is every day at work, by ordinances and by providences, to perfect his work in us, and as soon as that is finished, we shall hear a voice like that, "Come up hither, and immediately we shall be in the spirit;" for how ardently soever we long for that desira ble day, Christ longs for it more than we can do.

The husbandman is glad of the first fruits, that encourages him, though the greatest part be yet out: And have not you received the first fruits of that glory? Have you not earnests, pledges, and first fruits of it? It is your own fault, if every day you feed not upon such blessed comforts of the Spirit. O how might the interposing time, even all the days of your patience here be sweetened with such prelibations of the glory to come!

5. Husbandmen know it is best to reap when it is fit to reap; one handful fully ripe is, worth many sheaves of green corn. And you know, heaven will be sweetest to you when you are fittest for it; the child would pluck the apple whilst it is green, but he might gather it easier, and taste it sweeter, by tarrying longer for it. We would fain be glorified per saltum. When we have got a taste of heaven, we are all in haste to be gone. Then, O that I had wings as a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Then we cry to God for ourselves, as Moses for his sister Miriam. Heal her [now] O God, I beseech thee! Glorify me now, O Lord, I pray thee! but, surely, as God hath contrived thy glory in the best of ways, so he hath appointed

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for thee the fittest of seasons; and whenever thou art gathered into glory, thou shalt come as a shock of corn in its season.

REFLECTIONS.

I have waited for thy salvation, O God! Having received thy first fruits, my soul longs to fill its bosom with the full ripe sheaves of glory: The longing As the hart panteth for the water-brooks, soul's reflection. so panteth my soul for thee, O God! O when

shall I come and appear before God! I desire to be dis solved and to be with Christ! When shall I see that most lovely face? When shall I hear his soul-transporting voice? Some need patience to die; I need it as much to live. Thy sights, O God, by faith, have made this world a burthen, this body a burthen, and this soul to cry, like thirsty David, O that one would give me of the waters of Bethlehem to drink! The husbandman longs for his harvest, because it is the reward of all his toil and labor.But what is his harvest to mine? What is a little corn to the enjoyment of God? What is the joy of harvest to the joy of heaven? What are the shoutings of men in the fields to the acclamations of glorified spirits in the kingdom of God? Lord, I have gone forth, bearing more precious seed than they; when shall I return rejoicing, bringing my sheaves with me? Their harvest comes when they receive their corn; mine comes when I leave it. O much desired! O day of gladness of my heart! How long, Lord! how long! Here I wait as the poor man at Bethesda's Pool, looking when my turn will come, but every one steps into heaven before me; yet, Lord, I am content to wait till my time is fully come: I would be content to stay for my glorification till I have finished the work of my generation; and when I have done the will of God,

then to receive the promise. If thou have any work on earth to use me in, I am content to abide: Behold, the husbandman waiteth, and so will I; for thou art a God of judgment, and blessed are they that wait for thee.

But how doth my slothful soul sink down into the flesh, and settle itself in the love of this ani. The lingering mal life? How doth it hug and wrap up soul's reflection. itself in the garment of this mortality, not desiring to be removed hence to the more perfect and blessed state? The husbandman is indeed content to stay till the appointed weeks of the barvest; but would he be content to wait always? O my sensual heart! Is this life of hope as contentful to thee as the life of vision will be? Why dost thou not groan within thyself, that this mortality might be swallowed up of life? Doth not the scripture describe the saints by their earnest looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eternal life! "By their hastening unto the coming of the day of God." What is the matter that my heart hangs back?-Doth guilt lie upon my conscience? Or, have I gotten into a pleasant condition in the world, which makes me say as Peter on the mount, It is good to be here? Or, want I the assurance of a better state? Must God make all my earthly comforts die, before I shall be willing to die? Awake, faith; awake, my love, beat up the drowsy desires of my soul, that I may say, Make haste, my beloved, and come away.

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CHAPTER XV.

UPON THE HARVEST SEASON.

Corn, fully ripe, is reap'd, and gather'd in
So must yourselves, when ripe in grace or sin.

OBSERVATION.

WHEN the fields are white to harvest, then husbandmen walk through them, rub the ears, and finding the grain full and solid, they presently prepare their scythes and sickles, send for their harvest-men, who quickly reap and mow them down; and after these follow the binders, who tie it up: From the field, where it grew, it is carried to the barn, where it is threshed out; the good grain gathered into a heap, the chaff separated and burnt, or thrown to the dung-hill. How bare and naked do the fields look after harvest, which before were pleasant to behold; When the harvest-men enter into the field, it is (to allude to that, Joel ii. 3.) before them like the garden of Eden, and behind them a desolate wilderness; and, in some places, it is usual to set fire to the dry stubble, when the corn is housed, which rages furiously, and covers it all with ashes.

APPLICATION.

The application of this I find made to my hands by Christ himself. "The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels."

The field is the world; there both the godly and ungodly live and grow together, till they be both ripe, and then they shall both be reaped down by death; death is the

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