THE POEM.

THE winnowing wind first drives the chaff away,
Next light and hollow grains; those only stay
Whose weight and solid substance can endure
This trial, and such grains are counted pure,
The corn for use is carefully preserv'd ;
The useless chaff for burning flames reserv'd.
No wind but blows some good, a proverb is ;
Glad shall I be if it hold true in this.

O that the wind, when you to winnowing go,
This spiritual good unto your souls might blow !
To make you pause, and sadly ruminate,
In what a doleful plight, and wretched state,
Their souls are in, who cannot hope to stand
When he shall come, whose fan is in his hand.
His piercing eyes infallibly disclose

The very reins, and inward part of those
Whose outside seeming grace so neatly paints,
That, with the best, they pass for real saints.
No hypocrite with God acceptance finds,
But, like the chaff, dispers'd by furious winds.
Their guilt shall not that searching day endure,
Nor they approach th' assemblies of the pure.
Have you observ'd, in autumn, thistle-down,
By howling Æolus scatter'd up and down

About the fields? Even so God's ireful storm
Shall chase the hypocrite, who now can scorn
The breath of close reproof, and like a rock,
Repel reproofs, and such reprovers mock.
How many, that in splendid garments walk,
Of high professions, and like angels talk,
Shall God divest, and openly proclaim
Their secret guilt, to their eternal shame ?

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

UPON THE INGRAFTING OF FRUIT TREES.

Ungrafted trees can never bear good fruit;
Nor we, till grafted on a better root.

OBSERVATION.

A WILD tree naturally springing up in the wood or hedge, and never grafted or removed from its native soil, may bear some fruit, and that fair and beautiful to the eye, but it will give you no content at all in eating, being always harsh, sour, and unpleasant to the taste; but if such a stock be removed into a good soil, and grafted with a better kind, it may become a good tree, and yield store of choice and pleasant fruit.

APPLICATION.

Unregenerate men, who never were acquainted with the mystery of spiritual union with Jesus Christ, but still grow upon their natural root, old Adam, may, by the force and power of natural principles, bring forth some fruit, which, like the wild hedge-fruit we speak of, may indeed be fair and pleasant to the eyes of men, but God takes no pleasure at all in it; it is sour, harsh and distateful to him, because it springs not from the Spirit of Christ. "I cannot, away with it, it is iniquity," &c. But that I may not entangle

the thread of my discourse, I shall, as in the former chapters, set before you a parallel betwixt the best fruits of natural men, and those of a wild ungrafted tree.

1. The root that bears this wild fruit is a degenerate root, and that is the cause of all this sourness and harshness in the fruit it bears; it is the seed of some better tree accidentally blown, or cast into some waste and bad soil, where not being manured and ordered aright, it is turned wild: So all the fruits of unregenerate men flow from the first Adam, a corrupt and degenerate root, he was indeed planted a right seed, but soon turned a wild and degenerate plant; he being the root from which every man naturally springs, corrupts all the fruit that any man bears from him. It is observed by Gregory, pertinent to my present purpose, Genus humanum in parente, primo, velut in radice putruit; Mankind was putrified in the root of his first parent. "A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit."

2. This corrupt root spoils the fruit, by the transmission of its sour and vicious sap into all the branches and fruits that grow on them; they suck no other nourish ment but what the root affords them, and that being bad spoils all: For the same cause and reason no mere natural or unregenerate man can ever do one holy or acceptable action, because the corruption of the root is in all those actions. The necessity of our drawing corruption into all our actions, from this cursed root Adam, is expressed by a quick and smart interrogation. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. The sense of it is well delivered us by Mr. Caryl in loc. This question, saith he, may undergo a twofold construction: First, thus, who can bring a morally clean person out of a person originally unclean? And so he lays his hand upon his

birth sin. Or, secondly, which speaks to my purpose, it may refer to the action of the same man; man being unclean cannot bring forth a clean thing, (i. e.) a clean or holy action that which is originated is like its original. And that this sour sap of the first stock, I mean Adam's sin, is transmitted into all mankind, not only corrupting their fruit, but ruining and withering all the branches, the apostle shows us in that excellent parallel betwixt the two Adams. Wherefore, as by one man [one, not only in individuo sed in specie, one representing the whole root or stock] sin entered into the world; not by imitation only, but by propagation; and this brought death and ruin upon all the branches..

3. Although these wild hedge-fruits be unwholesome and unpleasant to the taste, yet they are fair and beautiful to the eye: A man that looks upon them, and doth not know what fruit it is, would judge it, by its shew and colour, to be an excellent fruit; for it makes a fairer shew oftentimes than the best and most wholesome fruit doth; even so these natural gifts and endowments, which some unregenerate persons have, seem exceeding fair to the eye and a fruit to be desired. What excellent qualities have some mere natural men and women! what a winning affability, humble condescension, meekness, righteousness, ingenious tenderness, and sweetness of nature! As it was (hyperbolically enough) said of one, In hoc homine non peccavit Adam: Adam never sinned in this man; meaning that he excelled the generality of Adam's children in sweetness of temper and natural endowments. What curious phantasies, nimble wits, solid judgments, tenacious memories, rare elocution, &c. are to be found among mere natural men! by which they are assisted in discoursing, praying, preaching and writing to the admiration of such

as know them. But that which is highly esteemed of men is abomination to God. It finds no acceptance with him, because it springs from that cursed root of nature, and is not the production of his own spirit.

4. If such a stock were removed into a better soil, and grafted with a better kind, it might bring forth fruit pleasant and grateful to the husbandman; and if such persons, before described, were but regenerated and changed in their spirits and principles, what excellent and useful persons would they be in the church of God? and then their fruits would be sweet and acceptable to him. One observes of Tertullian, Origen and Jerome, that they came into Canaan laden with Egyptian gold, (i. e.) they came into the church full of excellent human learning, which did Christ much service.

5. When the husbandman cuts down his woods or hedges, he cuts down these crab stocks with the rest, because he values them not any more than the thorns and brambles among which they grow; and as little will God regard or spare these natural branches, how much soever they are laden with such fruit. The threatening is universal. "Except you be regenerate, and born again, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." And again, Without holiness no man, be his natural gifts never so excellent, shall see God. Embellished nature is nature still ; "that which is born of the flesh is but flesh," however it be set off with advantage to the eye of man.

REFLECTIONS.

1. To what purpose then do I glory in my natural accomplishments? Though I have a betA reflection for ter nature than some others have, yet it an accomplished is a cursed nature still. These sweet qualities and excellent gifts do only hide, but do not kill the corruption of nature.

naturalist.