Meditation LI. Ʋpon first Fruits and Gleanings.

VVHat the Apostle saith of the heavenly Bodies, that one Star differeth from another Star in glory, is true also of the heavenly Laws and Com∣mands of God, as well Ceremonial as Moral, that they differ from each other in their weight and worth. Some of which set forth the greater things, and others the less; as may be easily seen in this double Command of First fruits, and Gleanings; one of which is far greater than the other, though the less is not to be neglected, because it is a stream that flows from the same Fountain, the Soveraign will and appointment of God. But that we may the better take the Dimensi∣ons of this Law of First fruits, let us view it by the help of some Considerations, as Astronomers by instruments judge of the Altitude, and Magnitude of a Star. We may first see it in the extent of those things in the offering of which God would be honoured and acknowledged; he required the firstlings of Men and Cattel, the first fruits of trees, and of the Earth, in the sheaf, and in the threshing floor, in the dough, and in the loaves. It did reach to all their Substance, and the encrease, which without this Service was but a polluted and an unclean heap.

Secondly, In the solemn manner of the offering of them unto God, which was to be done with an hum∣ble Confession of their Fathers poverty; A Syrian ready to perish was my Father, and of the hard bondage Page  135 in Egypt sustained by them, and with acknowledgment of Gods gracious looking upon their Affliction, La∣bour, and Oppression, bringing them also forth with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm, with great ter∣ribleness, and with signs and wonders, and giving them a Land that floweth with milk and honey.

Thirdly, In the express command for the speedy payment of them, they were not to be delayed, much less withheld; to keep them back was robbery, to defer them was disobedience, and rendred them rather to be of the Gleanings and Corners of the field, which God had appointed to be reserved for the poor; then of the First fruits which he required for himself. It was an injury to the moral duty which they did teach of Con∣secrating to God the first and prime of their years, and abilities, which is to him far more acceptable than all Offerings and Sacrifices whatever; for how could it be, that he who was careless of the Rite and Ceremony, which typified his duty to him, should ever be mind∣ful of doing that which was the marrow and substance of it. And now when I think that First fruits only were the shadow of our early honouring God, and re∣membring him in the day of our youth, when all the faculties both of soul and body are in their vigour and strength. I cannot but wonder, as well as mourn, to see that under the Doctrine of the Gospel, which reacheth men to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, that thereby they might become a kind of first fruits unto God and the Lamb. So few make Religion the work of the morning of their Age, and so many of the Evening. What else is this, but to give the First fruits to Satan, and the Gleanings to God; To him the finest of the flower, and to God the bran? But tell me, O ye deferrers of holiness, who make it Page  136 both the least and the last work of your lives. Is it only necessary to die to God, and not 10 live to him? Or is it reasonable to say as that young man did to his Companion, when he saw Ambrose dying, Tecum vi∣verem & cum Ambrosio moriar, I would live with thee, and dye with Ambrose? Is not this to mock God, whom yet you would have to save you? And to minister matter of triumph to the God of this world, whose Captives you have been, that though the God of heaven pay you your wages, yet you have done wholly his work? Unto you therefore, O men, I call, and my voice is unto the Sons of men, be not deceived, God will not be mocked: It is not the owning of him when you can serve neither your selves, nor your Lusts any longer, that will be acceptable unto him: It is not a few bedrid prayers, that are as those Ears of Corn which Pharaoh saw in his dream, withered, thin, and blasted with the East wind, that will expiate those black Crimes with which your ill-spent life is over∣spread. Can an Offering of Gleanings, which is made up of robbery, and disobedience, of wronging the poor, and violating the Command of God, ever hallow the whole Harvest? No more can such duties be availing to reconcile you to God, who requires that you should seek him early. Yea, hath he not cursed the deceiver, which hath in his Flock a Male, and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing? And what are you but deceivers? Who waste the Lamp of time that God hath given you to work by, in the sinful de∣lights of the flesh and alienate the chief of your strength and parts from him that should have been honoured, both with the first and best of your abilities, and in your Age have nothing to offer to him, but a large bedroll of hainous enormities, which may justly bring Page  137 down your gray haires with sorrow unto the grave? How blessed a thing is it then for Men to give to God the first-fruits of their Youth, that he may not give them bitter after-fruits, and cause them to feel more smart of their sins in their Old Age, then ever they found pleasure or delight in them in their Youth? and what better Perswasions can I suggest, then to consi∣der,

First, That early Piety gives both to the Person, and to his Services a peculiar Preheminence and Dignity above all others. The Naturalists observe, that the Pearles that are bred of the Morning Dew, are far more bright and clear, than those which are bred of the Evening Dew: And so are those duties of a great∣er worth and beauty, which are the fruits of a Morn∣ing, and not an Evening Godliness. It is the com∣mendation of Hezekiahs Reformation, above all others of the Kings of Judah, that in the first year of his Reign, in the first Moneth, he opened the doores of the House of the Lord. It is that which makes Josiahs Memory to be as a Box of precious Nard, that while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his Father. It is an Honourable Testimony which Paul gives to Epenetus, that he was the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ: and the like is that which he gives to Andronicus and Junia, that they were in Christ before him: To have a Precedency in the Faith, is not onely a happiness, but a dignity. What glory can be greater, then to be a Jeremiah sanctified from the Womb; or a Timothy nourished up in the words of Faith?

S•condly, The comfort of Age, is a well-spent Life; When a Man comes to the Grave as a Shock of C•rne in its se•son, and not as a bundle of Tares to the Page  138 Fire; when the Bones are full, not of the Sins of Youth, but of the Services that were then done to God; when a Man can say, as dying Hezekiah, Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. O it is sad when the sins of youth become the burthen of age • if the Gras∣hopper then be a weight to the Body, what a pres∣sure will heapes of Mountainous sins be to the Soul? Age at the best hath sufficient Griefes; it is of it self a Sickness, and a Neighbour to Death, and needs not the bad provisions of Youthfull Follies to make it worse. Let then the Counsell of Wise So∣lomon be acceptable unto you who are yet in the spring and flower of your age, to Remember your Creator in the dayes of your youth; and then if Death make you Pale, before Age make you Gray, you will have this comfort, that you are old in houres, though not in yeares; and bave lived much, though not long; as having lost no time in sowing Seed unto the Flesh, as most doe, who make youth a foolish Seed-time to a Mourning Age; and Old Age a bit∣ter Harvest to a foolish Youth. Or if your Almond-Tree shall flourish, and that a more gracious Old Age shall succeed a gracious Youth, Old Age it self shall be followed with a Crown of endless Glory.