Ye Christian men pray notice well!
Our Saviour in the Parable
Does clearly prove and plainly show,
What Satan in the Church can do.

The Church is to a field compar’d,
Well cultivated and prepar’d:
And where the Gospel truth is b’liev’d,
There is the Gospel seed receiv’d.

But when the watchmen fall to sleep,
And they neglect their guard to keep,
The enemy soon interfer’s,
And sows the field with seeds of tares.

Such ever was the Churches case,
The formal Christian void of grace:
Is like the tares among the wheat,
When rightly prov’d is but a cheat.

But lest the wheat be pluck’d up too,
The tares among the wheat must grow:
There to remain till harvest day,
Till they are search’d and cast away.

This Parable will shew us plain,
That Saints and Sinners will remain:
As members of his Church and State,
Till Jesus comes to separate.

How careful then ought we attend!
To watch and pray unto the end;
Till all our trials shall be past,
Lest we should prove but tares at last.