What are ye, but a field or plot of ground, to be manured and cultivated for God ? And what are Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, but so many workmen and labourers, employed by God, the great Hus- bandman, to plant and water you all ?
If, then, you shall glory in some, and despise others, you take the ready way to deprive yourselves of the benefits and mercies you might receive from the joint ministry of them all. God hath used me to plant youj and Apollos to water you ; you are obliged to bless him for
tile ministry of both, and it will be your sin if you despise cither. If the workmen be discouraged in their labours, it is the field tliat loses and suffers by it ; so the words are a similitude, serving to illustrate the relation,
1. Which the churches have to God.
2. Which God's ministers have to the churches.
1. The relation betwixt God and them is like that of an husband- man to his ground or tillage. Tlie Greek word signifies God's * ara- ble, or that plot of ground which God manures by the ministry of pastors and teachers.
2. It serves to illustrate the relation that the ministers of Christ sustain to the churches, which is like that of the husbandman's ser- vants to him and his fields ; which excellent notion carries in it the perpetual necessity of a gospel ministry. (For what fruit can be ex- pected, where there are none to till the grountl ?) As also the dili- gence, accountableness, and rewards which these labourers are to give to, and receive from God, the great Husbandman. All runs into this,
That the life and employment of an husbandman, excellentlj- sha- dows forth the relation betwixt God and his church, and the relative duties betwixt its ministers and members. Or more briefly thus :
The church is God's husbandry, about which his ministers are employed.
I shall not here observe my usual method, (intending no more but a preface to the following discourse) but only open the particulars wherein the resemblance consists ; and then draw some Corollaries from the whole. The first I shall dispatch in these twenty particu- lars following :
1. Prop. The husbandman purchases his fields, and gives a valu- able consideration for them, Jer. xxxii. 9, 10.
Reddlt. So hath God purchased his church with a full valuable price, even the precious blood of his own Son, Acts xx. 28. " Feed " the church of God which he hath purchased, or acquired with his *' own blood." O dear-bought inheritance ! how much doth this bespeak its worth ! Or rather, the high esteem God hath of it, to pay down blood, and such blood for it ; never was any inheritance bought at such a rate : every particular elect person, and none but such are comprehended in this purchase ; the rest still remain in the devil's right. Sin made a forfeiture of all to justice, upon which Sa- tan entered, and took possession, and, as the strong man armed, still keeps it in them, Luke xi. 21, but upon payment of this sum to jus- tice, the elect (who only are intended in this purchase) pass over into God's right and property, and now are neither Satan's, Acts xxvi. 18.
* The faithful (or believers) are called God's husbandry, (yso)oym, geor^eanj be- cause God cultivates them as land by means of spiritual teachers (or pa!>'tors) Rav.
nor their owrt, 1 Cor. vi. 19. but the LorcTs peculiar ^ 1 Pet, ii. 6. And to shew how much they are his own, you have two possessives in one verse. Cant. viii. 12. " My vineyard, which is mine, is before " me, mine, which is mine."
2. Pi'op. Husbandmen divide and separate their own lands from other men's, they have their land-marks and boundaries, by which property is preserved, Deut. xxvii. 17. Prov. xxii. 28.
Reddit. So are the people of God wonderfully separated and dis- tinguished from all the people of the earth. Psal. iv. 3. " The Lord " hath set apart him that is godly for himself And the Lord knoweth '^ who are his," 2 Tim. ii. 19. It is a special act of grace, to be in- closed by God out of the waste howling wilderness of the world, Deut. xxxiii. 16. This did God intentionally, in the decree before the world was ; which decree is executed in their sanctification and adoption.
3. Prop. Corn-fields are carefully fenced by the husbandman with hedges and ditches, to preserve their fruits from beasts that would
otherwise over-run and destroy them Non minor est virtue
quam qucercre parta tucri. It is as good husbandry to keep what we have, as to acquire more than we had.
Reddit. " My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, *' and he fenced it," Isa. v. 1, 2. No inheritaace is better defended and secured, than the Lord's inheritance, Psal. cxxv. 2. " As the *' mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about *' his people." So careful is he for their safety, " that he createth '' upon every dwelling-place of mount Sion, and upon her assem- *' blies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire " by night : for upon all the glory shall be a defence," Isa. iv. 5. Not a particular saint, but is hedged about and inclosed in arms of power and love, Job i. 10. " Thou hast made a hedge about him,*" The devil fain would, but by his own confession could not break over the hedge to touch Job, till God's permission made a gap for him : yea, he not only made an hedge, but a wall about them, and that of fire, Zech. ii. 5. Sets a guard of angels " to encamp round « about them that fear him," Psal. xxxiv. 7. And will not trust them with a single guard of angels neither, though their power be great, and love to the saints as great ; but watches over them him- self also, Isa. xxvii. 2, 3. " Sing ye unto her, a vineyard of red wine, " I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment ; lest any *' hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
4. Prop. Husbandmen carry out their compost, to fertilize their arable ground, they dung it, dress it, and keep it in heart ; and in these western parts are at great charges to bring lime, and salt- water-sand to quicken their thin and cold soil.
Reddit. " Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, *' and dung it ; and if it bear fruit, well, if not, cut it down," Luke xiii. 8. O the rich dressing which God bestows upon his churches !
tliey are costly fields indeed, dressed and fertilized, not only by pre- cious ordinances and providences, but also by the sweat, yea, blood of the dispensers of them. " You Londoners (saith Mr. Lockier in " Colos, p. 552.) are trees watered choicely indeed ; it is storied of '' the palm-tree, that at its first transplanting into Italy, it was wa- <' tered with wine. I cannot say (saith he) that you have been so *' watered by me, I dare not ; but this I can lumibly and truly say, " that if our choicest strength and spirits may be named instead of " water, wine ; or if the blessing which hath gone along with these *' waters, at any time, hath turned them into wine, in vigour Upon " your souls, then hath God by me, watered your roots with wine."