(3.) In taking off the affliction when they can bear it no longer ; 1 Cor. x. 13. " He makes a way to escape, that they may be able to " bear it ;" Psal. cxxv. 3. The rod is taken off, " when the righ- " teous is even ready to put forth his hand to iniquity." It is a JcAvish proverb, When the bricks are doubled, then comes Moses. And it is a Christian's experience. When the spirit is ready to fail, then comes Jesus, according to that promise, Isa. Ivii. 16.
A reflection 1. How unlike am I to God, in the afflicting of his Jbr persecutors, people ? The Lord is pitiful when he smites them, but I have been cruel : he is kind to them, when most severe ; but the best of my kindness to them, may fitly enough be called severitv : God smites them in love ; I have smitten them in hatred. Ah ! what have I done ? God hath'used me as his hand, Psal. xvii. 14. or as his rod to afflict them, Jer. x. 7. but his end and mine have widely differed in that action, Isa. x. 7. I am but the scullion, or rather the whisp to scour and cleanse the vessels of glory ; and when I have done that dirty work, those bright souls shall be set up in heaven, and I cast into the fire. If he shall have judgment without mercy, that shewed no mercy, how can I expect mercy from the Lord, whose people I have persecuted mercilessly for his sake ?
2. Is the Lord's wheat thus threshed on the
A rejkctionfor floor of afflictions ; what then shall I think of my
sucli as meet with condition, who prosper and am let alone in the
no affliction. way of sin ? Surely tlie Lord looks on me as on
a weed, and not as his corn ; and it is too j^ro-
bable, that I am rather reserved for burning, than for threshing.
THE HEAVENLY USE OF EAUTHLY THINGS. 155
Some there are whom God loves not so well as to spend a rod upon them, but saith, " Let them alone,'' Hos. iv. 17. but miserable is their condition, notwithstanding their impunity ! For what is the in- tei-pretation but this ? I will come to a reckoning with them alto- gether in hell. Lord, how much better is thy afflicting mercy, than thy sparing severity ! Better is the condition of an afflicted child, than of a rejected bastard, Heb. xii. 7. Oh, let me rather feel thy rod now, as the rod of a loving Father, than feel thy ^vrath hereafter, as the wrath of an omnipotent avenger !
3. Well then, despond not, O my soul ! A reflection for an Thou hearest the husbandman loves his corn, afflicted saint. though he thresheth it ; and surely, the Lord loves thee not the less, because he afflicts thee so much. If affliction then be the way to heaven, blessed be God for affliction ! The thresh- ing-strokes of God have come thick upon me ; by which I may see what a tough and stubborn heart I have : if one stroke would have done the work, he would not have lifted up his hand the second time. I have not had a stroke more than I had need of, 1 Pet. i. 6. and by this means he will purge my sins : blessed be God for that ! the damned have infinitely more and harder strokes than I, and yet their sin shall never be separated by their sufferings. Ah sin ! cur- sed sin ! I am so much out of love with thee, that I am willing to endure more than all this to be well rid of thee : all this I suffer for thy sake ; but the time is coming when I shall be rid of sin and suffering together : meanwhile I am under my own father's hand : gmite me he may, but hate me he cannot.
HE sacred records tell us, heretofore God had an altar on a threshing-floor. Where threshing instruments devoted were To sacred service ; so you find them here. I now would teach the thresher to beat forth A notion from his threshold much more worth Than all his corn ; and make him understand That soul-instructing engine in his hand. With fewer strokes, and lighter Avill you beat The oats and barley than the stubborn wheat, Which will require and endure more blows Than freer grain. Thus deals the Lord by those AVhom he afflicts : he doth not use to strike Offending children with his rod alike ; But on the ablest shoulders doth impose The heaviest burthens, and the less on those Of weaker grace; he shews himself a God Of judgments in his handling of the rod.
136 HUSBANDRY SPIRITUALIZED ; on,
God hath a rate-book by liim wherein he Keeps just accounts how rich his people be ; What iaith, experience, patience, more or less Each one possesseth, and doth them assess Accordino- to their stock. Such as have not A martyr's faith, shall have no martyr's lot. The kinds, degrees, and the continuance Of all their sufferings to a circimistance Prescribed are by him who wisely sways The world, and more than's right on no man lays. Be man or devil the apothecary, God's the Physician : who can then miscarry In such a hand ? He never did or will Suffer the least addition to his bill. Nor measure, nor yet mercy he observes In threshing Babylon ; ibr she deserves 4, His heaviest strokes ; and in his floor she must Be beaten shortly with his flail to dust. But Zion's God, in measure, will debate; His children he may smite, but cannot hate ; He beats them, true, to make their chaff to fly. That they, like purged golden grains, may lie In one fair heap, with those bless'd souls that here Once in like manner thresh'd and winnow'd were.
Upon the winnowing of Corn.
The fan doth cause light chaff toffy axcay ; So shall tK ungodly in God''s xo'mnoiv'ing-day.
▼ T HEN the corn is threshed out in the floor where it lies min- gled with empty ears, and worthless chaff*, the husbandman carries it out altogether into some open place ; where, having spread his sheet for the preservation of the grain, he exposes it all to the wind ; the good, by reason of its solidity, remains upon the sheet, but the chaff, being light and empty, is partly carried quite away by the wind, and all the rest separated from the good grain into a distinct heap, which is carried away either to the fire, or dung-hill, as a worthless thing.
XtJLEN have their winnowing-days, and God hath his ; a day to separate the chaff from the wheat, the godly from the un*
TIIF. IlEAVEKI-Y USK OF KARTTTT.Y TITIXCS. 157