THE TOUCHSTONE OF EEGENERATION. 137
to be angry and chafing still. If such raging be at home in thy house, I can give thee no comfort ; as thou wouldest look for the evidences of thy lands, as certainly must thou look for this mildness, meekness, and this change in thyself. Mark this still, when a good man hath found out his sins, he is bound and doth lament for them ; when he hath offended, he turneth the stream of his anger that way. So that, I say, if a man be thus bitter of his tongue, look what St James saith of such a one : ' That man's religion is in vain that cannot bridle his tongue,' James i. 2G. * Be not,' saith he, ' my brethren, many masters ; for we have one Master,' &c., James iii. 1. If these contentions remain still among us, our stock yet bears crabs ; we may suspect ourselves. But withal take with you this caution, let not men think it cruelty to execute the justice of God upon malefactors ; but if magistrates do it cruelly, let them look to it, they shall dearly pay for it. The prophet David saith, Ps. ci. 1, *I will sing of mercy and judgment,' &c. So for war, I call not that cruelty to fight God's battles ; but if any man without a commission will take up the sword, he shall perish by the sword ; so Christ saith unto Peter, Mat. xxvi. 52. This point is needful to be pressed still, because men cry Mercy, mercy ; but, I say, judgment must be mingled ; for as there may be a cruel justice, so there may be a cruel mercy, to suffer the lions to devour the sheep. We must, like God, temper them together, and make justice and mercy go hand in hand, that so the God of mercy may deal with us as we with others.
Thus you see what minds we must have if we look for an habitation in God's holy mountain. God, for his Christ's sake, grant unto us this tamedness and meekness, this thorough change of our cruel nature, that so we may come unto the assurance to be of that number for whom Christ died, seeing his Spirit hath wrought such an effectual, thorough change in us.
NOTES.
(a) P. 136. — ' Ten thousand massacred at Labius,' &c. "We have little doubt that there is a misprint here, and that the reading should be, ' there were ten thousand massacred ; at one place in Calabria eighty slain with one sword.' The first reference we suppose to be to the massacre in Paris on St Bartholomew's Day, 1672. Davila estimates the number slain in that city on that day at ten thousand. The other reference we suppose to be to a massacre at Montalto, in Calabria, in 1560 when eighty-eight men had their throats cut by one executioner.
(6) P. 136.—' Garnet's part.' Cf. note ooo, Vol. III. page 535. G.
THE DISCREET PLOUGHMAN.
THE DISCREET PLOUGHMAN.
NOTE.
' The Discreet Ploughman' forms No. 26 of ' The Saint's Cordials' of 1629. It was withdrawn from the other two editions. The separate title-page is given below.* — G .
* THE
DISCREET
PLOWMAN. In One Sekmon.
WHEREIN THE FRVITLES VA-
nity, and needlesse carking and vexing Cares of Gods Children under the hand of God is reproved, and better Di- rections given them what to doe : Informing them for the time to come, how to attaine a more speedy and easie end of their Afflictions.
Praelucendo Pereo.
Vprightnes Hath Boldnes.
I AME s 1. 4. But let patience have her perfect worke, that ye may be perfect and intire, lacking nothing.
I AM. 4. 10.
Humhle your selves in the sight of God, and he shall lift you up.
LONDON, Printed in the yeare 1629.
THE DISCREET PLOUGHMAN.
I
Give ye ear, and hear my voice ; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow ? doth he open and break the clods of his ground / When he hath made pilain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the princijml wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their place ? For his God doth insti-uct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not thrashed with a thrashing -instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin ; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread-corn is bruised ; because he will not ever be thrashing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, uhich is won- derful in counsel, and excellent in workiyig. — IsA. XXVIII. 23-29.
The drift of these words is to comfort God's children in afflictions ; and because in such smarting crosses, when one is sorrowful, weak, taken up and overpressed with grief, we are then unfit and incapable of instruction, the anguish of the suffering destroying our attention ; he therefore says, doubling it four times, * Give ye ear,' * hear my voice,' hearken ye,' and ' hear my voice ;' wherein he insinuates that the matter he is about to deliver requires attention. As though he should say. Yon can hearken to the world, to carnal reason, to the devil and his instruments, who lead you astray ; but if you would have sound peace and comfort, you must hearken unto God's word, because it is his voice, one who loves you, tenders* your good, and does all things well.