Use. The use hereof is, to take no more such unprofitabte courses for com- fort and ease in afflictions, as we have done in running to broken cisterns that can hold no water. It is usual with us, when afflictions are great, and pressing down, to complain, Oh, I have great crosses, never the like ; they are beyond my strength ; God is against me, and these and these afflict me. But the truth is, if we look to it, we may say. My folly, my pride, my foolishness, distrust, unbelief, and our great- hearts, these be the special causes that disquiets us. So that if we would have a quiet heart in trouble, and a happy end of it, we must hearken to God. He loves us as well in trouble as out of trouble, and there is a medicine in the word against all troubles whatsoever. Then he asks,
' Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow ?' &c.
Doct. 2. Hence we see all God's children must be ploughed. All the elect are compared to God's husbandry, all who must be ploughed and humbled. To this the Lord exhorts them, Hos. x. 12, ' Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground,' &c. God hath no heath nor brakes in his church but are or shall be ploughed ; they shall at one time or other have deep furrows made in them ; they shall go whither they would not ; all must be taken down.
Reason. And there is gi'eat reason for it ; for naturally, all the elect of God be as subject to that would cross and keep down the seed as others. They have thorns and brambles growing, weeds of all sorts, which would quickly mar them if they were not soundly ploughed. Job for this pur- pose says that * man new born is like an ass's colt ; nay, like a wild ass's colt,' Job xi. 12. A tame ass might perhaps be ruled, but a wild ass's colt, this is worst of all. So is man following his own reason, led by his own affections, passions, desires, and actions. We would run riot, never be tamed unless the Lord did plough us and cause us break up our fallow ground. Even God's elect are foolish, worldly, covetous, full of envy, lusts, passions, mistakings, ignorance, and the like. God's ploughing helps all, tempers the ground better, digs out and keeps down the weeds, and makes the seed to grow, which otherwise would be cropped and destroyed. Thus, howsoever we may think of ourselves, and please our- selves in a thing of nought, no corn is more apt to have weeds amongst it than our hearts, unmastered, are unfit to bear or bring forth fi'uits of grace. We would think a husbandman foolish and mad that would sow corn amongst grass, where, having no root, it must rot, and not grow, the ground being unploughed. So we must hold this judgment in ourselves ; for unless our hearts be tamed, no good seed will grow or take root there. To this effect our Saviour speaks : John xv. 2, ' Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away ; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' If God be a husbandman, we shall be ploughed and pruned to make us be fruitful, lest we grow wild, and so be only fuel for condemnation.
* That is = ♦ proud.'— G.
144 THE DISCREET PLOUGHMAN.
The uses are,
Use 1. First, not to envy those who are not thorowjhly ploughed tvith afflic- tions, for to admire the happiness of such, is no more than if a man should pass through a barren heath, and say this is good ground. I say no ; if it were so, it should not lie unploughed. So we may fear of the state of many wicked men ; unless they repent, they are not God's ; were they of his husbandry they should be ploughed.
Use 2, Secondly, If we be of God's husbandry, and would be thought so indeed, then think ive not the fiery trial of our ploughing to he a strange new thinq, that God should sometimes set so sore upon us and j^lough us to our cost. If we would have an easier way, take the prophet's counsel, * Ploncrh up your fallow ground, and sow no more amongst thorns.' Oh, but some may say, I read and pray, and go to sermons. Ay, but you sow amongst thorns if thorns come up ; look to this. The husbandman will plough indeed, but he will not sow amongst thorns. The church com- plains, Ps. cxxix. 3, ' The ploughers ploughed upon my back, and they made long their furrows.' Why did God suffer this ? They were ploughed deep indeed, but had no hurt by it, but only ploughed them so as to be fit and good ground. Because in her ploughing she ploughed short, and left many balks and patches unploughed ; therefore when we plough not our- selves as we should, it is a mercy of God to send us many ploughers. God will plough us rather than we should be overtaken with sins. God will find other means of afflictions to plough us. If, therefore, we plough ourselves soundly, crosses when they come will not do us so much hurt. If we our- selves be not guilty of neglect this way, afflictions when they come will be nothing so weighty, or of continuance. It follows : The first comparison.