* Doth he open and break the clods of his ground, when he hath made plain the face thereof ?' &c. The sum is, as if he should say, I appeal to your consciences, if you did see a husbandman ploughing and breaking the clods of his ground, casting out rubbish and the like, would you imagine he did spoil the ground, to break it up so always, and be still digging in it ? Sure no. From our confession he would have it, that no husband- man knows so well how to plough, dig, and when to make an end of plough- ing and afflicting as he doth, whose infinite knowledge and skill is beyond all others' knowledge, and therefore will make an end of ploughing his chil- dren in the best time. Whereby we learn thus much,
Doct. 3. God will make a sweet and seasonable end of afflicting his chil- dren. He doth correct us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness : for, as it is, Ps. cxxv. 3, ' The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth his hand unto iniquity.' Miseries and afflictions never rest till they meet with wicked men ; but on the righteous they come as a sojourner, which comes to tarry a while and so be gone ; it shall not rest on them. And why so ? Because, if God did not help us betimes, we would either murmur, or use some ill means to help oursalves. God will therefore make a good and seasonable end of the afflictions of his children.
Obj. Ay, but when will God will make an end of afflicting his servants ? How shall it be known when he will make an end ?
Ans. Why, as husbandmen, when the clods lie high, bring the harrow over the same, that the seed may spring through with the more ease ; and when the weeds are ploughed and weeded out that would mar all, then he will make an end ; and then affliction shall cease when the ground is made
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smooth and apt to bear and be fruitful in due season. Whence we may observe this much,
Doct. 4. When the Lord hath made us plain, and hath fitted us ivith hearts to receive good seed, then is the time of rest. If a man would plough in seed- time, we would think this a fooHsh, unwise action. God's ploughing is seasonable to cleanse and purge us, that we may have all fit helps to enable us for his service, as it is written, Isa. xxvii. 9, ' By this there- fore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin,' &c.
Use. Therefore, if we would have a good and a speedy end of our crosses, fears, and afflictions, if we would have rest, and God to make an end of ploughing us, we must labour to be plain and even ground, to take down the pride of our hearts and wills ; all high things, and everything which exalts itself, must be cast down and laid low. Many of God's children yet are weary, and suflferiug, and cry out. Oh when, when shall there be an end ? In this case, I say, see in what fitness thy heart is brought to attend upon the word, look in what measure it is engrafted in thy heart. When we can hear the word with joy, and the stream of our endeavours is that way, then we are near an end of our affliction ; when the ground is once made plain and fit, then the hour is come.
What remains then ? When he hath made plain the face of the ground, he will sow seed, and the fittest seed, and do it in measure with wisdom. Whence observe :
Doct. 5. When God hath humbled us by his icord, then he will furnish and aim us with his word, and enable us with strength that tcay. This is a difierence betwixt his teaching of godly and wicked men : the one are the better, and mend by it ; the other worse and worse ; for the godly, with ploughing, he doth instruct and teach them, and make them pliable, it being contrary with the wicked. Many heaths, you know, do meet with streams and floods of water, and yet are nothing the better nor more fruit- ful ; but God's arable, the saints, they are ploughed and instructed, as the psalmist speaks : ' Blessed is the man whom thou correctest, and teachest in thy law,' &c., Ps. xciv. 12. To have the one without the other is nothing, and does no good, but when correction and teaching go together, then one sees all the good of affliction, and why God sent it upon him. It is said in the Hebrews, that, ' he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth :' he corrects them, and convinces them of that evil by his word, of that sin which brought such and such a misery upon them, and makes them ac- knowledge God's justice in it. Conviction is this, when I bring evident reasons unanswerable, for to prove that which I would bring another to practise and believe. Now, we must acknowledge God's goodness unto us, that gives us not the one without the other, not correction only, but his word also to instruct and teach us. Hereby we know afflictions come from God's love, when they make us in love with the word, and cleave unto it. When we see a husbandman in a field ploughing, and one in a garden digging, we hope for good corn, fine herbs and flowers ere long ; so we may say. Thus doth the Lord ; now he is a-ploughing and digging of my heart : it is because he means to sow good seed, the seed of eternal life therein. Now, understand thou therefore by afflictions, when God is the husbandman, and afflictions the seed, there must come a good crop of it ; God will make it multiply and increase abundantly to our comfort, whatsoever the diffi- culties be which may seem to hinder the growth of it. The reason hereof is added in the next place.