be less than thine iniquities deserve. Neither my power, nor thy desert, shall be the rule of my proceedings; but I will do it with moderation and mercy, as thou art able to bear. I that have instructed the husbandman to proportion his instrument to the quality of the grain before him, will exercise the like wisdom and mildness towards thee. And the similitude betwixt the husbandman's threshing his corn, and the Lord's afflicting his people, stands in these particulars. 1. The husbandman's end in threshing the corn is, to separate it from the husks and chaff; and God's end in afflicting his people is, to separate them from their sins. "In measure, when it shooteth forth, he will debate with it;" (i. e.) he will moderately correct them; and what the ends of those corrections are, the next words inform us. By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purg-ed, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. God uses afflictions as we use soap, to cleanse away filthiness and fetch out spots. Dan. xi. 35. He aims not at the destruction of their persons, but of their lusts. 2. If the husbandman have cockle, darnel, or pernicious tares before him on the floor among his corn, he little regards whether it be bruised or battered to pieces by the thresher or no; it is a worthless thing and he spares it not. Such cockle and tares are the enemies of God; and when these come under his flail, he strikes them without mercy; for these the Lord prepares a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth, which shall beat them to dust. "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor; it is time to thresh her." And when that time is come, then (in allusion to the beast that was to tread out the corn,) "Zion's horn shall be of iron, and her hoofs brass." He smites not his people according to the stroke of them that smote them; the meaning is, his strokes on them shall be deadly strokes; they shewed no mercy to Zion, and God will shew no mercy to them. 3. When the husks and chaff are perfectly separated from the grain, then the husbandman beats it no more. When God had perfectly purged and separated the sins of his people, then afflictions shall come to a perpetual end; he will never smite them again: there is no noise of the threshing instrument in heaven; he that beats them with his flail on earth, will put them into his bosom in heaven. Though the husbandman lays on, and beats his corn, as if he were angry with it, yet he loves and highly prizes it; and though God strike and afflict his people, yet he sets a great value upon them; and it is equally absurd to infer God's hatred to his people from his afflicting of them, as the husbandman's hatred of his corn, because he threshes and beats it. "Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, and chasteneth every son whom he receiveth." 5. Though the husbandman thresh and beat the corn, yet he will not bruise or hurt it if he can help it; though some require more and harder strokes than others, yet none shall have more than it can endure. And though the Lord afflict his servants, yet he will do them no hurt. Jer. xxv. 6. Some need more rods than others, but none shall have more than they can bear; the Lord knows the measures and degrees of his servants' faith and patience, and accordingly shall their trials be. "Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; for he knows their frame, he remembers they are but dust; he makes a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it." This care and tenderness over his af Aicted is eminently discovered in three particulars. 1. In not exposing them to, until he had prepared them for, their trials. "Tarry ye at Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." He sometimes gives them eminent discoveries of his love immediately before, and as a preparative to their sufferings, in the strength whereof they are carried through all. 2. Or if not so, then he intermixeth supporting comfort with their troubles; as you sometimes see the sun shine out while the rain falls. It was so with Paul. "This night, and it was a sad night indeed, there stood by me the angel of the Lord, whose I am.' 3. In taking off the affliction, when they can bear ino longer. "He makes a way to escape that they may be able to bear it." "The rod is taken off, when the righteous is even ready to put forth his hand to iniquity." It is a Jewish 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. REFLECTIONS. 1. How unlike am I to God, in the afflicting of his people? The Lord is pitiful when he smites A reflection them; but I have been cruel: He is kind for persecutors. to them when most severe; but the best of my kindnesses to them may fitly enough be called severity: God smites them in love; I have smit. ten 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. 7. but his end and mine have widely differed in that action. 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, whose bright souls shall be set up in heaven, and I cast into the fire. If he shall have judg ment 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 floor of affictions; what then shall I think of my A reflection condition, who prosper and am let alone for such as meet in the way of sin? Surely, the Lord looks with no afflict- on me as on a weed, and not as his corn; ion. and it is too probable, that I am rather reserved for burning, than for threshing. Some there are whom God loves not so well as to spend a rod upon them, but saith, Let them alone. But miserabie is their condition notwithstanding their impunity! For what is the interpretation but this: I will come to a reckoning with them altogether 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. Oh! let me rather feel thy rod now, as the rod of a loving father, than feel thy wrath hereafter as the wrath of an omnipotent avenger! 3. Well, then, despond not, O my soul! Thou hearest the husbandman loves his corn, though he threshes it; and, surely, the Lord loves A reflection thee not the less, because he afflicts thee for an afflicted so much. If affliction, then, be the way saint. to heaven, blessed be God for affliction ! The threshing-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 cursed 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: mean while I am under my own father's hand; smite me he may, but hate me he cannot. CHAPTER XX. UPON THE WINNOWING OF CORN. The fan doth cause light chaff to fly away; OBSERVATION. WHEN the corn is threshed out in the floor where it lies mingled 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 dunghill as a worthless thing. APPLICATION. Men have their winnowing days and God hath his-a day to separate the chaff from the wheat, the godly from the ungodly, who shall be held up to the wind; but only the wicked shall be driven away by it. Such a day God hath in this world, wherein he winnows his wheat and se |