CHAPTER XVIII: Upon the Joy of Harvest-men
But he'll convice you then your ways are naught, As Gideon the men of Succoth taught.
If sermons cannot, fire and brimstone must Teach men how good it is to pamper lust.
When conscience takes thee by the throat, and cries Now wretch! now sinner! thou that didst despise
My warnings; learn, and ever learning be That lesson which thou ne'er wouldst learn of me.
The stoutest sinner then would howl and roar, O sin I never saw thy face before.
Is this the fruit of sin? Is this the place Where I must lie? Is this indeed the case
Of my poor soul! must I be bound in chains.
With these companions? Oh! are these the gains I get by sin? Poor wretch! I that would never
See this before, am now undone for ever!
CHAPTER XVIII
Upon the Joy of Harvest-men
Great is the joy of harvest-men: yet less Than theirs whom God doth with his favour bless.
OBSERVATION
AMONG all earthly joys, these four sorts are noted in scripture, as the most excellent and remarkable. (1.) Nuptial joys; the day of espousals is the day of the gladness of a man's heart, Cant. 3:11. (2.)
The joy of children: Though now it seems but a common mercy to most, and a burden to some, yet the people of God were wont to esteem it a choice mercy, and rejoiced greatly in it, John 16:21. there is joy that a man is born into the world. (3.) The joy of conquests and victories, when men divide the spoil; And, lastly, The joy of harvest.
These two we find put together, as principal matters of joy, Isa. 9:3.
"They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. The joy of harvest is no small joy;
Gaudium messisest messis gaudii; The joy of harvest, is the harvest of their joy. It is usual with men, when they have reaped down their harvest (or cut the neck, as they call it) to demonstrate their joy by shouting, and loud acclamations.
APPLICATION
THUS, and unspeakably more than thus, do saints rejoice and shout for joy, when they reap the favour and love of God, for which they laboured in many a weary duty. This joy of harvest, as great as it is, and as much as carnal hearts are lifted up with it, is but a trifle, a thing of nought, compared with yours; after they have sown to themselves in righteousness, and waited for the effects and returns of their duties with patience, and at last come to reap in mercy, either the full harvest in heaven or but the first-fruits of it on earth, yet rejoice, "with joy unspeakable and full of glory," 1 Pet. 1:8. "This puts more gladness into their hearts, than when corn and wine increase,"
Psal. 4:7. Carnal joys are but as soul-fevers, the agues of the inward man; there is a great difference betwixt the unnatural inflammations of a feverish body, which waste the spirits, and drink up the radical moisture, and the kindly well-tempered heat of an healthy body; and as much between the sweet, serene, and heavenly joy, which flow from the bosom of Christ in the hearts of believers, and those earthly delights which carnal hearts, in a sensual way, suck out of creature enjoyments. I will shew you the transcendency of spiritual joys, above the joy of harvest, in these eight particulars following.
1. You that joy with the joy of the harvest, are glad, because now you have food for yourselves and families to live upon all the year: but the Christian rejoiceth because he hath bread to eat that the world knows not of, Rev. 2:17. Christ is the food of his soul, and his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed, John 6:55. i.e. the most real and excellent food. You read Psal. 78:25. that men did eat angels food, i.e. Manna; which was such excellent bread, that if angels did live upon material food, this would be chosen for them; and yet this is but a type and dark shadow of Jesus Christ, the food of believers.
2. You rejoice when your harvest is in, because corn is virtually many other things besides food; you can turn it into clothes to keep you warm, and many other necessaries may be purchased by it; but yet it is not like Christ, the object of a saint's joy; though it answers-many things, it doth not answer all things, as Christ doth; turn it into what you will, it hath but a limited and respective usefulness: but Jesus
Christ is all in all to believers, and out of him their faith can fetch all supplies; he is their health in sickness, their strength in weakness, their ease in pain, their honour in reproach, their wealth in poverty, their friend in friendlessness, their habitation when harbourless, their enlargement in bonds, the strength of their hearts, and life of their life; O! he is a full Christ! and whatever excellencies are
scattered among all the creatures, do meet all in him, and much more.
3. You rejoice, when you have gotten in your harvest, because now you can free those engagements, and pay those debts wich you have contracted. 'Tis a comfort to be out of debt; and you may lawfully rejoice that God gives you wherewith to quit your engagements, that you may owe no man any thing but love; but still the joy of harvest falls short of the joy of the saints; for you rejoice that you are or have wherewith to help yourselves out of men's debt: but they rejoice that they are out of God's debt; that his book is cancelled, and their sins pardoned: that by reason of the imputed righteousness of Christ, the law can demand nothing from them, Rom. 8:1. O what matter of joy is this!
4. You rejoice, because now your corn is out of danger; all the while it was abroad, it was in hazard, but now it is housed you fear not the rain: but Christians rejoice, not because their corn is safe, but because their souls are so. All the while they abode in an unregenerate state, they were every moment in danger of the storms of wrath: but now being in Christ, that danger is over; and what compare is there betwixt the safety of a little corn, and the security of an immortal soul?
5. Your joy is but a gift of common providence. Turks and Heathens can rejoice with your joy; but the joy of a Christian, is a peculiar favour and gift of God. Corn is given to all nations, even the most barbarous and wicked have store of it; but Christ is the portion but of a few, and those the dearly beloved of God. Luther said of the whole
Turkish empire, (where is the best and greatest store of corn) that it is but a crumb which the master of the family throws to the dogs. He that had more corn than his barns could hold, now wants a drop of
water to cool his tongue. Christ is a gift bestowed only upon God's elect.
Your joy will have an end; the time is coming, that when you have reaped down your harvests, yourselves must be reaped down by death, and then you shall rejoice in these things no more. But when your joy is ended, then is the joy of saints perfected; they reap their harvest, when you leave your harvest; their consolation is everlasting.
7. God can separate your joy from these enjoyments, even while you have them, as well as when you leave them. It is one thing for a man to have riches and full barns, and another thing to have comfort in them, Eccl. 5:19, 20. But now the joy of Christians is a thing inseparable from their enjoyment of Christ: indeed the sense of their interest may be lost, and so the acts of their joy intermitted; but they always have it in the seed, if not in the fruit, Psal. 97:11; "Joy is sown for the upright;" he hath it still in the principle, and in the promise.
8. The joy of harvest-men, for the most part, is only in their harvest, and in such earthly things; take that away, and their joy ceases.
Earthly hearts are acquainted with no higher comforts; but the people of God can joy in him, and take comfort in their earthly enjoyments too. And what comfort they take in these things, is much more refined and sweet than yours; for they enjoy all these things in God, and his love in giving them, puts a sweetness into them, that you are unacquainted with. Thus you see, how far your joys fall short of theirs.
REFLECTIONS
1. How have I rejoiced in a thing of nought, and pleased myself with a vanity? God hath blessed me in my fields, and in my stores; but not
with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. My barns are full of corn, but my soul is empty of grace; common bounty hath given me a fulness of the things of this life; but what if the meaning of it should be to fat me for the day of slaughter? What if this be the whole of my portion from the Lord? What if the language of his providences to my soul should be this, Lo! here I have given thee
(with Ishmael) the fatness of the earth? Thou shalt not say but thou hast tasted of thy Creator's bounty; but make the most of it, for this is all that ever thou shalt have from me; there be others in the world, to whom I have denied these things, but for them I have reserved better; for the most part they are poor in this world, but rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom. Is not this enough to damp all my carnal mirth? Should my conscience give me such a memento as Abraham, in the parable, gave to Dives; "Remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things." Ah! what a cut would that be to all my comforts? A man in a fever hath a lively colour, but a dying heart. I have an appearance, a shadow of comfort, but a sad state of soul.
2. "Blessed be the God and Father of my Lord "Jesus Christ, who hath blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," Ephes. 1:3. Though he hath not seen fit to give me much of this world in hand, yet it hath pleased him to settle a rich inheritance upon me by promise; the hopes and expectations whereof yield my soul more true comfort than all the present enjoyments of this world could have done. Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given me my portion in this life, that by keeping me from the enjoyment, hath also preserved me from the snares of a prosperous estate?
Lord Jesus, I have no bags, I have no barns; but thou shalt be to me instead of all those things. When others rejoice in the fulness of their earthly comforts, I will rejoice in the fulness of my Christ: they have
that which (though I have not) I shall not want; and I have that which all their riches cannot purchase. Bless the Lord, O my soul!
3. But, Lord, how am I obliged, above thousands, to love and praise thee? to bless and admire thee, who hast not only plentifully provided for my soul, but for my body too! who hast given me both the upper and the nether springs, heaven and earth; things present, and things to come? Thou hast not dealt so with all; no, not with all of thy own people: many of them are strangers to the mercies which I enjoy. God hath done great things for me, O my soul! what wilt thou do for God? The freer the condition is he hath placed me in, the more am I both obliged and advantaged for his service; and yet I doubt, it will be found, that many a poor Christian that labours with his hands to get his bread, redeems more hours for God than I do. Lord, make me wise to understand and answer the double end of this gracious dispensation! let me bestow the more of my time upon God, and stand ready to minister to the necessities of his people.
4. Oh! what an unhappy wretch am I! that have nothing either in hand, or in hope; am miserable here, and like to be so for ever; had I but an interest in Christ, as the godly poor have, that would sweeten all present troubles, and shew me the end of them. But, alas! I am poor and wicked, contemned of men, and abhorred of God; an object of contempt both to heaven and earth. Lord, look upon such a truly miserable object with compassion, give me a portion with thy people in the world to come, if thou never better my outward condition here! O sanctify this poverty; bless these straits and wants, that they may necessitate my soul to go to Christ: make this poverty the way to glory, and I shall bless thee to eternity that I was poor in this world.
THE POEM OFT have I seen, when harvest's almost in,
The last load coming, how some men have been Wrapt up with joy, as if that welcome cart
Drew home the very treasure of their heart; What joyful shoutings, hoopings, hollowing noise,
With mingled voices both of men and boys!
To carnal minds there is no greater mirth, No higher joy, no greater heaven on earth.
He speaks pure paradoxes, that shall say These are but trifles to what saints enjoy:
But they despise your sparks as much as you Contemn their sun. Some that could never shew
A full stuff'd barn, on which you set your heart, But glean, perhaps, the ears behind your cart;
Yet are the gleanings of their comfort more Than all your harvest and admired store.
Your mirth is mix'd with sorrow, theirs is pure; Yours like a shadow fleets, their joys endure.
God gives to you the husk, to them the pith,
And no heart-stinging sorrows adds therewith.
Though at the gates of death they sometimes mourn, No sooner doth the Lord to them return, But sorrow's banish'd from their pensive breast;
Joy triumphs there, and smiles their cheeks invest.
Have you beheld, when, with perfumed wings, Out of the balmy east, bright Phoebus springs,
Mounting th' Olympic hill, with what a grace He views the throne of darkness, and doth chase
The shades of night before him? having hurl'd His golden beams about this lower world,
How from sad groves, and solitary cells, Where horrid darkness and confusion dwells,
Batts, owls, and doleful creatures, fly away, Resigning to the cheerful birds of day:
Who in those places now do sit and chant, Where lately such dire creatures kept their haunt?
Thus grief resigns to joy; sighs, groans, and tears
To songs triumphant, when the Lord appears.
O matchless joy! O countenance divine!
What are those trifles to these smiles of thine?
May, I, with poor Mephibosheth, be blest With these sweet smiles; let Ziba take the rest.
My life! my treasure! thou shalt ne'er be sold For silver-hills, or rivers pav'd with gold.
Wert thou but known to worldlings, they would scorn To stoop their hearts to such poor things as corn:
For so they do, because thou art above That sphere wherein their low conceptions move.
CHAPTER XIX
Upon the threshing out of Corn More solid grain with greater strength you thresh,
The ablest Christians have the hardest lash.
OBSERVATION
HUSBANDMEN having to do with divers sorts of grain, some more tough and stubborn, others more free and tender, do not beat all alike on the threshing-floor; but as they have threshals of several sizes, so they bestow on some grain more, on others fewer strokes,
according to the different qualities of the grain to be threshed. This observation the prophet Isaiah hath, chap. 28. ver. 27. "The fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is the cartwheel turned about upon the cummin, but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod." The manner of beating out the corn in former times was far different from that which is now in use among us: they had the cart-wheel, which was full of iron spokes or teeth, and the hoofs of beasts for the harder sort of grain, as wheat, rye, and barley; a staff or flail for the fitches, and a rod or twig for the cummin; all which instruments were proportioned according to the nature of the grain.
APPLICATION
GOD having to do, in a way of correction, with divers sorts of offenders, doth not use the like severity with them all, but proportions his corrections to their abilities and strength, Jer. 30:11.
"I will not make a full end of thee, [but will correct thee in measure] and will not leave thee altogether unpunished:" (q. d.) Afflicted thou must be; my respect to my own glory, and thy good, puts a necessity upon that; but yet I will do it moderately: I will not lay on without measure or mercy, as I intend to do upon the enemies; but will mete out your sufferings in a due proportion, even as a careful physician, in prescribing pills or potions to his patient, hath regard as well to the ability of the patient, as to the nature and quality of the disease; even so thy God, O Israel, will not afflict thee according to the greatness of his power, and his wrath answerable thereunto, Psal.
90:11. That would break thee to pieces, Psal. 78:38. Nor yet will he afflict thee according to the demerit of thy sin: as it shall be much less than what I could inflict, so it shall be less than thine iniquities deserve, Ezra 9:13. 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, Isa. 27:9. "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 purged, 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. 11:35. 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 not; 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, Isa. 41:15.
"The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor; it is time to thresh her," Jer. 51:33. 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," Mic. 4:13. 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 hath 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 best them with his flail on earth, will put them into his bosom in heaven.
4. Though the husbandman lays on, and beats his corn as if he was 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; Heb. 12:6. "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. 25:6. 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, Psal. 103:13, 14. "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," 1 Cor. 10:13. This care and tenderness over his afflicted, is eminently discovered in three particulars.
(1.) In not exposing them to, until he hath prepared them for, their trials, Luke 24:49. "Tarry ye at Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." He gives them sometimes 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, Acts 27:23. "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 it no longer; 1 Cor.
10:13. "He makes a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it;"
Psal. 125:3. 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. 57:16.
REFLECTIONS
1. How unlike am I to God, in the afflicting of his, 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 severity: God smites them in love; I have smitten them in hatred. Ah! what have I done? God hath' used me as his hand, Psal. 17:14. or as his rod to afflict them, Jer. 10:7. but his end and mine have widely differed in that action, Isa. 10:7. 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 floor of afflictions; what then shall I think of my condition, who prosper and am let alone in
the way of sin? Surely the Lord looks on me as on a weed, and not as his corn; 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," Hos. 4:17. but miserable 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, Heb. 12:7. 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 nearest the husbandman loves his corn, 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 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. 1:6. 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: meanwhile I am under my own father's hand: smite me he may, but hate me he cannot.
THE POEM THE 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 will 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
Whom 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.
God hath a rate-book by him wherein he
Keeps just accounts how rich his people be; What faith, experience, patience, more or less
Each one possesseth, and doth them assess According 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 circumstance
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; for she deserves 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;