THE PROEM
In every thing your gain shall more than double, And all this had with far less toil and trouble.
Methinks I hear thee say, This cannot be, I'll ne'er believe it. Well, read on and see.
Reader, hadst thou but senses exercis'd To judge aright; were spiritual things but priz'd
At their just value, thou would'st quickly say, 'Tis so indeed; thou wouldst not go thy way
Like one that's disappointed, and so fling The book aside. I thought 'twas some such thing
Time was when country Christians did afford More hours and pains about God's holy word:
Witness the man who did most gladly pay For some few leaves his whole cart-load of hay.
And time shall be, when heavenly truth that warms The heart, shall be preferr'd before your farms,
When holiness, as sacred scripture tells, Shall be engraven on the horses bells.
Lord, hasten on those much desired times, And, to that purpose, bless those rural rhymes.
THE PROEM
1 COR. 3:9. Ye are God's Husbandry THE scope and design of the following chapters, being the spiritual improvement of husbandry, it will be necessary, by way of proem, to acquaint the reader with the foundation, and general rules of this art
in the scriptures, thereby to procure greater respect unto, and prevent prejudices against composures of this kind.
To this end, I shall entertain the reader a little while upon what this scripture affords, which will give a fair introduction to the following discourse.
The apostle's scope in the context being to check and repress the vain glory and emulation of the Corinthians, who, instead of thankfulness for, and an humble and diligent improvement of the excellent blessings of the ministry, turned all into vain ostentation and emulation, one preferring Paul, and another Apollos; in the mean time depriving themselves of the choice blessings they might have received from them both.
To cure this growing mischief in the churches, he checks their vanity, and discovers the evil of such practices by several arguments, amongst which this is one, Ye are God's Husbandry, q.d.
What are ye, but a field or plot of ground, to be manured and cultivated for God? And what are Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, but so many workmen and labourers, employed by God, the great
Husbandman, to plant and water you all?
If, then, you shall glory in some, and despise others, you take the ready way to deprive yourselves of the benefits and mercies you might receive from the joint ministry of them all. God hath used me to plant you, and Apollos to water you; you are obliged to bless him for the ministry of both, and it will be your sin if you despise cither. If the workmen be discouraged in their labours, it is the field that loses
and suffers by it; so the words are a similitude, serving to illustrate the relation, 1. Which the churches have to God.
2. Which God's ministers have to the churches.
1. The relation betwixt God and them is like that of an husbandman to his ground or tillage. The Greek word signifies God's* arable, or that plot of ground which God manures by the ministry of pastors and teachers.
2. It serves to illustrate the relation that the ministers of Christ sustain to the churches, which is like that of the husbandman's servants to him and his fields; which excellent notion carries in it the perpetual necessity of a gospel ministry. (For what fruit can be expected, where there are none to till the ground?) As also the diligence, accountableness, and rewards which these labourers are to give to, and receive from God, the great Husbandman. All runs into this, That the life and employment of an husbandman, excellently shadows forth the relation betwixt God and his church, and the relative duties betwixt its ministers and members.
Or more briefly thus:
The church is God's husbandry, about which his ministers are employed.
I shall not here observe my usual method, (intending no more but a preface to the following discourse) but only open the particulars wherein the resemblance consists; and then draw some Corollaries
from the whole. The first I shall dispatch in these twenty particulars following:
Propositions 1. Prop. The husbandman purchases his fields, and gives a valuable consideration for them, Jer. 32:9, 10.
Reddit. So hath God purchased his church with a full valuable price, even the precious blood of his own Son, Acts 20:28. "Feed the church of God which he hath purchased, or acquired with his own blood." O dear-bought inheritance! how much doth this bespeak its worth! Or rather, the high esteem God hath of it, to pay down blood, and such blood for it; never was any inheritance bought at such a rate: every particular elect person, and none but such are comprehended in this purchase; the rest still remain in the devil's right. Sin made a forfeiture of all to justice, upon which Satan entered, and took possession, and, as the strong man armed, still keeps it in them,
Luke 11:21. but upon payment of this sum to justice, the elect (who only are intended in this purchase) pass over into God's right and property, and now are neither Satan's, Acts 26:18. nor their own, 1
Cor. 6:19. but the Lord's peculiar, 1 Pet. 2:6. And to shew how much they are his own, you have two possessives in one verse. Cant. 8:12.
"My vineyard, which is mine, is before me, mine, which is mine."
2. Prop. Husbandmen divide and separate their own lands from other men's, they have their land-marks and boundaries, by which property is preserved, Deut. 27:17. Prov. 22:28.
Reddit. So are the people of God wonderfully separated and distinguished from all the people of the earth. Psal. 4:3. "The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. And the Lord knoweth who are his," 2 Tim. 2:19. It is a special act of grace, to be inclosed by
God out of the waste howling wilderness of the world, Deut. 33:16.
This did God intentionally, in the decree before the world was; which decree is executed in their sanctification and adoption.
3. Prop. Corn-fields are carefully fenced by the husbandman with hedges and ditches, to preserve their fruits from beasts that would otherwise over-run and destroy them—Non minor est virtus quam quœrere parta tueri. It is as good husbandry to keep what we have, as to acquire more than we had.
Reddit. "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it," Isa. 5:1, 2. No inheritaace is better defended and secured, than the Lord's inheritance, Psal. 125:2. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people."
So careful is he for their safety, "that he createth upon every dwelling-place of mount Sion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence," Isa. 4:5. Not a particular saint, but is hedged about and inclosed in arms of power and love, Job 1:10.
"Thou hast made a hedge about him," The devil fain would, but by his own confession could not break over the hedge to touch Job, till
God's permission made a gap for him: yea, he not only made an hedge, but a wall about them, and that of fire, Zech. 2:5. Sets a guard of angels "to encamp round about them that fear him," Psal. 34:7.
And will not trust them with a single guard of angels neither, though their power be great, and love to the saints as great; but watches over them himself also, Isa. 27:2, 3. "Sing ye unto her, a vineyard of red wine, I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
4. Prop. Husbandmen carry out their compost, to fertilize their arable ground, they dung it, dress it, and keep it in heart; and in
these western parts are at great charges to bring lime, and saltwatersand to quicken their thin and cold soil.
Reddit. "Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well, if not, cut it down," Luke 13:8. O the rich dressing which God bestows upon his churches! they are costly fields indeed, dressed and fertilized, not only by precious ordinances and providences, but also by the sweat, yea, blood of the dispensers of them. "You Londoners (saith Mr. Lockier in Colos. p. 552.) are trees watered choicely indeed; it is storied of the palm-tree, that at its first transplanting into Italy, it was watered with wine. I cannot say
(saith he) that you have been so watered by me, I dare not; but this I can humbly and truly say, that if our choicest strength and spirits may be named instead of water, wine; or if the blessing which hath gone along with these waters, at any time, hath turned them into wine, in vigour upon your souls, then hath God by me, watered your roots with wine."
5. Prop. The husbandman builds his house, where he makes his purchase, dwells upon his land, and frequently visits it; he knows that such as dwell far from their lands, are not far from loss.
Reddit. So doth God; wherever he plants a church, there doth he fix his habitation, intending there to dwell, Psalm 46:5. "God is in the midst of her," she shall not be moved. Thus God came to dwell upon his own fee and inheritance, in Judea, Lev. 26:11, 12. "And I will set my tabernacle amongst you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." Which promise is again renewed to his churches of the New
Testament, 2 Cor. 6:16. And when the churches shall be in their greatest flourish and purity, then shall there be the fullest and most glorious manifestation of the divine presence among them, Rev. 21:3.
"And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and be their God." Hence the assemblies are called, the places of his feet—
And there they behold the beauty of the Lord," Psalm 27.
6. Prop. Husbandmen grudge not at the cost they are at for their tillage; but as they lay out vast sums upon it, so they do it cheerfully.
Reddit. "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard; what could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? And as he bestows upon his heritage the choicest mercies, so he doth it with the greatest cheerfulness; for he saith, Jer. 32:41. I will rejoice over them to do them good; and I will plant them in this land assuredly, with my whole heart and with my whole soul." It is not the giving out of mercy (saith one) that grieveth God, but the recoiling of his mercy back again upon him by the creature's ingratitude.
7. Prop. When husbandmen have been at cost and pains about their husbandry, they expect fruit from it, answerable to their pains and expences about it: "Behold (said James) the husbandman "waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth," Jam. 5:7.
Reddit. "And he looked that it should bring forth fruit," Isa. 5:2. This heavenly Husbandman waits for the fruits of his fields also; never did any husbandman long for the desired harvest, more than God doth for the fruits of holiness from his saints: Great are the expectations of God from his people: "And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it."
8. Prop. Husbandmen are much delighted, to see the success of their labours; it comforts them over all their hard pains, and many weary days to see a good increase.
Reddit. Much more is God delighted in beholding the flourishing graces of his people; it pleases him to see his plants laden with fruit, and his valleys sing with corn, Cant. 6:2. "My beloved is gone down to the garden, into his beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies." These beds of spices (say* expositors) are the particular churches, the companies of believers; he goes to feed in these gardens, like as men go to their gardens to make merry, or to gather fruit, Cant. 4:16. "He eats his pleasant fruit," viz. His people's holy performances, sweeter to him than any ambrosio; thus he feeds in the gardens, and he gathers lilies when he translates good souls into his kingdom above; "For the Lord taketh pleasure in his saints, and will beautify the meek with salvation."
9. Prop. The husbandman is exceedingly grieved when he sees the hopes of a good crop disappointed, and his fields prove barren, or blasted.
Reddit. So the Lord expresses his grief for, and anger against his people, when they bring forth no fruits, or wild fruits, worse than none, Hosea 9:16. "Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up." Christ was exceedingly displeased with the fig-tree, and cursed it for its barrenness; it grieves him to the heart when his servants return to him with such complaints as these, "We have laboured in vain, we have spent our strength for nought."
10. Prop. Husbandmen employ many labourers to work in their fields, there is need of many hands for such a multiplicity of business.
Reddit. God hath diversity of workmen also in the churches whom be sends forth to labour in his spiritual fields, Eph. 4:12. "He gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry," Amos 3:7. I have sent [my servants] the prophets. It is usual with the apostles to place this title of a servant among their honorary titles, though a profane mouth once called it, probrosum artificium, a sordid artifice. Christ hath stampt a great deal of dignity upon his ministers, in retaining them for the nearest service to himself, 1 Cor. 4:1. "Let a man so account of us, as the ministers of Christ;" they are workers together with God: The husbandman works in the field among his labourers, and the great God disdaineth not to work in, and with his poor servants, in the work of the ministry.
11. Prop. The work about which husbandmen employ their servants in the field, is toilsome and spending, you see they come home at night as weary as they can draw their legs after them.
Reddit. But God's workmen have a much harder task than they; hence are they set forth in scripture by the laborious ox, 1 Cor. 9:9.
Rev. 4:7. Some derive the word διακονος, deacon, from κονις, which signifies dust, to shew the laboriousness of their employment, labouring till even choaked with dust and sweat. It is said of Epaphroditus, Phil. 2:13. "That for the work of Christ he was sick, and nigh unto death; not regarding his life, to supply their lack of service." The apostle's expression, Col. 1. ult. is very emphatical,
"Whereunto I also labour, striving, according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." The word αγωνιζωμενος, signifies such spending labour as puts a man into an agony; and blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
12. Prop. The immediate end of the husbandman's labour, and his servants labour is for the improvement of his land, to make it more flourishing and fruitful.
Reddit. The scope and end of the ministry is for the church's benefit and advantage. They must not lord it over God's heritage, as if the
church were for them, and not they for the church; nor serve themselves of it, but be the church's servants for Jesus sake, 2 Cor.
4:6. The power they have received being for edification, and not for destruction, 2 Cor. 10:8. Christ hath given them to the churches; their gifts, their time, their strength, and all their ministerial talents, are not their own, but the church's stock and treasure.
13. Prop. The workmen that labour in the fields are accountable for their work to him that employed them.
Reddit. Church-officers are also accountable to God for all the souls committed to them. They are stewards of the mysteries of God, 1 Cor.
4:1. and stewards are accountable. "We watch for "your souls, (saith the apostle) as they that must give an account," Heb. 13:7. If these servants be unfaithful in their work and trust, the blood of souls shall be required at their hands, Ezek. 3:17, 18. which are fulmina, non verba, (saith Erasmus) thunderbolts rather than words. The guilt of blood is the greatest guilt; and of all blood, the blood of souls.
14. Prop. Those that spend their time and strength all their days, in manuring and plowing in the fields, do maintain themselves and their families by their labours; their hands are sufficient for themselves and theirs.
Reddit. "Even so hath God ordained, that they which preach the gospel, should live by the gospel," 1 Cor. 9:14. "The work man is worthy of his meat," Mat. 10:10. It is a sad thing, if those who break the bread of life to souls, should be suffered to want bread themselves. God would not have the mouth of an ox muzzled that treads out the corn, but have liberty to eat as well as work. Yet if any pretended to the ministry be like the heifer, that loves to tread out the corn, i.e. cares to do no work, but such as brings in present pay; he therein sufficiently discovers his beast-like disposition. Ministers
must be faithful in their Master's work, and if men do not, God will reward them. For "he is not unrighteous to forget their work, and labour of love," Heb. 6:10.
15. Prop. It is a great trouble to husbandmen in a busy time, to be put off from their labours by stormy weather, which drives them out of the fields, and makes them let all lie, till it clear up again; yet mean while, they are not idle, but employ themselves in homework.
Reddit. Even so in God's husbandry, it is an unspeakable affliction to God's workmen to be rendered useless and unserviceable to the churches, by those storms of trouble, which drive them from their public ministerial work. With what a heavy heart did Paul go off from his work at Ephesus, Acts 20. It spends a minister to preach, but more to be silent. It is a loud speaking judgment, when God shall say to them as to Ezekiel, "Son of man, I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, and thou shalt be dumb," Ezek. 3:26. Such silencing providences, speak thundering language to gracious hearts; yet, even then, the keepers of the vineyard have a private vineyard of their own to look after, they have much home-work, when no outwork.
16. Prop. There is a vast difference betwixt those fields which have been well husbanded and dressed by a skilful and diligent husbandman; and those that have been long out of husbandry. How fragrant is the one? How dry and barren the other? When you pass by a field well dressed and fenced, every thing prosperous, and in exquisite order, you may know, without farther enquiry, that a good husbandman lives there.
Reddit. Thus stands the case betwixt those places which God hath blessed with a faithful, painful ministry, and such as have none, or worse than none: for as the husbandman's cost and pains appear in
the verdant and fragrant hue of his fields; so a minister's pains and diligence are ordinarily seen in the heavenly lives, and flourishing graces of the people. The churches of Corinth and Thessalonica, where Paul and other holy instruments spent much of their time and pains, became famous and flourishing churches, 2 Cor. 9:2. A special blessing comes along with a godly minister, to the place where special providence assigns him. Such places, like Gideon's fleece, have the dew of heaven lying on them, whilst others round about dre dry and barren.
17. Prop. The husbandman is not discouraged, though the seed lie long under the clods; he knows it will spring up at the last, and reward him, or those that come after him, for their pains and patience in waiting for it.
Reddit. Ministers should not be presently discouraged in their work, because they see but little or no appearance of all the seed they have sown among the people. The "servant of the Lord must be patient towards all, waiting if at any time God will give them repentance," 2
Tim. 2:24, 25. And if it never spring up in his time, it may after his death; and if so, he shall not fail of his reward, John 4:36, 37. "And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together; and herein is that saying true, one soweth, and another reapeth." Though ministers die, yet their words live; yea, their words take hold of men when they are in the dust, Zech. 1:6.
18. Prop. Husbandmen find low grounds and vallies, most fertile; hills, how lofty soever they overtop the lower grounds, yet answer not the husbandman's pains as the vallies do: these are best watered and secured from the scorching heat of the sun.
Reddit. Experience shews us, that the humblest saints are most fruitful under the gospel; "These are they that receive with meekness the engrafted word," James 1:21. whose influences abide in them, as the rain doth in the low vallies. Happy is that minister, whose lot falls in such a pleasant valley. "Blessed are they that sow beside all such waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass," Isa.
32:20. among these vallies run the pleasant springs and purling brooks, which fertilize the neighbouring ground.
Heavenly ordinances there, leave fruitful influences.
19. Prop. The first crop is usually the best, and the longer the husbandman tills his ground, the less it produces; after a few years its vigour and strength is spent.
Reddit. The first entertainment of the gospel is commonly the best; and what good is done by the ministry is often done at its first entrance. New things are pretty, and very taking. "John at first was to the Jews a burning and shining light, and they were willing [for a season] to rejoice in his light," John 5:35. Paul was highly valued among the Galatians at first; such was their zeal, that they could have plucked out their eyes, and have given them to him! but how quickly did this full tide ebb again? For he complains, Gal. 4:15. "Where then is the blessedness ye spake of?"
20. Prop. Lastly, When fields prove barren, and will not quit the husbandman's cost, nor answer the seed he sows in them, he plucks up the hedges, and lays it waste.
Reddit. So when churches grow formal and fruitless, the Lord removes his gospel-presence from them, plucks up the hedge of his protection from about them, and lays them open as waste ground to be over-run by their enemies. Jer. 7:12. "Go to Shiloh, and see what I did unto it." What is become of those once famous and flourishing
churches of Asia? Are they not laid waste, and trodden down by infidels? And now go to, saith the great Husbandman, "I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will pull up the hedge thereof, and it shall be laid waste," Isa. 5:5.
Thus you see the allegory opened in its particulars: from the whole, I shall present you with these five ensuing corollaries.
Corollaries The first Corollary How great then are the dignities and privileges of the churches of Jesus Christ whom he hath appropriated to himself, above all the people of the earth, to be his peculiar inheritance? The rest of the world is a waste wilderness; all other places, how pleasant soever, in respect of their natural amenity and delights, are truly enough called the dark places of the earth; dismal, solitary cells, where Ziim and Iim, Bitterns, Cormorants, and every doleful creature dwells. But the church is the paradise of the earth, a garden inclosed, Cant. 4:12. in whose hedges the gospel birds chirp and sing melodiously, Cant.
2:12. Its beds are beds of spices, Cant. 6:2. and betwixt its pleasant banks, a crystal river of living water runs, Rev. 22:1. the streams whereof make glad the city of God, in the midst whereof the Lord himself delights to walk. O Zion, with what pleasures doth thou abound? If Bernard was so ravished with the delights of his monastry, because of its green banks, and shady bowers, and herbs, and trees, and various objects to feed his eyes, and fragrant smells, and sweet and various tunes of birds, together with the opportunities of devout contemplation, that he cried out admiringly, Lord! what delight dost thou provide, even for the poor! How much more should we be ravished with Zion's glory? For, beautiful for situation is
mount Zion. Of whom it may much more truly be said, what a* chronicler of our own once said of England, That it is the fortunate island, the paradise of pleasure, the garden of God, whose vallies are like Eden, whose hills are as Lebanon, whose springs are as Pisgah, whose rivers are as Jordan, whose wall is the ocean, and whose defence is the Lord Jehovah. Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee? Who can count the privileges wherewith Christ hath invested his churches? O let it never seem a light thing in our eyes, that we grow within his blessed inclosure. How sweet a promise is that, Exod. 19:5. "Ye shall be to me a peculiar treasure, above all people; for all the earth is mine."
The second Corollary Hence it follows, That spiritual barrenness is a great reproach and shame to Christians. Shall God's husbandry, which is planted, watered, fenced, filled with favours and mercies, be like the barren heath in the desart? Surely it should be said of every soul that grows here, as the historian saith of Spain, that there is nihil infructuosum, nihil sterile; nothing barren or unfruitful in it. God's vineyard is planted in a very fruitful hill. Isa. 5:1. "And surely they that are planted in the house of the Lord, should flourish in the courts of our
God; they should bring forth fruit, even in old age, to shew that God is upright," Psal. 92:13, 14. "They are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained they should walk in," Eph.
2:10. "They are married unto Christ, that they might bring forth fruit to God," Rom. 7:4. An empty branch is a dishonour to the root that bears it, a barren field to the husbandman that owns it; God cannot endure that in his fields which he suffers in the wilderness.
The third Corollary
If the church be God's husbandry, then there is such a special, gracious presence of the Lord in his churches, as is not to be found in all the world beside. Where may you expect to find the husbandman but in his own fields? There lies his business, and there he delights to be. And where may we expect to find God but in the assemblies of his saints? "He walks among the golden candlesticks," Rev. 2:1. I will walk among you, (saith he) and be your God, 2 Cor. 6:16. Upon this account the church is called Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there,
Ezek. 48. ult. You may see the footsteps of God in the creatures, but the face of God is only to be seen in his ordinances. Hence, Psal.
27:4. "David longed for the temple, that he might see the beauty of the Lord. Now what is beauty, but a symmetry and proportion of parts? In the works of creation you see one attribute manifested in one thing, and another in another thing; but in the sanctuary you may see beauty, even in all the attributes of God displayed there:
And, indeed, we find in scripture such astonishing expressions about the visions of God in his church, that in reading them, a man can see little difference betwixt it and heaven; for as the church is called heaven, Mat. 25:1. so its description is like that of heaven. Heb.
12:22, 23. "You are come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels," &c And Rev. 22:4. "They shall see his face, and his name shall be written in their foreheads." And ver.
6. The saints are represented "standing nearer to the throne of God than the angels themselves." Hence also ordinances are called galleries, in which both saints and angels walk, beholding the glory of him that sits upon the throne. Zech. 3:7. "If you will keep my ways, I will give you galleries to walk in among them that stand by."
The fourth Corollary If the church be God's husbandry, then those that be employed in ministerial work ought to be men of great judgment and experience
in soul affairs; for these are the labourers whom God, the mystical Husbandman employs and entrusts about his spiritual husbandry.
Should husbandman employ ignoraut persons, that neither understand the rules nor proper seasons of husbandry; how much would such workmen damnify and prejudice him? He will not employ such to weed his fields, as know not wheat from tares; or to prune his trees, that think midsummer as fit for that work as December: much less will God. He qualifies all that he sends with wisdom for their work. "His workmen approve themselves workmen indeed, such as need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth," 2 Tim. 2:15. As Bezaleel was furnished with wisdom before he was employed in tabernacle-work; so Christ instructs his servants with skill and insight, before they are employed in ministerial work.
He gives them a mouth and wisdom, Luke 21:15 endues them with power from on high; as Christ was filled abundantly with the Spirit for his work, so, according to proportion, are those that are sent by him. John 20:21, 22. "As my Father hath sent me, so send I you."
And as for those that run before they are sent, and understand not the mysteries of the gospel; I shall say no more of them but this;
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
The fifth Corollary To conclude, If the church be God's husbandry, that is, if husbandry have so many resemblances of God's works about the church in it; then how inexcusable is the ignorance of husbandmen in the things of God, who, besides the word of the gospel, have the teaching of the creatures; and can hardly turn their hands to any part of their work, but the Spirit hints one spiritual use or other from it to their souls?
How do the scriptures abound with parables and lively similitudes taken from husbandry? From the fields, the seed, the plow, the barn, from threshing and winnowing; similitudes also from planting,