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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 to the nature of the grain.

Application.-God, having to do with different sorts of offenders, does not use the same severity with them all, but proportions his corrections to their abilities and strength. "I will not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished," Jer. xxx. 11. Afflicted thou must be; my regard for my own glory and thy good, renders it necessary; but yet I will do it moderately. I will not lay on without measure or mercy, as I intend to do upon thy enemies. Thy God, O Israel, will not afflict thee according to the greatness of his power, and his wrath answerable thereunto; that would break thee to pieces; Psal. lxxviii. 38. Nor yet will he afflict thee according to the demerit of thy sin; Ezra ix. 13. Neither my power nor thy desert shall be the rule of my proceedings; but I will afflict thee with moderation and mercy, as thou art able to bear.

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. "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin.' He aims not at the destruction of their persons, but of their lusts.

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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 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. xli. 15.

3. When the husks and chaff are perfectly separated

from the grain, then the husbandman beats it no more. When God has 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 beat them with his flail on earth, will put them into his bosom in heaven.

4. Though the husbandman beats his corn as if he were angry with it, yet he loves and highly prizes it; and though God strikes and afflicts 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 according to them 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," Psal. ciii. 13. "He makes a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it," 1 Cor. x. 13. This care and tenderness over his afflicted, is eminently discovered in three particulars-in not exposing them to trials, until he has prepared them for them. Tarry ye at Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high," Luke xxiv. 49. 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.-Or if not so, he intermixes supporting comfort with their troubles; as you sometimes see the sun shine out while the rain falls. It was so with Paul; "This night there stood by me the angel of the Lord, whose I am," Acts xxvii. 23.—And he takes off the affliction when they can bear it no longer. Reflections. A reflection for persecutors. How un

like 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. O what have I done? If he shall have judgment without mercy, that showed no mercy, how can I expect mercy from the Lord, whose people I have persecuted mercilessly for his sake?

A reflection for such as meet with no affliction. 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 says, "Let them alone;" 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. O 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!

A reflection for an afflicted saint. Well then, despond not, O my soul. Thou hearest the husbandman loves his corn, though he threshes it; and surely the Lord loves thee not the less, because he afflicts thee so much. If affliction be the way to heaven, blessed be God for affliction! The threshing-strokes of God have come thick upon me; and by them 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 have needed; 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 suffer

ing together: meanwhile I am under my own Father's hand. Smite me he may, but hate me he cannot.

CHAPTER XX.

On the Winnowing of Corn.

Observation.-WHEN the corn is threshed out on 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 to the wind; the good, by reason of its solidity, remains upon the sheet, but the chaff, being light and empty, is separated from the good grain into a distinct heap.

Application. Men have their winnowing-days, and God has his; a day to separate the chaff from the wheat, the godly from the ungodly. Such a day God has in this world. There is a double fanning or winnowing of men here; one is doctrinally," His fan is in his hand; and he shall thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." The preaching of the gospel is as a fan in Christ's hand; and it is as much as if John had thus told the Jews, that though there were many hypocrites among them, who had now a name and place among the people of God, and gloried in their church privileges, yet there was a purging blast of truth coming, which should make them fly out of the church, as chaff out of the floor. The other winnowing is judiciously, by bringing sore and grievous trials and sufferings upon the churches for this very end, that those who are but chaff, empty and vain professors, may by such winds be separated from his people. And yet, notwithstanding all these winnowings upon earth, much chaff will still abide among the corn; therefore God has appointed another day for the winnowing of the world, even the day of judgment; in reference to which it is said in Psalm i. 4; "The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away; Div. No. XVI.

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therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." I will not strain the similitude, but display it in these particulars

1. The chaff and wheat grow together in the same field, and upon the same root and stalk. In this wicked men are like chaff, who not only associate with the people of God, but oftentimes spring up with them in the same family, and from the same root or immediate parents. "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" Yet the one was wheat, the other chaff.

2. The husbandman would not suffer the husks, chaff, and dry stalks, to remain in the field, if it were not for the good corn's sake. He would quickly set fire to it, were it not that the corn is among it. And be assured, God would never suffer the wicked to abide long in this world, were it not for his own elect that are dispersed among them. Except the Lord had such a remnant dispersed in the world, he would quickly set fire to the four quarters of it, and make it like Sodom.

3. Though chaff in itself be nothing worth, yet it is of some use to the corn while it is standing in the field; the stalk bears up the ear, and the chaff covers the grain, and defends it from the injury of the weather. Thus God makes wicked men of use to his people in outward society; they help to support and protect them. "The earth helped the woman;" worldly men for carnal ends helped the church, when a flood of persecution was poured out; Rev. xii. 16. The church often helps the world; it receives many benefits from the people of God; and sometimes God over-rules the world to help his church.

4. If there be any chaff among the corn, it will appear when it is sifted in a windy day; it cannot possibly es, cape if it be well winnowed. Much more impossible is it for any wicked man to escape the search of God in that day. The closet hypocrite shall then be detected, for God will judge the secrets of men. "He will then bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts," 1 Cor. iv. 5.

5. After corn and chaff are separated by the winnowing wind, they shall never lie together in one heap any more. The wicked shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and

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