Husbandry spiritualized, or, The heavenly use of earthly things consisting of many pleasant observations, pertinent applications, and serious reflections and each chapter concluded with a divine and suitable poem : directing husband-men to the most excellent improvements of their common imployments : whereunto is added ... several choice occasional meditations / by John Flavell.

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 correction to their abilities and strength, Ier. 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 re∣spect to my own glory and thy good, puts a necessity up∣on that; but yet I will do it moderately, I will not lay on without measure or mercy, as I intend to do upon the ene∣mies; but will mete out your sufferings in a due proportion, even as a careful Physician in prescribing pills or potions to his Patients, hath regard as well to the ability of the Pa∣tient as to the nature and quality of the disease; even so thy God, O Israel, will not afflict thee according to the great∣ness 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 proceed∣ings; but I will do it with moderation and mercy, as thou art able to bear. I that have instructed the Husbandman to proportion his instruments to the quality of the grain before him, will exercise the like wisdom and mildness towards the

thee, and the similitude betwixt the Husbandmans thresh∣ing his corn, and the Lords afflicting his people, stands in these particulars.

The Husbandmans end in threshing the corn, is to separate [ 1] 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 end of those corrections are, the next words inform us; By this therefore shall the iniquity of Iacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. God uses afflictions, as we use sope, to cleanse away filthiness, and fetch out spots, Dan. 11. 35. he aimes not at the destruction of their persons, but of their lusts.

If the Husbandman have cockle, darnel, or pernicious [ 2] tares before him in the floor among his corn, he little regards whether it be bruised and battered to pieces by the threshold or no; 'tis 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 to Babylon is like a threshing floor; 'tis time to thresh her, Ier. 51. 33. And when that time is come, then (in allusion to the beast, that was to tread out the corn) Sion's horn shall be of iron, and her hoofs brass, Mich. 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 d••ad∣ly strokes. They shewed no mercy to Sien, and God will shew no mercy to them.

When the husks and chaff are perfectly separated from [ 3] the grain, then the Husbandman beats it no more. When God hath perfectly purged and separated the sins of his peo∣ple, 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.

Though the Husbandman layes on, and beates his corn, as [ 4]

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 Husbandmans 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 if he can help it; though some re∣quire more and harder strokes that others, yet none shall have more than it can endure. And though the Lord afflict his servants, yet he will do them no hurt, Ier. 25. 6. Some need more rods that 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 tryals be, Psal. 103. 13, 14. Like as a father pities his chil∣dren, 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 of God over ••is afflicted, is eminently discovered in three particulars.

(1) In not exposing them to, till he have prepared them for their tryals, Luke 24. 49. Tarry ye at Ierusalem 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. 'Twas so with Paul, Act. 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. 'Tis a Iewish Proverb, When the bricks are doubled, then comes Moses, And it is a Christian experience, When the spirit is

ready to fail, then comes Iesus; according to that promise Isa. 57. 16.