Some there are whom God loves not fo well as to spend a rod upon them, but faith, "Let them alone," Hof. iv. 17. but miferable 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 fparing severity! Better is the condition of an afflicted child, than of a rejected baftard, Heb. xii. 7. Oh, let me rather feel thý 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 faint.

3. Well then, defpond not, O my foul! Thou heareft the husbandman loves his corn, though he threfheth it; and furely, the Lord loves thee not the lefs, because he afflicts thee fo much. If affliction then be the way to heaven, bleffed be God for affliction! The threshing-frokes of God have come thick upon me; by which I may fee what a tough and stubborn heart I have: if one ftroke would have done the work, he would not have lifted up his hand the fecond 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 fins: bleffed be God for that! the damned have infinitely more and harder ftrokes than I, and yet their fin fhall never be feparated by their fufferings. Ah fin! curfed fin! 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 fuffer for thy sake; but the time is coming when I fhall be rid of fin and fuffering together meanwhile I am under my own father's hand : fmite me he may, but hate me he cannot.

THE

THE POEM.

HE facred records tell us, heretofore
God had an altar on a threshing-floor,
Where threshing inftruments devoted were
To facred fervice; fo 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 foul-inftructing engine in his hand.
With fewer ftrokes, and lighter will you beat
The oats and barley than the ftubborn 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 ableft shoulders doth impofe
The heaviest burthens, and the lefs on thofe
Of weaker grace: he fhews 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 poffefleth, and doth them affefs
According to their ftock. Such as have not
A martyr's faith, fhall have no martyr's lot.
The kinds, degrees, and the continuance
Of all their. fuff'rings to a circumftance
Prefcribed are by him who wifely fways

The world, and more than's right on no man lays.
Be man or devil the apothecary,

God's the Phyfician: who can then mifcarry
In fuch a hand? He never did or will
Suffer the least addition to his bill.

Nor measure, nor yet mercy he obferves
In threshing Babylon; for the deferves

His heavieft ftrokes; and in his floor fhe must
Be beaten shortly with his flail to duft.
But Sion's God, in meafure, will debate ;
His children he may fmite, but cannot hate;
He beats them, true, to make their chaff to fly,
That they, like purged golden grains, may lie
In one fair heap, with thofe blefs'd fouls that here
Once in like manner thresh'd and winnow'd were.

WT

HEN the corn is threshed out in the floor where it lies mingled with empty ears, and worthlefs chaff, the hufbandman carries it out altogether into fome open place; where, having spread his fheet for the prefervation of the grain, he expofcs it all to the wind; the good, by reafon of its folidity, remains upon the sheet, but the chaff, being light and empty, is partly carried quite away by the wind, and all the reft feparated from the good grain into a diftinct heap, which is carried away either to the fire, or dung-hill, as a worthlefs thing.

M

APPLICATION.

EN have their winnowing-days, and God hath his; a day to separate the chaff from the wheat, the godly from the un

godly, who fhall be held up to the wind; but only the wicked fhall be driven away by it. Such a day God hath in this world, wherein he winnows his wheat, and separates the chaff. There is a double fanning or winnowing of men here in this world; one is doctrinally, in which fenfe I understand that fcripture, Matth. iii. 12. fpoken of Christ, when he was entering upon his minifterial work: "His fan ❝is in his hand; and he fhall thoroughly purge his floor, and gather "his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with un"quenchable fire." The preaching of the gospel is as a fan in Chrift's hand and it is as much as if John had thus told the Jews, that though there were many hypocritical ones among them, that had now a name and place among the people of God, and gloried in their church-privileges; yet there is a purging blaft of truth coming, which fhall make them fly out of the church, as chaff out of the floor. Thus Chrift winnows or fans the world doctrinally : The other is judiciously, by bringing fore and grievous trials and fufferings upon the churches for this very end, that those which are but chaff, i. e. empty and vain profeffors, may by fuch winds as these be separated from his people.

"

The church increases two ways, and by two diverse means; extenfively, in breadth and numbers; and intenfively, in vigour and power; peace and profperity cause the first, sufferings and adverfity the laft: And well may a day of perfecution be called a winnowing-day, for then are the people of God toffed to purpose, as corn in the fieve, though nothing but chaff be loft thereby. Of fuch a winnowing-day the prophet fpeaks, Amos ix. 9, 10. "I will fift the houfe of Ifrael among all nations, like as corn is fifted in a fieve, yet fhall not the "leaft grain fall upon the earth; all the finners of my people fhall "die." q. d. I will caufe great agitations and toffings among you by "the hands of the Affyrians and Babylonians, into whofe countries you fhall be dispersed and scattered; yet I will fo govern those your difperfions by my providence, that not one good grain, one upright foul, fhall eternally perifh, but the finners of my people, the refuse ftuff, that fhall perish.

To the fame purpose speaks another prophet, Zeph. ii. 1, 2. “ Ga"ther yourselves together, (or as fome read) fan yourfelves, yea, fan "yourfelves, before the decree bring forth, and the day pass as the "chaff." He doth not mean that the time fhall país as the chaff, but there is the day of affliction and diftrefs coming, in which the wicked fhall pafs as the chaff before the wind; and yet, notwithstanding all these winnowings upon earth, much chaff will still abide among the corn; therefore God hath appointed another day for the winnowing of the world, even the day of judgment; in reference to which it is faid, Pfalm i. 4, 5. "The ungodly are not fo, but are "like the chaff which the wind drives away; therefore the ungod"ly fhall not ftand in judgment, nor finners in the congregation of "the righteous;" i. e. God hath a day wherein he will fift the

world like corn in a fieve, and then the wicked fhall appear to be but chaff, which God will eternally feparate from his wheat. I will not ftrain the fimilitude, but fairly difplay it in these feven parti

culars.

1. The chaff and wheat grow together in the fame field, and upon the fame root and stalk. In this, wicked men are like chaff, who not only affociate with the people of God, but oftentimes fpring up with them in the fame family, and from the fame rcot, or immediate parents, Mal. i. 2. "Was not Efau Jacob's brother?" Yet the one was wheat, the other chaff. Inftances of this are infinite.

2. The husbandman would never endure the husks, chaff, and dry stalks to remain in the field; if it were not for the good corn's fake, he would quickly fet fire to it, but that the corn is among it, which he highly prizeth: And, be affured, God would never fuffer the wicked to abide long in this world, were it not for his own elect that are difperfed among them: Except the Lord had fuch a remnant difperfed in the world, he would quickly fet fire to the four quarters of it, and make it like Sodom, Ifa. i. 9.

3. The chaff is a very worthless thing, the husbandman cares not what become of it; and of as little worth are wicked men, Prov. x. 20. "The heart of the wicked is little worth." The heart is the principal part of the man, and yet that is but chaff, no worth in it; his hands, his clothes, &c. are worth fomewhat, but his heart is worth nothing.

4. Though chaff in itself be nothing worth, yet it is of fome ufe to the corn while it is standing in the field; the ftalk bears up the car, 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 fociety; they help to fupport and protect them in this world, Rev. xii. 16. "The earth helped the woman," i. e. worldly men for carnal ends helped the church, when a flood of perfecution was poured out. The church often helps the world, it receives many benefits from the people of God; and fometimes God over-rules the world to help his church.

5. When the chaff and wheat are both brought forth and held up to the wind in one fieve, they fall two ways; the wheat falls down upon the floor or sheet, the chaff is carried quite away: So that although for a time godly and ungodly abide together, yet when this winnowing-time comes, God's wheat fhall be gathered into his garner in heaven, the chaff fhall go the other way, Matth; iii. 12.

6. If there be any chaff among the corn, it will appear when it is fifted in a windy day; it cannot poffibly efcape if it be well winnowed; much more impoffible it is for any wicked man to escape the critical fearch of God in that day; the clofet hypocrite fhall then be detected, for God will judge the fecrets of men, 2 Cor. xvi. "He will "then bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make mani"feft the counfels of the heart," 1 Cor. iv. 5.

7. Laftly, After corn and chaff are feparated by the winnowing wind, they fhall never lie together in one heap any more: The wicked shall fee Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but themselves thruft out: There is no chaff in heaven.

REFLECTIONS.

A reflection for a clofe hypocrite.

A reflection for one that neglects felf-examination.

1. Am I an empty vain profeffor, that wants the pith and substance of real godlinefs? Then am I but chaff in God's account, though I grow among his corn; the eye of man cannot difcern my hypocrify; but when he comes, whofe fan is in his hand, then how plainly will it be detected? Angels and men fhall difcern it, and fay, "Lo, this is the man that made not God his hope;" How fhall I abide the day of his coming? Chrift is the great heart-anatomift: Things fhall not be carried then by names and parties, as they are now; every one shall be weighed in a juft balance, and a Mene Tekel written upon every falfe heart: Great will be the perfpicuity of that trial: My own conscience shall join with my judge, and fhall then acknowledge, that there is not one drop of injuftice in all that fea of wrath; and though I am damned, yet I am not wronged. The chaff cannot ftand before the wind, nor I before the judgment of Christ. 2. Is there fuch a fanning-time coming? Why do not I then fift my heart every day by ferious felf-examination? No work more important to me, and yet how much have I neglected it? O my foul! thou hadft been better employed in fearching thine own estate in reference to that day, than in prying finfully into the hearts, and cenfuring the conditions of other men: Judge thyfelf, and thou shalt not be condemned with the world; the work indeed is difficult, but the neglect dangerous: Were I within a few days to stand at man's bar, there to be tried for my life, how bufy should I be every hour of the day in writing to any that I thought could befriend me, and studying every advantage to myfelf? And yet what a vaft difference is there betwixt man's bar and God's? Betwixt a trial for my life, and for my foul? Lord, rouze up my fluggifh heart by awful and folicitous thoughts of that day, left I be found amongft that chaff which fhall be burnt up with unquenchable fire. 5. Fear not, O my foul! though there be a blaft coming which thall drive all the chaff into hell, yet it shall blow thee no harm. "I know "that when he hath tried me, I fhall come forth "as gold," Job xxiii. 10. I confefs I have too much chaff about me, but yet I am not altogether chaff; there is a folid work of grace upon my foul that will abide the trial: Let the judgment to come be as impartial and exact as it is poffible to be, yet a grain of fincerity VOL. V.

T

A reflection for a fincere foul.