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 Greck word signifies God's* arable, or that plot of ground which God manures by the ministry of pastors or teachers.

2. It serves to illustrate the relation that the ministers of Christ sustain to the churches, which is like that of the husband'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 laborers 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 than 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 divide into the twenty following particulars.

*The faithful, or believers, are called God's husbandry, (georgeon) because God cultivates them as land by means of spiritual teachers, or pastors. Rav.

1. Prop. The husbandman purchases his fields, and gives a valuable consideration for them. Jer. xxxii. 9, 10. Reddit. So hath God purchased his church with a full valuable price. Ye are not your own, said the apostle, ye are bought with a price. Feed the church of God which he hath purchased or acquired with his own blood. O dear bought inheritance! How much does this bespeak its worth, or rather the high esteem in which it is held by God. Never was an inheritance bought at such a rate. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. In him we, the church, have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. As without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, so without a special application of the merits of Christ's blood, there is no salvation for any of the fallen race. Reader, think not that thou art purchased to Christ, if thou art not pardoned by him; and be assured that if he does not pardon thee, he will certainly condemn thee.

2. Prop. Husbandmen divide and separate their own lands from other men's. They have their land-marks property is preserved, Deut.

and boundaries, by which xxvii. 17. Prov. xxii. 28.

Reddit. So are the people of God wonderfully separated and distinguished from the people of the world. The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. And, the Lord knoweth them that are his. They were set apart from incorrigible sinners, in the mind of God, before the foundation of the world. They are separated from all impenitent sinners by a special act of regenerating grace. They will also, soon be separated from this world of sin, of sinners, and of sorrow, and be united with holy

beings in heaven, never to be separated. Lift up thy head, O christian reader, and rejoice, in hope of that blessed and long wished for day, when thou wilt receive the end of thy faith, even the salvation of thy soul.

3. Prop. Corn-fields are carefully fenced by the husbandman with hedges and ditches, to preserve their fruits from beasts that would otherwise overrun and destroy them-Non minor est virtus quam quærere 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. v. 1, 2. No inheritance is better defended and secured, than the Lord's inheritance, Psal. cxxv. 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 Zion, 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. iv. 5. Not a particular saint, but is hedged about and inclosed in arms of power and love. Job i. 10. Thou hast made a hedge about him. The Devil fain would, but by his own confession could not, break over that hedge to touch Job, till God's permission made a gap for him; yea, he not only makes an hedge, but a wall about them, and that of fire. Zech. ii. 5. Sets a guard of angels to encamp round about them that fear him. Psal. xxxiv. 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. xxvii. 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 take much pains, and are sometimes at great expense, to enrich their arable ground, that it may be in a situation to bring forth plentifully.

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 xiii. 8. O the rich dressing which God bestows upon his churches! they are costly fields indeed, drest 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 bath gone along with these waters, at any time, hath turned them into wine, in vigor 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 xlvi. 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. xxvi. 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. vi. 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. xxi. 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. Psal. xxvii.

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. xxii. 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 expenses about it: "Behold," saith James, "the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth." James v. 7.

Reddit. "And he looked that it should bring forth fruit." Isa. v. 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 he might receive the fruits of it."