SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY

What are ye, but a field or plot of ground to be fertilized 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 Paul to plant you, Apollos to water you; and you are obliged to bless Him for the ministry of both, and it will be your sin if you despise either. If the workmen be discouraged in their labours it is the field that loses and suffers by it; so that the words are a similitude serving to illustrate the relation which the churches have to God, and which God’s ministers have to the churches.

The relation between God and them is like that of a husbandman to his ground or tillage. The Greek word signifies “God’s arable,” or that plot of ground which God fertilizes by the ministry of pastors and teachers. The relation that the ministers of Christ sustain to the churches 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 can be expected where there are none to till the ground? It also includes the diligence, accountability, and rewards which these labourers are to give to and receive from God, the great Husbandman.

I shall open the particulars wherein the resemblance consists in these following particulars: —

The husbandman purchases his fields and gives a valuable and considerable price for them. So hath God purchased His church with a full valuable price, even the precious blood of His own Son: “Feed the church of God which He hath purchased (or acquired) with His own blood” (Acts xx. 28). O dear-bought inheritance! How much does this bespeak its worth! Or rather, the high esteem God has of it, to pay down blood, and such blood, for it. Never was an 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 a strong man armed still keeps it in them. But upon payment of this sum to justice, the elect pass over into God’s right and property, and now are neither Satan’s nor their own, but the Lord’s peculiar people. And to show how much they are His own you have two possessives in one verse: “My vineyard, which is Mine, is before Me” (Song viii. 12).

Husbandmen divide and separate their own land from other men’s. They have their landmarks and boundaries by which propriety is preserved. So are the people of God wonderfully separated and distinguished from all the people of the earth: “The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself’ (Psa. iv. 3), and “The Lord knoweth them that are His” (II Tim. ii. 19). It is a special act of grace to be enclosed by God out of the waste howling wilderness of the world. This God did intentionally in the decree before the world was, which decree is executed in their sanctification and adoption.

Cornfields are carefully fenced by the husbandman with hedges and ditches to preserve their fruits from beasts that would otherwise overrun and destroy them. “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: “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people” (Psa. cxxv. 2). So careful is He for their safety that “He creates upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies, a cloud of 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 enclosed in arms of power and love: “Hast not Thou made a hedge about him” (Job i. 10). 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 a hedge, but a wall about them, and that of fire (Zech. ii. 5), and sets a guard of angels “to encamp round about them that fear Him” (Psa. xxxiv. 7). And He will not trust them with a single guard of angels either, though their power be great, and love to the saints as great; but He watches over them also: “Sing ye unto her, a vineyard of red wine, I the Lord do keep it; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day” (Isa. xxvii. 2, 3).

Husbandmen carry out their compost to fertilize their arable ground; they dung it, dress it, and keep it in heart. “Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well; but if not, cut it down” (Luke xiii. 8). O the rich dressing which God bestows upon his churches! They are costly fields indeed, dressed but also by the sweat, yea the blood, of the dispensers of them.…

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. So doth God. Wherever He plants a church, there He fixes His habitation, intending there to dwell: “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved” (Psa. xlvi. 5). Thus God came to dwell upon His own inheritance in Judea: “And I will set My tabernacle among you and will be your God, and ye shall be My people” (Lev. xxvi. 11, 12). Which promise is again renewed to His churches of the New Testament (II 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 amongst them: “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” (Rev. xxi. 3). Hence the assemblies are called the “place of His feet”, and there they behold the beauty of the Lord.

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. “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judea, judge, I pray you, between Me and My vineyard; what could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it?” (Isa. v. 3, 4). And as He bestows upon His heritage the choicest mercies, so He does it with the greatest cheerfulness; for He saith; “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” (Jer. xxxii. 41). It is not the giving out of mercy that grieves God, but the recoiling of His mercies back again upon Him by the creature’s ingratitude.

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”, says James, “the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth.” This heavenly husbandman waits for the fruits of His fields also: “And He looked that it should bring forth grapes” (Isa. v. 2). Never did any husbandman long for the desired harvest more than God does 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.”

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. 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. “My Beloved is gone down into His garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies” (Song vi. 2). These beds of spices are the particular churches, the companies of believers. He goes to feed in these gardens, as men go to their gardens to make merry or to gather fruit. He eats His pleasant fruit, His people’s holy performances, sweeter to Him than any ambrosia. 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.”

The husbandman is exceedingly grieved when he sees the hopes of a good crop disappointed, and his fields prove barren or blasted. So the Lord expresses His grief for, and anger against His people when they bring forth no fruits, or wild fruits worse than none. 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.”

Husbandmen employ many labourers to work in their fields. There is need of many hands for such a multiplicity of business. God has diversity of workmen also in the churches, whom He sends forth to labour in His spiritual fields: “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” (Eph. iv. 11, 12). “I have sent My servants, the prophets” (Jer. vii. 25). It is usual with the apostles to place this title of servant among their honorary titles. Christ has stamped a great deal of dignity upon His ministers in retaining them for the nearest service to Himself: “Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ” (I Cor. iv. 1). They are workers together with God. The husbandman works in the field among his labourers, and the great God disdains not to work in and with His poor servants in the work of the ministry.

The work about which husbandmen employ their servants in the field is toilsome. You see them come home at night as weary as they can draw their legs after them. But God’s workmen have a much harder task than they. Hence are they set forth in Scripture by the laborious ox (I Cor. ix. 9; Rev. iv. 7). It is said of Epaphroditus 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 is very emphatic: “Whereunto I also labour, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.” The word signifies such labour as puts a man into an agony; and blessed is that servant whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing.

The immediate end of the husbandman’s labour, and his servant’s labour, is for the improvement of his land, to make it more flourishing and fruitful. 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; not serve themselves of it, but be the church’s servants for Jesus’ sake, the power they have received being for edification and not for destruction. Christ has given them to the churches, and their gifts, their time, their strength, and all their ministerial talents are not their own, but the church’s stock and treasure.

The workmen that labour in the fields are accountable to God for all the souls committed to them. They are stewards of the mysteries of God, and stewards are accountable. “They watch for your souls as they that must give account” (Heb. xiii. 17). If these servants be unfaithful in their work and trust, the blood of souls shall be required at their hands (Ezek. iii. 17, 18). The guilt of blood is the greatest guilt; and of all blood, the blood of souls.

Those that spend their time and strength all their days in manuring and ploughing the fields maintain themselves and their families by their labours; their hands are sufficient for themselves and theirs. Even so has God ordained that they which “preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (I Cor. ix. 14). “The workman is worthy of his meat” (Matt. x. 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 the ox muzzled that treads out the corn, but have liberty to eat as well as work. Yet if any pretender to the ministry be like the heifer that loves to tread out the corn, that is, 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.

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 meanwhile they are not idle, but employ themselves in homework. 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 xx). 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. iii. 26). Such silencing providences speak in thundering language to gracious hearts; yet even then the keepers of the vineyards have a private vineyard of their own to look after. They have much homework when no out-work.

There is a vast difference between 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, everything prosperous and in excellent order, you may know without further enquiry that a good husbandman lives there. Thus stands the case between those places which God has 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 is ordinarily seen in the heavenly lives and flourishing graces of the people. The Churches of Corinth and Thessalonia, where Paul and other holy instruments spent much of their time and pains, became famous and flourishing churches (II Cor. ix. 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 are dry and barren.

The husbandman is not discouraged though the seed lie long under the clods. He knows it will spring up at last and reward him, or those that come after him, for their pains and patience in waiting for it. 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 toward all, waiting if at any time God will give them repentance (II Tim. ii. 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 iv. 36, 37): “And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together; and herein is that saying true, One soweth and another reap eth.” Though ministers die, yet their words live; yea, their words take hold of men when they are in the dust (Zech. i.6).

Husbandmen find low grounds and valleys most fertile. Hills, how loftily soever they overtop the lower grounds, yet answer not the husbandman’s pains as the valleys do. These are the best watered and secured from the scorching heat of the sun. Experience shows us that the humblest saints are most fruitful under the gospel. “These are they that receive with meekness the ingrafted word” (James i. 21), whose influences abide in them, as the rain does in the low valleys. 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 foot of the ox and the ass” (Isa. xxxii. 20). Among these valleys run the pleasant springs and purling brooks which fertilize the neighbouring ground. Heavenly ordinances there leave fruitful influences.

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. 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 v. 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: “Where then is the blessedness ye spake of?” (Gal. iv. 15).

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 them waste. So when churches grow formal and fruitless, the Lord removes His gospel presence from them, plucks up the hedge of His protection from round about them, and lays them open as waste ground to be overrun by their enemies: “Go to Shiloh, and see what I did unto it” (Jer. vii. 12). 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,” says the great Husbandman, “I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard; I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up” (Isa. v. 5).

(From Flavel’s Husbandry Spirtualized.)

A VOICE FROM 1778

Do not give up or slight any of the glorious doctrines of the gospel; they are all excellent, and worthy of your highest regard. It is with real concern we perceive that real religion is so much on the decline; and therefore, we beg you would take care, that you do not rest in mere notions. Notional religion may carry a person far in a Christian profession, but experimental knowledge of Christ can only bring us to heaven. We know it will be in vain to plead “we have eaten and drunk in Thy presence,” and altogether as vain will be to plead, “we have assented to the doctrines of the gospel,” unless we feel their sanctifying influence on our hearts.

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