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The great blessing of peace, which the Lord hath promised to his people even in this life, (for where the Lord gives mercy to any, he gives them peace also, peace and grace are inseparably joined together), their peace, I say, does not consist in this, that the people of God shall have no enemies: no, for there is a immortal and endless enmity against them. Neither does their peace consist in this, that their enemies shall not assault them: neither does it consist in this, that their enemies shall not molest and afflict them. We do but deceive ourselves if so be that we imagine, so long as we are in this our pilgrimage, and in our warfare here, if we promise to ourselves a peace of this kind; for while we live in this world, we shall still have enemies, and these enemies shall assault us, and persecute and afflict us. But this is the peace of the children of God, that although their enemies molest, persecute, and afflict them, they shall not harm them; at the least they shall not harm them but the godly in Christ shall be victorious, and shall be more than conquerors; and they shall get the blessings of God heaped upon them. But, for the wicked, all the threatenings which God has threatened in his word shall fall upon them, because they are enemies of God and his people. And as it is, Deuteronomy 29, (which ye heard lately exponed to you), all the curses of God shall rest upon the enemies of his people, as that being their proper element; for it is there that all the judgments of God takes them rest. They find no rest whill (till) they come there, and when they come there they remove not: even as all the blessings of God are prepared for his people, and find there proper element to rest there.
This that I am speaking to you now, it is the comfortable doctrine of this psalm. The kirk, under the name of Israel, is brought in here expressing her afflictions, and says that they are many, they are grievous, and they are old afflictions; yet this is her comfort in the midst of all these afflictions, when the enemies has beset her round about, “yet they have not prevailed.” And no thanks to Israel or to the kirk for this, but the praise thereof belongs only to God; for “God has cut asunder the cords of the wicked,” that is, all their enterprises, their plots, their machinations. And this was not done because of the kirk’s deservings, but because “God is righteous and just,” and because the enemies deserved it, that it should be done to them. And as the Lord has done this in times past, so they pray that he would do it for time to come to all them who hate Sion,— “that they may be ashamed and confounded.” And he assures himself that though they were going fordward in an ill course with never so great speed, yet God shall interrupt their course; “he will bring them back.” And albeit they prosper for a while in the beginning, as grass will do which is growing on a house-top, yet when harvest comes, there shall be nothing there to fill the mower’s hand. And, moreover, these who knows God, and knows what his blessing means, when they come to them, and sees them at their work, they shall not pray to God for them to send them good speed; nor is there any word of blessing in their own mouths; but their labour is accursed of God, and all who comes by them prays for a curse to them.
That ye may take up this purpose the better, and that it may be the more profitable to you, ye shall consider of it in these parts. 1. In whose name it is that this psalm is conceived; “Israel may now say.” 2. There is Israel’s description of his afflictions and his troubles; “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. The plewers have plewed upon my back: they made long their furrows.” 3. There is Israel’s deliverance out of these troubles. These plewers shall not prevail in their intended purpose, because “The Lord is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked:” or he has cutted asunder the somes1 wherewith they were drawing the pleugh of their cruelty. And why? because God is just and righteous. 4. There is the vengeance and judgment that is prepared for the enemies of Israel at all times. Albeit they prosper for a while, as the grass doeth upon the house-tops, yet they shall be ashamed and turned back, who hate Zion; they shall reap no increase of their labours; neither shall any who comes by them, and sees them working, say, “The blessing of the Lord be upon your work,”—God send it a good success, and you a blessing unto it.
Beloved, these are four points which are very necessary for you to consider on, and very behooveful for you to think upon; for it is not enough for you, or for me, or for any particular person, or such a number of persons, to think upon God’s great works, but Israel should do it: the whole kirk should say with one voice together. Secondly, Neither should we forget our former afflictions, suppone we have gotten a little ease. As for us, indeed, we are not yet fully freed of our afflictions, and so sense should make us to remember our afflictions. And may not the kirk of Scotland say indeed, “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth?” and the kirk of Scotland may say, “The plewers have plewed upon my back: they have made long their furrows.” Thirdly, we should ascribe this glory to God, that he has interrupted the course, and say that it is God who has cutted their cords, and disappointed all their plots which they had laid, and that because he is righteous and just to execute wrath against his enemies, and [because of] his truth and power to perform his promise, and deliver his children. Fourthly, If so be that we be not haters, but lovers of Sion, then we may be assured that our enemies shall be ashamed and turned back; and we may be sure that God shall not bless them who are enemies to Zion: neither is there any who comes by them, and sees them ut their work, or who hears what they are working, who will pray for a blessing to them, if they know God. And for this same matter, which is presently in hand among us, many among us prays for a blessing to it; and through other nations, they pray for a blessing to the kirk of Scotland, and to the good cause they have in hand:2 but we never heard of any yet, who prayed for a blessing to these, who were bringing in a strange worship into this land; yea, I think there be none who dare pray for it to God.
I. “Israel may now say.” This is the first part of the psalm; and ye see here, the psalm is conceived in the name of Israel. “Israel may now say:” That is, king and princes, and all the people of God has now reason to say. It is not enough for some persons to say it: that is not the meaning here, for Israel is not taken here for Jacob as he was a man only, but it is taken for the whole kirk of God. It’s true indeed, in time of defection, when the whole people will not choose to serve the Lord, then it is best for every particular person to say for himself, and them whom he may command, If so be that ye will not serve the Lord, this shall be my resolution, I and my house, we shall serve the Lord. At such times, I say, it is best to take to Joshua’s part of it: “If ye will serve the Lord, or if ye will serve other gods, do what ye will, I and all that I may command shall serve the Lord.” We cannot bring all to God, but when there is a division into the land, then let each one say for himself, and each one who knows the Lord promise to serve him. But at such a time, when the enemies of the kirk has assaulted her, and assayed to overcome her, and yet has not prevailed, all should join together and say, It is the Lord who has done these great things for us, and say, The afflictions, wherewith our enemies afflicted us, were great and many, and yet, for all that, they have not prevailed. There be two reasons for people to join together. First, When many joins together for a good work, then there is the greater honour to God. It is true, I grant, if there were none but thou alone for a good turn in a whole paroch, that is honour to God; but when multitudes flock together, then the promise is the greater. There be two times that people should flock together. 1. They should flock together when they apprehend a judgment is coming, to the end that they may all humble themselves, and pray to God to avert that judgment off them, and to turn it upon a people who knows not God. 2. They should flock together when God gives any hope of a deliverance to his people, and bless him for that. Even as they report of the storks in other countries,3 and as some birds do among ourselves, before the winter come they flock together, and flies to some safer part, that so they may eschew the storm, and hides themselves in the holes of the rocks; and then in the spring time again, before the summer come, they all flock together to come home again. So when the Lord is frowning and glooming, and we see like to be a stormy winter coming, then we should flock together as the Israel of God, and flee in to him, and beseech him to keep us from it. Again, when the Lord gives us any spring time, and we see it likely that there is a good summer coming, and that not only of nature, but of grace, then why should we not flock together, and acknowledge that it is the Lord who has sent it, and praise him for the doing thereof? And so we should not interrupt the Lord, by our sinning against him, and not acknowledging of his goodness: but we should further him to go on, by our praising of his name for that which he has done. Secondly. When many joins together in a good work, it is a great good to Israel, and to the saints and kirk of God, for this is the way how to find and to observe the loving-kindness of the Lord; according to that, Psalm 107:43, “Whoso will observe these things shall see the loving-kindness of the Lord.” So these who will observe the afflictions of God’s people, how he has afflicted them, and suffered the enemies to molest them, and yet, for all that, has preserved his people, and granted them victory, and has destroyed the enemies; whoso will observe these things, shall see the loving-kindness of the Lord towards his people, and still praise God for it; and then shall see his kindness towards himself. And as it is, Psalm 78:6-7, they who knows the works of the Lord, they shall report it to their children, and to their children’s children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of his hands. And, indeed, there is a work already done into this land, albeit the Lord should stay it and not let it go any farder on, that is well worthy to be remembered for ever. And, indeed, it shall not be forgotten, so long as this land is possessed by any, and while the world stands.4 So ye see it is Israel who is describing her affliction here. “Many a time.”
II. “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. The plewers, etc.” If we will look narrowly to the words in Israel’s describing of her afflictions, we will find three things presented to us—1. How old these afflictions are; “From my youth.” Ay, from my infancy, birth, and conception. 2. There is the frequency and iteration of these afflictions. They were oft and many: “Many a time.” 3. There is the grievousness of these afflictions, expressed by a comparison. “The plewers plewed upon my back: they. made long their furrows.” So these were old afllictions—from her youth. Then they were oft—many a time. More times than can be numbered; more nor seven times, aye, more nor seventy times seven, for the word imports often. And then they were grievous, even like iron pleughs, drawing deep and long furrows on their back. The first testifies the innocency of the kirk at this time, for if ever the kirk . had innocency, it behoved to be in her youth, and therefore it testifies the enemies' injuriousness and cruelty. The second, many a time, is a document (proof) of the constancy of the kirk. She is afflicted again and again, and yet, for all these afflictions, she ceased not to serve God continually. And it i1s also an argument of the malicious pertinacy of the enemies, who never ceased to afflict the kirk. The third is an evidence of the patience of the kirk, who endured all that, and of the cruelty of the enemies, who could find in their heart to do so to her.
First, “From my youth.” He speaks here of the kirk as of one particular man; he brings in Israel as speaking of his own life in particular. And, indeed, there be two men in the Scripture, one in the New Testament, another in the Old, who does very well express the estate of the kirk in their life. In the New Testament there is Jesus Christ; he is the head of the kirk; he was a man of many sorrows from his cradle to his burial. His life was full of sorrows; he was hardly used all his time, and at his end was mocked, buffeted, scourged, etc. There was never any who might more justly say, no, never any who might so justly say, “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth.” I will not enter here to speak of the sufferings of Christ: they began soon, they were many, and they were great; and so he was a vive (lively) representation of the kirk. There is also another in the Old Testament, and this is he who is named here Israel, and he is also called Jacob. These two names are ordinary to him in Scripture, and both of them are put for the expressing of the estate of the kirk. When they speak of the affliction of the kirk, and of her humiliation, then it is expressed under the name of Jacob; but when the Scripture speaks of the victories of the kirk, then it is expressed under the name of Israel, who was a prince with God, who wrestled with God and prevailed, and so gat a blessing. I say, he who is here called Israel (and that very deservedly, because now through the power of God the kirk prevailed over all her enemies), in his life he represents well to us the estate of the kirk, for there is a difference betiveen his life and any other whom we read of in Scripture; for others did not spend their whole life in afflictions, but his life was nothing but a web of afflictions, so to speak. For he began timeously; even when he was in his mother’s womb, he wrestled there for the birthright. Then what afflictions followed there, when he had gotten the birthright by (over) his brother! Then he is constrained to endure servitude for a long time from Laban, whom justly I may call another churlish Nabal, (for, changing the letters, it is so). And when any man might have thought that his troubles were at an end, then they began to grow greater and - more grievous by his children. Simeon and Levi became murtherers; he had but one daughter, and she was ravished; and the greatest of all was Reuben’s incest; then Joseph was sold; and, which was as great an affliction as any of them, even the miscarrying of Judah, in whom the birthright was now established. So that he could look upon none of his children, at least upon few of them, but they were an affliction to him. And so he was different in his afflictions from others, for some will get a foul bitter shower in the morning, but will get all the rest of the day fair; some will get a foul shower at the noontide of the day, and yet have it fair both morning and evening, as Job had; and some will have it fair all day, and get a sicker5 shower at night, as Peter, “When thou was young, thou girded thyself, and went whither thou wouldst, but when thou art old, another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not.”6 But Israel in his whole life was afflicted, as I told you Christ was, from his birth to his burial; and so in this he does vively (in a lively manner) represent the estate of the kirk. Howsoever he who was first Jacob prevailed with God, and so was called Israel; so shall the kirk also be victorious over all her enemies.
I would have you to consider in this, that the kirk was afflicted from her youth. If ye would consider of the different times of the upcoming (progress) of the kirk, it may be considered in these particulars. 1. In her infancy. 2. In her youth. 3. In her perfection. 4. In her old age. First, for the infancy of the kirk, we may go farder than that time they were in Egypt, or to Abraham: we may ascend to that promise, “The seed of the woman shall tread down the head of the serpent.” From that time to the flood, in Noah’s time, was the infancy of the kirk. Secondly, The bairnage or youth of the kirk was from the flood till Christ’s coming in the flesh. For a long time it was contained only in some families, and the most that it came to was in a (one) nation. Thirdly, In the days of the apostles, and when the Holy Ghost descended, then was the strength and vigour of the kirk. Fourthly, After the apostles' times then came the old age of the kirk, when Antichrist began to be set up in his chair, and was fully set up at last, so that the kirk was almost lost, and she had one foot in the grave; till it pleased the Lord to renew her age, as he doeth the eagle’s, by casting her bill, as it is Psalm 103:57. And, indeed, that we have seen some returning of the age of the kirk, so that it was never better since the beginning, we have great reason to bless God for this. Justin divides the ages of Rome thus, and it is the right division of the ages of the kirk. All the time till the coming of Christ may be rightly called the infancy and youth of the kirk. Because, first, the lines of the kirk were not far extended then; at the most it was but in one nation. Secondly, it was her youth in respect of her knowledge, for then she did see things but darkly, in type and shadows. Thirdly, in respect of God’s dealing with the kirk, who taught her then as a child, in signs, in figures, and in sacrifices, etc. And then, in the apostles' days, it may be called the perfection of the kirk, by the same reasons. For then her lines were farder extended; then there was further knowledge of things; and then in respect of the manner how she was taught.
This is not an idle discourse we are occasioned to you by the word youth. For, first, it meets with an unsavoury and tasteless discourse of our adversars, who say, when they are speaking of the ages of the kirk, that in the apostles' times, then the kirk was at her bairnage; but they say that n the time of the ancient and godly Fathers, then was the perfection of the kirk:8 which was the time when Antichrist began to be set up, and the apostles told that Antichrist was already begun before they died. Howbeit, indeed, I think many of these fathers did that which they did ignorantly, for I think, if they had known what it would turn to, they would have been loath to have done as they did. And therefore let us hold this to be true, that the greatest perfection that ever the kirk was at, or will be at, was in the time of the apostles; but the youth and infancy thereof was before Christ. And when the Holy Ghost descended, that is the only pattern of reformation that must ever be looked to: and when it shall please the Lord to call in the Jews again, who has been so long strangers to himself and to his Son Christ, the reformation of the kirk shall be as it was then. And then after the apostles were gone, then presently the glory of the kirk began to decay; for the glory of the kirk is not to be discerned and looked to, as many judge, by her outward face, but by her inward grace. And as Egesippus told that, albeit there were many ills entered into the kirk then, yet even by these ten bloody persecutions there were many hid graces kept by them undefiled in the kirk; for if there had not been persecution, all had followed their course, and so had been corrupted and defiled.
Another use that we may make of this—If that was the youth of the kirk, and Israel was troubled in his youth, then we need not to think it strange, that the kirk in our days should be put to suffer. Shall a child suffer for the truth, and shall not we who are come to perfect age (at least should be so) not suffer for it? It is a shame for us, let be (not to say) a sin, if we resolve not before hand to do it, and when it comes, to do it indeed.
Secondly. As the afflictions of the kirk began early, so they continued long, and there was a iteration of them; “Many a time.” And in such sort they continued, that the course of the kirk was nothing else but a continual change, blenks up (gleams of sunshine) and incontinent down again; even as it is in the course of nature, betwixt summer and winter, a fair blenk and a shower, the night and the day, so was it with the kirk. Albeit she was not afflicted at all times, yet she was afllicted many times. Sometimes she would have a long foul winter and but short summer, a long dark night and but a short day, a long sicker shower and but a short blenk of the sun: sometimes again a long summer, and a fair long day, and a long clear sunshine, and but little winter, a short night, and a little shower. This may seem strange and wonderful, that the Lord should thus exercise his kirk with repeated and reiterated afflictions, so that there should be no end of her afflictions;—she may well get some little refreshment, but it is only a breathing time. What can be the cause of this? Shall we say that because it is thus, therefore God has not a providence over his kirk in her afflictions? For some say, If God had a providence over his kirk in her afflictions, would he thus exercise them so hardly who are in covenant with him, and whom he professes to love so dearly, even as the apple of his eye? A. Ay certainly, (to beat this back upon themselves who say so), since some has observed the course of time to be so, and acknowledge that the kirk of God is often under affliction, then I say that even because of that, God must have a special care and providence over his kirk. And indeed that is a very wise providence of God in afflicting his kirk thus.
Only consider three causes of it. 1. The Lord, his course of dealing with men is thus: There is no man, but when he comes into the world, the Lord ordains some ill and some good things for him: and therefore he has so disposed that his children shall suffer all their ill in this life; they shall suffer none in the life to come, but they shall have only good: and for the wicked, he has ordained that they shall get all their good in this life, but no good in the life to come, but only ill. This is that which Abraham is brought in speaking to that rich man, Luke 16:25. When he was only desiring that Lazarus might give him one drop but of cold water, to cool the neb (point) of his tongue, Abraham answers, “Son, remember that thou in thy life receivedst thy good things, but Lazarus his evil things;” and therefore, as he would say, Resolve upon this, and set your mind to rest; for ye must be tormented, but he must be comforted. As if he said, Ye need to speak no more of that matter; there is nothing ordained for you now but torment, for ye have gotten all the good that ever ye will get, or that God has ordained for you: but for Lazarus, it’s true God ordained many ills for him, but he has gotten them all already; and now there remains no more ill for him, but only good. And so ye see that the kirk of God and these who belong to it get all their ill things here, and therefore they get only good things when they are out of this life; but for the wicked, all the good things that ever they will get is gotten here, and therefore when this life is gone, there remains nothing but sorrow and grief for them. And this same has made some of the children of God, when God has heaped favours and benefits upon them in this life, to fear that they were not in the right way, and to be so much the more diligent to see if they were in the right way, and to take the better heed unto themselves, and to work out the work of their salvation with fear and trembling.
2. A second reason wherefore the Lord afflicts his kirk so oft here, it is because it does much good to the kirk. Indeed, it is not possible for any to tell what sweetness there is into that bitterness, what meat there is into that devourer; for when affliction comes upon the kirk, it makes many to know God, who knew little of him before; it makes many to seek the Lord, who would not have sought him, if affliction had not come to force them to it. It makes them to humble themselves, and to repent of sin, who, if affliction had not come, would never have tried and examined their own hearts: it makes them obedient to the will of God in everything, who knew little what obedience did mean before. It brings out of the estate of nature, and enters them into the estate of grace; and having gotten some grace, it makes them to long for more grace: and being afflicted in the estate of grace, it makes them to long for glory. And so the Lord helps fordward his own, and does them much good by afflictions and crosses.
3. It serves greatly also for the glory of God. For before we be in trouble we know not what it is to pray to God as we will do then; we do not give thanks to God, and bless him so heartily for any benefit as we will do then. We know not God so well at no time as we do in trouble: before, we only hear of his manner of dealing with his children, but then we do both hear and also perceive his manner of working.
And may I not say that the troubles of the kirk of Scotland has done us much good, and driven us to God more earnestly? for would we have been about this this day, if so be we had not been in trouble? No certainly, for long or now we had been drunken with ease; but trouble coming upon us has made us to draw our clothes to us, and gird them fast on, and make us for a journey, and for our Christian warfare. And therefore make this use of it, that ye should not imagine that ever the kirk, so long as she is here, shall be free of afflictions. I suppose, (and it should be our wish and desire that it should be so,) that all things were done in the house of God in this land according to his will, and there were such an Assembly and Parliament as our hearts could wish,9 think ye that there would be no more trouble then? No, I will assure you it would not be so, for the devil is not dead yet, and he has evermore his own supposts, and malignant spirits enough to raise up to trouble his kirk. And what would it breed if it were thus? Nothing else but security, which is a very dangerous case for a Christian to be in; and then, after a while’s security, there would arise another new trouble again. And therefore think not that ye shall have a heavenly peace so long as ye are here; but ye must put on the whole armour of God, and resolve to fight; for if there be no other thing to trouble thee, yet, in the time of the external peace of the kirk, thou shall find afflictions in thy own bosom to trouble thee, and to hold thee doing; and thou will find these also sore to fight against, yea, sorer and harder than any without thee. For thus the Lord deals with his kirk. Even as when there is a pestilence into a country, there will not be many other common diseases to trouble folks, but when it is away, then there will be more common diseases; so while the kirk is in trouble, the members thereof will not have many horrours of conscience, nor many grieved hearts; but when the outward trouble is away, then their own secret ills kythes more. And therefore it is evermore best and safest for us to resolve for trouble so long as we are here.
Thirdly. Now for the grievousness of their affliction, it is set down in a borrowed comparison taken from plewmen. “The plewers have plewed upon my back; they made long their furrows.” This is such a pleugh as we have not heard tell of before. There is a common pleugh, wherewith ye labour your land; all of you knows that: and there is also another pleugh spoken of by our Saviour, Luke 9:62. “He that puts his hand to the pleugh, and looks back again, is not meet for the kingdom of God.” This is the pleugh of the gospel: whether he be pastor or professor that once puts his hand to this pleugh, he must not look back again. But here there is a third pleugh, which is ordained for troubling of God’s people. The great husbandman who aught (owns) this pleugh, (at least by whose permission this pleugh goes,) is God. Not only is it God who makes your common pleughs to gang, and sends the gospel into a land, but it is God also who disposes and overrules this same pleugh of persecution. For without his license the pleugh cannot be yoked; and being yoked cannot enter to gang whill (till) he direct; and he tempers the irons, so that they cannot go one inch deeper nor he thinks meet. And when he thinks it time to louse (quit work), then presently he cuts their cords, so that they cannot go once about after he thinks time to louse. Albeit when they yoke, they resolve to have all the land upside down, yet he will let them teil (till) no more of it nor he sees meet. Now for the plewmen of this pleugh, they are Satan and the evil angels; they hold the pleugh, and are gademen to it: and they yoke in the oxen into the pleugh, and drives them up with their gades (goads.) And they have a sort of musick also, which they whistle into their ears, to make them go the faster: and that is the allurements and provocations of the world. And for the oxen who draw into this pleugh, it may be princes, when they turn persecutors of the kirk; it may be prelates; it may be politicians in the world; these are the oxen, Satan and the ill spirits inciting them, and stirring them up to go fordward in their intended course. Then consider here, that this pleugh and these plewmen and oxen goes about as God thinks meet; but what is it that they are doing in the meantime? Nothing else but preparing the ground for seed, and so the Lord employs them to prepare his people better to receive the seed of his word and of his Spirit. And this is the fruits that comes after this pleugh; as our Lord says in the gaspel, “He that forsakes father or mother, etc., for my name’s sake, shall have a hundreth-fold more in this life, and afterward life eternal.” That is, when this pleugh of persecution makes a man willing to forsake these things, it is a making him ready to reap a plentiful harvest and comfortable here, and much more plentiful and comfortable hereafter.
By this ye may perceive the Lord’s manner of dealing with his kirk. First he yokes the pleugh of the gospel in her; and when it is not holden going, then he yokes the pleugh of persecution next, and makes that to draw furrows on their back;—not on their breast where all their noble parts are, and so to destroy them, but on their back, and so to prepare them for seed only. As it is said of Christ and the serpent, the serpent shall but bruise Christ’s heel, but Christ shall break his head, so it is the back of the kirk that is plewed. Always (nevertheless) this plewing is because the gospel is neglected, and so ye may see that the best course that any can take to hold away the pleugh of persecution is to hold the pleugh of the gospel going, in hearing the word, in believing in it by faith, in bringing it to the heart to work repentance and a new life. If we would do this, it would hinder the yoking of the pleugh of persecution; or if it were yoked, yet it should not teil sore. But because we who are pastors and ministers has not done our duty in preaching of the gospel,10 nor ye who are people has not done your duty, whereunto ye were bound by the gospel, therefore it is that the Lord has yoked the pleugh of persecution among us; and if we make mnot better use of the gospel every way, the pleugh shall not be loused yet, but the Lord shall suffer the enemies to hold it going. And, indeed, there are none who are readier to be instruments to draw this pleugh, than these who has once put their hand to the pleugh of the gospel, and then looked back again.11
Ye may perceive here that these who are persecutors of the kirk have not great rest nor ease in the world: oxen who draws in a pleugh daily has not an easy life. It’s true the kirk suffers of them, but they are exercised also. And therefore afterwards he gives them a name answerable to this—he calls them wicked.12 “He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked:” that is turbulent creatures, still troubling others and themselves. And Esay calls them like the sea, still casting up filth; and ye know the sea never rests. And this tells also what shall be the wages that they shall get. A word that is used of them, Psalm 109:7,13 signifies condemned persons, and so they shall reap condemnation for their pains; as Job says, “They sow wickedness, and they shall reap mischief.” But for the sufferings of the godly, they are not in vain, for at last they bring forth the quiet fruits of righteousness. All these furrows that are drawn upon their back is nothing else but a preparing of their heart for receiving the word of God, and making it that good ground spoken of in the gospel (where ye know there are three ill grounds and but one good); and this is a mean to make the ground good for receiving the seed of the word, that it may yield increase.
III. Only but a few words of Israel’s deliverance from their enemies. “Yet have they not prevailed against me.” And what was the cause that the enemies prevailed not? Was it because of Israel’s strength? No, but because “God cut asunder the cords of the wicked.” So that this pleugh has somes14 and thetes15 whereby it is drawn, which are the plots and enterprises of the devil and wicked men. And why was it that God cut asunder the enemies' cords? Not because Israel deserved it, but because the enemies deserved it, and “because the Lord is righteous.”
“Yet they prevailed not against me.” Israel prevailed with God in wrestling with him, and therefore it is that he prevails with men also. Then, if so be that we will wrestle with God for a blessing, and prevail with him, then we need not to fear but we shall wrestle the enemies out of it also. And if we be the people of God, and insist in wrestling against his enemies, we need not to fear but to be victorious. The kirk is a studdy (stithy) which has worn many hammers, and broken many arms, with striking upon her, and yet she is to the fore. Many kings and monarchs has striven against the kirk, and now there is no memory of them, but only that they have been; and yet, for all that, the kirk still is to the fore, for the kirk is builded upon the rock. There may indeed great storms blow upon her, but because she is well builded, and has a good foundation, and all the stones are well seamed together, therefore she must remain sure. The stones, indeed, among themselves may seem to be scattered asunder, yet all of them are joined together in Christ, for he is the head of his kirk, and all the rest are the members. And therefore as he has wrestled and overcome all his enemies, so shall we also, if we be in him. This is a kingdom whereof there are a number of the subjects thereof in heaven already, by their fighting and prevailing; and if so be that we will use that armour which they used, and will fight as they did, why then shall not we prevail also? and so we shall be partakers with them of that same crown of glory.
Now the cause why Israel prevailed, and not the enemies, was because “God cut asunder their cords.” Certainly the world, they have many cords wherewith to draw their pleugh; and when they have made a threefold cord for destruction of the kirk of God, the Lord makes that same cord to turn to their own execution. And sometimes the Lord breaks their cord in pieces, when it seems to be strongest; for when his providence comes in, he cuts their strong cord. And all this is ascribed to the justice and righteousness of God only.
And the rest of this purpose tells us, that as it has been with the kirk and the enemies thereof in former times, so shall it also be afterwards. Albeit they run fast in an ill course, and go far on into it, “yet they shall be confounded and turned back, who hate Sion.” And then he shews that he would not have the kirk to be offended, albeit their enemies prosper for a while, for it shall be but like grass upon the house-tops, or like deaf corn; it shall not fill the mower’s hand, nor shall it have any weight or substance with it. And so he would have the kirk to take comfort for time to come, by experience that she has had of deliverance in by-past time.
And, finally, he closes with this, that they who come by them, when they are at their work, shall not say, “God speed you well,” or “God bless you and your labours.” And surely, beloved, we may say this upon good grounds, and from experience, that in all the troubles of our kirk, when prelates and politicians were coming to a height, there was none who said, The Lord bless them, and send them good speed in their work.16 And when they were persecuting a poor minister for standing to the truth, there was none who prayed for good speed to them; but there were many who were deprecating it, and praying to God to turn the chase. No surely, I think themselves durst not pray to God to send them good speed in their course. And these who has been praying to God against it, let them take it for an answer to their prayers, that God has begun to turn back their course. But for the cause that we have in hand, it has filled the mouths of many, and that not only among ourselves, but even in other nations about us, to pray to God for good success to us.17 And indeed the kirk of Scotland may truly say, “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. The plewers have plewed upon my back: they made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous; he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.” Ay certainly, if the Lord had not cut asunder their cords, we had been in a desperate and a miserable case or this time. For the enemies of the kirk in this land, they were come to such a height that they resolved, If we get our pleugh but this once about, then we shall get our turn done, and this kirk shall be quite undone. Yet even when they were come to the rig’s end, and beginning to turn, and wynding about,18 the Lord did cut their cords, and made the pleugh to stand stil. Now let us not say, “Unto us, unto us belongs the glory of this;” for who of us dared say, that we deserved that the Lord should have done this to us? but let us say that the Lord is just and righteous in executing wrath against his enemies, and is true in performing his promises to his people; aud therefore let us say that it is he alone that has done it. Now to his great name, Father, etc.