By JOHN FLAVEL.
Corn fully ripe is reaped, and gathered in;
So must yourselves, when ripe in grace or sin.
WHEN the fields are white to harvest, then husband-men walk through them, rub the ears, and, finding the grain full and solid, they presently prepare their scythes and sickles, send for their harvest-men, who quickly reap and mow them down; and after these follow the binders, who stitch it up; from the field where it grew it’s carried to the barn, where it is thrashed out; the good grain gathered into an heap, the chaff separated and burnt, or thrown to the dunghill. How bare and naked do the fields look after harvest, which before were pleasant to behold! When the harvest-men enter into the field, it is before them, like the garden of Eden, and behind them, a desolate wilderness; and in some places it’s usual to set a fire to the dry stubble, when the corn is housed; which rages furiously, and covers it all with ashes.
The application of this, I find made to my hands by Christ Himself: “The field is the world, the seed are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the wicked one, the enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, the reapers are the angels.”
The field is the world; there both the godly and ungodly live and grow together, till they be all ripe, and then they shall both be reaped down by death; death is the sickle that reaps down both. I will open this allegory in the following particulars:
1. In a catching harvest, when the husbandman sees the clouds begin to gather and grow black, he hurries in his corn with all possible haste, and houses day and night.
So doth God, the great Husbandman; He hurries the saints into their graves, when judgments are coming upon the world. “The righteous perish, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come” (Isa. 57:11The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. (Isaiah 57:1)). Methuselah died the year before the flood, Augustine a little before the sacking of Hippo, Pareus just before the taking of Heidelberg, Luther a little before the wars broke out in Germany. But what speak I of single saints? Sometimes the Lord houses great numbers together, before some sweeping judgment comes. How many bright and glorious stars did set almost together, within the compass of a few years, to the astonishment of many wise and tender hearts in England I find some of them thus ranked in a funeral elegy:
The learned Twisse went first (it was his right),
The Holy Palmer, Burroughs, Love, Gouge, White,
Hill, Whitaker, great Gataker, and Strong,
Perne, Marshal, Robinson, all gone along.
I have not named them half; their only strife
Hath been, of late, who should first part with life.
These few who yet survive, sick of this age,
Long to have done their parts, and leave the stage.
The Lord sees it better for them to be under ground than above ground, and therefore, by a merciful providence, sets them out of harm’s way.
Neither the corn or tares can possibly resist the sharp and keen sickle, when it is applied to them by the reaper’s hand; neither can the godly nor ungodly resist the stroke of death when God inflicts it. “No man can keep alive his own soul in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that war.” The frail body of man is as unable to withstand that stroke, as the weak reeds, or feeble stalks of the corn, are to resist the keen scythe and sharp sickle.
The reapers receive the wheat which they cut down into their arms and bosom. Hence that expression by way of imprecation upon the wicked, “Let them be as the grass upon the house-top, which withers before it grows up, wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves, his bosom” (Psalm 129:6, 76Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up: 7Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. (Psalm 129:6‑7)). Such withered grass are the wicked, who are never taken into the reaper’s bosom, but as soon as saints are cut down by death, they fall into the hands and bosoms of the angels of God, who bear them in their arms and bosoms to God their Father (Luke 16:2222And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; (Luke 16:22)). For look, as their blessed spirits did exceedingly rejoice at their conversion (Luke 15:1010Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Luke 15:10)), and thought it no dishonor to minister to them whilst they stood in the field (Heb. 1:1414Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Hebrews 1:14)), so when they are cut down by death, they will rejoice to be their convoy to heaven.
4. When the corn and weeds are reaped or mowed down, they shall never grow any more in that field; neither shall we ever return to live an animal life any more after death. “As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more; he shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more” (Job 7:9, 109As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. 10He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more. (Job 7:9‑10)).
Lastly, the reapers are never sent to cut down the harvest till it be fully ripe; neither will God reap down saints, or sinners, till they be come to a maturity of grace or wickedness. Saints are not reaped down till their grace be ripe. “Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, as a shock of corn cometh in its season” (Job 5:2626Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. (Job 5:26)).
The wicked also have their ripening time, for hell and judgment; God doth with much long-suffering endure the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Of their ripeness for judgment the Scripture often speaks. “The sin of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen. 15:26). And of Babylon it’s said, “O thou that dwellest upon many waters, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness” (Jer. 51:1313O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. (Jeremiah 51:13)).
‘Tis worth remarking, that the measure of the sin and the end of the sinner come together. So Joel 3:1313Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. (Joel 3:13), “Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest of the earth is ripe, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great.” Where note, sinners are not cut down till they be ripe and ready. Indeed, they are never ripe for death, nor ready for the grave; that is, fit to die yet they are always ripe for wrath, and ready for hell before they die.