Ten Sermons, Collection of sermons · Sermon 4
Parable of the growing Seed.
SERMON IV.
Mark iv.
26 So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day:
27 And the seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how.
28 For the earth brings forth fruit of her self. first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest is come.
THE first imployment of Man after his creation was to dress a Garden, Gen. 2.17.and to keep it: And his first trade after his fall was to till the ground from whence he had been taken. Gen. 3.13.No tilling at the first, dressing and keeping only a grown Garden: But after his sin he was put to labour and till the stubborn ground in the sweat of his brows.
Man himself is a piece of earth. Before his fall he was an Eden, a Garden of God; And God was the Gardener of Man, as Man was of the Garden. Man as then needed no tilling, a gentle dressing and keeping only of his fruit and pleasantness served the turn: But now by his sin his Eden is turned into a Wilderness; He is all over-grown with thorns, and needs much plowing and harrowing before he can bear any fruit.
Our Saviour Jesus came into the World for that end, to break up our fallow grounds, sow in us a good seed, and make us the field which the Lord hath blessed. To that purpose he brings forth the long Parable of the Sower, which fills the half of this Chapter. To the same purpose he brings this in again, wherein he sheweth by what ways and degrees that Seed is brought to perfection.
This Parable, as all comparisons, hath two parts, the subject, and that which it is compared unto: The subject is the Kingdom of God; The thing that it is compared unto is a tillage.
Concerning the Kingdom of God, I will say little more than will serve to understand in what sense it is taken here. The kingdom of God is taken many ways in Scripture: It is taken first and chiefly for God's dominion over all his creatures: And good reason he should rule over the works of his hand. It is David's reasoning, The Sea is his and he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land: O come let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. Of that Kingdom it is said, Psal. 29.10. that the Lord sitteth King for ever.
That general kingdom is not that of this Text: But in the midst of that great kingdom of Nature we must look for another, which is the marrow and the sap that maintaineth the great body of the general Kingdom of God; And that is the kingdom of grace, for whose sake the great Realm of Nature subsisteth. The Subjects and Citizens of that kingdom of Grace may say with David, The Earth and the Inhabitants thereof are dissolved, we bear up the Pillars of it. Not that they have any such inherent power, but because God in their behalf maintaineth the World. But for them, this great building of Nature, which is groaning under an insupportable weight of iniquity, would break into a Chaos, and sink down into the gulph of its old nothing.
Among the great number of God's Subjects, those that know God, have that right to call him Father. In those old times of Abraham, the Canaanites gave to their Kings the style of Abimelec, that is, My Father the King; Which sheweth, that in the first Antiquity, when Men lived hundreds of years, and saw whole Nations in their Posterity, the Soveraignty was in Fathers. It is so in God's Church still. God our Soveraign is our Father. And if we keep in the duty of Subjects, we shall enjoy the right of Sons in God's Family, and all the Sons are Heirs and Kings.
The Kingdom of God, the subject of this Parable, is the kingdom of Grace in every faithful heart, as the exposition of the Parable will evidently shew. The drift of the Parable being to describe how by little and little and by small degrees, the Kingdom of God, that is, the gracious dominion of his Word and Spirit, advanceth it self in our hearts, as Corn in the ground, till it be perfected to an harvest of Glory.
This is then the beginning of the Kingdom of God within us; It is as if a man should cast seed into the ground. Here you have four things, the ground, the seed, the sower, the sowing. The rest of the Text being historical, requires only an historical order of exposition. But as for these four main Principles of the Parable, the ground is a Man's heart, the seed the Word of God, the sower a Man, and yet God by man; the sowing is the preaching of the Gospel.
I. First then, the ground is a mans heart. It is our Saviour's exposition, Luke 8.10. in a Parable of the like sense as this. A man's heart is a clod of earth, and the soul that lodgeth in it, borroweth from the earth these qualities; That it cannot be idle, it will bring forth either good or evil; It is a strong fat ground, prone to bear thistles, but good seed will not grow in it but with much tillage; The best fruits that grow in it are wild and not of the right kind, but with the culture of the Gospel that wildness and rankness is corrected: And as in our grounds the blessing of God and the labour of man must joyn that the land may bear; Likewise that our hearts may bear fruits of righteousness, Christ the Son of righteousness must shine warm upon us, and the rain and dew of his gracious Spirit must descend into us. To that heavenly assistance God invites us to joyn our diligence, Hosea 10.11. Sow to your selves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your follow grounds, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. My Brethren, let us breal our fallow hearts with contrition, and water them with tears of repentance. Let us send up to Heaven the vapours of Prayers and Praises, they will come down again in showers of Heavenly grace; And the blessing of God who hath begun that good work in us, will perfect it in us, yea by us, who without him can do nothing, and with him can do all things.
II. The seed provided by God for that ground is the Word of God. So Christ himself expounds it in the foregoing Parable of the Sower. For the word of God hath this resemblance with the Seed, that it hath life in it self. The seed looks like a little dead thing; And the Word of God is miscalled by the Papists a dead letter: But yet it is full of quickening spirit, and like the seed it hath a growing faculty and spreads over all the faculties of the Soul. Then as seed is in some sort everlasting, being perpetuated by propagation; So we learn, 1 Pet. 1.23. that we are born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.
The Seed to which the Word of God is compared is Corn, the best of Seeds, and the most necessary for life. Where Corn is wanting, notwithstanding all the plenty of Cattel, Fish and Fowl, the Country is famished: And where the Word of God is wanting, neither humane learning nor moral wisdom will feed the Soul. There is no spiritual life without the bread of life.
III. The sower of that Seed is a man, saith the Text. By that man some will understand the Lord Jesus, expounding that which followeth, that the man sleepeth and riseth, of his death and resurrection: But if you read further, it cannot be said of Christ, that the Seed groweth he knoweth not how. Wherefore I stand to the letter, a Man, any allowed Minister of God's Word; for God hath not chosen Angels but Men for the Ministry of his Word, and hath honoured the Ministry of men, being made himself a man and a Minister. But he was God and man; we meer men, and weak men, God knoweth: Wherefore if a Minister commit some fault of infirmity in sowing this holy seed, forgive him, he is a man, and by consequent faulty. Humani ab illo nihil alienum puta. If he will sow strange seed of his own, receive it not; he is but a man, and hath no authority unless he can say after St. Paul, I have received of the Lord that which also I have given unto you. Doth the seed which he soweth prosper? praise him not for it, he is but a man; Such a great effect as the conversion of the Soul, and the earnest of salvation, could not have come from him, had not God done it by him. Also doth the seed, though faithfully sown, miscarry and rot under the clods? blame not the Sower, he is but a man; Paul may plant, Apollos may water, but it is God that giveth the increase.
IV. How little is man's part in this great work, we learn by the fourth particular, the manner of sowing; It is as if a man should cast seed into the ground. Ponder the word casting: It is certain that a faithful sower must use a great deal of circumspection and diligence in providing good and convenient seed, in observing the nature of the ground, in discerning the season, and in sowing with such a measure that the ground be neither undersown nor oversown. Yet when he comes to the act of sowing, jacit, he casteth the seed, as it were at random; Let God in his mercy do the rest. Why? though we have a general notion of the Peoples capacity, and some guess at their disposition, yet we know not their hearts: The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? Jer. 17.9. And though we knew the hearts, we could not change them; and much less would we change the seed to follow the genius of the ground. Well then, since it is not in our power to hit right, especially when we teach many at once, jaciemus, we will cast the seed. Some will fall among thorns, some by the way-side, some upon stones; We cannot help it: Jacimus sementem non ponimus; We do not set the seed, we do but cast it. Fall where it can, take it who can; The Lord in mercy be pleased to set it whilst we cast it. Unhappy we if the seed be lost in our hands ere it be cast; Unhappy you if it be lost in your ground when it is once cast. On Gods name be watchful and diligent to take it when it falls. For as for the Preachers part in a publick action, it is no more but so, It is as if a man should cast seed into the ground.
The remnant of the Text is an historical relation of what becomes of that seed after it is sown. What follows then? The man after casting the seed, sleeps and riseth night and day. Without far fetched allegories, the sense is this, That the Sower after sowing will follow his natural and civil course; He sleepeth and riseth at his hours; He doth not always think of that he hath done, but lets God do. Yet this will occasion an instruction of watchfulness to all that have cure of souls, not to sleep too long, but to wake and rise, lest while men sleep the enemy come and sow darnel among the Corn. Therefore the Ministers of God's Word, both Superiours and Inferiours, are called by the Apostles foreign, that is, Inspectors and Overseers. The eye of the Husbandman makes the seed prosper.
But whilest the man sleepeth and riseth, the seed springs up. Our Saviour useth that term, to teach us, that the first working of the Word of God in our hearts is very like the first sprouting of Corn; for as seed draweth the best substance of the earth, and turns it into his own; Even so the Word of God, by his powerful working draws our best affections, and changeth, yea in a manner transubstantiateth our hearts, creating in our inside a new man, another creature.
But the seed at the first is like to dye in the ground, as St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. 15.36. That which thou sowest is not quickened except it dye. Likewise this divine seed finds ill entertainment in our hearts at the first, for the flesh which is enmity against God, goeth about to smother it. As some unnatural Mothers, having conceived against their will, strive to make their fruit away ere it come to perfection: This wicked flesh having conceived that good seed much against her carnal mind, bends all her endeavours to make it away. You know that after the springing of wheat, Winter will come upon it presently; Frost, cold Rains, and sharp Winds will nip it: So it fares with the beginnings of regeneration, in young People especially; Then violent passions will be blustring, and the Devil mustereth up all the interesses of the World and the Flesh to give a sharp on-set to the Spirit of God, which formeth and promoteth this holy springing.
But be of good courage; Notwithstanding these oppositions, growing will come after springing. So it doth in the Parable. And the seed groweth. Although, to speak properly, the Word of God groweth not, but we grow by it: Yet in respect of us it grows, for by degrees we have it more and more, as the light groweth from the dawning to the full day.
How this seed groweth, if I would describe it, I should make my self wiser than Jesus Christ, who saith here, that the seed groweth so that the Sower knows not how.
And yet many of those Sowers now adays take upon them to write histories of the growing of that seed, setting rules or stages in a manner to the working of God's Spirit. They are good souls, who having observed the motions of the Spirit of God within themselves, set down afterward their private Experiences as general Maxims. But indeed the Spirit of God is working diversly according to the several natures; and sometimes these observations bring trouble to good consciences, when they feel not that the Spirit is acting in them in the same method as they find it set down in their book of devotion. It is much for us poor Sowers of God's Word, to know how to sow and water it; How it worketh in the ground, God knoweth, we do not. Yea sometimes the seed groweth not only without the Sowers knowledge, but without or against his intention: One preacheth Christ by contention, not sincerely, but the other in love, Phil. 1.16. But notwithstanding (saith the Apostle) whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached.
But take it at the best; If good seed well sowen by a good and willing Sower grow well, praise him not for it; the seed groweth he knoweth not how. You may commend his good purpose, not praise his good effect. Also doth the seed grow ill? Blame him not, the seed groweth he knoweth not how: You must commend his good purpose, excuse his ill success, and lay the blame where the fault is, in the untowardness of the ground.
The Lord grant that this holy seed may grow and prosper in you, though we Sowers know not how; so that we may do more than we know, more than we think, above that we can. But as in the finger of a Watch, if we cannot see it going, we beseech you that in time we may see how it is gone forward, by your increase in all goodness.
And now look back I pray upon these four several intimations of the quality of the Sower and his work; That he is but a man; That he doth but cast the seed; That he sleeps afterwards; That he knoweth not how the seed groweth: All these so many cautions one upon the neck of another, that we mistake not the labour of man for the work of God; That we give not to weak man the glory due to God; And that we make not that the task of the Preacher, which is the duty of the Hearers. What would ye have of us? We cannot make your hearts fruitful to good works; we are but men, we do but cast the seed; after we have cast it, we sleep as our neighbours do; and though we were watching continually, we know not how the seed grows, and cannot make it grow: That must be the work of God, and your work. Wherefore after we have done our part, yea though we do it not, yet be ye sure to do yours, and look with a holy obedience of faith what duty is laid upon you in the next words of the Text.
Here it is, The Earth brings forth fruit of her self. This God will have us to do; Else no kingdom of God for us: No kingdom of God within us. You may ask, How can I bring forth fruit of my self? Doth not the Apostle say, 2 Cor. 3.5. that of our selves we are not sufficient to think any thing that is good, but our sufficiency is of God? The Original Greek decides that difficulty; for though the same Pronoun, of your selves and of her self, be in both places of our English version, the Greek hath different words; In this Text foreign, of her good will; In that of St. Paul, foreign, that is, of our own motion and power; for these two ways this term of our selves may be taken. Of our selves as of our own power, it is certain we can do nothing; but of our selves, of a free good will we may and must; as an Infant held up under the Arms goeth of himself, not by himself. To say that our hearts must bear fruit of themselves, diminisheth nothing of the glory due to God's assistance, which worketh for us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. The example of the Text clears that, The Earth bears fruit of her self; There is no doubt of that, All her natural strength goeth to it: And yet it is the Sun and the Rain that gives her strength to bear. Likewise good souls bear fruit of themselves, works of piety and charity: These actions come à volentibus, from willing minds and free endeayours, not from their sufficiency; that sufficiency is from God. And this consideration, that all our sufficiency is from God, ought not to slacken our diligence but quicken it, and make us say, I can do all things in Christ that strengtheneth me, and so fall to work, spontanei, of our selves, and with a free heart. It is a wise doctrine and profitable to them that can embrance it with humility and without curiosity, that we must give to God the whole glory of our obedience, and to our selves the whole task. And for the love of God, without entangling you minds with perplexing questions, call upon God's assistance, and let the Earth, that is, your soul, bear fruit of her self.
The degrees of production are three in the Text, herba, spica, granum, First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Philosophers say, Natura non facit saltum, Nature makes no leap; It goeth by steps: So doth Grace. Both Nature and Grace advance to perfection by degrees. The full Corn in the ear doth not spring presently out of the Earth; No, by small beginnings the Kingdom of God is formed in us: It must be first in the blade, but even then it is the Kingdom of God. If there be any beginning of regeneration in us, though it be but a small blade peeping out, Christ doth grace it here with the name of the Kingdom of God, and he will bring it from strength to strength, till he bring it to perfection.
This similitude expresseth very well, that the beginnings of regeneration are slow and hard. Wheat sown in October is in the blade till April, and much ill weather goes over it. And what a hard and long work is it to form that kingdom of God in the heart of a carnal man that comprehends not the things of God! St. Paul expresseth this difficulty, speaking thus to the Galatians, 4.19. My little Children, of whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you. The ground is a natural Mother to weeds, she will make them grow presently: But she is a step-mother to Corn, therefore it is long a coming. Vices in us are in their own soyl; No wonder that they grow so fast: But Piety there is in a strange ground; That makes it so slow to take and stay so long in the blade.
Sometimes indeed you shall see in the beginning of regeneration a fair hopeful green: Some Children will have godliness and peace of conscience more than aged persons: But the poor things are not yet acquainted with the rebellions of Nature. There will come anon a blustering and tempestuous season of youth that will nip the young blade of grace, and stay its growth. But despair not, the Spring of Grace will come again: He that hath begun a good work in them, will fulfil it unto the day of Jesus Christ, Phil. 1.6. O let Parents be careful to sow goodness in their Children before they be capable of evil. For if the blade be sprung up before the stormy season of temptations, it may abide much ill weather, and by the assistance of Heaven it will in time shoot up from the blade to the ear.
This is the second degree of the increase of the Kingdom of Grace, Spica, the ear. By this I understand the open profession of Religion and outward practice of the duties of devotion. So far a great many that profess the Christian name will proceed; and many being come so far, are blasted and go back: Many times also they will keep to the very harvest a high staulk, broad blades, an upright ear, and nothing in it. Husbandmen love not to see their Corn over-rank, and beset with broad blades; and I shall never wish to see the sap of godliness run into blades of outward shew and precise formality; for then commonly it leaveth no substance within; All that is but straw and chaff, good only for the fire. I will not stand upon straw and ears, I hasten to the corn, that third and best degree in my Text, the full corn in the ear.
The full Corn in the ear is that which Saint Paul calls Christ formed in us, Gal. 4. That Kingdom of God which is righteousness, peace and joy through the Holy Ghost, Rom. 14. It is the reigning of the love of God in our hearts, when his glory is our aim, his will our rule, his promises our comfort, his fatherly care our confidence: When we seek to please him, not our selves; when we have a fervent charity to our Neighbours, when we have weaned our hearts from the love of the World and the Flesh; when we speak the truth as it is in our heart; when we are upright and sincere in our conversation, that is, the full corn in the ear.
But alas! Where is that fulness to be found? How empty are we of Piety, how full of vanity and corrupt affections? O my Brethren, if you have that full Corn in the ear, at least in some measure, Make it good to the World and to your own Consciences, by the proof which the Text requireth. What is it? The fruit was brought forth. Who will believe that you have fruit within, if you shew none without? By their fruits shall ye know them, saith Jesus Christ, Matth. 7.16. by such fruits as are brought forth and seen at the outside; for else vvho can knovv the fruit in the inside, but he that knovveth the hearts? If there be vvithin, the sap of faith and true piety, be sure it vvill bring forth the fruits of charity and holy conversation. They that wrong their Neighbours with fraud and violence, and themselves with intemperance and incontinence, shall have much ado to perswade us of their piety and zeal to God's glory. If you bring forth neither assiduity nor reverence to God's service; If the exercise of Prayers and Praises be not ordinary in your Families; If piety and charity be not evident in your words and actions, you shew evidently that there is none in your affections. Certainly unless the fruit be brought forth, there is no full Corn in the ear. For it is a certain Maxim, Ex nihilo nihil fit; Nothing within and nothing without are very true to one another.
But now to the Harvest, and so to an end. When the fruit is brought forth, immediately (or suddenly) he puts in the sickle, because the Harvest is come.
This Harvest is the happy departure of good Souls, when God with the sickle of death cuts them down to lay them up in his Barns. Harvest is only where there is a crop: Wherefore in the death of the wicked there is no Harvest for God. Stubble and Weeds yield no Harvest. Them God by his Angels will cut down, bind them in bundles, and burn them in the fire, Matth. 13. Death unto them is a most fearful sickle: But good Souls must not fear the sickle of Death, though it be sharp. It doth but cut our bonds away; and we are no sooner cut down by Death, but we are gathered up by the good hand of our Saviour, and bound up in the bundle of life.
This merciful blow God giveth when the fruit is brought forth, saith the Text. One would think it should be when the fruit is ripe. But then the Harvest would never come: For this fruit, the kingdom of grave in this life, is never fully ripe in our Souls, for it grows in the shade; It enjoyeth not fully the Sunshine of grace. What then? Doth God reap unripe Corn? Yes, this fruit is like Medlars, that are cropt, being yet unripe, and grow ripe on the floor.
This is for your comfort, you penitent pious Souls: You need not fear death, tho' your faith be yet unripe; If you bring forth some fruit of the right kind, Christ tells you here that the Harvest is come, and when you are reaped down by God's sickle, you shall find in God's heavenly Granaries that ripeness which in this earth you could not attain unto.
Besides, in these words, he puts in the sickle because the Harvest is come, a tacit promise is implyed to all good Christians, that the sickle of death will not come upon them till there be something to reap in their Consciences. Judge not sinisterly of beginners in their regeneration, that dye suddenly, or under age; God is true in his promise; He will not put in the sickle before the Harvest is come, and that Harvest he will prepare in them by ways to us unknown, and to him most easie.
But let not this promise breed idleness in any Soul: For God obligeth not himself to stay for your leisure. Examine the words. All over the Parable he speaks of those only where there is some fruit growing, some working of the ground, some labour to bring forth a Harvest. Them God will not cut down with his sickle till their Harvest be ready, and he will make it ready when it is not. But carnal and profane hearts he will strike with his mortal sickle, because the Harvest is not ready, and because the Axe is laid down unto the root of the Trees, and every Tree that bringeth no good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire. God's sickle will be ready for them, when they are not ready for God.
One word more: This sickle is put in foreign, immediately, suddenly. Indeed, taking death for the departure of the Soul out of the Body, every Man's death is sudden. Never any Man was long a dying. Let us not fear death, it is not a difficult passage. In one blow we are dispatcht. With one sigh we yield up our Souls to Heaven. With one cut of God's sickle foreign immediately, away fall all the bonds of our immortality.
Seeing then that the sickle of death cuts suddenly in all the seasons of life, and that there is no set time for that Harvest, let us labour to bring forth fruit betimes: And since we are continually subject to the sickle, let us be always ready for the Harvest. For it is a great shame, and a greater danger, for one to be far gone in his life, and have the kingdom of God but in the blade, or none at all.
Lord, give us grace to bring forth fruit betimes, being continually in hope of thy Harvest, and in awe of thy sickle. Let the Sun of righteousness, and the dew of Heaven, further in us the increase of thy kingdom; and prepare within us a holy harvest, for thy glory, and our salvation. Amen.
The End of the Fourth Sermon.