Part

It followeth:

And you be as chaffe, that passeth on a day.

The Prophet proceedeth, and describeth more plainly, the manner and state of that plague, which God will sende upon them: the meaning was partly opened before, to bee in effect thus much; Search your selues, least God take his fanne and try you, because you woulde not trye your selues, and finding you vppon the tryall, not sound wheat, but light chaffe: blowe you to Hell with the winde of his wrath. The metaphor which the Prophet vseth is this, he compares the Lord to a husbandman, great and rich, the whole world is his corne fielde: seuerall Nations, (as this of ours for one) are his heapes of corne: but the heapes of corne bee full of chaffe, that is, these particular churches, are full of hypocrites. Nowe a wise husbandman letteth corne and chaffe lye together no longer, then till the wind does blowe, and then he appoints his fanning time to seuer his corne from his chaffe, and to blow away his chaffe, and lay up his corne: so God, the great and wise husbandman, will not let the chaffe lye for ever among the wheat, he has therefore appointed his fanning times, when to blow the chaff into hell, and to gather his wheat into heavenly garners.

Nowe Gods winnowing times are two, the one is at the last day, after this life, and that is Gods great winnowing day of all his corne (that of all men) when the bad shall be seuered from the good for ever, never to be mingled againe with them, but by the strong and powerfull fan of his last and finall judgement to be blown into hell: the winde of whose wrath, at that day, shall be stronger to blow them all away, then all the wind in the world to blowe away one handfull of light chaffe.

2. Gods other fanning time, is in this world, and that is also double. The one is, when the word is preached: the preaching of the word is one of Gods fannes. For when the Gospell is preached to a Nation or Congregation, it fannes them, and tries them, and purgeth them, and so serues them, that a man may see a manifest difference of the chaffe and the wheat, that is, of the goodly man, and the wicked man. This preaching of the Gospell does John the Baptist expresly call a fanne: where the holy Ghost pursueth this whole metaphor most plainely, speaking of Christ, he says, Whose fanne is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floore, and gather his wheat into his garner, but the chaffe hee will burne with fire vnquenchable. The winde of this fanne of the word preached, is so strong, as that it seuers the chaffe from the wheat, that is, good professors from hypocrites in the visible church, and blowes so strongly upon the wicked, that it brings them to the beginning of Hell euen in this world, for it so worketh upon the conscience, as if it cannot conuert them, it strikes them with feare, terrour and torment, either in life or at death, which torment of conscience is the very flashes of hellfire.

But, when this first fanne of the word, will not serue to bring men to repentance, (for the word preached, does not confound a man actually, but onely pronounce the sentence, and thereby strike the conscience) then God has another fanne, and that is the fanne of his judgements: and that fanning or winnowing time is, when he executes his vengeance and his judgements on a Nation. This is his latter fanne, when the first will not preuaile, this is his powerfull and strong fan driuen about with the winde of his wrath, this fanne went over the olde worlde, and swept them all away, and went over the Nation of the Jewes, and wee see they are no more.

1. These three fannes of God, make a threefold separation of the chaffe from the wheat, that is, of the wicked from the Elect: with the fanne of his worde which is powerfull, hee seuers them in all affection, and disposition, and makes a distinction of them, so, as generally the wheat is knowne to be wheat, and chaffe discerned to bee chaffe, by the preaching of the word: but though the tare be knowne to be tare, yet both grow together, so that the word onely serues them in affection, and sets seuerall notes of distinction upon them both.

2. But then the second fan of his judgements is more violent, for thereby he seuereth them asunder in soule, gathering the godly men, as his wheat into the heavens, and blowing the soules of the wicked into hell: but yet the bodies of them both lye together, as partakers of the same judgement, so subiect to the same corruption, and are all lodged in the same graue of the earth, and death has like dominion over them all.

3. But afterwards at the last day, at Gods great haruest, and great winnowing time, he then with the winde of his power, seuereth them asunder in soule and body. Wheat from the chaffe, sheepe from the goates, and separateth them, never to be mingled againe for ever and ever: and then with the winde of his wrath, hee blowes the chaffe into fire vnquenchable, and with his louing fauour gathereth his wheat into the euerlasting and glorious garners of heauen.

So then, the first seuereth them in affection. The second, in soule, for a time. The third, actually in soule and body, for ever and ever.

Nowe of these three winnowing times, the holy Ghost speaketh here properly of the second: namely, the fanne of Gods judgements: so that, the meaning of the metaphor is this: Search your selues and repent betimes, lest God come vppon you with some fearefull judgements: because you have so long contemned the fanne of the word, and finding you too light to abide the triall, doe take you away in the judgement, and cast you into hell: for as sure as the fanne of the word has made difference of you, which are chaffe, and which are wheat, so sure shall the fanne of his judgements, blow away the chaffe to hell and damnation.

Thus much for the meaning.