WORM JACOB
Threshing the Mountains:
A
SERMON,
PREACHED ON
A Sacramental Occasion,
By the Late Reverend
Mr. THOMAS BOSTON,
Minister of the Gospel at Ettrick.
ON
ISAIAH xl. 14, 15.
Worm Jacob, thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, &c.
FALKIRK:
PRINTED BY T. JOHNSTON.
Where may be had, variety of Pamphlets, in Divinity and History, in wholesale, on the lowest terms,
1803.
Worm Jacob,
THRESHING THE MOUNTAIN
A
SERMON,
ON
Isaiah xli. 14, 15.
RELIGION is a mystery, and the truly religious are a mystery too. They are ⟨a⟩ mystery to the world, John iii. I. "The world knoweth us not. Ver. 2. But (to themselves) it doth not yet appear what we shall be." That is a matter not of fight and feeling, but faith. There are many odd connections, and which people would think contradictions and impossibilities in the character. See ⟨any⟩ cluster of them, 2 Cor. vi. 10. As unknown, and yet well known; as dying and, behold! ⟨as⟩ we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet. possessing all things. That is a strange connection, an old man and a new man in one man; but not more strange and surprising than this in the text, a worm threshing the mountains! and that not rediculously, without effect; but most efficaciously, beating them small.
In these words we have two things: 1. What the church and people of God are. They are named by him, who misnames none, worm Jacob: And their name, from his nature, is a worm. They are poor, weak, despised creatures; ready to be crushed by the foot of every passenger: Yet worm Jacob, believing, praying, and wrestling, worm as he is. 2. What they shall certainly and infallibly do; Thresh the mountains, and beat them small, &c.
I find interpreters generally understand by the mountains, the great and lofty potentates of the earth letting themselves against the church. And, no doubt, these were in the prophet's view. But, the view was not confined to them only: God's bringing down the Babylonian monarchy at their prayers, and the victories afterwards of the Macabees over their enemies, cannot reasonably be supposed to complete the intent of this prophecy. We must needs look to the kingdom of Christ for it, of which there is plainly an account in Chap. xvii. 17, 19. compared with Dan. ii. 54, 55. And we must carry on our view all along to the end of time, Rev. ii. 26, 27. The rather, that it is the way of the prophet to wrap up in one expression temporal, spiritual and eternal deliverance; the deliverance from Babylon, which was temporal, being the first and neared in view; Isaiah xxvi. 19. Thy dead men shall live, &c. but not terminating in it. Here then we may consider,
First, What worm Jacob has to encounter or yoke with, mountains and hills, whose weight is sufficient to crush millions of him! difficulties quite disproportionable to his strength, as a mountain to that of a worm.
Secondly, The success of this very unequal match: The mountains shall not crush the worm, but the worm shall thresh the mountains, as one doth a sheaf of corn, with repeated strokes. They did not thresh their corn in those days, with flails, as we do; but trode it out with the feet of men or beasts, or else by drawing a kind of cart fledge, over and over it, called, in the text, threshing instruments. I do not mind the word here denoting the action of the worm, and rendered threshing, applied at all to the drag, but, as it formerly signifies, to tread out, as rendered, Hosea x. II. "Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out corn." As appears from Isaiah xxv. 10. "For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest; and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill." So it is applied to a self-moving creature, man, Micah iv. 13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion," or breath. Here lies the mystery then, uniting the two notions of the self move and the instruments, that the worm shall tread out the mountains, as one would do a mole-hill. And if ye say, Alas! such a treader; what weight has it? I will make, saith the Lord, the feet of the belly of the worm, like a new-shoed threshing drag, for them, that shall tread out the highest and rockiest of them all, to purpose.
Thirdly, The degree and pitch of the worm's success against those mountains: It shall beat them small, till they be like dust, as the word is used, Deut. ix. I. or, like chaff, so that they shall be blown away with wind, and no vestige of them shall remain.
Fourthly, The insurance of this success of the worm. Who could insure it but the Mighty GOD? He has done it. JESUS CHRIST JEHOVAH, the most high GOD, and the worm Jacob's kinsman Redeemer, hath, by his word of promise, engaged his almighty power on the side of the worm against the mountains. Let not the worm fear or doubt the success. A worm seconded by Jesus Christ, will be an overmatch for all the mountains and hills setting up their heads from earth or hell.
Here we shall consider,
I. The character of the subject, wherein this mystery of grace is carried on by our Lord Jesus Christ.
II. The mystery of grace carried on in them by Jesus Christ.
III. I shall account for this mystery, worm Jacob threshing the mountains of difficulties in his way, and threshing them away quite and clean.
IV. Apply.
First, I shall consider the character of the subject, wherein this mystery is carried on by Jesus Christ. It is the worm Jacob, denoting the church in general, and every believer or true member thereof in particular; for of these the church consists, as in the text, ver. 14. without the supplement: Fear not thou, warm Jacob ye men of Israel. One would think, that one designed to be a thresher of the mountains, should be a party of a single, great, and swelling character; a hero, a giant, or any other thing that could carry the character higher: But, on the contrary, it is very low, surprising low, worm Jacob. This character points at these five things, especially in the case of the people of God. It points them out as,
1. Weak creatures, really weak for the encounters they must make, as a worm for a mountain. God himself gives them this name of extreme weakness, therefore they must be so indeed. They have weak heads, hearts, and hands, for the work they are called to. Not only does the first grace find them really weak, but the after supplies of grace also, Heb. xi. 34. Out of weakness were made strong.
2. Humbled souls, truly sensible of their own weakness. By nature they were swelling vipers, but by grace they are humbled worms. And,
First, Habitually humbled, in respect of their state; as the creeping worm, whose nature it is to go on his belly. So the humble and the gracious are equivalent terms, Psal. xxxiv. 2, 3. "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and exalt his name together!" There is a law-work, followed with gospel-grace, wrought on them, issuing in a thorough humiliation; breaking down their natural self-conceit; tumbling down their towering imaginations about themselves, which they had in their state of blindness, bringing them, in their own eyes, from the consistence of mountains to that of worms, and convincing them they are, have, and can do nothing, Luke xv. 17. I Cor. x.4,5.
2dly. Actually humbled, in respect of their frame; as the worm dill retains its creeping way, on the mountains as in the valley; so God's people do difficulties to be happily surmounted, still keep up the sense of their own utter emptiness and weakness for them, 2 Cor. iii. 5. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." If the worm Jacob, being so well again, he will be so unwieldy, that he will thresh the mountains till he fall anew, 2 Cor. xiii. II.
3dly, Despising creatures. As the lofty mountains cover the crawling worms, so doth the carnal world contemn worm Jacob, Psal. xxii. 6. "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." And, Psal. xxxii. 4. "Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud." Though they may value worm Jacob for his gifts, which he has in common with themselves, they will never value him for his grace; that leaves him still as a worm in their sight; what of religion lies beyond the reach of the nature of man. They despise the Christian entertainment on words and promises: They despise us as we do the dust; as we do the crawling of the worm, like Sanballet, when he mocked the Jews, saying, "What do these Jews? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish which are burnt?" But notwithstanding of all that, the worms lick up the Christian way of doing by faith.
4. Yet united to Christ, though a worm, worm Jacob. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself is of the worm family, Psal. xxii. 6 "This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob." Compare Isa. xlix. 3. "Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified." This intimates an union between him and them, as his worm brethren, Heb. ii. II. Being lowered and humbled to the condition of the worm, they are knit to and built on him by faith, Luke vi. 48.
5. Lastly, Daring adventurers, daring wrestlers. Worm Jacob ventured on him that formed the mountains, and wrestled with him, and prevailed too, Gen. xxxii.28. Hos. xii. 4. What wonder to find him then venturing on the mountains themselves. He must have the blessing, and must be forwarded whatever mountains be in the way. I proceed to
The second thing to be considered, namely, the mystery of grace carried on in them by Jesus Christ, we may take it up in these two.
I. An apparently hopeless encounter they are led to by him: Worm Jacob threshing the mountains. What a hopeless-like encounter is a worm threshing a mountain! So hopeless-like are the encounters that the people of God have to make in their way to the eternal rest. These threshers are certainly threshers in hope, I Cor. ix. 10. But the naked eye cannot discover the true ground of hope in it; it is faith only that shews it hopeful, when sight represents it as a hopeless case; and therefore they must close their eyes, and thresh in faith, as Abraham did, Rom. iv. 19. We take up this hopeless-like encounter in five things.
First, The Lord lays in his people's way mountains of difficulties, quite above their strength; difficulties which they look to, as a worm to a mountain before it, 2 Cor. i. 8. "For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life?" However plain the way to hell be, the way to heaven will be a mountainous way in the experience of all that travel it: They will never want mountains in the way, till they come to the hill of God.
Secondly, They must not go about the mountains in their way, shifting the difficulties which God calls them to; but they must make their way over them, threshing them down, Micah iv. 13. "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and thy brow brass: And thou shalt beat in pieces many people." If they offer to go about one mountain, they will be sure to meet with a higher one in their about-gate. Peter tried it, in denying his Master, and found it so; having to encounter another, as high above the former, as the anger of God is above that of the creature, and which was like to crush him, Matth. xxvi, 75. He went out and wept bitterly.
Thirdly, Therefore, worm Jacob falls a-threshing the mountains, combating the difficulties the Lord lays in his way. He puts on a brow for a bargain, and resolutely bestirs his weak hands, and goes threshing forwards, maugers all oppositions, Gen. xxxii. 6. Matth. xi. 22. For there is a spirit in worm Jacob more daring and venturous than ever was in any unbelieving hero, a spirit for the threshing of mountains, while they did but scatter mole-hills, Num. xiv. 24. Pro. xvi. 32.
Fourthly, They continue the combating of difficulties resolutely and patiently.— Threshing is a continued action, consisting of repeated strokes: It takes some time to thresh a sheaf, how much more to thresh a mountain? It is the ruin of many, that they are not able to endure, tho' a stroke or two would do the business, and would bring their matters to a good account; but they have no heart to be threshers. "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing," James ii. 4. "He that shall endure to the end, shall be saved," Matth. xxiv. 13.
Lastly, Worm Jacob has many mountains to thresh. One wound is enough, we would think, to the worm; but there is plurality of them. The truth is, this world is full of mountains to the people of God; and when they have threshed one, they will have another to fall to, till they be out of this mountainous country. Having passed one difficulty, they will get another to grapple with till they be within the gates of the city. So they must have a threshing life-time of it, before they get there.
2. A surprising success, even as surprising as a worm threshing and beating the mountains small to dull, and then threshing them away. Such will be the issue of the encounters which the people of God now have with their difficulties in their way through the world, for which the text is plain. We take it up in these two. They will have,
First, Patriarchal success in their way, very surprising to others, and to themselves, Psal. cxxvi. i, 2. "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongues with singing; then laid they among the Heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them." When mountains of difficulties were in David's way to the kingdom, he threshed long at them, and they never appeared to give way: Nay, he was brought to say, "One day I shall perish by the hand of Saul." But see his surprising success at last, Psal. xviii. entitled, "A Psalm of David, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." Wherein, after recapitulating the various difficulties he had to encounter with, he particularly mentions the happy deliverance he met with, and the surprising manner of the same. Some mountains God's people are kept threshing at all their days, especially the mountain of corruption; and they never fall quite down till death. But, as a pledge for the time to come, God makes now and then some mountains to fall down before the worm Jacob, wherewith he is surprised and transported with wonder how it came to pass, Mark xvi. 4, 5. "And when they looked, they saw the stone was rolled away: and they were affrighted."
Secondly, A total success at the end of their ways, which will swallow them up in surprise and eternal wonder! John iii.2. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God: and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we knew, that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." When the mystery is finished, and the web cut out, it will appear an admirable piece! There will not be left then the least vestage of all the mountains that stood between heaven and them; the threshen mountains will then be blown away with the wind, and they will lay by the flail as an instrument they have no more use for.
Object, But have not others, as well as worm Jacob, mountains of difficulties in their way, which they become matters of at length?
Answ. This world is so mountainous that none can get through it without meeting mountains in their way. Carnal men make a shift to creep through some of them, but they can thresh none of them, as worm Jacob doth; they want his hand and staff, John xv, 5. Without me, ye can do nothing.—They creep into others of them, and nestle in them; the mountains of their corruptions, which, in a special manner, stand between heaven and them, and at length they will be eternally buried under them.
Use 1. Here is a touchstone for the trial of true Christians and worthy communicants, worm Jacob threshing the mountains.
First, They have a heart and spirit for threshing of mountains, in their way to heaven. 'They are peremptory and resolute to break through them without exception, as men that must be in: these shall not perish. Matth. xi. 12.—The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence; And the voilent take it by force. Though they have long threshen in vain, to their own sense, yet they are resolved to hold on (because they see him who is invisible) and, like Paul, Press forward, toward this mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ, Phil. iv. 15. The fearful and unbelieving, they are so delicate and faint-hearted in this case, that they are not for threshing the mountains, they are for the easier talk, but have no heart or hand for that work. These, I am sure, are the fearful, Rev. xxi. 8. They are like the unbelieving spies and people of the wilderness. Take heed here how ye stand.
(1.) To a vain world: Whether there is in you a heart to row against the stream or no, Rom. xii. 2. "Be ye not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, &c." If ye have no heart for it, but must go along with it, be ye young or old, ye are no good Christians, Gal. vi. 14.—The world is crucified to me, and I to the world." And young communicants leaving that gap open, make useless old ones after.
(2.) To the sin that most easily besets you. If you have no heart to thresh that mountain, ye have not the spirit of worm Jacob, who is one that keeps himself from his iniquity, Psal. xviii. 23. and ye will be buried under it at length, like the young man, who was grieved at Christ's discourse about self-denial and the cross, and went away from him, and never returned, Mark x. 21.
(3.) To the crook in your lot. Have you no heart in yourselves to wish for a Christian like bearing of it, but must needs have it evened to your mind? If ye have not, ye are not of the spirit of the worm Jacob: for Christ hath said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me," Matth. xvi. 24.
Secondly, Yet they are but worms in their own eyes; and, therefore, an unequal match for the least of the mountains, 2 Cor. iii. 5. "We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." This casts the legalist, that minds nothing but binding himself to duty; reckoning himself man enough for the duties of Christianity. The sum of the mark is, The Christian communicant is resolute and peremptory for doing all; yet he is convinced that he is sufficient for nothing?
Use 2. Here is likewise a ground of comfort to such. Let not the high rockiness, or bulk of the mountains discourage thee, nor yet the felt unsuccessfulness of thy attempts hitherto. God hath said, Worm Jacob shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small. Be not afraid, only believe.
Use 3. Lastly, Here is, moreover, a strong inducement to all to come to Christ. He will make you thresh the mountains, and beat them small. Come, ye that are wandering on the mountains of vanity, and like to be worried on the mountains of prey, who are wrestling in the mountains of difficulty, before you come to Christ, and ye shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small; and shall make the hills as chaff.
Thirdly, I shall account for this mystery, Worm Jacob threshing the mountains of difficulties in his way, and threshing them away quite and clean. How can this be?
1. GOD hath said it, and therefore it cannot fail: "Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small; and shalt make the hills as chaff." Compare with Numb. xxiii. 19. "GOD is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" He spake things into being, and they must start out of the womb of nothing, or not being, at his word, which calls them forth, Rom. iv. 17. There is as much strength in Christ, for worm Jacob to thresh and beat away the mountains, as there was for making the world, and all the mountains in it, Psal. xxxiii. 9. He spake, and it was done! And, shall not his word, that said them into being, be as effectual to say them away again. Thus saith the Lord, is enough to ensure the accomplishment of the hardest things prophesied.
2. The glory of his grace; which the great design of the whole mystery of godliness surely requires. What does he intend by the mystery of Christ, but the glory of his grace, Eph. i. 6. to shew the exceeding riches of it, chap. ii. 7. Therefore he has chosen the way that leads straight to the point, Rom. iv. 6. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace. The worm is despicable in itself, but being the subject of glorious grace, if it shall miscarry in its attempts, the glory of grace is sunk, as the precious loading with the ship cast away. Wherefore, that his grace may be glorified, if it be a worm threshing mountains, those mountains must needs be threshed away by that worm. Tho' that sacred fire be but like a spark in the midst of the sea of corruption, it must not only be preserved in, but dry up that sea quite clean.
3, By an unalterable decree, there must be a conformity betwixt the little worm and the great Worm Jacob, the little one kinsman Redeemer, Rom. viii. 9. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." Now, the great Worm, the man Christ, a worm, and no man, (Psal. xxii. 6.) has encountered mountains, and threshed them away. Where are the four monarchies, the most towering mountains that ever set up their heads on earth? The chief Worm Jacob has threshed them away with the wind, Dan. ii. 35. The mountains stood before him, thro' the world, with all the fastness that human learning and the power of the sword could give; but, by his few fishermen he threshed them away, and the prophecy is fulfilled, Psalm lxxii. 16. "There shall be a handful of corn in the earth, on the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth." Now many mountains stand before the little worm, but where will that conformity to heaven's beloved pattern be, if they also do not thresh them away?
4. The little worm Jacob is in reality but a member of the great One, Jesus Christ. Take away that, and worm Jacob is as insignificant for threshing of mountains as any worm that crawls on the earth, John xv. 5. Without me, ye can do nothing. Fix that, and worm Jacob has a kind of divine omnipotence, Ver. 7, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Philip, iv. 13. I can do all things thro' Christ, who strengtheneth me. And it is fixed so, that their threshing is Christ’s threshing, Col. i. 24. And ye may well allow Christ; threshing away mountains, with a little finger of his body: If, with the finger of God, he cast out devils, with the least of his fingers he may cast down mountains.
5. Lastly, All the mountains that stand before worm Jacob, are burnt mountains; so they are far easier to thresh, one would think. The mountain of the Babylonish monarchy, that stood before the worm Jacob, and barred his way seventy years; at length God set a fire in the bowels of it, and made it a burnt mountain; and then bade worm Jacob thresh, and then it flies away with the wind, Jer. ii. 25. "Behold! I am again thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, who destroyeth all the earth! And I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain." By the death and resurrection of Christ, all the mountains that stand between worm Jacob and heaven are burnt mountains. Christ has gone thro' the bowels of them with his fire, undone their consistance, and burnt these rocks to lime; they are nothing now but the shape of mountains, with a thin scorched surface: they will give way at the threshing of worm Jacob, like the apples of Sodom, which, being touched, go to dust between one's fingers. Micah ii. 13. "The Breaker is gone up before them: they have broken up, and have passed thro' the gate, and are gone out by it, and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them. Nahum ii. 12. All thy strong holds shall be like fig-trees with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater." Compare Isa. xxvi. 19. "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead. Hosea xiii. 12. I will ransom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death. O death! I will be thy plague: O grave! I will be thy definition: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes."
1. The struggle of the church with all her adversaries will have a surprising and comfortable issue at length. For as weak as she is, and as strong and numerous as they are, she will infallibly have success; surprising success against them, attending the encounter with them, Mic. iv. II, &c.
And as to the present state of the church, learn,
First, It is not at all strange, nor will it make the case of this church hopeless, that prodigiously high mountains, higher than our fathers saw, are raised up against her, over-topping worm Jacob, and threatening to crush him: Mountains of national guilt, of forty years gathering, laid upon the top of mountains of guilt raised by our fathers; profanity overflowing, and becoming fashionable; a conspiracy carried on in the house of her friends against the grace of Christ and serious godliness, to palm upon us refined Heathenism for Christianity! The foundation struck at. Mountains of damnable heresies, and blasphemies against the person of Christ, and divine authority of the Scriptures; and the advanced learning of the age improved to these monstrous ends! But thresh on these mountains of opposition that stand in your way from earth or hell; thou shalt get thro' them all at length, and thou shalt stand on the sea of glass, Rev. xv. 2.
2. Thresh on the mountains of troubles, trials, and afflictions. Let none of them be they never so high and formidable, prevail to separate betwixt God and you; they will be bent at last, and blown away from before you, Rev. vii. 9,10. 14, &c.
3. Thresh on the mountains of corruption and indwelling sin. Thresh on every height thereof, particularly the top of it, that is, the sin that easily besets you, and infallibly you will get it down at length. Paul says this, while he was threshing it, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, thro' Jesus Christ our Lord," &c. Rom. vii. 24.
Say not, Alas! I am too weak, my threshing will be in vain. No, tho' you have no more strength for it than a worm for a mountain, it will not be in vain. God will have these mountains threshed by worm.
But thou wilt say, Alas! I have threshed long without success. Ans. Thresh on them by patient enduring, till the mountain fall. Heb. vi. 15. After Abrham had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. There is an oath binding betwixt the promise and its accomplishment, that it cannot fail, ver. 19; Mind the walls of Jericho. Have ye not had a partial success sometimes? Make progress then, until you obtain a total. So it was with Christ himself, Heb. ii. 8. "Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small; and shall make the hills as chaff."
The last mountain to be threshed away is death; and ye shall beat that small too, Death is swallowed up in victory, I Cor. xv. 54. "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?" Ver. 55.
After all, it is a mighty wonder to see worm Jacob threshing the mountains! But the threshing worm is shod from heaven, and so fitted to thresh.
There are three things this threshing instrument is shod with, which must insure its success, viz. The promise of success, furniture provided for it, and the command calling to the work.
To conclude, We may from hence see, the vanity and fully of the rationalists of our time, in laying aside the proper threshing instrument, the doctrine of a crucified Christ, and substituting in the room thereof the dry and sapless doctrine of Heathen morality; which God will never countenance for threshing the corruptions, renewing the hearts, or reforming the lives of any, being contrary to the appointment of God for that purpose. But worm Jacob, influenced by the promise, and excited by the command of God, and using the proper means, shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small; and shall make the bills as chaff. Amen.
FINIS
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FALKIRK, PRINTED BY T. JOHNSTON.
1803.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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