Sermon XXXVII. [LXXXVII. Ben.] Delivered on the Lord’s Day, on that which is written in the Gospel, Matt. xx. 1, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.” 1. Ye have heard out of the Holy Gospel a parable well suited to the present season, concerning the labourers in the vineyard. For now is the time of the material2841 vintage. Now there is also a spiritual vintage, wherein God rejoiceth in the fruit of His vineyard. For we cultivate God, and God cultivateth us.2842 But we do not so cultivate God as to make Him any better thereby. For our cultivation is the labour of the heart, not of the hands.2843 He cultivateth us as the husbandman doth his field. In then that He cultivateth us, He maketh us better; because so doth the husbandman make his field better by cultivating it, and the very fruit He seeketh in us is, that we may cultivate Him. The culture He exerciseth on us is, that He ceaseth not to root out by His Word the evil seeds from our hearts, to open our heart, as it were, by the plough of His Word, to plant the seed of His precepts, to wait for the fruit of piety. For when we have so received that culture into our heart, as to cultivate Him well, we are not ungrateful to our Husbandman, but render the fruit wherein He re- joiceth. And our fruit doth not make Him the richer, but us the happier. 2. See then; hear how, as I have said, “God cultivateth us.” For that we cultivate God, there is no need to be proved to you. For all men have this on their tongue, that men cultivate God, but the hearer feels a kind of awe, when he hears that God cultivates man; because it is not after the ordinary usage of men to say, that God cultivateth men, but that men cultivate God. We ought therefore to prove to you, that God also doth cultivate men; lest perchance we be thought to have spoken a word contrary to sound doctrine,2844 and men dispute in their heart against us, and as not knowing our meaning, find fault with us. I have determined therefore to show you, that God doth also cultivate us; but as I have said already, as a field, that He may make us better. Thus the Lord saith in the Gospel, “I am the Vine, ye are the branches, My Father is the Husbandman.”2845 What doth the Husbandman do? I ask you who are husbandmen. I suppose he cultivates his field. If then God the Father be a Husband- man, He hath a field; and His field He cultivateth, and from it He expecteth fruit. 3. Again, He “planted a vineyard,” as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself saith, “and let it out to husbandmen, who should render Him the fruit in the proper season. And He sent His 2841 Corporalis. 2842 Colit nos Deus et colimus Deum. Conf. B. xiii. 1. 2843 Colimus enim eum adorando non arando. 2844 Indisciplinatum. 2845 John xv. 1, 5. Delivered on the Lord’s Day, on that which is written in the Gospel, Matt. xx. 1, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.’ 783 Delivered on the Lord’s Day, on that which is written in the Gospel, Matt.…