which are apt to kindle and are fit fuel for those corruptions God will leave yon to your own choice Isa 66.3 4. They have chosen their own ways and their soul delighteth in their abominations therefore I also will chuse their delusions and will bring their fears upon them because when I called none did answer when I spake they would not hear but they did evil before mine eyes and chose that in which I delighted not There is scarce one passage in all the Bible repeated so often over in terminis as that dreadful Sentence first denounced from the mouth of God by the Ministry of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 6.10 and to which he was prepared with so great and awful Solemnity By a Vision of the Divine Majesty upon the Throne of his Glory and an Angel touching his Lips with a coal from the Altar and with a special Commission to send him on this Errand Go and tell this people hear ye indeed hat understand not see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Which we find repeated as the Margin of your Bibles will shew Matth. 13 14 15. Mark 4.12 Luke 8.10 John 12.40 in all which places our Lord himself applies it and with such variety as would afford us very useful remarks but I leave them to be made by your own Observation then Acts 28.26 S. Paul improves it very fully and having rehearsed the words at large draws a sad inference from them verse 28. Be it known therefore to you that the Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and they will hear it Than which nothing could have been spoken more cutting to the Jews who so despised and hated the Gentiles and implies that God's Salvation that is his Word Truth the true Religion should now be taken from them for hitherto Salvation was of the Jews John 4.22 for their obstinate unfruitfulness and given to the Gentiles who would receive it and is but the interpretation and confirmation of our Saviours own words before touch'd The kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof And we find it again Rom. 11.8 they were blinded according as it is written God hath given them a spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see c. Nothing can be more terrible and affrighting than this threat to any man who will consider and weigh it and the inforcing it so oft may awaken even them that are asleep in the deepest security if this doom be not already executed against them and it hath actually seized upon them And I might refer you to many more of the like dreadful import in both Testaments but I 'll content my self with one in each Ezek. 24.12 13 14. She hath wearied her self with lyes and her great scum went not forth out of her In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken it it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not go back I will not spare neither will I repent according to thy ways and according unto thy doings shall they judge thee saith the Lord God Words so exaggerated so keen so pungent they will pierce your hearts and move you if they be not harder than the nether Mill-stone yea may penetrate the heart that is so hard if the head if the mind of the man in whom it is will dwell a little upon the meditation the consideration of them The place in the New Testament I would refer you to is that pathetick word of our Saviour recorded in the end of the Chapter where my Text is O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as an hen gathereth her brood under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto yon desolate I have met with as improper Allusions and Paraphrases tho I will not avow such an one as it would be should I gloss upon these words thus O sinners sinners who have killed your Ministers with their study pains and travel to bring you to repentance and yet you would not rerepent who have broken the hearts of them whom I sent to you by the stonyness of your hearts how often how fain would I have gathered you to my self have turn'd you from your sinful courses and ye would not therefore I 'll now trouble my self no more with you I 'll give you up to your own hearts lusts fill up the measure of your iniquities that wrath may come upon you without measure even to the utmost Lastly To add no more God will sharpen the edge and envenom the point of his Sword of vengeance by joyning contempt to his wrath and scornful derision to the soreness of his fiery indignation laughing at your destruction and mocking when your fear comes upon you And a great mind can bear smart better than reproach and pain more easie than derision Reproach will break those hearts with vexing sorrow which all the words of God could not break with Godly Sorrow He that sits in heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision Psal ii 4. The Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming Psal xxxvii 13. And there is nothing more astonishingly sad than Gods laughing when with a just insulting he cryes Ah ha I will ease me of my adversaries I will avenge me of my enemies Isa i. 24. These are some few of those many Righteous Comminations of those affrighting menaces by which the Spade of the Law is steeled to dig about your Roots and remove the cold and hungry Earth from them which causes your barrenness in Gods Vineyard These are the Share and Coulter of that Plough by which we must breaks up the fallow-Fallow-ground of your Hearts to kill the Thorns and Weeds which choak the good Seed of the Word Any one of them might and should suffice to do the work yet that they may profit you jointly which have not done it singly Take them in one view it may bean whole volly may strike down that security which would not fall before a single shot I exhort you I beseech you I adjure you therefore by all these put together and by what ever else God's Holy Spirit may suggest to your own Consciences of greater force and cogency Repent and bring forth fruits meet for Repentance speedily readily faithfully under those abundant helps God affords you by the Gospel and his Patience which you have almost tired out yet continues a little longer to you For I assure you in his name 1. God will do no more
supposeth it when it bids ye be ready And another Text expresseth it which tells you The marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her self ready Rev. xix 7. And both the Jaylers question Sirs what must I do to be saved Acts xvi 30. And the answer to it imply so much And that common saying of St. Austin hath obtained Universal consent That he who made thee without thy self will not save thee without thy self It being therefore taken for granted that we can and must do somewhat let us now enquire and so direct you what it is First Be throughly convinced of thy own unreadiness Sence of want is the first the most Natural and most effectual motive to seek supply Jacob would never have sent his Sons much less his Benjamin into Egypt to buy Food if the Famine had not pincht him and his Houshold in the Land of Canaan The full soul loatheth an Hony Comb but to the hungry soul even bitter things are sweet They who are whole care not for the Physitian but the sick will both send for him and Fee him willingly Christ calls those who are weary and heavy laden with the burden of sin Curse of the Law sence of Gods wrath and 't is well if these will come there is most hope of them but for others he may stretch out his hand all the day long and they regard it not There was enough said before to convince thee of thy unreadiness if thou beest an Vnsanctified man this is only added to persuade thee to consider it and to yield to conviction of thy sin and misery Secondly Be persuaded of the infinite concernment of this matter the water will rise no higher than the Spring Head and the motion will answer the weight which causeth it a small weight produceth but slow motion but a great and heavy one such as is quick and violent They that have slight thoughts of the concerns of another world 't is no wonder they are so little concerned about them But they that consider well what is the Consequence of not being ready when Christ comes what it is to have all the doors of Grace and Mercy Hope and Glory shut against them what it is to lose an Immortal Soul which the gain of an whole world could not compensate What it is to be driven from God and Christ and the Regions of Bliss with a depart ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels to be shut up in that Dungeon of utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth under the gnawings of the Worm which shall never dye and in midst of a fire that shall never be quenched in a word they that wisely lay to heart this Truth that the injoyment or loss of infinite and everlasting happiness and the suffering or escaping endless and unconceivable torments infallibly depends upon being or not being ready for Christ when he comes by Death or Judgment will have other thoughts of these things and will be awakened by them to make ready in good earnest Which I heartily wish we all may Thirdly Get clear and distinct knowledg of the main Grounds of Religion Knowledg is a loading Grace the new man is renewed in knowledg Col. iii. 10. And without it the heart cannot be good tho it be too often without a good heart But of all Knowledg get as full and clear a Knowledg as you can of the Covenant of Grace by which alone the enmity is removed and reconciliation is made between an offended God and lost mankind And herein especially study to know the Mediator of this Covenant as to his Person Natures and Offices and the Efficacy of his Death Resurrection and Intercession with the terms upon which he will receive thee as one of his redeemed ones and what returns he expects from thee What be those sure Mercies of David that Covenant conveighs and what Obligations they are brought under who are received into it the Knowledg of these things is so useful so necessary so excellent comprehending the true knowledg of Salvation 't is hard to desist from farther inlarging upon it or pressing of it An Interest in this Covenant being the only means left us for our Eternal safety and welfare Fourthly Frequently reflect upon thy Baptismal Covenant I know no one thing in all the world more hopefully likely to restore the life of sollid Christianity to the world which is so miserably decayed and dead in it than this would be For first It would mightily restrain sin the bane of Christianity to remember how solemnly we have renounced all the temptations and inducements to it and no less provoke us to Faith and Obedience the two great Pillars upon which Christianity is built to think what Vows of God are upon us and make us say with David I have sworn and I wilâ— perform it that I will keep all thy Righteous Judgments Psal cxix 106. Secondly It would put warmth and Holy fire into all our Devotions which are mostly so formal cold and dead To consider what mutual engagements have past betwixt us and that God to whom that Mediator through whom and that blessed Spirit by whose assistance we perform them They being all by true interpretation farther inforcements oâ— those engagements as were easie to shew in all the particulars of Prayer Hearing the Word and Receiving the Holy Supper Thirdly It would heal our Divisions and close up our Breaches and restore that blessed Spirit of Love and Peace The Bond of Perfection and Badg of Christs Disciples and help us to keep and hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace as you may see from the Apostles arguing Eph. iv 4 5 6. To call to mind that we are all Baptised into one Body joyned to one Head received into the Family of one Father obliged by the same Laws made Candidates and Expectants of the same Jerusalem above which is the Mother of us all And what would have so beneficial an influence upon the life of Christianity cannot fail to prepare us for the coming of Christ I therefore again inforce my importunate requests to you that you would often and dayly meditate upon your Baptismal Engagements to the great God Fifthly Apply thy self sincerely and seriously to the use of all Gods means with an earnest expectation and design to receive from them what God hath appointed them to conveigh to those who use them aright Men for the most part use them customarily and for fashion sake expecting little from them and receive as little as they expect They proving dry Breasts and empty Channels But if thou wouldest use them as thou shouldest thou wouldest find it good to draw nigh to God and that he never bid the house of Jacob seek his face in vain 'T is the Nature of means to come in the middle between what a man can do and what he can not do to help him by what he can do to
shall not make haste Isa 28.16 And willing to tarry the Lord's Leisure The Vision is for an appointed Time but at the End it shall speak and not lye Though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Habb 2.3 And as we have Need of Patience that after we have done the Will of God we migâ—t receive the Promise For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.36 So this â—ourage will help you to it as the Apostle plainly implys when Vers 35 he bids them Not cast away their Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward Lastly 'T will help thy Diligence in that 't will make thee Patient to do as well as suffer to undergo Labour and Pains deny thy Self and thy own Ease be willing to Sweat at that Work for which thou knowest 't is not too much to Bleed Non veniunt gratis magna bena sed veneunt nummus labor est Good Things come not on Free-Cost they are sold Labour is the Money by which we buy them And this will make thee Judge the Purchase Cheap at this Price Welcom Toyl that leads to Rest Welcom Poverty that makes Rich towards God! Welcom Death that wafts us over to Eternal Life Yea not only look for Labour with Contentment but take Pleasure in Difficulties as the Graver likes his Wood or Stone the better the harder 't is in Cutting Lastly Constancy and Perseverance This compleats and fills up thy Diligence When a Man holds on his way keeps going on and on that Man is like to finish his Journey 'T is a small Praise to Begin well unless you Continue Ye did Run well Gal. 3. But Fools that they were they were Soon weary on 't It comes to little when Men work by fits and starts Frustra fit quod per Frusta fit What 's done by piece-meal will never be wholly done or will prove but a patcht Business at the best Many Strokes drive home the Nail and many Drops do wear the Stone In the Morning sow thy Seed and in the Evening withhold not thy Hand Eccles 11.6 The Holy Fire was never to go out upon the Altar and there was a Continual Sacrifice to be Offered upon it Wait on thy GOD continually Hos 12.6 The Diligent Man's Motto is Nulla dies sine Linea He lets no Day pass without some Progress The Old Apologue of the Race run by the Hare and the Snail seemingly an unequal Match shews what Advantage comes by Constancy The Hare had quickly left the Snail so far behind they were out of sight of one another But then she fell a-grazing basking in the Sun and at last sell fast a-sleep But the Snail kept on 't is true she went but softly but she went Constantly and that won came first to the Goal This Constancy intermits not Magnae Diligentiae est nunquam feriari 'T is a great peice of Diligence to keep no Holy-Dayes Diligence hath not an Ague a Sick-Day and a Well-Day an Hot Fit and a Cold but keeps Uniform and like it self and though it doth but jog on while another stayes a while it will go its Mile 'T is patient Conâ—â—nuance in Well-doing and going from Strength to Strength and growing in Grace which makes Men Happy Constancy declines not flags not prevents tyring Violent Motion grows fainter and fainter till it ceases quite but Natural Motion is stronger and swifter the longer it hath lasted Diligence is not a Winters-Sun it declines not not Joshua's Sun it stands not still not as Hezekiah's it goes not back But as David's Psal 19 Which is as a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber and rejoyceth as a Strong Man to run a Race Not to go Forward is to go Backward If we lose but a Stroke or two 't is as with a Water-Man Rowing against the Tyde the Stream carryes him back if he force not onwards by Arms and Oars A Christian's Work is not like a Handy-Craft-man's he may leave and lay it by and find it when he returns to it as he left it But Ours will unravel no Knot will hold it but Constant Exercise When you hang by your Instrument and leave Playing you let down the Strings and 't will take a great deal of time to Tune it again 'T will be so with thy Heart When an heavy Bell is Raised it may be Rung with Ease and Pleasure but it asks much tugging to get it up when once it is down Be Constant therefore at thy Work give not God cause to complain as He did of Ephraim That Thy Goodness is as the Morning-Dew soon dryed up Constancy knows no Period but Perfection Like Caesar Nil actum credens dum quid superesset agendum Stops not till it arrive at Hercules's Pillars will work as long as it hath any thing to do Nature will not leave its working till it hath finished its work Living Creatures cease not to grow till they have attained full Stature and just Dimensions And so 't will be with the New Creature Ephes 4.13 It gives not over Till it come to a Perfect Man unto the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ As good ne'r a whit as ne'r the better all 's lost if we hold not on till we finish The stony-Stony-Ground brought no Fruit to Perfection Luk. 8.14 but its Crop was as the Corn on the House-top Psal 129.7 which withereth before it groweth up and is made the Emblem of a great and sore Curse And 't was the Unwise Builder that began to Build but was not able was not careful to Finish Luk. 14.30 Add therefore this last Care to all the rest To be Constant in thy Course of Diligence Constancy added to the rest will make thy Diligence Compleat and Perfect and Perfect Diligence will bring thy VVork to full Perfection I now come to Conclude All by Exhorting you in the Emphatical Language of the Text to work your Work to provoke you to the utmost Care and Diligence about it And the Motives are so many so obvious and so cogent 't is hard to determine which to begin with 't is harder to know how to make an End but hardest of all to rank them into the best Method and most convenient Order Give me Leave therefore to pour them out before you as they offer themselves on an Heap that every one may take that which likes him best that which affects him most And I beseech you improve them to your best Advantage But before I come to propound particular Motives Let me suggest to you which is a weighty Consideration That it is the General Design and Scope of the whole Bible to direct us in or provoke us to this Work All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness That the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to every Good Work 2 Tim. 3.16 17. But
Vines Deut. xxii 9. Thou shalt not sow thy Vineyard with divers seeds And also to plant Trees of another kind partly to support their Vines which are a weak and tender Plant and partly to make the better improvement of their Ground and none more commonly than Fig trees Which makes it so frequent to name them together sit every man under his Vine and under his Fig-tree The planting this Fig-tree in the Vineyard signifies the calling any Nation to the knowledg and profession of the Gospel and making them a Church as a part of the Universal Church or it is the receiving a man or woman into the Church by Baptism See the expression in the very Letter Rom. vi 3 4 5. Know ye not that as many of us as were Baptised into Jesus Christ were Baptised into his death and if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death c. So that he useth the Phrases of being Baptised and Planted as signifying the same or explaining one the other So that every one of you who have been Baptised are thereby Planted in Gods Vineyard admitted to partake of the Ordinances and Priviledges of the Gospel-Church and thereby obliged to the Duties Consequent upon those Priviledges As a Tree which stands in the Orchard is bound as I may say to bear part of that Fruit which the Master and Owner of the Orchard looks for His coming to look for Fruit is a most obvious Allusion to the custom amongst men to go into their Gardens and Orchards to fee what Fruit the Trees bear or whether they bear any which they have caused to be set in them Cant. vii 12. Let us go early into the Vineyards let us see if the Vine flourish whether the tender Grapes appear and the Pomegranates put forth And is the same with Isa v. 2. where God saith He lookt for Grapes which verse 7. he interprets He lookt for judgment and righteousness and which he speaks in plain words without any Parable Psal xiv 2. The Lord lookt down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God and is equivalent to what is exprest by another sence viz. of hearing Jer. viii 6. I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented of the evil of his doings saying what have I done and might were it needful be illustrated by many other Scriptures In a word it is as much as if it were said God comes to look after every man whether they fulfil their Covenant of Christianity which they made with him when they were Baptised and planted in his Church Lastly His finding no Fruit is Gods disappointment as to what he greatly desires looks for yea even longs for No true Repentance no sound Faith no sincere Obedience no Reformation of Life no hearty turning unto God no Holiness and Righteousness no serious care nor vigorous Zeal to glorifie God and save their own souls or as it is Hos iv 1. No truth no mercy no knowledg of God in the land but swearing lying killing stealing committing adultery and breaking out till blood toucheth blood and no man reproveth one another for these evils but are ready to strive with the Priest if he reprove them for them verse 2 4. Such rotten and vile Figs are all the Fruit they bear or at best a few leaves of empty Profession and some cheap formal duties and lip labour and drawing near to God with the body while their hearts are left behind and are far from God being set upon other objects and God hath no true nor real love or fear or acceptable service And in that 't is said a Fig-tree in the singular number it implies that every particular Church every individual and particular person shall be strictly lookt after they shall not be hid in the thickness of the Trees not lost in the croud nor escape or remain less discovered then Adam and his Wife who in vain attempted to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the Trees of the Garden Gen. iii. 8. Which I only point to by way of Allusion Every Tree every person shall be particularly inquired after and sought out if there be but one unfruitful Tree it shall be discovered the Lord of the Vineyard will certainly find it out and so will he every one that is so one by one be they never so many that are such You have heard what the Lord and owner of the Vineyard did Planted a Tree a Fig-tree which is naturally capable of bearing Fruit in his Vineyard a good soyl apt to nourish it and as 't was just he should came and sought Fruit but was unjustly disappointed Hear now what he saith Then said he to the dresser of the Vineyard behold these three years I come seeking Fruit on this Tree and find none cut it down why cumbreth it the ground I shall explain these words with the like brevity and then sum up the improvement of them together And here four particulars must be explained First Who is to be understood by the Dresser of the Vineyard and why he is told of the Fig-trees unfruitfulness Secondly What is meant by the three years in which he came seeking Fruit of it Thirdly What is meant by the Sentence to Cut it down and why the Execution of it is injoyned to the Dresser of the Vineyard Fourthly What is meant by the Cumbring of the Ground which contains the reason to justifie the severity of the Sentence of cutting down First who is to be understood by the Dresser of the Vineyard the most general opinion is that it is the Minister or in complex consideration the Ministers of the Gospel Coetus Apostolorum as a good Expositor expresseth it But I meet with other Opinions of which I shall name four First 'T is Jesus Christ In various Parables God and Christ sustain various persons as St. John xv 1. God himself is the Vine-dresser Christ the Vine and particular Believers the Branches I am the true vine my Father is the husband-man ye are the branches But here Christ is the Dresser of the Vineyard to whom God hath committed the care of his Church To be sure 't is he who is the great and prevailing Intercessour and by reason of the Intercession that the Dresser here makes Lord let it alone this year Some Interpreters refer it to him as St. Ambrose bonus cultor in quo ecclesiae fundamentum c. And Theophilact This Dresser is Christ who would water them with his Doctrine and his Passion who had been fruitless under the Law and Prophets Secondly The Civil Magistrate in a Christian State who is to be the keeper of both Tables to see to the maintenance of the true Religion towards God as well as civil honesty amongst men Who are promised to be Nursing-Fathers to the Church Isa xlix 23. and therefore must look to the Children of it One principal branch of a Fathers
had said I have waited long and come often looking for Fruit and hitherto my expectation hath been disappointed therefore I am weary of forbearing and will suffer the abuse of my patience no longer Cut it down that is execute against it the deserved Judgment And as this is injoyned to his Ministers to be performed by them it implyes 1. That the Fruitless Tree is worthy to be Cut down and is actually under the Sentence of Condemnation tho the Execution may be defer'd by way of Reprieve Every unfruitful sinner under the Gospel is in a state of actual condemnation there is only a small respiting for a while and a short reprieve allowed to afford him time to sue out his pardon according to that from our Saviours own mouth St. John iii. 18. He that believeth not is condemned already So he that repenteth not is condemned already 2. He bids his Ministers Cut them down that is cut them off by sharp reproof and cutting rebukes and Church Censures cast them out of my Vineyard my Church from my Ordinances that they may be ashamed that they may be afraid that they may be awakened 3. To shew the unavoidable certainty of it if they continue impenitent let them know what will certainly be their end Jer. xv 1. Cast them out of my sight declare they shall be cast out and Jer. i. 10. I have set thee over the Nations to root out to pull down to destroy to throw down that is to declare who shall be so dealt with and I will make it good what is bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven Say to the wicked it shall be ill with him thou also shall be cut off as before the Text you shall all likewise perish that is unless you repent 4. Why cumbreth it the Ground This contains the reason of the Righteous Sentence of cutting down and intimates that God never proceeds to severity without cause And ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it saith the Lord God Eze. xiv 23. 'T is a reproachful upbraiding the Fruitless-tree the word is rend'red variously it signifies to make unprofitable why takes it up a room to no purpose and keeps out a better and robs others both of nourishment and influence by drawing the fatness of the soil and casting a malignant shade And teacheth us that a man who continues in the Church impenitent 1. Robs God of the Glory which would redound to him if he brought forth the Fruits of Righteousness which he ought for Christ saith his Father is glorified when his Disciples bring forth much fruit John xv 8. and commands that our Light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our Father in Heaven And St. Paul tells us that the fruits of Righteousness are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God Phil. i. 11. which Glory God loseth by every Tree which stands on his ground and bears no Fruit. 2. Such a man does abundance of mischief by his bad example imboldens others to be and continue as bad as himself and hinders and discourages them from being better 3. Disparages the Soyl causes the way of truth to be evil spoken of Gods Ordinances to be vilified and his name to be Blasphemed and his faithful Ministers to be reproacht as if they were the causes of all that wickedness which they mourn over and endeavour to reform with all their might As we say of servants or beasts that thrive not look ill are in bad plight they shame their keeper as if he starved them or allowed them not what is sufficient So when you who have been Baptized lead bad lives and go on in impenitency you give great scandal cause much offence and put an excuse into the mouths of those who prophanely neglect and slight Christs Institutions and when they are exhorted to frequent them or reproved for neglecting them they have this answer ready why so much ado about these matters we see those who use them most are never the better but as bad or worse than those who seldom or never meddle with them what a shame is it to be thus reproached and to be so ill furnisht to refute it 'T is a great offence that 's given by this means but wo to the man by whom the offence cometh it had been better for him to have been plunged in the Sea then Planted in the Vineyard For God will severely avenge these many evils which are the Consequences of their unfruitfulness unless speedy and sincere Repentance and amendment prevent the Execution of the denounced Sentence And this may suffice for the meaning of the two first verses of the Text which concern the Lord and Owner of the Vineyard both as to what he did and what he said And may be summed up in this short recapitulation The Great God hath in much mercy admitted you into his Church by Baptism and hath often come to see whether you do and long expected that you should make good that solemn Covenant you then made with him by bringing forth the Fruits of sincere Repentance sound Faith and Universal unreserved new Obedience but hitherto hath not found them but the quite contrary And therefore bids his Ministers and you by them with attention and admiration take notice of his past goodness and that he takes severe notice of your continuing badness and provoking disappointment of his expectation and patience and therefore pronounces Sentence against you to cut you off from his Church by his Spiritual Sword and that he will cut you off from the Land of the Living for your robbing him of his Glory for your hindring others by your bad example to be better or imboldning them to be as bad as your selves and causing his Holy Institutions to be evil thought of and evil spoken of as if they were useless and of no efficacy and his Holy name to be blasphemed I now proceed to the other two which concern the Dresser of the Vineyard the former of which contains his Intercession that it may be spared a little longer and tryed one more if yet it may amend The latter his concession that if it do not then the denounced Sentence take place and be put in execution there remaining no shaddow of pretence for farther arrest of Judgment I shall endeavour the Explication of these with the greatest clearness plainness and brevity I can in order to the Application of them which I again tell you I chiefly intend In the former His Intercession are two particulars First an express Prayer in behalf of the barren tree in which are included two requests one for respiting the Sentence and allowing it more time Lord let it alone this year also The other for leave to bestow more pains and cost about it digging and dunging Secondly An implied promise on his own behalf that if his Lord will give him leave and spare the Tree he will spare neither cost nor
neither allow you to kill your King nor eat your God nor purchase Heaven for your mony nor flatter you with hopes that you may go to Paradise in the broad way and have that done for you by others when you are dead which should have been done by your self while you were alive In a word a Religion not made up of Tricks and Artifices of Pomp and Pageantry of a Fardle of unaccountable Rites and Ceremonies and unintelligible mystesteries and contradictions to comply with all mens humours tempers constitutions Severities for the Sowr and Melancholy Carnivals and Stews for the Airy brisk and Sanguine Whips and Austere Discipline as sharp as the Lancets of Baals Priests for the sullenly Superstituous And easie Indulgences and Commutations into gentle Penances for the soft and delicate A Religion tho profest and owned by many sinful men yet neither invented nor headed by the man of sin But a Religion holy and undefiled like its Author plain and simple like the Gospel which contains and teaches it Spiritual and Heavenly like the place it leads them to who love and practise it sincerely Such is the Religion we yet injoy through Gods great goodness but he threatens to bereave us of for our sins against it Let me therefore beseech you and adjure you by all that 's dear to you be zealous and repent speedily sincerely that you force not a jealous God to cut down this Tree to remove his Kingdom and take away his Candlestick because you would not bring forth the Fruits of the one nor walk in the Light of the other and deprive your selves and your Posterity of the greatest blessing God ever did or can bestow on this or any other Nation on this side Heaven But I shall rather chuse to inlarge my self in that Application of this Parable which is more sutable to so private an Auditory tho I cannot deny neither can any man deny the former in our circumstances to be very seasonable and therefore very necessary I shall therefore in what remains consider the Fig tree as a Figure and Type of particular persons Under which notion every individual man and woman is sentenced to be cut down and cast out of the Vineyard of the Church by some Temporal or Spiritual Judgment who hath been planted and admitted into it by Baptism and stands and grows in it injoying all the advantages and priviledges which belong to a Member of it under the Gospel and yet continues Fruitless or bears no good Fruit. Gets no saving Knowledg no true Faith no sound Repentance nor sincere Amendment of Life No real sence or favour of the things of God in a prevalency of Religion in Godliness and Holiness against and above Formality Prophaneness or the love of this present world No Justice Righteousness Truth and Honesty against Defrauding Cousenage Oppression Lying and Slandering of his Neighbours No Temperance Sobriety subduing of his sensual Lusts and Appetites against Uncleanness Drunkenness Debauchery and other defiling pleasures and sensualities in a word who are not foundly Converted and turned from placing their happiness and hopes in sin and creatures to fix them on God and Christ as their only blessedness and satisfying portion Or in St. Paul's express Language who will not learn that great Lesson which the Grace of God that is the Gospel was revealed from Heaven as the clearest light to teach the Sons of men that is To deny all ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live Righteously Soberly and Godly in this present world in hope of a blessed immortality Nor heartily and in good earnest endeavour to become such as they are by their Baptismal Vow and Covenant obliged to be To every such man to every such woman I denounce this day in the name of the great the dreadful God of Heaven and Earth if thou turn not and that speedily and throughly That God the Lord of Hosts the supream the Omnipotent the Irresistible judg of all the Earth Hath prepared for thee the instruments of death He hath whet his Sword he hath bent and made ready his Bow his Arrows are upon the string suddenly will he shoot at thee and not spare or miss his mark The Ax is laid to thy very Root to cut thee down for fire unquenchable God already despiseth reproacheth and upbraideth thee for cumbring of his Ground hath actually pronounced the Sentence against thee to cut thee down the word is gone out of his mouth only in admirable Patience he hath reprieved thee one year more a little longer to try whether thou wilt yet at last sue out a Pardon return repent amend that thou mayst live Yet if thou do it not quickly he will compensate the former disappointments of his expectation whilst year after year he came looking for Fruit and found none together with the aggravated abuse of his long-sufferance which vouchsafes another year with a severer vengeance with a greater Damnation As for our parts who are Gods Ministers it is no pleasure nor delight to us to be Messengers of so heavy tydings to come on so harsh and terrifying an Errand We had rather be sent on Embassies of Peace and speak what might be more welcome and pleasing to you provided it might also be profitable for you But we must not chuse our own Message but the Word God puts into our mouths that must we speak What we have received from the Lord that must we deliver to you according to our Commission and our Instructions written in his Word must we proceed in the discharge and execution of our Office We must not sow Pillows under your Armpits nor dawb with untempered mortar at the Price at the Peril of our own Souls Nor promise Life where God hath threatned Death Nor speak Peace where God saith there is no Peace And there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Isa lvii 21. This were but to betray you and ruin our selves To lead you blindfold into the Ditch and plunge our selves in together with you into the Lake of fire and brimstone and to have the guilt of the blood of your souls added and heapt up upon that of our own to sink us deeper in the bottomless Gulph What we may do and what we can do that by the Grace of God we will do We will Pray to God to let you alone this year also Spare thy people good Lord spare this and that other Fruitless-Tree one year more try them O Lord a little longer it may be they will consider it may be they will bethink themselves it may be they will yet bear Fruit. And then it shall be no grief of Heart to thee O blessed Lord that thou didst not cut them off suddenly in thy sore displeasure Many have made some amends for an unfruitful youth by bringing forth more Fruit in their Age. Great Sinners have become great Saints What had thy Church lost what had thy Glory lost if thou hadst struck Saul dead when thou didst