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GOD’S APPEAL TO MAN’S DECISION
MERCIES are obligations to obedience, and aggravations of the guilt of disobedience. This is declined under the similitude of an unfruitful vineyard. The parable in the text foretold the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. Our Lord applied it in reference to the approaching dissolution of their ecclesiastical and civil polity by the Romans [Note: Mat_21:33; Mat_21:41; Mat_21:45.]. It is applicable also to the Church of God in all ages. In this solemn address of God to his Church and people are contained,
I. His appeal to them—
Many and great are the temporal blessings which we enjoy—
[In our civil capacity, we possess civil and religious liberty. In our social relations, our privileges and comforts are many [Note: If this were the subject of a Commemoration Sermon, the peculiar advantages belonging to the Society should be enumerated.]. In our personal concerns, we may all find abundant cause for gratitude.]
But our spiritual advantages are greater still—
[We have infallible directions respecting the way of salvation [Note: Joh_10:9; Joh_14:6. 1Co_3:11. Act_4:12.]. We are urged by the strongest motives to walk in it [Note: Not only our hopes and fears, which are the grand springs of human activity and vigour, are excited, Rom_2:6-10, but the love of Christ is set before us as the most irresistible of all motives, 2Co_5:14.]. Sufficient assistance also is provided for us [Note: Luk_11:13. Every Christian may adopt the apostle’s words, Php_4:13.]. We have the religion of Christ established in the land [Note: The Establishment has been “the pillar and ground of the truth” ever since the reformation. Its liturgy is pure and scriptural: its articles and homilies are a barrier against the intrusion of error: and, were its institutions observed as they ought to be, there would be no minister in its communion who was not orthodox in his opinions and holy in his life; none could undertake the office of a teacher, who was not himself taught of God, and “moved by the Holy Ghost.”].]
In the name of God then we call you to judge between God and your own souls [Note: See the verse before the text; which, stripped of the figure, may be considered as comprehending the two questions contained in this bracket.]—
[What obstructions to our fruitfulness has he not removed? What means of promoting it has he not employed [Note: Could superstition obscure the light? its clouds have been dispelled by the revival of literary and religious knowledge. Could prejudice pervert our judgment? a liberality of sentiment prevails beyond the example of former ages. Could guilt dismay our hearts? God has sent his own Son to die for us. Could a sense of our weakness discourage us? God has promised the aid of his Spirit. Could persecution alarm our fears? we “sit every one under his own vine and fig-tree.” Could erroneous teachers misguide us? care has been taken, as far as human foresight could prevail, to exclude them. What, then, has not God done that could be done?]? We appeal to you, and make you judges in your own cause.]
Happy were it for us, if, while we reflect on the advantages God has favoured us with, which are greater far than those which were enjoyed by his people of old, there were not the same reason as formerly for,
II. His expostulation with them—
The fruit which God requires, is suitable to the pains he has bestowed upon us—
[He expects that we follow his directions, and live by faith on his dear Son, and that we feel the influence of the motives he has set before us, and, that we go forth against all the enemies of our souls in a humble dependence on his promised aid.]
But very different is the fruit which the greater part of us have brought forth—
[We have substituted in the place of Christ some self-righteous methods of acceptance with God. We have been actuated chiefly by earthly, carnal, and selfish principles. We have gone on in the strength of our own resolutions, instead of looking up continually for the assistance of the Spirit. Alas! our fruit has been only as “the grapes of Sodom, and clusters of Gomorrha [Note: How great the difference between him that produces good fruit, and him that “brings forth only wild grapes!” The one makes Christ all his salvation and all his desire; the other exalts himself into the place of Christ, and wishes to become, in part at least, his own Saviour: The one regards eternal things us a reality; the other is scarcely more affected by them than if they were a fiction: The one conquers sin and Satan in the strength of Christ; the other is, either openly or secretly, led captive by them both. In a word, the one is a compound of humility, heavenly-mindedness, and zeal; and the other of pride, worldliness, and indifference.
N. B. The notesf, h, andi, are too much compressed, and the subject of them is too remote for a country congregation. To an illiterate auditory, a general and popular statement would be more edifying. ].”]
But that God is displeased with our unprofitableness, will appear from,
III. His menace—
Under the figure of “laying waste” a vineyard [Note: ver. 5, 6.], God warns us what he will do to us if we continue unprofitable servants:
1. He will bestow no more pains upon us—
[He who by “pruning and digging” has laboured incessantly for our good, will abandon us at last to our own hearts’ lusts [Note: Hos_4:17. Psa_81:11-12.]. He who has “commanded the clouds to rain down rain upon us,” will cease to guard us by his providence, or assist us by his grace [Note: Gen_6:3.].]
2. He will withdraw the advantages we now enjoy—
[He will “take away the candlestick” when we exclude or abuse the light [Note: Luk_8:18. Rev_2:5.]. Or if he cause not “a famine of the word,” he will make his Gospel “a savour of death to us rather than of life [Note: 2Co_2:16.].”]
3. He will expose us to the heaviest calamities—
[We may easily conceive how the wild boar of the field will desolate a vineyard, when its fences are all removed;” and we know, from the instances of Peter and of Judas, what Satan will effect, if he be suffered to execute his will upon us; yet we can expect nothing but to be “delivered over to Satan for the destruction both of our bodies and souls,” if we “bring forth only wild grapes” after all the culture bestowed upon us [Note: Heb_6:7-8. Luk_13:7, and Joh_15:6.].]
Application—
What reason have we all to be ashamed of our unfruitfulness, and to tremble lest God should execute upon us his threatened vengeance!
[No words can more forcibly express his fixed determination to execute it, than the concluding words of our text. Let us be thankful that the execution of it has been so long delayed; let the “forbearance exercised towards us, lead us to repentance [Note: Rom_2:4.];” and let us henceforth seek to resemble the primitive Christians [Note: Rom_6:22.].]
And what reason can be assigned that shall justify our bringing forth only “wild grapes” under such circumstances.?
[Has there been any want of care on the part of the husbandman? Has there been anything defective in the means he has used? Could he, consistently with his plans of government, have done more for us than he has done! Can we at all excuse ourselves, and cast with propriety the blame on him? “Judge ye” whether the fault be not entirely in yourselves?]