will not seek after God."*

From the history

of modern times, we have abundant evidence, that great improvements in arts and sciences have not only no harmonizing or beneficial influence on irreligious minds, but that they have just the contrary. Whenever God is not made the final end of all knowledge and of all talent, they lead the possessor farther and farther from him, and are the mere instruments and embellishments of vice, and serve merely to paint and adorn the sepulchre where virtue lies entombed. The descendants of Cain, like too many in the present day, were, indeed, men of renown; but seeking this as the supreme good, and despising the honour that comes from above, they could possess no solid worth, and whatever there was that might bear the appearance of it amongst them, was hollow and insincere.

IV. I add, in the last place, their extraordinary longevity as another reason of the prodigious depravity which prevailed at that time. The lives of many of them, we learn, extended to nearly a thousand years. This remarkable circumstance, cooperating with the causes I have already mentioned, contributed greatly to the excessive corruption asserted in the text. It must have acted powerfully in several ways.

1. He who can indulge a reasonable expectation of living for a very long period in the world, considers himself as possessing a large estate.

* Psalm x. 4.

The value of any earthly possession rises, partly in proportion to the satisfaction it is capable of affording, and partly from its duration. Man, being naturally a prospective being, a being who looks forward to futurity, is, necessarily, more attached to every species of good, in proportion to its real or imagined permanence. How powerfully, then, must sensible and visible objects have attracted the heart of those who had a reasonable prospect of enjoying them for a thousand years! The possessions which attach us to the present world must have operated, in such circumstances, with a prodigious force.

2. Corrupt habits must, through such a long track of years, have had opportunity to fix themselves more thoroughly, to strike their roots more deeply, than during the contracted space of present existence.

3. The longevity of the antediluvians removed eternity to a greater apparent distance, and, therefore, naturally weakened its effects. If men put off the thoughts of death and eternity when they have such a short space to live as they have at present, how difficult would it be to impress [them] with a serious or alarming apprehension of it at the distance of a thousand years!

92

IX.

ON THE END OF MAN'S EXISTENCE.

EZEK. XV. 2.-What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?

THE vine-tree is weaker than most trees, so as to be unfit for any work, and would therefore be very contemptible but for that property it possesses of bringing forth a valuable and delicious fruit. On this account it is highly prized, and diligently cultivated. But if it fail of producing fruit, the only purpose to which it can be applied, is to turn it to fuel. Such is the figurative representation which the prophet gives us, in this passage, of man, considered especially as the object of divine care and culture. He is naturally capable of yielding a precious fruit; in this consists his sole excellency; this is the sole end of his existence; and if he fails in this, he is of no use but to be destroyed.

I. Man is naturally capable of yielding a most precious fruit: this fruit consists in living to God.

1. He is possessed of all the natural powers which are requisite for that purpose. He is endowed with reason and understanding, enabling him to perceive the proofs of the being of God, and to entertain just, though inadequate conceptions of the principal attributes of his nature; his self-existence, his absolute perfection, his power,

his wisdom, his all-sufficiency, his omnipresence, his holiness, justice, and goodness. Inferior animals do not; on which account he is a vine-tree amongst the trees of the wood; inferior in many properties to some of them, but superior in those particulars which fit him for this end, and on that account incomparably more valuable.

2. As we are possessed of natural powers, fitting us for the service of God, so he has bestowed upon us much care and culture, with an express view to this end. The religious instruction he gave to his ancient people, is frequently compared in scripture to the cultivation which men bestow upon vines. My beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill," &c.* "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant." He gave them his will, his ordinances, his prophets, and separated them from all nations by peculiar rites, that they might be to him for a name, and a praise, and a peculiar treasure, above all nations. He has done much more

for us under the gospel. None can be ignorant of the intention of God in all these provisions. "Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed how then art thou now turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?"

II. This is the only end for which mankind are formed and preserved; this is the proper fruit of human nature, which admits of nothing being substituted in its room.

* Isaiah v. 1.

1. A mere selfish, voluptuous life, cannot be supposed to be the proper fruit of human nature. He who lives to himself is universally despised and condemned. "Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth to himself."* "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter."†

2. A life of social benevolence, in which the public good is preserved, without a supreme regard to God, cannot be this fruit. Can such persons be said to neglect the end of their existence? Undoubtedly; for the following reasons:

(1.) To do good to our fellow-creatures, without regard to God, is to forget the principal relation in which we stand, and, consequently, to neglect the principal duty. A right behaviour to each other is no proper compensation for the want of obedient regards to God: instanced in pirates and rebels. A regard to God is the root and origin of all real virtue.

(2.) The end of man's existence cannot, with any propriety, be considered as confined to this world; but the proper end accomplished by mere social virtues, is entirely confined to the present state.

(3.) No collective number of men can be independent of God, more than a single individual; therefore no such collective body has a right to consult their common interest, to the neglect of God, any more than a single individual to pursue *Hos. x. 1. + Deut. xxxii. 32.