perish.

Christ delivers the parable of the barren fig-tree.

SECT.

cxvi.

9

ye shall all likewise except you repent, you shall all perish thus; you shall be pressed under the insupportable load of the Divine vengeance, and be destroyed under the ruins of that holy city in which you XIII. 5.

6 He spake also this

in his vineyard; and

Rone.

three years I come

trust.

And, in order to awaken them more effectually 6 parable: A certain man to such deep and serious repentance, he spake had a fiz-tree planted this parable to them; There was a certain man he came and sought who had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and fruit thereon, and found he came, for several successive seasons, searching 7 Then said he unto for fruit upon it, but he found none. And at 7 the dresser of his vine- length, despairing of any better success, he said yard, Behold, these to the keeper of the vineyard, Behold, these three seeking fruit on this years together I have come to look for fruit upon fg-tree, and find none: this fig-tree, and still I find none; cut it down cut it down, why cum- therefore immediately, as a barren tree: for why bcreth it the ground? does it thus cumber the ground, filling up the place of more profitable plants with its useless bulk, and drawing away nourishment from those that grow round it? But such was the concern 8 of the vine-dresser for its preservation, that he said to him in reply, Sir, I desire thou wouldst dig about it, and dung let it alone this year also, till I shall dig up the ground about it, and lay dung to the root of it: 9 And if it bear And then perhaps it may bear fruit, and if so, 9 fruit, well: and if not, it is well, and thou preservest thy tree; but if not, after this thou shalt, if thou pleasest, cut it down, and I will say nothing farther to prevent

8 And he, answer inz, said unto him, year also, till I shall

Lord, let it alone this

then after that thou shalt cut it down.

it. By which parable our Lord did plainly re-
present to the Jews the Divine displeasure against
them for having neglected the many opportuni-
ties they had enjoyed as planted in the vineyard
of God's church (compare Isa. v. 1, 2. xxvii.
2, 3.) and in an awful manner intimated, that
though they had hitherto, at his intercession,
been spared, yet, if they continued unfruitful
under the additional cultivation they were short-
ly to receive, on the descent of the Spirit, and

the

Luke

10

Reflections on the guilt and danger of unfruitfulness. SECT. the proposal of the gospel in its full extent and cxvi. evidence, they must expect nothing but speedy, irresistible and irrecoverable ruin.

Luke XIII. 9.

IMPROVEMENT.

8

Ver. WHICH of us may not learn a lessen for himself from this in6 structive parable of the fig-tree? Have we not long been planted in God's vineyard, and favoured with the cultivation of his ordinances, yea, with the dews of his grace too; and yet how little fruit have we borne in proportion to those advantages? How long has he come seeking it in vain, while we have frustrated the most reasonable expectations, perhaps not only for three, but several of us for more than thirty years? Wonderful is it, that the dreadful sentence has not long since gone forth against us, Cut s them down, why cumber they the ground? We owe it to the intercession of our blessed Redeemer, the Great Keeper of the garden of God, that this has not long since been our case. Let us not be high minded, but fear! (Rom. xi. 20.) Let barren sinners reflect, 9 that this may be the last year, perhaps indeed the last month, or last day of their trial; for even now also is the ax laid to the root of the tree! (Mat. iii. 10.) And let them remember, that though there be hope of a tree, when it is cut down, that it may sprout again, (Job xiv. 7), yet, when the doom is executed on them, their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will go up like dust (Isa. v. 24); and every tree which brings not forth good fruit, will be hewn down, and cast into the fire.

2 Let such therefore meditate terror, when the judgments of God are abroad in the earth; and, when others are overwhelmed in ruin, let them not harshly censure the sufferers, as if they were 3,5 greater sinners than any others; but let them apply that salutary, though awful admonition to their own souls, repeating it again and again, till they are pricked to the heart by it, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

1

Terrible indeed was the case of those, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, and of those who were dashed to pieces in a 4 moment by the fall of Siloam's tower: but infinitely more dreadful will be the condition of them, that fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. x. 31), especially of those deceivers, who, having surrounded his altars with the hypocritical forms of devotion, shall themselves be made the victims of his justice, and be crushed by the resistless weight of his almighty vengeance.

:

cxvii.

The parables of the grain of mustard-seed and of the leaven. 13 bound, lo these eigh whom Satan, by the Divine permission, has SECT. teen years, be loosed bound in this cruel manner, lo, for these eighteen years together, should be loosed from this bond even on the sabbath-day, especially when it XIII. 16 might be effected without any labour, by no more than a word and a touch.

from this bond on the sabbath-day?

17 And when he had said these things,

all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things thatwere done by him.

18 Then said he, Unto what is the king

semble it?

19 It is like a grain

Luke

And when he had said these things, all his 17 opposers were ashamed, and perfectly confounded by the strength of such obvious and conclusive reasoning: and all the multitude who were present rejoiced in his triumph; for they were greatly delighted with all the wonderful and glorious things that were done by him, in which there was so amiable a display of his goodness as well as his power.

19

Now on this occasion, for the farther encou-18 dom of God like? and ragement of his friends, and confusion of his whereunto shall I re- enemies, our Lord thought proper to intimate the great increase of his kingdom, notwithstanding the malignant opposition it should meet with, which he illustrated by two parables formerly delivered elsewhere: and he said, To what is the kingdom of God like, and what shall I compare it to? or how is it that I shall represent the propagation of the gospel in the world? It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and it sowed in his garden: and from so minute a seed it grew to a prodigious bulk, and became such a great tree, that the birds of the air came and lodged in its branches. So shall my kingdom, which in its first beginning seems to be contemptible, diffuse itself in time over the whole world, and the inhabitants of distant nations shall seek their shelter in it. (Compare Mat. xiii. 31, 32. and Mark iv. 30-32. Vol. VI. p. 353, 354.