The Barren Fig Trees Doom, Sermon 8
SERMON VIII.
DOCTRINE II. It is an high Aggravation of the guilt of sinners in the visible Church that they remain barren after long Patience, and great paint used with them.
HEre lies the Emphasis of the Complaint, that he had tarried so many years, and come so frequently, and the fig-tree continues barren: and he speaks it as a strange things, that calls for observation; Behold! That the sins of men do admit of aggravations, or are greatned by circumstances, is evident from Scripture. Not only are some sins in themselves more heinous and Scandalous than others; but the same sins in themseves, may be made more provoking and deeper died; and there are divers ways in which they come so to bee, and among other rules by which this is to be judged of, here is one: VIZ: The greater obligations that God hath upon men, to repent of and turn from their sins to him, …he greater must the provocation needs be. This was it that made S…lomons sin the more observable, because God had appeared to him twice: this aggravated Davids sin, because God had done so much for him: this made the sins of Capernaum so terrible, because Christ had done so many wonderful works among them: this put an Emphasis upon the sin of the Woman Jez…be…, that God had given her a space to repent, and she repented not. Now among these obligations, the most comprehensive are these two contained in out Text, viz, Gods long patience with them, and his often coming to them; and here we may enquire,
1. When men may be said to remain barren under all?
2. Whence it is that they so do?
3. Wherein this appears to be so great an aggravation of their Guilt?
1. When men may be said to be barren after all?
A. It hath been already expressed under a former Doctrine, what are the Characters of a fruitless tree in the Vineyard. All I shall here add is only to observe, that there is a two-fold barrenness that may be taken notice of in professors that sit under the means of Grace, and have long enjoyed Gods patient strivings with them, VIZ; total and partial.
1. Total barrenness is when men, after all, remain in their natural state, unconverted to God. Every Child of Adam, in his unconverted state, is barren: he is utterly uncapable of bringing forth any fruit that is acceptable to God; he is a briar and thorn, and cannot bear figs. The sinner, before conversion, hath no saving principle in him, and therefore he cannot serve God; his best moral actions are but glitering abominations: as long therefore as he abides thus, and doth not truly turn to God, he is the same man that he was born: whatsoever men obtain by means, though they get a great deal of literal, knowledge in the things of God, and obtain so much of a civil and moral conversation, as the young man in, Mat. 19. yet if▪ he be not savingly changed, if he be not throughly turned to God, he is an empty vine, his works are dead works, he is still dead in trespasses and sins. Nature under all its moral refinings, is but nature still; grace is another manner of thing, and he is a stranger to it; he is yet in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.
2. Partial barrenness is when Professors do not bring forth fruit answerable to their tilling. When Christians have a new principle of grace in them, and do bear real fruit, but it is little they bring forth, nothing in comparison with the cost and Pains that is laid out upon them: and good scarce deserves to be called so, in them from whom far better is expected. God doth not afford to all his people alike advantages; and a tree may be counted fruitful for one Soil that may be reputed unfruitful in another: and it is apparent, that some Christians that enjoy the same helps, that grow in the same Vineyard, do abundantly less for God than others do; now these may be said in a degree to be barren: and although the Doctrine more especially arms at the former, yet these also come under the consideration of it.
2. Whence it is that they are so? i. e. that they abide unfruitful after all endeavours patiently used with them.
A. There are these things here to be observed:
1. In respect of total barrenness?
1. That mans natural barrenness cleaves to him so close, that no creature can remove it. They cannot bear, except they be changed, and there is no power in themselves, nor in any man or Angel to do it for them. It is a work of Divine Power to make any soul spiritually fruitful: the stock, and root and branches are dead; and as a dead tree cannot bear, so art cannot put life into it, a Miracle only can, Joh. 1. 13.
2. That hence the means, though proper as means, yet have their efficacy absoultely depending on him who hath made them means. Every man cannot wield Goliab… Sword. The word indeed is compared to a two-edged Sword, but none can make it to cut by the Spirit: An Instrument is then serviceable, when one that is able and skillful applies it; the Word then converts, when the Spirit makes it a converting word. If God touch Lyd…a's heart, whilst Paul is Preaching; she shall yield to the call: if he puts quickning efficacy into it, men shall be quickned by it, else they remain dead in trespasses and sins, for all the endeavours of moral Instruments.
3. There is a natural resistance in the hearts of men, to all the endeavours which are used with them in the means. The con…enerate corruption which men lying with them into the world, hath in it a strong in mity against all which is good, Rom. 8.7, …. and by vertue of this they set themselves to resist the Spirit of God, and so withstand all the calls and counsels that are given them, despising the goodness and forbearance of God, and turning the Gospel grace into wantonness: and thus will all men do as long as they are left to themselves, by reason of the wickedness that is in their hearts.
4. That God doth often judicially leave men to their own choice. He gives them up to their hearts lusts, they resist his grace, and he calls, and convinceth… and waits, but they will not near him, and thereupon he suffers them to take their course, because they will not receive instruction: and it is righteous with him so to do, because they in this resistance, shut their eyes against rational conviction, and are wilful against the clearest light; and whilst it is so, let him wait never so long, and come never so often, they will be never the better, but abide barren still.
2. In respect of partial barrenness.
1. There is a root of corruption, tending to unfruitfulness, in Gods children in this life, Paul hath his body of death which pesters him; and what is the tendency of Death but barrenness? a dead womb is a barren womb; a dead heart, a barren heart. The acts of grace are life acts, death therefore is directly contrary to them, and this was the things which made Paul so unable to do the things that he would.
2. There are a great many Temptations that the Children of God do meet with to hinder them in their constant serving of God. The World we live in, is a place of Temptation, and every thing is full of it: and the tendency of it is to abure or discourage the Christian from his work. There are the Temptations of carnal pleasures, of worldly encumbrances, of difficulties and threatning dangers in Duty. Riches have their shares, and so hath poverty: peace hath its allure-ments, and persecution it's affrightments.
3. The corrupt part that is in us, often takes advantage by these Temptations to obstruct the Christian in his business. It is by these things that the Law in his Members brings him into Capativity? and if the Spirit of God leaves him to himself to try what is in him, it is always so: he either dallies with allurements, and diverts unhappily to these things, and spends his time with them; or he stops at discouragements, and sits still disheartned; and by these means he neglects the work of God, which causeth the fruits of Holiness to grow very thin upon him, as the grapes on the vines after the Vintage, Micah. 7. 2.
3. Wherein this appears to be so great an aggravation of their Guilt?
A. This will be seen by laying those things together.
1. That it is the duty of sinners to hearken to the voice of God. Whatever pleas men may pretendedly make of their own impotency, it gives them no discharge from the obligation… of Duty which is lying upon them. God is the rightful Lord and Lawgiver; and his commands have an Obedience due to them from the creature, who cannot with hold it without the guilt of rebellion. Besides, the Gospel takes off all excuse here; because it looks upon men as being without strength in themselves, and hath accordingly provided and offered all help to them in Christ, whose spirit is ready and able to do all that is wanting. Now it is certain that God requires fruit of all that enjoy the means: he looks for it, Text. It is his will that they bear it, 1 Thes▪ 4. 3.
2. That this Patience of God gives men a great deal of opportunity to bring forth fruit, if they had an heart to it. This life is a time of serving God in; that which follows is the time of reward: the longer therefore men live in Gods Vineyard, the greater season they have of doing him service: every day that they are there continued, puts a new price into their hands, which, when once Gods patience is at an end, men must never more expect to enjoy: and hence the more of it is now allowed them, which they improve not, the more opportunity is lost: it gives them space to bethink themselves, to reflect upon their Ways and courses, to recover their lost time, and to redeem their season, by a better and more diligent improvement of it.
3. The means afforded them are very proper as means, to the end of fruitfulness. Means indeed are to be looked at in their proper place, and acknowledged as so; and in this respect there is nothing wanting to them, which is proper and suitable in this affair. Our fruit is a reasonable service, Ro. …2. 1. the means which God comes to us in, are very well accommodated to such a service, for its help, 2 Tim. 3. 16, 17. They serve to inform the understanding in the Doctrines of Salvation, and tell men wherein God is to be served; what is the fruit that he expects and will accept; where strength i… to be had, and how to be improved; to establish the Judgment in the excellency of Obedience, and great benefits of serving God; to convince the Conscience of all sin and disobedience: to territy sinners from their sinful unprofitableness; to encourage holiness, by all the precious promises which are made to all such as bear fruit: and what more can be desired in means.
4. Hence this patience, and these pains which God useth are leading to Repentance. If the Goodness and Forbearance of God exercised towards heathen are so, Rom, 2. 3. How much more are these Gospel endeavours so, which he lays out upon men that are under the dispensations of it? They lead by way of Conviction shewing men what reason there is why they should so do; and they lead also by way of Invitation: there is an Invitation in the things themselves, patience saith that God is not willing these sinners should perish, else he needed not to have waited no them, who every day gave him provocation; and that hath a loud call in it. Every time God, comes in an Ob…i…ance or Providence, he doth therein bespeak men: and to be sure all the secret approaches of the spirit of God to their hearts in and by these, have a close call in them.
5. Hence the more men have of these, and continue unfruitful under them, the more is God despised, and his favours abused. Bartenness under Gods patience & pleading with men, addes contempt to unprofitableness, and by this means all the expense that is laid out upon them comes to be lost, as to their benefit, & they do what in them lies to frusstrate God of his just expectation. For a tree in the Wilderness to bear nothing is not so much, but when it is transplanted into the Vineyard; and hath stood there from year to year, under all the care and tendance which is here used, still to bear nothing▪ it hath so such labour and time spent upon it in vain, …ners have now the Guilt of neglecting so Many endeavours, spending so many dayes … no purpose, trampling upon so many calls and counsels: and if God sets a great value on these things, their Guilt must needs be greatly heightned, who slight and contemn them all.
6. Hereby unregenerate sinners the more discover their impen…enc… & desperate hardness of heart: yea indeed, they are made the more obstinate and lard-hearted. Unprofitableness under the means that God useth with men in his house, makes them more …ooted in sin, and they that are not converted by them, are set farther off from it, and that not only judicially, but naturally too; for sin gets h…ad and ripens no where faster, then under the Gospel, which, where it is not a favour of life, will be a favour of …ea…h i. e. it will leave men more dead, more unbelieving; set them farther off from God, and under a greater Moral Difficultie… of Conversion; and this also is an aggravasion.
7. Hereby Believers discover the strength of their natural corruption, and do also carry it …worthy of their vocation. It is unbecoming for Gods children to fall into any unprofitable frame, because they are new-born that they might live to the glory of God; And that honour which God hath by them, is by their bearing: but fo… them to live… and continue unfruitful notwithstanding all the means, which are so advantage… ons to stir up and nourish their graces, to rou… and encourage them: must needs be exceeding unworthy, and consequently very offensive to God, as being contradictory to their profession, and I losing of the greatest part of the benefit which they enjoy: it therefore evidenceth that they give way to the body of death, and indrilge that lust which they ought to be always mortifying, else … would not be so, and this must needs bring guilt upon them.
USE I.
This shews us the way how men come to be the amazing monuments of Gods wrath. When God hath a purpose to suffer sinners to bring upon themselves, the most astonishing impressions of his indignation, and to fill up such a measure as shall make them peculiar Instances of his revenging Justice: he placeth them in the Church, gives them leave to fit under clearest Gospel light, and to enjoy all the advantages of the means to the highest, to have line upon line, and to suffer them to stand a long while in this state, un… they have despised a world of endeavours used with them, and tired out a long conti…ed patience, before he falls upon them, and cuts them off; that by abusing the best of …ercies, and wearing out the most restrained forbearance, they may fall at last under the load of so great guilt, as will drag them down into the depths of destruction: and by this means, though for the present he seems to be a loser by these men, yet he doth fully recover his injured glory at their hands in the winding up: Hence,
USE II.
Let it be for an awakening word of terror to all unfruitful Professors, who have been a long while under Gospel dispensations. One would think it should fill the hearts of sinners with consternation to consider of this Truth; that all the while they live under the enjoyment of these favours of God, they are encreasing their account and enflaming the reckoning. Doth every neglected opportunity add one article against you, and encrease the score of your guilt, think then how much there is heaped up against you, and ask your own souls how you shall endure, when all this shall come to be charged upon you… ▪ but give me leave to turn this terror into a word of advice; therefore.
USE III.
Let it be a loud call to old sinners that are under the Gospel. Are there none among us, that have not been three, but thirty, forty, fifty years in the Vineyard, under the means of grace, and strivings of the spirit of God, and have not to this day brought forth and fruit that God will accept of, but have lived in their natural state, neglected their Souls, and not regarded to improve the Opportunities they have had? Let this Doctrine awaken you, and put you upon making haste to get your sin pardoned, your guilt removed, and your souls made fertile; and to move you thereto, let me offer these considerations.
1. Think how much Guilt you have already contracted to yourselves. Know it, whatever pretence of respect you have shewn to the Gospel and the means of Grace, yet your barrenness is a witness against you that you have indeed neglected and despised all: count up how many Sabbaths you have lived▪ and remember so many days have been profaned by you; and so many Sermons as you have heard, so many witnesses you have laid against you: so many of Gods Messengers as have laboured in vain amongst you so many accusers you will have another day, if you repent not: If once rejecting Christs …all, If once refusing to comply with the striving spirit, be enough to ruine you for, ever; how will you be able to stand up under the weight of such innumerable provotations? and will you go on still? say, is it; not high time for you now at length to look about you and bestir yourselves.
2. Remember what an Holy God you have to do with, Never delude your selves with a vain confidence in abused mercy, God knows how to cloth himself with Vengeance. and kindle up his fury into a fire unquencheable, if you dare to go on to itritate it by your impenitence. His Holiness stands engaged for his Honour and will not give away his Glory. His Holiness will not suffer him to lose all the cost and patience laid out upon you. Though fury be not in him yet he will burn up briars and thorns. that resolve to continue to be such: though he can bear with, yet he will not acquit the Guitly if they continue to be so: they are at present a burden to him, and he is pressed by them but he will case himself of these his Enemies.
3. You have as yet the invitation and opportunity to be fruitful. You are still in the Vineyard: wonder at it, and take the encouragement of it, and let it awaken you to improve it. God is still patient, and let that lead you to repentance: there is hope concerning you, but still there is great danger a… you may afterwards hear: let your danger excite you, and your hopes draw you to lay aside any longer delays, and put your selves upon present expedition; go to Christ for pardon, and wait upon him for grace, ask of him his spirit, beg hard that he will purge you, that you may yet be fruit-bearing trees in his Vineyard: and though it be at the …inth or eleverth hour, yet if you be serious and faithful, it shall be well.
USE IV.
Let this also serve to quicken decaying Christians, who yet have the root of the matter in them. Are there any such among us, that have fallen from their first love, and are grown into a great measure of barrenness, who have sometimes flourished in the Courts of God? be awakened and …owzed up to remember the first works and do them, and to excite you hereunto, consider,
1. You greatly dishonour God, and grieve his holy spirit by this. All the fruit that is born unto God in this world is produced by true believers; if then you come short too what shall he do to his Vineyard? this is a very ill requital of God, for all that he hath done for you more then others: to others he hath given the means of Grace, and it is their great iniquity that they despise them, but he hath given you grace with the means, and that is unspeakably more; he may therefore well expostulate with you in a solemn manner.
2. You are also yourselves great losers by it The more fruit that you bear, the more Glory you shall have. Will it not be a great loss, though you be saved by fire, yet to have a great many of your works burnt up? you will also dye with the less comfort: the reflection of your minds upon so much unprofitableness, under such glorious advantages as you have had, will be a sad thought in a dying hour, when you are going to give up your accounts: Hence.
1. Be much in mortifying the lusts that are in you. It is from the prevalency of them that your fruitfulness is obstructed: if they be subdued and kept under, Grace will thrive and put forth; but as long as they are indulged that will be at an under: go then to the Father, the great Husbandman, and pray to him that he will purge you, that so you may bear fruit.
2. Stir up the Graces that are within you. God hath given you a saving principle, but it must be exercised; it will not bring forth fruit without your careful and diligent Improvement of it: and call upon the Spirit of Grace to help you: This will be a good way for you to recover your lost time, and by double diligence to be the more fruitful, from the Consideration of your former decays.