e See the verse before the text ; which, stripped of the figure, may be considered as comprehending the two questions contained in this bracket.
^ Could superstition obscure the light ? its clouds have been dis- pelled by the revival of literary and religious knowledge. Could p7-e- judice pervert our judgment? a liberality of sentiment prevails beyond the example of former ages. Could f/uilt dismay our hearts ? God has sent his own Son to die for us. Could a sense of our rveakness discourage us ? God has promised the aid of his Spirit. Could per- secution 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 ?
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 onotives 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'."]
But that God is displeased with our unprofitable- ness, will appear from, III. His menace —
Under the figure of " laying waste" a vineyard ^ 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 inces- santly for our good, will abandon us at last to our own hearts' lusts'. 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".]
2. He will withdraw the advantages we now enjoy —
• 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 as 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 ; tuid the other of pride, worldliness, and indifference.
N. B. The notes f, ^, and ', 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.
k ver. 5, 6. i Hos. iv. 17. Ps. Ixxxi. 11, 12. "^ Gen. vi. 3.