Luke xiii. 7 — 9. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none : cut it doivn ; ivhy cumbereth it the ground ? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
PERSONS, who can least bear a scrutiny them- selves, are apt to pass the severest censures upon others. But we can never form a just estimate of men's characters from the dispensations of Providence towards them ; nor, though our conclusions were more certain, would it become us to place ourselves on the seat of judgment : we are far more concerned to prepare for the account which we ourselves must render unto God. Such was the advice which our Lord gave to his censorious hearers : he bade them repent of their own sins instead of presuming to judge others a, and enforced his admonition with an apposite and instructive parable. We shall inquire,
I. In what respects we resemble a barren fig-tree ?
Humiliating as the comparison before us is, it is but too just. We have enjoyed every advantage that could conduce to fruitfulness —
[The fig-tree is represented as planted in a vineyard where the soil was good, and every attention was paid to it. Thus we have not been left in the open field of the heathen world : we have been planted in the enclosed vineyard of God's Church. His word and ordinances have been regularly administered to us : we have participated both the stated and occasional labours of his ministers ; nor has any thing been wanting which could render us fruitful. God may appeal respecting us, as he did respecting his Church of old : " What could I have done more for them than I have doneb?"]
Yet notwithstanding all our advantages, we have hitherto been found barren —
[For three successive years was the fig-tree destitute of fruit : and have not we been barren a much longer time? The fruits which God expects are repentance, faith, and obedience0 :
but have we mourned over our sins with deep contrition?
Have we fled to Christ as the only refuge and hope of lost sin- ners ? Have we presented ourselves to him a holy and
living sacrifice ? Has it been the labour and ambition
of our souls to abound in these fruits ? Have we not even to this hour been " barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ?" Have we not rather, as cumberers of the gi-ound, been prejudicial to those around us? Have not those who
a ver. 1 — 5. b Isai. v. 4.
c Matt. iii. 8. Luke xviii. 8. and Phil. i. 11.