Let us then consider attentively,
II. What portion such persons must expect —
The Jews, as our Lord foretold, were visited with the heaviest calamities —
[They, when interrogated by our Lord, confessed what such labourers must expect at the hands of their lord™. And behold, it happened to them according to their word. That generation was not passed away, before their city was burnt up, their people were massacred without distinction, and their whole polity, civil and religious, was dissolved. Nor can any one reflect on their treatment of their Messiah, without acknowledging the equity of those unparalleled judgments that were inflicted on them.]
And shall not the wrath of God fall on those also who contemn him now ?
[Let our Lord's appeal be considered, " What shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?" Would any rational person imagine that he should shew kindness to such obstinate transgressors ? Do we not see immediately that God must be incensed against them ? must he not be displeased with those who withhold from him the tribute of their love ? Must he not be indignant also that his messages of mercy are so conti- nually slighted ? And above all, must not the contempt poured upon his only dear Son, provoke him to anger ? What can we expect, but that his wrath should wax hot against us, and "burn even to the lowest helln?" Let any one impartially consider the ingratitude and impiety of such conduct, and he will confess that the everlasting punishment of such offenders is no more than adequate to their just desert0.]
Let us then learn from this parable,
1. That we are accountable to God for all the
advantages we enjoy —
[If God has made us his vineyard, and bestowed culture upon us, doubtless such a favour entails upon us an obligation to love and serve him. And if he have sent a succession of faithful servants to remind us of our duty, and direct us in the performance of it, this also calls for correspondent acknow- ledgments from us. Above all, if he have sent us his only dear Son, not only to instruct us, but to die for us, we should be incessantly filled with admiration of his love, and with zeal for his glory. But these very mercies, if overlooked and despised, will bring upon us the heavier indignation. Think
m Matt. xxi. 41. n Deut. xxxii. 22.
0 Heb. ii. 3. and x. 28, 29.