danger of apostasy. It exhibits figuratively, in a way of contrast,
I. The benefit of ordinances when duly improved — What is that improvement which God expects us
to make of divine ordinances ?
[Every one knows what benefit the cultivator of any land expects from showers which water the earth ; he expects, whether in his field or garden, an increased production of those fruits which he has been labouring to obtain. And what does the great Husbandman labour to produce in the enclosures of his Church? Surely he looks for augmented penitence and contrition as of primary and indispensable importance
: He desires that every child of man be brought to a
more simple afliance in his dear Son, and to a more unre- served devotedness of heart and life to his service He
desires an increased mortification of all sin, and a progressive fruitfulness in all the fruits of righteousness, and a more perfect transformation into the Divine image ]
Where his ordinances are made subservient to this end, he will bestow the richest blessings —
[There is a peace which passeth all understanding, which
God will confer in rich abundance He will shed
abroad his love in the heart of him who thus profitably waits upon him, and will give him such testimonies of his adoption into God's family, as shall dissipate all doubt or fear either of his present acceptance with God, or of his future fruition of the heavenly glory ; yea, such testimonies as shall be a foretaste of that glory, a very beginning of heaven in his soul. In fact, whatever the devoutest worshipper in the universe can wish for, it shall be given him in answer to his prayer''.]
But it is not to all that divine ordinances are thus blessed, as we shall see from,
II. The sad result of them when habitually mis-
improved — As in barren lands, so in the Church of God, the showers descend on many in vain —
[How many are there who, after years of culture under the richest ordinances, remain as earthly in their minds, as sensual in their habits, and as devilish in their tempers, as the very heathen, who have never once had the means of grace vouchsafed unto them Their hearts are yet sealed up in
^ John XV. 7.