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VER. 8.] what sort they are, 1 Cor. iii. 13-15. And hence the Lord Christ, in the trial of his church, is compared to a refiner with fire, Matt. iii. 12.; so faith is tried, 1 Pet. i. 7. And it is the word which our apostle useth, when he enjoins us to try and search ourselves as unto our sincerity in faith and obedience, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Gal. vi. 4. as also to make a due inquiry into the true nature of spiritual things, Rom. xii. 2. Eph. v. 10. not contenting ourselves with a bare notion of them, but endeavouring after an experience of their power in our own hearts. xin is often used by our apostle for an experience upon trial, Rom. v. 4. 2 Cor. ii. 9. Phil. ii. 22. as doxov by Peter, 1 Pet. i. 7. Hence is doxos, one that upon trial is approved, found sound, and therefore is accepted, 1 Cor. xi. 19. 2 Cor. x. 18. 2 Tim. ii. 15. James i. 12. ευάρεστος τω Θεώ, και δοκιμος τοις ανgamois, Rom. xiv. 18. Accepted with God, and approved with men.' Hence adoxiμos is one rejected, disproved upon trial, reThe probate, 1 Cor. ix. 27. 2 Cor. xiii, 5, 6. Tit. i. 16. whole is expressed, Jer. vi. 29, 30. "The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain : reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." All means were used to try to the utmost whether there were any true sincere metal in them. After all, they were found agyigion adoxspor, refuse silver, mere dross,' which was therefore rejected as of no use. This ground therefore is supposed to have had a trial made of it, and all proper means to have been used for to make it fruitful; but whereas nothing succeeded, it is to be adoxes, rejected, disapproved,' laid aside as to any further endeavours to make it successful. Such a piece of ground the husbandman leaves caring for: he will lay out no more charge about it, nor take any more pains with it, for he finds on trial that it is incurable.

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Secondly, It is said to be xaragas eyyus, nigh unto a curse." The husbandman doth not presently destroy such a piece of ground, but neglecting of it, lets it lie, further to discover its own barrenness and unprofitableness. But this he doth, so as to declare his resolution to lay it waste, and so to cast it out of the bounds of his possession; and he doth it three ways: 1. By gathering out of it all the good plants and herbs that yet remain in it, by transplanting them into a better soil. 2. By casting down its fences, and laying it waste, that all the beasts of the field shall lodge in it, and prey upon it. 3. By withholding all means of doing it good, by watering or manuring of it. And hereby it becomes like to the barren wilderness, as it lies under the curse, which no man careth for. It is nigh to that condition wherein it shall not be known that it was ever owned by him, or did ever belong to his possession. So is it nigh unto cursing. For as blessing of any thing is an addition

of good, so cursing implies the taking off all kindness, and all effects thereof, and therewithal the devoting of it to destruction.

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Lastly, It is added, is to viños sis xavory, whose end is unto burning,' or to be burned. Fire makes a total and dreadful destruction of all combustible things whereunto it is applied. T'hence such desolations are said to be firing or burning, by what means soever they are effected. Things are consumed, as if they were burned up with fire. There is a burning of ground which is used to make it fruitful, as the poet expresseth it in his Georgics,

Sæpe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros,

Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere flammis.

But it is a burning of another kind that is here intended, and this is an act of positive indignation. He will not only shew his dissatisfaction with such barren ground by a neglect of it, but his vengeance in its destruction. And it is thus expressed, to intimate both the temporal destruction of the obstinate Jews, and the eternal destruction of all unbelievers, both by fire of several kinds. Thus therefore the apostle declares, that God the great husbandman and owner of the vineyard, would deal with the impenitent and incredulous Hebrews.

First, He tried them, and that for a long season, by the preaching of the gospel. The rain fell oft upon them, and that for the space now of thirty-six years or thereabouts. God did, as it were, essay by outward means, to make them fruitful, to bring them to faith, repentance and obedience; but after this long trial, it appeared that they multiplied, as it were under his hand, the thorns and briers of their unbelief, and all sorts of provoking sins. Wherefore God rejects them, declares that his soul had no pleasure in them, that he would be at no further cost about them. And twice did our apostle remind his countrymen in other places, that God would speedily so deal with them, Acts xiii. 40, 41. 46. ch. xxviii. 25-28. as our Saviour had often threatened them, that the kingdom of God should be taken from them, they should no longer enjoy the means of saving knowledge or repentance. God laid them aside as a field no longer fit to be tilled. And this he did about the writing of this Epistle; for immediately hereon he began utterly to forsake them who were obstinate in their Judaism, and all those who apostatized thereunto from Christianity. And thus also in proportion he deals with all other unprofitable hearers and apostates. There is a time after which he casts them out of his care, will feed them no more, provide no more that they be rained on or dressed; and if they do any more enjoy the word, it is by accident, for the sake of some who are approved, but

they shall receive no advantage by it, seeing they are no longer God's husbandry.

Secondly, On this rejection of them, they were nigh unto cursing; that is, they were so ordered and disposed of, as that the destroying curse of God's might came upon them. God had now anathematized them, or devoted them to destruction; and hereupon he gave them up unto all those ways and mean whereby it might be hastened and infallibly overtake them. For, 1. He gathered all the good plants from amongst them; he called out and separated from them all true believers, and planted them in the Christian church; so he deals with all apostate churches before their utter destruction, Rev. xviii. 4. 2. He took away their fences, casting them out of his protection, in so much that when they were destroyed, the general of the Roman army acknowledged that God had infatuated them, that their impregnable holds and forts were of no use to them. 3. He granted them no more use of means for their conversion. Thenceforwards they fell into all manner of sins, confusions, disorders, tumults, which occasioned their ruin. After the same manner will God deal with any other people whom he rejects for their rejection of the gospel. And the world hath no small reason to tremble at the apprehension of such a condition at this day.

Thirdly, In the end, this whole barren earth was burned up. In the first place, this respects the destruction of Jerusalem, which ensued not long after, when temple and city, and people and country, were all devoured by fire and sword, Matt. xxiv. 1, 2. But yet this, like the destruction of Sodom, was but an emblem of the future judgment. Hypocrites, unbelievers, apostates, are to have another end, than what they fall into in this world. An end they shall have, wherein their eternal condition shall be immutably stated. And this end that they must have, is, to the fire, the fire prepared for the devil and his angels; they shall be gathered together, and burned with a fire that shall never be quenched, John xv. 6. And this final destruction of all unprofitable hearers, unbelievers and apostates, is that which is principally intended in the words. And we must not let this wholesome admonition pass without some observations from it.

Obs. I. Whilst the gospel is preached unto men, they are under their great trial for eternity.-The application that is made unto them, is for an experiment how they will prove. If they acquit themselves in faith and obedience, they receive the blessing of eternal life from God. If they prove barren and unprofitable, they are rejected of God and cursed by him. Nor shall they ever have any other trial, nor shall ever any other experiment be made of them, Heb. x. 30, 31. 38. Their sea

son of the enjoyment of the gospel is their day. When that is past, the night comes on them, wherein they cannot work. When these bellows are burnt, and the lead is consumed, the founder founding in vain, men are rejected as reprobate silver, never to be tried any more. Men do but deceive themselves in their reserve of a purgatory, when they are gone out of this world. If they are cast under their trial here, so they must abide to eternity. And we may do well to consider these things distinctly, because our concern in them is very great. To this purpose observe,

1. That we are all made for an eternal state and condition in blessedness or woe. Men may live like beasts, and therefore wish that they might die like them also; but we are all made with another design, and must all of us stand in our eternal lot at the end of the days, Dan. xii. 13.

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2. That the unchangeable determination of our eternal state depends on what we do in this life. There is neither wisdom, nor knowledge, duty nor obedience, in the grave, whither we are going. "As the tree falls, so it must lie." "It is appointed for all men once to die, and after that is the judgment. thing interposeth to alter our state and condition between death and judgment. The contrivance of purgatory when we are gone hence, was an invention of Satan to delude the souls of men with hopes of relief, when all means and ways of it were past and irrecoverable.

3. The trial of our future state is made by the preaching of the gospel unto us, and our compliance with it, or rejection of it. This is that which the text declares on the one hand and the other the barren ground is rejected on this trial.

4. It was a fruit of infinite grace, condescension and mercy, to grant a new trial unto sinners, under the curse we had all cast ourselves into. There God might have left us. So he dealt with the sinning angels, whom he spared not. And had he dealt so with all mankind, who could say unto him, What dost thou? And it is that which we must all answer for, namely, that when we were lost and fallen under the sentence of the holy and righteous law, God would propose any terms of peace and reconciliation unto us, and give us a second trial thereon.

5. That the especial way of this trial, doth most eminently set out this grace and mercy. A way it is full of infinite wisdom, goodness, love, mercy and grace. Such as wherein all the divine perfections will be eternally glorified, whether it be accepted or refused.

6. When the gospel is preached unto any, God telleth sinners, that although they have destroyed themselves, and are ready every moment to sink into eternal misery, yet he will, out of infinite grace and compassion, try them once more, and that

by the holy terms of the gospel. And in the preaching of the word he doth it accordingly. And although the season of this trial be determined with God, yet it is unto us uncertain on many accounts; for, 1. The continuance of our lives, during which alone we are capable of enjoying it, is so. 2. We see that the preaching of the gospel is so also. The Lord Christ doth oft-times remove the candlesticks, whilst they continue alive in the world among whom it was once fixed. And, 3. There is a time when a period is put unto the efficacy of the word for the conversion of some, although the outward dispensation be continued unto them, Isa. vi. 9-11. Wherefore, it is our duty to consider and improve the present season and present enjoyment of the gospel; for what is the work that therein God hath in hand towards us? Is it not to give us our trial in the use of means, as to what shall be our future condition? He hath therein taken us as his vineyard, as his husbandry, and causeth the rain to fall upon us, and hath done so often and long. And who almost doth consider aright how great his concern is herein? Would men be so careless, negligent, formal, slothful, as they are for the most part, under the hearing of the word, if they duly remembered that it is their trial for eternity? and they know not how soon it may be over. If we lose this season, we are gone for ever. It is therefore our wisdom to know whether our fruitfulness in faith, repentance and obedience, do answer the rain and dressing we have had by the dispensation of the word. The axe is laid at the root of the tree: if we bring not forth good fruit, we shall ere long be hewed down and cast into the fire. It is true, there is none of us do answer as we ought the love and care of God towards us herein, nor can we so do. When we have done our utmost, we are but unprofitable servants. But there is a wide difference between a defect in degrees of obedience, and the neglect of the whole. Where the first is, we ought to walk humbly in the sense of it, and labour after more perfection. And if this defect be great and notable, such as is occasioned by our lusts indulged, or by sloth and negligence, as we can have no evidence of our being approved of God, so it is high time to recover ourselves by new diligence and holy endeavours, or we may be cast in our trial. But where the latter is, where men bring no fruit meet for repentance, what can they expect but to be finally and totally rejected of God. Whereas therefore we have been long most of us under this trial, it is assuredly high time that we call ourselves unto a strict account with respect unto

And if upon inquiry we find ourselves at a loss which sort of ground we do belong unto, because of our barrenness and leanness, unless we are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, we will give ourselves no rest until we have better evidences of our

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