Page images
PDF
EPUB

66

"to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He is evidently set before you, crucified for your sins. He entreats you daily to be reconciled to God, and points to his own wounds and to his flowing blood, with infinite compassion, to compel you by motives irresistible. Why will you not comply? Should an enemy, malicious, sagacious, and implacable beyond example, and fraught with the spirit of a fiend, contrive to lull you into security, allure you to sin, harden your hearts, and blind your minds, in such a manner as to ruin your souls and lead you to final perdition,-what would be your views concerning the character of such a being when you came to the miseries of damnation? Would you not think eternity too short to vent all your resentment against the murderer of your souls? What other part are you now acting? Every sin which you commit, every season of grace which you lose, every warning which you cast away, is a proof that you are suicides, suicides of your souls, destroyers of immortal life. What sentence ought you then to pass on your conduct, on yourselves?

Awake from this sleep of stupidity, sottishness, and death. Resume your reason. Return to your God, to repentance, faith, and hope, to holiness and heaven. Retire to your closets, shut your doors, and pray to your Father which is in secret. Let heaven, for the first time, hear a fervent, honest prayer ascend for the forgiveness of your sins. Give to good men here, and to angels there, a hope that their joy shall be renewed over your repentance. Let God be able to say concerning each of you," Behold he prayeth."

Betake yourselves to the word of life. Search the Scriptures. Ponder the descriptions of your character, the threatenings against your sins, the invitations to repentance and reformation, the infinite love of the Saviour, the abounding compassion of God, the glorious mission of the Spirit of grace, and the bright < and luminous hopes of immortal life. Think what you will be if impenitent, what you may be if you please, and what you will be if you repent. Weigh endless life with the loss of the pleasures of sin, and endless death with the enjoyment of those pleasures, and carefully cast up the difference. Think how

[blocks in formation]

V

you would feel if a messenger from heaven were to announce to you your certain and final damnation, and then call to mind. that you are daily announcing this tremendous allotment by your own continuance in sin. Lo! life and death are set before you. "Choose you, therefore, this day whom you will "serve," God or the world. Choose whether you will go down.

to perdition, or ascend to everlasting life; and may infinite mercy enable you to make a choice, in which you will find peace and consolation throughout eternity. Amen!

SERMON XVIII.

A SERMON FOR THE NEW YEAR.

Preached January, 1809.

LUKE XIII. 6—9.

[ocr errors]

"He spake also this parable. A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years 1 come, seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down, why 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."

[ocr errors]

THIS parable seems to have been addressed originally to the Jews. They had been long a peculiar object of divine culti vation, and at the time when the parable was delivered were eminently unfruitful. A sentence of excision was gone out against them, but was stayed in its execution by the heavenly vine-dresser; by Him who said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, "that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent un"to thee!" by Him who wept over the future miseries of this devoted nation at the very time when they were preparing to imbrue their hands in his blood. Accordingly, God waited upon them to be gracious; and came many years seeking fruit

and finding none. At length, however, he destroyed them with a terrible destruction by the Roman armies, under the command of Titus. From the date of this fact they have been dispersed among all the nations of men, cast out of the church, and given up to hardness of heart.

But although this parable has a primary reference to the Jews, it is plainly intended to have a reference much more extensive, and therefore much more important. It was spoken for their admonition; it was written for ours. It was originally addressed to the Jews. Through the Gospel it has ever since been addressed to Christians. Every person who lives under the Gospel is here exhibited as a tree, planted by the hand of God in a vineyard, in a soil, and in circumstances naturally rendering it fruitful, as cultivated with attentive care, and as reasonably expected to bring forth fruit. The fruit expected, also, is figs, pleasant, healthful, and useful. Of these trees, however, some are represented as being, notwithstanding all these advantages, absolutely barren, and as thus disappointing, repeatedly, the expectations formed by the owner of the vineyard. After waiting long, and looking frequently, to find fruit on them, he pronounces them to be not only useless, but nuisances, and directs them to be cut down, and cast out of the vineyard as mere "cumberers of the ground." The vinedresser, however, solicits for them a little longer respite, in order to bestow on them a greater measure of care and cultivation; but if, with these peculiar advantages, they should still continue barren, even he consents that they should be destroyed. The following doctrines are, therefore, I think, evidently contained in the text.

I. Mankind under the Gospel are placed by God in circumstances peculiarly fitted to make them fruitful in righteousness.

Fig trees, planted in a rich soil, and carefully cultivated, will yield fruit, if they will yield it at all.

II. When God has waited a reasonable time, and finds them barren and useless in the world, he determines to destroy them. "Behold these three years I come secking fruit on this fig

"tree, and find none, cut it down, why cumbereth it the "ground."

Three years are certainly a sufficient period to determine whether a tree, of native growth, will yield fruit or not. By this period we are plainly taught that the time during which God waits upon sinners is a sufficient one to decide this point.

III. By the intercession of his servants the patience of God towards sinners is prolonged until there is no more hope concerning them.

[ocr errors]

"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.""

IV. The means of divine cultivation furnish important hope for sinners.

Otherwise the observations in the two last quoted verses would have no meaning.

That all these doctrines are contained in the text, as well as that they are all true, is so obvious, that efforts to render them more so would be made to no purpose. My proper business, therefore, will be to make a direct application of them to this assembly.

First, This congregation consists of those who have been born and educated under all the privileges of the Gospel.

All those who are before me have been born in a Christian land. From the morning of life you have all received a religious education. You have been taught to read from the beginning, and thus have enjoyed the privilege of an open and daily access to the Bible for divine knowledge. The venerable and affecting instructions of parents have been given you, from the time when you were first able to receive them From the same period you have had the privilege of beholding the life and conversation of good men, and have daily seen them in a manner too evident, and too unexceptionable, to be questioned," adorn the doctrine of God, their Saviour.”

The Sabbath, peculiarly the day of grace, eminently the

« PreviousContinue »