world, and an eternal judgment, you may consider, that though that makes you secure at present, yet it will not do always, it will not stand by when you come to die. The fool often in health saith, There is no God; but when he comes to die, he cannot rest in any such supposition. Then he is generally so much convinced in his own conscience, that there is a God, that he is in dreadful amazement for fear of his eternal wrath. It is folly, therefore, to flatter yourselves with any supposi tion now which you will not then be able to hold. If you depend on long life, consider how many who have depended on the same thing, and had as much reason to depend on it as you, have died within your remembrance. Is it because you are outwardly of an orderly life and conversation, that you think you shall be saved? How unreasonable is it to suppose, that God should be so obliged by those actions, which he knows are not done from the least respect or regard to him, but wholly with a private view! Is it because you are under great advantages that you are not much afraid but that you shall some time or other be converted, and therefore neglect yourselves and your spiritual interests? And were not the people of Bethsaida, Chorazin and Capernaum, under as great advantages as you, when Christ himself preached the gospel to them, almost continually, and wrought such a multitude of miracles among them? Yet he says, that it shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for those cities. Do you expect you shall be saved, however you neglect yourselves, because you were born of godly parents? Hear what Christ saith, Matth. iii. 9. "Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father." Do you flatter yourselves that you shall obtain mercy, though others do not, because you intend hereafter to seek it more earnestly than others? Yet you deceive yourselves, if you think that you intend better than many of those others, or better than many who are now in hell once intended. If you think you are in a way of earnest seeking, consider, whether or no you do not mind other things yet more? If you imagine that you have it in your own power to work yourselves up to repentance, consider, that you must assuredly give up that imagination before you can have repentance wrought in you. If you think yourselves already converted, and that encourages you to give yourselves the greater liberty in sinning, this is a certain sign that you are not converted. Wherefore abandon all these ways of flattering yourselves; no longer follow the devil's bait; and let nothing encourage you to go on in sin; but immediately and henceforth seek God with all your heart, and soul, and strength. SERMON XXI.* Wicked Men useful in their Destruction only. EZEKIEL xv. 2, 3, 4. SON OF MAN, WHAT IS THE VINE TREE MORE THAN ANY DEVOURETH THE visible church of God is here compared to the vine tree, as is evident by God's own explanation of the allegory, in ver. 6, 7, and 8. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem," &c. And it may be understood of mankind in general. We find man often in scripture compared to a vine. So in chapter 32, of Deuteronomy, "Their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall." And Psal. lxxx. 8. "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt;" ver. 14. "Look down from heaven, be hold, and visit this vine." And Cant. ii. 15. "The foxes that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes." Isai. v. at the beginning," My beloved hath a vineyard, and he planted it with the choicest vine." Jer. ii. 21. "I had planted thee a noble vine." Hos. x. 1. "Israel is an empty vine."" So in chap. 15, of John, visible Christians are compared to the branches of a vine. Man is very fitly represented by the vine. The weakness> and dependence of the vine on other things which support it, well represents to us what a poor, feeble, dependent creature man is, and how, if left to himself, he must fall into mischief, and cannot help himself. The visible people of God are fitly compared to a vine, because of the care and cultivation of the husbandman, or vine dresser. The business of husbandmen in the land of Israel was very much in their vineyards, about vines; and the care they exercised to fence them, to defend them, to prune them, to prop them up, and to cultivate them, well represented that merciful care which God exercises towards his visible people; and this latter is often in scriptureexpressly compared to the former. In the words now read is represented, 1. How wholly useless and unprofitable, even beyond oth er trees, a vine is, in case of unfruitfulness: "What is a vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?" i. e. if it do not bear fruit. Men make much more of a vine than of other trees; they take great care of it, to wall it in, to dig about it, to prune it, and the like. It is much more highly esteemed than any one of the trees of the forest; they are despised in comparison with it. And if it bear fruit, it is indeed much preferable to other trees; for the fruit of it yields a noble liquor; as it is said in Jotham's parable, Judg. ix. 13. "And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man ?" But if it bear no fruit, it is more unprofitable than the trees of the forest; for the wood of them is good for timber ; but the wood of the vine is fit for no work; as in the text, "Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?" 2. The only thing for which a vine is useful, in case of barrenness, viz. for fuel: "Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel." It is wholly consumed; no part of it is worth a saving, to make any instrument of it, for any work. DOCTRINE. If men bring forth no fruit to God, they are wholly useless, unless in their destruction. For the proof of this doctrine, I shall show, 1. That it is very evident, that there can be but two ways in which man can be useful, viz. either in acting, or in being acted upon, and disposed of. 2. That man can no otherwise be useful actively than by bringing forth fruit to God. 3. That if he bring not forth fruit to God, there is no other way in which he can be passively useful, but in being destroyed. 4. In that way he may be useful without bearing fruit. I. There are but two ways in which man can be useful, viz. either in acting or being acted upon. If man be an useful sort of creature, he must be so either actively or passively : There is no medium. If he be useful to any purpose, he must be so either in acting himself, or else in being disposed of by some other; either in doing something himself to that pur pose, or else in having something done upon him by some other to that purpose. What can be more plain, than that if |