Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 4.djvu/41

Rh world lay in common, not cultivated by divine revelation, that was his vineyard, they were his peculiar people; he owned them, set them apart for himself; the soil they were planted in was extraordinary; it was a very fruitful hill, the horn of the son of oil; so it is in the margin. There was plenty, a cornucopia; and there was dainty, they did there eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and so were furnished with abundance of good things to honour God with in sacrifices and free-will-offerings. The advantages of our situation will be brought into the account another day. Observe further, what God did for this vineyard: 1. He fenced it; took it under his special protection, kept it night and day under his own eye, lest any should hurt it, ch. xxvii. 2, 3. If they had not themselves thrown down their fence, no inroad could have been made upon them, Ps. cxxv. 2.—cxxi. 4. 2. He gathered the stones out of it, that, as nothing from without might damage it, so nothing within might obstruct its fruitfulness. He proffered his grace to take away the stony heart. 3. He planted it with the choicest vine, set up a pure religion among them, gave them a most excellent law, instituted ordinances very proper for the keeping up of their acquaintance with God, Jer. ii. 21. 4. He built a tower in the midst, of it, either for defence against violence, or for the dressers of the vineyard to lodge in; or rather, for the Owner of the vineyard to sit in, to take a view of the vines, (Cant. vii. 12.) a summer-house. The temple was this tower, about which the priests lodged, and where God promised to meet his people, and gave them the tokens of his presence among them, and pleasure in them. 5. He made a wine-press therein, set up his altar, to which the sacrifices, as the fruits of the vineyard, should be brought.

II. The disappointment of his just expectations from them; He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and a great deal of reason he had for that expectation. Note, God expects vineyard-fruit from those that enjoy vineyard-privileges; not leaves only, as Mark xi. 13. A bare profession, though ever so green, will not serve: there must be more than buds and blossoms; good purposes and good beginnings are good things, but not enough, there must be fruit; a good heart and a good life; vineyard-fruit; thoughts and affections, words and actions, agreeable to the Spirit, which is the fatness of the vineyard, (Gal. v. 22, 23.) answerable to the ordinances, which are the dressings of the vineyard, and acceptable to God, the Lord of the vineyard, and fruit according to the season. Such fruit as this God expects from us, grapes, the fruit of the vine, with which they honour God and man; (Judg. ix. 13.) and his expectations are neither high nor hard, but righteous and very reasonable. Yet see how his expectations are frustrated; it brought forth wild grapes; not only no fruit at all, but bad fruit, worse than none; grapes of Sodom, Deut. xxxii. 32. 1. Wild grapes are the fruits of the corrupt nature; fruit according to the crab-stock, not according to the engrafted branch; from the root of bitterness, Heb. xii. 15. Where grace does not work, corruption will. 2. Wild grapes are hypocritical performances in religion, that look like grapes, but are sour or bitter; and are so far from being pleasing to God, that they are provoking, as theirs, ch. i. 11. Counterfeit graces are wild grapes.

III. An appeal to themselves, whether, upon the whole, God must not be justified, and they condemned, v. iii.3, [sic] 4. And now the case is plainly stated, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. This implies that God was blamed about them; there was a controversy between them and him; but the equity was so plain on his side, that he could venture to put the decision of the controversy to their own consciences; "Let any inhabitant of Jerusalem, any man of Judah, that has but the use of his reason, and a common sense of equity and justice, speak his mind impartially in this matter." Here is a challenge to any man to show,

1. Any instance wherein God had been wanting to them; What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? He speaks of the external means of fruitfulness, and such as might be expected from the dresser of a vineyard, from whom it is not required that he should change the nature of the vine. What ought to have been done more? (so it may be read.) They had every thing requisite for instruction and direction in their duty, for the quickening of them to it, and putting of them in mind of it: no inducements were wanting to persuade them to it, but all arguments were used, proper to work either upon hope or fear; and they had all the opportunities they could desire for the performance of their duty, the new-moons, and the sabbaths, and solemn feasts; they had the scriptures, the lively oracles, a standing ministry in the priests and Levites, beside what was extraordinary in the prophets. No nation had statutes and judgments so righteous.

2. Nor could any tolerable excuse be offered for their walking thus contrary to God; "Wherefore, what reason can be given why it should bring forth wild grapes, when I looked for grapes?" Note, The wickedness of those that profess religion, and enjoy the means of grace, is the most unreasonable, unaccountable thing in the world, and the whole blame of it must lie upon the sinners themselves; If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it, and shalt not have a word to say for thyself in the judgment of the great day. God will prove his own ways equal, and the sinner's ways unequal.

IV. Their doom read, and a righteous sentence passed upon them for their bad conduct toward God; (v. 5, 6.) "And now go to; since nothing can be offered in excuse of the crime, or arrest of the judgment, I will tell you what I am now determined to do to my vineyard; I will be vexed and troubled with it no more; since it will be good for nothing, it shall be good for nothing; in short, it shall cease to be a vineyard, and be turned into a wilderness; the church of the Jews shall be unchurched, their charter shall be taken away, and they shall become lo-ammi—not my people." 1. "They shall no longer be distinguished as a peculiar people, but be laid in common; I will take away the hedge thereof, and then it will soon be eaten up, and become as bare as other ground." They mingled themselves with the nations, and therefore were justly scattered among them. They shall no longer be protected as God's people, but left exposed. God will not only suffer the wall to go to decay, but he will break it down, will remove all their defences from them; and then they become an easy prey to their enemies, who had long waited for an opportunity to do them a mischief, and will now tread them down, and trample upon them. 3. They shall no longer have the face of a vineyard, the form and shape of a church and commonwealth, but shall be levelled and laid waste. This was fulfilled when Jerusalem for their sakes was ploughed as a field, Mic. iii. 12. 4. No more pains shall be taken with them by magistrates or ministers, the dressers and keepers of their vineyard; it shall not be pruned or digged, but every thing shall run wild, and nothing shall come up but briers and thorns, the products of sin and the curse, Gen. iii. 18. When errors and corruptions, vice and immorality, go without check or control, no testimony borne against them, no rebuke given them, or restraint put upon them, the vineyard is unpruned, is not dressed or ridded; and then it will soon be like the vineyard of the man void of