Doctrine 2: God Looks Closely at Everyone Under the Means of Grace to See If They Bear Fruit

DOCTRINE II. God does particularly and curiously look after every one that lives under the means of grace, to see whether they bear fruit accordingly.

He not only looks after the places in general where his Gospel is enjoyed, and he has a visible Church, with a more critical eye than he does other places; but this observation, and exact inspection of his extends to every individual there: he so looks after every one, as if there were but that one and no more to set his observation upon. God is here compared to a curious and provident husbandman, who, having a vineyard, is often in it, and walks from tree to tree at every season, and takes a full view of each, to see how it sprouts, buds, blossoms, sets for fruit, &c. not omitting of one.

Here three things may be enquired after, 1. What is this curious observation of God? 2. How it appears that he does this by every individual? 3. Why he so does?

1. What is this curious observation which God makes?

A. We may come at something of this in the following conclusions.

1. That there is an essential omnipresence of God with all his creatures: this is one of the divine attributes or perfections which belong to God; it belongs to his prerogative, and is fully and frequently ascribed to him in the Scripture: because he is an infinite, immense and uncomprehended being, he must needs therefore be every where: because place cannot contain him, he must of necessity contain all place: hence that, (1 Kings 8:27) behold, the Heaven, and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain you; the Heaven of Heavens, is the third Heaven, which is the utmost limit of place, and there is none beyond it: hence there is no getting away from him, or absconding ourselves any where, where he is not (Psalm 139:7, &c.).

2. Hence it follows that he must certainly be omniscient. If he be every where, he must needs know every thing. Not only does God assume this attribute to himself, but it also is necessarily inferred from his omnipresence. We are to conceive of God under the notion of an intelligent being; knowledge is therefore ascribed to him; and that not in the concrete only but in the abstract, without a hyperbole (Proverbs 8:14): I am Understanding, wherever then God is, he is there by his knowledge: his knowledge is his being, and must be inseparable from it; and, because his perfections are himself, and he is an undivided being, where he is, there he is in all his attributes; although he makes the manifestations of them to the creatures according to his pleasure.

3. This omniscience of God must needs comprise in it a distinct knowledge of all creatures in particular, and all their action. Universal understanding cannot be confined merely to universals or to generals, but it must reach to individuals; and that not merely as to their beings or natures, but their actions too; none of these must be hid from him; no, it says that he minds, regards, takes particular notice of them; he is for this reason said to count them (Job 31:4), and to be acquainted [illegible] (Psalm 139:13). And this knowledge is extended to the most secret things, even the hearts of men, which are very deep; the thoughts which others can hardly guess at; we are then assured that there is no hiding of counsel from him. God is all eye, and that eye is fixed upon all things, and therefore is said to behold them, and look upon them (Psalm 33:13, 14).

4. Hence God cannot, in propriety of speech, be said to know one thing more than another; or to observe one thing more intensely than another: if we consider this observation as it is in God, it cannot be more or less, intended or remitted; for God does all things like himself, he is the same God; he cannot know or see one thing more distinctly or clearly than another; all things come equally under his cognizance; he is no more intimately acquainted with the things in heaven, than with those in hell; his actual knowledge of all must be infinite, and in that which is infinite, there are no degrees: all beings are comprehended in him (Acts 17:28), and therefore intimate acquaintance with them all belongs to him; yes, and all beings are to be improved by him for his glory; he must therefore know them throughly, and all their motions, that so he may not miss of his glory by them.

5. There are yet some persons and things in which God will have more of his declarative glory to shine forth than in others: it is God's declarative glory which is his last end [illegible] all his works; and he will be glorified in them all; yet not in all alike: some things he will be more seen in than others; he has not put into all things a like capacity of representing his perfections: he has not laid out so much upon some as he has done upon others; and therefore he does not look for so much from those as from these: he has given to some creatures a more excellent being, and endued them with more noble faculties, and they have larger capacities (Job 35:9, 10); he providentially bestows more advantages and helps on some than he does upon others; and he will be no loser by any thing that he does, he will either receive, or recover more from them (Luke 12:48).

6. This glory of his is most of all concerned in his vineyard, or Church: there is a glory which he will have by irrational creatures, his works shall praise him; but there is a special glory that he will have by men; hence there are the great attributes of his justice and grace are concerned about them, and must be made to shine out in them; but among men, there are some whom he has a more special respect to: all are under the conduct of special government, and to be led to be everlasting monuments of his glory: but he has a peculiar people among these, a selected number gathered out of these, whom he has done more for, and expects more from, and will have [illegible] honor in and by the result, and these are his Church: here he most of all manifests himself, and they are to be molded into a Church to show forth his glory (Isaiah 43:21).

Hence he is said, after the manner of men, to have a special inspection over these: because he lays out more upon them, and expects more from them; he is therefore said to look more peculiarly after them: as one which has a plat of ground planted with choice plants; and on which he lays out more than ordinary cost, will he not expect more from it, & be more curious in observing of it, and all the plants there growing; and takes but little care of the rest of his ground in comparison of what he does for this; God is therefore said to know them after a peculiar manner (Amos 3:2), is said to wink at the other, to suffer them to go on in their ways, as if he were careless or not concerned about them; but for his vineyard, to be looking there for grapes, to be visiting it, and coming again and again to it.

How it appears that he does thus by every individual?

Besides the consideration, of what has been already mentioned, that God's all-knowledge respects all individuals, both persons & actions, and that God has [illegible] special glory that he is concerned for in his visible Church below; these things are to be observed.

That God does particularly and personally either commend or reprove these. It is not only his Church in general, or these and these bodies of professors, that he so expresses himself to, but to persons also. An evident instance for this we have in Cain and Abel (Genesis 4, beginning), and this is intimated by Christ in another parable, namely of the Wedding Supper, where the Lord observed that one person that had not on the wedding garment, and treats him accordingly. If a Church do well in general, yet if it has within it such as do otherwise, and provoke God, he tells them of such, and reproves them for suffering them (Revelation 2:14, 20). If the visible Church be gone to decay, and there be a Noah in it that is righteous, God notes him, and commends him for it: if there be one good child in Jeroboam's wicked family, he is specified; if there is one cursed [illegible] in Noah's family, he has his brand.

That God's mercies and judgments are very signally observable in these; not only do these respect the Church in general, or this or that particular Church, but these and those individual persons in it. Not only when God's people do walk closely with him, have they more observable and admirable deliverances conferred upon them; and when they highly provoke him, do they meet with more stupendous visitations, and come down wonderfully; but this is oftentimes apparent in particular persons. Sometimes when the Church is preserved in peace and prosperity, yet particular sinners in Zion are animadverted upon; and thus the fig-tree in the text; when God is bringing of judgments upon the body of a Church, yet there are some who must first have a mark set upon them for their preservation (Ezekiel 9:3). And it shall go well with the [illegible] of Jeremiah: Baruch and Ebed-melech shall have their lives given them for a prey, when utter desolation is coming upon the whole land.

That God is in Scripture recorded to take notice of such individuals as men would least think of. Such as we would account to be least of all thought of; God eyes them: the poor and despised in the world, whom men regard not, yet God observes them, and takes notice how they carry it, and he accounts it his great glory so to do (Psalm 102:17). Such actions also as we might think lay most out of observation; their secret and retired duties which they are engaged in; let but a Nathanael get under a fig-tree to pray, and it shall be recorded: no, so curious is he in his observation, that there cannot a tear fall from them, but he puts it in his bottle, nor [illegible] sigh pass, but he writes it down in his book (Psalm 56:8).

Why God takes such a curious and distinct observation of these, to see what fruit they bring forth?

The ground of this will appear if we lay these things together.

That which God expects of his visible Church, is fruit, this has been already cleared in the former doctrine. God would be honored and served by some in the world; other men pay him no tribute, bring forth no fruits that he can taste any pleasancy in; he therefore for that end planted his Church that from it he might receive some revenue in the world; that all the world might not lie in wickedness, and nothing but dishonor him, as all the residue of mankind certainly and unavoidably do.

Hence God is honored by his visible Church proportionably to the good fruits which they bear. This is the proper and only way in the which they can so serve to his praise, as to answer the end of their being a Church. The rest of mankind shall answer his designs upon them, in some other way; for God will have his honor upon all: but except these serve God, do the works of God, yield the fruits of obedience, they live in vain: and consequently, the more careful and constant they are in these services the more honor they bring to God. Every act of true obedience has of this in it, when then these are multiplied, God has great glory by such.

The Church consists of individuals, and consequently the honor which God has by his Church, is by the individuals in it. The Church is an aggregate body, it is made up of particular persons; and the duty of bearing fruit lies upon every one of them: what therefore God expects of his Church is personally expressed, as well as jointly; a vineyard consists of particular plants; by the bearing of these, the fruitfulness of the vineyard is known; and the way for the owner to know whether it answers its ends, is to go from tree to tree, and see how they bear; and in no other way is he acquainted with the state of the whole. If every one in the Church be faithful to God, that is a faithful Church indeed: so many as there are belonging to it that are otherwise, do make it to come so far short, and to be to such a degree barren; God therefore observes each, because he will know the state of his vineyard.

These individuals are there planted by his special Providence; men are ready to think that all these things are casual, and merely eventual, and do not see an higher hand in them; but gracious souls acknowledge a peculiar favourable Providence in it. They are lines that are here fallen to them (Psalm 16:7). It is a metaphor taken from the custom among men, in laying out and bounding of men's allotments. There is therefore a peculiar remark made upon this; this and that man was born in Zion (Psalm 87:[illegible]). And as there is much of God's good will displaying of itself to them, in making it their portion to be in his Church, so there is some special aim at his own glory in it, concerning every one; and therefore according to our conception, God is singularly concerned to look after these.

God must have glory by them that do not bear, as well as by them that do. That it is awfully true, that all those that are in the visible Church do not yield the fruit expected, will be considered in the next doctrine; although these do not glorify God; but come short of it, yet God must not, will not be a loser by them. No man would willingly be a loser by any thing that he does, if he could help it; God can help it, and he will. But he is not glorified in the one, after the same manner that he is in the other; the one is found to the praise of the glory of his grace, the others are to be made monuments of the glory of his justice. The one are made happy in their glorifying God; the other are made miserable by it: it is therefore requisite that God observe, and have a particular knowledge of the state of each one, that he may get himself a name in them accordingly (Romans 9:22, 23).

There are particular and personal rewards that God has to distribute to men, according to the fruits they bear. These rewards God stands obliged to in the Covenant promises and threatnings; for both of these belong to the Gospel-Covenant in which the visible Church is empaled: there is therefore a day of judgment appointed, in which Christ will not only sit upon the world, but also upon his vineyard, in which he will give each one his recompense according as he is found; and this is personal: for, we must every one of us give an account of himself to God. In the dispensing of these recompences, God will proceed with men, according to their deeds (Romans 2:6), and that will be very diversly (verse 7, 8, 9), and it is of infinite moment, whether man be adjudged to happiness or misery: and how shall the Judge of all the earth do that which is right in all this, if he do not observe who bear fruit, and who is barren? And the more curious must the observation be, if we consider, that not only fruitfulness and barrenness, but the more fruits there are of either sort, the more recompense is measured. Some bear more than others, and therefore some are to have greater degrees of glory, and others more amazing wrath to fall upon them; which how should it be, if God did not write all down, and keep an exact account of all actions as well as persons?