Doctrine 1: God Will Not Always Bear with Fruitless Professors in His Visible Church

DOCTRINE 1. That God will not always bear with fruitless professors in his Visible Church.

This doctrine arises from the connexion of the edict here given out, with the complaint made in the former part of the verse. It is q.d. I have been thus long waiting to no purpose, and I can bear no longer. We have already taken notice, that God uses much patience with many sinners, and that this patience of his is arbitrary, but we now come to observe, that though he bear a great while, yet he will not so do for ever; that he may be weary with forbearing, that sinners may by their continuing impenitent tire him out, and incense his indignation against them; that if they have a day of grace given them to repent in, and they repent not, it will come to an end. Here we may enquire into,

1. The evidence of the doctrine, that it is so,

2. The ground of it, or the reason why it is so.

1. For the evidence of the doctrine, or that it is so: and here we need to look no farther than the Scripture warnings, threatenings, and examples which do abundantly illustrate it. For warnings and threatenings how many might be produced? Let a few suffice. What did God say to and of the old world in Noah's time (Genesis 6:3)? "My spirit shall not always strive." He says indeed that it shall be long, but assures them it shall have an end: and how did God urge his advice upon the Jews by his Prophets, but by such a consideration? See Isaiah 55:6, "Seek the Lord while he may be found"; intimating that he would not else be ever so, and Jeremiah 4:4, "Circumcise, &c. lest my fury, &c." When God says lest, it intimates that there is such a thing, for he does not fright them with bugbears; and a like expression we have in Jeremiah 6:8, "Be instructed, &c." Thus also he pressed the Church of Ephesus (Revelation 2:5). As for Scripture examples, giving us to understand that it has been so; that God has been weary with forbearing, and caused his anger to break in upon such as have been his visible people, and enjoyed vineyard-privileges; they are for our admonition, and tell us that what God has done, he may do again, yes and will too upon the like provocation given him. And here; if we speak of a people in general, Israel of old stand for monuments of this to the end of the world: how near God had taken them to him we find upon record; they were the only people that he had in the world; they were his vineyard which he had planted, and fenced, &c. (Isaiah 52, beginning). And God sends Jerusalem to Shiloh (Jeremiah 7:11), to see what he had done there; and see what the Psalmist says of that (Psalm 78:58, &c.), and he sends us to Jerusalem, which met with as fearful a desertion, as we have it pathetically represented by the Prophet in his Lamentations. If of particular persons, see what is said to Jezebel and her paramours (Revelation 2:21, &c.), and doubtless it was verified. Yes, how often did God witness against these and those for their rebellion against him? But

2. For the ground of it, or the reason why it is so, we may gather it up in these conclusions.

1. That though God's patience be himself, and therefore infinite, yet it is exercised according to his wisdom and pleasure. Attributes considered as in God, are God, for he is one undivided essence, and pure act, and therefore every virtue which we ascribe to God, must be acknowledged to be infinite in him: but yet as they are made to shine out in his works of efficiency, we are to account them voluntary, and managed according to the wisdom of God: he therefore measures them out to the creature more or less, according to his own discretion. For men therefore to argue from the divine nature of God's love, mercy, forbearance, &c. to please themselves with an opinion that he must be boundless in his expressions of them to the creature, is a vain fancy, and that which God warns men against, lest they should so cheat themselves into ruin (Isaiah 27:4).

2. That God must and will be glorified in all those attributes of his which he displays to the children of men. God does all things for himself; his own glory is his own last end in all his works of efficiency, and therefore he manages the whole discovery of them, with an eye fixed on this end: he had been glorious in himself, if he had never manifested any of his perfections to the creature; but if he do thus make himself known, he will bring about his declarative glory by it: it is that which is dear to him, and he will not part with it. If therefore he be patient with sinners, and wait upon them when he might destroy them; if he defer his revenge, and suppress his anger, he will have the honor of this, he will get to himself a name by it.

3. That for which God waits upon sinners under the Gospel is to see if they will bear fruit. That which is the end of a tree's planting, is that which a man expects of it, and for that it is he lets it grow, and waits from year to year to see if it answers the end, Text. Men are planted in God's vineyard on purpose for fruit; there are none standing there of whom it is not expected. Now the husbandman knows that time must be allowed to trees planted, for their fructifying; and he is wont to think, that though such a tree does not this year answer his expectation, but goes over, and bears nothing; yet it is possible it may make amends for it the next year, and if then it also misses, yet if it does but blossom, and bid fair for it, though all fall off and die away, he is willing to try one season more, as being loth to cut it down if it may be prevented: but still all his patience is, because he supposes it may at last bear. Thus God expresses his waiting upon sinners to be upon such a presumption (Zephaniah 3:7).

That all the while that any remain unfruitful in God's vineyard, they cast contempt on God's patience. For this reason impenitent sinners are said to despise it (Romans 2:3). God looks upon himself to be scorned, and his lenity to be trampled on by such persons; for hereby they do withstand and directly set themselves against the very design of the Gospel, they do, as to the present efficacy, make void all the pains and endeavours that are laid out upon them; they turn the grace of God into wantonness. God waits for their repentance, and they answer it with obstinacy and impenitence, which is directly contrary. And when is mercy despised, but when it is abused? And what greater abuse can be offered to it than this?

Hence God is hereby greatly dishonored, and therefore must needs be very highly provoked. For sinners to offer an affront to any of God's attributes, is a reflection of dishonor upon him. Men count themselves disparaged when they lose their labor; and God's honor is trodden upon by sinners when they abide unprofitable in his vineyard. If then he be bound for his glory in all, and be jealous for his great name, it must be a high provocation that is thus offered to him; and we must not think that he cannot resent it. No, he declares that his holy Spirit is grieved by such things (Psalm 78:40), and they vex him (Isaiah 63:10), and therefore God himself is brought in making that complaint (Amos 2:13): I am pressed under you as a cart that is pressed with sheaves. God speaks as a man, who though he bears, and is patient, as to any discovery of himself, yet is inwardly weary, and finds a burden which he would willingly be eased of: intimating that he is displeased at such things. And he is wont to express this displeasure of his, partly in the solemn warnings of his ordinances, partly in the rebukes of his providence, which he lays upon such, in sore and heavy affliction; to signify, that though for the present he bears with them, yet he is dissatisfied at them.

That impenitent sinners grow worse and worse under the patience of God, and so add to the provocation. The means of grace under which men are continued during the long-suffering of God, are either a savor of life, or of death. Now impenitency or unprofitableness makes them to be a savor of death, and that is by hardening them in sin; and therefore we find that evil men are said to grow worse, and this is a natural effect in such; for their hearts being naught, they misimprove all the means to nourish their corruption, and so grow more obstinate. Which operation being directly contrary to what the Gospel calls for, which is that they should grow better by it, must needs lay in the more anger of God against them, and therefore the longer they thus abide, the more must his jealousy be inflamed against them.

Men at length grow hopeless, and then patience is bootless. For if the proper end of God's patience be to wait for fruit of them, to see if it will not at last repent them of their barrenness; if they will not think of their ways, and turn their feet to God's commandments; then the design of it is at an end, when all expectation of this is over. As long as the owner supposes that his tree may in time become serviceable, there is some reason for his letting it stand in the vineyard, but when all grounds of so looking for it fail, and he utterly despairs of any such thing, what should he let it stand for any longer? That there is such a state which sinners do in time arrive at, we are told (2 Chronicles 36:16): not that any are gone so far as to out-do almighty power, but so as to despise all manner of means, and grow obstinate and remorseless, so as that all endeavours do appear to be utterly in vain, when they show their determinate resolution and wilfulness (Psalm 81:11, 12; Isaiah 1:5).

Hence God is now put upon it to recover his own glory of them, by bearing no longer. He has now, to speak after the manner of men, forborne as long as he can: he has waited to have glory from them by their serving of him, and given them a gracious opportunity for it, but there is none comes, nor like to come, but on the contrary he is more dishonored every day. And now he must look after his honor, and recover it himself. His glory he must have by them; he would have had them given it to him willingly, but they would not, he therefore must have it forcibly. And now his worn-out patience turns into the greatest fury against them; hence that threatening (Proverbs 1:24). As a creditor that entrusts his debtor from time to time, and is frequently asking his honest payment, but none comes; he still credits them, but has nothing but words and promises, no performances; at length he sees it bootless to wait any longer, and now he sues him for it, and recovers it in a way of justice; and there is all reason for it, unless he would lose all. But this God will never do, and why indeed should he?