They are all done, chiefly for himself, not for the glory of God. These fruits are like the apples of Sodom; fair to look at, but fall to ashes, when handled and tried. Ye think you have not only the leaves of a profession, but the fruits of a holy practice too; but, if you be not broken off from the old stock, and ingrafted in Christ Jesus, God accepts not, nor regards your fruits.

Here I must take occasion to tell you, there are five faults will be found in heaven with your best fruits. (1.) Their bitterness; your "clusters are bitter," Deut. xxxii. 32. There is a spirit of bitterness, wherewith, some come before the Lord in religious duties, living in malice and envy; and which some professors entertain against others, because they out-shine them by holiness of life, or because they are not of their opinion or way. This, wheresoever it reigns, is a fearful symptom of an unregenerate state. But I do not so much mean this, as that which is common to all the branches of the old stock, namely," the leaven of hypocrisy," Luke xii. 1. which sours and embitters every duty they perform. "The wisdom, that is full of good fruits, is without hypocrisy," James iii. 17. (2.) Their ill savour, "Their works are abominable," for themselves are corrupt, Psal. xiv. 1. They all savour of the old stock, not of the new. It is the peculiar privilege of the saints, that they are" unto God a sweet savour of Christ," 2 Cor. ii. 15. The unregenerate man's fruits savour not of love to Christ, nor of the blood of Christ, nor of the incense of his intercession, and there fore will never be accepted of in heaven. (3.) Their unripeness. Their grape is an unripe grape, Job xv. 33. There is no influence on them, from the Sun of Righ teousness, to bring them to perfection. They have the shape of fruit, but no more. The matter of duty is in them, but they want right principles and ends: their works are not wrought in God, John ii. 21. Their prayers drop from their lips, before their hearts be impregnate with the vital sap of the spirit of supplication their tears fall from their eyes, ere their hearts be truly softened: their feet turn to new paths, and their way is altered, while yet their nature is not

་

changed. (4.) Their lightness. Being "weighed in the balances, they are found wanting," Dan. v. 27. For evidence whereof you may observe, they do not humble the soul, but lift it up in pride. The good fruits of holiness bear down the branches they grow upon, making them to salute the ground, I Cor. xv. 10. "I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not 1, but the grace of God which was with me." But the blasted fruits of unrenewed men's performances hang lightly on branches towering up to heaven, Judg. xvii. 13. "Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest." They looked indeed so high, that God cannot behold them; "Wherefore have 1 fasted, say they, and thou seest not ?" Isa. lviii. 3. The more duties they do, and the better they seem to perform them, the less are they humbled, the more they are lifted up. This disposition of the sinner is the exact reverse of what is to be found in the saint. To men, who are neither in Christ, nor are solicitous to be found in him, their duties are like windy bladders, wherewith they think to swim ashore to Immanuel's land but these must needs break, and they consequently sink; because they take not Christ for the

lifter up of their head," P-al. iii.-3. Lastly, They are not "all manner of pleasant fruits," Cant. vii. 13. Christ, as a King, must be served with variety. Where God makes the heart his garden, he plants it as Solomon did his, with "trees of all kinds of fruits," Eccles. ii. 5. And accordingly it brings forth" the fruits of the Spirit in all goodness," Eph. v. 9. But the ungodly are not so; their obedience is never universal; there is always some one thing or other excepted. In one word, their fruits are fruits of an ill tree, that cannot be accepted in heaven.

Secondly, Our natural stock is a dead stock, according to the threatening. Gen. ii. 17. "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Our root now is rottenness, no marvel the blossom go up as dust. The stroke has gone to the heart, the sap is let out, and the tree is withered. The curse of the first covenant like a hot thunderbolt from heaven, has lighted on it, and

ruined it. It is cursed now as that fig-tree, Matt. xxi. 19. "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever." Now is it good for nothing, but to cumber the ground, and furnish fuel for Tophet.

Every unrenewed When thou seest, exhausted of all its

Let me enlarge a little here also. man is a branch of a dead stock. O sinner, a dead stock of a tree, sap, having branches on it in the same condition, look on it as a lively representation of thy soul's state. (1.) Where the stock is dead, the branches must needs be barren. Alas! the barrenness of many professors plainly discovers on what stock they are growing. It is easy to pretend to faith, but "shew me thy faith without thy works," if thou canst, James ii. 18. (2.) A dead stock can convey no sap to the branches, to make them bring forth fruit. The covenant of works was the bond of our union with the natural stock; but now It is become" weak through the flesh;" that is, through the degeneracy and depravity of human nature, Rom. viii. 13. It is strong enough to command, and to bind heavy burdens on the shoulders of those who are not in Christ, but it affords no strength to bear them. The sap, that was once in the root, is now gone: and the law, like a merciless creditor, apprehends Adam's heirs, saying, "Pay what thou owest;" when, alas! his effects are riotously spent. (3.) All pains and cost are lost on the tree, whose life is gone. In vain do men labour to get fruits on the branches, where there is no sap in the root. First, The gardener's pains are lost: ministers lose their labour on the branches of the old stock while they continue on it. Many sermons are preached to no purpose; because there is no life to give sensation. Sleeping men may be awakened; but the dead cannot be raised without a miracle: even so the dcad sinner must remain so, if he be not restored to life by a miracle of grace. Secondly, The influences of heaven are lost on such a tree: in vain doth the rain fall upon it in vain is it laid open to the winter cold and frosts. The Lord of the vineyard digs about many a dead soul, but it is not bettered." Bruise the fool in a morter, his folly will tot depart." Though he

meets with many crosses, yet he retains his lusts: let him be laid on a sick bed, he will lie there like a sick beast, groaning under his pain, but not mourning for, nor turning from his sin. Let death itself stare him in the face, he will presumptuously maintain his hope, as if he would look the grim messenger out of countenance. Sometimes there are common operations of the divine Spirit performed on him: he is sent home with a trembling heart, and arrows of conviction sticking in his soul: but at length he prevails against these things, and turns as secure as ever. Thirdly, Summer and winter are alike to the branches on the dead stock. When others about them are budding, blossoming, and bringing forth fruit, there is no change on them. The dead stock has no growing time at all. Perhaps it may be difficult to know, in the winter, what trees are dead, and what are alive; but the spring plainly discovers it. There are some seasons wherein there is little life to be perceived, even amongst saints; yet times of reviving come at length. But even, when the "vine flourisheth, and the pomegranates bud forth," (when saving grace is discovering itself, by its lively actings, wheresoever it is) the branches on the old stock are still withered; when the dry bones are coming together, bone to bone, amongst saints, the sinner's bones are still lying about the grave's mouth. They are trees that "cumber the ground," are near to be cut down; and will be cut down for the fire, if God in mercy prevent it not by cutting them off from that stock, and ingrafting them into another.

Lastly, Our natural stock is a killing stock. If the stock die, how can the branches live? If the, sap be gone from the root and heart, the branches must needs wither. "In Adam all die," 1 Cor. xv. 22. The root died in paradise, and all the branches in it, and with it. The root is empoisoned, thence the branches come to be infected; "death is in the pot ;" and all that taste of the pulse, or pottage, are killed.

Know then, that every natural man is a branch of a killing stock. Our natural root not only gives us no life, but it has a killing power, reaching all the

66

branches thereof. There are four things which the first Adam conveys to all his branches, and they are abiding in, and lying on, such of them as are not ingrafted in Christ. First, A corrupt nature. He sinned, and his nature was thereby corrupted or depraved; and this corruption is conveyed to all his posterity. He was infected, and the contagion spread itself over all his seed. Secondly, Guilt, that is, an obligation to punishment, Rom. v. 21. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." The threatenings of the law, as cords of death, are twisted about the branches of the old stock, to draw them over the hedge into the fire. And till they be cut off from this stock by the pruning-knife, the sword of vengeance hangs over their heads, to cut them down. Thirdly, This killing stock transmits the curse into the branches. The stock, as the stock (for I speak not of Adam in his personal and private capacity) being cursed, so are the branches, Gal. iii. 10. "For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse." This curse affects the whole man, and all that belongs to him, every thing he possesses; and worketh three ways. (1.) As poison infecting; thus their "blessings are cursed," Matt. ii. 2. Whatever the man enjoys, it can do him no good, but evil, being thus empoisoned by the curse. His prosperity in the world destroys him, Prov. i. 22. The ministry of the gospel is a "savour of death unto death," to him, 2 Cor. ii. 16. His seeming attainments in religion are cursed to him: his knowledge serves but to puff him up, and his duties to keep him back from Christ. (2.) It worketh as a moth, consuming and wasting by little and little, Hos. v. 12. "Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth." There is a worm at the root, consuming them by degrees. Thus the curse pursued Saul, till it wormed him out of all bis enjoyments, and out of the very shew he had of religion. Sometimes they decay like the "fat of lambs," and melt away as the snow in a sunshine. (3.) It acteth as a lion rampant, Hosea v. 14. I will be