time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.- Wilberforce, p. 103-105. : Thirdly I propose now to consider a whole discourse that runs upon the principle contained in the words of a text; Isa. v. 4: "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" The words are Jehovah's vehement complaint against the Jewish church and nation, his peculiar and most endeared people; and I shall consider the principles upon which the complaint turns, as to the form of expression the text offers, and the matter contained in it. I. The form of expression. The words run in a pathetical interrogatory exclamation, importing surprise and a kind of confusion in the thoughts of him who utters them. Here we have the assignable cause (the principle) of the words. 1. Here is something strange (if any thing can be strange in such a world as this). Whatever falls out either above or beside the common track of human observation, and so puts the reason upon new methods of discourse, we are accustomed to call strange, and such as causes surprise, which is nothing else but a disturbance of the mind upon its inability to give a present account of the reason of what we see; whence also it is that, as we still know more, the strangeness of things grows less, and consequently nothing can be strange to him to whom every thing is known. But how then come we here to find God himself under a surprise, and omniscience as it were put to a nonplus? Surely it could be no ordinary thing that should thus put infinite wisdom upon making inquiries; nor indeed was it; for could any thing be imagined more monstrous, and by all rational principles unresolvable, than upon a most rich and fertile soil, fenced and enclosed against all injuries from abroad, dressed and manured by the finger of God himself, and watered with all the influences of a propitious heaven; I say, could any thing be more prodigious than, in such a place, to see a fig-tree bear a thistle, or the fruit of the bramble load the branches of the vine? This is a thing directly against all the principles of mere nature, though not encouraged by the assistance of art; and therefore even the God of nature seems to stand amazed at the unnatural irregularity of such a monstrous event. 2. The other reason of such an interrogatory exclamation is the unusual indignity of the thing, this being as great an anomaly in the morality of actions as the former was in the nature of things; and therefore, as that passion of the mind which is raised by the strangeness of a thing is properly called wonder, so that which commences upon this is properly called indignation; it being a great trespass upon decency and ingenuousness, and all those rules that ought to govern the intercourses of rational beings; which are all crossed and even dissolved by that one grand fundamental destroyer of society, ingratitude. For society subsists by the mutual interchange of good offices, by which the wants and concerns of men are mutually supplied and served, that being the only thing that unites and keeps men together in civilized societies, who would otherwise range and raven like bears and wolves, and never but to seize a greater prey, more. Now we find that ingratitude is the thing here exclaimed against with so much vehement abhorrence: a passion that has all in it that wonder has, with the addition of something Wonder rests merely in the speculation of things; abhorrence proceeds to a practical aversion and flight from them. But since a sinner is no strange sight, nor can it pass for a wonder to see men wicked, what cannot be found in the bare nature of things must be sought for in their degree; and therefore it must needs be some superlative height of wickedness which drew from God this loud exclamation; what that is will appear in the prosecution of the subject. We have, II. The complaint itself, as a further developement of the principle upon which it proceeds: 1. The party complaining, which is God himself. It must be confessed that, according to the strict nature of things, as he who knows all things cannot wonder, so neither can he who can do all things properly complain, wickedness being the cause of complaining, as ignorance is of wonder; yet God is here pleased to assume the posture of both. But, however possible it may be for infinite power to complain, it is certainly impossible for infinite goodness to complain without a cause; so that we read the indubitable justness of the complaint in the condition of him who makes it. A Being transcendently wise, just, and merciful, who cannot be deceived in the measures he takes of things and persons, nor prevaricate with those measures, by speaking beside the proportion of what he judges. And, after all, he it is that complains who has power enough to render all complaint needless; who has an omnipotence to repair to, and an outstretched arm to plead his cause in a higher dialect than that of words and fair expostulations. We see therefore the person here complaining, even the great and omnipotent God; and we may be sure, where God is the plaintiff, no creature can with either sense or safety be defendant. 2. The persons here complained of; they were the Jews, the peculiar and select people of God. A people that had no cause to complain. From the beginning of God's taking them under his care, they were fed at the immediate cost of heaven; they were dieted with miracles, with new inventions and acts of providence: the course of nature itself ministering to their necessities; the heavens, the sea, and all things dispensing with the standing laws of their creation to do them service, in order to their serving God. But it seems it was easier to fetch honey out of the bowels of the earth, to broach the rock, or draw rivers from a flint, than to draw obedience from them. They were persons who wore all the marks of the peculiar incommunicable kindnesses of heaven; Ps. cxlvii. 20. They seemed an exception from (or rather above) the common rule of providence. A people whom God courted, espoused, and married; and yet, by a still greater wonder, continued to court them after marriage. God thought nothing too good for them to enjoy, nor thought they any thing too bad for themselves to commit. They were a people culled and chosen out of the rest of the world; in short, they were in some sense a gathered congregation, of whom God thus horribly complains. 3. The next thing to be considered is the reason or cause of this complaint raised against them, which was their unworthy, unsuitable returns made to the dealings of God with them; which will appear, first, by considering God's dealings with them; and, secondly, their dealings with God; and so, by confronting them both together, we shall give them all the advantage of contraries set off by nearness and comparison. The dealings of God with them may be included under three heads: 1) Instruction. They had the sure word of prophecy, which was able to make them wise unto salvation. 2) Mercies. The showers of his choicest blessings descended to refresh the vineyard of God. 3) Judgments. The pruning-knife of judgments is added to the more gentle manurings of mercy; and, when watering will not do, divine forbearance still digs about them before he executes the sentence of extirpation. Well therefore might Jehovah say of this people, "What could have been done more to my vineyard?" Let us now look at their unsuitable returns. The context declares that the vineyard brought forth wild grapes; and specifies particularly, 1) Their injustice and oppression: ver. 7. South, vol. v., p. 357. Now I presume it will be thought that the doctrine of VOL. II. . principles, and their due and vigorous investigation, are here realized, mixed too with much severe comment and critical acumen; yet it must be allowed that the style and argument are rather too profound for a common audience. The complaint brought against the Jews will apply to every apostate church upon earth; the elements of things are in all cases alike: it is human nature to abuse God's mercies. Here we see the infinite blessedness of being "kept by the power of God through faith to salvation." Dr. South's intention, by his scrutiny of the Jewish conduct, was to draw afterwards a comparison between the wickedness of the Jews and that of the puritans. The example is very good to our purpose, but his design was not to be commended. A whole discourse may also be formed upon Heb. iv. 11 : "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest;" by considering what are the principles of the apostle's reasoning in the text. These are, I. That without labouring we can never enter into this heavenly rest, because the end and the means can never be separated. II. That this rest, when we shall have entered into it, will abundantly repay us for our labour. E. Cooper, vol. ii., 397. The principles developed in the conduct of Scripture characters form a branch of study which will abundantly reward the student's attention. Many of the sublime doctrines of the New Testament cannot be traced to principles, because they are matters of pure revelation; here we have nothing to do but to receive them with the docility of children, and be thankful for the divine condescension that brought such sublime truths to our knowledge, truths which the " angels desire to look into." Never let us attempt to "be wise above what is written," or to bring down the sublime truths of revelation to the standard of |