No doubt this grove was all at first planted from proper shoots, yet how many of its trees are become exceedingly crooked, mifshapen and knotty.---This puts me in mind of that beautiful paffage recorded by the prophet, where the Lord expoftulates with his people, and tells them he had planted them a noble vine, wholly a right feed; and afketh this confounding queftion, How. then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? Jer. ii.

21.

Let me fuppofe the question asked by the great God at myfelf in particular, what anfwer should I give? Would it not certainly be this? Lord, I broke covenant with thee in Adam, voluntarily threw off thy yoke and fervice for that of Satan by eating of the forbidden fruit, which thou discharged me to touch, or tafte, under the awful penalty of death, Gen. ii. 17. and iii. 3. and thereby fell from rectitude, having lost thy image, which is the reafon of my degeneracy and being crooked and thwart to thy divine and righteous law. But glory to God in the higheft; though man did thus degenerate and become the plant of a

ftrange vine, in and through the covenant of grace, entered into betwixt God the Fa ther, and God the Son, in name of the elect from all eternity, he is again fet right: the effects of which all-gracious covenant was, that God the Son, the Lord Jefus Chrift, in the fulness of time came from heaven to earth, not to condemn the world, as our guilty fears might well have fuggefted, but to fulfil the covenant of works which man had bafely violated, by yielding à perfect obedience to the divine law, and undergoing the penalty which was denounced against man in cafe of his disobedience, and to deliver thofe for whom he became furety, from going down to the pit: In and through whose obedience and all-atoning death, fallen men are not only delivered from the condemnatory fentence of a broken law, but also restored again to the favour and friendship of God, being united to him, who is the true Vine, by faith.

Through regeneration the great Hufbandman' purgeth them from fin and dead works, and maketh them to bring forth more fruit, John xv. 1, 2. fo they grow up as the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord

hath planted, and as cedar trees befide the waters, Num. xxiv. 6.

How much then doth it concern me to know whether I be broken off from the old stock of Adam, and ingrafted into Chrift Jefus the true vine! And can there be better marks, or a more certain way of knowing this, than thofe which our Lord himself hath given us to judge by; for he hath said, By their fruits ye fhall know them: As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me: He that abideth in me and I in him, the fame bringeth forth much fruit: Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Not every one that faith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he 1. that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, Matth. vii. 16. John xv. 4, 5, 14. Matth. vii. 21.

Now if I find thefe marks in myself it is well, but if not, left I share the fate of that barren fig-tree, mentioned in fcripture, let me fly to Chrift Jefus by faith, receiving and reft Q

ing upon him alone for falvation as he is offered to me in the gofpel; that so being united to him who is the true vine, I may bring forth fruit that fhall be well pleafing to God, and comfortable to myself.

While I gaze around me I observe feveral trees fo fkilfully pruned that not a fucker from the roots, nor a fuperfluous branch or withered bough on them are to be seen, either to mar their beauty, or retard their growth, while many others I fee ftand neglected, having not only various fuckers springing from their roots, but alfe covered over with branches which prove pernicious to both their comeliness and growth, and draw off the fap which otherwife would nourish, lengthen, and ftrengthen their trunks. Juft fo is it with respect to men; the great Hufbandman purgeth fome from the love of the world by chaftening them with many loffes, croffes, and straits in it; fo that their affections may be fet on things above, not on things on the earth, Col. iii. 2. and pruneth them often of near and dear relatives, which like for many fuckers from the roots and fuperflu

ous branches from the trunks, tend to draw their fap of love and affection off from God, and place it upon the creature; and likewise with the sharp knife of afflictive trials, cutteth off their spiritual pride and high mindednefs, and fo maketh them humble and lowly, and to grow up to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, Eph. iv. 13. "For "whom the Lord loveth he chafteneth, and scourgeth every fon whom he receiveth : "If ye endure chaftening, God dealeth with you as with fons; for what fon is he "whom the Father chafteneth not? But if be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not fons," Heb. xii. 6---8.

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Let me then examine myself, whether I have been thus purged and pruned? and if fo, what effect fuch have had upon me? God's end in purging and pruning the branches is, that they may bring forth more fruit, John xv. 2.

How careful then ought I and every one else to be, after having been under the rod,