t2 The Tryall of reafon of which they bear and bring forth ; for how elfe are they Paid to wither all() ? ver. 6. (which is a decay of inward moiflure, and outward greennefle :) and thefe alío have fome kind of union with Chrift as with a Lord, 2 Pet. 2.i. heafcending to bellowgifts, evenupon the rebellious alto, Pfal. 68. 18. fo far to enable them to doe him force fervice in his Vineyard : Theyare not united unto Chrift as unto an Head. Neither is it the /irit of adoption which they doe receive from him ; and fach a branch was ?fads, who was not onely owned by the Difciples, who knew him not to be falfe, but who Purely at the firf had inward fap ofgifts derived from Chrift, to fit him for the Miniftery, he being fent out as an ApoRle topreach; whom therefore Chrift here aimed at in this place. Some differen- Now for a more particular differencing of thefe branches ces ofbranches and their fruites, it is not my fcope to ingraffe a large common fruitful! and place, head ofall the differences, between temporaries and true unfruitfull. p beleevers, upon this Rock ; this root is not big enough to bear them, thofe differences being many ; Onely I will explain thofe differences which the Text affords, becaufe they are in our way, and will further open thewords. i. Difference. 1. That which they doe bringforth, id not truefruit, the holy How the good Ghoff vouchfafeth it not that name, They are laid here, not to works of Hy- bring f orthfruit. That fp eech in Ho f ea 1 o. r. will give clear light pocrites are not true fruits. to underRand this ; with the groundof it alto ; Ifrael is, there called, an empty Vine, which brings forthfruit to herfelf. It im- plies a feeming contradi&ion, that it fhould be called an empty Vine, and yet withall to bringforth anyfruit. And thefe bring forth not leaves, good words onely, but good works, good anions, and thofe green, and therefore rude 12. their fruit is Paid to wither, as themfelves are faid to wither here, ver. 6. And as there Ifrael is faid to be an empty Vine, though it bath fruit, fo here thefe are fail not to bring forthfruit at all. Now the mea- ningof both, is one and the fame : For a thing is laid to be empty, when it wants that which is proper to it, and ought to be in it s as Wells are calledempty, when they are not full of water, they are full ofayre : for Non datur vacuum. So they are called an empty Vine, and thefe branches to have nofruit, becaufe not fach as ought to grow upo:. them, filch as is proper to the root they fcerne
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