Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

Let me enlarge a little here also. Every unrenewed man is a branch of a dead stock. When thou seest, O sinner, a dead stock of a tree, exhausted of all its 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 show me thy faith without thy works, if thou canst, James ii. 17. (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 vii. 3. 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 fruit on the branches, when there is no sap in the root. First, The gardiner's pains are lost: ministers lose their labour on the branches of the old stock, while they continue in 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 dead sinner must remain so, if he be not restored to life, by a miracle of grace.

Let me enlarge a little here also. Every unrenewed man is a branch of a dead stock. When thou seest, O sinner, a dead stock of a tree, exhausted of all its 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. 17. (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 vii. 3. 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 fruit on the branches, when there is no sap in the root. First, The gardiner's pains are lost: ministers lose their labour on the branches of the old stock, while they continue in 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 dead sinner must remain so, if he be not restored to life, by a miracle of grace.