Hebrews 6:7

For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God; but if it beareth thorns and thistles it is rejected and nigh unto a curse, whose end is to be burned.

This is an appeal to the practice of burning thistle-infested fields and is an argument "ad hominem" to support what he had just said of apostates. If men burn the infested and unproductive field, then those persons who allow themselves to become spiritually infected and unproductive are likewise in danger of God's judgment. There is a note of tenderness in the delicate reference to the infested field as being "nigh unto" cursing, and not as having fully arrived at such a dreadful state; and this may be interpreted as a tacit admission that none of the Hebrew Christians had actually gone that far; yet the severity of the warning appears in the fate of the field, which is "to be burned," an analogy pointing to the final overthrow of the wicked.