[To what the saved are compared in Scripture.]
1. They are compared to a handful: "There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains," &c. (Psa 72:16) This corn is nothing but them that shall be saved. (Matt 3:12, 13:30) But mark, "There shall be a handful": What is a handful compared to the whole heap? Or what is a handful out of the rest of the world?
2. As they are compared to a handful, so they are compared to a lily among the thorns, which is rare and not so commonly seen: "As the lily among thorns," saith Christ, "so is my love among the daughters." (Cant 2:2) By thorns, we understand the worst and best of men, even all that are destitute of the grace of God, for "the best of them is a brier, the most upright" of them "as a thorn-hedge." (Micah 7:4, 2 Sam 23:6) I know that she may be called a lily amongst thorns also because she meets with the pricks of persecution. (Eze 2:6, 28:24) She may also be thus termed to show the disparity between hypocrites and the church. (Luke 8:14, Heb 8) But this is not all; the saved are compared to a lily among thorns, to show you that they are but few in the world; to show you that they are but few and rare; for as Christ compares her to a lily among thorns, so she compares him to an apple-tree among the trees of the wood, which is rare and scarce; not typical.
3. They that are saved are called but one of many; for though there be "threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number," yet my love, saith Christ, is but one, my undefiled is but one. (Cant 6:8,9) According to Jeremiah, "I will take you one of a city." (Jer 3:14). That saying of Paul is much like this, "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one received the prize?" (1 Cor 9:24) But one, that is, few of many, few of them that run; for he is not here comparing them that run with them that sit still, but with them that run, some run and lose, some run and win; they that run and win are few in comparison with them that run and lose: "They that run in a race run all, but one receives the prize"; let there then be "threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number," yet the saved are but few.
4. They that are saved are compared to the gleaning after the vintage is in: "Woe is me," said the church, "for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings" after the vintage is in. (Micah 7:1) The gleanings! What are the gleanings to the whole crop? And yet you here see, to the gleanings are saved compared. The devil and sin carry away the cartloads, while Christ and his ministers come after a gleaning. But the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim is better than the vintage of Abiezer. (Judge 8:2) Them that Christ and his ministers glean and bind up in the bundle of life are better than the loads that go the other way. You know it is often the cry of the poor in harvest, Poor gleaning, poor gleaning. And the ministers of the gospel they also cry, Lord, "who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" (Isa 53:1) When the prophet speaks of the saved under this metaphor of gleaning, how doth he amplify the matter? "Gleaning-grapes shall be left," says he, "two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the Lord." (Isa 17:6) Thus you see what gleaning is left in the vineyard after the vintage is in; two or three here, four or five there. Alas! They shall be saved when the devil and hell have had their due. They will be, but as the gleaning, they will be but few; they that go to hell go thither in clusters, but the saved go not so to heaven. (Matt 13:30, Micah 7) Wherefore when the prophet speaks of the saved, he saith there is no cluster; but when he says of the damned, he saith they are gathered by clusters. (Rev 14:18,19) O, sinners! But only some will be saved! O, professors! But only some will be saved!
5. They that shall be saved are compared to jewels: "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." (Mal 3:17). Jewels, you know, are rare things, things that are not found in every house. Jewels will lie in little rooms, being few and small, though lumber takes up much. In almost every house, you may find brass, iron, and lead; in every place, you may find hypocritical professors, but the saved are not these everyday things; they are God's peculiar treasures. (Psa 135:4) Wherefore Paul distinguished betwixt the lumber and the treasure in the house. There is, saith he, in a great house, not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor, and some to dishonor. (2 Tim 2:20) Here is a word for wooden and earthy professors; the jewels and treasures are vessels to honor; they of wood and earth are vessels of dishonor, that is, vessels for destruction. (Rom 9:21) 6.
They that shall be saved are compared to a remnant: "Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a tiny remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." (Isa 1:9) A remnant a small remnant, a tiny remnant! O, how doth the Holy Ghost word it! And all to show you how few shall be saved. Everyone knows what a remnant is, but this is a small remnant, a tiny remnant. So again, "Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel." (Jer 31:7) What shall I say? the saved are often in Scripture called a remnant. (Eze 9:4,8, Isa 10:20-22, 11:11,16, Jer 23:3, Joel 2:32) But what is a remnant to the whole piece? What is a remnant of people to the entire kingdom? Or what is a remnant of wheat to the whole harvest?
7. The saved are compared to the tithe or tenth part; wherefore when God sends the prophet to make the hearts of the people fat, their ears dull, and to shut their eyes, the prophet asks, "How long?" to which God answer, "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking amid the land. But yet," as God saith in another place, "I will not make a full end," "in it shall be a tenth,—so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." (Isa 6:10-13) But what is a tenth? What is one in ten? And yet so speaks the Holy Ghost, when he speaks of the holy seed, of those that were to be reserved from the judgment. And observe it, the fattening and blinding of the rest, it was to their everlasting destruction; and so both Christ and Paul expound it often in the New Testament. (Matt 13:14,15, Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10, John 12:40, Acts 28:26, Rom 11:8) So that those that are reserved from them that perish will be very few, one in ten: "A tenth shall return, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof."
I shall not add more generals at this time. I pray to God that the world is not offended by these. But without doubt, few of them that shall put in their claim for heaven will have it for their inheritance, which will yet further appear in the reading of the following.
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