[Second. Mainly—but few of them that profess have been saved.]
Therefore, I come more particularly to show you that few shall be saved. Few of the professors themselves will be saved, for that is the truth that the text does more directly look at and defend. Give me, therefore, thy hand, good reader, and let us soberly walk through the rest of what shall be said; and let us compare as we go each particular with the holy Scripture.
1. It is said, “The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.” (Isa 1:8). The vineyard was the church of Israel, the cottage in that vineyard was the daughter of Zion, or the genuinely gracious amongst, or in that church. (Isa 5:1) A cottage; God had but a cottage there, but a little habitation in the church, a very few that were genuinely gracious amongst that great multitude that professed; and had it not been for these, for this cottage, the rest had been ruined as Sodom: “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us,” in the church, a very few, they had been as Sodom. (Isa 1:9) Wherefore, among the multitude of them that shall be damned, professors will make a considerable party.
2. “For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall return,” “a remnant shall be saved.” (Isa 10:22, Rom 9:27) For though thy people Israel, whom thou brought out of Egypt, to whom thou hast given church-constitution, holy laws, holy ordinances, holy prophets, and holy covenants; thy people by separation from all people, and thy people by profession; though this thy people be as the sand of the sea, “a remnant shall be saved”; wherefore, among the multitude of them that shall be damned, professors will make a considerable party.
3. “Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them.” (Jer 6:30). The people here under consideration are called, in verse 27, God’s people, his people by profession: “I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know, and try their way.” What follows? They are all grievous revolvers, walking with slanders, reprobate silver; the Lord hath rejected them. In chapter 7, verse 29, they are also called the generation of his wrath: “For the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.” This, therefore, I gather out of these holy Scriptures—that concerning profession and church constitution, a people may be called the people of God; but, concerning the event and final conclusion that God will make with some of them, they may be genuinely the generation of his wrath.
4. In the fifth of Isaiah, you read again of the vineyard of God and that it was planted on a very fruitful hill, planted with the choicest vines, had a wall, a tower, a wine press belonging to it, and all things that could put it into proper order and good government, as a church; but this vineyard of the Lord of hosts brought forth wild grapes, fruits unbecoming her constitution and government, wherefore the Lord takes from her his hedge and wall, and lets her be trodden down. Read Christ’s exposition in Matthew 21:33, &c. Look to it, professors. These are the words of the text, “For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”
5. “Son of man,” said God to the prophet, “the house of Israel is to me become dross, all they are brass and tin, and iron and lead, amid the furnace they even are the dross of silver.” (Eze 22:18) God had silver there, some silver, but it was but little; the bulk of that people was but the dross of the church, though they were the members of it. But what doth he mean by the dross? Why, he looked upon them as no better, notwithstanding their church membership, than the rabble of the world, that is, concerning their latter end, for to be called dross, it is to be put amongst the rest of the sinners of the world, in the judgment of God, though at present they abide in his house: “Thou put away all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love thy testimonies.” (Psa 119:119)
God told his saved ones, “He hath chosen them in the furnace of affliction.” The refiner, when he put his silver into his furnace, he puts lead in also among it; now this lead being ordered as he knows how, works up the dross from the silver, which dross, still as it rise, he put by, or taketh away with an instrument. And thus deals God with his church; there is silver in his church, aye, and there is also dross: now the dross are the hypocrites and graceless ones that are got into the church, and these will God discover, and afterward put away as dross. So that it will, without doubt, prove a truth of God, that many of their professors who shall put in a claim for heaven will not have it for their inheritance.
6. It is said of Christ, his “fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt 3:12) The floor is the church of God: “O my threshing, and the corn of my floor!” said God by the prophet, to his people. (Isa 21:10) The wheat are these good ones in his church that shall be undoubtedly saved; therefore, he saith, “Gather my wheat into my garner.” The chaff growth upon the same stalk and ear and so is in the same visible body with the wheat, but there is no substance in it: wherefore in time they must be severed one from the other; the grain must be gathered into the garner, which is heaven; and the chaff, or professors that want true grace, must be collected into hell, that they may be burned up with unquenchable fire. Therefore, let professors look into it!
