CHAPTER II: Upon the union of the Graff with the Stock
CHAPTER II:
Upon the union of the Graff with the Stock Whene'er you bud and graff, therein you see,
How Christ and souls must here united be.
OBSERVATION
WHEN the husbandman hath prepared his graffs in the season of the year, he carries them, with the tools that are necessary for that work, to the tree or stock he intends to ingraff, and having cut off the top of the limb in some smooth part, he cleaves it with his knife or chisel a little beside the pith, knocks in his wedge to keep it open, then
(having prepared the graff) he carefully sets it into the cleft, joining the inner side of the barks of graff and stock together (there being the main current of the sap) then pulls out his wedge, binds both together (as in barking) and clays it up, to defend the tender graff and wounded stock from the injuries of the sun and rain.
These tender cyons quickly take hold of the stock, and having immediate coalition with it, drink in its sap, concoct it into their own nourishment, thrive better, and bear more and better fruits than ever they would have done upon their natural root; yea, the smallest bud, being carefully inoculated and bound close to the stock, will, in a short time, become a flourishing and fruitful limb.
APPLICATION
THIS carries a most sweet and lively resemblance of the soul's union with Christ by faith; and indeed there is nothing in nature that shadows forth this great gospel-mystery like it: It is a thousand pities that any who are employed about, or are but spectators of such an
action, should terminate their thoughts (as too many do) in that natural object, and not raise up their hearts to these heavenly meditations, which it so fairly offers them.
1. When a twig is to be ingraffed, or a bud inoculated, it is first cut off by a keen knife from the tree on which it naturally grew.
And when the Lord intends to graff a soul into Christ, the first work about it, is cutting work, Acts 2:37. their hearts were cut by conviction, and deep compunction; no cyon is ingraffed without cutting, no soul united with Christ, without a cutting sense of sin and misery, John 16:8, 9.
2. When the tender shoot is cut off from the tree, there are, ordinarily, many more left behind upon the same tree, as promising and vigorous as that which is taken; but it pleaseth the husbandman to chuse this, and leave them.
Even so it is in the removing or transplanting of a soul by conversion; it leaves many behind it in the state of nature, as likely and promising as itself; but so it pleaseth God to take this soul, and leave many others; yea, often such as grew upon the same root; I mean, the immediate parent, Mal. 1:2. "Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau."
3. When the graffs are cut off, in order to this work, it is a critical season with them: if they lie too long before they are ingraffed, or take not with the stock, they die, and are never more to be recovered; they may stand in the stock a while, but are no part of the tree.
So when souls are under a work of conviction, it is a critical time with them; many a one have I known then to miscarry, and never recover again: they have indeed for a time stood like dead graffs in the stock,
by an external dead-hearted profession, but never came to any thing; and as such dead grafts, either fall off from the stock, or moulder away upon it; so do these, 1 John 2:19.
4. The husbandman, when he hath cut off graffs, or tender buds, makes all the convenient speed he can to close them with the stock; the sooner that is done, the better; they get no good by remaining as they are. And truly it concerns the servants of the Lord, who are employed in this work of ingraffing souls into Christ, to make all the haste they can to bring the convicted sinner to a closure with Christ.
As soon as ever the trembling jailor cried, "What shall I do to be saved?" Paul and Silas immediately direct him to Christ, Acts 16:30,
31. They do not say, it is too soon for thee to act faith on Christ, thou are not yet humbled enough, but "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
5. There must be an incision made in the stock before any bud can be inoculated; or the stock must be cut and cleaved, before the cyon can be ingraffed; according to that in the poet,
Venerit insitio, fac ramum ramus adoptet; i.e.
To graffs no living sap the stocks impart, Unless you wound and cut them near the heart.
Such an incision, or wound, was made upon Christ, in order to our ingrafting into him, John 19:34. the opening of that deadly wound gives life to the souls of believers.
6. The graff is intimately united, and closely conjoined with the stock; the conjunction is so close, that they become one tree.
There is also a most close and intimate union betwixt Christ and the soul that believeth in him. It is emphatically expressed by the apostle, 1 Cor. 6:17. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." The word imports the nearest, closest, and strictest union. Christ and the soul cleave together in a blessed oneness, as those things do that are glued one to another; so that look as the graff is really in the stock, and the spirit or sap of the stock is really in the graff; so a believer is really (though mystically) in Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is really communicated to a believer. "I live, (saith Paul) yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," Gal. 2:20. "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him," 1 John 4:16.
7. Graffs are bound to the stock by bands made of hay or flags, these keep it steady, else the wind would loose it out of the stock.
The believing soul is also fastened to Christ by bands, which will secure it from all danger of being loosed off from him any more.
There are two bands of this union; the Spirit on God's part, this is the firm bond of union, without which we could never be made one with Christ, Rom. 8:9. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his;" and faith on our part, Eph. 3:17. "That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith." These hold strongly.
8. Though the stock be one and the same, yet all graffs do not thrive and flourish alike in it; some outgrow the rest, and those that grow not so well as the others do, the fault is in them, and not in the stock: so it is with souls really united to Christ; all do not flourish alike in him, the faith of some grows exceedingly, 2 Thess. 1:3. the things that be in others are ready to die, Rev. 3:2. and such souls must charge the fault upon themselves. Christ sends up living sap enough, not only to make all that are in him living, but fruitful branches.
REFLECTIONS
1. Is it so indeed betwixt Christ and my soul, as it is betwixt the ingraffed cyon and the stock? What honour and glory then hath
Christ conferred upon me, a poor unworthy creature! What! to be made one with him, to be a living branch of him, to be joined thus to the Lord! Oh! what a preferment is this! It is but a little while since I was a wild and cursed plant, growing in the wilderness amongst them that shall shortly be cut down and faggotted up for hell; for me to be taken from amongst them, and planted into Christ. O my soul! fall down and kiss the feet of free grace, that moved so freely towards so vile a creature! The dignities and honours of the kings and nobles of the earth, are nothing to mine. It was truly confessed by one of them, that it is a greater honour to be a member of Christ, than the head of an empire. Do I say, a greater honour than is put upon the kings of the earth? I might have said, it is a greater honour than is put upon the angels of heaven: For "to whom of them said Christ, at any time, thou art bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh? Behold what manner of love is this!" 1 John 3:1.
2. Look again upon the ingraffed cyons, O my soul! and thou shalt find, that when once they have taken hold of the stock, they live as long as there is any sap in the root; and because he liveth, I shall live also, for my life is hid with Christ in God, Col. 3:3. The graff is preserved in the stock, and my soul is even so preserved "in Christ
Jesus!" Jude, ver. 1.
3. Am I joined to the Lord as a mystical part or branch of him? How dear art thou then, O my soul, to the God and Father of my Lord
Jesus Christ! What! a branch of his dear Son! What can God withhold from one so ingraffed? Eph. 1:6. "All is yours, (saith my God) for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's," 1 Cor. 3:23.
4. Once more, draw matter of instruction as well as comfort from this sweet observation: seeing God hath put all this honour upon thee, by this most intimate union with his Christ, look to it, my soul, that thou live and walk as becomes a soul thus one with the Lord: be thou tender over his glory: doth not that which strikes at the root, strike at the very life of the graff? And shall not that which strikes at the very glory of Christ, tenderly touch and affect thee? Yea, be thou tenderly affected with all the reproaches that fall upon him from abroad, but especially with those that redound to him from thine own unfruitfulness. Oh! disgrace not the root that bears thee! let it never be said, that any evil fruit is found upon a branch that lives and is fed by such a root.
THE POEM OH! what considering serious man can see The close conjunction of the graff and tree;
And whilst he contemplates, he doth not find This meditation graffed on his mind?
I am the branch, and Christ the vine; Thy gracious hand did pluck Me from that native stock of mine, That I his sap might suck.
The bloody spear did in his heart A deep incision make,
That grace to me he might impart, And I therefore partake.
The Spirit and faith are that firm band Which binds us fast together; Thus we are clasped hand in hand, And nothing can us sever.
Bless'd be that hand which did remove Me from my native place!
This was the wonder of thy love, The triumph of thy grace!
That I, a wild and cursed plant Should thus preferred be, Who all those ornaments do want, Thou may'st in others see.
As long as e'er the root doth live, The branches are not dry; Whilst Christ hath grace and life to give,
My soul can never die.