CHAPTER III: Upon the Gathering in of Fruits in Autumn
O blessed Saviour! never could A graff cleave to the tree More close than thy poor creature would United be with thee.
My soul, dishonour not the root, 'Twill be a shame for thee To want the choicest sorts of fruit, And yet thus graffed be.
Thus you may shake from graffs, before they blow, More precious fruit than e'er on trees did grow.
CHAPTER III
Upon the Gathering in of Fruits in Autumn When trees are shak'd, but little fruit remains,
Just such a remnant to the Lord pertains.
OBSERVATION
IT is a pleasant sight in autumn to see the fruitful branches hanging full of clusters, which weigh the boughs to the ground.
Aspice curvatos pomorum pondere ramos, Ut sua quod peperit vix ferat arbor onus.
Which I may thus English.
O what a pleasant sight it is to see, The fruitful clusters bowing down the tree!
But these laden branches are soon eased of their burden; for as soon as they are ripe, the husbandman ascends the tree, and shaking the limbs with all his might, causes a fruitful shower to fall like hailstones upon the ground below; which being gathered to a heap, are carried to the pound, broken all to pieces in a trough, and squeezed to a dry lump in the press, whence all their juice and moisture runs into the fat. How few escape this fat of all those multitudes that grow in the orchard? If you look upon the trees, you may possibly see here one, and there another, two or three upon the utmost branches, but nothing in comparison to the vast number that are thus used.
APPLICATION
THESE small remains of fruit, which are either left upon the tree, or gathered in for an hoard, do well resemble that small number of God's elect in the world, which free-grace hath reserved out of the general ruin of mankind. Four things are excellently shadowed forth to us by this similitude.
1. You see in a fruitful autumn, the trees even oppressed and overladen with the weight of their own fruits, before the shaking time comes, and then they are eased of their burden. Thus the whole creation groans under the weight of their sins, who inhabit it, Rom.
8:22. the creatures are in bondage, and by an elegant Prosopopcia, are said, both to groan and wait for deliverance. The orignial sin of man brought an original curse, which burdens the creature, Gen.
3:17. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; and the actual sin of man brings actual curses upon the creature, Psalm 107:34. Thus the inhabitants of the world load and burden it, as the limbs of a tree are burdened, and sometimes broken with the weight of their own fruit."
2. You may observe in your orchards, every year, what abundance of fruits daily fall, either by storms, or of their own accord; but when the shaking time comes, then the ground is covered all over with fruit. Thus it is with the world, that mystical tree, with respect to men that inhabit it; there is not a year, a day, or hour, in which some drop not, as it were, of their own accord, by a natural death; and sometimes wars and epidemical plagues blow down thousands together into their graves; these are as high winds in a fruitful orchard; but when the shaking time, the autumn of the world, comes, then all its inhabitants shall be shaken down together, either by death, or a translation equivalent thereunto.
3. When fruits are shaken down from their trees, then the husbandman separates them; the far greater part for the pound, and some few reserved for an hoard, which are brought to his table, and eaten with pleasure. This excellently shadows forth that great separation, which Christ will make in the end of the world, when some shall be cast into the wine-press of the Almighty's wrath, and others preserved for glory.
4. Those fruits which are preserved on the tree, or in the hoard, are comparatively, but an handful to those that are broken in the pound; alas! it is scarce one of a thousand, and such a small remnant of elected souls hath God reserved for glory.
I look upon the world as a great tree, consisting of four large limbs or branches; this branch or division of it on which we grow, hath, doubtless, a greater number of God's elect upon it than the other
three; and yet, when I look with a serious and considering eye upon this fruitful European branch, and see how much rotten and withered fruit there grows upon it, it makes me say, as Chrysostom did of his populous Antioch; Ah, how small a remnant hath Jesus
Christ among these vast numbers! "Many indeed are called, but ah! how few are chosen?" Mat. 20:16. Alas! they are but as the gleanings when the vintage is done; here and there one upon its utmost branches: to allude to that, Isa. 17:6. It was a sad observation which that searching scholar, Mr. Brerewood, long since made upon the world; that, dividing it into thirty equal parts, he found no less than nineteen of them wholly overspread with idolatry and heathenish darkness; and of the eleven remaining parts, no less than six are
Mahometans; so that there remains but five of thirty which profess the Christian religion at large; and the far greater part of these remaining five are inveloped and drowned in popish darkness! so that you see the reformed Protestant religion is confined to a small spot of ground indeed. Now, if from these we subtract all the grossly ignorant, openly profane, merely civil, and secretly hypocritical, judge then in yourselves, how small a scantling of the world falls to Christ's share.
Well might Christ say, Mat. 7:14. "Narrow is the way, and strait is the gate that leadeth unto life: and few there be that find it" And again,
Luke 12:32. "Fear not little flock." The large piece goes to the devil; a little remnant is Christ's, Rom. 9:27. Saints in scripture, are called jewels, Mal. 3:17. Precious pearls and diamonds, which the Latins call Uniones. Quia nulli duo simul reperiuntur, (saith Pliny) because nature gives them not by pairs, but one by one: how many pebbles to one pearl! Suitable to this notion, is that complaint of the prophet,
Mic. 7:1, 2. "Wo is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first ripe fruits; the good man is
perished out of the earth, and there is none, (i.e. none comparatively) upright among men." The prophet alludes to a poor hungry man, that, after the gathering time is past, comes into an orchard desiring some choice fruit to eat; but, alas; he finds none; there is no cluster; possibly here and there one after the shaking time. True saints are the world's rarities.
REFLECTIONS
1. What then will be my lot, when that great shaking time shall come, who have followed the multitude, and gone with the tide of the world? How, even when I have been pressed to strictness and singular diligence in the matters of salvation, and told what a narrow way the way of life is, have I put it off with this? If it be so, then wo to thousands! Ah, foolish heart! Thousands, and ten thousands shall be woful and miserable, indeed, to all eternity! Will it be any mitigation of my misery, that I shall have thousands of miserable companions with me in hell? Or, will it be admitted for a good plea at the judgment-seat, Lord, I did as the generality of my neighbours in the world did; except it were here and there a more precise person, I saw none but lived as I lived. Ah, foolish sinner! is it not better to go to heaven alone, than to hell with company? The worst courses have always the most imitators; and the road to destruction is thronged with passengers.
2. And how little better is my condition, who have often fathered the wickedness of my own heart, upon the encouragement of mercy?
Thus hath my heart pleaded against strictness and duty; God is a merciful God, and will not be so severe with the world, to damn so many thousands as are in my condition. Deluded soul! if God had damned the whole race of Adam, he had done them no more wrong: yea, there is more mercy in saving but one man, than there is of
severity and rigour in damning all. How many drunkards and adulterers have lived and died with thy plea in their mouths, "God is a merciful God?" But yet his word expressly saith, "Be not deceived; such shall not inherit the kingdom of God," 1 Cor. 6:9. God, indeed, is a God of infinite mercy; but he will never exercise his mercy to the prejudice of his truth.
3. Oh! what rich grace is here, That in a general shipwreck mercy should cast forth a line or plank to save me! That when millions perish, I, with a few more should escape that perdition! Was it the Father's good pleasure to bestow the kingdom upon a little flock, and to make me one of that number? What singular obligations hath mercy put upon my soul! The fewer are saved, the more cause have they that are to admire their salvation. If but one of a thousand had been damned, yet my salvation would have been an act of infinite grace; but when scarce one of a thousand are saved, what shall I call that grace that cast my lot among them!
THE POEM HE that with spir'tual eyes in autumn sees The heaps of fruit which fall from shaken trees,
Like storms of hail-stones, and can hardly find One of a thousand that remains behind; Methinks this meditation should awake His soul, and make it like those trees to shake.
Of all the clusters, which so lately grew
Upon those trees, how few can they now shew?
Here one, and there another; two or three Upon the utmost branches of the tree.
The greatest numbers to the pound are borne.
Squeez'd in the trough, and all to pieces torn.
This little handful's left, to shadow forth To me God's remnant in this peopl'd earth.
If o'er the whole terrestrial globe I look, The gospel visits but a little nook.
The rest with horrid darkness overspread, Are fast asleep, yea, in transgression dead.
Whole droves to hell the devil daily drives; Not one amongst them once resists or strives.
And in this little heaven-enlight'ned spot How fast an interest hath Satan got?
But few of holiness profession make; And if from those that do profess, I take The self-deluding hypocrites, I fear
To think how few'll remain that are sincere.
O tax not mercy that it saves so few; But rather wonder that the Lord should shew
Mercy to any. Quarrel not with grace; But for thyself God's gracious terms embrace.
When all were shipwreck'd, thou should'st wonder more To find thyself so strangely cast ashore,
And there to meet with any that can tell How narrowly they also 'scap'd from hell.
The smaller number mercy saves, the higher Engagements lie on thee still to admire.
Had the whole species perish'd in their sin, And not one individual sav'd been, Yet every tongue before him must be mute
Confess his righteousness, but not dispute.
Or had the hand of mercy which is free, Taken another, and pass'd over me; I still must justify him, and my tongue