The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (best book clubs txt) 📖

vision of a few hairs saved out of the midst of a few hairs; for the saved were a few saved out of a few. (Eze 5:5) (8.) You find in the time of the prophet Micah, how the godly complain, that as to number they then were so few, that he compares them to those that are left behind when they had gathered the summer-fruit. (Micah 7:1)

(9.) When Christ was come, how did he confirm this truth, that but few of them that put in claim for heaven will have it for their inheritance! But the common people could not hear it, and therefore, upon a time when he did but a little hint at this truth, the people, even all in the synagogue where he preached it, “were filled with wrath, rose up, thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill,” whereon their city was built, “that they might cast him down headlong.” (Luke 4:24-29)

(10.) John, who was after Christ, saith, “The whole world lieth in wickedness; that all the world wondered after the beast; and that power was given to the beast over all kindreds, tongues, and nations.”

Power to do what? Why, to cause all, both great and small, rich and poor, bond and free, to receive his mark, and to be branded for him. (1 John 5:10, Rev 13:3,7,16)

(11.) Should we come to observation and experience, the show of the countenance of the bulk of men doth witness against them; “they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.” (Isa 3:9) Where is the man that maketh the Almighty God his delight, and that designeth his glory in the world? Do not even almost all pursue this world, their lusts and pleasures? and so, consequently, say unto God, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways; or, What is the Almighty that we should serve him? It is in vain to serve God,” &c.

So that without doubt it will appear a truth in the day of God, that but few of them that shall put in their claim to heaven will have it for their inheritance.

Before I pass this head, I will show you to what the saved are compared in the Scriptures.

[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 else but them that shall be saved. (Matt 3:12, 13:30) But mark, “There shall be a handful”: What is a handful, when compared with 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 that is betwixt 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 common.

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 that of 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 receiveth 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 the saved compared. It is the devil and sin that carry away the cartloads, while Christ and his ministers come after a gleaning. But the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim are better than the vintage of Abiezer. (Judg 8:2) Them that Christ and his ministers glean up 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 that 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 speaketh of the saved, he saith there is no cluster; but when he speaketh of the damned, he saith they are gathered by clusters. (Rev 14:18,19) O sinners! but few will be saved! O professors! but few 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 room, being few and small, though lumber takes up much. In almost every house, you may find brass, and iron, and lead; and in every place you may find hypocritical professors, but the saved are not these common things; they are God’s peculiar treasure. (Psa 135:4) Wherefore Paul distinguisheth 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 honour, and some to dishonour. (2 Tim 2:20) Here is a word for wooden and earthy professors; the jewels and treasures are vessels to honour, they of wood and earth are vessels of dishonour, 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 very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” (Isa 1:9) A remnant, a small remnant, a very small remnant! O how doth the Holy Ghost word it! and all to show you how few shall be saved. Every one knows what a remnant is, but this is a small remnant, a very small 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 whole 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 sendeth the prophet to make the hearts of the people fat, their ears dull, and to shut their eyes, the prophet asketh, “How long?” to which God answereth, “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 in the midst of 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 expounds 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.” 14

I shall not add more generals at this time. I pray God that the world be not offended at these. But without doubt, but 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 that which follows.

[Second. Particularly—but few of them that profess have been saved.]

Therefore I come more particularly to show you that but few shall be saved. I say, but few of professors themselves will be saved; for that is the truth that the text doth 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 truly 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 truly 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