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T H E 'Who being dead, yet speaketh.'—Hebrews 11:4 By J O H N.B U N Y A N. L O N D O N, Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1688. This title page was printed with a wide black border. |
SIGNS OF BEING PAST GRACE.
ow, then, to show you, by some signs, how you may know that the
day of grace is ended, or near to ending, with the barren professor; and after that
thou shalt cut it down. He that hath stood it out against God, and that hath withstood
all those means for fruit that God hath used for the making of him, if it might have
been, a fruitful tree in his garden, he is in this danger; and this indeed is the
sum of the parable. The fig-tree here mentioned was blessed with the application
of means, had time allowed it to receive the nourishment; but it outstood, withstood,
overstood all, all that the husbandman did, all that the vine- dresser did.
But a little distinctly to particularize in four or five particulars.
First sign. The day of grace is like to be past, when a professor hath withstood,
abused, and worn out God's patience, then he is in danger; this is a provocation;
then God cries, 'Cut it down.' There are some men that steal into a profession nobody
knows how, even as this fig-tree was brought into the vineyard by other hands than
God's; and there they abide lifeless, graceless, careless, and without any good conscience
to God at all. Perhaps they came in for the loaves, for a trade, for credit, for
a blind; or it may be to stifle and choke the checks and grinding pangs of an awakened
and disquieted conscience. Now, having obtained their purpose, like the sinners of
Sion, they are at ease and secure; saying like Agag, 'Surely the bitterness of death
is past' (1 Sam 15:22); I am well, shall be saved, and go to heaven. Thus in these
vain conceits they spend a year, two, or three; not remembering that at every season
of grace, and at every opportunity of the gospel the Lord comes seeking fruit. Well,
sinner, well, barren fig-tree, this is but a coarse beginning: God comes for fruit.
1. What have I here? saith God; what a fig-tree is this, that hath stood this year
in my vineyard, and brought me forth no fruit? I will cry unto him, Professor, barren
fig-tree, be fruitful! I look for fruit, I expect fruit, I must have fruit; therefore
bethink thyself! At these the professor pauses; but these are words, not blows, therefore
off goes this consideration from the heart. When God comes the next year, he finds
him still as he was, a barren, fruitless cumber-ground. And now again he complains,
here are two years gone, and no fruit appears; well, I will defer mine anger. 'For
my name sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee,
that I cut thee not off,' as yet (Isa 48:9). I will wait, I will yet wait to be gracious.
But this helps not, this hath not the least influence upon the barren fig-tree. Tush,
saith he, here is no threatening: God is merciful, he will defer his anger, he waits
to be gracious, I am not yet afraid (Isa 30:18). O! how ungodly men, that are at
unawares crept into the vineyard, how do they turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness!
Well, he comes the third year for fruit, as he did before, but still he finds but
a barren fig-tree; no fruit. Now, he cries out again, O thou dresser of my vineyard,
come hither; here is a fig-tree hath stood these three years in my vineyard, and
hath at every season disappointed my expectation; for I have looked for fruit in
vain; 'Cut it down,' my patience is worn out, I shall wait on this fig-tree no longer.
2. And now he begins to shake the fig-tree with his threatenings: Fetch out the axe!
Now the axe is death; death therefore is called for. Death, come smite me this fig-tree.
And withal the Lord shakes this sinner, and whirls him upon a sick-bed, saying, Take
him, death, he hath abused my patience and forbearance, not remembering that it should
have led him to repentance, and to the fruits thereof. Death, fetch away this fig-tree
to the fire, fetch this barren professor to hell! At this death comes with grim looks
into the chamber; yea, and hell follows with him to the bedside, and both stare this
professor in the face, yea, begin to lay hands upon him; one smiting him with pains
in his body, with headache, heart-ache, back-ache, shortness of breath, fainting,
qualms, trembling of joints, stopping at the chest, and almost all the symptoms of
a man past all recovery. Now, while death is thus tormenting the body, hell is doing
with the mind and conscience, striking them with its pains, casting sparks of fire
in thither, wounding with sorrows, and fears of everlasting damnation, the spirit
of this poor creature.[18] And now he begins to bethink himself, and
to cry to God for mercy; Lord, spare me! Lord, spare me! Nay, saith God, you have
been a provocation to me these three years.
How many times have you disappointed me? How many seasons have you spent in vain?
How many sermons and other mercies did I, of my patience, afford you? but to no purpose
at all. Take him, death! O! good Lord, saith the sinner, spare me but this once;
raise me but this once. Indeed I have been a barren professor, and have stood to
no purpose at all in thy vineyard; but spare! O spare this one time, I beseech thee,
and I will be better! Away, away you will not; I have tried you these three years
already; you are naught; if I should recover you again, you would be as bad as you
were before. And all this talk is while death stands by. The sinner cries again,
Good Lord, try me this once; let me get up again this once, and see if I do not mend.
But will you promise me to mend? Yes, indeed, Lord, and vow it too; I will never
be so bad again; I will be better. Well, saith God, death, let this professor alone
for this time; I will try him a while longer; he hath promised, he hath vowed, that
he will amend his ways. It may be he will mind to keep his promises. Vows are solemn
things; it may be he may fear to break his vows. Arise from off they bed. And now
God lays down his axe. At this the poor creature is very thankful, praises God, and
fawns upon him, shows as if he did it heartily, and calls to others to thank him
too. He therefore riseth, as one would think, to be a new creature indeed. But by
that he hath put on his clothes, is come down from his bed, and ventured into the
yard or shop, and there sees how all things are gone to sixes and sevens, he begins
to have second thoughts, and says to his folks, What have you all been doing? How
are all things out of order? I am I cannot tell what behind hand. One may see, if
a man be but a little a to side, that you have neither wisdom nor prudence to order
things.[19] And now, instead of seeking to spend the rest of his time to God, he doubleth
his diligence after this world. Alas! all must not be lost; we must have provident
care. And thus, quite forgetting the sorrows of death, the pains of hell, the promises
and vows which he made to God to be better; because judgment was not now speedily
executed, therefore the heart of this poor creature is fully set in him to do evil.
3. These things proving ineffectual, God takes hold of his axe again, sends death
to a wife, to a child, to his cattle, 'Your young men have I slain, - and taken away
your horses' (Amos 4:9,10). I will blast him, cross him, disappoint him, and cast
him down, and will set myself against him in all that he putteth his hand unto. At
this the poor barren professor cries out again, Lord, I have sinned; spare me once
more, I beseech thee. O take not away the desire of mine eyes; spare my children,
bless me in my labours, and I will mend and be better. No, saith God, you lied to
me last time, I will trust you in this no longer; and withal he tumbleth the wife,
the child, the estate into a grave. And then returns to his place, till this professor
more unfeignedly acknowledgeth his offence (Hosea 5:14,15).
At this the poor creature is afflicted and distressed, rends his clothes, and begins
to call the breaking of his promise and vows to mind; he mourns and prays, and like
Ahab, awhile walks softly at the remembrance of the justness of the hand of God upon
him. And now he renews his promises: Lord, try me this one time more; take off thy
hand and see; they go far that never turn. Well, God spareth him again, sets down
his axe again. 'Many times he did deliver them, but they provoked him with their
counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity' (Psa 106:43). Now they seem to
be thankful again, and are as if they were resolved to be godly indeed. Now they
read, they pray, they go to meetings, and seem to be serious a pretty while, but
at last they forget. Their lusts prick them, suitable temptations present themselves;
wherefore they turn to their own crooked ways again. 'When he slew them, then they
sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God'; 'nevertheless they did
flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongue' (Psa 78:34-36).
4. Yet again, the Lord will not leave this professor, but will take up his axe again,
and will put him under a more heart- searching ministry, a ministry that shall search
him, and turn him over and over; a ministry that shall meet with him, as Elijah met
with Ahab, in all his acts of wickedness, and now the axe is laid to the roots of
the trees. Besides, this ministry doth not only search the heart, but presenteth
the sinner with the golden rays of the glorious gospel; now is Christ Jesus s set
forth evidently, now is grace displayed sweetly; now, now are the promises broken
like boxes of ointment, to the perfuming of the whole room! But, alas! there is yet
no fruit on this fig-tree. While his heart is searching, he wrangles; while the glorious
grace of the gospel is unveiling, this professor wags and is wanton, gathers up some
scraps thereof; 'Tastes the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come';
'drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon him' (Heb 6:3-8; Jude 4). But bringeth
not forth fruit meet for him whose gospel it is; 'Takes no heed to walk in the law
of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart' (2 Kings 10:31). But counteth that
the glory of the gospel consisteth in talk and show, and that our obedience thereto
is a matter of speculation; that good works lie in good words; and if they can finely
talk, they think they bravely please God. They think the kingdom of God consisteth
only in word, not in power; and thus proveth ineffectual this fourth means also.
5. Well, now the axe begins to be heaved higher, for now indeed God is ready to smite
the sinner; yet before he will strike the stroke, he will try one way more at the
last, and if that misseth, down goes the fig-tree! Now this last way is to tug and
strive with this professor by his Spirit. Wherefore the Spirit of the Lord is now
come to him; but not always to strive with man (Gen 6:3). Yet a while he will strive
with him, he will awaken, he will convince, he will call to remembrance former sins,
former judgments, the breach of former vows and promises, the misspending of former
days; he will also present persuasive arguments, encouraging promises, dreadful judgments,
the shortness of time to repent in; and that there is hope if he come. Further, he
will show him the certainty of death, and of the judgment to come; yea, he will pull
and strive with this sinner; but, behold, the mischief now lies here, here is tugging
and striving on both sides. The Spirit convinces, the man turns a deaf ear to God;
the Spirit saith, Receive my instruction and live, but the man pulls away his shoulder;
the Spirit shows him whither he is going, but the man closeth his eyes against it;
the Spirit offereth violence, the man strives and resists; they have 'done despite
unto the Spirit of grace' (Heb 10:29). The Spirit parlieth a second time, and urgeth
reasons of a new nature, but the sinner answereth, No, I have loved strangers, and
after them I will go (Amos 4:6-12). At this God's fury comes up into his face: now
he comes out of his holy place, and is terrible; now he sweareth in his wrath they
shall never enter into his rest (Heb 3:11). I exercised towards you my patience,
yet you have not turned unto me, saith the Lord. I smote you in your person, in your
relations, in your estate, yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. 'In
thy filthiness is lewdness, because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged;
thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I cause my fury to rest
upon thee' (Eze 24:13). 'Cut it down, why doth it cumber the ground?'
The second sign. That such a professor is almost, if not quite, past grace, is, when
God hath given him over, or lets him alone, and suffers him to do anything, and that
without control, helpeth him not either in works of holiness, or in straits and difficulties.
'Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone' (Hosea 4:17). Woe be to them when I depart
from them. I will laugh at their calamities, and will mock when their fear cometh
(Prov 1:24-29).
Barren fig-tree, thou hast heretofore been digged about, and dunged; God's mattock
hath heretofore been at thy roots; gospel-dung hath heretofore been applied to thee;
thou hast heretofore been strove with, convinced, awakened, made to taste and see,
and cry, O the blessedness! Thou hast heretofore been met with under the word; thy
heart hath melted, thy spirit hath fallen, thy soul hath trembled, and thou hast
felt something of the power of the gospel. But thou hast sinned, thou hast provoked
the eyes of his glory, thy iniquity is found to be hateful, and now perhaps God hath
left thee, given thee up, and lets thee alone. Heretofore thou wast tender; thy conscience
startled at the temptation to wickedness, for thou wert taken off from 'the pollutions
of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Peter
2:20-22). But that very vomit that once thou wert turned from, now thou lappest up–
with the dog in the proverb–again; and that very mire that once thou seemedst to
be washed from, in that very mire thou now art tumbling afresh. But to particularize,
there are three signs of a man's being given over of God.
1. When he is let alone in sinning, when the reins of his lusts are loosed, and he
given up to them. 'And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient:
being filled with all unrighteousness' (Rom 1:28,29). Seest thou a man that heretofore
had the knowledge of God, and that had some awe of Majesty upon him: I say, seest
thou such an one sporting himself in his own deceivings, turning the grace of our
God into lasciviousness, and walking after his own ungodly lusts? (Rom 1:30-31).
His 'judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and his damnation slumbereth not'
(2 Peter 2:13). Dost thou hear, barren professor? It is astonishing to see how those
that once seemed 'sons of the morning,' and were making preparations for eternal
life, now at last, for the rottenness of their hearts, by the just judgment of God,
to be permitted, being past feeling, to give 'themselves over unto lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness' (Eph 4:18,19). A great number of such were
in the first gospel-days; against whom Peter, and Jude, and John, pronounce the heavy
judgment of God. Peter and Jude couple them with the fallen angels, and John forbids
that prayer be made for them, because that is happened unto them that hath happened
to the fallen angels that fell, who, for forsaking their first state, and for leaving
'their own habitation,' are 'reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto
the judgment of the great day' (Jude 5,6; 2 Peter 2:3-8). Barren fig-tree, dost thou
hear? (1.) These are beyond all mercy! (2.) These are beyond all promises! (3.) These
are beyond all hopes of repentance! (4.) These have no intercessor, nor any more
share in a sacrifice for sin! (5.) For these there remains nothing but a fearful
looking for of judgment! (6.) Wherefore these are the true fugitives and vagabonds,
that being left of God, of Christ, of grace, and of the promise, and being beyond
all hope, wander and straggle to and fro, even as the devil, their associate, until
their time shall come to die, or until they descend in battle and perish!
2. Wherefore they are let alone in hearing. If these at any time come under the word,
there is for them no God, no savour of the means of grace, no stirrings of heart,
no pity for themselves, no love to their own salvation. Let them look on this hand
or that, there they see such effects of the word in others as produceth signs of
repentance, and love to God and his Christ. These men only have their backs bowed
down alway (Rom 11:10). These men only have the spirit of slumber, eyes that they
should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day. Wherefore as
they go to the place of the Holy, so they come from the place of the Holy, and soon
are forgotten in the places where they so did (Eccl 8:10). Only they reap this damage,
'They treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God' (Rom 2:3-5). Look to it, barren professor!
3. If he be visited after the common way of mankind, either with sickness, distress,
or any mind of calamity, still no God appeareth, no sanctifying hand of God, no special
mercy is mixed with the affliction. But he falls sick, and grows well, like the beast;
or is under distress, as Saul, who when he was engaged by the Philistines was forsaken
and left of God, 'And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and
pitched in Shunem, and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa.
And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines he was afraid, and his heart greatly
trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither
by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets' (1 Sam 28:4-6). The Lord answered him no
more; he had done with him, cast him off, and rejected him, and left him to stand
and fall with his sins, by himself. But of this more in the conclusion: therefore
I here forbear.
4. These men may go whither they will, do what they will; they may range from opinion
to opinion, from notion to notion, from sect to sect, but are steadfast nowhere;
they are left to their own uncertainties, they have not grace to establish their
hearts; and though some of them have boasted themselves of this liberty, yet Jude
calls them 'wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever'
(Jude 13). They are left, as I told you before, to be fugitives and vagabonds in
the earth, to wander everywhere, but to abide nowhere, until they shall descend to
their own place, with Cain and Judas, men of the same fate with themselves (Acts
1:25).
A third sign that such a professor is quite past grace is, when his heart is grown
so hard, so stony, and impenetrable, that nothing will pierce it. Barren fig-tree,
dost thou consider? a hard and impenitent heart is the curse of God! A heart that
cannot repent, is instead of all plagues at once; and hence it is that God said of
Pharaoh, when he spake of delivering him up in the greatness of his anger, 'I will
at this time,' saith he, 'send all my plagues upon thine heart' (Exo 9:14).
To some men that have grievously sinned under a profession of the gospel, God giveth
this token of his displeasure; they are denied the power of repentance, their heart
is bound, they cannot repent; it is impossible that they should ever repent, should
they live a thousand years. It is impossible for those fall-aways to be renewed again
unto repentance, 'seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put
him to an open shame' (Heb 6:4-6). Now, to have the heart so hardened, so judicially
hardened, this is as a bar put in by the Lord God against the salvation of this sinner.
This was the burden of Spira's complaint, 'I cannot do it! O! how I cannot do it!'[20]
This man sees what he hath done, what should help him, and what will become of him;
yet he cannot repent; he pulled away his shoulder before, he stopped his ears before,
he shut up his eyes before, and in that very posture God left him, and so he stands
to this very day. I have had a fancy, that Lot's wife, when she was turned into a
pillar of salt, stood yet looking over her shoulder, or else with her face towards
Sodom; as the judgment caught her, so it bound her, and left her a monument of God's
anger to after generations (Gen 19:26).
We read of some that are seared with a hot iron, and that are past feeling; for so
seared persons in seared parts are. Their conscience is seared (1 Tim 4:2). The conscience
is the thing that must be touched with feeling, fear, and remorse, if ever any good
be done with the sinner. How then can any good be done to those whose conscience
is worse than that? that is, fast asleep in sin (Eph 4:19). For that conscience that
is fast asleep, may yet be effectually awakened and saved; but that conscience that
is seared, dried, as it were, into a cinder, can never have sense, feeling, or the
least regret in this world. Barren fig-tree, hearken, judicial hardening is dreadful!
There is a difference betwixt that hardness of heart that is incident to all men,
and that which comes upon some as a signal or special judgment of God. And although
all kinds of hardness of heart, in some sense may be called a judgment, yet to be
hardened with this second kind, is a judgment peculiar only to them that perish;
hardness that is sent as a punishment for the abuse of light received, for a reward
of apostacy. This judicial hardness is discovered from that which is incident to
all men, in these particulars:–
1. It is a hardness that comes after some great light received, because of some great
sin committed against that light, and the grace that gave it. Such hardness as Pharaoh
had, after the Lord had wrought wondrously before him; such hardness as the Gentiles
had, a hardness which darkened the heart, a hardness which made their minds reprobate.
This hardness is also the same with that the Hebrews are cautioned to beware of,
a hardness that is caused by unbelief, and a departing from the living God; a hardness
completed through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:7, &c). Such as that in the
provocation, of whom God sware, that they should not enter into his rest. It was
this kind of hardness also, that both Cain, and Ishmael, and Esau, were hardened
with, after they had committed their great transgressions.
2. It is the greatest kind of hardness; and hence they are said to be harder than
a rock, or than an adamant, that is, harder than flint; so hard, that nothing can
enter (Jer 5:3; Zech 7:12).
3. It is a hardness given in much anger, and that to bind the soul up in an impossibility
of repentance.
4. It is a hardness, therefore, which is incurable, of which a man must die and be
damned. Barren professor, hearken to this.
A fourth sign that such a professor is quite past grace, is, when he fortifies his
hard heart against the tenor of God's word (Job 9:4, &c.) This is called hardening
themselves against God, and turning of the Spirit against them. As thus, when after
a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus, and of the doctrine that is according to
godliness, they shall embolden themselves in courses of sin, by promising themselves
that they shall have life and salvation notwithstanding. Barren professor, hearken
to this! This man is called, 'a root that beareth gall and wormwood,' or a poisonful
herb, such an one as is abominated of God, yea, the abhorred of his soul. For this
man saith, 'I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination' or stubbornness
'of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst'; an opinion flat against the whole
Word of God, yea, against the very nature of God himself (Deut 29:18,19). Wherefore
he adds, 'Then the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy, shall smoke against that
man, and all the curses that are written in God's book shall lie upon him, and the
Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven' (Deut 19:20).
Yea, that man shall not fail to be effectually destroyed, saith the text: 'The Lord
shall separate that man unto evil, out of all the tribes of Israel, according to
all the curses of the covenant' (Deut 19:21). He shall separate him unto evil; he
shall give him up, he shall leave him to his heart; he shall separate him to that
or those that will assuredly be too hard for him.
Now this judgment is much effected when God hath given a man up unto Satan, and hath
given Satan leave, without fail, to complete his destruction. I say, when God hath
given Satan leave effectually to complete his destruction; for all that are delivered
up unto Satan have not, nor do not come to this end. But that is the man whom God
shall separate to evil, and shall leave in the hands of Satan, to complete, without
fail, his destruction.
Thus he served Ahab, a man that sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the
Lord. 'And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at
Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And
there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him.
And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and be a lying
spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and
prevail also; go forth, and do so' (1 Kings 21:25, 22:20-22). Thou shalt persuade
him, and prevail; do thy will, I leave him in thy hand, go forth, and do so.
Wherefore, in these judgments the Lord doth much concern himself for the management
thereof, because of the provocation wherewith they have provoked him. This is the
man whose ruin contriveth, and bringeth to pass by his own contrivance: 'I also will
choose their delusions' for them; 'I will bring their fears upon them' (Isa 66:4).
I will choose their devices, or the wickednesses that their hearts are contriving
of. I, even I, will cause them to be accepted of, and delightful to them. But who
are they that must thus be feared? Why, those among professors that have chosen their
own ways, those whose soul delighteth in their abominations. Because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved: for this cause God shall send
them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned,
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
'God shall send them.' It is a great word! Yea, God shall send them strong delusions;
delusions that shall do: that shall make them believe a lie. Why so? 'That they all
might be damned,' every one of them, 'who believed not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness' (2 Thess 2:10- 12).
There is nothing more provoking to the Lord, than for a man to promise when God threateneth;
for a man to delight of conceit that he shall be safe, and yet to be more wicked
than in former days, this man's soul abhorreth the truth of God; no marvel, therefore,
if God's soul abhorreth him; he hath invented a way contrary to God, to bring about
his own salvation; no marvel, therefore, if God invent a way to bring about this
man's damnation: and seeing that these rebels are at this point, we shall have peace;
God will see whose word will stand, his or theirs.
A fifth sign of a man being past grace is, when he shall at this scoff, and inwardly
grin and fret against the Lord, secretly purposing to continue his course, and put
all to the venture, despising the messengers of the Lord. 'He that despised Moses'
law, died without mercy; - of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be
thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?' &c. (Heb 10:28).
Wherefore, against these despisers God hath set himself, and foretold that they shall
not believe, but perish: 'Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work
a work in your days, a work which ye shall in nowise believe, though a man declare
it unto you' (Acts 13:41).
After that thou shalt cut it down.
Thus far we have treated of the barren fig-tree, or fruitless professor, with some
signs to know him by; whereto is added also some signs of one who neither will nor
can, by any means, be fruitful, but they must miserably perish. Now, being come to
the time of execution, I shall speak a word to that also; 'After that thou shalt
cut it down.'
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