London:
Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, 1688.
This
Title has a broad Black Border.
This solemn,
searching, awful treatise, was published by Bunyan in 1682; but does not appear
to have been reprinted until a very few months after his decease, which so
unexpectedly took place in 1688. Although we have sought with all possible
diligence, no copy of the first edition has been discovered; we have made use of
a fine copy of the second edition, in possession of that thorough Bunyanite, my
kind friend, R. B. Sherring, of Bristol. The third edition, 1692, is in the
British Museum. Added to these posthumous publications appeared, for the first
time, ‘An Exhortation to Peace and Unity,’ which will be found at the end of
our second volume. In the advertisement to that treatise are stated, at some
length, my reasons for concluding that it was not written by Bunyan, although
inserted in all the editions of his collected works. That opinion is now more
fully confirmed, by the discovery of Bunyan’s own list of his works, published
just before his death, in 1688, and in which that exhortation is not inserted. I
was also much pleased to find that the same conclusion was arrived at by that
highly intelligent Baptist minister, Mr. Robert Robinson. His reasons are given
at some length, concluding with, ‘it is evident that Bunyan never wrote this
piece.’[1] Why it was, after Bunyan’s death, published with his ‘Barren
Fig-tree,’ is one of those hidden mysteries of darkness and of wickedness that
I cannot discover. The beautiful parable from which Bunyan selected his text,
represents an enclosed ground, in which, among others, a fig-tree had been
planted. It was not an enclosure similar to some of the vineyards of France or
Germany, exclusively devoted to the growth of the vine, but a garden in which
fruits were cultivated, such as grapes, figs, or pomegranates. It was in such a
vineyard, thus retired from the world, that Nathaniel poured out his heart in
prayer, when our Lord in spirit witnessed, unseen, these devotional exercises,
and soon afterwards rewarded him with open approbation (John 1:48). In these
secluded pleasant spots the Easterns spend much of their time, under their own
vines or fig-trees, sheltered from the world and from the oppressive heat of the
sun—a fit emblem of a church of Christ. In this vineyard stood a fig-tree—by
nature remarkable for fruitfulness—but it is barren. No inquiry is made as to
how it came there, but the order is given, ‘Cut it down.’ The dresser of the
garden intercedes, and means are tried to make it fruitful, but in vain. At last
it is cut down as a cumber-ground and burnt. This vineyard or garden represents
a gospel church; the fig-tree a member—a barren, fruitless professor. ‘It
matters not how he got there,’ if he bears no fruit he must be cut down and
away to the fire.
To illustrate
so awful a subject this treatise was written, and it is intensely solemn. God,
whose omniscience penetrates through every disguise, himself examines every tree
in the garden, yea, every bough. Wooden and earthy professor, your detection is
sure; appearances that deceive the world and the church cannot deceive God. ‘He
will be with thee in thy bed fruits—thy midnight fruits—thy closet fruits—thy
family fruits—they conversation fruits.’ Professor, solemnly examine
yourself; ‘in proportion to your fruitfulness will be your blessedness.’ ‘Naked
and open are all things to his eye.’ Can it be imagined that those ‘that
paint themselves did ever repent of their pride?’ ‘How seemingly
self-denying are some of these creeping things.’ ‘Is there no place will
serve to fit those for hell but the church, the vineyard of God?’ ‘It is not
the place where the worker of iniquity can hide himself or his sins from God.’
May such be detected before they go hence to the fire. While there is a
disposition to seek grace all are invited to come; but when salvation by Christ
is abandoned, there is no other refuge, although sought with tears. Reader, may
the deeply impressive language of Bunyan sink profoundly into our hearts. We
need no splendid angel nor hideous demon to reveal to us the realities of the
world to come. ‘If we hear not Moses and the prophets,’ as set forth by
Bunyan in this treatise, ‘neither should we be persuaded though one rose from
the dead’ to declare these solemn truths (Luke 16:31).
GEO.
OFFOR.
COURTEOUS
READER,
I have written
to thee now about the Barren Fig-tree, or how it will fare with the fruitless
professor that standeth in the vineyard of God. Of what complexion thou art I
cannot certainly divine; but the parable tells thee that the cumber-ground must
be cut down. A cumber-ground professor is not only a provocation to God, a
stumbling-block to the world, and a blemish to religion, but a snare to his own
soul also. ‘Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach
unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever, like his own dung; they which
have seen him shall say, Where is he?’ (Job 20:6,7).
Now ‘they
count it pleasure to riot in the daytime.’ But what will they do when the axe
is fetched out? (2 Peter 2:13,14).
The tree whose
fruit withereth is reckoned a tree without fruit, a tree twice dead, one that
must be ‘plucked up by the roots’ (Jude 12).
O thou
cumber-ground, God expects fruit, God will come seeking fruit shortly. My
exhortation, therefore, is to professors that they look to it, that they take
heed. The barren fig-tree in the vineyard, and the bramble in the wood, are both
prepared for the fire.
Profession is
not a covert to hide from the eye of God; nor will it palliate the revengeful
threatening of his justice; he will command to cut it down shortly.
The church, and
a profession, are the best of places for the upright, but the worst in the world
for the cumber-ground. He must be cast, as profane, out of the mount of God:
cast, I say, over the wall of the vineyard, there to wither; thence to be
gathered and burned. ‘It had ben better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness’ (2 Peter 2:21). And yet if they had not, they had been damned;
but it is better to go to hell without, than in, or from under a profession.
These ‘shall receive greater damnation’ (Luke 20:47).
If thou be a
professor, read and tremble: if thou be profane, do so likewise. For if the
righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinners appear?
Cumber-ground, take heed of the axe! Barren fig-tree, beware of the fire!
But I will keep
thee no longer out of the book. Christ Jesus, the dresser of the vineyard, take
care of thee, dig about thee, and dung thee, that thou mayest bear fruit; that
when the Lord of the vineyard cometh with his axe to seek for fruit, or
pronounce the sentence of damnation on the barren fig-tree, thou mayest escape
that judgment. The cumber-ground must to the wood-pile, and thence to the fire.
Farewell.
Grace be with
all them that love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen.
JOHN BUNYAN
At the
beginning of this chapter we read how some of the Jews came to Jesus Christ, to
tell him of the cruelty of Pontius Pilate, in mingling the blood of the
Galileans with their sacrifices. A heathenish and prodigious act; for therein he
showed, not only his malice against the Jewish nation, but also against their
worship, and consequently their God. An action, I say, not only heathenish, but
prodigious also; for the Lord Jesus, paraphrasing upon this fact of his,
teacheth the Jews, that without repentance ‘they should all likewise perish.’
‘Likewise,’ that is by the hand and rage of the Roman empire. Neither should
they be more able to avoid the stroke, than were those eighteen upon whom the
tower of Siloam fell, and slew them (Luke 13:1-5). The fulfilling of which
prophecy, for their hardness of heart, and impenitency, was in the days of
Titus, son of Vespasian, about forty years after the death of Christ. Then, I
say, were these Jews, and their city, both environed round on every side,
wherein both they and it, to amazement, were miserably overthrown. God gave them
sword and famine, pestilence and blood, for their outrage against the Son of his
love. So wrath ‘came upon them to the uttermost’ (1 Thess 2:16).[2]
Now, to prevent
their old and foolish salvo, which they always had in readiness against such
prophecies and denunciations of judgment, the Lord Jesus presents them with this
parable, in which he emphatically shows them that their cry of being the temple
of the Lord, and of their being the children of Abraham, &c., and their
being the church of God, would not stand them in any stead. As who should say,
It may be you think to help yourselves against this my prophecy of your utter
and unavoidable overthrow, by the interest which you have in your outward
privileges. But all these will fail you; for what think you? ‘A certain man
had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon,
and found none.’ This is your case! The Jewish land is God’s vineyard; I
know it; and I know also, that you are the fig-trees. But behold, there wanteth
the main thing, fruit; for the sake, and in expectation of which, he set this
vineyard with trees. Now, seeing the fruit is not found amongst you, the fruit,
I say, for the sake of which he did at first plant this vineyard, what remains
but that in justice he command to cut you down as those that cumber the ground,
that he may plant himself another vineyard? ‘Then said he unto the dresser of
his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree,
and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?’ This therefore must
be your end, although you are planted in the garden of God; for the barrenness
and unfruitfulness of your hearts and lives you must be cut off, yea, rooted up,
and cast out of the vineyard.
In parables
there are two things to be taken notice of, and to be inquired into of them that
read. First, The metaphors made use of. Second, The doctrine or mysteries
couched under such metaphors.
The metaphors
in this parable are, 1. A certain man; 2. A vineyard; 3. A fig-tree, barren or
fruitless; 4. A dresser; 5. Three years; 6. Digging and dunging, &c.
The doctrine,
or mystery, couched under these words is to show us what is like to become of a
fruitless or formal professor. For, 1. By the man in the parable is meant God
the Father (Luke 15:11). 2. By the vineyard, his church (Isa 5:7). 3. By the
fig-tree, a professor. 4. By the dresser, the Lord Jesus. 5. By the fig-tree’s
barrenness, the professor’s fruitlessness. 6. By the three years, the patience
of God that for a time he extendeth to barren professors. 7. This calling to the
dresser of the vineyard to cut it down, is to show the outcries of justice
against fruitless professors. 8. The dresser’s interceding is to show how the
Lord Jesus steps in, and takes hold of the head of his Father’s axe, to stop,
or at least to defer, the present execution of a barren fig-tree. 9. The dresser’s
desire to try to make the fig-tree fruitful, is to show you how unwilling he is
that even a barren fig-tree should yet be barren, and perish. 10. His digging
about it, and dunging of it, is to show his willingness to apply gospel helps to
this barren professor, if haply he may be fruitful. 11. The supposition that the
fig-tree may yet continue fruitless, is to show, that when Christ Jesus hath
done all, there are some professors will abide barren and fruitless. 12. The
determination upon this supposition, at last to cut it down, is a certain
prediction of such professor’s unavoidable and eternal damnation.
But to take
this parable into pieces, and to discourse more particularly, though with all
brevity, upon all the parts thereof.
The MAN, I told
you, is to present us with God the Father; by which similitude he is often set
out in the New Testament.
Observe then,
that it is no new thing, if you find in God’s church barren fig-trees,
fruitless professors; even as here you see is a tree, a fruitless tree, a
fruitless fig-tree in the vineyard.[3] Fruit is not so easily brought forth as a
profession is got into; it is easy for a man to clothe himself with a fair show
in the flesh, to word it, and say, Be thou warmed and filled with the best. It
is no hard thing to do these with other things; but to be fruitful, to bring
forth fruit to God, this doth not every tree, no not every fig-tree that stands
in the vineyard of God. Those words also, ‘Every branch in me that beareth not
fruit, he taketh away,’ assert the same thing (John 15:2). There are branches
in Christ, in Christ’s body mystical, which is his church, his vineyard, that
bear not fruit, wherefore the hand of God is to take them away: I looked for
grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes, that is, no fruit at all that was
acceptable with God (Isa 5:4). Again, ‘Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth
forth fruit unto himself,’ none to God; he is without fruit to God (Hosea
10:1). All these, with many more, show us the truth of the observation, and that
God’s church may be cumbered with fruitless fig-trees, with barren professors.
Although there
be in God’s church that be barren and fruitless; yet, as I said, to see to,
they are like the rest of the trees, even a fig-tree. It was not an oak, nor a
willow, nor a thorn, nor a bramble; but a FIG-TREE. ‘they come unto thee as
the people cometh’ (Eze 33:31). ‘They delight to know my ways, as a nation
that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of
me the ordinances of justice, they take delight in approaching to God,’ and
yet but barren, fruitless, and unprofitable professors (Isa 58:2-4). Judas also
was one of the twelve, a disciple, an apostle, a preacher, an officer, yea, and
such a one as none of the eleven mistrusted, but preferred before themselves,
each one crying out, ‘Is it I? Is it I?’ (Mark 14:19). None of them, as we
read of (John 6:70), mistrusting Judas; yet he in Christ’s eye was the
barren fig-tree, a devil, a fruitless professor. The foolish virgins also went
forth of the world with the other, had lamps, and light, and were awakened with
the other; yea, had boldness to go forth, when the midnight cry was made, with
the other; and thought that they could have looked Christ in the face, when he
sat upon the throne of judgment, with the other; and yet but foolish, but barren
fig-trees, but fruitless professors. ‘Many,’ saith Christ, ‘will say unto
me in that day,’ this and that, and will also talk of many wonderful works;
yet, behold, he finds nothing in them but the fruits of unrighteousness (Matt
7:22,23). They were altogether barren and fruitless professors.
This word
PLANTED doth also reach far; it supposeth one taken out of its natural soil, or
removed from the place it grew in once; one that seemed to be called, awakened;
and not only so, but by strong hand carried from the world to the church; from
nature to grace; from sin to godliness. ‘Thou hast brought a vine out of
Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it’ (Psa 80:8). Of some of
the branches of this vine were there unfruitful professors.
It must be
concluded, therefore, that this professor, that remaineth notwithstanding
fruitless, is, as to the view and judgment of the church, rightly brought in
thither, to wit, by confession of faith, of sin, and a show of repentance and
regeneration; thus false brethren creep in unawares![4] All these things this
word planted intimateth; yea, further, that the church is satisfied with them,
consents they should abide in the garden, and counteth them sound as the rest.
But before God, in the sight of God, they are graceless professors, barren and
fruitless fig-trees.
Therefore it is
one thing to be in the church, or in a profession; and another to be of
the church, and to belong to that kingdom that is prepared for the saint, that
is so indeed. Otherwise, ‘Being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not
utterly wither, when the east-wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows
where it grew’ (Eze 17:10).
In HIS
vineyard. Hypocrites, with rotten hearts, are not afraid to come before God in
Sion. These words therefore suggest unto us a prodigious kind of boldness and
hardened fearlessness. For what presumption higher, and what attempt more
desperate, than for a man that wanteth grace, and the true knowledge of God, to
crowd himself, in that condition, into the house or church of God; or to make
profession of, and desire that the name of God should be called upon him?
For the man
that maketh a profession of the religion of Jesus Christ, that man hath, as it
were, put the name of God upon himself, and is called and reckoned now, how
fruitless soever before God or men, the man that hath to do with God, the man
that God owneth, and will stand for. This man, I say, by his profession,
suggesteth this to all that know him to be such a professor. Men merely natural,
I mean men that have not got the devilish art of hypocrisy, are afraid to think
of doing thus. ‘And of the rest durst no man join himself to them; but the
people magnified them’ (Acts 5:13). And, indeed, it displeaseth God. ‘Ye
have brought,’ saith he, ‘men uncircumcised into my sanctuary’ (Eze 44:7).
And again, ‘When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your
hand, to tread my courts?’ saith God (Isa 1:12). They have therefore learned
this boldness of none in the visible world, they only took it of the devil, for
he, and he only, with these his disciples, attempt to present themselves in the
church before God. ‘The tares are the children of the wicked one.’ The
tares, that is, the hypocrites, that are Satan’s brood, the generation of
vipers, that cannot escape the damnation of hell.
He doth not
say, He planted a fig-tree, but there was a fig-tree there; he HAD, or found a
fig-tree planted in his vineyard.
The great God
will now acknowledge the barren fig-tree, or barren professor, to be his
workmanship, or a tree of his bringing in, only the text saith, he had one
there. This is much like that in Matthew 15:13—’Every plant which my
heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.’ Here again are plants
in his vineyard which God will not acknowledge to be of his planting; and he
seems to suggest that in his vineyard are many such. Every plant, or all those
plants or professors, that are got into the assembly of the saints, or into the
profession of their religion, without God and his grace, ‘shall be rooted up.’
‘And when the
King came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on the
wedding-garment. And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not
having a wedding-garment?’ (Matt 22:11,12). Here is one so cunning and crafty
that he beguiled all the guests; he got and kept in the church even until the
King himself came in to see the guests; but his subtilty got him nothing; it did
not blind the eyes of the King; it did not pervert the judgment of the
righteous. ‘Friend, how camest thou in hither?’ did overtake him at last;
even a public rejection; the King discovered him in the face of all present. ‘How
camest thou in hither?’ My Father did not bring thee hither; I did not bring
thee hither; my Spirit did not bring thee hither; thou art not of the heavenly
Father’s planting. ‘How camest thou in hither?’ He that ‘entereth not by
the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber’
(John 10:1). This text also is full and plain to our purpose; for this man came
not in by the door, yet got into the church; he got in by climbing; he broke in
at the windows; he got something of the light and glory of the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ in his head; and so, hardy wretch that he was, he presumed to
crowd himself among the children. But how is this resented? What saith the King
of him? Why, this is his sign, ‘the same is a thief and a robber.’ See ye
here also, if all they be owned as the planting of God that get into his church
or profession of his name.
‘Had a
fig-tree.’ Had one without a wedding-garment, had a thief in his garden, at
his wedding, in his house. These climbed up some other way. There are many ways
to get into the church of God, and profession of his name, besides, and without
an entering by the door.
1. There is the
way of lying and dissembling, and at this gap the Gibeonites got in (Josh 9
&c).
2. There is
sometimes falseness among some pastors, either for the sake of carnal relations,
or the like; at this hole Tobiah, the enemy of God, got in (Neh 13:4-9).
3. There is
sometimes negligence, and too much uncircumspectness in the whole church; thus
the uncircumcised got in (Eze 44:7,8).
4. Sometimes,
again, let the church be never so circumspect, yet these have so much help from
the devil that they beguile them all, and so get in. These are of the sort of
thieves that Paul complains of, ‘False brethren, that are brought in unawares’
(Gal 2:4). Jude also cries out of these, ‘Certain men crept in unawares’
(Jude 4). Crept in! What, were they so lowly? A voluntary humility, a neglecting
of the body, not in any humour (Col 2:23).[5] O! how seemingly self-denying are
some of these ‘creeping things,’ that yet are to be held, (as we shall know
them) an abomination to Israel (Lev 11:43,44).
But in a great
house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of
earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour (2 Tim 2:20). By these words
the apostle seems to take it for granted, that as there hath been, so there
still will be these kind of fig-trees, these barren professors in the house,
when all men have done what they can; even as in a great house there are always
vessels to dishonour, as well as those to honour and glory; vessels of wood and
of earth, as well as of silver and gold. So, then, there must be wooden
professors in the garden of God, there must be earthy, earthen professors in his
vineyard; but that methinks is the biting word, ‘and some to dishonour’ (Rom
9:21,22). That to the Romans is dreadful, but this seems to go beyond it; that
speaks but of the reprobate in general, but this of such and such in particular;
that speaks of their hardening but in the common way, but this that they must be
suffered to creep into the church, there to fit themselves for their place,
their own place, the place prepared for them of this sort only (Acts 1:25). As
the Lord Jesus said once of the Pharisees, These ‘shall receive greater
damnation’ (Luke 20:47).
Barren
fig-tree, fruitless professor, hast thou heard all these things? Hast thou
considered that this fig-tree is not acknowledged of God to be his, but is
denied to be of his planting, and of his bringing unto his wedding? Dost not
thou see that thou art called a thief and a robber, that hast either climbed up
to, or crept in at another place than the door? Dost thou not hear that there
will be in God’s house wooden and earthly professors, and that no place will
serve to fit those for hell but the house, the church, the vineyard of God?
Barren fig-tree, fruitless Christian, do not thine ears tingle?
When a man hath
got a profession, and is crowded into the church and house of God, the question
is not now, Hath he life, hath he right principles? but, Hath he fruit? HE came
seeking fruit thereon. It mattereth not who brought thee in hither, whether God
or the devil, or thine own vain-glorious heart; but hast thou fruit? Dost thou
bring forth fruit unto God? And, ‘Let every one that nameth the name of’ the
Lord Jesus ‘Christ depart from iniquity’ (2 Tim 2:19). He doth not say, And
let every one that hath grace, or let those that have the Spirit of God; but,
‘Let every one that nameth the name of’ the Lord Jesus ‘Christ depart form
iniquity.’
What do men
meddle with religion for? Why do they call themselves by the name of the Lord
Jesus, if they have not the grace of God, if they have not the Spirit of Christ?
God, therefore, expecteth fruit. What do they do in the vineyard? Let them work,
or get them out; the vineyard must have labourers in it. ‘Son, go WORK to-day
in my vineyard’ (Matt 21:28). Wherefore, want of grace and want of Spirit will
not keep God from seeking fruit. ‘And he came and sought fruit thereon’
(Luke 13:6, 8:8). He requireth that which he seemeth to have. Every man in the
vineyard and house of God promiseth himself, professeth to others, and would
have all men take it for granted, that a heavenly principle is in him, why then
should not God seek fruit?
As for them,
therefore, that will retain the name of Christians, fearing God, and yet make no
conscience of bringing forth fruit to him, he saith to such, Away! ‘As for
you, - Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not
hearken unto me,’ &c. (Eze 20:39). Barren fig-tree, dost thou hear? God
expecteth fruit, God calls for fruit, yea, God will shortly come seeking fruit
on this barren fig-tree. Barren fig-tree, either bear fruit, or go out of the
vineyard; and yet then thy case will be unspeakably damnable. Yea, let me add,
if thou shalt neither bear fruit nor depart, God will take his name out of thy
mouth (Jer 44:26). He will have fruit. And I say further, if thou wilt do
neither, yet God in justice and righteousness will still come for fruit. And it
will be in vain for thee to count this austerity. He will reap where he hath not
sowed, and gather where he hath not strewed (Matt 25:24-26). Barren fig-tree,
dost thou hear?
Quest. What if
a man have no grace?
Answ. Yes,
seeing he hath a profession.
A church, then,
and a profession, are not places where the workers of iniquity may hide
themselves and sins from God. Some of old thought that because they could cry,
‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!’ that therefore they were
delivered, or had a dispensation to do the abominations which they committed, as
some in our days; for who, say they, have a right to the creatures, if not
Christians, if not professors, if not church members? And, from this conclusion,
let go the reins of their inordinate affections after pride, ambition, gluttony;
pampering themselves without fear (Jude 12), daubing themselves with the
lust-provoking fashions of the times; to walk with stretched out necks, naked
breasts, frizzled fore-tops, wanton gestures, in gorgeous apparel, mixed with
gold and pearl, and costly array.[6] I will not here make inspection into their
lives, their carriages at home, in their corners and secret holes; but
certainly, persons thus spirited, thus principled, and thus inclined, have but
empty boughs, boughs that want the fruit that God expects, and that God will
come down to seek.
Barren
fig-tree, thou art not licensed by thy profession, nor by the Lord of the
vineyard, to bear these clusters of Gomorrah; neither shall the vineyard, nor
thy being crowded among the trees there, shelter thee from the sight of the eye
of God. Many make religion their cloak, and Christ their stalking-horse, and by
that means cover themselves and hide their own wickedness from men; but God
seeth their hearts, hath his print upon the heels of their feet, and pondereth
all their goings; and at last, when their iniquity is found to be hateful, he
will either smite them with hardness of heart, and so leave them, or awaken them
to bring forth fruit. Fruit he looks for, seeks, and expects, barren fig-tree!
But what! come
into the presence of God to sin! What! come into the presence of God to hide thy
sin! Alas, man! the church is God’s garden, and Christ Jesus is the great
Apostle and High-priest of our profession. What! come into the house that is
called by my name! into the place where mine honour dwelleth! (Psa 26:8). Where
mine eyes and heart are continually! (1 Kings 9:3). What! come there to sin, to
hide thy sin, to cloak thy sin! His plants are an orchard with pleasant fruits
(Cant 4:13). And every time he goeth into his garden, it is to see the fruits of
the valley, and to ‘see if the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.’
Yea, saith he,
he came seeking fruit on this fig-tree. The church is the place of God’s
delight, where he ever desires to be: there he is night and day. He is there to
seek for fruit, to seek for fruit of all and every tree in the garden.
Wherefore, assure thyself, O fruitless one, that thy ways must needs be open
before the eyes of the Lord. One black sheep is soon espied, although in company
with many; that is taken with the first cast of the eye; its different colour
still betrays it. I say, therefore, a church and a profession are not places
where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves from God that seeks for fruit.
‘My vineyard,’ saith God, ‘which is mine, is before me’ (Cant 8:12).
Barren
fig-tree, hearken; the continual non-bearing of fruit is a dreadful sign that
thou art to come to a dreadful end, as the winding up of this parable concludeth.
‘AND FOUND
NONE.’ None at all, or none to God’s liking; for when he saith, ‘He came
seeking fruit thereon,’ he means ‘fruit meet for God,’ pleasant fruit,
fruit good and sweet (Heb 6). Alas! it is not any fruit will serve; bad fruit is
counted none. ‘Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down, and cast into the fire’ (Matt 3:10).
First. There is
a fruit among professors that withers, and so never comes to be ripe; a fruit
that is smitten in the growth, and comes not to maturity; and this is reckoned
no fruit. This fruit those professors bear that have many fair beginnings, or
blossoms; that make many fair offers of repentance and amendment; that begin to
pray, to resolve, and to break off their sins by righteousness, but stop at
those beginnings, and bring not fruit forth to perfection. This man’s fruit is
withered, wrinkled, smitten fruit, and is in effect no fruit at all.
Second. There
is a hasty fruit, such as is the ‘corn upon the house-top’ (Psa 129:6); or
that which springs up on the dung-hill, that runs up suddenly, violently, with
great stalks and big show, and yet at last proves empty of kernel. This fruit is
to be found in those professors that on a sudden are so awakened, so convinced,
and so affected with their condition that they shake the whole family, the
endship,[7] the whole town. For a while they cry hastily, vehemently, dolefully,
mournfully, and yet all is but a pang, an agony, a fit, they bring not forth
fruit with patience. These are called those hasty fruits that ‘shall be a
fading flower’ (Isa 28:4).
Third. There is
a fruit that is vile and ill-tasted, how long soever it be in growing; the root
is dried, and cannot convey a sufficiency of sap to the branches, to ripen the
fruit (Jer 24). These are the fruits of such professors whose hearts are
estranged from communion with the Holy Ghost, whose fruit groweth from
themselves, from their parts, gifts, strength of wit, natural or moral
principles. These, notwithstanding they bring forth fruit, are called empty
vines, such as bring not forth fruit to God. ‘Their root is dried up, they
shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the
beloved fruit of their womb’ (Hosea 9:16).
Fourth. There
is a fruit that is wild. ‘I looked for grapes and it brought forth wild grapes’
(Isa 5:4). I observe, that as there are trees and herbs that are wholly right
and noble, fit indeed for the vineyard; so there are also their semblance, but
wild; not right, but ignoble. There is the grape, and the wild grape; the vine,
and the wild vine; the rose, and canker rose; flowers and wild flowers; the
apple, and the wild apple which we call the crab. Now, fruit from these wild
things, however they may please the children to play with, yet the prudent and
grave count them of little or no value. There are also in the world a generation
of professors that, notwithstanding their profession, are wild by nature; yea,
such as were never cut out, or off, from the wild olive-tree, nor never yet
planted into the good olive-tree. Now, these can bring nothing forth but wild
olive berries, they cannot bring forth fruit unto God. Such are all those that
have lightly taken up a profession, and crept into the vineyard without a new
birth, and the blessing of regeneration.
Fifth. There is
also untimely fruit: ‘Even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs’ (Rev 6,
13). Fruit out of season, and so no fruit to God’s liking. There are two sorts
of professors subject to bring forth untimely fruit: 1. They that bring forth
fruit too soon; 2. They that bring forth fruit too late.
1. They that
bring forth too soon. They are such as at present receive the Word with joy; and
anon, before they have root downwards, they thrust forth upwards; but having not
root, when the sun ariseth, they are smitten, and miserably die without fruit.
These professors are those light and inconsiderate ones that think nothing but
peace will attend the gospel; and so anon rejoice at the tidings, without
foreseeing the evil. Wherefore, when the evil comes, being unarmed, and so not
able to stand any longer, they die, and are withered, and bring forth no fruit.
‘He that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the
Word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but
dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the
Word, by and by he is offended’ (Matt 13:20,21). There is, in Isaiah 28:4,
mention made of some ‘whose glorious beauty shall be a fading flower,’
because it is ‘fruit before the summer.’ Both these are untimely fruit.
2. They also
bring forth untimely fruit that stay till the season is over. God will have his
fruit in his season; I say, he will receive them of such men as shall render
them to him in their seasons (Matt 21:41). The missing of the season is
dangerous; staying till the door is shut is dangerous (Matt 25:10,11). Many
there be that come not till the flood of God’s anger is raised, and too deep
for them to wade through; ‘Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not
come nigh unto him’ (Psa 32:6). Esau AFTERWARDS is fearful: ‘For ye know how
that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for
he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears’
(Heb 12:17).
So the children
of Israel, they brought to God the fruits of obedience too late; their ‘Lo, we
be here’ came too late (Num 14:40-42); their ‘We will go up’ came too late
(Num 14:40-44). The Lord had sworn before, ‘that they should not possess the
land’ (Matt 25:10, 27:5). All these are such as bring forth untimely fruit
(Heb 12:17; Luke 13:25-27). It is the hard hap of the reprobate to do all things
too late; to be sensible of his want of grace too late; to be sorry for sin too
late; to seek repentance too late; to ask for mercy, and to desire to go to
glory too late.
Thus you see,
1. That fruit smitten in the growth, that withereth, and that comes not to
maturity, is no fruit. 2. That hasty fruit, such as ‘the grass upon the
house-top,’ withereth also before it groweth up, and is no fruit (Psa 129:6).
3. That the fruit that is vile, and ill-tasted, is no fruit. That wild fruit,
wild grapes, are no fruit (Rev 6). That untimely fruit, such as comes too soon,
or that comes too late, such as come not in their season, are no fruit.
Nothing will do
but fruit; he looked for grapes. ‘When the time of the fruit drew near, he
sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it’
(Matt 21:34).
Quest. But what
fruit doth God expect?
Answ. Good
fruit. ‘Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down’ (Matt
7:19). Now, before the fruit can be good, the tree must be good; for good fruit
makes not a good tree, but a ‘good tree bringeth forth good fruit. Do men
gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?’ A man must be good, else he can
bring forth no good fruit; he must have righteousness imputed, that he may stand
good in God;’s sight from the curse of his law; he must have a principle of
righteousness in his soul, else how should he bring forth good fruits? and hence
it is, that a Christian’s fruits are called ‘the fruits of the Spirit, the
fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ’ (Gal 5:22,23; Phil 1:11).
The fruits of the Spirit, therefore the Spirit must be there; the fruits of
righteousness, therefore righteousness must first be there. But to particularize
in a few things briefly:—
First. God
expecteth fruit that will answer, and be worthy of the repentance which thou
feignest thyself to have. Every one in a profession, and that hath crowded into
the vineyard, pretendeth to repentance; now of every such soul, God expecteth
that the fruits of repentance be found to attend them. ‘Bring forth,
therefore, fruits meet for repentance,’ or answerable to thy profession of the
doctrine of repentance (Matt 3:8). Barren fig-tree, seeing thou art a professor,
and art got into the vineyard, thou standest before the Lord of the vineyard as
one of the trees of the garden; wherefore he looketh for fruit from thee, as
from the rest of the trees in the vineyard; fruits, I say, and such as may
declare thee in heart and life one that hath made sound profession of
repentance. By thy profession thou hast said, I am sensible of the evil of sin.
Now then, live such a life as declares that thou art sensible of the evil of
sin. By thy profession thou hast said, I am sorry for my sin. Why, then, live
such a life as may declare this sorrow. By thy profession thou hast said, I am
ashamed of my sin; yea, but live such a life, that men by that may see thy shame
for sin (Psa 38:18; Jer 31:19). By thy profession thou sayest, I have turned
from, left off, and am become an enemy to every appearance of evil (1 Thess
5:22). Ah! but doth thy life and conversation declare thee to be such an one?
Take heed, barren fig-tree, lest thy life should give thy profession the lie. I
say again, take heed, for God himself will come for fruit. ‘And he sought
fruit thereon.’
You have some
professors that are only saints before men when they are abroad, but are devils
and vipers at home; saints by profession, but devils by practice; saints in
word, but sinners in heart and life. These men may have the profession, but they
want the fruits that become repentance.[8]
Barren
fig-tree, can it be imagined that those that paint themselves did ever repent of
their pride? or that those that pursue this world did ever repent of their
covetousness? or that those that walk with wanton eyes did ever repent of their
fleshly lusts? Where, barren fig-tree, is the fruit of these people’s
repentance? Nay, do they not rather declare to the world that they have repented
of their profession? Their fruits look as if they had. Their pride saith they
have repented of their humility. Their covetousness declareth that they are
weary of depending upon God; and doth not thy wanton actions declare that thou
abhorrest chastity? Where is thy fruit, barren fig-tree? Repentance is not only
a sorrow, and a shame for, but a turning from sin to God; it is called ‘repentance
from dead works’ (Heb 6:1). Hast thou that ‘godly sorrow’ that ‘worketh
repentance to salvation, not to be repented of?’ (2 Cor 7:10,11). How dost
thou show thy carefulness, and clearing of thyself; thy indignation against sin;
they fear of offending; thy vehement desire to walk with God; thy zeal for his
name and glory in the world? And what revenge hast thou in thy heart against
every thought of disobedience?
But where is
the fruit of this repentance? Where is thy watching, thy fasting, thy praying
against the remainders of corruption? Where is thy self-abhorrence, thy blushing
before God, for the sin that is yet behind? Where is thy tenderness of the name
of God and his ways? Where is thy self-denial and contentment? How dost thou
show before men the truth of thy turning to God? Hast thou ‘renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness?’ Canst thou commend
thyself ‘to every man’s conscience in the sight of God?’ (2 Cor 4:2).
Second. God
expecteth fruits that shall answer that faith which thou makest profession of.
The professor that is got into the vineyard of God doth feign that he hath the
faith, the faith most holy, the faith of God’s elect. Ah! but where are thy
fruits, barren fig-tree? The faith of the Romans was ‘spoken of throughout the
whole world’ (Rom 1:8). And the Thessalonians’ faith grew exceedingly (2
Thess 1:3).
Thou professest
to believe thou hast a share in another world: hast thou let got THIS, barren
fig-tree? Thou professest thou believest in Christ: is he thy joy, and the life
of thy soul? Yea, what conformity unto him, to his sorrows and sufferings? What
resemblance hath his crying, and groaning, and bleeding, and dying, wrought in
thee? Dost thou ‘bear about in thy body the dying of the Lord Jesus?’ and is
also the life of Jesus ‘made manifest in thy mortal body?’ (2 Cor 4:10,11).
Barren fig-tree, ‘show me thy faith by thy works.’ ‘Show out of a good
conversation thy works with meekness of wisdom’ (James 2:18, 3:13). What
fruit, barren fig-tree, what degree of heart holiness? for faith purifies the
heart (Acts 15:9). What love to the Lord Jesus? for ‘faith worketh by love’
(Gal 5:6).
Third. God
expecteth fruits according to the seasons of grace thou art under, according to
the rain that cometh upon thee. Perhaps thou art planted in a good soil, by
great waters, that thou mightest bring forth branches, and bear fruit; that thou
mightest be a goodly vine or fig-tree. Shall he not therefore seek for fruit,
for fruit answerable to the means? Barren fig-tree, God expects it, and will
find it too, if ever he bless thee. ‘For the earth which drinketh in the rain
that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is
dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briars
is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned’ (Heb 6:7,8).
Barren soul,
how many showers of grace, how many dews from heaven, how many times have the
silver streams of the city of God run gliding by thy roots, to cause thee to
bring forth fruit! These showers and streams, and the drops that hang upon thy
boughs, will all be accounted for; and will they not testify against thee that
thou oughtest, of right, to be burned? Hear and tremble, O thou barren
professor! Fruits that become thy profession of the gospel, the God of heaven
expecteth. The gospel hath in it the forgiveness of sins, the kingdom of heaven,
and eternal life; but what fruit hath thy profession of a belief of these things
put forth in thy heart and life? Hast thou given thyself to the Lord? and is all
that thou hast to be ventured for his name in this world? Dost thou walk like
one that is bought with a price, even with the price of precious blood?
Fourth. The
fruit that God expecteth is such as is meet for himself; fruit that may glorify
God. God’s trees are trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he
may be glorified; fruit that tasteth of heaven, abundance of such fruit. For ‘herein,’
saith Christ, ‘is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit’ (John 15:8).
Fruits of all kinds, new and old; the fruits of the Spirit are in all goodness,
and righteousness, and truth. Fruits before the world, fruits before the saints,
fruits before God, fruits before angels.
O my brethren,
‘what manner of persons ought we to be,’ who have subscribed to the Lord,
and have called ourselves by the name of Israel? ‘One shall say I am the Lord’s;
and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe
with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel’ (Isa
44:5). Barren fig-tree, hast thou subscribed, hast thou called thyself by the
name of Jacob, and surnamed thyself by the name of Israel? All this thou
pretendest to, who art got into the vineyard, who art placed among the trees of
the garden of God. God doth therefore look for such fruit as is worthy of his
name, as is meet for him; as the apostle saith, ‘we should walk worthy of God’;
that is, so as we may show in every place that the presence of God is with us,
his fear in us, and his majesty and authority upon our actions. Fruits meet for
him, such a dependence upon him, such trust in his word, such satisfaction in
his presence, such a trusting of him with all my concerns, and such delight in
the enjoyment of him, that may demonstrate that his fear is in my heart, that my
soul is wrapped up in his things, and that my body, and soul, and estate, and
all, are in truth, through his grace, at his dispose, fruit meet for him. Hearty
thanks, and blessing God for Jesus Christ, for his good word, for his free
grace, for the discovery of himself in Christ to the soul, secret longing after
another world, fruit meet for him. Liberality to the poor saints, to the poor
world; a life in word and deed exemplary; a patient and quiet enduring of all
things, till I have done and suffered the whole will of God, which he hath
appointed for me. ‘That on the good ground are they which, in an honest and
good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience’
(Luke 8:15). This is bringing forth fruit unto God; having our ‘fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life’ (Rom 7:4, 6:22, 14:8).
Fifth. The Lord
expects fruit becoming the vineyard of God. ‘The vineyard,’ saith he, ‘in
a very fruitful hill’: witness the fruit brought forth in all ages (Isa 5:1).
The most barren trees that ever grew in the wood of this world, when planted in
this vineyard by the God of heaven, what fruit to Godward have they brought
forth! ‘Abel offered the more excellent sacrifice’ (Heb 11:4). Enoch walked
with God three hundred years (Heb 11:5). Noah, by his life of faith, ‘condemned
the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith’ (Heb 11:7).
Abraham left his country, and went out after God, not knowing whither he went
(Heb 11:8). Moses left a kingdom, and run the hazard of the wrath of the king,
for the love he had to God and Christ. What shall I say of them who had trials,
‘not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection? They
were stoned; they were sawn asunder; were tempted; were slain with the sword;
they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted,
tormented’ (Heb 11:35-37). Peter left his father, ship, and nets (Matt
4:18-20). Paul turned off from the feet of Gamaliel. Men brought their goods and
possessions (the price of them) and cast it down at the apostle’s feet (Acts
19:18-20). And others brought their books together, and burned them; curious
books, though they were worth fifty thousand pieces of silver. I could add how
many willingly offered themselves in all ages, and their all, for the worthy
name of the Lord Jesus, to be racked, starved, hanged, burned, drowned, pulled
in pieces, and a thousand calamities.[9] Barren fig-tree, the vineyard of God
hath been a fruitful place. What dost thou there? What dost thou bear? God
expects fruit according to, or becoming the soil of the vineyard.
Sixth. The
fruit which God expecteth is such as becometh God’s husbandry and labour. The
vineyard is God’s husbandry, or tillage. ‘I am the true vine, ‘ saith
Christ, ‘and my Father is the husbandman’ (John 15:1). And again, ‘Ye are
God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building’ (1 Cor 3:9). The vineyard; God
fences it, God gathereth out the stones, God builds the tower, and the
wine-press in the midst thereof. Here is labour, here is protection, here is
removing of hindrances, here is convenient purgation, and all that there might
be fruit.
Barren
fig-tree, what fruit hast thou? Hast thou fruit becoming the care of God, the
protection of God, the wisdom of God, the patience and husbandry of God? It is
the fruit of the vineyard that is either the shame or the praise of the
husbandman. ‘I went by the field of the slothful,’ saith Solomon, ‘and by
the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over
with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof’ (Prov 34:30-32).
Barren
fig-tree, if men should make a judgment of the care, and pains, and labour of
God in his church, by the fruit that thou bringest forth, what might they say?
Is he not slothful, is not he careless, is he not without discretion? O! thy
thorns, thy nettles, thy barren heart and barren life, is a continual
provocation to the eyes of his glory, as likewise a dishonour to the glory of
his grace.
Barren
fig-tree, hast thou heard all these things? I will add yet one more.
The question is
not now, What thou thinkest of thyself, nor what all the people of God think of
thee, but what thou shalt be found in that day when God shall search thy boughs
for fruit? When Sodom was to be searched for righteous men, God would not, in
that matter, trust his faithful servant Abraham; but still, as Abraham
interceded, God answered, ‘If I find fifty, - or forty and five there, I will
not destroy the city’ (Gen 18:20-28). Barren fig-tree, what sayest thou? God
will come down to see, God will make search for fruit himself.
‘And he came
and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of the
vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and
find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?’
These words are
the effects of God’s search into the boughs of a barren fig-tree; he sought
fruit, and found none—none to his liking, none pleasant and good. Therefore,
first, he complains of the want thereof to the dresser; calls him to come, and
see, and take notice of the tree; then signifieth his pleasure: he will have it
removed, taken away, cut down from cumbering the ground.
Observe, The
barren fig-tree is the object of God’s displeasure; God cannot bear with a
fruitless professor.
THEN, after
this provocation; then, after he had sought and found no fruit, then. This word,
THEN, doth show us a kind of an inward disquietness; as he saith also in another
place, upon a like provocation. ‘THEN the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy,
shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book
shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven’
(Deut 29:18-20).
THEN; it
intimateth that he was now come to a point, to a resolution what to do with this
fig-tree. ‘Then said he to the dresser of this vineyard,’ that is, to Jesus
Christ, ‘behold,’ as much as to say, come hither, here is a fig-tree in my
vineyard, here is a professor in my church, that is barren, that beareth no
fruit.
Observe,
However the barren professor thinks of himself on earth, the Lord cries out in
heaven against him. ‘And now go to, I will tell you what I will do to my
vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I
will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down’ (Isa 5:5).
Observe, ‘THESE
THREE YEARS.’ God cries out that this patience is abused, that his forbearance
is abused. Behold, these three years I have waited, forborne; these three years
I have deferred mine anger. ‘Therefore will I stretch out my hand against
thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting’ (Jer 15:6). ‘These three
years.’ Observe, God layeth up all the time; I say, a remembrance of all the
time that a barren fig-tree, or a fruitless professor, misspendeth in this
world. As he saith also of Israel of old, ‘forty years long was I grieved with
this generation’ (Psa 95:10).
‘These three
years,’ &c. These three seasons: Observe, God remembers how many seasons
thou hast misspent: for these three years signify so many seasons. And when the
time of fruit drew nigh, that is, about the season they begin to be ripe, or
that according to the season might so have been. Barren fig-tree, thou hast had
time, seasons, sermons, ministers, afflictions, judgments, mercies, and what
not; and yet hast not been fruitful. Thou hast had awakenings, reproofs,
threatenings, comforts, and yet hast not been fruitful. Thou hast had patterns,
examples, citations, provocations, and yet has not been fruitful. Well, God hath
laid up thy three years with himself. He remembers every time, every season,
every sermon, every minister, affliction, judgment, mercy, awakening, pattern,
example, citation, provocation; he remembers all. As he said of Israel of old,
‘They have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice’
(Num 14:22). And again, ‘I remember all their wickedness’ (Hosea 7:2).
‘These three
years,’ &c. He seeks for the fruit of every season. He will not that any
of his sermons, ministers, afflictions, judgments, or mercies, should be lost,
or stand for insignificant things; he will have according to the benefit
bestowed. (2 Chron 32:24,25). He hath not done without a cause all that he hath
done, and therefore he looketh for fruit (Eze 14:23). Look to it, barren
fig-tree.[10]
Observe, This
word ‘SEEKING’ signifies a narrow search; for when a man seeks for fruit on
a tree, he goes round it and round it; now looking into this bough, and then
into that; he peeks into the inmost boughs, and the lowermost boughs, if perhaps
fruit may be thereon. Barren fig-tree, God will look into all thy boughs, he
will be with thee in thy bed-fruits, thy midnight-fruits, thy closet-fruits, thy
family-fruits, thy conversation-fruits, to see if there be any among all these
that are fit for, or worthy of the name of the God of heaven. He sees ‘what
the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark’ (Eze 8:12). ‘All things
are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do’ (Heb
4:12,13).
I told you
before, that he keeps in remembrance the times and seasons that the barren
professor had wickedly misspent. Now, forasmuch as he also pointeth out the
fig-tree, THIS fig-tree, it showeth that the barren professor, above all
professors, is a continual odium in the eyes of God. This fig-tree, ‘this man
Coniah’ (Jer 22:28). This people draw nigh me with their mouth, but have
removed their hearts far from me. God knows who they are among all the thousands
of Israel that are the barren and fruitless professors; his lot will fall upon
the head of Achan, though he be hid among six hundred thousand men. ‘And he
brought his household, man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi,
the son of Zera, of the tribe of Judah, was taken’ (Josh 7:17,18). This is the
Achan, this is the fig-tree, this is the barren professor!
There is a man
hath a hundred trees in his vineyard, and at the time of the season, he walketh
into his vineyard to see how the trees flourish; and as he goes, and views, and
prys, and observes how they are hanged with fruit, behold, he cometh to one
where he findeth naught but leaves. Now he makes a stand; looks upon it again
and again; he looks also here and there, above and below; and if after all this
seeking, he finds nothing but leaves thereon, then he begins to cast in his
mind, how he may know this tree next year; what stands next it, or how far it is
off the hedge? But if there be nothing there that may be as a mark to know it
by, then he takes his hook, and giveth it a private mark—’And the Lord set a
mark upon Cain’ (Gen 4), saying, Go thy ways, fruitless fig-tree, thou hast
spent this season in vain. Yet doth he not cut it down, I will try it another
year: may be this was not a hitting[11] season. Therefore he comes again next
year, to see if now it have fruit; but as he found it before, so he finds it
now, barren, barren, every year barren; he looks again, but finds no fruit. Now
he begins to have second thoughts, How! neither hit last year nor this? Surely
the barrenness is not in the season; sure the fault is in the tree; however, I
will spare it this year also, but will give it a second mark; and it may be he
toucheth it with a hot iron, because he begins to be angry.
Well, at the
third season he comes again for fruit, but the third year is like the first and
second; no fruit yet; it only cumbereth the ground. What now must be done with
this fig-tree? Why, the Lord will lop its boughs with terror; yea, the thickets
of those professors with iron. I have waited, saith God, these three years; I
have missed of fruit these three years; it hath been a cumber-ground these three
years; cut it down. Precept hath been upon precept, and line upon line, one year
after another, for these three years, but no fruit can be seen; I find none,
fetch out the axe! I am sure THIS is the fig-tree, I know it from the first
year; barrenness was its sign then, barrenness is its sign now; make it fit for
the fire! Behold, ‘now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees:
therefore, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast
into the fire’ (Matt 3:10).
Observe, my
brethren, God’s heart cannot stand towards a barren fig-tree. You know thus it
is with yourselves. If you have a tree in your orchard or vineyard that doth
only cumber the ground, you cannot look upon that tree with pleasure, with
complacency and delight. No; if you do but go by it, if you do but cast your eye
upon it: yea, if you do but think of that tree, you threaten it in your heart,
saying, I will hew thee down shortly; I will to the fire with thee shortly: and
it is in vain for any to think of persuading of you to show favour to the barren
fig-tree; and if they should persuade, your answer is irresistible, It yields me
no profit, it takes up room and doth no good; a better may grow in its room.
Thus, when the
godly among the Jews made prayers that rebellious Israel might not be cast out
of the vineyard, what saith the answer of God? (Jer 14:17). ‘Though Moses and
Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people’:
wherefore ‘cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth’ (Jer 15:1).
What a
resolution is here! Moses and Samuel could do almost anything with God in
prayer. How many times did Moses by prayer turn away God’s judgments from even
Pharaoh himself! yea, how many times did he by prayer preserve Israel, when in
the wilderness, from the anger and wrath of God! (Psa 106:23). Samuel is
reckoned excellent this way, yea, so excellent, that when Israel had done that
fearful thing as to reject the Lord, and choose them another king, he prayed,
and the Lord spared, and forgave them (1 Sam 12). But yet neither Moses nor
Samuel can save a barren fig-tree. No; though Moses and Samuel stood before me,
that is, pleading, arguing, interceding, supplicating, and beseeching, yet could
they not incline mine heart to this people.
‘Ay, but
Lord, it is a fig-tree, a fig-tree!’ If it was a thorn, or a bramble, or a
thistle, the matter would not be much; but it is a fig-tree, or a vine. Well,
but mark the answer of God, ‘Son of man, What is the vine-tree more than any
tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be
taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel
thereon?’ (Eze 15:2,3). If trees that are set, or planted for fruit, bring not
forth that fruit, there is betwixt them and the trees of the forest no
betterment at all, unless the betterment lieth in the trees of the wood, for
they are fit to build withal; but a fig-tree, or a vine, if they bring not forth
fruit, yea, good fruit, they are fit for nothing at all, but to be cut down and
prepared for the fire; and so the prophet goes on, ‘Behold, it is cast into
the fire for fuel.’ If it serve not for fruit it will serve for fuel, and so
‘the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burnt.’
Ay, but these
fig-trees and vines are church-members, inhabiters of Jerusalem. So was the
fig-tree mentioned in the text. But what answer hath God prepared for these
objections? Why, ‘Thus saith the Lord God, As the vine-tree among the trees of
the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel; so will I give the
inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will set my face against them, they shall go out
from one fire, and another fire shall devour them’ (Eze 15:6,7).
The woman that
delighteth in her garden, if she have a slip there, suppose, if it was fruitful,
she would not take five pounds for it; yet if it bear no fruit, if it wither,
and dwindle, and die, and turn cumber-ground only, it may not stand in her
garden. Gardens and vineyards are places for fruit, for fruit according to the
nature of the plant or flowers. Suppose such a slip as I told you of before
should be in your garden, and there die, would you let it abide in your garden?
No; away with it, away with it! The woman comes into her garden towards the
spring, where first she gives it a slight cast with her eye, then she sets to
gathering out the weeds, and nettles, and stones; takes a besom and sweeps the
walks; this done, she falls to prying into her herbs and slips, to see if they
live, to see if they are likely to grow. Now, if she comes to one that is dead,
that she is confident will not grow, up she pulls that, and makes to the heap of
rubbish with it, where she despisingly casts it down, and valueth it no more
than a nettle, or a weed, or than the dust she hath swept out of her walks. Yea,
if any that see her should say, Why do you so? the answer is ready. It is dead,
it is dead at root; if I had let it stand it would but have cumbered the ground.
The strange slips, and also the dead ones, they must be ‘a heap in the day of
grief, and of desperate sorrow’ (Isa 17:10,11).
There are two
manner of cuttings down; First. When a man is cast out of the vineyard. Second.
When a man is cast out of the world.
First. When a
man is cast out of the vineyard. And that is done two ways; 1. By an immediate
hand of God. 2. By the church’s due execution of the laws and censures which
Christ for that purpose has left with his church.
1. God cuts
down the barren fig-tree by an immediate hand, smiting his roots, blasting his
branches, and so takes him away from among his people. ‘Every branch,’ saith
Christ, ‘that beareth not fruit in me, he,’ my Father, ‘taketh away’
(John 15:2). He taketh him out of the church, he taketh him away from the godly.
There are two things by which God taketh the barren professor from among the
children of God: (1.) Strong delusions. (2.) Open profaneness.
(.1). By strong
delusion; such as beguile the soul with damnable doctrines, that swerve from
faith and godliness, ‘They have chosen their own ways,’ saith God, ‘and
their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions,
and will bring their fears upon them’ (Isa 66:3,4). I will smite them with
blindness, and hardness of heart, and failing of eyes; and will also suffer the
tempter to tempt and affect his hellish designs upon them. ‘God shall send
them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be
damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness’ (2
Thess 2:10-12).
(2.) Sometimes
God takes away a barren professor by open profaneness. There is one hath taken
up a profession of that worthy name, the Lord Jesus Christ; but this profession
is but a cloak; he secretly practiseth wickedness. He is a glutton, a drunkard,
or covetous, or unclean. Well, saith God, I will loose the reins of this
professor; I will give him up to his vile affections; I will loose the reins of
his lusts before him; he shall be entangled with his beastly lusts; he shall be
overcome of ungodly company. Thus they that turn aside to their own crooked ways
‘the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity’ (Psa 125:5).
This is God’s hand immediately; God is now dealing with this man himself.
Barren fig-tree, hearken! Thou art crowded into a profession, art got among the
godly, and there art a scandal to the holy and glorious gospel; but withal so
cunning that, like the sons of Zeruiah, thou art too hard for the church; she
knows not how to deal with thee. Well, saith God, I will deal with that man
myself, ‘I will answer that man by myself.’ He that sets up his idols in his
heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and yet
comes and appears before me, ‘I will set my face against that man, and will
make him a sign and a proverb: and I will cut him off from the midst of my
people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord’ (Eze 14:7,8). But,
2. God doth
sometimes cut down the barren fig-tree by the church, by the church’s due
execution of the laws and censures which Christ for that purpose hath left with
his church. This is the meaning of that in Matthew 18; 1 Corinthians 5: and that
in 1 Timothy 1:20 upon which now I shall not enlarge, But which way soever God
dealeth with thee, O thou barren fig-tree, whither by himself immediately, or by
his church, it amounts to one and the same; for if timely repentance prevent
not, the end of that soul is damnation. They are blasted, and withered, and
gathered by men, God’s enemies; and at last being cast into the fire burning
must be their end. ‘That which beareth thorns and briars is nigh unto cursing,
whose end is to be burned’ (Heb 6:8).
Second. And,
again, sometimes by ‘Cut it down’ God means, cast it out of the world. Thus
he cut down Nadab and Abihu, when he burned them up with fire from heaven. Thus
he cut down Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, when he made the earth to swallow them up
(Num 3:4, 16:31-33). Thus he cut down Saul, when he gave him up to fall upon the
edge of his own sword, and died (1 Sam 31:4). Thus he cut down Ananias, with
Sapphira his wife, when he struck them down dead in the midst of the
congregation (Acts 5:5,10). I might here also discourse of Absalom, Ahithophel,
and Judas, who were all three hanged: the first by God’s revenging hand, the
others were given up of God to be their own executioners. These were barren and
unprofitable fig-trees, such as God took no pleasure in, therefore he commanded
to cut them down. The Psalmist saith, ‘He shall take them away as with a
whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath’ (Psa 58:9). Barren fig-tree,
hearken! God calls for the axe, his sword; bring it hither; here is a barren
professor. Cut him down, why cumbereth he the ground?
By these words
the Lord suggesteth reasons of his displeasure against the barren fig-tree; it
cumbereth the ground. The Holy Ghost doth not only take an argument from its
barrenness, but because it is a cumber-ground, therefore cut it down; wherefore
it must needs be a provocation. 1. Because, as much as in him lieth, he
disappointeth the design of God in planting his vineyard; I looked that it
should bring forth fruit. 2. It hath also abused his patience, his
long-suffering, his three years’ patience. 3. It hath also abused his labour,
his pains, his care, and providence of protection and preservation: for he
hedges his vineyard, and walls it about. Cumber-ground, all these things thou
abusest! He waters his vineyard, and looks to it night and day; but all these
things thou hast abused.
Further, there
are other reasons of God’s displeasure; as,
First. A
cumber-ground is a very mock and reproach of religion, a mock and reproach to
the ways of God, to the people of God, to the Word of God, and to the name of
religion. It is expected of all hands, that all the trees in the garden of God
should be fruitful: God expects fruit, the church expects fruit, the world, even
the world, concludes that professors should be fruitful in good works; I say,
the world expecteth that professors should be better than themselves. But,
barren fig-tree, thou disappointest all. Nay, hast thou not learned the wicked
ones thy ways? Hast thou not learned them to be more wicked by thy example?—but
that is by the by. Barren fig-tree, thou hast disappointed others, and must be
disappointed thyself! ‘Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?’
Second. The
barren fig-tree takes up the room where a better tree might stand; I say, it
takes up the room, it keeps, so long as it stand where it doth; a fruitful tree
out of that place, and therefore it must be cut down. Barren fig-tree, dost thou
hear? Because the Jews stood fruitless in the vineyard, therefore, saith God,
‘The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,’ and given to a nation that
shall render him their fruits in their season (Matt 21:33-41). The Jews for
their barrenness were cut down, and more fruitful people put in their room. As
Samuel also said to barren Saul, ‘The Lord hath rent the kingdom from thee,
and hath given it to a neighbour of thine that is better than thou’ (1 Sam
15:28). The unprofitable servant must be cast out, must be cut down (Matt
25:27).
Cumber-ground,
how many hopeful, inclinable, forward people, hast thou by thy fruitless and
unprofitable life, kept out of the vineyard of God? For thy sake have the people
stumbled at religion; by thy life have they been kept from the love of their own
salvation. Thou hast been also a means of hardening others, and of quenching and
killing weak beginnings. Well, barren fig-tree, look to thyself, thou wilt not
go to heaven thyself, and them that would, thou hinderest; thou must not always
cumber the ground, nor always hinder the salvation of others. Thou shalt be cut
down, and another shall be planted in thy room.
Third. The
cumber-ground is a sucker; he draws away the heart and nourishment from the
other trees. Were the cumber ground cut down, the others would be more fruitful;
he draws away that fatness of the ground to himself, that would make the others
more hearty and fruitful. ‘One sinner destroyeth much good’ (Eccl 9:18).
The
cumber-ground is a very drone in the hive, that eats up the honey that should
feed the labouring bee; he is a thief in the candle, that wasteth the tallow,
but giveth no light; he is the unsavoury salt, that is fit for nought but the
dunghill. Look to it, barren fig-tree!
And he
answering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig
about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that,
thou shalt cut it down (vv 8,9).
These are the
words of the dresser of the vineyard, who, I told you, is Jesus Christ, for he
made intercession for the transgressors. And they contain a petition presented
to an offended justice, praying, that a little more time and patience might be
exercised towards the barren cumber-ground fig-tree.
In this
petition there are six things considerable: 1. That justice might be deferred. O
that justice might be deferred! ‘Lord, let it alone,’ &c., a while
longer. 2. Here is time prefixed, as a space to try if more means will cure a
barren fig-tree. ‘Lord, let it alone this year also.’ 3. The means to help
it are propounded, ‘until I shall dig about it, and dung it.’[12] 4. Here is
also an insinuation of a supposition, that, by thus doing, God’s expectation
may be answered; ‘and if it bear fruit, well.’ 5. Here is a supposition that
the barren fig-tree may yet abide barren, when Christ hath done what he will
unto it; ‘and if it bear fruit,’ &c. 6. Here is at last a resolution,
that if thou continue barren, hewing days will come upon thee; ‘and if it bear
fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.’ But to
proceed according to my former method, by way of exposition.
Here is
astonishing grace indeed! astonishing grace, I say, that the Lord Jesus should
concern himself with a barren fig-tree; that he should step in to stop the blow
from a barren fig-tree! True, he stopped the blow but for a time; but why did he
stop it at all? Why did not he fetch out the axe? Why did he not do execution?
Why did not he cut it down? Barren fig-tree, it is well for thee that there is a
Jesus at God’s right hand, a Jesus of that largeness of bowels, as to have
compassion for a barren fig-tree, else justice had never let thee alone to
cumber the ground as thou hast done! When Israel also had sinned against God,
down they had gone, but that Moses stood in the breach. ‘Let me alone,’ said
God to him, ‘that I may consume them’ in a moment, ‘and I will make of
thee a great nation’ (Exo 32:10). Barren fig-tree, dost thou hear? Thou
knowest not how oft the hand of Divine justice hath been up to strike, and how
many years since thou hadst been cut down, had not Jesus caught hold of his
Father’s axe. Let me alone, let me fetch my blow, or ‘Cut it down, why
cumbereth it the ground?’ Wilt thou not hear yet, barren fig-tree? Wilt thou
provoke still? Thou hast wearied men, and provoked the justice of God! And ‘will
ye weary my God also?’ (Isa 7:13).
Lord, a little
longer! let us not lose a soul for want of means. I will try, I will see if I
can make it fruitful, I will not beg a long life, nor that it might still be
barren, and so provoke thee. I beg, for the sake of the soul, the immortal soul;
Lord, spare it one year only, one year longer, this year also. If I do any good
to it, it will be in little time. Thou shalt not be over wearied with waiting;
one year and then.
Barren
fig-tree, dost thou hear what a striving there is between the vine-dresser and
the husbandman, for thy life? ‘Cut it down,’ says one; ‘Lord, spare it,’
saith the other. It is a cumber-ground, saith the Father; one year longer, prays
the Son. ‘Let it alone this year also.’
The Lord Jesus
by these words supposeth two things, as causes of the want of fruit in a barren
fig-tree; and two things he supposeth as a remedy.
The things that
are a cause of want of fruit are, First. It is earth-bound. Lord, the fig-tree
is earth-bound. Second. A want of warmer means, of fatter means. Wherefore,
accordingly, he propoundeth to loosen the earth; to dig about it. And then to
supply it with dung.
‘To dig about
it, and dung it. Lord, let it alone this year also, until I shall dig about it.’
I doubt it is too much ground-bound. The love of this world, and the
deceitfulness of riches lie too close to the roots of the heart of this
professor (Luke 14). The love of riches, the love of honours, the love of
pleasures, are the thorns that choke the word. ‘For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not
of the Father,’ but enmity to God; how then, where these things bind up the
heart, can there be fruit brought forth to God? (1 John 2:15,16). Barren
fig-tree, see how the Lord Jesus, by these very words, suggesteth the cause of
thy fruitfulessness of soul! The things of this world lie too close to thy
heart; the earth with its things have bound up thy roots; thou art an
earth-bound soul, thou art wrapped up in thick clay. ‘If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him’; how then can he be fruitful in
the vineyard? This kept Judas from the fruit of caring for the poor (John 12:6).
This kept Demas from the fruit of self-denial (2 Tim 4:10). And this kept
Ananias and Sapphira his wife from the goodly fruit of sincerity and truth (Acts
5:5,10). What shall I say? These are ‘foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown
men in destruction and perdition; for the love of money is the root of all evil.’
How then can good fruit grow from such a root, the root of all evil? ‘Which
while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows’ (1 Tim 6:9,10). It is an evil root, nay, it is the
root of all evil. How then can the professor that hath such a root, or a root
wrapped up in such earthly things, as the lusts, and pleasures, and vanities of
this world, bring forth fruit to God?
Lord, I will
loose his roots, I will dig up this earth, I will lay his roots bare; my hand
shall be upon him by sickness, by disappointments, by cross providences; I will
dig about him until he stands shaking and tottering; until he be ready to fall;
then, if ever, he will seek to take faster hold. Thus, I say, deals the Lord
Jesus ofttimes with the barren professor; he diggeth about him, he smiteth one
blow at his heart, another blow at his lusts, a third at his pleasures, a fourth
at his comforts, another at his self-conceitedness. Thus he diggeth about him;
this is the way to take bad earth from his roots, and to loosen his roots from
the earth. Barren fig-tree, see here the care, the love, the labour, and way,
which the Lord Jesus, the dresser of the vineyard, is fain to take with thee, if
haply thou mayest be made fruitful.[13]
As the earth,
by binding the roots too closely, may hinder the tree’s being fruitful, so the
want of better means may be also a cause thereof. And this is more than
intimated by the dresser of the vineyard; ‘Till I shall dig about it and dung
it.’ I will supply it with a more fruitful ministry, with a warmer word; I
will give them pastors after mine own heart; I will dung them. You know dung is
a more warm, more fat, more hearty, and succouring matter than is commonly the
place in which trees are planted.
‘I will dig
about it, and dung it.’ I will bring it under a heart-awakening ministry; the
means of grace shall be fat and good: I will also visit it with heart-awakening,
heart-warming, heart-encouraging considerations; I will apply warm dung to his
roots; I will strive with him by my Spirit, and give him some tastes of the
heavenly gift, and the power of the world to come. I am loth to lose him for
want of digging. ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it
and dung it.’
And if the
fruits of all my labour doth make this fig-tree fruitful, I shall count my time,
my labour, and means, well bestowed upon it; and thou also, O my God, shalt be
therewith much delighted; for thou art gracious, and merciful, and repentest
thee of the evil which thou threatenest to bring upon a people. These words,
therefore, inform us, that if a barren fig-tree, a barren professor, shall now
at last bring forth fruit to God, it shall go well with that professor, it shall
go well with that poor soul. His former barrenness, his former tempting of God,
his abuse of God’s patience and long-suffering, his mis-spending year after
year, shall now be all forgiven him. Yea, God the Father, and our Lord Jesus
Christ, will not pass by and forget all, and say, ‘Well done,’ at the last.
When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if he then do
that which is lawful and right, if he walk in the statutes of life, without
committing iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die (Eze 33).
Barren
fig-tree, dost thou hear? the axe is laid to thy roots, the Lord Jesus prays God
to spare thee. Hath he been digging about thee? Hath he been dunging of thee? O
barren fig-tree, now thou art come to the point; if thou shalt now become good,
if thou shalt, after a gracious manner, suck in the gospel-dung, and if thou
shalt bring forth fruit unto God, well; but if not, the fire is the last! fruit,
or the fire; fruit, or the fire, barren fig-tree! ‘If it bear fruit, well.’[14]
The Lord Jesus,
by this if, giveth us to understand that there is a generation of professors in
the world that are incurable, that will not, that cannot repent, nor be profited
by the means of grace. A generation, I say, that will retain a profession, but
will not bring forth fruit; a generation that will wear out the patience of God,
time and tide, threatenings and intercessions, judgments and mercies, and after
all will be unfruitful.
O the desperate
wickedness that is in thy heart! Barren professor, dost thou hear? the Lord
Jesus stands yet in doubt about thee; there is an IF stands yet in the way. I
say, the Lord Jesus stands yet in doubt about thee, whether or no, at last, thou
wilt be good; whether he may not labour in vain; whether his digging and dunging
will come to more than lost labour; ‘I gave her space to repent, - and she
repented not’ (Rev 2:21). I digged about it, I dunged it; I gained time, and
supplied it with means; but I laboured herein in vain, and spent my strength for
nought, and in vain! Dost thou hear, barren fig-tree? there is yet a question,
Whether it may be well with thy soul at last?
There is
nothing more exasperating to the mind of a man than to find all his kindness and
favour slighted; neither is the Lord Jesus so provoked with anything, as when
sinners abuse his means of grace; if it be barren and fruitless under my gospel;
if it turn my grace into wantonness, if after digging and dunging, and waiting,
it yet remain unfruitful, I will let thee cut it down.
Gospel means,
applied, is the last remedy for a barren professor; if the gospel, if the grace
of the gospel, will not do, there can be nothing expected but cut it down. ‘Then
after that thou shalt cut it down.’ ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not!’ Therefore ‘your house is left unto you
desolate’ (Matt 23:37,38). Yet it cannot be, but that this Lord Jesus, who at
first did put a stop to the execution of his Father’s justice, because he
desired to try more means with the fig-tree; I say, it cannot be, but that a
heart so full of compassion as his is should be touched, to behold this
professor must now be cut down. ‘And when he was come near, he beheld the
city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this
thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine
eyes’ (Luke 19:41,42).
When Christ
giveth thee over, there is no intercessor, no mediator, no more sacrifice for
sin, all is gone but judgment, but the axe, but a ‘certain fearful looking for
of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries’ (Heb
10:26,27).
Barren
fig-tree, take heed that thou comest not to these last words, for these words
are a give up, a cast up, a cast up of a cast away; ‘After that thou shalt cut
it down.’ They are as much as if Christ had said, Father, I begged for more
time for this barren professor; I begged until I should dig about it, and dung
it. But now, Father, the time is out, the year is ended, the summer is ended,
and no good done! I have also tried with my means, with the gospel, I have
digged about it; I have laid also the fat and hearty dung of the gospel to it,
but all comes to nothing. Father, I deliver up this professor to thee again; I
have done; I have done all; I have done praying and endeavouring; I will hold
the head of thine axe no longer. Take him into the hands of justice; do justice;
do the law; I will never beg for him more. ‘After that thou shalt cut it down.’
‘Woe also to them when I depart from them!’ (Hosea 9:12). Now is this
professor left naked indeed; naked to God, naked to Satan, naked to sin, naked
to the law, naked to death, naked to hell, naked to judgment, and naked to the
gripes of a guilty conscience, and to the torment of that worm that never dies,
and to that fire that never shall be quenched. ‘See that ye refuse not him
that speaketh. For if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth,
much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from
heaven’ (Heb 12:25).
From this brief
pass through this parable, you have these two general observations:—First.
That even then when the justice of God cries out, I cannot endure to wait on
this barren professor any longer, then Jesus Christ intercedes for a little more
patience, and a little more striving with this professor, if possible he may
make him a fruitful professor. ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, till I
shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well,’ &c. Second.
There are some professors whose day of grace will end with, Cut it down, with
judgment; when Christ, by his means, hath been used for their salvation.