The following is from Thomas Shepard (this is not a promotion or an endorsement of Shepard as a true Christian; I am using Shepard's words to make application or to comment upon. Thomas Shepard is commenting on Matthew 7:14).
"Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew vii. 14).
There are some whose (errant) eschatology informs their understanding of this passage concerning the paucity of those whom the Triune God will save. Some will limit or restrict the small number saved (and thus significantly widen the narrowness of the gate) to around 7o A.D. But as those of us who are among the regenerate elect survey the theological landscape blanketed in the darkness of ignorance, we are humbled in the dust and do rejoice with trembling. The true gospel informs our eschatology and we observe those who are eminently distinguished by their ignorant zeal for the God of Israel and are proven to be unregenerate idolaters (Romans 10:1-4). As the majority bowed the knee to Baal in Paul’s and Elijah’s day, so it is at this present time -- from Roman Catholicism to Eastern Orthodoxy, from the Protestant Reformed establishment to mainstream “Evangelicalism” -- they have all bowed the kneel to Baal (Romans 11:1-6).
Here are some comments on Matthew 7:14 by Thomas Shepard from his The Sincere Convert:
"The paucity of them that shall be saved: few find the way thither. The difficulty of being saved: Strait and narrow is the way and gate unto life. Hence arise two doctrines:
1. The difficulty of being saved: Strait and narrow is the way and gate unto life. Hence arise two doctrines:"
Here it seems that Thomas Shepard is not among those Reformed theologians who believe that those saved (elect) will significantly outnumber the amount of those lost (reprobate or non-elect). The "difficulty of being saved" according to Scripture refers to those concomitants or fruits of regenerating grace.
"And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old [art] thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage [are] an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage" (Genesis 47:8-9).
"For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator" (1 Peter 4:17-19).
"Confirming the souls of the disciples, [and] exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).
Shepard continues:
"That the number of them that shall be saved is very small (Luke xiii. 24). The devil hath his drove, and swarms to go to hell, as fast as bees to their hive; Christ hath His flock, and that is but a little flock; hence God's children are called jewels (Malachi iii. 17) which commonly are kept secret in respect of the other lumber in the house; hence they are called strangers and pilgrims which are very few in respect of the inhabitants of the country through which they pass; hence they are called sons of God (1 John iii. 2), of the blood royal, which are few in respect of common subjects."
May these words of Jesus Christ be a comfort to all true believers:
"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
Shepard:
"But see the truth of this point in these two things:
First, look to all ages and times of the world. Secondly, to all places and persons in the world and we shall see few men were saved. Look to all ages and we shall find but a handful saved. As soon as ever the Lord began to keep house and there were but two families in it, there was a bloody Cain living, and a good Abel slain. And as the world increased in number, so in wickedness. It is said, 'All flesh had corrupted their ways,' and amongst so many thousand men, not one righteous but Noah, and his family; and yet in the ark there crept in a cursed Ham (Genesis vi. 12).
Afterwards, as Abraham's posterity increased, so we see their sins abounded. When his posterity was in Egypt, where one would think if ever men were good, now it would appear, being so heavily afflicted by Pharaoh, being by so many miracles miraculously delivered by the hand of Moses; yet most of these God was wroth with (Hebrews iii. 12), and only two of them, Caleb and Joshua, went into Canaan, a type of heaven."
Since we know from the whole of Scripture that Moses was a true believer we ought not to take this particular instance of typology too far.
"And I besought the LORD at that time, saying, O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see" (Deuteronomy 3:23-28).
"And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts [also.] And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them" (Numbers 20:7-12).
The Lord said to speak unto the rock; He did not say to strike the rock twice with a rod. This is said to stem from unbelief and the failure "to sanctify [Him] in the eyes of the children of Israel." Further, they said to the children of Israel, "must we fetch you water out of this rock." Note the "must WE."
Shepard:
"Look into Solomon's time, what glorious times! What great profession was there then! Yet, after his death, ten tribes fell to the odious sin of idolatry, following the command of Jeroboam their king. Look farther into Isaiah's time, when there were multitudes of sacrifices and prayers (Is. i. 11), yet then there was but a remnant, nay, a very Iittle remnant, that should be saved.
And look to the time of Christ's coming in the flesh (for I pick out the best time of all), when one would think by such sermons He preached, such miracles He wrought, such life as He led, all the Jews would have entertained Him; yet it is said, 'He came unto His own and they received Him not.' So few that Christ Himself admires at one good Nathaniel, 'Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile.' In the apostles' time, many indeed were converted, but few comparatively and amongst the best churches many bad, as that at Philippi (Philippians iii. 18). Many had a name to live but were dead, and only few kept their garments unspotted. And presently, after the apostle's time, many grievous wolves came and devoured the sheep; and so in succeeding ages all the earth wondered at the whore in scarlet (Revelation xii. 9).
And in Luther's time, when the light began to arise again, he saw so many carnal gospelers that he breaks out in one sermon into these speeches: 'God grant I may never live to see those bloody days that are coming upon an ungodly world.'"
And yet this scarlet whore has a common crimson thread that runs through all her whorish daughters (including Luther himself), and that is the demonic doctrine that Christ died ("in some sense") for everyone without exception. Despite the doctrinal differences between the scarlet whore and Martin Luther, the true proverb remains: "Like mother, like daughter" (cf. Ezekiel 16:44).
Shepard writes:
"Latimer heard so much profaneness in his time that he thought verily doomsday was just at hand. And have not our ears heard censuring those in the Palatinate, where (as it is reported) many have fallen from the glorious gospel to Popery as fast as leaves fall in autumn? Who would have thought there had lurked such hearts under such a shew [show--CD] of detesting Popery as was among them before? And at Christ's coming shall He find faith on the earth?"
Did Latimer hear his own profane sermon in which he vilified the precious blood of Christ, treating it as a common thing? Here is Latimer:
“For for what other cause did Christ come, but only to take away our sins by his passion, and so deliver us from the power of the devil? But these merit-mongers have so many good works, that they be able to sell them for money, and so to bring other men to heaven too by their good works: which, no doubt, is the greatest contempt of the passion of Christ that can be devised. For Christ only, and no man else, merited remission, justification, and eternal felicity for as many as will believe the same: they that will not believe it, shall not have it; for it is no more but, ‘Believe and have.’ For Christ shed as much blood for Judas, as he did for Peter: Peter believed it, and therefore he was saved; Judas would not believe, and therefore he was condemned; the fault being in him only, in nobody else. But to say, or to believe, that we should be saved by the law, this is a great dishonouring of Christ’s passion: for the law serveth to another purpose -- it bringeth us to the knowledge of our sins, and so to Christ: for when we be come through the law to the knowledge of our sins, when we perceive our filthiness, then we be ready to come to Christ, and fetch remission of our sins at his hands. But the papists fetch the remission of their sins, not in the passion of Christ, but in their own doings: they think to come to heaven by their own works; which is naught” (Hugh Latimer, Sermons; underlining mine).
More from Shepard:
"Let us look into all places and persons and see how few shall be saved. The world is now split into four parts, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; and the three biggest parts are drowned in a deluge of profaneness and superstition; they do not so much as profess Christ; you may see the sentence of death written on these men's foreheads (Jeremiah x. ult.).
But let us look upon the best part of the world, and that is Europe; how few shall be saved there? First, the Grecian church, howsoever now in these days, their good patriarch of Constantinople is about a general reformation among them and hath done much good; yet are they for the present, and have been for the most part of them, without the saving means of knowledge. They content themselves with their old superstitions, having little or no preaching at all. And for the other parts, as Italy, Spain, France, Germany, for the most part they are Popish; and see end of these men (2 Thessalonians ii. 9-12).
And now amongst them that carry the badge of honesty I will not speak what mine ears have heard and my heart believes concerning other churches: I will come into our own church of England, which is the most flourishing church in the world; never had church such preachers, such means; yet have we not some chapels and churches stand as dark lanterns without light, where people are led with blind or idle or licentious ministers, and so both fall into the ditch?
Nay, even among them that have the means of grace, but few shall be saved. It may be sometimes amongst ninety-nine in a parish, Christ sends a minister to call some one lost sheep among them (Mat. xiii). Three grounds were bad where the seed was sown and only one ground good.
It is a strange speech of Chrysostom in his fourth sermon to the people of Antioch where he was much beloved and did much good: 'How many do you think, saith he, shall be saved in this city? It will be an hard speech to you, but I will speak it; though here be so many thousands of you, yet there cannot be found an hundred that shall be saved, and I doubt of them too; for what villany is there among youth? What sloth in old men?' And so he goes on."
A passage regarding the remnant:
"And it shall come to pass, [that] in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off [and] die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It [is] my people: and they shall say, The LORD [is] my God" (Zechariah 13:8-9).
Shepard continues:
"So say I, never tell me we are baptized and are Christians, and trust to Christ; let us but separate the goats from the sheep and exclude none but such as the Scripture doth and sets a cross upon their doors, with, Lord have mercy upon them, and we shall see only few in the city shall be saved."
Thomas Shepard lists four sorts of unbelievers:
"1. Cast out all the profane people among us, as drunkards, swearers, whores, liars, which the scripture brands for black sheep and condemns them in an hundred places."
As a matter of course there will be multitudes of zeitgeist sniffers who will label this church discipline, this purging out of the old leaven, as an "inhuman lack of empathy." These wayward and promiscuous dromedaries would so label not only true Christians, but also false Christians who are not so "strict" as the true.
Shepard:
"2. Set by all civil men that are but wolves chained up, tame devils, swine in a fair meadow, that pay all they owe and do nobody any harm yet do none any great good, that plead for themselves and say, 'Who can say black is mine eye?' These are righteous men whom Christ never came to call; for he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
At least some of these "civil men" would include those whose external or outward deportment is that of being "nice," "cordial," "honest in their business dealings," etc., etc. Yet they are far from possessing a righteousness that equals God's righteousness in Christ; they do not possess a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice, which is found solely in Christ's propitiating blood and imputed righteousness.
Shepard again:
"3. Cast by all hypocrites, that like stage-players in the sight of others, act the parts of kings and honest men; when look upon them in their tiring hours, they are but base varlets."
These appear as angels at home and devils abroad; or as angels abroad (depending on their company) and devils at home. Some of these children of dissimulation excuse their deceit with delusions forged in hysterical and prejudicial flames.
Shepard:
"4. Formal professors and carnal gospelers that have a thing like faith and like sorrow and like true repentance and like good desires, but yet they are but pictures they deceive others and themselves too (2 Timothy iii. 5)."
These are wells without water; lamps lacking oil.
"These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots" (Jude 1:12).
These spots in our feasts of charity feasted in baseless fear and for foolishly familial reasons. A confused "confession" of faith in Christ resulted in roots plucked up by worldly winds; carried off by the anti-christian zeitgeist. Twice dead -- first, spiritually dead in sin and children of wrath (cf. Ephesians 2:1-3); second, a seeming spiritual life through the knowledge of Jesus Christ and a supposed "deliverance" from the pollutions of the world; and yet being ultimately entangled and overcome, sadly reveals their dead profession.
"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known [it,] to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:20-22).
Shepard:
"Set by these four sorts how few then are to be saved even among them that are hatched in the bosom of the church?" (Thomas Shepard, The Sincere Convert, pp. 55-58).
Having read through much of Thomas Shepard's Parable of the Ten Virgins, it is clear that at the time of his writing he was ignorant of Christ as the end of law for righteousness and he knew not what faith was (Romans 10:1-4,9; Hebrews 11:1).
