The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1, John Bunyan [reading like a writer TXT] 📗

prayers golden prayers, in the eye of that God thou comest to, coming sinner (Rev 8; Matt 23:19; Heb 10:10; 1 Peter 2:5).

3. God hath strewed all the way, from the gate of hell, where thou wast, to the gate of heaven, whither thou art going, with flowers out of his own garden. Behold how the promises, invitations, calls, and encouragements, like lilies, lie round about thee! take heed that thou dost not tread them under foot, sinner. With promises, did I say? Yea, he hath mixed all those with his own name, his Son’s name; also, with the name of mercy, goodness, compassion, love, pity, grace, forgiveness, pardon, and what not, that may encourage the coming sinner.

4. He hath also for thy encouragement laid up the names, and set forth the sins, of those that have been saved. In this book they are fairly written, that thou, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, mightest have hope. (1.) In this book is recorded Noah’s maim and sin; and how God had mercy upon him. (2.) In this record is fairly written the name of Lot, and the nature of his sin; and how the Lord had mercy upon him. (3.) In this record thou hast also fairly written the names of Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Samson, David, Solomon, Peter, Paul, with the nature of their sins; and how God had mercy upon them; and all to encourage thee, coming sinner.

Fourth. I will add yet another encouragement for the man that is coming to Jesus Christ. Art thou coming? Art thou coming, indeed?

Why,

1. Then this thy coming is by virtue of God’s call. Thou art called.

Calling goes before coming. Coming is not of works, but of him that calleth. “He goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would; and they came unto him” (Mark 3:13).

2. Art thou coming? This is also by virtue of illumination. God has made thee see; and, therefore, thou art coming. So long as thou wast darkness, thou lovedst darkness, and couldst not abide to come, because thy deeds were evil; but being now illuminated and made to see what and where thou art, and also what and where thy Saviour is, now thou art coming to Jesus Christ; “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,”

saith Christ, “but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt 16:17).

3. Art thou coming? This is because God hath inclined thine heart to come. God hath called thee, illuminated thee, and inclined thy heart to come; and, therefore, thou comest to Jesus Christ. It is God that worketh in thee to will, and to come to Jesus Christ.

Coming sinner, bless God for that he hath given thee a will to come to Jesus Christ. It is a sign that thou belongest to Jesus Christ, because God has made thee willing to come to him (Psa 110:3). Bless God for slaying the enmity of thy mind; had he not done it, thou wouldst as yet have hated thine own salvation.

4. Art thou coming to Jesus Christ? It is God that giveth thee power: power to pursue thy will in the matters of thy salvation, is the gift of God. “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do” (Phil 2:13). Not that God worketh will to come, where he gives no power; but thou shouldest take notice, that power is an additional mercy. The church saw that will and power were two things, when she cried, “Draw me, we will run after thee” (Song 1:4). And so did David too, when he said, “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart” (Psa 119:32).

Will to come, and power to pursue thy will, is double mercy, coming sinner.

5. All thy strange, passionate, sudden rushings forward after Jesus Christ, coming sinners know what I mean, they also are thy helps from God. Perhaps thou feelest at some times more than at others, strong stirrings up of heart to fly to Jesus Christ; now thou hast at this time a sweet and stiff gale of the Spirit of God, filling thy sails with the fresh gales of his good Spirit; and thou ridest at those times as upon the wings of the wind, being carried out beyond thyself, beyond the most of thy prayers, and also above all thy fear and temptations.

6. Coming sinner, hast thou not now and then a kiss of the sweet lips of Jesus Christ, I mean some blessed word dropping like a honey-comb upon thy soul to revive thee, when thou art in the midst of thy dumps?

7. Does not Jesus Christ sometimes give thee a glimpse of himself, though perhaps thou seest him not so long a time as while one may tell twenty.

8. Hast thou not sometimes as it were the very warmth of his wings overshadowing the face of thy soul, that gives thee as it were a gload22 upon thy spirit, as the bright beams of the sun do upon thy body, when it suddenly breaks out of a cloud, though presently all is gone away? Well, all these things are the good hand of thy God upon thee, and they are upon thee to constrain, to provoke, and to make thee willing and able to come, coming sinner, that thou mightest in the end be saved.

FOOTNOTES:

1 “My grace is sufficient for thee,” and the language of the church, conscious of its own weakness and the Lord’s all-sufficiency, is, “Draw me, we will run after thee” (Song 1:4).—Mason.

2 No outward profession is accepted, except it springs from inward love to Christ.—Ed.

3 How clearly is every seeming difficulty explained by Bunyan. The Father entered into covenant with the Son, in eternity, to save his elect; and, in time, as they appear upon earth, the Father giveth them to Christ by effectual calling, and he brings them to eternal glory.—Ed.

4 To come unto Christ, in its proper sense, is to receive him as he is offered to us in the Word; to believe in him, as a suitable and all-sufficient Saviour; to submit to his government, in both suffering and doing his will, with all lowly-mindedness and humility; and this by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit upon the soul.—Mason.

5 “Salve;” relief, aid, or help.

‘Which Cambell seign, though he could not salve, He done undoe, yet for to salve his name And purchase honour to his friend’s behalve, This goodly counterfesaunce he did frame.”

—Spenser’s Faery Queen.

6 We cannot remember all God’s benefits, but how prone we are to forget them all!—Ed.

7 Christian, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, was thus exercised: —“I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded that he did not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it:—Just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stepped up softly to him, and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind.” See also Grace Abounding, No.

100-102.—Ed.

8 “Warm gleads;” from Saxon glow, anything heated or hot.

“My destiny to behold her doth me leade, And yet I know I runne into the gleade.”—Wyatt.—Ed.

9 Many misspend their time in poring upon their own hearts, to find out some evidence of their interest in Christ, when they should rather be employed in receiving Christ, and walking in him, by a confident faith grounded on the Divine testimony.—Mason.

10 How striking are Bunyan’s illustrations! The devil, as a roaring lion, is in pursuit of the flying sinner; he would flee faster than his infirmities will let him. We cannot wonder that modern preachers borrowed so vivid and truthful a figure.—Ed.

11 A Christian is “never safe but when watchful;” he should keep a jealous eye on his own weakness, and a believing eye on the promise and power of Christ, and he shall be preserved from falling.—Mason.

12 “Let him;” hinder him. See 2 Thessalonians 2:7. Obsolete.—Imperial Dictionary.—Ed.

13 “The Scripture contains many gracious promises in behalf of the children of believing parents; but grace is not hereditary. It is the parent’s part to pray with and for, admonish, and piously train up his children; but, after all, must recommend them to the tender mercies of God, which the children of many prayers often happily experience.”—Mason. O that all persons may solemnly consider this searching truth! especially the children of believers. The coming of your father or mother to Christ cannot be imputed to you; come for yourself, or you must perish. As you love your souls, believe not that awful delusion, that any ceremony could make you a child of God.—Ed.

14 “While of late;” until of late.—Ed.

15 “Lie at Jesus Christ;” to lay down, lie at the feet of Jesus Christ, to persevere like the Syrophenician woman, Mark 7:25.—Ed.

16 “Ply;” to solicit importunately.—Ed.

17 “A flam;” a fable, an imposition.

18 “Most an end;” continually, perpetually.

19 How awful is the confidence of the self-righteous pharisee; he considers himself more righteous than the poor penitent, who is clothed in Christ’s righteousness, the garments of salvation.

The self-righteous says:—“Stand by, I am holier than thou. Thank God, I am not like this publican.” While in God’s sight, poor wretched boaster, thou art clothed in filthy rags.—Ed.

20 This nation now pays some eight or ten millions sterling a year.

Had God sanctioned this diabolical trade in souls, all Christendom would have been divided into two classes-priests and slaves.—Ed.

21 “Twitting;” taunting, or rebuking.—Ed.

22 “A gload;” a warm, eager, passionate gazing: now obsolete.—Ed.

***

JUSTIFICATION BY AN IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS; OR,

NO WAY TO HEAVEN BUT BY JESUS CHRIST.

ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.

This is one of those ten excellent manuscripts which were found among Bunyan’s papers after his decease in 1688. It had been prepared by him for publication, but still wanted a few touches of his masterly hand, and a preface in his characteristic style. He had, while a prisoner for nonconformity, in 1672, published a treatise upon this subject, in reply to Mr. Fowler, who was soon after created Bishop of Gloucester; but that was more peculiarly intended to prove that those who are justified by faith in Christ are placed in a safer, more honourable, and more glorious state than that possessed by Adam before his fall. Mr. Fowler took the popular view, that the sufferings of the Saviour were intended to replace man in a similar position to that of Adam when in a state of innocence; and to give him powers, which, if properly used, would enable him to save himself.

It is of important that we should understand the meaning of the term ‘justification’ as here used. It is an acquittal, on being tried by the law; or a proof that, upon the most penetrating scrutiny, we have, through life, fulfilled and performed all its requirements in word, thought, and deed, without the slightest deviation or taint of error. This is essential to salvation, and must be done, either personally, or by the imputation of the Saviour’s obedience to us. Multitudes vainly imagine that this can be attained by our partial obedience, aided, where we fail, by the imputation of so much of the Saviour’s obedience as, being placed to our account, will make up the deficiency. Upon justification must depend the salvation of the soul. Bunyan was convinced that the sinner’s only hope was by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, which alone could justify him from ALL things, and without which he must perish.

As ‘by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified,’

it becomes an important inquiry whether the law, by which all must be tried, and justified