The Works of John Bunyan, vol 3, John Bunyan [ebook reader color screen TXT] 📗

of life: where that runs, where that is received, and where things are done in this spirit, there all things are well; the church thrifty, the soul thrifty, graces thrifty, and all is well. And this hint I thought convenient to be given of this precious water of life, that is, with reference to the operative quality of it.

[The other qualities of this water.]

SECOND. I shall come, in the next place, to speak of it, as to the other descriptions which John doth give us of it. He says it is, First, pure; Second, clear; Third, clear to a comparison: ‘And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal.’

[First. The purity of this water.]

1. You read here that this water of life is PURE, that is, alone without mixture, for so sometimes that word PURE is to be understood. As where it saith, pure, ‘pure olive oil’ (Exo 27:20).

‘Pure frankincense’ (Exo 30:34). ‘Pure gold’ (Exo 25:11,17). ‘Pure blood of the grape’ (Deut 32:14), and the like. So then, when he saith, ‘he showed me a pure river of water of life,’ it is as if he had said he showed me a river of water that was all living, all life, and had nothing in it but life. There was no death, or deadness, or flatness in it; or, as he saith a little after, ‘and there shall be no more curse.’ A pure river. There is not so much as a grudge, or a piece of an upbraiding speech found therein.

There is in it nothing but heart, nothing but love, nothing but grace, nothing but life. ‘The gifts and calling of God are without repentance’ (Rom 11:29).

2. PURE is sometimes set in opposition to show or appearance; as where he says, ‘the stars are not pure’ (Job 25:5). That is, not so without mixture of darkness, as they seem to be: so again, ‘If thou wert pure and upright’ (Job 8:6): that is, as thou seemest to be, or as thou wouldst have us believe thou art.

Now, take pure in this sense here, and then the meaning is, it is grace without deceit, without guile; its show and its substance are the same; it has nothing but substance in it; it is indeed what it seems to be in bulk; it is a river in show and a river indeed. It comes from God and from his throne in appearance, and really it comes from his very heart.

The great fear of the tempted is, that there is not so much grace in God, and that he is not so free of it as some scriptures seem to import. But this word PURE is levelled against such objections and objectors, for the destroying of their doubts, and the relieving of their souls. There is no fraud, nor guile, nor fable in the business; for though God is pleased to present us with his grace under the notion of a river, it is not to delude our fancies thereby; but to give us some small illustration of the exceeding riches of his grace, which as far, for quantity, outstrips the biggest rivers, as the most mighty mountain doth the least ant’s egg or atom in the world.

3. But, again, this word PURE is set in opposition to that which is hurtful and destructive: ‘I am pure from the blood of all men,’ that is, I have hurt nobody (Acts 20:26). ‘The wisdom that is from above is first pure,’ it is not hurtful (James 3:17). Do you count them pure with the wicked balances? how can that be, since they are hurtful? (Micah 6:11).

Now take PURE in this sense here, and then it intimates, that the grace of God, and the doctrine of grace, is not a hurtful thing.

It is not as wine of an intoxicating nature. If a man be filled with it, it will do him no harm (Eph 5:18). The best of the things that are of this world are some way hurtful. Honey is hurtful (Prov 25:16,27). Wine is hurtful (Prov 20:1). Silver and gold are hurtful, but grace is not hurtful (1 Tim 6:10). Never did man yet catch harm by the enjoyment and fulness of the grace of God.

There is no fear of excess or of surfeiting here. Grace makes no man proud, no man wanton, no man haughty, no man careless or negligent as to his duty that is incumbent upon him, either from God or man: no, grace keeps a man low in his own eyes, humble, self-denying, penitent, watchful, savoury in good things, charitable, and makes him kindly affectionated to the brethren, pitiful and courteous to all men.

True, there are men in the world that abuse the grace of God, as some are said to turn it into wantonness and into lasciviousness (Jude 4). But this is, not because grace has any such tendency, or for that it worketh any such effect; but because such men are themselves empty of grace, and have only done as death and hell hath done with wisdom, ‘heard the fame thereof with their ears’

(Job 28:22). It is a dangerous thing for a man to have the notions of grace, while his heart is void of the spirit and holy principles of grace; for such a man can do no other than abuse the grace of God. Alas, what can be expected of him that has nothing in him to teach him to manage that knowledge of grace which he has, but his flesh, his lusts, and lustful passions? Can these teach him to manage his knowledge well? Will they not rather put him upon all tricks, evasions, irreligious consequences and conclusions, such as will serve to cherish sin? What Judas did with Christ, that a graceless man will do with grace, even make it a stalking horse to his fleshly and vile designs; and rather than fail betray both it, and the profession of it, to the greatest enemies it has in the world.

And here I may say, though grace is pure, and not hurtful at all, yet one altogether carnal, sinful, and graceless, having to do with the doctrine of it, by the force of his lusts which tamper with it, he will unavoidably bring himself into the highest ruin thereby. An unwary man may destroy himself by the best of things, not because there is in such things an aptness to destroy, but because of the abuse and misuse of them. Some know the way of life, the water of life, by knowledge that is naked and speculative only; and it had been better for such if they had not known, than to know and turn from what they know; than to know, and make the knowledge subservient to their lusts (2 Peter 2:20-22). Some receive the rain of God, and the droppings of his clouds, because they continually sit under the means of his grace. But, alas!

they receive it as stones receive showers, or as dunghills receive the rain; they either abide as hard stones still, or else return nothing to heaven for his mercy, but as the dunghills do, a company of stinking fumes. These are they that drink in the rain that comes often upon them, and that instead of bringing forth herbs meet for the dresser, bring forth briers and thorns; and these are they who are nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned (Heb 6:7,8).

By this word PURE I understand sometimes the chiefest good, the highest good. There are many things that may be called good, but none of them are good as grace is good. All things indeed are pure, that is, all creatures in themselves are good and serviceable to man, but they are not so good as grace (Rom 14:20; Gen 1:31).

‘There is a generation that are pure,’ that are good in their own eyes (Prov 30:12). There are good men, good consciences, good works, good days, good angels, &c., but none so good as grace, for it is grace that has made them so. Grace, this water of life, therefore is good, superlatively good, good in the highest degree, for that it makes all things good, and preserveth them good. And whatever it be that this water of life washeth not, it is soil, and given to the curse, as the prophet intimates where he saith, ‘But the miry places thereof, and the marshes thereof, shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt’ (Eze 47:1).

But who understands this, who believes it? Its goodness is kept close from the fowls of the air. Men, most men, are ignorant of the goodness of it, nor do they care to inquire after the enjoyment of this pure, this good water of life. The reason is, because though it is good in itself, good in the highest degree, and that which makes all things good, yet it is not such a good as is suited to a carnal appetite. There is good; and there is suitable good.

Now suitable good is of two sorts: either such as is spiritual, or such as is temporal. That which is spiritual, is desired only of them that are spiritual; for temporal good will satisfy a carnal mind. Now grace is a spiritual good; this river of grace is the goodness of spiritual good. It is the original life of all the grace in our souls. No marvel, then, if it be so little set by of those that are carnally minded. They will serve a horse, and mire will serve a sow; so things of this life suit best with the men of this world; for their appetite is gross and carnal, and they savour not the things that be of the Spirit of God. ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,’ the things that be of this river of God; ‘for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’

(1 Cor 2:14). This is the river of OIL which the prophet speaks of, the river of SPIRIT. Were it a river of gold and silver, there would be old fishing on the banks thereof. But it is a river that runs ‘like oil, saith the Lord God’ (Eze 32:14). This rock pours us out ‘rivers of oil’ (Job 29:6)—‘fresh oil’ (Psa 92:10)—‘soft oil’ (Psa 55:21)—‘the oil of joy’ (Isa 61:3)—‘the oil of gladness’

(Psa 45:7)—oil to anoint the head withal (Eccl 9:8)—oil to make the face to shine (Psa 104:15)—oil by which thou wilt be made able to honour both God and man in some good measure as becomes thee (Judg 9:9).

I might have enlarged upon this head, and have showed you many more particulars wherein this term of pure might serve for the better setting forth of the excellency of this water of life, but I shall proceed no further upon this, but will come to that which remains.

[Second. The clearness of this water of life.]

As this river of water of life is said to be pure, so it is said to be CLEAR. ‘He shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear.’

This term has also its particular signification, and, therefore, ought to be heeded.

1. CLEAR is set in opposition to dark; therefore some are said to be ‘clear as the sun’ (Cant 6:10). And again, ‘the light shall not be clear nor dark’ (Zech 14:6). In both these places, clear is to be taken for light, daylight, sunlight; for, indeed, it is never day nor sunshine with the soul, until the streams of this river of water of life come gliding to our doors, into our houses, into our hearts. Hence the beginning of conversion is called illumination (Heb 10:32). Yea, the coming of this river of water of life unto