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

‘Wherein hast thou loved us?’ no marvel though that people be like those in Malachi’s time, a discontented, a murmuring, backward people about everything that is good. Read that whole book of Malachi.

Second. If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath allotted thee to do in this world for his name, then labour to see a beauty and glory in holiness, and in every good work: this tends much to the engaging of thy heart. ‘O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; fear before him, all the earth’ (Psa 96:9). And for thy help in this, think much on this in general, that ‘Thus saith the Lord’ is the wind-up of every command; for, indeed, much of the glory and beauty of duties doth lie in the glory and excellency of the person that doth command them; and hence it is that ‘Be it enacted by the King’s most excellent Majesty’ is in the head of every law, because that law should therefore be reverenced by, and be made glorious and beautiful to all. And we see, upon this very account, what power and place the precepts of kings do take in the hearts of their subjects, every one loving and reverencing the statute, because there is the name of their king. Will you rebel against the king? is a word that shakes the world.[14] Well, then, turn these things about for an argument to the matter in hand, and let the name of God, seeing he is wiser and better, and of more glory and beauty than kings, beget in thy heart a beauty in all things that are commanded thee of God. And, indeed, if thou do not in this act thus, thou wilt stumble at some of thy duty and work thou hast to do; for some of the commands of God are, in themselves, so mean and low, that take away the name of God from them, and thou wilt do as Naaman the Syrian, despise, instead of obeying. What is there in the Lord’s supper, in baptism, yea, in preaching the Word, and prayer, were they not the appointments of God? His name being entailed to them, makes them every one glorious and beautiful.

Wherefore, no marvel if he that looks upon them without their title-page goeth away in a rage, like Naaman, preferring others before them. What is Jordan? ‘Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel; may I not wash in them and be clean?’ saith he (2 Kings 5:10-12). This was because he remembered not that the name of God was in the command. Israel’s trumpets of ram’s horns (Josh 6:2-4), and Isaiah’s walking naked (Isa 20:3), and Ezekiel’s wars against a tile (Eze 4:1-4), would, doubtless, have been ignoble acts, but that the name of God was that which gave them reverence, power, glory, and beauty. Set therefore the name of God, and ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ against all reasonings, defamings, and reproaches, that either by the world, or thy own heart, thou findest to arise against thy duty, and let his name and authority alone be a sufficient argument with thee, ‘to behold the beauty’ that he hath put upon all his ways, ‘and to inquire in his temple’ (Psa 27:4).

Third. Wouldst thou be faithful to do that work that God hath appointed thee to do in this world for his name? then make much of a trembling heart and conscience; for though the Word be the line and rule whereby we must order and govern all our actions, yet a trembling heart and tender conscience is of absolute necessity for our so doing. A hard heart can do nothing with the word of Jesus Christ. ‘Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word’

(Isa 66:5). ‘Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling’

(Psa 2:11). I spake before against a servile and slavish frame of spirit, therefore you must not understand me here as if I meant now to cherish such a one; no, it is a heart that trembleth for, or at the grace of God; and a conscience made tender by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Such a conscience as is awakened both by wrath and grace, by the terror and the mercy of God; for it stands with the spirit of a son to fear before his father; yea, to fear chastings, though not to fear damnation. Let, therefore, destruction from God be a terror to thy heart, though not that destruction that attends them that perish by sin for ever (Job 31:23). Though this I might add further; it may do thee no harm, but good, to cast an eye over thy shoulder at those that now lie roaring under the vengeance of eternal fire; it may put thee in mind of what thou wast once, and of what thou must yet assuredly be, if grace by Christ preventeth not (Isa 66:24). Keep, then, thy conscience awake with wrath and grace, with heaven and hell; but let grace and heaven bear sway. Paul made much of a tender conscience, else he had never done as he did, nor suffered what we read of. ‘And herein,’

saith he, ‘do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men’ (Acts 24:16). But this could not a stony, benumbed, bribed, deluded, or a muzzled conscience do.

Paul was like the nightingale with his breast against the thorn.[15]

That his heart might still keep waking, he would accustom himself to the meditation of those things that should beget both love and fear; and would always be very chary, lest he offended his conscience. ‘Herein do I exercise myself,’ &c. Be diligent, then, in this matter, if thou wouldst be faithful with God. A tender conscience, to some people, is like Solomon’s brawling woman, a burthen to those that have it (Prov 25:24). But let it be to thee like those that invited David to go up to the house of the Lord (Psa 122:1). Hear it, and cherish it with pleasure and delight.

Fourth. If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath appointed thee to do in this world for his name; then let religion be the only business to take up thy thoughts and time. ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might’ (Eccl 9:10). With all thy heart, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Religion, to most men, is but a by-business, with which they use to fill up spare hours; or as a stalking-horse, which is used to catch the game.[16] How few are there in the world that have their conversation ‘only as becometh the gospel’! (Phil 1:27). A heart sound in God’s statutes, a heart united to the fear of God, a heart moulded and fashioned by the Word of God, is a rare thing; rare, because it is hard to be found, and rare because it is indeed the fruit of an excellent spirit, and a token of one saved by the Lord (Psa 119:80, 86:11). But this indifferency in religion, this fashioning ourselves in our language, gesture, behaviour, and carriage, to the fancies and fopperies of this world, as it is in itself much unbecoming a people that should bear the name of their God in their foreheads, so it cannot be but a very great and sore obstruction to thy faithful walking with God in this world (Rom 6:17). Gird up, then, thy loins like a man,[17] let God and his Christ, and his Word, and his people, and cause, be the chief in thy soul; and as heretofore thou hast afforded this world the most of thy time, and travel, and study, so now convert all these to the use of religion. ‘As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness’ (Rom 6:19). Holy things must be in every heart where this is faithfully put in practice.

1. Daily bring thy heart and the Word of God together, that thy heart may be levelled by it, and also filled with it. The want of performing this sincerely, is a great cause of that unfaithfulness that is in us to God. Bring, then, thy heart to the Word daily, to try how thou believest the Word today, to try how it agrees with the Word today. This is the way to make clean work daily, to keep thy soul warm and living daily. ‘Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?’ saith David. ‘By taking heed thereto according to thy Word’ (Psa 119:9). So again, ‘Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer’ (Psa 17:4). And again, ‘Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee’ (Psa 119:11). He that delighteth ‘in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth meditate day and night, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper’ (Psa 1:2,3).

2. A continual remembrance that to every day thou hast thy work allotted thee; and that sufficient for that day are the evils that attend thee (Matt 6:34). This remembrance set Paul upon his watch daily; made him die to himself and this world daily, and provoked him also daily to wind up the spirit of his mind; transforming himself by the power of the Word, from that proneness that was in his flesh to carnal things (1 Cor 15:30-33). This will make thee keep the knife at thy throat in all places, and business, and company (Prov 23:2).

3. Let thy heart be more affected with what concerns the honour of God, and the profit and glory of the gospel, than with what are thy concernments as a man, with all earthly advantages. This will make thee refuse things that are lawful, if they appear to be inexpedient. Yea, this will make thee, like the apostles of old, prefer another man’s peace and edification before thine own profit, and to take more pleasure in the increase of the power of godliness in any, than in the increase of thy corn and wine.

4. Reckon with thy own heart every day, before thou lie down to sleep, and cast up both what thou hast received from God, done for him, and where thou hast also been wanting. This will beget praise and humility, and put thee upon redeeming the day that is past; whereby thou wilt be able, through the continual supplies of grace, in some good measure to drive thy work before thee, and to shorten it as thy life doth shorten; and mayst comfortably live in the hope of bringing both ends sweetly together. But to pass this.

Fifth. If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath appointed thee to do in this world for his name, then beware thou do not stop and stick when hard work comes before thee. It is with Christians as it is with other scholars, they sometimes meet with hard lessons; but these thou must also learn, or thou canst not do thy work. The Word and Spirit of God come sometimes like chain-shot to us, as if it would cut down all; as when Abraham was to offer up Isaac, and the Levites to slay their brethren (Gen 22; Exo 32:26-28). Paul also must go from place to place to preach, though he knew beforehand he was to be afflicted there (Acts 20:23). God may sometimes say to thee, as he said to his servant Moses, ‘Take the serpent by the tail’; or, as