Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences from Thus Coming to God by Christ, 227.

 

Fifth, A fifth inference that I gather from this text is, that the end that God will make with men will be according as they come or come not to God by Christ. They that come to God by Christ have taken shelter and have hidden themselves, but they that come not to God by Christ lay open to the windy storm and tempest that will be in that day. And the wind then will be high, and the tempest strong, that will blow upon them that shall be found in themselves; ‘Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.’ (Psa 50:3,4) And now, what will be found in that day to be the portion of them that, in this day, do not come to God by Christ? None knows but God, with whom the reward of unbelievers is.

But writing and preaching are in vain as to such; let men say what they will, what they can, to persuade to come, to dissuade from neglecting to come, they are resolved not to stir. They will try to see if God will be so faithful to himself and to his Word, as to dare to condemn them to hell fire that have refused to hear and comply with the voice of him that speaks from heaven.

But this is a desperate venture. Several things declare that He is determined to be at a point in this matter.

1. The gallows are built—hell is prepared for the wicked. 2. There are those already in chains, and standing bound over to the judgment of that day, that are, as to creation, higher and greater than men, to wit, the angels that sinned. (2 Peter 2:4) Let sinners, then, look to themselves. 3. The Judge is prepared and appointed, and it hath fallen out to be HE that thou hast refused to come to God by, and that predicts no good to thee; for then will he say of all such, ‘Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.’ (Luke 19:27)

But what a surprise will it be to them that they have now come to God by Christ to see themselves in heaven, saved, and possessed of everlasting life. For alas! what is faith to possession? Faith that is mixed with many fears, that is opposed with many assaults, and that seems sometimes to be quite extinguished; I say, what is that to a seeing of myself in heaven? Hence it is said, that he shall then come to be admired in them that now believe, because they did here believe the testimony; then they shall admire that it was their lot to believe when they were in the world. (2 Thess 1:10) They shall also admire to think, to see, and behold, what believing has brought them to, while the rest, for refusing to come to God by Christ, drink their tears mixed with burning brimstone.