Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; What Is It To Come To Christ, 250.

 

FIRST, I will show you WHAT IT IS TO COME TO CHRIST. This word must be understood spiritually, not carnally; for many came to him carnally, or bodily, that had no saving advantage for him. Multitudes did thus come unto him in the days of his flesh; yea, innumerable companies. There is also at this day a formal customary coming to his ordinances and ways of worship, which availed not anything; but with them, I shall not now meddle, for they are not intended in the text. The coming, then, intended in the text is to be understood as the coming of the mind to him, even the moving of the heart towards him. I say the moving of the heart towards him, from a sound sense of the absolute want that a man has of him for his justification and salvation.

This description of coming to Christ divides itself into two heads: First, coming to Christ is a moving of the mind towards him. Second, That it is a moving of the mind towards him, from a sound sense of the absolute want that a man has of him for his justification and salvation.

[First.] To speak to the first is a moving of the mind towards him. This is evident; because coming hither or thither, if it be voluntary, is by an act of the mind or will; so coming to Christ is through the inclining of the will. “Thy people shall be willing” (Psa 110:3). This willingness of the heart is what sets the mind moving after or towards him. The church expressed this moving of her mind towards Christ by the moving of her bowels. “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him” (Can 5:4). “My bowels;” the passions of my mind and affections; which passions of the affections are expressed by the yearning and sounding of the bowels, the yearning or passionate working of them, the sounding of them, or their making a noise for him (Gen 43:30; 1 Kings 3:26; Isa 16:11).

This, then, is the coming to Christ, even moving towards him with the mind. 4 “And it shall come to pass, that everything that lived, which moved, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live” (Eze 47:9). The water in this text is the grace of God in the doctrine of it. The living things are the children of men, to whom the grace of God, by the gospel, is preached. Now, saith he, every living thing that moves, whither the water shall come, shall live. And see how this word moved is expounded by Christ himself, in the book of Revelations: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him who is eager come. And whosoever will,” that is, willing, “let him take the water of life freely” (Rev 22:17).

So that to move in thy mind and will after Christ, is to be coming to him. There are many poor souls that are coming to Christ, but cannot tell how to believe it, because they think that coming to him is some strange and wonderful thing; and, indeed, so it is. But I mean, they overlook the inclination of their will, the moving of their mind, and the sounding of their bowels after him; and count these none of this strange and wonderful thing; when, indeed, it is a work of greatest wonder in this world, to see a man who was sometimes dead in sin possessed of the devil, an enemy to Christ and to all things spiritually good; I say, to see this man moving with his mind after the Lord Jesus Christ, is one of the highest wonders in the world.