Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Power Of Christ To Save, Or To Cast Out, 289

 

And wilt thou judge him that doth thus? Art thou almost like Elymas the sorcerer, that sought to turn the deputy from the faith? Thou seek to pervert the right ways of the Lord. Take heed lest some heavy judgment overtakes thee (Acts 13:8-13). What! teach men to quench convictions; take them off from serious consideration of the evil of sin, the terrors of the world to come, and how they shall escape the same? What! teach men to put God and his Word out of their minds, by running to merry company, running to the world, and gossiping? &c. This is as much as to bid them to say to God, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;” or, “What is the Almighty that we should serve him? Or what profit have we if we keep his ways?” Here is a devil in grain! What! bid man walk “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2).

Two objections answered.

Object. 1. But we do not know that such are coming to Jesus Christ; truly we wonder at them, and think they are fools.

Answ. Do you not know that they are coming to Jesus Christ? then they may be coming to him, for aught you know; and why will ye be worse than the brute, to speak evil of the things you know not? What! Are ye made to be taken and destroyed? Must ye utterly perish in your own corruptions? (2 Peter 2:12). Do you not know them? Let them alone then. If you cannot speak good of them, speak not bad. “Refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God” (Acts 5:38,39). But why do you wonder at a work of conviction and conversion? Know you not that this is the judgment of God upon you, “ye despisers, to behold, and wonder, and perish?” (Acts 13:40,41). But why wonder, and think they are fools? Is the way of the just an abomination to you? See that passage, and be ashamed, “He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked” (Prov 29:27). Your wondering at them argues that you are strangers to yourselves, to conviction for sin, and to hearty desires to be saved; as also to coming to Jesus Christ.

Object. 2. But how shall we know that such men are coming to Jesus

Christ?

Answ. Who can make them see that Christ has made them blind? (John 2:8,9). Nevertheless, because I endeavor thy conviction, conversion, and salvation, consider: Do they cry out of sin, being burthened with it, as of an exceeding bitter thing? Do they fly from it, as from the face of a deadly serpent? Do they cry out of the insufficiency of their own righteousness, as to justification in the sight of God? Do they cry out after the Lord Jesus, to save them? Do they see more worth and merit in one drop of Christ’s blood to save them, than in all the sins of the world to damn them? Are they tender to sinning against Jesus Christ? Is his name, person, and undertakings, more precious to them, than is the glory of the world? Is this word more dear unto them? Is faith in Christ (of which they are convinced by God’s Spirit of the want of, and that without it they can never close with Christ) precious to them? Do they savor Christ in his Word and leave all the world for his sake? And are they willing, God helping them, to run hazards for his name, for the love they bear to him? Are his saints precious to them? If these things be so, whether thou sees them or not, these men are coming to Jesus Christ (Rom 7:914; Psa. 38:3-8; Heb 6:18-20; Isa 64:6; Phil 3:7,8; Psa. 54:1; 109:26; Acts 16:30; Psa. 51:7,8; 1 Peter 1:18,19; Rom 7:24; 2 Cor 5:2; Acts 5:41; James 2:7; Song 5:10-16; Psa. 119; John 13:35; 1 John 4:7; 3:14; John 16:9; Rom 14:23; Heb 11:6; Psa. 19:10,11; Jer 15:16; Heb 11:24-27; Acts 20:22-24; 21:13; Titus 3:15; 2 John 1; Eph 4:16; Phile 7; 1 Cor 16:24).

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Promise to Those Coming To Christ, 279

 

II. But again, these words, CAST OUT, have a special look at what will be hereafter, even on the day of judgment. For then, and not till then, will be the great anathema and casting out made manifest, even manifest by execution. Therefore, I am here to speak to this, and that under these two heads. At first, the casting itself. Second, of the place into which they shall be cast, that shall then be cast out.

First, the casting of itself stands for two things. 1. In a preparatory work. 2. In the manner of executing the act.

1. The preparatory work stands for these three things.

(1.) It stands in the separation that has not come to him, from them that have, at that day. Or thus: At the day of the great casting out, those that have not now come to him shall be separated from those that have; for those that have, he will not cast out." "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matt 25:31,32). Therefore, this dreadful separation shall be made between those who now come to Christ and those who do come. And good reason; for since they would not be with us, come to him now that they have time, Why should they stand with us when judgment comes?

(2.) They shall be placed before him according to their condition: they that have come to him, in great dignity, even at his right hand; "For he will in no wise cast them out": but the rest shall be set at his left hand, the place of disgrace and shame; for they did not come to him for life. Distinguished also shall they be by fit terms: these that come to him he calleth the sheep, but the rest are foolish goats, "and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats;" and the sheep will be set on the right hand—next heaven gate, for they came to him—but the goats on his left, to go from him into hell because they are not of his sheep.

(3.) Then will Christ proceed to the conviction of those that came not to him, and will say, "I was a stranger, and ye took me not in," or did not come unto me. Their excuse is that he will be treated as dirt, and proceed to their final judgment.

2. Now when these wretched rejecters of Christ shall thus be set before him in their sins, and convicted, this is the preparatory work upon which follows the manner of executing the act which will be done.

(1.) In the presence of all the holy angels.

(2.) In the presence of all them that in their lifetime came to him, by saying unto them, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, with the reason annexed to it. For you were cruel to me and mine, particularly discovered in these words, "For I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not" (Matt 25:41-43).

Second, Now it remains that we speak of the place into which these shall be cast, which, in general, you have heard already, to wit, the first prepared for the devil and his angels. But, in particular, it is thus described:—

1. It is called Tophet: "For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king," the Lucifer, "it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it" (Isa 30:32).

2. It is called hell. "They should enter halt" or lame "into life than having two feet to be cast into hell" (Mark 9:45).

3. It is called the wine press of the wrath of God. "And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth," that is, them that did not come to Christ, "and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God" (Rev 14:19).

4. It is called a lake of fire. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev 20:15).

5. It is called a pit. "Thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit" (Isa 14:13-15).