Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Objections That Usually Lie in The Way Of Coming To Christ, 258.

 

Object. But is not the door of mercy shut against some before they die?

Answ. Yea; and God forbids that prayers should be made to him for them (Jer 6:16; Jude 22).

Quest. Then, why may I not doubt that I may be one of these?

Answ. By no means, if thou art coming to Jesus Christ; because when God shuts the door upon men, he gives them no heart to come to Jesus Christ. “None come but those to whom it is given of the Father.” But thou comes, therefore it is given to you by the Father.

Be sure, therefore, that if the Father has given you a heart to come to Jesus Christ, the gate of mercy still stands open to you. For it stands not with the wisdom of God to give strength to come to the birth, and yet to shut up the womb, (Isa 66:9); to give grace to come to Jesus Christ, and yet shut up the door of his mercy upon thee. “Incline your ear,” saith he, “and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isa 55:3).

Object. But it is said, that some knocked when the door was shut.

Answ. Yes; but the texts in which these knockers are mentioned, refer to the day of judgment, and not to the coming of the sinner to Christ in this life. See the texts, Matthew 15:11, and Luke 13:24,25. These, therefore, concern you nothing at all, that art is coming to Jesus Christ, thou art coming now! “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). Now God is upon the mercy seat; now Christ Jesus sits by, continually pleading the victory of his blood for sinners; and now, even as long as this world lasts, this word of the text shall still be free, and fully fulfilled; “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

Sinner, the greater sinner thou art, the greater need of mercy thou hast, and the more will Christ be glorified thereby. Come then, come and try; come, taste, and see how good the Lord is to an undeserving sinner!

Object. 6. But, says another, I have fallen since I began to come to Christ; therefore, I fear I did not come aright, and so consequently, Christ will not receive me.

Answ. Falls are dangerous, for they dishonor Christ, wound the conscience, and cause the enemies of God to speak reproachfully. But it is no good argument, I am fallen, therefore I was not coming right to Jesus Christ. If David, Solomon, and Peter, had thus objected against themselves, they had added to their griefs; and yet, at least they had as much cause as you. A man whose steps are ordered by the Lord, and whose goings the Lord delights in, may yet be overtaken with a temptation that may cause him to fall 11 (Psa 37:23,24). Did not Aaron fall; yea, and Moses himself? What shall we say of Hezekiah and Jehosaphat? There are, therefore, falls and falls; falls pardonable and falls unpardonable. Falls unpardonable are falls against light, from the faith to the despising of, and trampling upon Jesus Christ and his blessed undertakings (Heb 6:2-5; 10:28,29). Now, as for such, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. Indeed, they have no heart, no mind, and no desire to come to Jesus Christ for life, therefore they must perish. Nay, says the Holy Ghost, “It is impossible that they should be renewed again unto repentance.” Therefore these God had no compassion for, neither ought we; but for other falls though they are dreadful, and God will chastise his people for them, they do not prove thee a graceless man, one not coming to Jesus Christ for life.

It is said of the child in the gospel, that while “he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him” (Luke 9:42). Dejected sinner, it is no wonder that thou hast caught a fall in coming to Jesus Christ. Is it not rather to be wondered at, that thou hast not caught before this a thousand times a thousand falls? considering, 1. What fools we are by nature. 2. What weaknesses are in us. 3. What mighty powers the fallen angels, our implacable enemies, are. 4. Considering also how often the coming man is benighted in his journey; and also what stumbling blocks do lie in his way. 5. Also his familiars, who were so before, now watch for his halting and seek by what means they may to cause him to fall by the hand of their strong ones.

What then? Must we, because of these temptations, incline to fall? No. Must we not fear falls? Yes. “Let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). Yet let him not utterly be cast down; “The Lord uphold all that fall, and raised up those that are bowed down.” Make not light of falls! Yet, hast thou fallen? “Ye have,” said Samuel, “done all this wickedness; yet turn not aside from following the Lord,” but serve him with a perfect heart, and turn not aside, “for the Lord will not forsake his people,” and he counted the coming sinner one of them, “because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people” (1 Sam 12:20-22).

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Objections That Usually Lie in The Way Of Coming To Christ, 257.

7. I read of some who follow Christ in chains; I say, to come after him in chains. “Thus saith the Lord, The labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee: in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee: they shall make supplication unto thee, saying—Surely there is none else” to save (Isa 45:14). Surely they that come after Christ in chains, come to him in great difficulty, because their steps, by the chains, are straitened. And what chains are so heavy as those that discourage you? Thy chain, which is made up of guilt and filth, is heavy; it is a wretched bond about thy neck, by which thy strength doth fail (Lam 1:14; 3:18). But come, though thou comes in chains; it is glory to Christ that a sinner comes after him in chains. Though troublesome to thee, the chinking of thy chains is not, nor can be an obstruction to thy salvation; it is Christ’s work and glory to save you from your chains, enlarge your steps, and set you at liberty. The blind man, though called, surely could not come to Jesus Christ, but Christ could stand still, and stay for him (Mark 10:49). True, “He rode upon the wings of the wind;” but yet he is long-suffering, and his long-suffering is salvation to him that cometh to him (2 Peter 3:9).

8. Hadst thou seen those that came to the Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh, how slowly, how hobblingly, they came to him, because of their infirmities. Also, how friendly, kindly, and graciously, he received them, and gave them the desire of their hearts, thou would not, as thou dost, make such objections against thyself, in thy coming to Jesus Christ.

Object. 5. But, says another, I fear I come too late; I doubt I have staid too long; I am afraid the door is shut.

Answ. Thou canst never come too late to Jesus Christ if thou dost come. This is manifest in two instances.

1. By the man that came to him at the eleventh hour. This man was idle all day long. He had a whole gospel day to come in, and he played it all away save only the last hour thereof. But at last, at the eleventh hour, he came and went into the vineyard to work with the rest of the laborers, that had borne the burden and heat of the day. Well, but how was he received by the lord of the vineyard? Why, when pay-day came, he had even as much as the rest; yea, had his money first. True, the others murmured at him; but what did the Lord Jesus answer them? “Is thine eye evil, because I am good? I will give unto this last, even as unto thee” (Matt 20:14,15).

2. The other instance is the thief upon the cross. He came late also, even as at an hour before his death; yea, he stayed from Jesus Christ as long as he had liberty to be a thief, and longer too; for could he have deluded the judge, and by lying words have escaped his just condemnation, for ought I know, he had not come as yet to his Saviour; but being convicted, and condemned to die, yea, fastened to the cross, that he might die like a rogue, as he was in his life; behold the Lord Jesus, when this wicked one, even now, desired mercy at his hands, tells him, and that without the least reflection upon him, for his former misspent life, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Let no man turn this grace of God into wantonness. My design is now to encourage the coming soul.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Objections That Usually Lie in The Way of Coming To Christ, 256.

 

3. Thou mayest be vehement in thy spirit in coming to Jesus Christ, and yet be plagued with sensible sloth; so was the church when she cried, “Draw me, we will run after thee;” and Paul, when he said, “When I would do good, evil is present with me” (Song 14; Rom 7; Gal 5:19). The works, struggles, and oppositions of the flesh, are more manifest than are the works of the Spirit in our hearts. So they are sooner felt than they are. What then? Let us not be discouraged at the sight and feeling of our infirmities, but run faster to Jesus Christ for salvation.

4. Get thy heart warmed with the sweet promise of Christ’s acceptance of the coming sinner, and that will make thee make more haste unto him. Discouraging thoughts are like unto cold weather, they benumb the senses, and make us go ungainly about our business; but the sweet and warm leads of the promise are like the comfortable beams of the sun, which liven and refresh. You see how little the bee and fly do play in the air in winter; why, does the cold hinder them from doing it; But when the wind and sun are warm, who is as busy as they?

5. But again, he who comes to Christ, flies for his life. Now, no man flies for his life, who thinks he speeds fast enough on his journey; no, he could not; he would willingly take a mile at a time. O my sloth and heartlessness, sayest thou! “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest” (Psa 55:6, 8).

Poor coming soul, thou art like the man that would ride full gallop, whose horse will hardly trot! Now, the desire of his mind is not to be judged by the slow pace of the dull jade he rides on, but by the hitching, kicking, and spurring, as he sits on his back. Thy flesh is like this dull jade; it will not gallop after Christ; it will be backward, though thy soul and heaven lie at stake. But be of good comfort, Christ judged not according to the fierceness of outward motion (Mark 10:17) but according to the sincerity of the heart and inward parts (John 1:47; Psa 51:6; Matt 26:41).

6. Ziba, in appearance, came to David much faster than did Mephibosheth; but yet his heart was not as upright in him to David as was his. It is true, Mephibosheth had a check from David; for, said he, “Why went not thou with me, Mephibosheth?” But when David came to remember that Mephibosheth was lame, for that was his plea—” thy servant is lame” (2 Sam 19), he was content and concluded, he would have come after him faster than he did; and Mephibosheth appealed to David, who was in those days as an angel of God, to know all things that are done in the earth, if he did not believe that the reason of his backwardness lay in his lameness, and not in his mind. Why, poor coming sinner, thou canst not come to Christ with that outward swiftness of a courier as many others do; but doth the reason of thy backwardness lie in thy mind and will, or in the sluggishness of the flesh? Canst thou say sincerely, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41). Yea, canst thou appeal to the Lord Jesus, who knows perfectly the very inmost thought of thy heart, that this is true? Then take this for thy comfort, he hath said, “I will assemble her that halted—I will make her that halted a remnant,” (Micah 4:6), “and I will save her that halted” (Zeph 3:19). What canst thou have more from the sweet lips of the Son of God? But,

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Objections That Usually Lie in The Way Of Coming To Christ, 255.

Object. 3. But I cannot believe that I come to Christ aright, because sometimes I am apt to question his very being and office to save.

Thus to do is horrible, but mayest thou not judge amiss in this matter? How can I judge amiss, when I judge as I feel? Poor soul! Thou mayest judge amiss for all that. Why, says the sinner, do I think that these questions come from my heart. Let me answer. That which comes from thy heart, comes from thy will and affections, from thy understanding, judgment, and conscience, for these must acquiesce in thy questioning if thy questioning is with thy heart. And how sayest thou, for to name no more, dost thou with thy affection and conscience thus question? Answ. My conscience trembles when such thoughts come into my mind, and my affections are otherwise inclined.

Then I conclude, that these things are either suddenly injected by the devil, or else they are the fruits of that body of sin and death that yet dwells within you, or perhaps from both together.

If they come wholly from the devil, as they seem because thy conscience and affections are against them, or if they come from that body of death that is in thee, and be not thou curious in inquiring from whether of them they come, the safest way is to lay enough at thy own door; nothing of this should hinder thy coming, nor make thee conclude thou comes not aright. 7 And before I leave thee, let me a little query with thee about this matter.

1. Dost thou like these wicked blasphemies? Answ. No, no, their presence and work kill me.

2. Dost thou mourn for them, pray against them, and hate thyself because of them? Answ. Yes, yes; but that which afflicts me is, I do not prevail against them.

3. Dost thou sincerely choose, mightiest thou have thy choice, that thy heart might be affected and taken with the best, most heavenly, and holy things? Answ. With all my heart, and death the next hour, if it were God’s will, rather than thus to sin against him.

Well then, thy not liking of them, thy mourning for them, thy praying against them, and thy loathing thyself because of them, with thy sincere choosing of those thoughts for thy delectation that are heavenly and holy, clearly declares, that these things are not countenanced either with thy will, affections, understanding, judgment, or conscience. So, that thy heart is not in them, but that rather they come immediately from the devil or arise from the body of death that is in thy flesh, of which thou oughts’ thus to say, “Now, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom 7:17).

I will give thee a pertinent instance. In Deuteronomy 22, thou mayest read of a betrothed damsel, one betrothed to her beloved, one that had given him her heart and mouth, as thou hast given thyself to Christ; yet was she met with as she walked in the field, by one that forced her, because he was stronger than she. Well, what judgment now doth God, the righteous judge, pass upon the damsel for this? “The man only that lay with her,” saith God, “shall die. But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death. For, as when a man rises against his neighbor, and slayed him, even so, is this matter; for he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her” (Deut 22:25-27).

Thou art this damsel. The man that forced thee with these blasphemous thoughts, is the devil; and he lights upon thee in a fit place, even in the field, as thou art wandering after Jesus Christ; but thou cries out, and by thy cry did show, that thou abhorrest such wicked lewdness. Well, the Judge of all the earth will do right; he will not lay the sin at thy door, but at his that offered the violence. And for thy comfort take this into consideration, that he came to heal them “that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38).

Object. 4. But, saith another, I am so heartless, so slow, and, as I think, so indifferent in my coming, that, to speak the truth, I know not whether my kind of coming ought to be called a coming to Christ.

Answ. You know that I told you at first, that coming to Christ is a moving of the heart and affections towards him.

But, saith the soul, my dullness and indifference in all holy duties, demonstrate my heartlessness in coming; and to come, and not with the heart, signifies nothing at all.

1. The moving of the heart after Christ is not to be discerned, at all times, by thy sensible affectionate performance of duties, but rather by those secret groanings and complaints which thy soul makes to God against that sloth that attends thee in duties.

2. But grant it to be even as thou sayest it is, that thou comes so slowly, &c., yet, since Christ bids them come that come not at all, surely they may be accepted that come, though attended with those infirmities which thou at present groans under. He saith, “and him that cometh;” he saith not, If they come sensible; so fast; but, “and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” He saith also in the ninth of Proverbs, “As for him that wanted understanding,” that is, an heart (for oftentimes the understanding is taken for the heart), “come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.”

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Objections That Usually Lie in The Way Of Coming To Christ, 254.

 

All these particular parts and qualities of faith are in that soul that comes to Jesus Christ for life, as is evident from any indifferent judgment. For, will he that believeth not the testimony of Christ concerning the baseness of sin, and the insufficiency of the righteousness of the world, come to Christ for life? No. He who believes not in this testimony of the word comes not. Whoever believes that there is life anywhere else does not. Whoever questions whether the Father has given Christ the power to forgive does not. He that thinketh that there is more in sin, in the law, in death, and in the devil, to destroy, than there is in Christ to save, comes not. He also questions the faithful management of his priesthood for the salvation of sinners.

Thou, then, that art indeed the coming sinner, believes all this. True, perhaps thou dost not believe with that full assurance, nor hast thou leisure to take notice of thy faith as to these distinct acts of it, but yet all this faith is in him coming to Christ for life. And the faith that thus works is the faith of the best and purest kind; because this man comes alone as a sinner, seeing that life is, and is to be only in Jesus Christ.

Before I conclude my answer to this objection, take into consideration these two things.

1st. [Consider] that the cities of refuge were erected for those that were dead in law, and that yet would live by grace; even for those that were to fly thither for life from the avenger of blood that pursued after them. And it is worth your noting, that those that were upon their flight there are peculiarly called the people of God: “Cast ye up, cast ye up,” saith God; “prepare the way; take up the stumbling block of the way of my people” (Isa 57:14). This is meant to prepare the way to the city of refuge, that the slayers might escape there; the flying slayers are here, by way of specialty, called the people of God; even those of them that escaped there for life.

2dly. [Consider] that of Ahab, when Benhadad sent to him for life, saying, “Thus saith thy servant Benhadad, I pray thee let me live.” Though Benhadad had sought the crown, kingdom, yea, and also the life of Ahab, how effectively did Benhadad prevail with him! Is Benhadad yet alive? saith Ahab; He is my brother; yea, go ye, bring him to me. So he made him ride in his chariot (1 Kings 20).

Coming sinner, what thinks thou? If Jesus Christ had as little goodness in him as Ahab, he might grant a humble Benhadad life; thou neither begest of him his crown and dignity; life, eternal life, will serve thy turn. How much more then shalt thou have it since thou hast to deal with him who is goodness and mercy itself! Yea, since thou art also called upon, yea, greatly encouraged by a promise of life, to come unto him for life! Read also these Scriptures, Numbers 35:11,14,15, Joshua 20:1-6, Hebrews 6:16-21.

Object. 2. When I say I only seek myself, I mean I do not find that I do design God’s glory in mine own salvation by Christ, and that makes me fear I do not come aright.

Ans. Where doth Christ Jesus require such a qualification of those that are coming to him for life? Come thou for life, and trouble not thy head with such objections against thyself, and let God and Christ alone glorify themselves in the salvation of such a worm as thou art. The Father saith to the Son, “Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” God propounded life to sinners, as the argument to prevail with them to come to him for life; and Christ says plainly, “I have come that they might have life” (John 10:10). He hath no need of thy designs, though thou hast need of his. Eternal life, pardon of sin, and deliverance from the wrath to come, Christ propounds to thee, and these be the things that thou hast need of; besides, God will be gracious and merciful to worthless, undeserving wretches; come then as such a one, and lay no stumbling blocks in the way to him, but come to him for life, and live (John 5:34; 10:10; 3:36; Matt 1:21; Prov 8:35, 36; 1 Thess 1:10; John 11:25,26).

When the jailer said, “Sirs, What must I do to be saved?” Paul did not so much as once ask him, What is your end in this question? do you design the glory of God, in the salvation of your soul? He had more wit; he knew that such questions as these would have been but fools’ babbles about, instead of a sufficient salve5 “Which Cambell seeing, though he could not salve, to so weighty a question as this. Wherefore, since this poor wretch lacked salvation by Jesus Christ, I mean to be saved from hell and death,” which he knew, now, was due to him for the sins that he had committed, Paul bids him, like a poor condemned sinner as he was, to proceed still in this his way of self-seeking, saying, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-32). I know that afterward thou wilt desire to glorify Christ by walking in the way of his precepts, but at present thou wants life; the avenger of blood is behind thee, and the devil like a roaring lion is behind thee; well, come now, and obtain life from these; and when thou hast obtained some comfortable persuasion that thou art made partaker of life by Christ, then, and not till then, thou wilt say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgives all thine iniquities, who health

all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Psa 103:1-4).