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13 May, 2024

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof;  Life must be in Jesus Christ with respect to us, 312

 


Fourth. I will add yet another encouragement for the man who is coming to Jesus Christ. Art, thou coming? Art, thou coming, indeed? Why,

1.  Then this thy coming is by God’s call. Thou art called. Calling goes before coming. Coming is not of works but of him that calleth. “He goes up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would, and they came unto him” (Mark 3:13).

 

2.  Art, thou coming? This is also by virtue of illumination. God has made thee see; and, therefore, thou art coming. So long as thou was darkness, thou loves darkness, and could not abide to come, because thy deeds were evil; but being now illuminated and made to see what and where thou art, and also what and where thy Saviour is, now thou art coming to Jesus Christ; “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,” saith Christ, “but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt 16:17).

 

3.  Art, thou coming? This is because God hath inclined thine heart to come. God hath called thee, illuminated thee, and inclined thy heart to come; and, therefore, thou come to Jesus Christ. It is God that worketh in thee to will, and to come to Jesus Christ. Coming sinner, bless God for that he hath given thee the will to come to Jesus Christ. It is a sign that thou belong to Jesus Christ because God has made thee willing to come to him (Psa 110:3). Bless God for slaying the enmity of thy mind; had he not done it, thou wouldst as yet have hated thine own salvation.

 

4.  Art, thou coming to Jesus Christ? It is God that giveth thee power to pursue thy will in the matters of thy salvation, is the gift of God. “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do” (Phil 2:13). Not that God worketh will come, where he gives no power; but thou shouldest take notice, that power is an additional mercy. The church saw that will and power were two things, when she cried, “Draw me, we will run after thee” (Song 1:4). And so did David too, when he said, “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart” (Psa 119:32). Will to come, and power to pursue thy will, is double mercy, coming sinner.

 

5.  All thy strange, passionate, sudden rushing forward after Jesus Christ, coming sinners know what I mean, they also are thy help from God. Perhaps thou feel at some times more than at others, strong stirrings up of heart to fly to Jesus Christ; now thou hast at this time a sweet and stiff gale of the Spirit of God, filling thy sails with the fresh gales of his good Spirit. Thou ride at those times as upon the wings of the wind, being carried out beyond thyself, beyond the most of thy prayers, and also above all thy fear and temptations.

 

6.  Coming sinner, hast thou not now and then a kiss of the sweet lips of Jesus Christ, I mean some blessed word dropping like a honeycomb upon thy soul to revive thee, when thou art in the midst of thy dumps?

 

7.  Does not Jesus Christ sometimes give thee a glimpse of himself, though perhaps thou see him not so long a time as while one may tell twenty?

 

8.  Hast thou not sometimes as it were the very warmth of his wings overshadowing the face of thy soul, that gives thee as it were glad upon thy spirit, as the bright beams of the sun do upon thy body, when it suddenly breaks out of a cloud, though presently all is gone away? Well, all these things are the good hand of thy God upon thee, and they are upon thee to constrain, to provoke, and to make thee willing and able to come, coming sinner, that thou mightiest, in the end, be saved.

 


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