The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (best book clubs txt) 📖

all my strength is gone, and therefore how should I wait? Why, at that time when thou feelest and findest thy strength quite gone, even that is the time when the Lord will renew and give thee fresh strength. “The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa 40:30,31).

Object. But though I do wait, yet if I be not elected to eternal life, what good will all my waiting do me? “For it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” Therefore, I say, if I should not be elected, all is in vain.

Answ. 1. Why in the first place, to be sure thy backsliding from God will not prove thy election, neither thy growing weary of waiting upon God. But, 2. Thou art, it may be, troubled to know whether thou art elected; and, sayest thou, If I did but know that, that would encourage me in my waiting on God. Answ. I believe thee; but mark, thou shalt not know thy election in the first place, but in the second—that is to say, thou must first get acquaintance with God in Christ, which doth come by thy giving credit to His promises, and records which He hath given of Jesus Christ’s blood and righteousness, together with the rest of His merits—that is, before thou canst know whether thou are elected, thou must believe in Jesus Christ so really, that thy faith laying hold of, and drinking and eating the flesh and blood of Christ, even so that there shall be life begotten in thy soul by the same; life from the condemnings of the Law; life from the guilt of sin; life over the filth of the same; life also to walk with God in His Son and ways; the life of love to God the Father, and Jesus Christ His Son, saints and ways and that because they are holy, harmless, and such that are altogether contrary to iniquity.

For these things must be in thy soul as a forerunner of thy being made acquainted with the other; God hath these two ways to show His children their election—(1.) By testimony of the Spirit—that is, the soul being under trouble of conscience and grieved for sin, the Spirit doth seal up the soul by its comfortable testimony; persuading of the soul that God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven all those sins that lie so heavy on the conscience, and that do so much perplex the soul, by showing it that that Law, which doth utter such horrible curses against it, is by Christ’s blood satisfied and fulfilled (Eph 1:13,14). (2.) By consequence—that is, the soul finding that God hath been good unto it, in that He hath showed it its lost state and miserable condition, and also that He hath given it some comfortable hope that He will save it from the same; I say, the soul, from a right sight thereof, doth, or may, draw this conclusion, that if God had not been minded to have saved it, He would not have done for it such things as these. But for the more sure dealing with thy soul, it is not good to take any of these apart—that is, it is not good to take the testimony of the Spirit, as thou supposest thou hast, apart from the fruits thereof, so as to conclude the testimony thou hast received to be a sufficient ground without the other; not that it is not, if it be the testimony of the Spirit, but because the devil doth also deceive souls by the workings of his spirit in them, pretending that it is the Spirit of God. And again; thou shouldst not satisfy thyself, though thou do find some seekings in thee after that which is good, without the testimony of the other—that is to say, of the Spirit—for it is the testimony of two that is to be taken for the truth; therefore, say I, as thou shouldst be much in praying for the Spirit to testify assurance to thee, so also thou shouldst look to the end of it when thou thinkest thou hast it; which is this, to show thee that it is alone for Christ’s sake that thy sins are forgiven thee, and also thereby a constraining of thee to advance Him, both by words and works, in holiness and righteousness all the days of thy life. From hence thou mayst boldly conclude thy election—“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren,” saith the Apostle, “beloved, your election of God.” But how? why by this, “For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. And to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which” hath “delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess 3:4-6, 10).

Object. But alas, for my part, instead of finding in me anything that is good, I find in me all manners of wickedness, hard-heartedness, hypocricy, coldness of affection to Christ, very great unbelief, together with everything that is base and of an ill savour. What hope therefore can I have?

Answ. If thou wast not such an one, thou hadst no need of mercy.

If thou wast whole, thou hadst no need of the physician. Dost thou therefore see thyself in such a sad condition as this? Thou hast the more need to come to Christ, that thou mayst be not only cleansed from these evils, but also that thou mayst be delivered from that wrath they will bring upon thee, if thou dost not get rid of them, to all eternity.

Quest. But how should I do? and what course should I take to be delivered from this sad and troublesome condition?

Answ. Dost thou see in thee all manner of wickedness? The best way that I can direct a soul in such a case is, to pitch a steadfast eye on Him that is full, and to look so steadfastly upon Him by faith, that thereby thou mayst even draw down of His fullness into thy heart; for that is the right way, and the way that was typed out, before Christ came in the flesh, in the time of Moses, when the Lord said unto him, “Make thee a fiery serpent” of brass, which was a type of Christ “and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass” that when a serpent hath bitten any man, “when he looketh upon it, shall live” (Num 21:8). Even so now in Gospel times, when any soul is bitten with the fiery serpents—their sins—that then the next way to be healed is, for the soul to look upon the Son of Man, who, as the serpent was, was hanged on a pole, or tree, that whosoever shall indeed look on Him by faith may be healed of all their distempers whatever (John 3:14,15).

As now to instance in some things. 1. Is thy heart hard? Why, then, behold how full of bowels and compassion is the heart of Christ towards thee, which may be seen in His coming down from Heaven to spill His heart-blood for thee. 2. Is thy heart slothful and idle?

Then see how active the Lord Jesus is for thee in that He did not only die for thee, but also in that He hath been ever since His ascension into Heaven making intercession for thee (Heb 7:25). 3.

Dost thou see and find in thee iniquity and unrighteousness? Then look up to Heaven, and see there a righteous Person, even thy righteous Jesus Christ, now presenting thee in His own perfection before the throne of His Father’s glory (1 Cor 1:30). 4. Dost thou see that thou art very much void of sanctification? Then look up, and thou shalt see that thy sanctification is in the presence of God a complete sanctification, representing all the saints as righteous, as sanctified ones in the presence of the great God of Heaven. And so whatsoever thou wantest, be sure to strive to pitch thy faith upon the Son of God, and behold Him steadfastly, and thou shalt, by so doing, find a mighty change in thy soul. For when we behold Him as in a glass, even the glory of the Lord, we are changed, namely, by beholding, “from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). This is the true way to get both comfort to thy soul, and also sanctification and right holiness into thy soul.

Poor souls that are under the distemper of a guilty conscience, and under the workings of much corruption, do not go the nearest way to Heaven if they do not in the first place look upon themselves as cursed sinners by Law; and yet at that time they are blessed, for ever blessed saints by the merits of Jesus Christ. “O wretched man that I am,” saith Paul; and yet, O blessed man that I am, through my Lord Jesus Christ; for that is the scope of the Scripture (Rom 7:24,25).

Object. But, alas, I am blind, and cannot see; what shall I do now?

Answ. Why, truly, thou must go to Him that can make the eyes that are blind to see, even to our Lord Jesus, by prayer, saying, as the poor blind man did, “Lord, that I might receive my sight”; and so continue begging Him, till thou do receive sight, even a sight of Jesus Christ, His death, blood, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and that for thee, even for thee. And the rather, because, 1. He hath invited thee to come and buy such eye-salve of Him that may make thee see (Rev 3:18). 2. Because thou shalt never have any true comfort till thou dost thus come to see and behold the Lamb of God that hath taken away thy sins (John 1:29). 3. Because that thereby thou wilt be able through grace, to step over and turn aside from the several stumblingblocks that Satan, together with his instruments, hath laid in our way, which otherwise thou wilt not be able to shun, but will certainly fall when others stand, and grope and stumble when others go upright, to the great prejudice of thy poor soul.

Object. But, alas, I have nothing to carry with me; how then should I go?

Answ. Hast thou no sins? If thou hast, carry them, and exchange them for His righteousness; because He hath said, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Psa 54:22); and again, because He hath said, though thou be heavy laden, yet if thou do but come to Him, He will give thee rest (Matt 11:28).

Object. But, you will say, Satan telleth me that I am so cold in prayers, so weak in believing, so great a sinner, that I do go so slothfully on in the way of God, that I am so apt to slip at every temptation, and to be entangled therewith, together with other things, so that I shall never be able to attain those blessed things that are held forth to sinners by Jesus Christ; and therefore my trouble is much upon this account also, and many times I fear that will come upon me which Satan