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

need not to be specified by name. ‘Let us come unto the throne of grace.’ SECOND, That the godly can distinguish one throne from another. For the throne here is not set forth by where or what signs it should be known; it is only propounded to us by its name, and so left for saints to make their approach unto it: ‘Let us come unto the throne of grace.’ THIRD, The third thing is, the persons intended by this exhortation, ‘Let us therefore come.’ Us: What us?

or who are they that by this exhortation are called upon to come?

‘Let us.’ FOURTH, The manner of the coming of these persons to this throne of grace; and that is through the veil, boldly, confidently: ‘Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace.’ FIFTH, the motive to this exhortation; and that is twofold, First, Because we have so great an high priest, one that cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.’ And, second, because we are sure to speed: ‘That we may obtain mercy, and find grace,’ &c. I shall, as God shall help me, handle these things in order.

[THAT GOD HATH MORE THRONES THAN ONE.]

FIRST. For the first, That God hath more thrones than one. He hath a throne in heaven, and a throne on earth: ‘The Lord’s throne is in heaven,’ and ‘they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord’

(Psa 11:4; Jer 3:17). He ruleth over the angels; he ruleth in his church. ‘He ruleth in Jacob, unto the ends of the earth’ (Psa 59:13). Yea, he has a throne and seat of majesty among the princes and great ones of the world. He ruleth or ‘judgeth among the gods’

(Psa 82:1). There is a throne for him as a Father, and a throne for Christ as a giver of reward to all faithful and overcoming Christians: ‘To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne’ (Rev 3:21).

There is also to be a throne of judgment, on which God by Christ, at the great and notable day, shall sit to give to the whole world, their last or final sentence; from which, no, not, not by any means, they shall never be released. This throne is made mention of in the New Testament, and is called by Christ ‘the throne of his glory,’ and ‘a great white throne’ (Matt 25:31; Rev 20:11). And his presence, when he sits upon this throne, will be so terrible, that nothing shall be able to abide it that is not reconciled to God by him before.

Wherefore it is not amiss that I give you this hint, because it may tend to inform unwary Christians, when they go to God, that they address not themselves to him at rovers, or at random; but that when they come to him for benefits, they direct their prayer to the throne of grace, or to God as considered on a throne of grace.[1]

For he is not to be found a God merciful and gracious, but as he is on the throne of grace. This is his holy place, out of which he is terrible to the sons of men, and cannot be gracious unto them.

For as when he shall sit at the last day upon his throne of judgment, he will neither be moved with the tears of misery of the world to do any thing for them, that in the least will have a tendency to a relaxation of the least part of their sorrow; so now let men take him where they will, or consider him as they list, he gives no grace, no special grace, but as considered on the throne of grace: wherefore they that will pray, and speed, they must come to a throne of grace: to a God that sitteth on a throne of grace: ‘Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain,’

&c.

The unbeliever, the erroneous and superstitious, consider not this: wherefore they speak to God as their fancies lead them, not as the word directs them, and therefore obtain nothing. Ask the carnal man to whom he prays? he will say to God. Ask him where this God is? he will say in heaven. But ask him how, or under what notion he is to be considered there? and he will give a few generals, but cannot direct his soul unto him as he is upon a throne of grace, as the apostle here biddeth, saying, ‘Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace.’ Wherefore they come and go, or rather go and come to no advantage at all: they find nothing but their labour or words for their pains. For the right considering of God when I go unto him, and how or where I may find him gracious and merciful, is all in all; and mercy and grace is then obtained when we come to him as sitting upon a throne of grace.

[THE GODLY CAN DISTINGUISH ONE THRONE FROM ANOTHER.]

SECOND. We will therefore come to the second thing, to wit, that the godly can distinguish one thing from another. And the reason why I so conclude, is, as I said, because the throne here is not set forth unto us here, by where or what signs it should be known; it is only propounded to us by its name, a throne of grace, and so left for saints to make their approach thereto: ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.’ We will therefore take this conclusion into two parts, and consider it under this double position. FIRST, That there is a throne of grace. SECOND, That it is the privilege of the godly to distinguish from all other thrones whatever this throne of grace.

FIRST, There is a throne of grace. This must be true, because the text saith it;[2] also it is that of which the mercyseat, so often made mention of in the Old Testament, was a type, shadow, or figure; nor is the terms of seat and throne of any strength to make this supposition void. For it is common for the antitype to be put forth in words unto us more glorious than is the figure or shadow of that thing. And the reason is, for that the heavenly things themselves are far more excellent than the shadow by which they are represented. What is a sheep, a bull, an ox, or calf, to Christ, or their blood to the blood of Christ? What is Jerusalem that stood in Canaan, to that new Jerusalem that shall come down from heaven?

or the tabernacle made with corruptible things, to the body of Christ, or heaven itself? No marvel then, if they be set forth unto us by words of an inferior rank; the most full and aptest being reserved to set out the highest things withal.

Before I proceed to give you a more particular description of this throne of grace, as also how it may be know, I will a little touch upon the terms themselves, and show briefly what must be implied by them.

[Import of the term grace.]

First, By this word grace, we are to understand God’s free, sovereign, good pleasure, whereby he acteth in Christ towards his people. Grace and mercy therefore are terms that have their distinct significations; mercy signifies pitifulness, or a running over of infinite bowels to objects in a miserable and helpless condition.

But grace signifies that God still acts in this as a free agent, not being wrought upon by the misery of the creature, as a procuring cause; but of his own princely mind.

Were there no objects of pity among those that in the old world perished by the flood, or that in Sodom were burned with fire from heaven? doubtless, according to our apprehension, there were many: but Noah, and he only, found grace in God’s eyes; not because that of himself he was better than the rest, but God acted as a gracious prince towards him, and let him share in mercy of his own sovereign will and pleasure. But this at first was not so fully made manifest as it was afterwards. Wherefore the propitiatory was not called, as here, a throne of grace, but a mercyseat, albeit there was great glory in these terms also; for, by mercyseat was showed, not only that God had compassion for men, but that also to be good was as his continual resting-place, whither he would at length retire, and where he would sit down and abide, whatever terrible or troublesome work for his church was on the wheel[3] at present. For a seat is a place of rest, yea, is prepared for that end; and in that here mercy is called that seat, it is to show, as I said, that whatever work is on the wheel in the world, let it be never so dreadful and amazing, yet to God’s church it shall end in mercy, for that is God’s resting-place. Wherefore after God had so severely threatened and punished his church under the name of a whorish woman, as you may read in the prophet Ezekiel, he saith, ‘So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee; and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.’ And again, speaking of the same people and of the same punishments, he saith, ‘Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.’ And again, ‘I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God’ (Eze 16:42,60-63). These, with many more places, show that mercy is God’s place of rest, and thither he will retire at last, and from thence will bless his church, his people.

But yet these terms, a throne, the throne of grace, doth more exceed in glory: not only because the word grace shows that God, by all that he doth towards us in saving and forgiving, acts freely as the highest Lord, and of his own goodwill and pleasure, but also for that he now saith, that his grace is become a king, a throne of grace. A throne is not only a seat for rest, but a place of dignity and authority. This is known to all. Wherefore by this word, a throne, or the throne of grace, is intimated, that God ruleth and governeth by his grace. And this he can justly do: ‘Grace reigns through righteousness, unto eternal life,[4] through Jesus Christ out Lord’ (Rom 5:21). So then, in that here is mention made of a throne of grace, it showeth that sin, and Satan, and death, and hell, must needs be subdued. For these last mentioned are but weakness and destruction; but grace is life, and the absolute sovereign over all these to the ruling of them utterly down. A throne of grace!

But this then God plainly declareth, that he is resolved this way to rule, and that he pointeth at sin as his deadly foe: and if so, then, ‘where sin aboundeth, grace must much more abound’ (Rom 5:20).[5] For it is the wisdom and discretion of all that rule, to fortify themselves against them that rebel against them what they can. Wherefore he saith again, ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace’ (Rom 6:14).

Sin seeks for the dominion, and grace