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

the soul. It becomes him also, if he considers what a creature God has made him, and how little he hath set by his own creation, and by the matter of which God hath made his soul. Let him also consider unto what base things he hath stooped and prostrated himself, while things infinitely better have stood by and offered themselves unto him freely; yea, how he has cast that God that made him, and his Son that came to redeem him, quite behind his back, and before their faces embraced, loved, and devoted himself unto him that seeks nothing more than the damnation of his soul.

Ah, Lord! when will foolish man be wise, and come to God with his hands upon his head, and with his face covered with shame, to ask him forgiveness for that wickedness which he has committed? which is wickedness committed not only against holiness and justice, against which also men by nature have an antipathy, but against mercy and love, without which man cannot tell what to do. Blush, sinner, blush. Ah, that thou hadst grace to blush! But this is God’s complaint, ‘Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?

Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush’ (Jer 8:12). It is a sad thing that men should be thus void of consideration, and yet they are so. They are at a continual jest with God and his Word, with the devil and sin, with hell and judgment. But they will be in earnest one day; but that one day will be too late!

Fifth. Is it so that God, though sin is so fearful a thing, has prepared an effectual remedy against it, and purposed to save us from the evil and damning effects thereof? (1.) Then this should beget thankfulness in the hearts of the godly, for they are made partakers of this grace; I say, it should beget thankfulness in thy heart. ‘Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift,’ said the apostle, when he seriously thought of that which was much inferior to what we have been a discoursing of (2 Cor 9:15). That was about man’s willingness to do good; this is about God’s. That was about men’s willingness to give money to poor saints; this about God’s willingness to give Christ Jesus his Son to the world. It was the thoughts of this redemption and salvation that made David say, ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name’ (Psa 103:1). O! they that are partakers of redeeming grace, and that have a throne of grace, a covenant of grace, and a Christ, that is the Son of God’s love, to come to, and to live by, should be a thankful people. ‘By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,—giving thanks in his name’

(Heb 13:15). How many obligations has God laid upon his people, to give thanks to him at every remembrance of his holiness. (2.) Study the priesthood, the high priesthood of Jesus Christ, both the first and second part thereof. The first part was that when he offered up himself without the gate, when he bare our sins in his own body on the tree. The second part is that which he executeth there whither he is now gone, even in heaven itself, where the throne of grace is. I say, study what Christ has done, and is adoing. O!

what is he adoing now? he is sprinkling his blood with his priestly robes on, before the throne of grace; that is too little thought on by the saints of God: ‘We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man’ (Heb 8:1,2). Busy thyself, fellow-Christian, about this blessed office of Christ. It is full of good, it is full of sweet, it is full of heaven, it is full of relief and succour for the tempted and dejected; wherefore, I say again, study these things, give thyself wholly to them.

Sixth. Since God has prepared himself a lamb, a sacrifice, a priest, a throne of grace, and has bid thee come to him, come to him as there sitting; come, come boldly, as he bids thee. What better warrant canst thou have to come, than to be bid to come of God? When the goodman himself bids the beggar come to his house, then he may come, then he may come boldly; the consideration of the invitation doth encourage. That we have our friend at court, should also make us come boldly. Jesus, as has been showed, as sacrifice and high priest, is there, ‘in whom we have boldness, and access with confidence by the faith of him’ (Eph 3:12). Again, ‘By whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God’ (Rom 5:2). Again, ‘We have boldness, brethren, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus’ (Heb 10:19,20).

What can be more plain, more encouraging, more comfortable to them that would obtain mercy, ‘and find grace to help in time of need.’

It is a dishonour to God, disadvantage to thee, and an encouragement to Satan, when thou hangest back, and seemest afraid to ‘come boldly unto the throne of grace.’ ‘Let us,’ therefore, ‘draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water; let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works’ (Heb 10:22-24). Farewell.

FOOTNOTES:

1. How many thousands rush into the presence of God with unholy, thoughtless familiarity, by repeating the form called the Lord’s prayer. His infinite holiness should make us tremblingly apply to his throne of grace. In the name of the Redeemer, and in his mediation alone, the sinner can find access, and be emboldened to draw nigh and receive grace to help in our everyday time of need.—Ed.

2. ‘Though the phrase, “throne of grace,” be only once named in the Bible, yet the thing signified is so savoury, significant, and suitable, that this form of speaking is become famous among Christians, and will be used to the end of time.’—Traill.—Ed.

3. This is an allusion to Jeremiah 18:1-10 the potter and his wheel, upon which he forms his vessels of clay to honour or to dishonour as he pleaseth. So God worketh all things according to his will, all tending to the good of his church, because his resting-place is the mercyseat.—Ed.

4. Quoted from the Genevan or puritan version.—Ed.

5. ‘Grace was poured so plentifully from heaven, that it did not only countervail sin, but above measure passeth it.’ Note to the Genevan Bible.—Ed.

6. Not by the person or body, but mentally. It matters little whether the body is sitting, kneeling, or standing; riding, walking, or lying down; the throne of grace is equally accessible, if the spirit is prostrate before it—the spontaneous effusions of the soul in sighs or groans, or joyful exclamations, or the pouring forth of heartfelt words; but all must be under a sense of the mediation of Jesus.—Ed.

7. Smutches or smudges. ‘And with a kind of amber smirch my face.’—Shakespeare.—Ed.

8. ‘In all our distresses, infirmities, and darkness in this world, we should get up to that mountain of myrrh and hill of frankincense, Canticles 4:6;—the passion of Christ, which was bitter like myrrh; and to the intercession of Christ, which is sweet like incense.’—Dr.

Bates.—Ed.

9. How dreadful for a sinner to enter upon a way, expecting it to be a living way to life and happiness, and find it the dead way to death and eternal destruction. O my soul, try thy way, and, by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, ascertain whether it is the living way to everlasting life, or the dead way to eternal misery.—Ed.

10. Such was the opinion of naturalists in the olden time, Bartolomeus, on the properties of things, thus speaks of goats’

blood—‘The goat’s hot blood neshethe (softeneth) and carveth the hard ardamant stone, that neither fire nor iron may overcome.’ Book 18 cap. 60.—Ed.

11. What laid the cornerstone of this throne, but grace? What brings in the inhabitants, preserves them, perfects them, but grace?—Traill.

‘Grace all the work shall crown,

Thro’ everlasting days;

It lays in heaven the topmost stone, And well deserves the praise.’—Rippon.

12. Perfectly impressed upon their memories.—Ed.

13. From the Genevan version.—Ed.

14. Bunyan here refers to the marginal note in the Genevan bible, Exodus 30. The high priest’s washing ‘signifying that he that cometh to God must be washed from all sin and corruption.’—Ed.

15. This sea was full of pure water, a figure of the word, without mixture of men’s inventions. See the typical meaning of the molten sea and the laver, fully explained and illustrated by Bunyan, in Solomon’s Temple Spiritualized of this edition.—Ed.

16. Our first lesson is of sin, righteousness, and judgment; second, Christ’s obedience unto death for our salvation; third, Christ ascended to God’s right hand, the Mediator and Advocate. Thus the bitter comes before the sweet, to make the sweet the sweeter.—Ed.

17. Alluding to these destructive operations of nature, the whirlwind and the whirlpool, the first whirling fancies that Christ saves from the punishment, and not from the power of sin, takes them from the gospel hope, and the second receives them into the vortex of misery. O my soul, be watchful unto prayer at a throne of grace, for who can withstand the whirlpool if once within its influence?—Ed.

18. To see the fulness and freeness of the treasures of grace in Christ—to see that we must partake of it or perish—to be looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, are indeed powerful incentives to keep us near the throne of grace.—Ed.

19. Probably a frightful military saying heard by Bunyan, when serving in the debauched army of Charles I, from some of Prince Rupert’s cavaliers.—Ed.

20. How much this paragraph reminds us of the experience of poor Christian in his fearful battle with the fiend! ‘In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight—he spake like a dragon; and, on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian’s heart. I never saw him, all the while, give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged sword; then, indeed, he did smile and look upward; but it was the dreadfullest fight that ever I saw.’—Ed.

21. ‘Spaked’; marked with small spots.—Ed.

22. Instituted, inducted, or installed.—Ed.

23. Exposed to violence—blindfolded or hoodwinked.—Ed.

24. Protestants can have little idea of the idolatry used in the Church of Rome. Something may be gathered from the following directions, given in a very beautiful office for Good Friday, corrected by royal authority, in conformity with the breviary and missal of our holy father Pope Urban VIII, printed at Paris by Posset:—

‘The priest having retired a little behind the altar, the deacon takes the cross (a plain wooden cross without the figure), covered with a veil, and gives it to the priest, who turns to the people and shows the top of the cross, before which they all prostrate themselves and kiss the ground, singing Ecce lignum crucis. He then removes the veil from the right limb of the cross, and lifts it up, singing, still louder, Behold the wood of the cross; again the people prostrate themselves. The priest then comes to the middle of