1. That the Christian religion requireth credit concerning every
doctrine contained in the Word; credit, I say, according to the true
relation of every sentence that the Holy Ghost hath revealed for the
asserting, maintaining, or vindicating that same truth.
2. And therefore, hence it is that a Christian is not called a doer, a
reasoner, an objector, and perverse disputer, but a believer. Be thou an
example to “the believers;” and, “believers” were “added to the church,”
&c.
3. Therefore, know again, that the Word, if it saith and expresseth that
this or that is so and so, as to the matter in hand, thou art bound and
obliged, both by the name, profession, and the truth, unto which thou
hast joined thyself, to assent to, confess, and acknowledge the same,
even then when thy carnal reason will not stoop thereto. “Righteous art
thou, O God,” saith Jeremiah, “yet let me plead with thee; Wherefore do
the wicked live?” Mark, first he acknowledgeth that God’s way with the
wicked is just and right, even then when yet he could not see the reason
of his actions and dispensations towards them. The same reason is good
as to our present case: and hence it is that the apostle saith, the
spiritual armour of Christians should be much exercised against those
high towering and self-exalting imaginations, that within our own bosoms
do exalt themselves against the knowledge of God; that every thought or
carnal reasoning may be not only taken, but brought a captive into
obedience to Christ; that is, be made to stoop to the Word of God, and to
give way and place to the doctrine therein contained, how cross soever
our thoughts and the Word lie to each other. And it is observable that
he here saith, “they exalt themselves against the knowledge of God;”
which cannot be understood, that our carnal, natural reason doth exalt
itself against an eternal deity, simply considered; for that nature
itself doth gather from the very things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead: it must be then that they exalt themselves against
that God as thus and thus revealed in the Word, to wit, against the
knowledge of one God, consisting of three persons, Father, Son, and
Spirit; for this is the doctrine of the Scriptures of truth: and
therefore it is observable these thoughts must be brought captive, and be
made subject in particular to the Lord Jesus Christ, as to the second
person in the Godhead: for the Father is ever acknowledged by all that
profess the least of religion; but the Son is that stumbling-stone and
rock of offence, against which thousands dash themselves in pieces;
though in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and in
him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
OF THE
LAW AND A CHRISTIAN.
THE law was given twice upon Mount Sinai, but the appearance of the Lord,
when he gave it the second time, was wonderfully different from that of
his, when at the first he delivered it to Israel.
1. When he gave it the first time, he caused his terror and severity to
appear before Moses, to the shaking of his soul and the dismaying of
Israel; but when he gave it the second time, he caused all his goodness
to pass before Moses, to the comfort of his conscience and the bowing of
his heart.
2. When he gave it the first time, it was with thunderings and
lightnings, with blackness and darkness, with flame and smoke, and a
tearing sound of the trumpet; but when he gave it the second time, it was
with a proclamation of his name to be merciful, gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity, transgressions, and sins.
3. When he gave it the first time, Moses was called to go up to receive
it through the fire, which made him exceedingly fear and quake: but when
he went to receive it the second time, he was laid in a clift of the
rock.
4. From all which I gather, that, though as to the matter of the law,
both as to its being given the first time and the second, it binds the
unbeliever under the pains of eternal damnation (if he close not with
Christ by faith); yet as to the manner of its giving at these two times,
I think the first doth more principally intend its force as a covenant of
works, not at all respecting the Lord Jesus; but this second time not (at
least in the manner of its being given) respecting such a covenant, but
rather as a rule or directory to those who already are found in the clift
of the rock Christ; for the saint himself, though he be without law to
God, as it is considered the first or old covenant, yet even he is not
without law to him as considered under grace; not without law to God, but
under the law to Christ.
5. Though, therefore, it be sad with the unbeliever, because he only and
wholly standeth under the law as it is given in fire, in smoke, in
blackness, and darkness, and thunder; all which threaten him with eternal
ruin if he fulfil not the utmost tittle thereof; yet the believer stands
to the law under no such consideration, neither is he so at all to hear
or regard it, for he is now removed from thence to the blessed mountain
of Zion—to grace and forgiveness of sins; he is now, I say, by faith in
the Lord Jesus, shrouded under so perfect and blessed a righteousness,
that this thundering law of Mount Sinai cannot find the least fault or
diminution therein, but rather approveth and alloweth thereof, either
when or wherever it find it. This is called the righteousness of God
without the law, and also said to be witnessed by both the law and the
prophets; even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no
difference.
6. Wherefore, whenever thou who believest in Jesus, dost hear the law in
its thundering and lightning fits, as if it would burn up heaven and
earth, then say thou, I am freed from this law, these thunderings have
nothing to do with my soul; nay, even this law, while it thus thunders
and roars, it doth both allow and approve of my righteousness. I know
that Hagar would sometimes be domineering and high, even in Sarah’s
house, and against her; but this she is not to be suffered to do, nay,
though Sarah herself be barren; wherefore, serve it also as Sarah served
her, and expel her out from thy house. My meaning is, when this law with
its thundering threatenings doth attempt to lay hold on thy conscience,
shut it out with a promise of grace; cry, The inn is taken up already;
the Lord Jesus is here entertained, and here is no room for the law.
Indeed, if it will be content with being my informer, and so lovingly
leave off to judge me, I will be content, it shall be in my sight, I will
also delight therein; but otherwise, I being now made upright without it,
and that too with that righteousness which this law speaks well of and
approveth, I may not, will not, cannot dare not make it my Saviour and
judge, nor suffer it to set up its government in my conscience; for by so
doing, I fall from grace, and Christ Jesus doth profit me nothing.
7. Thus, therefore, the soul that is married to him that is raised up
from the dead, both may and ought to deal with this law of God; yea, it
doth greatly dishonour its Lord and refuse its gospel privileges, if it
at any time otherwise doth, whatever it seeth or feels. “The law hath
power over the wife so long as her husband liveth, but if her husband be
dead she is freed from that law; so that she is no adulteress though she
be married to another man.” Indeed, so long as thou art alive to sin,
and to thy righteousness which is of the law, so long thou hast them for
thy husband, and they must reign over thee; but when once they are become
dead unto thee—as they then most certainly will when thou closest with
the Lord Jesus Christ—then, I say, thy former husbands have no more to
meddle with thee; thou art freed from their law. Set the case: A woman
be cast into prison for a debt of hundreds of pounds; if after this she
marry, yea, though while she is in the jailor’s hand, in the same day
that she is joined to her husband, her debt is all become his; yea, and
the law also that arrested and imprisoned this woman, as freely tells
her, go: she is freed, saith Paul, from that; and so saith the law of
this land.
The sum, then, of what hath been said is this—The Christian hath now
nothing to do with the law, as it thundereth and burneth on Sinai, or as
it bindeth the conscience to wrath and the displeasure of God for sin;
for from its thus appearing, it is freed by faith in Christ. Yet it is
to have regard thereto, and is to count it holy, just, and good; which,
that it may do, it is always, whenever it seeth or regards it, to
remember that he who giveth it to us “is merciful, gracious,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,” &c.
BUNYAN’S LAST SERMON:
PREACHED JULY 1688.
“_Which were born_, _not of blood_, _nor of the will of the flesh_,
_nor of the will of man_, _but of God_;” John i. 13.
THE words have a dependence on what goes before, and therefore I must
direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You have it
thus,—“He came to his own, but his own received him not; but as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to
them which believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, but of God.” In the words before, you have two
things—
_First_, Some of his own rejecting him when he offered himself to them.
_Secondly_, Others of his own receiving him, and making him welcome.
Those that reject him he also passes by; but those that receive him, he
gives them power to become the sons of God. Now, lest any one should
look upon it as good luck or fortune, says he, “They were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
They that did not receive him, they were only born of flesh and blood;
but those that receive him, they have God to their father, they receive
the doctrine of Christ with a vehement desire.
_First_, I will shew you what he means by “blood.” They that believe are
born to it, as an heir is to an inheritance; they are born of God; not of
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; not of blood—that is, not by
generation; not born to the kingdom of heaven by the flesh; not because I
am the son of a godly man or woman. That is meant by blood, Acts xvii.
26, “He has made of one blood all nations.” But when he says here, “not
of blood,” he rejects all carnal privileges they did boast of. They
boasted they were Abraham’s seed. No, no, says he, it is not of blood;
think not to say you have Abraham to your father, you must be born of God
if you go to the kingdom of heaven.
_Secondly_, “Nor of the will of the flesh.” What must we understand by
that?
It is taken for those vehement inclinations that are in man to all manner
of looseness, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. That must not be
understood here; men are made the children of God by fulfilling their
lustful desires; it must be understood here in the best sense. There is
not only in carnal men a will to be vile, but there is in them a will to
be saved also—a will to go to heaven also. But this it will not do, it
will not privilege a man in the things of the kingdom of God. Natural
desires after the things of another world, they are not an argument to
prove a man shall go to heaven whenever he dies. I am not a free willer,
I do abhor it; yet there is not the wickedest man but he desires some
time or other to be saved. He will read some time or other, or, it may
be, pray; but this will not do—“It is not in him that wills, nor in him
that runs, but in God that shews mercy;” there is willing and running,
and yet to no purpose; Rom. ix. 16, “Israel, which followed after the law
of righteousness, have not obtained it.” Here I do not understand as if
the apostle had denied a virtuous course of life to be the way to heaven,
but that a man without grace, though he have natural gifts, yet he shall
not obtain privilege to go to heaven, and be the son of God. Though a
man without grace may have a will to be saved, yet he cannot have that
will God’s way. Nature, it cannot know anything but the things of
nature; the things of God knows no man but by the Spirit of God; unless
the Spirit of God be in you, it will leave you on this side the gates of
heaven—“Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God.” It may be some may have a will, a desire that Ishmael
may be saved; know this, it will not save thy child. If it were our
will, I would have you all go to heaven. How many are there in the world
that pray for their children, and cry for them, and ready to die; and
this will not do? God’s will is the rule of all; it is only through
Jesus Christ, “which were born, not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God.” Now I come to the doctrine.
Men that believe in Jesus Christ to the effectual receiving of Jesus
Christ, they are born to it. He does not say they _shall_ be born to it,
but they _are_ born to it; born of God, unto God, and the things of God,
before they receive God to eternal salvation. “Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Now unless he be born of God,
he cannot see it. Suppose the kingdom of God be what it will, he cannot
see it before he be begotten of God; suppose it be the Gospel, he cannot
see it before he be brought into a state of regeneration; believing is
the consequence of the new birth, “not of blood, nor of the will of man,
but of God.”
_First_, I will give you a clear description of it under one similitude
or two. A child, before it be born into the world, is in the dark
dungeon of its mother’s womb; so a child of God, before he be born again,
is in the dark dungeon of sin, sees nothing of the kingdom of God,
therefore it is called a new birth; the same soul has love one way in its
carnal condition, another way when it is born again.
_Secondly_, As it is compared to a birth, resembling a child in his
mother’s womb, so it is compared to a man being raised out of the grave;
and to be born again is to be raised out of the grave of sin—“Awake, thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life.”
To be raised from the grave of sin is to be begotten and born; Rev. i. 5.
There is a famous instance of Christ—“He is the first-begotten from the
dead, he is the first-born from the dead;” unto which our regeneration
alludeth,—that is, if you be born again by seeking those things that are
above, then there is a similitude betwixt Christ’s resurrection and the
new birth; which were born, which were restored out of this dark world,
and translated out of the kingdom of this dark world into the kingdom of
his dear Son, and made us live a new life; this is to be born again; and
he that is delivered from the mother’s womb, it is the help of the
mother; so he that is born of God, it is by the Spirit of God. I must
give you a few consequences of new birth.
First of all, a child, you know, is incident to cry as soon as it comes
into the world; for if there be no noise, they say it is dead. You that
are born of God, and Christians, if you be not criers, there is no
spiritual life in you; if you be born of God, you are crying ones; as
soon as he has raised you out of the dark dungeon of sin, you cannot but
cry to God, What must I do to be saved? As soon as ever God had touched
the jailor, he cries out, “Men and brethren, what must I do to be saved?”
Oh! how many prayerless professors are there in London that never pray?
Coffee-houses will not let you pray, trades will not let you pray,
looking-glasses will not let you pray; but if you were born of God, you
would.
_Secondly_, It is not only natural for a child to cry, but it must crave
the breast, it cannot live without the breast; therefore Peter makes it
the true trial of a new-born babe; the new-born babe desires the sincere
milk of the Word, that he may grow thereby. If you be born of God, make
it manifest by desiring the breast of God. Do you long for the milk of
promises? A man lives one way when he is in the world, another way when
he is brought unto Jesus Christ; Isa. lxvi., “They shall suck, and be
satisfied.” If you be born again, there is no satisfaction till you get
the milk of God’s word into your souls; Isa. lxvi. 11, “To suck, and be
satisfied with the breasts of consolation.” O what is a promise to a
carnal man; a whorehouse, it may be, is more sweet to him; but if you be
born again, you cannot live without the milk of God’s word. What is a
woman’s breast to a horse? But what is it to a child? There is its
comfort night and day, there is its succour night and day. O how loath
is he it should be taken from him. Minding heavenly things, says a
carnal man, is but vanity; but to a child of God, there is his comfort.
_Thirdly_, A child that is newly born, if it have not other comforts to
keep it warm than it had in its mother’s womb, it dies. It must have
something got for its succour; so Christ had swaddling clothes prepared
for him; so those that are born again, they must have some promise of
Christ to keep them alive. Those that are in a carnal state, they warm
themselves with other things; but those that are born again, they cannot
live without some promise of Christ to keep them alive, as he did to the
poor infant in Ezekiel xvii., “I covered thee with embroidered gold.”
And when women are with child, what fine things will they prepare for
their child! O but what fine things has Christ prepared to wrap all in
that are born again! O what wrappings of gold has Christ prepared for
all that are born again! Women will dress their children, that every one
may see them how fine they are; so he in Ezekiel xvi. 11—“I decked thee
also with ornaments, and I also put bracelets upon thine hands, and a
chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and ear-rings in
thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head;” and, says he in the
13th verse, “thou didst prosper to a kingdom.” This is to set out
nothing in the world but the righteousness of Christ, and the graces of
the Spirit, without which a new-born babe cannot live, unless he have the
golden righteousness of Christ.
_Fourthly_, A child when it is in its mother’s lap, the mother takes
great delight to have that which will he for its comfort; so it is with
God’s children, they shall he kept on his knee; Isaiah lxvi. 11, “They
shall stick and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation.” Ver.
13, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.” There is
a similitude in these things that nobody knows of but those that are born
again.
_Fifthly_, There is usually some similitude betwixt the father and the
child; it may be the child looks like its father; so those that are born
again, they have a new similitude, they have the image of Jesus Christ
(Gal. iv.), every one that is born of God has something of the features
of heaven upon him. Men love those children that are likest them most
usually; so does God his children; therefore they are called the children
of God. But others do not look like him, therefore they are called
Sodomites. Christ describes children of the devil by their features; the
children of the devil, his works they will do; all works of
unrighteousness, they are the devil’s works. If you are earthly, you
have borne the image of the earthly; if heavenly, you have borne the
image of the heavenly.
_Sixthly_, When a man has a child, he trains him up to his own liking, he
learns the custom of his father’s house; so are those that are born of
God; they have learned the custom of the true church of God, there they
learn to cry, My Father and my God; they are brought up in God’s house,
they learn the method and form of God’s house for regulating their lives
in this world.
_Seventhly_, Children, it is natural for them to depend upon their father
for what they want. If they want a pair of shoes, they go and tell him;
if they want bread, they go and tell him; so should the children of God
do. Do you want spiritual bread? go tell God of it. Do you want
strength of grace? ask it of God. Do you want strength against Satan’s
temptations? go and tell God of it. When the devil tempts you, run home
and tell your heavenly Father; go pour out your complaints to God. This
is natural to children; if any wrong them, they go and tell their father;
so do those that are born of God, when they meet with temptations, go and
tell God of them.
The first use is this, to make a strict inquiry whether you be born of
God or not. Examine by those things I laid down before of a child of
nature and a child of grace. Are you brought out of the dark dungeon of
this world into Christ? have you learned to cry, My Father? Jer. iii. 16,
“And I said, Thou shalt call me thy Father.” All God’s children are
criers. Can you be quiet without you have a bellyful of the milk of
God’s word? Can you be satisfied without you have peace with God? Pray
you consider it, and be serious with yourselves. If you have not these
marks, you will fall short of the kingdom of God, you shall never have an
interest there; there is no intruding. They will say, “Lord, Lord, open
to us; and he will say, I know you not.” No child of God, no heavenly
inheritance. We sometimes give something to those that are not our
children, but not our lands. O do not flatter yourselves with a portion
among the sons, unless you live like sons. When we see a king’s son play
with a beggar, this is unbecoming; so if you be the king’s children, live
like the king’s children. If you be risen with Christ, set your
affections on things above, and not on things below. When you come
together, talk of what your Father promised you; you should all love your
Father’s will, and be content and pleased with the exercises you meet
with in the world. If you are the children of God, live together
lovingly. If the world quarrel with you, it is no matter; but it is sad
if you quarrel together. If this be amongst you, it is a sign of
ill-breeding, it is not according to rules you have in the Word of God.
Dost thou see a soul that has the image of God in him? Love him, love
him; say, This man and I must go to heaven one day. Serve one another,
do good for one another; and if any wrong you, pray to God to right you,
and love the brotherhood.
_Lastly_, If you be the children of God, learn that lesson: “Gird up the
loins of your mind as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves
according to your former conversation; but be ye holy in all manner of
conversation.” Consider that the holy God is your father, and let this
oblige you to live like the children of God, that you may look your
Father in the face with comfort another day.