blood, but he speaks, and his blood speaks; he hath audience, and his
blood hath audience; insomuch that God saith, when he doth but see the
blood, he “will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you,”
&c., (Exo 12:13).
I shall not detain you any longer. Be sober and humble; go to the
Father in the name of the Son, and tell him your case, in the
assistance of the Spirit, and you will then feel the benefit of praying
with the Spirit and with the understanding also.
USE Third. A word of reproof.
1. This speaks sadly to you who never pray at all. “I will pray,” saith
the apostle, and so saith the heart of them that are Christians. Thou
then art not a Christian that art not a praying person. The promise is
that every one that is righteous shall pray (Psa 32:6). Thou then art a
wicked wretch that prayest not. Jacob got the name of Israel by
wrestling with God (Gen 32). And all his children bare that name with
him (Gal 6:16). But the people that forget prayer, that call not on the
name of the Lord, they have prayer made for them, but it is such as
this, “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen,” O Lord, “and upon the
families that call not on thy name” (Jer 10:25). How likest thou this,
O thou that art so far off from pouring out thine heart before God,
that thou goest to bed like a dog, and risest like a hog, or a sot, and
forgettest to call upon God? What wilt thou do when thou shalt be
damned in hell, because thou couldst not find in thine heart to ask for
heaven? Who will grieve for thy sorrow, that didst not count mercy
worth asking for? I tell thee, the ravens, the dogs, &c., shall rise up
in judgment against thee, for they will, according to their kind, make
signs, and a noise for something to refresh them when they want it; but
thou hast not the heart to ask for heaven, though thou must eternally
perish in hell, if thou hast it not.
2. This rebukes you that make it your business to slight, mock at, and
undervalue the Spirit, and praying by that. What will you do, when God
shall come to reckon for these things? You count it high treason to
speak but a word against the king, nay, you tremble at the thought of
it; and yet in the meantime you will blaspheme the Spirit of the Lord.
Is God indeed to be dallied with, and will the end be pleasant unto
you? Did God send his Holy Spirit into the hearts of his people, to
that end that you should taunt at it? Is this to serve God? And doth
this demonstrate the reformation of your church? Nay, is it not the
mark of implacable reprobates? O fearful! Can you not be content to be
damned for your sins against the law, but you must sin against the Holy
Ghost?
Must the holy, harmless, and undefiled Spirit of grace, the nature of
God, the promise of Christ, the Comforter of his children, that without
which no man can do any service acceptable to the Father—must this, I
say, be the burthen of your song, to taunt, deride, and mock at? If God
sent Korah and his company headlong to hell for speaking against Moses
and Aaron, do you that mock at the Spirit of Christ think to escape
unpunished? (Num 16; Heb 10:29). Did you never read what God did to
Ananias and Sapphira for telling but one lie against it? (Acts 5:1-8).
Also to Simon Magus for but undervaluing of it? (Acts 8:18-22). And
will thy sin be a virtue, or go unrewarded with vengeance, that makest
it thy business to rage against, and oppose its office, service, and
help, that it giveth unto the children of God? It is a fearful thing to
do despite unto the Spirit of grace (Compare Matt 12:31, with Mark
3:28-30).
3. As this is the doom of those who do openly blaspheme the Holy Ghost,
in a way of disdain and reproach to its office and service: so also it
is sad for you, who resist the Spirit of prayer, by a form of man’s
inventing. A very juggle of the devil, that the traditions of men
should be of better esteem, and more to be owned than the Spirit of
prayer. What is this less than that accursed abomination of Jeroboam,
which kept many from going to Jerusalem, the place and way of God’s
appointment to worship; and by that means brought such displeasure from
God upon them, as to this day is not appeased? (I Kings 12:26-33). One
would think that God’s judgments of old upon the hypocrites of that day
should make them that have heard of such things take heed and fear to
do so. Yet the doctors of our day are so far from taking of warning by
the punishment of others, that they do most desperately rush into the
same transgression, viz., to set up an institution of man, neither
commanded nor commended of God; and whosoever will not obey herein,
they must be driven either out of the land or the world.
Hath God required these things at your hands? If he hath, show us
where? If not, as I am sure he hath not, then what cursed presumption
is it in any pope, bishop, or other, to command that in the worship of
God which he hath not required? Nay further, it is not that part only
of the form, which is several texts of Scripture that we are commanded
to say, but even all must be confessed as the divine worship of God,
notwithstanding those absurdities contained therein, which because they
are at large discovered by others, I omit the rehearsal of them. Again,
though a man be willing to live never so peaceably, yet because he
cannot, for conscience sake, own that for one of the most eminent parts
of God’s worship, which he never commanded, therefore must that man be
looked upon as factious, seditious, erroneous, heretical—a
disparagement to the church, a seducer of the people, and what not?
Lord, what will be the fruit of these things, when for the doctrine of
God there is imposed, that is, more than taught, the traditions of men?
Thus is the Spirit of prayer disowned, and the form imposed; the Spirit
debased, and the form extolled; they that pray with the Spirit, though
never so humble and holy, counted fanatics; and they that pray with the
form, though with that only, counted the virtuous! And how will the
favorers of such a practice answer that Scripture, which commandeth
that the church should turn away from such as have “a form of
godliness, and deny the power thereof”? (II Tim 3:5). And if I should
say that men that do these things aforesaid, do advance a form of
prayer of other men’s making, above the spirit of prayer, it would not
take long time to prove it. For he that advanceth the book of Common
Prayer above the Spirit of prayer, he doth advance a form of men’s
making above it. But this do all those who banish, or desire to banish,
them that pray with the Spirit of prayer; while they hug and embrace
them that pray by that form only, and that because they do it.
Therefore they love and advance the form of their own or others’
inventing, before the Spirit of prayer, which is God’s special and
gracious appointment.
If you desire the clearing of the minor, look into the jails in
England, and into the alehouses of the same; and I trow you will find
those that plead for the Spirit of prayer in the jail, and them that
look after the form of men’s inventions only in the alehouse. It is
evident also by the silencing of God’s dear ministers, though never so
powerfully enabled by the Spirit of prayer, if they in conscience
cannot admit of that form of Common Prayer. If this be not an exalting
the Common Prayer Book above either praying by the Spirit, or preaching
the Word, I have taken my mark amiss. It is not pleasant for me to
dwell on this. The Lord in mercy turn the hearts of the people to seek
more after the Spirit of prayer; and in the strength of that, to pour
out their souls before the Lord. Only let me say it is a sad sign, that
that which is one of the most eminent parts of the pretended worship of
God is Antichristian, when it hath nothing but the tradition of men,
and the strength of persecution, to uphold or plead for it.
THE CONCLUSION.
I shall conclude this discourse with this word of advice to all God’s
people. 1. Believe that as sure as you are in the way of God you must
meet with temptations. 2. The first day therefore that thou dost enter
into Christ’s congregation, look for them. 3. When they do come, beg of
God to carry thee through them. 4. Be jealous of thine own heart, that
it deceive thee not in thy evidences for heaven, nor in thy walking
with God in this world. 5. Take heed of the flatteries of false
brethren. 6. Keep in the life and power of truth. 7. Look most at the
things which are not seen. 8. Take heed of little sins. 9. Keep the
promise warm upon thy heart. 10. Renew thy acts of faith in the blood
of Christ. 11. Consider the work of thy generation. 12. Count to run
with the foremost therein.
Grace be with thee.
FOOTNOTES:
1 Dr. Watt’s Guide to Prayer.
2 Vol iii., p. 346.
3 Vol iii., p. 298.
4Pilgrimage of Perfection, 4to, 1526, vol. iii., p. 9.
5 Effectual fervent prayer is wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost,
and those objects for which HE inclines the soul to pray are bestowed
by God. Thus great things were obtained by Jacob, (Gen 32:24-28); by
Moses, (Exo 30:11-14; Num 14:13-21); by Joshua, (10:12-14); by
Hezekiah, (II Kings 19:14-37); by the woman of Canaan, (Matt 15:21-28).
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, (James
5:16).—ED.
6 How easy to forget all God’s benefits, and how impossible it is to
remember them all!—ED.
7 See Mr. Fox’s citation of the mass, in the last volume of the Book of
Martyrs.
8 Jesus Christ has opened the way to God the Father, by the sacrifice
He made for us upon the cross. The holiness and justice of God need not
frighten sinners and keep them back. Only let them cry to God in the
name of Jesus, only let them plead the atoning blood of Jesus, and they
shall find God upon a throne of grace, willing and ready to hear. The
name of Jesus is a never-failing passport to our prayers. In that name
a man may draw near to God with boldness, and ask with confidence. God
has engaged to hear him. Reader, think of this; is not this
encouragement?—J. C. Ryle—ED.
9 See Mr. Fox’s Acts and Monuments, v.2.
10 “In these days, I should find my heart to shut itself up against the
Lord, and against his holy Word: I have found my unbelief to set, as it
were, the shoulder to the door to keep him out.”—Grace Abounding, No.
81.—ED.
THE SAINTS’ PRIVILEGE AND PROFIT;
OR,
THE THRONE OF GRACE
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.
The churches of Christ are very much indebted to the Rev. Charles Doe,
for the preservation and publishing of this treatise. It formed one of
the ten excellent manuscripts left by Bunyan at his decease, prepared
for the press. Having treated on the nature of prayer in his searching
work on ‘praying with the spirit and with the understanding also,’ in
which he proves from the sacred scriptures that prayer cannot be merely
read or said, but must be the spontaneous effusions of the heart
principally in private, or at the domestic altar upon set times in the
morning and evening, or more publicly in social meetings for praise and
prayer, or in the public assembly of the church—all being acceptable,
only as it is offered up in spirit and in truth—he now directs us to
the proper medium which our mental powers should use in drawing near to
the Divine Being. We have to approach the universal spirit, the
creator, the preserver, the bountiful benefactor of our race; and, at
the same time, the infinitely holy one, the supreme judge and just
rewarder or punisher of all creatures. How shall we, who are impure and
unclean by nature and by practice, draw near unto him who is so
infinitely holy? Others of our race who were equally guilty have held
acceptable converse with God, and received special marks of his favour.
We all know that a talented man, high in office, retired at certain
times for prayer; this gave offence, and a law was made, by which
prayer to God was interdicted for thirty days. He refused obedience to
a human law which interfered with the divine authority, and for this he
was cast into the den of lions; but they hurt him not, although they
devoured his persecutors. When a beloved minister was seized and
imprisoned for his love to Christ, the church held a prayer meeting on
his account, and while they were praying God sent his angel to the
prison. In vain four quaternions of soldiers kept guard, two of them in
the prisoner’s cell, while the servant of Christ, who was loaded with
chains and doomed to an ignominious death, slept sweetly between the
armed men. The angel awakes him, his chains fall off, no noise can
awake his guard, the prison doors open, and he was restored to his
beloved charge. They were yet imploring his deliverance, when he stood
in their midst to tell the wondrous miracle, wrought in answer to their
prayer. Again, two of their much-loved ministers were seized and
beaten, and cast into jail, their feet being made fast in the stocks.
In the dark hour of midnight they prayed and praised God, when an
earthquake was sent, which shook the prison and threw open its doors,
and the jailor, with his house, became converts to the faith. Millions
of instances might have been recorded of prayer heard and answered. The
child Samuel, and also Ishmael. The Magdalene. The thief on the cross.
Ananias, who was directed to relieve the stricken persecutor Saul, for
‘behold he prayeth.’ But innumerable prayers have been read and offered
up which have not been answered. What then is the acceptable form, and
what the appointed medium consecrated for our access to God, by which
prayer is sanctified and accepted? If ye love me, saith the Saviour,
keep my commandments, and whatsoever ye shall ask IN MY NAME that will
I do. A sense of our want and unworthiness leads us to God in that new
and living way consecrated by Christ though the veil, that is to say,
his flesh (Heb 10:20). By that way we can ‘come boldly,’ because it is
‘a throne of grace,’ and there and there only we can ‘obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need.’ Wondrous throne! Blessed
encouragement to the poor pilgrim, traversing the desert surrounded by
enemies, his own heart by nature being one of the most formidable of
them!
It is of great importance to all, and especially to the young, to
attain correct definite ideas of religious truths. Bunyan had
remarkably clear views, arising from his strong feelings and the rugged
path by which he was led to Christ. His definition of the difference
between grace and mercy is very striking: ‘Mercy signifies pitifulness
to objects in a miserable condition. Grace acts as a free agent, not
wrought upon by our misery but of God’s own princely mind.’ Christ is
the throne of grace—in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead, and
yet he was found in fashion as a man, he took on him the seed of
Abraham, and was made like unto his brethren, and offered himself up as
the sacrifice for sin. Thus he is the throne of grace on the mercy-seat
covering the law. Here he is an object of worship to the angels on the
right hand of God. In him the uncreated glory, the dazzling effulgence
of God, is so veiled in his glorified body, that man, poor sinful man,
can lift up his eyes to behold the place where God’s honour most richly
dwelleth, and find acceptance and grace to help in every time of need.
Take heed, sinner, this is your only access to heaven. The mercy-seat
and throne of grace is God’s resting-place; the throne which governs
his church, and which eventually will govern all nations. This throne,
invisible to mortal eyes, is present at all times and in all places.
After the saints have been supplied with all needful grace in this
world, their glorified spirits will see the great white throne, and
hear the voice proceeding from it, saying, Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you; while from that throne
the direful thunderbolts will be hurled upon the despisers of divine
grace, and they will hurry into irretrievable misery. The safety of the
Christian entirely depends upon his being found ‘looking unto Jesus’:
his glorified human body is the throne of grace—the source of all
blessedness to his worshippers—the gate of heaven—the way, the truth
and the life. Yes, proud nature, HE who was the babe at Bethlehem, the
poor carpenter’s son, who, notwithstanding his miracles of wisdom,
power, and mercy, was despised and rejected of men, HIM hath God
exalted to be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and the
remission of sins, the only medium of access to heaven. Before him
every knee shall bow. Wonders of grace to God belong. ‘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.’ Reader, listen to these
words of Bunyan, and may the Divine blessing attend the reading of his
works.
GEO. OFFOR.
THE SAINTS’ PRIVILEGE AND PROFIT
‘LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY UNTO THE THRONE OF GRACE, THAT WE MAY
OBTAIN MERCY, AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.’—HEBREWS 4:16
This epistle is indited and left to the church by the Holy Ghost, to
show particularly, and more distinctly, the high priesthood of Jesus
Christ, and the excellent benefits that his people have thereby. In
which both the excellency of his person, and transcendent glory of his
office, beyond either priest or priesthood of the law, is largely set
forth before us, in chapter 1:2, &c.
Wherefore, in order to our beneficial reading of this epistle, the
Spirit of God calls upon us, first, most seriously to consider what an
one this excellent person is: ‘Wherefore, holy brethren,’ saith he, you
that are ‘partakers of the heavenly calling,’ consequently you that are
related to and that are concerned in the undertaking of this holy one,
‘consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus’
(Heb 3:1). Consider how great and how fit this man is for so holy and
glorious a calling. He being so high, as to be far above all heavens;
so great, as to be the Son of, and God equal with the Father. Consider
him also as to his humanity, how that he is really flesh of our flesh;
sinlessly so, sympathisingly so, so in all the compassions of a man; he
is touched with, compassioneth, pitieth, loveth, succoureth us, and
feeleth our infirmities, and maketh our case his own. Nay, he again,
from the consideration of his greatness and love, puts us upon a
confident reliance on his undertaking, and also presseth us to a bold
approach of that throne of grace where he continually abideth in the
execution of his office: ‘Seeing then,’ saith he, ‘that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let
us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: but was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace’ (Heb 3:14-16).
In the words we have, First, An exhortation; [and] Second, An
implication that we shall reap a worthy benefit, if we truly put the
exhortation into practice. The exhortation is that we shall come boldly
to the throne of grace: ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne
of grace.’ In all we have an intimation of five things.
FIRST, That God hath more thrones than one; else the throne of grace
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.