John Bunyan :: Who Are the People That Come to Christ (Cont.)

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE THAT COME TO CHRIST (Continued)

Inferences from thus coming to God by Christ

And now I come to draw some inferences from this point also, as I have already done from those going before it. You see that I have now been speaking to you of the man that cometh to God, both with respect to the way he comes, as also with respect to the manner of spirit in which he comes; and hence I may well infer,

First. That he is no fool, no fool according to the best judgment, that cometh to God by Christ. The world indeed will count him one; for the things that be of the Spirit of God are foolishness to them; but indeed, and in the verdict of true judgment, he is not so.

• 1. For that he now seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. He has chosen to be concerned with the very head and fountain of wisdom; for Christ is the wisdom of God, and the way to the Father by Christ, is the greatest of mysteries; and to choose to walk in that way, the fruits of the most sage advice; wherefore he is not a fool that thus concerns himself (Pro 18:1; 1Co 1).
  
  

• 2. It is not a sign of foolishness timely to prevent ruin, is it? They are the prudent men that foresee an evil, and hide themselves; and the fools, that go on, and are punished (Pro 18:8; Pro 27:12). Why, this man foresees an evil, the greatest evil, sin, and the punishment of the soul for sin in hell; and flies to Christ, who is the refuge that God has provided for penitent sinners; and is this a sign of a fool? God make me such a fool, and thee that readest these lines such a fool, and then we shall be wiser than all men that are counted wise by the wisdom of this world. Is it a sign of a fool to agree with one’s adversary while we are in the way with him, even before he delivereth us to the judge? Yea, it is a piece of the highest wisdom.

  • (1.) Is he a fool that chooseth for himself long lasters, or he whose best things will rot in a day? Sinners, “before your pots can feel the thorns before you can see where you are, God shall take you away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath” (Psa 58:9). But this man has provided for things; like the tortoise, he has got a shell on his back, so strong and sound that he fears not to suffer a loaden cart to go over him. The Lord is his rock, his defence, his refuge, his high tower, unto which he doth continually resort.
    
    

  • (2.) Was the unjust steward a fool in providing for himself for hereafter? for providing friends to receive him to harbour when others should turn him out of their doors (Luk 16:8-9). No more is he that gets another house for his harbour before death shall turn him out of doors here.
    
    

• 3. As he that cometh to God by Christ is no fool, so he is no little-spirited fellow. There are a generation of men in this world that count themselves men of the largest capacities, when yet the greatness of their desires lift themselves no higher than to things below. If they can, with their net of craft and policy, encompass a bulky lump of earth, oh what a treasure have they engrossed to themselves! Meanwhile, the man in the text has laid siege to heaven, has found out the way to get into the city, and is resolved, in and by God’s help, to make that his own. Earth is a drossy thing in this man’s account; earthly greatness and splendours are but like vanishing bubbles in this man’s esteem. None but God, as the end of his desires, none but Christ, as the means to accomplish this his end, are things counted great by this man. No company now is acceptable to this man but the Spirit of God, Christ and angels, and saints, as fellow-heirs with himself. All other men and things he deals with as strangers and pilgrims were wont to do. This man’s mind soars higher than the eagle or stork of the heavens. He is for musing about things that are above, and their glory, and for thinking what shall come to pass hereafter.
  
  

• 4. But as I have showed you what he is not, so now let me, by a few words, tell you what he is.

  • (1.) Then he is a man concerned for his soul, for his immortal soul. The soul is a thing, though of most worth, least minded by most. The souls of most lie waste while all other things are enclosed. But this man has got it by the end, that his soul is of more value than the world, wherefore he is concerned for his soul. Soul concerns are concerns of the highest nature, and concerns that arise from thoughts most deep and ponderous. He never yet knew what belonged to great and deep thoughts that is a stranger to soul concerns. Now the man that comes to God by Christ, is a man that is engaged in soul concerns.
    
    

  • (2.) He is a man whose spirit is subjected to a suitableness to spiritual things, for a carnal mind cannot suit with and be delighted in these things: “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7). This is the man that God has tamed, and keeps tame by himself, while all other run wild, as the assess upon the mountains. If birds could speak, surely they would tell that those that are kept in the cage have with them another temper than they that range the air, and fly in the fields and woods. Yea, and could those kept tame express themselves to the rest, they would tell that they have white bread and milk, and sugar; while those without make a life out of maggots and worms. They are also in place where there are better things, and their companions are the children of men; besides, they learn such notes, and can whistle such tunes, as other birds are strangers to. Oh! the man whose spirit is subjected to God, betwixt whom and God there is a reconciliation, not only as to a difference made up, but also as to a oneness of heart; none knows what lumps of sugar God gives that man, nor what notes and tunes God learns that man: “He hath put a new song in my mouth,” saith David, “even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord” (Psa 40:3).

Second. Is there a man that comes to God by Christ? Thence I infer that there is that believes there is a world to come. No man looks after that which yet he believes is not; faith must be before coming to Christ will be; coming is the fruit of faith. He that comes must believe antecedent to his coming; wherefore it is said, “we walk by faith”—that is, we come to God through Christ by faith (Heb 11:7; 2Co 5:7). And hence I learn two things:—1. That faith is of a strong and forcible quality. 2. That they who come not to God by Christ have no faith.

• 1. Faith is of a strong and forcible quality, and that whether it be true or false.

  • (1.) A false faith has done great things; it has made men believe lies, plead for them, and stand to them, to the damnation of their souls. “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,” to their damnation (2Th 2:11-12). Hence it is said, men make lies ‘their refuge.’ Why? Because they “trust in a lie” (Jer 28:15). A lie, if believed, if a man has faith in it, it will do great things, because faith is of a forcible quality. Suppose thyself to be twenty miles from home, and there some man comes and possesses thee that thy house, thy wife and children, are all burned with the fire. If thou believest it, though indeed there should be nothing of truth in what thou hast heard, yet will this lie “drink up thy spirit,” even as if the tidings were true. How many are there in the world whose heart Satan hath filled with a belief that their state and condition for another world is good? and these are made to live by lying hope that all shall be well with them, and so are kept from seeking for that which will make them happy indeed. Man is naturally apt and willing to be deceived, and therefore a groundless faith is the more taking and forcible. Fancy will help to confirm a false faith, and so will conceit and idleness of spirit. There is also in man a willingness to take things upon trust, without searching into the ground and reason of them. Nor will Satan be behind hand to prompt and encourage to thy believing of a lie, for that he knows will be a means to bring thee to that end to which he greatly desireth thou shouldst come. Wherefore let men beware, and, oh, that they would, of a false and lying faith!
    
    

  • (2.) But if a false faith is so forcible, what is a true? What force, I say, is there in a faith that is begotten by truth, managed by truth, fed by truth, and preserved by the truth of God? This faith will make invisible things visible; not fantastically so, but substantially so—“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). True faith carrieth along with it an evidence of the certainty of what it believeth, and that evidence is the infallible Word of God. There is a God, a Christ, a heaven, saith the faith that is good, for the Word of God doth say so. The way to this God and this heaven is by Christ, for the Word of God doth say so. If I run not to this God by this Christ, this heaven shall never be my portion, for the Word of God doth say so. So, then, thus believing makes the man come to God by him. His thus believing, then, it is that carries him away from this world, that makes him trample upon this world, and that gives him the victory over this world. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth? (1Jo 5:4-6).
    
    

• 2. Now if this be true, that faith, true faith, is so forcible a thing as to take a man from his seat of ease, and make him to come to God by Christ as afore, then, is it not truly inferred from hence that they that come not to God by Christ have no faith. What! is man such a fool as to believe things, and yet not look after them? to believe great things, and yet not to concern himself with them? Who would knowingly go over a pearl, and yet not count it worth stooping for? Believe thou art what thou art; believe hell is what it is; believe death and judgment are coming, as they are; and believe that the Father and the Son are, as by the Holy Ghost in the Word they are described, and sit still in thy sins if thou canst. Thou canst not sit still; faith is forcible. Faith is grounded upon the voice of God in the Word, upon the teaching of God in the Word. And it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; for believing makes them heartily close in with, and embrace what by the Word is set before them, because it seeth the reality of them.

  Shall God speak to man’s soul, and shall not man believe? Shall man believe what God says, and nothing at all regard it? It cannot be. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17). And we know that when faith is come, it purifies the heart of what is opposite to God, and the salvation of the soul.

  So, then, those men that are at ease in a sinful course, or that come not to God by Christ, they are such as have no faith, and must therefore perish with the vile and unbelievers (Rev 21:8).

  The whole world is divided into two sorts of men—believers and unbelievers. The godly are called believers; and why believers, but because they are they that have given credit to the great things of the gospel of God? These believers are here in the text called also comers, or they that come to God by Christ, because whoso believes will come; for coming is a fruit of faith in the habit, or, if you will, it is faith in exercise; yet faith must have a being in the soul before the soul can put it into act.

  This therefore further evidences that they that come not, have no faith, are not believers, belong not to the household of faith, and must perish—‘For he that believes not, shall be damned.’

  Nor will it be to any boot¹⁴ to say, I believe there is a God and a Christ, for still thy sitting still doth demonstrate that either thou liest in what thou sayest, or that thou believest with a worse than a false faith. But the object of my faith is true. I answer, so is the object of the faith of devils; for they believe that there is one God and one Christ, yet their faith, as to the root and exercise of it, is notwithstanding no such faith as is that faith that saves, or that is intended in the text, and that by which men come to God through Christ. Wherefore still, oh, thou slothful one, thou deceivest thyself! Thy not coming to God by Christ declareth to thy face that thy faith is not good, consequently, that thou feedest on ashes, and thy deceived heart has turned thee aside, that thou canst not deliver thy soul, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand” (Isa 44:20)?

Third. Is there a man that comes to God by Christ? Thence I infer that the world to come is better than this; yea, so much better as to quit cost and bear charges of coming to God, from this, by Christ, to that. Though there is a world to come, yet if it were no better than this, one had as good stay here as seek that, or if it were better than this, and would bear charges if a man left this for that, and that was all, still the one would be as good as the other. But the man that comes to God by Christ, has chosen the world that is infinitely good; a world, betwixt which and this there can be no comparison. This must be granted, because he that comes to God by Christ is said to have made the best choice, even chose a city that has foundations (Heb 11:10). There are several things that make it manifest enough that he that comes to God by Christ has made the best market, or chose the best world.

• 1. That is the world which God commendeth, but this that that he slighteth and contemneth (2Th 1:5-6). Hence that is called the kingdom of God, but this an “evil world” (Gal 1:4). Now let us conclude, that since God made both, he is able to judge which of the two are best; yea, best able so to judge thereof. I choose the rather to refer you to the judgment of God in this matter, for should I put you upon asking of him as to this, that is, coming to God by Christ, perhaps you would say, he is as little able to give an account of this matter as yourselves. But I hope you think God knows, and therefore I refer you to the judgment of God, which you have in the Scriptures of truth—“Heaven is his throne, and the earth is his footstool” I hope you will say here is some difference. The Lord is the God of that, the devil the god and prince of this. Thus also it appears there is some difference between them.
  
  

• 2. That world, and those that are counted worthy of it, shall all be everlasting; but so shall not this, nor the inhabiters of it. The earth with the works thereof shall be burned up, and the men that are of it shall die in like manner (2 Peter 3). “But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end” (Isa 45:17). This world, with the lovers of it, will end in a burning hell; but the world to come fadeth not away (1Pe 1:3-4).
  
  

• 3. The world that we are now in, has its best comforts mixed either with crosses or curses; but that to come with neither. There shall be no more curse: and as for crosses, all tears shall be wiped from the eyes of them that dwell there. There will be nothing but ravishing pleasures, and holy; there will be no cessation of joys, nor any speck of pollution. “In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psa 16:11).
  
  

• 4. There men shall be made like angels, “neither can they die any more” (Luk 20:35-36). There shall they behold the face of God and his Son, and swim in the enjoyment of them for ever.
  
  

• 5. There men shall see themselves beyond all misery, and shall know that it will be utterly impossible that either anything like sorrow, or grief, or sickness, or discontent, should touch them more.
  
  

• 6. There men shall be rewarded of God for what they have done and suffered according to his will for his sake; there they shall eat and drink their comforts, and wear them to their everlasting consolation.
  
  

• 7. They are all kings that go to that world, and so shall be proclaimed there. They shall also be crowned with crowns, and they shall wear crowns of life and glory, crowns of everlasting joy, crowns of lovingkindness; yea, “In that day the Lord of hosts himself shall be for a crown of glory to those that are his people” (Heb 2:7; Isa 28:5; Isa 35:10; Psa 103:4). Now, if this world, though no more could be said of it that is said in these few lines, is not infinitely far better than what the present world is, I have missed it in my thoughts. But the coming man, the man that comes to God by Christ, is satisfied, knows what he does; and if his way, all his way thither, were strewed with burning coals, he would choose, God helping him, to tread that path rather than to have his portion with them that perish.

Fourth. If there be a world to come, and such a way to it so safe and good, and if God is there to be enjoyed by them that come to him by Christ; then this shows the great madness of the most of men, madness, I say, of the highest degree, for that they come not to God by Christ that they may be inheritors of the world to come. It is a right character which Solomon gives of them, “The heart,” saith he, “of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead” (Ecc 9:3). A madman is intent upon his toys, upon anything but that about which he should be intent; and so are they that come not to God by Jesus Christ. A madman has neither ears to hear, nor a heart to do, what they that are in their right wits advise him for the best, no more have they that come not to God by Christ. A madman sets more by the straws and cock’s feathers by which he decks himself, than he does by all the pearls and jewels in the world. And they that come not to God by Christ set more by the vanishing bubbles of this life than they do by that glory that the wise man shall inherit; “The wise shall inherit glory, but shame,” says Solomon, “shall be the promotion of fools.” What a shame it is to see God’s jewels lie unregarded of them that yet think none are wiser than themselves.

I know the wise men of this world will scorn one should think of them that they are mad; but verily it is so, the more wise for this world, the more fool in God’s matters; and the more obstinately they stand in their way, the more mad. When Solomon gave himself to backsliding, he saith he gave himself to folly and madness (Ecc 1:17; Ecc 2:12). And when he went about to search out what man is since the fall, he went about to search out foolishness and madness (Ecc 7:25-29). And is it not said, that when the Jews were angry with Jesus for that he did good on the Sabbath, that that anger did flow from their being filled with madness? Doth not Paul also, while he opposed himself against Christ, the gospel, and professors thereof, plainly tell us that he did it even from the highest pitch of madness? “And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities” (Act 26:11). Now if it is exceeding madness to do thus, how many at this day must be counted exceeding mad, who yet count themselves the only sober men? They oppose themselves, they stand in their own light, they are against their own happiness, they cherish and nourish cockatrices in their own bosoms; they choose to themselves those paths which have written upon them in large characters, These are the ways of death and damnation. They are offended with them that endeavour to pull them out of their ditch, and choose rather to lie and die there than to go to God by Christ that they may be saved from wrath through him; yea, so mad are they, that they count the most sober, the most godly, the most holy man, the mad one; the more earnest for life, the more mad; the more in the Spirit, the more mad; the more desirous to promote the salvation of others, the more mad. But is not this a sign of madness, of madness unto perfection? And yet thus mad are many, and mad are all they that while it is called to-day, while their door is open, and while the golden sceptre of the golden grace of the blessed God is held forth, stand in their own light, and come not to God by Christ (Jhn 10:20; Act 26:24). That is the fourth inference.

Fifth. A fifth inference that I gather from this text is, that the end that God will make with men will be according as they come or come not to God by Christ. They that come to God by Christ have taken shelter and have hid themselves; but they that come not to God by Christ lay themselves open to the windy storm and tempest that will be in that day. And the wind then will be high, and the tempest strong, that will blow upon them that shall be found in themselves; “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people” (Psa 50:3-4). And now, what will be found in that day to be the portion of them that in this day do not come to God by Christ? None knows but God, with whom the reward of unbelievers is.

But writing and preaching is in vain as to such; let men say what they will, what they can, to persuade to come, to dissuade from neglecting to come, they are resolved not to stir. They will try if God will be so faithful to himself and to his Word, as to dare to condemn them to hell fire that have refused to hear and comply with the voice of him that speaketh from heaven.

But this is but a desperate venture. Several things declare that He is determined to be at a point in this matter—

• 1. The gallows are built—hell is prepared for the wicked.
  
  

• 2. There are those already in chains, and stand bound over to the judgment of that day, that are, as to creation, higher and greater than men, to wit, the angels that sinned (2Pe 2:4). Let sinners, then, look to themselves.
  
  

• 3. The Judge is prepared and appointed, and it hath fallen out to be HE that thou hast refused to come to God by; and that predicts no good to thee; for then will he say of all such, “Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me” (Luk 19:27).

But what a surprise will it be to them that now have come to God by Christ to see themselves in heaven indeed, saved indeed, and possessed of everlasting life indeed. For alas! what is faith to possession? Faith that is mixed with many fears, that is opposed with many assaults, and that seems sometimes to be quite extinguished; I say, what is that to a seeing of myself in heaven? Hence it is said, that he shall then come to be admired in them that now believe, because they did here believe the testimony; then they shall admire that it was their lot to believe when they were in the world (2Th 1:10). They shall also admire to think, to see, and behold, what believing has brought them to, while the rest, for refusing to come to God by Christ, drink their tears mixed with burning brimstone.

Repentance will not be found in heaven among them that come to God by Christ; no, hell is the place of untimely repentance; it is there where the tears will be mixed with gnashing of teeth, while they consider how mad, and worse, they were in not coming to God by Jesus Christ.

Then will their hearts and mouths be full of, “Lord, Lord, open unto us.” But the answer will be, Ye shut me out of doors; “I was a stranger, and ye took me not in”; besides, you refused to come to my Father by me, wherefore now you must go from my Father by me (Mat 25).

They that will not be saved by Christ, must be damned by Christ; no man can escape one of the two. Refuse the first they may, but shun the second they cannot. And now they that would not come unto God by Christ will have leisure and time enough, if I may call it time, to consider what they have done in refusing to come to God by Christ. Now they will meditate warmly on this thing, now their thoughts will be burning hot about it, and it is too late, will be, in each thought, such a sting, that, like a bow of steel, it will continually strike him through.

Now they will bless those whom formerly they have despised, and commend those they once contemned. Now would the rich man willingly change places with poor Lazarus, though he preferred his own condition before his in the world. The day of judgment will bring the worst to rights in their opinions; they will not be capable of misapprehending any more. They will never after that day put bitter for sweet, or darkness for light, or evil for good any more. Their madness will now be gone. Hell will be the unbeliever’s bedlam house, and there God will tame them as to all those bedlam tricks and pranks which they played in this world, but not at all to their profit nor advantage; the gulf that God has placed and fixed betwixt heaven and hell will spoil all as to that (Luk 16:23-26).

But what a joy will it be to the truly godly to think now that they are come to God by Christ! It was their mercy to begin to come, it was their happiness that they continued coming; but it is their glory that they are come, that they are come to God by Christ. To God! why, he is all! all that is good, essentially good, and eternally good. To God! the infinite ocean of good. To God, in friendly-wise, by the means of reconciliation; for the other now will be come to him to receive his anger, because they come not to him by Jesus Christ. Oh! that I could imagine; oh! that I could think, that I might write more effectually to thee of the happy estate of them that come to God by Christ.

But thus have I passed through the three former things, namely,

1. That of the intercession of Christ.

2. That of the benefit of intercession.

3. That of the persons that are interested in this intercession.

14. ‘To any boot,’ to any profit. ‘What boots it at one gate to make defence, and at another to let in the foe!’ Milton’s Samson Agonistes—Ed.