Works of John Bunyan Volume II Part 63

1. That when Christ was sent, it was to shew us upon what terms G.o.d was reconcilable to us, viz. By laying 'before us all the parts of that holiness, which is necessary to restore our natures to his own likeness;--and most pathetically, moreover to intreat us to do what lieth in us to put them in practice, that so it may be to eternity well with us.' What these things are, you mention not here; therefore I shall leave them to be spoken to under the third head.

2. A second thing you mention is, 'That this Son of G.o.d conversed upon equal terms with men, becoming the Son of Man, born of a woman [a great demonstration that G.o.d hath a liking to the human nature].' But little to the purpose as you have handled it.

3. 'That the Son of G.o.d taught men their duty, by his own example, and did himself perform what he required of them; and that himself did tread before us EVERY step of that way, which he hath told us leadeth to eternal life.'

Ans. Now we are come to the point, viz.: 'That the way to eternal life is, First of all to take Christ for our example, trading his step': And the reason, if it be true, is weighty: 'For he hath trod every step before us, which he hath told us leads to eternal life.'

1. Every step. Therefore he went to heaven by virtue of an imputative righteousness. For this is one of our steps thither.

2. Every step. Then he must go thither, by faith in his own blood for pardon of sin. For this is another of our steps thither.

3. Every step. Then he must go thither by virtue of his own intercession at the right hand of G.o.d, before he came thither: For this is one of our steps thither.

4. Every step. Then he must come to G.o.d, and ask mercy for some great wickedness, which he had committed. For this is also one of our steps thither.

But again, we will consider it the other way.

1. Every step. Then we cannot come to heaven, before we first be made accursed of G.o.d. For so was he before he came thither.

2. Every step. Then we must first make our body and soul an offering for the sin of others. For this did he before he came thither.

3. Every step. Then we must go to heaven for the sake of our own righteousness. For that was one of his steps thither.

O, Sir! What will thy gallant, generous mind do here? Indeed you talk of his being an expiatory sacrifice for us, but you put no more trust to that, than to Baptism, or the Lord's Supper; counting that, with the other two, but things indifferent in themselves (p. 6-9).

You add again, 'That this Son of G.o.d being raised from the dead, and ascended to heaven, is our high priest there': But you talk not at all of his sprinkling the mercy seat with his blood, but clap upon him, the heathens demons; negotiating the affairs of men with the supreme G.o.d, and so wrap up, with a testification that it is needless to enlarge on the point (p. 149).

But to be plain, and in one word to tell you, about all these things you are heathenishly dark; there hath not in these one hundred and fifty pages one gospel truth been christianity handled by you; but rather a darkening of truth by words without knowledge.

What man that ever had read, or a.s.sented to the gospel, but would have spoken, yet kept within the bounds of truth, more honourably of Christ, than you have done? His sacrifice must be stept over, as the spider straddleth over the wasp, his intercession is needless to be enlarged upon. But when it falleth in your way to talk of your human nature, of the dictates, of the first principles of morals within you, and of your generous mind to follow it: oh what needs is there now of amplifying, enlarging, and pressing it on men's consciences! As if that poor heathenish, pagan principle, was the very spirit of G.o.d within us: And as if righteousness done by that, was that, and that only, that would or could fling heaven gates off the hinges.

Yea, a little after you tell us, that 'The doctrine of his sending the Holy Ghost, was to move and excite us to our duty, and to a.s.sist, cheer, and comfort us in the performance of it.' Still meaning our close adhering, by the purity of our human nature, to the dictates of the law, as written in our hearts as men. Which is as false as G.o.d is true. For the Holy Ghost is sent into our hearts, not to excite us to a compliance with our old and wind-shaken excellencies, that came into the world with us; but to write new laws in our hearts; even the law of faith, the word of faith and of grace, and the doctrine of remission of sins, through the blood of the Lamb of G.o.d, that holiness might flow from thence.

Your 15th chapter is to shew, That the gospel giveth far greater helps to an holy life, than the Jewish ceremonies did of old. I answer,

But the reader must here well weigh, that in the gospel you find also some positive precepts, that are of the same nature with the ceremonies under the law; of which, that of coming to G.o.d by Christ, you call one, and baptism, and the Lord's supper, the other two.

So then by your doctrine, the excellency of the gospel doth not lie in that we have a Christ to come to G.o.d by, but in things as you feign more substantial. What are they? 'Inward principles of holiness' (p. 159). Spiritual precepts (p. 162). That height of virtue, and true goodness, that the gospel designeth to raise us to: all which are general words, falling from a staggering conscience, leaving the world, that are ignorant of his mind, in a muse; but tickling his brethren with the delights of their moral principles, with the dictates of their human nature, and their gallant generous minds. Thus making a very stalking-horse of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the words of truth and holiness, thereby to slay the silly one; making the Lord of life and glory, instead of a saviour, by his blood, the instructor, and schoolmaster only of human nature, a chaser away of evil affections, and an extinguisher of burning l.u.s.ts;[23] and that not so neither, but by giving perfect explications of moral precepts (p. 17), and setting himself an example before them to follow him (p. 297).

Your sixteenth chapter, containeth an answer to those that object against the power of the christian religion to make men holy.

Ans. And to speak truth, what you at first render as the cause of the unholiness of the professors thereof (p. 171) is to the purpose, had it been christianly managed by you, as namely, men's gross unbelief of the truth of it; for it 'effectually worketh in them that believe' (1 Thess 2:13). But that you only touch and away, neither showing what is the object of faith, nor the cause of its being so effectual to that purpose; neither do you at all treat of the power of unbelief, and how all men by nature are shut up therein (Rom 11:32). But presently, according to your old and natural course, you fall, first, upon a supposed power in men, to embrace the gospel, both by closing with the promise, and shunning the threatening (p. 172); farther adding, that 'mankind is endued with a principle of freedom, and that this principle is as essential, as any other to the human nature' (p. 173). By all which it is manifest, that however you make mention of unbelief, because the gospel hath laid the same in your way, yet your old doctrine of the purity of the human nature, now broken out into a freedom of will, and that, as an essential of the human nature, is your great principle of faith, and your following of that, as it dictateth to you obedience to the first principles of morals, the practice of faith, by which you think to be saved. That this is so, must unavoidably be gathered from the good opinion you have yourself of coming to G.o.d by Christ; viz., That in the command thereof, it is one of these positive precepts, and a thing in itself absolutely considered indifferent, and neither good nor evil. Now he that looketh upon coming to G.o.d by Christ with such an eye as this, cannot lay the stress of his salvation upon the faith, or belief thereof: indifferent faith, will serve for indifferent things; yea, a man must look beyond that which he believeth is but one with the ceremonial laws, but not the same with baptism, or the Lord's supper; for with those you compare that of coming to G.o.d by Christ. Wherefore faith, with you, must be turned into a cheerful and generous complying with the dictates of the human nature; and unbelief, into that which opposeth this, or that makes the heart backward and sluggish therein. This is also gathered from what you aver of the divine moral laws, that they be of an indispensable and eternal obligation (p. 8), things that are good in themselves (p. 9), considered in an abstracted notion (p. 10). Wherefore, things that are good in themselves, must needs be better than those that are in themselves but indifferent; neither can a positive precept make that, which of itself is neither good nor evil, better than that which in its own nature remaineth the essentials of goodness.

I conclude then, by comparing you with yourself, by bringing your book to your book, that you understand neither faith, nor unbelief, any farther than by obeying or disobeying the human nature, and its dictates in chief; and that of coming to G.o.d by Christ, as one of the things that is indifferent in itself.

But a little to touch upon your principle of freedom, which in p.

9 you call an understanding and liberty of will.

Ans. First, That there is no such thing in man by nature, as liberty of will, or a principle of freedom, in the saving things of the kingdom of Christ, is apparent by several scriptures. Indeed there is in men, as men, a willingness to be saved their own way, even by following, as you, their own natural principles, as is seen by the Quakers, as well as yourself; but that there is a freedom of will in men, as men, to be saved by the way which G.o.d hath prescribed, is neither a.s.serted in the scriptures of G.o.d, neither standeth with the nature of the principles of the gospel.

The apostle saith, 'The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of G.o.d.' And the reason is, not because, not princ.i.p.ally because, he layeth aside a liberty of will, but because 'they are foolishness to him' (1 Cor 2:14). Because in his judgment they are things of no moment, but things, as you [Mr. Fowler] have imagined of them, that in themselves are but indifferent. And that this judgment that is pa.s.sed by the natural man, concerning the things of the Spirit of G.o.d, of which, that of coming to G.o.d by Christ, is the chief, is that which he cannot but do as a man, is evident from that which followeth: 'neither CAN he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' Neither CAN he know them as a man, because they are spiritually discerned. Now, if he cannot know them, from what principle should he will them? For judgment, or knowledge, must be before the will can act. I say, again, a man must know them to be things in chief, that are absolutely, and indispensably necessary, and those in which resteth the greatest glory; or else his will will not comply with them, nor centre and terminate in them as such, but still count themselves, as you, though somewhat convinced that he ought to adhere unto them, things that in themselves are only indifferent, and absolutely considered neither good nor evil.

A farther enlargement upon this subject, will be time enough, if you shall contradict.

Another reason, or cause, which you call an immediate one, of the unsuccessfulness of the gospel, is 'men's [strange and] unaccountable mistaking the design of it,--not to say worse, as to conceive no better of it, than as a science, and a matter of speculation,'

&c. (p. 173).

Ans. If this be true, you have shewed us the reason, why yourself have so base and unworthy thoughts thereof: for although coming to G.o.d by Christ be the very chief, first, the substance, and most essential part of obedience thereto; yet you have reckoned this but like one of the ceremonies of the law, or as baptism with water, and the Lord's supper (P. 7-9). Falling more directly upon the body of the moral law, as written in the heart of men, and inclining more to the teaching, or dictates of human nature, which were neither of them both ever any essential part of the gospel, than upon that which indeed is the gospel of Christ.

And here I may, if G.o.d will, timely advertise my reader, that the gospel, and its attendants, are to be accounted things distinct: the gospel, properly taken, being glad tidings of good things; or, the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins freely by grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. For to speak strictly, neither is the grace of faith, hope, repentance, or newness of life, the gospel; but rather things that are wrought by the preaching thereof, things that are the effects of it; or its inseparable companions, to all them that shall be saved. Wherefore the gospel is said to be preached in all nations, for the obedience of faith (Rom 16:26). Hope also is called the hope of the gospel, not the gospel itself. So again, the gospel is preached that men should repent, but it is not preached that men should gospel.

But your gospel, which princ.i.p.ally or chiefly, centres in the dictates of human nature; and your faith, which is chiefly a subjecting to those dictates, are so far off from being at all any near attendants of the gospel, that they never are urged in the New Testament, but in order to show men they have forgotten to act as men (Rom 1:19-21, 2:14,15; 1 Cor 11:14).

Your last reason is, because of 'several untoward opinions,' the gospel is very unsuccessful (p. 174).

Ans. But what these opinions are, we hear not; nor how to shun them, you tell us here nothing at all. This I am sure, there are no men in this day have more opposed the light, glory, and l.u.s.tre of the gospel of Christ, than those, as the Quakers and others, that have set up themselves, and their own humanity, as the essential parts of it.

You in answer to other things, add many other reasons to prove they are mistaken that count the gospel a thing of but mean operation to work holiness in the heart: at which you ought yourself to tremble, seeing the Son himself, who is the Lord of the gospel, is of so little esteem with you, as to make coming to G.o.d by him so trivial a business as you have done.

Your large transcript of other men's sayings, to prove the good success of the gospel of old, did better become that people and age, than you and yours; they being a people that lived in the power thereof, but you such bats as cannot see it. That saying you mention of Rigaltias, doth better become you and yours: 'Those now-a-days do retain the name, and society of Christians, which live altogether antichristian lives. Take away publicans, and a wretched rabble, &c. and our Christian churches will be lamentably weak, small, and insignificant things' (p. 181).

I shall add to yours another reason of the unsuccessfulness of the gospel in our days, and that is, because so many ignorant Sir Johns,[24] on the one hand, and so many that have done violence to their former light, and that have d.a.m.ned themselves in their former anathematizing of others, have now for a long time, as a judgment of G.o.d, been permitted to be, and made the mouth to the people: persons whose lives are debauched, and who in the face of the world, after seeming serious detestings of wickedness, have for the love of filthy lucre, and the pampering their idle carca.s.ses, made shipwreck of their former faith, and that feigned good conscience they had. From which number if you, Sir, have kept yourself clear, the less blood of the d.a.m.ned will fall upon your head: I know you not by face, much less your personal practice; yet I have heard as if blood might pursue you, for your unstable weatherc.o.c.k spirit, which doubtless could not but stumble the weak, and give advantage to the adversary to speak vilifyingly of religion.

[Living faith essential to salvation.]

As to your seventeenth and eighteenth chapters,[25] I shall say little, only I wish that your eighteenth had been more express in discovering how far a man may go, with a notion of the truth of the gospel, and yet perish because he hath it not in power.

Only in your inveighing so much against the pardon of sin, while you seem so much to cry up healing; you must know that pardon of sin is the beginning of health to the soul: He pardoneth our iniquities, and healeth all our diseases (Psa 103:3). And where he saith, by the stripes of Christ we are healed, it is evident that healing beginneth at pardon, and not pardon after healing, as you would rather have it (1 Peter 2:24, compare Isa 53). As for your comparison of the plaister, and the physician's portion,[26]

I say you do but abuse your reader, and muddy the way of the gospel.

For the first thing of which the soul is sick, and by which the conscience receiveth wounding; it is the guilt of sin, and fear of the curse of G.o.d for it. For which is provided the wounds and precious blood of Christ, which flesh and blood, if the soul eat thereof by faith, giveth deliverance therefrom. Upon this the filth of sin appears most odious, for that it hath not only at present defiled the soul, but because it keeps it from doing those duties of love, which by the love of Christ it is constrained to endeavour the perfecting of. For filth, appears filth; that is irksome, and odious to a contrary principle now implanted in the soul; which principle had its conveyance thither by faith in the sacrifice and death of Christ going before. 'The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again' (2 Cor 5:14). The man that hath received Christ, desireth to be holy, because the nature of the faith that layeth hold on Christ (although I will not say as you, it is of a generous mind) worketh by love, and longeth, yea, greatly longeth that the soul may be brought, not only into an universal conformity to his will, but into his very likeness; and because that state standeth not with what we are now, but with what we shall be hereafter: therefore 'in this we groan,--being burdened [with that which is of a contrary nature] to be clothed upon--with our house which is from heaven' (2 Cor 5:1-8). Which state is not that of Adam's innocency; but that which is spiritual and heavenly, even that which is now in the Lord in heaven.

But I will descend to your nineteenth chapter, it may be more may be discovered there.

[Justifying faith and the imputation of Christ's righteousness.]

Your nineteenth chapter is to shew; 'That a right understanding of the design of Christianity [viz. as you have laid it down] will give satisfaction concerning the true notion.' First, 'Of justifying faith.' Second, 'Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness' (p.

221).

First, Of justifying faith; 'It is [say you] such a belief of the truth of the gospel, as includes a sincere resolution of obedience unto all its precepts.'

Ans. To this I shall answer, first, that the faith which we call justifying faith, 'Is like precious faith' with all the elect (2 Peter 1:1), and that which is most holy (Jude 20): but those acts of it, which respect our justification with G.o.d from the curse of the law that is due for sin; are such, as respect not any good work done by us, but the righteousness that resideth in the person of Christ; and is made ours by the imputation of grace. His faith, I say, accounteth him in whom it is, now a sinner, and without works; yea, if he have any that in his own eyes are such, this faith rejects them, and throweth them away; for it seeth a righteousness in the person of Christ sufficient; even such as is verily the righteousness of G.o.d. 'Now to him that worketh not, but believeth.'

Works and faith are put here in opposition, faith being considered as justifying, in the sight of G.o.d from the curse. The reason is, because the righteousness by which the soul must thus stand justified, is a righteousness of G.o.d's appointing, not of his prescribing us; a righteousness that entirely is included in the person of Christ. The apostle also, when he speaks of G.o.d's saving the election, which hangeth upon the same hinge, as this of justification doth, to wit, on the grace of G.o.d; he opposeth it to works; and that, not to this or that sort only, but even to work, in the nature of work, 'If by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work' (Rom 11:6).

By this text, I say, the apostle doth so thoroughly distinguish between grace and works as that which soever standeth in the case, the other must be annihilated: If it be by grace, then must works be no more, 'then it is no more of works': but if it be of works, then is grace no more, 'then it is no more of grace.'

But this, notwithstanding, you urge farther; 'that faith justifieth, as it includes a sincere resolution,' &c.

Ans. Although, as I have said before, the faith which is the justifying faith, is that of the holiest nature, yet in the act, by which it layeth hold of justifying righteousness, it respects it, simply, as a righteousness offered by grace, or given unto the person that by faith layeth hold thereon as he stands yet unG.o.dly and a sinner.

Faith justifieth not separate from the righteousness of Christ as it is a grace in us, nor as it subjecteth the soul to the obedience of the moral law, but as it receiveth a righteousness offered to that sinner, that as such will lay hold on, and accept thereof.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, by being their redemption, and righteousness himself (1 Cor 1:30).