Works of John Bunyan Volume I Part 52

I. For the law. G.o.d has given it for a rule of life, either as written in their natures, or as inserted in the Holy Scriptures; I say, for a rule of life to all the children of men. But what have men done, or how have they carried it to this law of their Creator; let us see, and that from the mouth of G.o.d himself.

1. 'They have not hearkened unto My words' (Jer 6:19).

2. 'They have forsaken My law' (Jer 9:13).

3. They 'have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law' (Jer 16:11).

4. They have not 'walked in My law, nor in My statutes' (Jer 44: 4).

5. 'Her priests have violated My law' (Eze 22:26).

6. And, saith G.o.d, 'I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing.' (Hos 8:12).

Now, whence should all this disobedience arise? Not from the unreasonableness of the commandment, but from the opposition that is lodged in us against G.o.d, and the enmity that it entertains against goodness. Hence the apostle speaks of the emnity, and says, that men are enemies in their minds, their souls, as is manifest by wicked works (Col 1:21). This, if men went no further, must needs be highly provoking to a just and holy G.o.d: yea, so highly offensive is it, that, to show the heat of His anger, He saith, 'Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil,' and this evil with a witness, 'of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile,' that doth evil (Rom 2:8,9). That breaketh the law; for that evil He is crying out against now. But,

II. To speak of the gospel, and of the carriage of sinful souls towards G.o.d under that dispensation.

The gospel is a revelation of a sovereign remedy, provided by G.o.d, through Christ, for the health and salvation of those that have made themselves objects of wrath by the breach of the law of works; this is manifest by all the Scripture. But how doth the soul carry it towards G.o.d, when He offereth to deal with it under and by this dispensation of grace? Why, just as it carried it under the law of works: they oppose, they contradict, they blaspheme, and forbid that this gospel be mentioned (Acts 13:45; 27:6). What higher affront or contempt can be offered to G.o.d, and what greater disdain can be shown against the gospel? (2 Tim 2:25; 1 Thess 2:14-16). Yet all this the poor soul, to its own wrong, offereth against the way of its own salvation; as it is said in the Word of truth, 'He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate Me love death' (Prov 8:36).

But, further, the soul despiseth not the gospel in that revelation of it only, but the great and chief bringer thereof, with the manner, also, of His bringing of it. The Bringer, the great Bringer of the gospel, is the good Lord Jesus Christ himself; He 'came and preached peace to them that the law proclaimed war against; became and preached peace to them that were afar off, and to them that were nigh' (Eph 2:17). And it is worth your observation to take notice how He came, and that was, and still is, as He is set forth in the word of the gospel; to wit, first, as making peace Himself to G.o.d for us in and by the blood of His cross; and then, as bearing (as set out by the gospel) the very characters of His sufferings before our faces in every tender of the gospel of His grace unto us. And to touch a little upon the dress in which, by the gospel, Christ presenteth unto us while He offereth unto sinful souls His peace, by the tenders thereof.

1. He is set forth as born for us, to save our souls (Isa 9:6; Luke 2:9-12).

2. He is set forth before us as bearing of our sins for us, and suffering G.o.d's wrath for us (1 Cor 15:3; Gal 3:13).

3. He is set forth before us as fulfilling the law for us, and as bringing of everlasting righteousness to us for our covering (Rom 5:4; Dan 9:24).

Again, as to the manner of His working out the salvation of sinners for them, that they might have peace and joy, and heaven and glory, for ever.

(1.) He is set forth as sweating of blood while He was in His agony, wrestling with the thoughts of death, which He was to suffer for our sins, that He might save the soul (Luke 22:44).

(2.) He is set forth as crying, weeping, and mourning under the lashes of justice that He put Himself under, and was willing to bear for our sins (Heb 5:7).

(3.) He is set forth as betrayed, apprehended, condemned, spit on, scourged, buffeted, mocked, crowned with thorns, crucified, pierced with nails and a spear, to save the soul from being betrayed by the devil and sin; to save it from being apprehended by justice, and condemned by the law; to save it from being spit on, in a way of contempt, by holiness; to save it from being scourged with guilt of sins, as with scorpions; to save it from being continually buffeted by its own conscience; to save it from being mocked at by G.o.d; to save it from being crowned with ignominy and shame for ever; to save it from dying the second death; to save it from wounds and grief for ever.

Dost thou understand me, sinful soul? He wrestled with justice, that thou mightest have rest; He wept and mourned, that thou mightest laugh and rejoice; He was betrayed, that thou mightest go free; was apprehended, that thou mightest escape; He was condemned, that thou mightest be justified; and was killed, that thou mightest live; He wore a crown of thorns, that thou mightest wear a crown of glory; and was nailed to the cross, with His arms wide open, to show with what freeness all His merits shall be bestowed on the coming soul; and how heartily He will receive it into His bosom?

Further, all this He did of mere good will, and offereth the benefit thereof unto thee freely; yea, He cometh unto thee, in the word of the gospel, with the blood running down from His head upon His face, with His tears abiding upon His cheeks, with the holes as fresh in His hands and His feet, and as with the blood still bubbling out of His side, to pray thee to accept of the benefit, and to be reconciled to G.o.d thereby (2 Cor 5). But what saith the sinful soul to this? I do not ask what he saith with his lips, for he will a.s.suredly flatter G.o.d with his mouth; but what doth his actions and carriages declare as to his acceptance of this incomparable benefit? For 'a wicked man speaketh with his feet, and teacheth with his fingers' (Prov 6:12,13). With his feet--that is, by the way he goeth: and with his fingers--that is, by his acts and doings.

So, then, what saith he by his goings, by his sets and doings, unto this incomparable benefit, thus brought unto him from the Father, by His only Son, Jesus Christ? What saith he? Why, he saith that he doth not at all regard this Christ, nor value the grace thus tendered unto him in the gospel.

1. He saith, that he regardeth not this Christ, that he seeth nothing in Him why he should admit Him to be entertained in his affections.

Therefore the prophet, speaking in the person of sinners, says, 'He (Christ) hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him;' and then adds, to show what he meaneth by his thus speaking, saying, 'he is despised and rejected of men' (Isa 53:2,3). All this is spoken with reference to His person, and it was eminently fulfilled upon Him in the days of His flesh, when He was hated, maligned, and persecuted to death by sinners; and is still fulfilled in the souls of sinners, in that they cannot abide to think of Him with thoughts that have a tendency in them to separate them and their l.u.s.ts asunder, and to the making of them to embrace Him for their darling, and the taking up of their cross to follow Him. All this sinners speak out with loud voices, in that they stop their ears and shut their eyes as to Him, but open them wide and hearken diligently to anything that pleaseth the flesh, and that is a nursery to sin. But,

2. As they despise, and reject, and do not regard His person, so they do not value the grace that He tendereth unto them by the gospel; this is plain by that indifferency of spirit that always attends them when, at any time, they hear thereof, or when it is presented unto them.

I may safely say, that the most of men who are concerned in a trade, will be more vigilant in dealing with a twelvepenny customer than they will be with Christ when He comes to make unto them, by the gospel, a tender of the incomparable grace of G.o.d. Hence they are called fools, because a price is put into their hands to get wisdom, and they have no heart unto it (Prov 18:16). And hence, again, it is that that bitter complaint is made, 'But My people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of Me' (Psa 81:11). Now, these things being found, as practised by the souls of sinners, must needs, after a wonderful manner, provoke; wherefore, no marvel that the heavens are bid to be astonished at this, and that d.a.m.nation shall seize upon the soul for this (Jer 2).

And indeed, the soul that doth thus by practice, though with his mouth--as who doth not? he shall show much love, he doth, interpretatively, say these things:--

(1.) That he loveth sin better than grace, and darkness better than light, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed, 'And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness more than light (as is manifest), because their deeds were evil' (John 3:19).

(2.) They do, also, by their thus rejecting of Christ and grace, say, that for what the law can do to them, they value it not; they regard not its thundering threatenings, nor will they shrink when they come to endure the execution thereof; wherefore G.o.d, to deter them from such bold and desperate ways, that do, interpretatively, fully declare that they make such desperate conclusions, insinuates that the burden of the curse thereof is intolerable, saying, 'Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I, the Lord, have spoken it, and will do it' (Eze 22:14).

(3.) Yea, by their thus doing, they do as good as say that they will run the hazard of a sentence of death at the day of judgment, and that they will, in the meantime, join issue, and stand a trial at that day with the great and terrible G.o.d. What else means their not hearkening to Him, their despising of His Son, and the rejecting of His grace; yea I say again, what else means their slighting of the curse of the law, and their choosing to abide in their sins till the day of death and judgment? And thus I have showed you the causes of the loss of the soul; and, a.s.suredly, these things are no fables.

Objection. But some may object, and say, But you denounce all against the soul; the soul, as if the body were in no fault at all; or, as if there were no punishment a.s.signed for the body.

Answer 1. The soul must be the part punished, because the soul is that which sins. 'Every sin that a man doeth is without the body,'

fornication or adultery excepted (1 Cor 6:18). 'Is without the body; that is, as to the wilily inventing, contriving, and finding out ways to bring the motions of sin into action. For, alas! What can the body do as to these? It is in a manner wholly pa.s.sive; yea, altogether as to the l.u.s.ting and purposing to do the wickedness, excepting the sin before excepted; ay, and not excepting that, as to the rise of that sin; for even that, with all the rest, ariseth and proceedeth out of the heart--the soul; 'For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man' (Mark 7:21-23). That is, the outward man. But a difference must always be put betwixt defiling and being defiled, that which defileth being the worst; not but that the body shall have its share of judgment, for body and soul must be destroyed in h.e.l.l (Luke 12:4,5; Matt 10:28). The body as the instrument, the soul as the actor; but oh! the soul, the soul, the soul is the sinner; and, therefore, the soul, as the princ.i.p.al, must be punished.

And that G.o.d's indignation burneth most against the soul appears in that death hath seized upon every soul already; for the Scripture saith, that every natural or unconverted man is dead (Eph 2:1-3).

Dead! How? Is his body dead? No, verily; his body liveth, but his soul is dead (1 Tim 5:6). Dead! But with what death? Dead to G.o.d, and to all things gospelly good, by reason of that benumbing, stupifying, and senselessness, that, by G.o.d's just judgment for and by sin, hath swallowed up the soul. Yea, if you observe, you shall see that the soul goeth first, or before, in punishment, not only by what has been said already, in that the soul is first made a partaker of death, but in that G.o.d first deals with the soul by convictions, yea, and terrors, perhaps, while the body is well; or, in that He giveth up the soul to judicial hardness and further blindness, while He leaveth the body to do His office in the world; yea, and also when the day of death and dissolution is come, the body is spared, while the soul is tormented in unutterable torment in h.e.l.l. And so, I say, it shall be spared, and the clods of the valley shall be sweet unto it, while the soul mourneth in h.e.l.l for sin. It is true, at the day of judgment, because that is the last and final judgment of G.o.d on men, then the body and soul shall be re-united, or joined together again, and shall then, together, partake of that recompence for their wickedness which is meet. When I say, the body is spared and the soul tormented, I mean not that the body is not then, at death, made to partake of the wages of sin, 'for the wages of sin is death' (Rom 3:23). But I mean, the body partakes then but of temporal death, which, as to sense and feeling, is sometimes over presently, and then resteth in the grave, while the soul is tormenting in h.e.l.l. Yea, and why is death suffered to slay the body? I dare say, not chiefly for that the indignation of G.o.d most burneth against the body; but the body being the house for the soul in this world, G.o.d even pulls down this body, that the soul may be stript naked, and being stript, may be carried to prison, to the place where d.a.m.ned souls are, there to suffer in the beginning of suffering, that punishment that will be endless.

Answer 2. Therefore, the soul must be the part most sorely punished, because justice must be distributed with equity. G.o.d is a G.o.d of knowledge and judgment; by Him actions are weighed; actions in order to judgment (1 Sam 2). Now, by weighing of actions, since He finds the soul to have the deepest hand in sin; and He says that He hath so, of equity the soul is to bear the burden of punishment.

'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right' in His famous distributing of judgment? (Gen 18:25). 'He will not lay upon man more than right, that he should enter into judgment with G.o.d'

(Job 34:23). The soul, since deepest in sin, shall also be deepest in punishment. 'Shall one man sin,' said Moses, 'and wilt Thou be wroth with all the congregation?' (Num 1:22). He pleads here for equity in G.o.d's distributing of judgment; yea, and so exact is G.o.d in the distribution thereof, that He will not punish heathens so as He will punish Jews; wherefore He saith, 'Of the Jew first,' or chiefly, 'and also of the Gentile' (Rom 2:9). Yea, in h.e.l.l He has prepared several degrees of punishment for the several sorts or degrees of offenders; And some 'shall receive greater d.a.m.nation'

(Luke 22:47). And will it not be unmeet for us to think, since G.o.d is so elect in all His doings, that He will, without His weights and measures, give to soul and body, as I may say, carelessly, not severally, their punishments, according to the desert and merit of each?

Answer 3. The punishment of the soul in h.e.l.l must needs, to be sure, as to degree, differ from the punishment of the body there.

When I say, differ, I mean, must needs be greater, whether the body be punished with the same fire with the soul, or fire of another nature. If it be punished with the same fire, yet not in the same way; for the fire of guilt, with the apprehensions of indignation and wrath, are most properly felt and apprehended by the soul, and by the body by virtue of its union with the soul; and so felt by the body, if not only, yet, I think, mostly, by way of sympathy with the soul; and the cause, we say, is worse than the disease; and if the wrath of G.o.d, and the apprehensions of it, as discharging itself for sin, and the breach of the law, be that with which the soul is punished, as sure it is: then the body is punished by the effects, or by those influences that the soul, in its torments, has upon the body, by virtue of that great oneness and union that is between them.

But if there be a punishment prepared for the body distinct in kind from that which is prepared for the soul, yet it must be a punishment inferior to that which is prepared for the soul; not that the soul and body shall be severed, but being made of things distinct, their punishments will be by that which is most suitable to each. I say, it must be inferior, because nothing can be so hot, so tormenting, so intolerably insupportable, as the quickest apprehensions of, and the immediate sinking under, that guilt and indignation that is proportional to the offence. Should all the wood, and brimstone, and combustible matter on earth be gathered together for the tormenting of one body, yet that cannot yield that torment to that which the sense of guilt and burning-hot application of the indignation of G.o.d will do to the soul; yea, suppose the fire wherewith the body is tormented in h.e.l.l should be seven times hotter than any of our fire; yea, suppose it, again, to be seven times hotter than that which is seven times hotter than ours, yet it must, suppose it to be but created fire, be infinitely short, as to tormenting operations, of the unspeakable wrath of G.o.d, when in the heat thereof He applieth it to, and doth punish the soul for sin in h.e.l.l therewith. So, then, whether the body be tormented with the same fire wherewith the soul is tormented, or whether the fire be of another kind, yet it is not possible that it should bear the same punishment as to degree, because, or for the causes I have showed. Nor, indeed, is it meet it should, because the body has not sinned so, so grievously as the soul has done; and G.o.d proportioneth the punishment suitable to the offence.

Answer 4. With the soul by itself are the most quick and suitable apprehensions of G.o.d and His wrath; wherefore, that must needs be made partaker of the sorest punishment in h.e.l.l; it is the soul that now is the most subtle at discerning, and it is the soul that will be so; then conscience, memory, and understanding, and mind; these will be the seat of torment, since the understanding will let wrath immediately upon these, from what it apprehends of that wrath; conscience will let the wrath of G.o.d immediately upon these, from what it fearfully feels of that wrath; the memory will then, as a vessel, receive and retain up to the brim of this wrath, even as it receiveth by the understanding and conscience, the cause of this wrath, and considers the durableness of it; so, then, the soul is the seat and the receiver of wrath, even as it was the receiver and seat of sin; here, then, is sin and wrath upon the soul, the soul in the body, and so soul and body tormented in h.e.l.l fire.

Answer 5. The soul will be most tormented, because strongest; the biggest burden must lie upon the strongest part, especially since, also, it is made capable of it by its sin. The soul must bear its own punishment, and a great part of the body's too, forasmuch as, so far as apprehension goes, the soul will be quicker at the work than the body. True, the body, by the help of the soul, will see too, but the soul will see yet abundantly further. And good reason that the soul should bear part of the punishment of the body, because it was through its allurements that the body yielded to help the soul to sin. The devil presented sin, the soul took it by the body, and now devil, and soul, and body, and all must be lost, cast away; that is, d.a.m.ned in h.e.l.l for sin; but the soul must be the burden bearer.

Objection. But you say, Doth not this give encouragement to sinners to give way to the body to be in all its members loose, and vain, and wicked, as instruments to sin?

Answer. No; forasmuch as the body shall also have his share in punishment. For though I have said the soul shall have more punishment than the body, yet I have not said, that the body shall at all be eased by that; no, the body will have its due. And for the better making out of my answer further, consider of these following particulars:--

(1.) The body will be the vessel to hold the tormented soul in; this will be something; therefore man, d.a.m.ned man, is called a vessel of wrath, a vessel, and that in both body and soul (Rom 9:22). The soul receiveth wrath unto itself, and the body holdeth that soul that has thus received, and is tormented with, the wrath of G.o.d.

Now the body being a vessel to hold this soul that is thus possessed with the wrath of G.o.d, must needs itself be afflicted and tormented with that torment, because of its union with the body; therefore the Holy Ghost saith, 'His flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn' (Job 14:22). Both shall have their torment and misery, for that both joined hand in hand in sin, the soul to bring it to the birth, and the body to midwife it into the world; therefore it saith again, with reference to the body, 'Let the curse come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.' Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle, etc. (Psa 109:17-19). The body, then, will be tormented as well as the soul, by being a vessel to hold that soul that is now possessed and distressed with the unspeakable wrath and indignation of the Almighty G.o.d, and this will be a great deal, if you consider,

(2.) That the body, as a body, will, by reason of its union with the soul, be as sensible, and so as capable in its kind, to receive correction and torment as ever, nay, I think more; for if the quickness of the soul giveth quickness of sense to the body, as in some case, at least, I am apt to think it doth, then forasmuch as the soul will now be most quick, most sharp in apprehension, so the body, by reason of union and sympathy with the soul, will be most quick and most sharp as to sense. Indeed, if the body should not receive and retain sense, yea, all its senses, by reason of its being a vessel to hold the soul, the torment of the soul could not as torment, be ministered to the body, no more than the fire tormented the king of Babylon's furnace (Dan 3). Or than the king of Moab's lime kiln was afflicted because the king of Edom's bones were burnt therein. But now the body has received again its senses, now therefore it must, yea, it cannot choose but must feel that wrath of G.o.d that is let out, yea, poured out like floods of water into the soul. 27 Remember also, that besides what the body receiveth from the soul by reason of its union and sympathy therewith, there is a punishment, and instruments of punishment, though I will not pretend to tell you exactly what it is, prepared for the body for its joining with the soul in sin, therewith to be punished; a punishment, I say, that shall fall immediately upon the body, and that such an one as will most fitly suit with the nature of the body, as wrath and guilt do most fitly suit the nature of the soul.

(3.) Add to these, the durable condition that the body in this state is now in with the soul. Time was when the soul died, and the body lived, and the soul was tormented while the body slept and rested in the dust; but now these things are past; for at the day of judgment, as I said, these two shall be re-united, and that which once did separate them, be destroyed; then of necessity they must abide together, and, as together, abide the punishment prepared for them; and this will greaten the torment of the body.

Death was once the wages of sin, and a grievous curse; but might the d.a.m.ned meet with it in h.e.l.l, they would count it a mercy, because it would separate soul and body, and not only so, but take away all sense from the body, and make it incapable of suffering torment; yea, I will add, and by that means give the soul some ease; for without doubt, as the torments of the soul extend themselves to the body, so the torments of the body extend themselves to the soul; nor can it be otherwise, because of union and sympathy. But death, natural death, shall be destroyed, and there shall be no more natural death, no, not in h.e.l.l (1 Cor 15:26). And now it shall happen to men, as it hath done in less and inferior judgments. They shall seek death, and desire to die, and death shall not be found by them (Job 3:21; Rev 9:6). Thus therefore they must abide together; death that used to separate them asunder is now slain--1. Because it was an enemy in keeping Christ's body in the grave; and, 2.

Because a friend to carnal men in that, though it was a punishment in itself, yet while it lasted and had dominion over the body of the wicked, it hindered them of that great and just judgment which for sin was due unto them; and this is the third discovery of the manner and way of punishing of the body. But,

(4.) There will then be such things to be seen and heard, which the eye and the ear--to say no more than has been said of the sense of feeling--will see and hear, that will greatly aggravate the punishment of the body in h.e.l.l; for though the eye is the window, and the ear a door for the soul to look out at, and also to receive in by, yet whatever goeth in at the ear or the eye leaves influence upon the body, whether it be that which the soul delighteth in, or that which the soul abhorreth; for as the eye affecteth the heart, or soul (Lam 3:51) so the eye and ear, by hearing and beholding, doth ofttimes afflict the body. 'When I heard, my belly trembled--rottenness entered into my bones.' (Hab 3:16).

Now, I say, as the body after its resurrection, to d.a.m.nation, to everlasting shame and contempt (Dan 12:2; John 5:29) will receive all its senses again, so it will have matter to exercise them upon, not only to the letting into the soul those aggravations which they by hearing, feeling, and seeing are capable to let in thither, but, I say, they will have matter and things to exercise themselves upon for the helping forward of the torment of the body. Under temporal judgments of old, the body as well as the soul had no ease, day or night, and that not only by reason of what was felt, but by reason of what was heard and seen. 'In the morning thou shalt say, Would G.o.d it were even! And at even thou shalt say, Would G.o.d it were morning!' (Deu 28:67). 1. 'For the fear of thine heart, wherewith thou shalt fear;' 2. 'And for the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see.' Nay, He tells them a little before, that they should be mad for the sight of their eyes which they should see (verse 34).

See! why, what shall they see? Why, themselves in h.e.l.l, with others like them; and this will be a torment to their body. There is bodily torment, as I said, ministered to the body by the senses of the body. What think you? If a man saw himself in prison, in irons, upon the ladder, with the rope about his neck, would not this be distress to the body, as well as to the mind? To the body, doubtless. Witness the heavy looks, the shaking legs, trembling knees, pale face, and beating and aching heart; 28 how much more, then, when men shall see themselves in the most dreadful place; it is a fearful place, doubtless, to all to behold themselves in that shall come thither (Luke 16:28).

Again; they shall see others there, and shall by them see themselves.