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A F E W A G O O D warning word to sinners, both old A N D young, to take into consideration betimes, and to seek, B Y- F A I T H- I N -J E S U S- C H R I S T, to avoid, lest they come into the same Place of Torment. Also, a brief discourse touching the profitableness of the Scriptures for our instruction in the way of righteousness, according to the tendency of the said parable. By That Poor and Contemptible Servant of J E S U S- C H R I S T, J O H N.B U N Y A N. L O N D O N, Printed by Ralph Wood, for M. Wright, at the King's Head in the Old Bailey, 1658. John Bunyan wrote this two years before being placed in Bedford Prison. This is the third book he wrote. |
USE AND APPLICATION.
[47] 
ut again, seeing they are so certain, so sure,
so irrevocable and firm, and seeing the saving faith of the things contained therein,
is to reform the soul, and bring it over into the things of God, really conforming
to the things contained therein, both to the point of justification, and also an
impartial walking, and giving up thy soul and body to a conformity to all the commands,
counsels, instructions, and exhortations contained therein; this then will learn
us how to judge of those who give up themselves to walk in the imaginations of their
own hearts, who slight and lay aside the Scriptures, counting them but empty and
uncertain things, and will live every day in open contradiction to what is contained,
commanded, and forbidden therein. As
FIRST. This will show us that all your drunkards, whoremasters, liars, thieves, swearers,
backbiters, slanderers, scoffers at goodness, &c. I say, we may see by this that
they that live in such things, have not the faith of these things contained in their
hearts, seeing they delight to practise those things that are forbidden by and in
them. And so, they continuing living and dying in this state, we may conclude without
fear that these portions of holy Scripture belong unto them, and shall for certain
be fulfilled upon them: 'He that believeth not shall be damned' (Mark 16:16). 'The
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God' (1 Cor 6:9,10). 'But the abominable,
the unbelieving, the whoremongers, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone' (Rev 21:8). 'Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt 25:41). Depart, depart from me,
for I will not save you. Depart, for my blood shall not at all wash you. Depart,
for you shall not set one foot into the kingdom of heaven.
'Depart, ye cursed,' ye are cursed of God, cursed of his law, cursed of me, cursed
by the saints, and cursed by the angels; cursed all over, nothing but cursed, and
therefore depart from me; and whither? into everlasting fire—fire that will scald,
scorch, burn, and flame to purpose. 'Fire that shall never be quenched' (Mark 9).
Fire that will last to all eternity. And must we be all alone? No, you shall have
company, store of company with you. Namely, all the raging, roaring devils, together
with an innumerable company of fellow-damned sinners, men, women, and children. And
if the Scriptures be true, as they will one day wonderfully appear to be, then this
must and shall be thy portion, if thou live and die in this state; and of all them
who continue in sinning against the truth contained in the Scriptures. As,
First. Dost thou delight to sin against plain commands? THOU ART GONE.
Second. Dost thou slight and scorn the counsels contained in the Scriptures, and
continue in so doing? THEN THOU ART GONE.
Third. Dost thou continually neglect to come to Christ, and usest arguments in thine
own heart to satisfy thy soul with so doing? THEN THOU ART GONE. (Luke 14:17,18,
compared with v 24, and Heb 2:3). 'How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?'
How shall we escape, that is, there is no way to escape.
(1.) Because God hath said we shall not (Heb 12:25). 'See that ye refuse not him
that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth,' that
was Moses, 'much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven.'
(2.) Because he hath not only said they shall not, but also hath bound it with an
oath, saying, 'So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest' (Heb 3:11).
To whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest? Answer, 'to them that
believed not.' So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief (vv 18,19).
SECOND. This will teach us what to think and conclude of such, who, though they do
not so openly discover their folly by open and gross sins against the law, yet will
give more heed to their own spirits, and the movings thereof, though they be neither
commanded nor commended for the same in Scripture; nay, though the Scripture command
and commend the contrary, than they will to the holy and revealed will of God (Isa
8:20). I say, such men are in as bad a state as the other to the full, being disobedient
to God's will revealed in his Word, as well as they, though in a different manner;
the one openly transgressing against the plain and well-known truths revealed in
it; the other, though more close and hidden, yet secretly rejecting and slighting
them, giving more heed to their own spirits, and the motions thereof, although not
warranted by the Scriptures.
A few words more, and so I shall conclude. And,
First. Take heed that you content not yourself with a bare notion of the Scriptures
in your heads, by which you may go far, even so far as to be able to dispute for
the truth, to preach the gospel, and labour to vindicate it in opposition to gainsayers,
and yet be found at the left hand of Christ at the judgment-day, forasmuch as thou
didst content thyself with a notion or traditional knowledge of them.[48]
Second. Have a care that thou own the whole Scripture, and not own one part and neglect
another, or slight it; as thus: To own the law, and slight the gospel; or to think
that thou must be saved by thy good doings and works; for that is all one, as if
thou didst thrust Christ away from thee; or else so to own the gospel, as if by it
thou wert exempted from all obedience to the ten commandments, and conformity to
the law in life and conversation; for in so doing thou wilt for certain make sure
of eternal vengeance.
Third. Have a care that thou put not wrong names on the things contained in the Scriptures,
as to call the law, Christ, and Christ, the law, for some having done so, in my knowledge,
have so darkened to themselves the glorious truths of the gospel, that in a very
little time they have been resolved to thwart and oppose them, and so have made room
in their own souls for the devil to inhabit, and obtained a place in hell for their
own souls to be tormented for ever and ever.
Against this danger therefore in reading and receiving the testimony of Scripture,
learn to distinguish between the law and the gospel, and to keep them clear asunder,
as to the salvation of thy soul.
1. And that thou mayest so do, in the first place beg of God that he would show thee
the nature of the gospel, and set it home effectually with life and power upon thy
soul by faith. Which is this, that God would show thee, that as thou being man hast
sinned against God, so Christ, being God- man, hath bought thee again, and with his
most precious blood set thee free from the bondage thou hast fallen into by thy sins.
And that not upon condition that thou wilt do thus and thus, this and the other good
work; but rather, that thou, being first justified freely by mere grace through the
blood of Jesus, shouldst also receive thy strength from him who hath bought thee,
to walk before him in all well- pleasing. Being enabled thereto by virtue of his
Spirit, which hath revealed to thy soul that thou art delivered already from wrath
to come, by the obedience, not of thee, but of another man, viz., Jesus Christ.
2. Then if the law thou readest of, tell thee in thy conscience thou must do this
and the other good work of the law, if ever thou wilt be saved; answer plainly, that
for thy part thou art resolved now not to work for life, but to believe in the virtue
of that blood shed upon the cross, upon Mount Calvary, for the remission of sins.
And yet because Christ hath justified thee freely by his grace, thou wilt serve him
in holiness and righteousness all the days of thy life, yet not in a legal spirit,
or in a covenant of works; but mine obedience, say thou, I will endeavour to have
it free, and cheerful, out of love to my Lord Jesus.
3. Have a care thou receive not this doctrine in the notion only, lest thou bring
a just damnation upon thy soul, by professing thyself to be freed by Christ's blood
from the guilt of sin, while thou remainest still a servant to the filth of sin.
For I must tell you, that unless you have the true and saving work of the faith and
grace of the gospel in your hearts, you will either go on in a legal holiness, according
to the tenor of the law; or else through a notion of the gospel, the devil bewitching
and beguiling thy understanding, will, and affections, thou wilt, Ranter-like, turn
the grace of God into wantonness, and bring upon thy soul double, if not treble damnation,
in that thou couldest not be contented to be damned for thy sins against the law,
but also to make ruin sure to thy soul, thou wouldst dishonour the gospel, and turn
the grace of God, held forth and discovered to men by that, into licentiousness.[49]
But that thou mightest be sure to escape these dangerous rocks on the right hand
and on the left, see that thy faith be such as is spoken of in Scripture. And that
thou be not satisfied without that, which is a faith wrought by the mighty operation
of God, revealing Christ to and in thee, as having wholly freed thee from thy sins
by his most precious blood. Which faith, if thou attain unto, will so work in thy
heart, that first thou wilt see the nature of the law, and [secondly] also the nature
of the gospel, and delight in the glory of it; and also thou wilt find an engaging
of thy heart and soul to Jesus Christ, even to the giving up of thy whole man unto
him, to be ruled and governed by him to his glory, and thy comfort, by the faith
of the same Lord Jesus.
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