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Seasonable Counsel: By J O H N.B U N Y A N. L O N D O N, Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1684. Published four years before John Bunyan's death. |
TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.
ELOVED, I thought it convenient, since many at this day are exposed
to sufferings, to give my advice touching that to thee. Namely, that thou wouldest
take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, and not suffer thyself to be
entangled in those snares that God hath suffered to be laid in the world for some.
Beware of "men" in the counsel of Christ "for they will deliver you
up" (Matt 10:17). Keep thou therefore within the bounds of uprightness and integrity
towards both God and man: for that will fortify, that will preserve thee, if not
from, yet under the rage of men, in a comfortable and quiet frame of heart. Wherefore
do that, and that only, that will justify thy innocency, and that will help thee,
not with forced speech, but with good conscience, when oppressed, to make thy appeals
to God, and to the consciences of all men.
This is the advice that, I thank God, I have taken myself: for I find that there
is nothing, next to God and his grace by Christ, that can stand one in such stead,
as will a good and harmless conscience.[2]
I hope I can say that God has made me a Christian: and a Christian must be a harmless
man, and to that end, must embrace nothing but harmless principles. A Christian's
business, as a Christian, is to believe in Jesus Christ, and in God the Father by
him; and to seek the good of all about him, according as his place, state and capacity
in this world will admit, not meddling with other men's matters, but ever following
that which is good.
A Christian is a child of the kingdom of God, and that kingdom, take it as it begins
in grace, or as it is perfected in glory, is not of this world but of that which
is to come: and though men of old, as some may now, be afraid of that kingdom: yet
that kingdom will hurt no man, neither with its principles, nor by itself. To instance
somewhat, Faith in Christ: what harm can that do? A life regulated by a moral law,
what hurt is in that? Rejoicing in spirit for the hope of the life to come by Christ,
who will that harm? Nor is the instituted worship of our Lord of any evil tendency,
Christianity teaches us also to do our enemies good, to "Bless them that hate
us, and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us," and what
evil can be in that? This is the sum of the Christian religion, as by the word may
be plainly made appear: wherefore I counsel thee to keep close to these things, and
touch with nothing that jostleth therewith.
Nor do thou marvel, thou living thus, if some should be so foolish as to seek thy
hurt, and to afflict thee, because thy works are good (1 John 3:12,13). For there
is need that thou shouldest at sometimes be in manifold temptations, thy good and
innocent life notwithstanding (1 Peter 1:6). For, to omit other things, there are
some of the graces of God that are in thee, that as to some of their acts, cannot
shew themselves, nor their excellency, nor their power, nor what they can do: but
as thou art in a suffering state. Faith and patience, in persecution, has that to
do, that to shew, and that to perform, that cannot be done, shewed, nor performed
any where else but there. There is also a patience of hope; a rejoicing in hope,
when we are in tribulation, that is, over and above that which we have when we are
at ease and quiet. That also that all graces can endure, and triumph over, shall
not be known, but when, and as we are in a state of affliction. Now these acts of
our graces are of that worth and esteem with God, also he so much delighteth in them:
that occasion through his righteous judgment, must be ministered for them to shew
their beauty, and what bravery [3] there is in them.
It is also to be considered that those acts of our graces, that cannot be put forth,
or shew themselves in their splendour, but when we Christianly suffer, will yield
such fruit to those whose trials call them to exercise, that will, in the day of
God, abound to their comfort, and tend to their perfection in glory (1 Peter 1:7;
2 Cor 4:17).
Why then should we think that our innocent lives will exempt us from sufferings,
or that troubles shall do us such harm? For verily it is for our present and future
good that our God doth send them upon us. I count therefore, that such things are
necessary for the health of our souls, as bodily[4] pains and labour are for
[the health of] the body. People that live high, and in idleness, bring diseases
upon the body: and they that live in all fullness of gospel-ordinances, and are not
exercised with trials, grow gross, are diseased and full of bad humours in their
souls. And though this may to some seem strange: yet our day has given us such an
experimental proof of the truth thereof, as has not been known for some ages past.
Alas! we have need of those bitter pills, at which we so winch and shuck:[5] and it will be well if
at last we be purged as we should thereby. I am sure we are but little the better
as yet, though the physician has had us so long in hand. Some bad humours may possibly
ere long be driven out: but at present the disease is so high, that it makes some
professors fear more a consumption will be made in their purses by these doses, than
they desire to be made better in their souls thereby. I see that I still have need
of these trials; and if God will by these judge me as he judges his saints, that
I may not be condemned with the world, I will cry, Grace, grace for ever. The consideration
also that we have deserved these things, much[6] silences me as to what may yet happen unto
me. I say, to think that we have deserved them of God, though against men we have
done nothing, makes me lay my hand upon my mouth, and causes me to hold my tongue.
Shall we deserve correction? And be angry because we have it! Or shall it come to
save us? and shall we be offended with the hand that brings it! Our sickness is so
great that our enemies take notice of it; let them know too that we also take our
purges patiently. We are willing to pay for those potions that are given us for the
health of our body, how sick soever they make us: and if God will have us pay too
for that which is to better our souls, why should we grudge thereat? Those that bring
us these medicines have little enough for their pains: for my part, I profess, I
would not for a great deal, be bound, for their wages, to do their work. True, physicians
are for the most part chargeable, and the niggards are too loth to part with their
money to them: but when necessity says they must either take physic, or die: of two
evils they desire to choose the least. Why, affliction is better than sin, and if
God sends the one to cleanse us from the other, let us thank him, and be also content
to pay the messenger.
And thou that art so loth to pay for thy sinning, and for the means that puts thee
upon that exercise of thy graces, as will be for thy good hereafter: take heed of
tempting of God lest he doubleth this potion unto thee. The child, by eating of raw
fruit, stands in need of physic, but the child of a childish humour refuseth to take
the potion, what follows but a doubling of the affliction, to wit, frowns, chides,
and further threatenings and a forcing of the bitter pills upon him. But let me,
to persuade thee to lie down and take thy potion, tell thee, it is of absolute necessity,
to wit, for thy spiritual and internal health. For, First, Is it better that thou
receive judgment in this world, or that thou stay for it to be condemned with the
ungodly in the next? Second, Is it better that thou shouldest, as to some acts of
thy graces, be foreign, and a stranger, and consequently that thou shouldest lose
that far more exceeding, and eternal weight of glory that is prepared as the reward
thereof? or that thou shouldest receive it at the hand of God, when the day shall
come that every man shall have praise of him for their doings? Third, And I say again,
since chastisements are a sign of sonship, a token of love: and the contrary a sign
of bastardy, and a token of hatred (Heb 12:6-8; Hosea 4:14). Is it not better that
we bear those tokens and marks in our flesh that bespeak us to belong to Christ,
than those that declare us to be none of his? For my part, God help me to choose
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season: and God of his mercy prepare me for his will.
I am not for running myself into sufferings, but if godliness will expose me to them,
the Lord God make me more godly still: for I believe there is a world to come. But,
Christian reader, I would not detain thee from a sight of those sheets in thy hand:
only let me beg of thee, that thou wilt not be offended either with God, or men,
if the cross is laid heavy upon thee. Not with God, for he doth nothing without a
cause, nor with men, for they are the hand of God: and will they, nill they; [7] they are the servants
of God to thee for good (Psa 17:14; Jer 24:5). Take therefore what comes to thee
from God by them, thankfully. If the messenger that brings it is glad that it is
in his power to do thee hurt, and to afflict thee; if he skips for joy at thy calamity:
be sorry for him; pity him, and pray to thy Father for him: he is ignorant and understandeth
not the judgment of thy God, yea he sheweth by this his behavior, that though he,
as God's ordinance, serveth thee by afflicting of thee: yet means he nothing less
than to destroy thee: by the which also he prognosticates before thee that he is
working out his own damnation by doing of thee good. Lay therefore the woeful state
of such to heart, and render him that which is good for his evil; and love for his
hatred to thee; then shalt thou shew that thou art acted by a spirit of holiness,
and art like thy heavenly Father. And be it so, that thy pity and prayers can do
such an one no good, yet they must light some where, or return again, as ships come
loaden from the Indies, full of blessings into thine own bosom.
And besides all this, is there nothing in dark providences, for the sake of the sight
and observation of which, such a day may be rendered lovely, when it is upon us?
Is there nothing of God, of his wisdom and power and goodness to be seen in thunder,
and lightning, in hailstones? in storms? and darkness and tempests? Why then is it
said, he "hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm" (Nahum 1:3).
And why have God's servants of old made such notes, and observed from them such excellent
and wonderful things. There is that of God to be seen in such a day as cannot be
seen in another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving of others; his
making of shrubs to stand, and his suffering of cedars to fall; his infatuating of
the counsels of men, and his making of the devil to outwit himself; his giving of
his presence to his people, and his leaving of his foes in the dark; his discovering
the uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy
of others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath, and of the
whirlwind and storm.
These days! these days are the days that do most aptly give an occasion to Christians,
of any, to take the exactest measures and scantlings of ourselves. We are apt to
overshoot, in days that are calm, and to think ourselves far higher, and more strong
than we find we be, when the trying day is upon us. The mouth of Gaal and the boasts
of Peter were great and high before the trial came, but when that came, they found
themselves to fall far short of the courage they thought they had (Judg 9:38). We
also, before the temptation comes, think we can walk upon the sea, but when the winds
blow, we feel ourselves begin to sink. Hence such a time is rightly said to be a
time to try us, or to find out what we are, and is there no good in this? Is it not
this that rightly rectifies our judgment about ourselves, that makes us to know ourselves,
that tends to cut off those superfluous sprigs of pride and self-conceitedness, wherewith
we are subject to be overcome? Is not such a day, the day that bends us, humbleth
us, and that makes us bow before God, for our faults committed in our prosperity?
and yet doth it yield no good unto us? we cold not live without such turnings of
the hand of God upon us. We should be overgrown with flesh, if we had not our seasonable
winters. It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit,
because there is no winter there. The Lord bless all seasons to his people, and help
them rightly to behave themselves, under all the times that go over them.
Farewell. I am thine to serve thee in the gospel,
JOHN BUNYAN.
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