Works of John Bunyan Volume I Part 115

"Sinner, O why so thoughtless grown? Why in such dreadful hast to die?"--Ed.

13 "Tend it," or attend to it. What madness does sin engender and foster! The trifles of time entirely occupy the attention, while the momentous affairs of eternity are put off to a more convenient opportunity.--Ed.

14 Lowth's translation of this pa.s.sage in Isaiah 6:13 not only confirms Bunyan, but exhibits his view in a more prominent light:--"And though there be a tenth part remaining in it, even this shall undergo a repeated destruction; yet as the ilex and the oak, though cut down, hath its stock remaining, a holy seed shall be the stock of the nation."--Ed.

15 How solemn the thought--there is but little wheat in comparison with all the gra.s.s and vegetable produce of the earth; and in the harvest how much chaff and straw, which grew with the wheat, will be cast out! Well may it be said, Look to it, professors.--Ed.

16 The word "faith" was changed in 1737 for "repentance," which has been continued in subsequent editions; "faith" is right. Awakenings and repentance are cla.s.sed together under the first head, and faith under the second.--Ed.

17 Many readers will cry out, Who then can be saved? Without charity, or the love of Christ in the heart, all faith and works are but dross. Love is the touchstone of faith and works--not to glorify ourselves, but him who has bought us with his own most precious blood. Carry the solemn inquiry to the throne of grace, Have I pa.s.sed from death unto life? for whosoever thus liveth believeth in Christ, and amidst the fatal wreck of professors, he shall never die.--Ed.

18 "To doubt"; to suspect, make a question of, reconsider.--Ed.

19 When Talkative asked Faithful what difference there is between crying out against and abhorring sin, he answered, "O! a great deal; a man may cry out against sin of policy, but he cannot abhor it but by virtue of a G.o.dly antipathy against it. I have heard many cry out against sin in the pulpit, who yet can abide it well enough in the heart, house, and conversation."--Pilgrim's Progress.

20 Similar to By-ends who never strove for heaven against wind or weather; was most zealous when religion walked in his silver slippers, and walked with him in the streets, while the sun shone, and people applauded him.--Pilgrim's Progress.

21 The striving inculcated in this treatise reminds us of Hopkins'

bold appeal to conscience. He says, "There must be a holy roughness and violence, to break through all that stands in our way; neither caring for allurements, nor fearing opposition, but by a pious obstinacy and frowardness, we must thrust away the one and bear down the other. This is the Christian who will carry heaven by force, when the whining pusillanimous professor, who only complains of difficulty, but never attempts to conquer it, will be for ever shut out!"--Ed.

LIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS;

OR,

A DISCOURSE OF JESUS CHRIST:

AND THAT HE UNDERTOOK TO ACCOMPLISH BY HIMSELF THE ETERNAL REDEMPTION OF SINNERS:

ALSO, HOW THE LORD JESUS ADDRESSED HIMSELF TO THIS WORK; WITH UNDENIABLE DEMONSTRATIONS THAT HE PERFORMED THE SAME.

OBJECTIONS TO THE CONTRARY ANSWERED.

'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.'--Galatians 3:13.

by John Bunyan--1674

ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT BY THE EDITOR.

This solemn and searching treatise was first published in 1674, a copy of which is in the Editor's possession. The author's object is to correct some fatal errors which then peculiarly abounded, and to recommend the gospel in its purity to the acceptation of his fellow-sinners. Possessing that inward peace, serenity, happiness, and safety, arising from a scriptural knowledge of Christ and him crucified, he proclaims, 'I have ventured my own soul thereon with gladness,' and 'if all the souls in the world were mine, I would venture them all.' His prayer is that others may receive the same light and life by faith.

Every age has had its peculiar delusions for the trial of the spirit--mysticism in Bunyan's time, Puseyism in our days. Prior to the Reformation, the clergy, called the church, claimed implicit obedience from the laity as essential to salvation, and taught that inquiry was the high road to eternal ruin. After the Bible had been extensively circulated, many regarded it as the letter which killeth--that it was of no importance, compared with the light within, which alone was essential. These were not the notions of any one or two sects, but had spread their influence to a considerable extent over the Christian church. To check the growth of these errors, and to recover those who had been misled by them, Bunyan published this 'Light for them that sit in darkness.' His object is to prove that all our knowledge of the Saviour must be received directly from the written Word--that to understand these holy oracles, we must seek and obtain Divine light. By this light we shall find that Christ took upon himself our nature, and, by his holy and perfect obedience to the law, and sacrifice of himself as a sin-atoning offering, he redeemed all his saints, paid the FULL price of their redemption, and will present them unblameable, unreprovable, and acceptable to him that is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.

Their robes are washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb; they are perfect as Christ is perfect; there is no condemnation to them; their salvation is sure. To those whose spirits are dismayed under a fear that they have sinned the unpardonable sin, the arguments on the following pages are most consoling. Those who are under that awful curse are sunk in a deathly state of insensibility, while they sit in the seat of the scorner. To be alarmed with the fear of having so offended the Saviour, is the best evidence that no such sin can have been committed. The closing chapter is full of striking solemnity. May its beneficial effects be felt, to the glory of G.o.d and the reader's solid peace.

GEO. OFFOR.

THE AUTHOR TO THE READER.

Gentle Reader,

It was the great care of the apostle Paul to deliver his gospel to the churches in its own simplicity, because so it is the power of G.o.d unto salvation to every one that believeth. And if it was his care so to deliver it to us, it should be ours to seek so to continue it; and the rather, because of the unaptness of the minds, even of the saints themselves, to retain it without commixture. For, to say nothing of the projects of h.e.l.l, and of the cunning craftiness of some that lie in wait to deceive even the G.o.dly themselves, as they are dull of hearing, so much more dull in receiving and holding fast the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. From their sense, and reason, and unbelief, and darkness, arise many imaginations and high thoughts, which exalt themselves against the knowledge of G.o.d and the obedience of Jesus Christ, wherefore they themselves have much ado to stand complete in all the will of G.o.d. And were they not concerned in electing love, by which they are bound up in the bundle of life, and blessed with the enjoyment of saving grace, which enlighteneth their souls and maintaineth their fath and hope, they would not only be a.s.saulted and afflicted with their own corruptions, but, as others, overcome thereby.

Alas! how ordinary a thing is it for professors to fall from the knowledge they have had of the glorious gospel of the blessed G.o.d, and to be turned unto fables, seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, through the intoxications of delusions and the witchcraft of false preachers.

Now, this their swerving from the gospel ariseth, 1. Either from their not having, or, having, not retaining, the true knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; or, 2. From their not believing the true causes of his coming into the world, with his doing and suffering there. Upon one or both these accounts, I say, it is that they everlastingly perish; for if they have not, and do not also retain the knowledge of his person, they want the HE, on whom, if they believe not, they must die in their sins; and if they know not the reason of his coming, doing, and suffering, they are in the same condition also.

Now, those professors that have had some knowledge of these things, and yet have lost them, it hath come thus to pa.s.s with them because they first lost the knowledge of themselves and of their sins.

They know not themselves to be such nothing ones as the Scriptures reporteth them to be, nor their sins to be so heinous as the law hath concluded; therefore they either turn again with the dog to his vomit, or adhere to a few of the rags of their own fleshly righteousness, and so become pure in their own eyes, yet are not purged by blood from their filthiness.

For the person and doings of Jesus Christ are only precious to them that get and retain the true knowledge of themselves, and the due reward of their sins by the law. These are desolate, being driven out of all; these embrace the rock instead of a shelter. The sensible sinner receiveth him joyfully.

And because a miscarriage in this great truth is the most dangerous and d.a.m.ning miscarriage, therefore should professors be the more fearful of swerving aside therefrom. The man that rejecteth the true knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus, and the causes of his doing and suffering in the world, takes the next way to be guilty of that transgression that is not to be purged with sacrifice for ever; that fearful transgression for which is left no offering at all, nor anything to be expected by the person transgressing but fearful judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary.

Now, for their sakes that have not sinned this sin, for their sakes that are in danger thereof, but yet not overcome, for their sakes have I written this little book, wherein is largely, and yet with few words, discovered the doctrine of the person, and doings, and sufferings of Christ, with the true cause thereof, also a removal of those objections that the crafty children of darkness have framed against the same.

And I have been the more plain and simple in my writing, because the sin against the Holy Ghost is in these days more common than formerly, and the way unto it more beautified with colour and pretence of truth. I may say of the way to this sin, it is, as was once the way to Jerusalem, strewed with boughs and branches; and by some there is cried a kind of hosanna to them that are treading these steps to h.e.l.l. O the plausible pretences, the golden names, the feigned holiness, the demure behaviours, mixed with d.a.m.nable hypocrisy, that attend the persons that have forsaken the Lord Jesus, that have despised his person, trampled upon him, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing!

They have crucified him to themselves, and think that they can go to heaven without him; yea, pretend they love him, when they hate him; pretend they have him, when they have cast him off; pretend they trust in him, when they bid defiance to his undertakings for the world.

Reader, let me beseech thee to hear me patiently; read, and consider, and judge. I have presented thee with that which I have received from G.o.d; and the holy men of G.o.d, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, do bear me witness. Thou wilt say, All pretend to this. Well, but give me the hearing, take me to the Bible, and let me find in thy heart no favour if thou find me to swerve from the standard.

I say again, receive my doctrine; I beseech thee, in Christ's stead, receive it; I know it to be the way of salvation. I have ventured my own soul thereon with gladness; and if all the souls in the world were mine, as mine own soul is, I would, through G.o.d's grace, venture every one of them there. I have not writ at a venture, nor borrowed my doctrine from libraries. I depend upon the sayings of no man. I found it in the Scriptures of truth, among the true sayings of G.o.d.

I have done, when I have exhorted thee to pray, and give heed to the words of G.o.d as revealed in the Holy Writ. The Lord Jesus Christ himself give thee light and life by faith in him; to whom, with the Father and the good Spirit of grace, be glory and dominion, now and for ever. Amen.

JOHN BUNYAN.

LIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS.

'OF THIS MAN'S SEED HATH G.o.d, ACCORDING TO HIS PROMISE, RAISED UNTO ISRAEL A SAVIOUR, JESUS.'--ACTS 13:23.

These words are part of a sermon which Paul preached to the people that lived at Antioch in Pisidia, where also inhabited many of the Jews. The preparation to his discourse he thus begins--'Men of Israel, and ye that fear G.o.d, give audience' (v 16); by which having prepared their minds to attend, he proceeds and gives a particular relation of G.o.d's peculiar dealings with his people Israel, from Egypt to the time of David their king, of whom he treateth particularly--

That he was the son of Jesse, that he was a king, that G.o.d raised him up in mercy, that G.o.d gave testimony of him, that he was a man after G.o.d's own heart, that he should fulfil all his will (v 22).

And this he did of purpose both to engage them the more to attend, and because they well knew that of the fruit of his loins G.o.d hath promised the Messiah should come.

Having thus therefore gathered up their minds to hearken, he presenteth them with his errand--to wit, that the Messiah was come, and that the promise was indeed fulfilled that a Saviour should be born to Israel--'Of this man's seed,' saith he, 'hath G.o.d, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.'

In this a.s.sertion he concludeth--1. That the promise had kept its due course in presenting a Saviour to Israel--to wit, in David's loins--'Of this man's seed.' 2. That the time of the promise was come, and the Saviour was revealed--'G.o.d hath raised unto Israel a Saviour.' 3. That Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, was he--'He hath raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.'

From these things we may inquire, for the explication of the words, First. What this Jesus is? Second. What it was for this Jesus to be of the seed of David? Third. What it was for Jesus to be of this man's seed according to the promise? And, Fourth, what it was for him to be raised unto Israel? These things may give us light into what shall be spoken after.

Quest. First. What this Jesus is?

He is G.o.d, and had personal being from before all worlds; therefore not such an one as took being when he was formed in the world; he is G.o.d's natural Son, the Eternal Son of his begetting and love--'G.o.d sent forth his Son.' He was, and was his Son, before he was revealed--'What is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?' (Prov 30:4; Eze 21:10). He hath an eternal generation, such as none can declare, not man, not angel (Isa 53:8). He was the delight of his Father before he had made either mountain or hill.

While as yet he had not made the earth or the fields, or the highest part of the dust of the world, all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. It is he with whom the Father consulted when he was about to make man, when he intended to overthrow Babel, and when he sent Isaiah to harden the hearts of Israel (Prov 8:26; John 1:3; Heb 1:2,3; Col 1:17; Gen 1:26, 11:7; Isa 6:8). This is the person intended in the text. Hence also he testifies of himself that he came down from the Father; that he had glory with him before the world was. And 'what and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?' (John 6:62, 16:28, 17:5).

Quest. Second. What was it for Jesus to be of David's seed?