The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (books to read to improve english .TXT) 📕

I will warrant you, God will never break His oath; therefore we may well have good ground to hope from such a good foundation as this, that God will never leave us indeed. Amen.

Third. Not only thus, but, 1. God hath begotten believers again to Himself, to be His adopted and accepted children, in and through the Lord Jesus (1 Peter 1:3). 2. God hath prepared a kingdom for them before the foundation of the world, through Jesus Christ (Matt 25:34). 3. He hath given them an earnest of their happiness while they live here in this world. “After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory,” and that through this Jesus (Eph 1:13,14). [These things are more fully laid down in that part of the book which containeth the discourse of the privileges of the new covenant]. 4. If His children sin through weakness, or by sudden temptation, they confessing of it, He willingly forgives, and heals all their wounds, reneweth His love towards them, waits to do them good, casteth their sins into the depths of the sea, and all this freely, without any work done by men as men—Not for your own sakes do I do this, O house of Israel, be it known unto you, saith the Lord, but wholly and alone by the blood of Jesus (Eze 36:23,23).

5. In a word, if you would see it altogether, God’s love was the cause why Jesus Christ was sent to bleed for sinners. Jesus Christ’s bleeding stops the cries of Divine justice; God looks upon them as complete in Him, gives them to Him as His by right of purchase.

Jesus ever lives to pray for them that are thus given unto Him.

God sends His Holy Spirit into them to reveal this to them, sends His angels to minister for them; and all this by virtue of an Everlasting Covenant between the Father and the Son. Thrice happy are the people that are in such a case!

Nay, further, He hath made them brethren with Jesus Christ, members of His flesh and of His bones, the spouse of this Lord Jesus; and all to show you how dearly, how really, how constantly He loveth us, who, by faith of His operation, have laid hold upon Him. [These things I might have treated upon more largely].

[Further Arguments and Objections answered].

I shall now lay down a few arguments for the superabundant clearing of it, and afterwards answer two or three objections that may be made against it, and so I shall fall upon the next thing.

First. God loves the saints as He loves Jesus Christ; and God loves Jesus Christ with an eternal love; therefore the saints also with the same. “Thou hast loved them as Thou has loved Me” (John 17:23).

Second. That love which is God Himself, must needs be everlasting love; and that is the love wherewith God hath loved His saints in Christ Jesus; therefore His love towards His children in Christ must needs be an everlasting love. There is none dare say that the love of God is mixed with a created mixture; if not, then it must needs be Himself (1 John 4:16). [You must not understand that love in God is a passion as it is in us; but the love of God is the very essence or nature of God].

Third. That love which is always pitched upon us, in an object as holy as God, must needs be an everlasting love. Now the love of God was and is pitched upon us, through an object as holy as God Himself, even our Lord Jesus; therefore it must needs be unchangeable.

Fourth. If He with whom the Covenant of Grace was made, did in every thing and condition do even what the Lord could desire or require of Him, that His love might be extended to us, and that for ever, then His love must needs be an everlasting love, seeing everything required of us was completely accomplished for us by Him; and all this hath our Lord Jesus done, and that most gloriously, even on our behalf; therefore it must needs be a love that lasts for ever and ever.

Fifth. If God hath declared Himself to be the God that changeth not, and hath sworn to be immutable in His promise, then surely He will be unchangeable; and He hath done so; therefore it is impossible for God to lie, and so for His eternal love to be changeable (Heb 6:13-18). Here is an argument of the Spirit’s own making! Who can contradict it? If any object, and say, But still it is upon the condition of believing—I answer, The condition also is His own free gift, and not a qualification arising from the stock of nature (Eph 2:8; Phil 1:28,29). So that here is the love unchangeable; here is also the condition given by Him whose love is unchangeable, which may serve yet further for a strong argument that God will have His love unchangeable. Sinner, this is better felt and enjoyed than talked of.

Objection First. But if this love of God be unchangeable in itself, yet it is not unchangeably set upon the saints unless they behave themselves the better. [The first objection].

Answ. As God’s love at the first was bestowed upon the saints without anything foreseen by the Lord in them, as done by them, Deuteronomy 9:4-6, so He goeth on with the same, Saying, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5).

Objection Second. But how cometh it to pass then, that many fall off again from the grace of the Gospel, after a profession of it for some time; some to delusions, and some to their own sins again?

[The second objection].

Answ. They are all fallen away, not from the everlasting love of God to them, but from the profession of the love of God to them.

Men may profess that God loves them when there is no such matter, and that they are the children of God, when the devil is their father; as it is in John 8:40-44. Therefore they that do finally fall away from a profession of the grace of the Gospel, it is, first, because they are bastards and not sons. Secondly, because as they are not sons, so God suffereth them to fall, to make it appear that they are not sons, not of the household of God—“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt,” mark that, “no doubt,” saith he, “they would have continued with us: but they went out,” from us, “that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1 John 2:19). And though Hymeneus and Philetus do throw themselves headlong to Hell, “nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His” (2 Tim 2:17-19).

Objection Third. But the Scripture saith that there are some that had faith, yet lost it, and have made shipwreck of it. [The third objection]. Now God loves no longer than they believe, as is evident; for “he that believeth not shall be damned.” So then, if some may have faith, and yet lose it, and so lose the love of God because they have lost their faith, it is evident that God’s love is not so immutable as you say it is to every one that believeth.

Answ. There are more sorts of faith than one that are spoken of in Scripture—

1. There is a faith that man may have, and yet be nothing, none of the saints of God, and yet may do great things therewith (1 Cor 13:1-4).

2. There is a faith that was wrought merely by the operation of the miracles that were done in those days by Christ and his followers—“And many of the people believed in Him.” How came they by their faith? Why, by the operation of the miracles that He did among them; for said they, “When Christ cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man hath done?” (John 7:31).

The great thing that wrought their faith in them, was only by seeing the miracles that He did, John 2:23, which is not that saving faith which is called the faith of God’s elect, as is evident; for there must not be only miracles wrought upon outward objects to beget that—that being too weak a thing—but it must be by the same power that was stretched out in raising Christ from the dead; yea, the exceeding greatness of that power (Eph 1:18,19). So there is a believing, being taken with some marvelous work, visibly appearing to the outward sense of seeing; and there is a believing that is wrought in the heart by an invisible operation of the Spirit, revealing the certainty of the satisfaction of the merits of Christ to the soul in a more glorious way, both for certainty and for durableness, both as to the promise and the constancy of it (Matt 16:17, 18).

3. There is a faith of a man’s own, of a man’s self also; but the faith of the operation of God, in Scripture, is set in opposition to that, for, saith He, you are saved by grace, “through faith, and that not of yourselves,” of your own making, but that which is the free gift of God (Eph 2:8).

4. We say there is an historical faith—that is, such as is begotten by the co-operation of the Spirit with the Word.

5. We say there is a traditional faith—that is, to believe things by tradition, because others say they believe them; this is received by tradition, not by revelation, and shall never be able to stand, neither at the day of death, nor at the day of judgment; though possibly men, while they live here, may esteem themselves and states to be very good, because their heads are filled full of it.

6. There is a faith that is called in Scripture a dead faith, the faith of devils, or of the devil; they also that have only this, they are like the devil, and as sure to be damned as he, notwithstanding their faith, if they get no better into their hearts; for it is far off from enabling of them to lay hold of Jesus Christ, and so to put Him on for eternal life and sanctification, which they must do if ever they be saved (James 2:19,26).

But all these are short of the saving faith of God’s elect, as is manifest; I say, first, Because these may be wrought, and not by that power so exceedingly stretched forth. Secondly, Because these are wrought, partly, (1.) By the sense of seeing—namely, the miracles—not by hearing; and, (2.) The rest is wrought by a traditional or historical influence of the words in their heads, not by a heavenly, invisible, almighty, and saving operation of the Spirit of God in their hearts.

7. I do suppose also that there is a faith that is wrought upon men through the influence of those gifts