Works of John Bunyan — Complete

by John Bunyan

And first of all, he doth endeavour by all means to keep thee in love with thy sins and pleasures, knowing that he is sure of thee, if he can but bewitch thee to live and die in them (1 Cor 6:9,10; 2 Thess 2:12). Yea, he knows that he is as sure of thee, as if he had thee in hell already (John 3:19). And that he might accomplish his design on thee in this particular, he laboureth by all means possible to keep thy conscience asleep in security and self-conceitedness, keeping thee from all things that might be a means to awaken and rouse up thine heart. As first, he will endeavour to keep thee from hearing of the word, by suggesting unto [thee] this and the other worldly business which must be performed; so that thou wilt not want excuse to keep thee from the ordinances of Christ, in hearing, reading, meditation, &c., or else, he seeks to disturb, and distract thy mind when thou art conversant in these things, that thou canst not attend to them diligently, and so they become unprofitable; or else if thou art a little more stirred, he labours to rock thee asleep again, by casting thee upon, and keeping thee in evil company, as among rioters, drunkards, jesters, and other of his instruments, which he employeth on purpose to keep thee secure, and so ruin thy soul and body for ever and ever.

If not thus, then peradventure he will seek to persuade thee it is but a melancholy fit, and will put thee upon the works of thy calling, or thy pleasures, or phys; or some other trick he will invent, such as best agreeth with thy nature. And thus thy heart is again deaded, and thou art kept in carnal security, that thou mightest perish for ever. But if notwithstanding these, and many cunning slights more which might be named, he cannot so blind, and benumb thy conscience, but that it doth see and feel sin to be a burden, intolerable and exceeding sinful; Then in the second place, his design is to drive thee to despair, by persuading thee that thy sins are too big to be pardoned; he will seek by all means possible to aggravate them by all the circumstances of time, place, person, manner, nature, and continuance of thy sins, he will object in thy soul, thou hast out-sinned grace, by rejecting so many exhortations, and admonitions, so many reproofs, so many tenders of grace; hadst thou closed in with them it had been well with thee, but now thou hast stood it out so long, that there is no hope for thee: thou mightest have come sooner, if thou didst look to be saved, but now it is too late. And withal, that he might carry on his design upon thee to purpose, he will be sure to present to thy conscience, the most sad sentences of the scripture; yea, and set them home with such cunning arguments, that, if it be possible, he will make thee despair, and make away thyself, as did Judas.

But if he be prevented in this his intended purpose; the next thing he doth beset thee with, is to make thee rest upon thine own righteousness, telling thee, that if thou wilt needs be saved, thou must earn heaven with thy fingers' ends; and it may be, he represents to thy soul such a scripture; 'If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?' And thou having (but in the strength of nature) kept thyself from thy former grosser pollutions, and it may be from some more secret sins, are ready to conclude, now thou dost well; now God accepts thee; now he will pardon, yea, hath pardoned thee; now thy condition is good, and so goest on till thou meetest with a searching word, and ministry, which tells thee, and discovers plainly unto thee, that thou doest all this while deceive thyself, by a vain hope and confidence; for tho' thou seek after the law of righteousness, thou hast not yet attained to the law of righteousness, nor yet canst, because thou seekest it 'not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law' (Rom 9:31,32). Here again, thou art left in the mire, and now peradventure thou seest, that thou art not profited by the works of the law, nor thy own righteousness: And this makes thee stir a little, but in process of time, (through the subtle sleights of the devil, and the wickedness of thine own heart;) thou forgettest thy trouble of conscience, and slippest into a notion of the gospel, and the grace thereof, and now thou thinkest thyself cock-sure: Now thou art able to say, 'He that lives and dies in his sins, shall be damned for them: He that trusts in his own righteousness, shall not be saved': Now thou canst cry, 'grace, grace, it's freely by grace, it's through the death of the man Christ Jesus, that sinners do attain unto eternal life' (Heb 9:14). This, I say, thou hast in the notion, and hast not the power of the same in thine heart, and so it may be thine head is full of the knowledge of the scriptures, though thine heart be empty of sanctifying grace. And thus thou dost rejoice for a time. Yet because thou hast not the root of the matter within thee, in time of temptation thou fallest away (Luke 8:13).

Now being in this condition, and thinking thyself to be wondrous well, because of that notion of the truth, and that notion thou hast in the things of God: I say, being in this state, thou art liable to these dangers.

First, Thou art like to perish if thou die with this notion in thine head, except God out of his rich grace do work a saving work of grace and knowledge in thy heart; for know this, thou mayest understand glorious mysteries, and yet be a cast-away (1 Cor 13:1-3). Or else,

Secondly, Thou art liable to the next damnable heresy that the devil sendeth into the world. See and consider Luke 8:13; 2 Timothy 2:18. I say, thou dost lie liable to be carried away with it, and to be captivated by it; so that at last, through the delusions of the devil, thou mayest have thy conscience seared as with an hot iron, so hard, that neither law, nor gospel, can make any entrance thereinto, to the doing of thee the least good. And indeed, who are the men that at this day are so deluded by the quakers, and other pernicious doctrines; but those who thought it enough to be talkers of the gospel, and grace of God, without seeking and giving all diligence to make it sure unto themselves? 'And for this cause God' [shall send] hath sent 'them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,' as it is written (2 Thess 2:11,12). And indeed if you mark it, you shall see, that they be such kind of people, who at this day are so carried away with the quakers' delusions; namely, a company of loose ranters, and light notionists, with here and there a legalist, which were shaking in their principles from time to time, sometimes on this religion, sometimes on that.[1] And thus these unstable souls are deluded and beguiled at last (2 Peter 2:14). So that these who before (as one would have thought) had something of God in them, are now turned such enemies to the glorious truths of the gospel, that there are none so obstinately erroneous as they. And indeed it is just with God, to give them over to 'believe a lie' (2 Thess 2:11), who before were so idle that they would not receive the truth of God into their hearts, in the love of it. And to be bewitched by the devil to obey his temptations, and be damned, who would not obey the truth, that they might be saved (Gal 3:1).

But you will say, what lies are those, that the devil beguileth poor souls withal? I shall briefly tell you some of them, but having before said, that they especially are liable to the danger of them, who slip into high notions, and rest there; taking that for true faith which is not. I shall desire thee seriously to consider this one character of a NOTIONIST. Such an one, whether he perceives it or not, is puffed up in his fleshly mind, and advanceth himself above others, thinking but few may compare with him for religion and knowledge in the scriptures, but are ignorant and foolish in comparison of him: (Thus knowledge puffeth up, (1 Cor 8:1)) whereas when men receive truth in the love of the truth, the more the head and heart is filled with the knowledge of the mystery of godliness, the more it is emptied of its own things, and is more sensible of its own vileness, and so truly humbled in its own eyes.

And further, a notionist, though he fall from his former strictness and seeming holiness, and appear more loose, and vain in his practices, yet speaks as confidently of himself, as to assurance of salvation, the love of God, and union with God, as ever. But now to return, and declare some of those lies which the devil persuades some of these men to believe.

I. That salvation was not fully, and completely wrought out for poor sinners by the man Christ Jesus, though he did it gloriously (Acts 13:38,39), by his death upon the cross, without the gates of Jerusalem (Heb 13:12 compared with John 19:19,20).

II. This is another of his lies wherewith he doth deceive poor sinners, bidding them follow the light that they brought into the world with them, telling them, that light will lead them to the kingdom; for (say they) it will convince of sin, as swearing, lying, stealing, covetousness, and the rest of the sins against the law (Rom 3:20). But 'the law is not of faith' (Gal 3:13). And then I am sure, that it, with all its motions and convictions, is never able to justify the soul of any poor sinner. 'For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them' (Gal 3:10), but that no man is justified by the law is evident, 'for, The just shall live by faith' (v 11). Now because I am not altogether ignorant of the delusion of the devil touching this grace of faith also, I shall therefore in short give thee (reader) a brief, yet true description from the scripture. 1. What true justifying faith is, and what it lays hold upon. 2. I shall shew who it doth come from. 3. That every one hath it not. 4. What are the fruits of it.