Works of John Bunyan — Volume 01

by John Bunyan

(2.) As the Covenant of Works doth promise an earthly paradise, yet it is a paradise or blessing, though once obtained, yet might be lost again; for no longer than thou doest well, no longer art thou blessed by that. O, but the promises in the new covenant do bring unto us the benefit of an eternal inheritance—That “they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” O rare! it is an “eternal inheritance” (Heb 9:15).

(3.) The other, as it is not so good as this, so neither is it so sure as this; and therefore he calls the one such an one as might be, and was, shaken, but this is said to be such an one that cannot be shaken. “And this Word,” saith he, treating of the two covenants from verse the 8th to the 24th—“And this Word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are,” or may be, “shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken,” which is the second covenant, “may remain,” (Heb 12:27); for, saith he (verse 28) “which cannot be moved.” Therefore, ye blessed saints, seeing you have received a kingdom “which cannot be moved,” therefore, “let us have grace, whereby we may serve” our “God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

Thus in general, but more particularly.

(4.) They are surer, in that they are founded upon God’s love also, and they come to us without calling for those things at our hands that may be a means of putting of a stop to our certain enjoying of them. The promises under, or for the law, they might easily be stopped by our disobedience; but the promises under the Gospel say, “If Heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched,” then, and not till then, “I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done” (Jer 31:37). Again, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own” name’s “sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isa 43:25). I will make thee a partaker of My promise; and that I may so do, I will take away that which would hinder; “I will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea,” that My promise may be sure to all the seed; and therefore, saith the Apostle, when he would show us that the new-covenant promises were more sure than the old, he tells us plainly that the law and works are set aside and they are merely made ours through the righteousness of faith, which is the righteousness of Christ—“For the promise, that he [Abraham] should be the heir of the world,” saith he, “was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law,” or works, “but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law,” or of works, “be heirs,” then “faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Therefore it is of faith—to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed” (Rom 4:13-14,16).

(5.) Surer, because that as that is taken away that should hinder, so they are committed to a faithful Friend of ours in keeping. For all the promises of God are in Christ, not yea and nay, but yea and amen; certain and sure; sure, because they are in the hand of our Head, our Friend, our Brother, our Husband, our flesh and bones, even in the heart and hand of our precious Jesus.

(6.) Because all the conditions of them are already fulfilled for us by Jesus Christ, as aforesaid; every promise that is a new-covenant promise, if there be any condition in it, our Undertaker hath accomplished that for us, and also giveth us such grace as to receive the sweetness as doth spring from them through His obedience to every thing required in them.

(7.) Surer, because that as they are grounded upon the love of God, everything is taken out of the way, in the hand of a sure Friend. And as Christ hath fulfilled every condition as to justification that is contained therein, so the Lord hath solemnly sworn with an oath for our better confidence in this particular—“For when God made promise to Abraham,” and so to all the saints, “because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife,” that there might be no more doubt or scruple concerning the certain fulfilling of the promise. “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel,” or certain, constant, unchangeable decree of God in making of the promise, for the comfort of his children, “confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things,” His promise backed with an oath, “in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Heb 6:13-18).

(8.) That they are better it appears also in that they are freer and fuller. That they are freer, it is evident, in that one saith, No works, no life—Do this, and then thou shalt live; if not, thou shalt be damned. But the other saith, We are saved by believing in what Another hath done, without the works of the Law—“Now to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom 4:4,5). The one saith, Pay me that thou owest; the other say, I do frankly and freely forgive thee all. The one saith, Because thou hast sinned, thou shalt die; the other saith, Because Christ lives, thou shalt live also (John 15).

(9.) And as they are freer, so they are fuller; fuller of encouragement, fuller of comfort; the one, to wit, the law, looks like Pharaoh’s seven ill-favoured kine, more ready to eat one up than to afford us any food; the other is like the full grape in the cluster, which for certain hath a glorious blessing in it. The one saith, If thou hast sinned, turn again; the other saith, If thou hast sinned, thou shalt be damned, for all I have a promise in me.

3. They that are of the second are better than they that are of the first; and it also appeareth in this—The promises of the Law, through them we have neither faith, nor hope, nor the Spirit conveyed; but through the promises of the Gospel there are all these—“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of the Divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). O therefore “let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised” (Heb 10:23). “In hope of eternal life,” how so? because “God, that cannot lie, promised it before the world began” (Titus 1:2).