For matters that are vain;
Yet sin besets you round about,
You are in Satan's chain.
58. You dare not for the truth engage,
You quake at prisonment;
You dare not make the tree your stage
For Christ, that King, potent.
59. Know then, true valour there doth dwell
Where men engage for God,
Against the devil, death, and hell,
And bear the wicked's rod.
60. These be the men that God doth count
Of high and noble mind;
These be the men that do surmount
What you in nature find.
61. First they do conquer their own hearts,
All worldly fears, and then
Also the devil's fiery darts,
And persecuting men.
62. They conquer when they thus do fall,
They kill when they do die:
They overcome then most of all,
And get the victory.
63. The worldling understands not this,
'Tis clear out of his sight;
Therefore he counts this world his bliss,
And doth our glory slight.
64. The lubber knows not how to spring
The nimble footman's stage;
Neither can owls or jackdaws sing
If they were in the cage.
65. The swine doth not the pearls regard,
But them doth slight for grains,
Though the wise merchant labours hard
For them with greatest pains.
66. Consdier man what I have said,
And judge of things aright;
When all men's cards are fully played,
Whose will abide the light?
67. Will those, who have us hither cast?
Or they who do us scorn?
Or those who do our houses waste?
Or us, who this have borne?
68. And let us count those things the best
That best will prove at last;
And count such men the only blest,
That do such things hold fast.
69. And what though they us dear do cost,
Yet let us buy them so;
We shall not count our labour lost
When we see others' woe.
70. And let saints be no longer blam'd
By carnal policy;
But let the wicked be asham'd
Of their malignity.
***
THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED;
OR,
GOOD NEWS FOR THE VILEST OF MEN;
BEING A HELP FOR DESPAIRING SOULS, SHOWING THAT JESUS CHRIST WOULD HAVE MERCY IN THE FIRST PLACE OFFERED TO THE BIGGEST SINNERS.
THE THIRD EDITION,
IN WHICH IS ADDED, AN ANSWER TO THOSE GRAND OBJECTIONS THAT LIE IN THE WAY OF THE THEM THAT WOULD BELIEVE: FOR THE COMFORT OF THEM THAT FEAR THEY HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.
BY JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD.
London: Printed for Elizabeth Smith, at the Hand and Bible, on
London Bridge, 1691.
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.
THAT Bunyan, who considered himself one of the most notorious of Jerusalem sinners, should write with the deepest earnestness upon this subject, is not surprising. He had preached upon it with very peculiar pleasure, and, doubtless, from many texts; and, as he says, 'through God's grace, with great success.' It is not probable that, with his characteristic intensity of feeling, and holy fervour in preaching, he ever delivered the same sermon twice; but this was a subject so in unison with his own feelings and experience, that he must have dilated upon it with even unusual interest and earnestness. The marrow of all these exercises he concentrated in this treatise; and when his judgment was, by severe internal conflicts, fully matured—upon the eve of the close of his earthly pilgrimage, in the last year of his life, 1688—he published it in a pocket volume of eight sheets. It was soon translated into several languages, and became so popular as to pass through ten editions in English by 1728. Like other favourite books, it was ornamented with some very inferior wood-cuts.
The object of the author is fully explained in the title to his book. It is to display the riches of Divine grace and mercy to the greatest sinners—even to those whose conduct entitled them to be called 'Satan's colonels, and captains, the leaders of his people; and to such as most stoutly make head against the Son of God.' It is to those who feel themselves to be such, and who make a proper estimate of their own characters, as in the sight of God, that the gracious proclamations of the gospel are peculiarly directed. They to whom much is forgiven, love much; and the same native energies which had been misdirected to promote evil, when sanctified and divinely guided, become a great blessing to the church, and to society at large.
Bunyan does not stoop to any attempt to reconcile the humbling doctrines of grace to the self-righteous pride of those who, considering themselves but little sinners, would feel contaminated by the company of those who had been such great sinners, although they were pardoned and sanctified by God. His great effort was directed to relieve the distress and despair of those who were suffering under deep convictions; still, his whole treatise shows that the doctrine of salvation by grace, of free gift, is no encouragement to sin that grace may abound, as some have blasphemously asserted. It is degrading to the pride of those who have not drunk so deeply of sin, to be placed upon a level with great sinners. But the disease is the same—in breaking one commandment, the whole law is violated; and, however in some the moral leprosy does not make such fearful ravages as in others, the slightest taint conveys moral, spiritual, and eternal death. ALL, whether young or old, great or small, must be saved by grace, or fall into perdition. The difference between the taint of sin, and its awfully developed leprosy, is given. Who so ready to fly to the physician as those who feel their case to be desperate? and, when cured, they must love the Saviour most.
Comparatively little sins before conviction, when seen in the glass of God's law, and in his holy presence, become great ones. Those who feel themselves to be great sinners, are peculiarly invited to the arms of the Saviour, who saves to the uttermost ALL that come unto him; and it is thus that peculiar consolation is poured in, and the broken heart is bound up. We are then called by name, as Bunyan forcibly describes it, as men called by name before a court. 'Who first cry out, "Here, Sir"; and then shoulder and crowd, and say, "Pray give way, I am called into the court." This is thy case, wherefore say, "Stand away, devil, Christ calls me; stand away, unbelief, Christ calls me; stand away, all ye my discouraging apprehensions, for my Saviour calls me to him to receive of his mercy."' 'Wherefore, since Christ says come, let the angels make a lane, and let all men give place, that the Jerusalem sinner may come to Jesus Christ for mercy.' How characteristic is this of the peculiarly striking style of Bunyan! How solemn his warnings! 'The invitations of the gospel will be, to those who refuse them, the hottest coals in hell.' His reasonings against despair are equally forcible: ''Tis a sin to begin to despair before one sets his foot over the threshold of hell gate.