Part 1 (1/2)
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.
by John Bunyan.
A PREFACE
OR, BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PUBLIs.h.i.+NG THIS WORK. WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR THEREOF, AND DEDICATED TO THOSE WHOM G.o.d HATH COUNTED HIM WORTHY TO BEGET TO FAITH, BY HIS MINISTRY IN THE WORD
CHILDREN, Grace be with you. _Amen_. I being taken from you in presence, and so tied up that I cannot perform that duty, that from G.o.d doth lie upon me to you-ward, for your farther edifying and building up in faith and holiness, etc., yet that you may see my soul hath fatherly care and desire after your spiritual and everlasting welfare, I now once again, as before, from the top of _Shenir_ and _Hermon_, so now from _the lions' dens_, _from the mountains of the leopards_ (Song iv. 8), do look yet after you all, greatly longing to see your safe arrival into THE desired Haven.
I thank G.o.d upon every remembrance of you; and rejoice, even while I stick between the teeth of the lion in the wilderness, that the grace and mercy, and knowledge of Christ our Saviour, which G.o.d hath bestowed upon you, with abundance of faith and love; your hungerings and thirstings after farther acquaintance with the Father, in the Son; your tenderness of heart, your trembling at sin, your sober and holy deportment also, before both G.o.d and men, is a great refreshment to me; _For ye are our glory and joy_. 1 Thess. ii. 20.
I have sent you here enclosed, a drop of that honey that I have taken out of the carcase of a lion. Judg. xiv. 58. I have eaten thereof myself, and am much refreshed thereby. (Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon _Samson_; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them, we shall find a nest of honey within them.) The _Philistines_ understand me not. It is something of a relation of the work of G.o.d upon my soul, even from the very first, till now, wherein you may perceive my castings down, and risings up: for He woundeth, and His hands make whole. It is written in the Scripture, Isa. x.x.xviii. 19, _The father to the children shall make known Thy truth_. Yea, it was for this reason I lay so long at Sinai, Lev. iv. 10, 11, to see the fire, and the cloud, and the darkness, _that I might fear the Lord all the days of my life upon earth_, _and tell of His wondrous works to my children_. Psalm lxxviii. 35.
Moses, Numb. x.x.xiii. 1, 2, writ of the journeys of the children of _Israel_, from _Egypt_ to the land of _Canaan_; and commanded also that they did remember their forty years' travel in the wilderness. _Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy G.o.d led thee these forty years in the wilderness_, _to humble thee_, _and to prove thee_, _and to know what was in thine heart_, _whether thou wouldst keep His commandments_, _or no_. Deut. viii. 2. Wherefore this I have endeavoured to do; and not only so, but to publish it also; that, if G.o.d will, others may be put in remembrance of what He hath done for their souls, by reading His work upon me.
It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the very beginnings of grace with their souls. _It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord_, _for bringing them out from the land of Egypt_. _This is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations_. Exod. xii. 42. _O my G.o.d_ (saith _David_), Ps.
xlii. 6, _my soul is cast down within me_; _therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan_, _and of the Hermonites_, _from the hill Mizar_. He remembered also the lion and the bear, when he went to fight with the giant of _Gath_. 1 Sam. xvii. 36, 37.
It was _Paul's_ accustomed manner, Acts xxii., and that, when tried for his life, Acts xxiv., even to open before his judges the manner of his conversion: he would think of that day, and that hour, in which he first did meet with grace; for he found it supported him. When G.o.d had brought the children of Israel out of the Red Sea, far into the wilderness, yet they must turn quite about thither again, to remember the drowning of their enemies there, Numb. xiv. 25, for though they sang his praise before, yet they soon forgat his works. Psalm cvi. 11, 12.
In this discourse of mine, you may see much; much I say, of the grace of G.o.d towards me: I thank G.o.d, I can count it much; for it was above my sins and Satan's temptations too. I can remember my fears and doubts, and sad months, with comfort; they are as the head of _Goliah_ in my hand: there was nothing to _David_ like _Goliah's_ sword, even that sword that should have been sheathed in his bowels; for the very sight and remembrance of that did preach forth G.o.d's deliverance to him. Oh! the remembrance of my great sins, of my great temptations, and of my great fear of peris.h.i.+ng for ever! They bring afresh into my mind, the remembrance of my great help, my great supports from heaven, and the great grace that G.o.d extended to such a wretch as I.
My dear children, call to mind the former days, and years of ancient times: remember also your songs in the night, and commune with your own Hearts, Ps. lxxiii. 512. Yea, look diligently, and leave no corner therein unsearched for that treasure hid, even the treasure of your first and second experience of the grace of G.o.d towards you. Remember, I say, the word that first laid hold upon you: remember your terrors of conscience, and fear of death and h.e.l.l: remember also your tears and prayers to G.o.d; yea, how you sighed under every hedge for mercy. Have you never a hill _Mizar_ to remember? Have you forgot the close, the milk-house, the stable, the barn, and the like, where G.o.d did visit your souls? Remember also the word, the word, I say, upon which the Lord hath caused you to hope: if you have sinned against light, if you are tempted to blaspheme, if you are drowned in despair, if you think G.o.d fights against you, or if heaven is hid from your eyes; remember it was thus with your father; _but out of them all the Lord delivered me_.
I could have enlarged much in this my discourse, of my temptations and troubles for sin; as also of the merciful kindness and working of G.o.d with my soul: I could also have stepped into a style much higher than this, in which I have here discoursed, and could have adorned all things more than here I have seemed to do, but I dare not: G.o.d did not play in tempting of me; neither did I play, when I sunk as into the bottomless pit, when the _pangs of h.e.l.l caught hold upon me_; wherefore I may not play in relating of them, but be plain and simple, and lay down the thing as it was; he that liketh it, let him receive it, and he that doth not, let him produce a better. Farewell.
My dear Children,
_The milk and honey are beyond this wilderness_. _G.o.d be merciful to you_, _and grant that you be not slothful to go in to possess the land_.
JOHN BUNYAN.
GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS OR, A BRIEF RELATION OF THE EXCEEDING MERCY OF G.o.d IN CHRIST, TO HIS POOR SERVANT, JOHN BUNYAN
IN this my relation of the merciful working of G.o.d upon my soul, it will not be amiss, if in the first place, I do in a few words give you a hint of my pedigree, and manner of bringing up; that thereby the goodness and bounty of G.o.d towards me, may be the more advanced and magnified before the sons of men.
2. For my descent then, it was, as is well known by many, of a low and inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that rank that is meanest, and most despised of all the families in the land. Wherefore, I have not here, as others, to boast of n.o.ble blood, or of any high-born state, according to the flesh; though, all things considered, I magnify the heavenly Majesty, for that by this door He brought me into the world, to partake of the grace and life that is in Christ by the gospel.
3. But yet, notwithstanding the meanness and inconsiderableness of my parents, it pleased G.o.d to put it into their hearts, to put me to school, to learn both to read and write; the which I also attained, according to the rate of other poor men's children: though, to my shame, I confess, I did soon lose that I had learned, even almost utterly, and that long before the Lord did work His gracious work of conversion upon my soul.
4. As for my own natural life, for the time that I was without G.o.d in the world, it was, indeed, _according to the course of this world and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience_. Eph. ii. 2, 3.
It was my delight to be 'taken captive by the devil _at his will_,' 2 Tim. ii. 26; being filled with all unrighteousness; the which did also so strongly work, and put forth itself, both in my heart and life, and that from a child, that I had but few equals (especially considering my years, which were tender, being but few) both for cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of G.o.d.
5. Yea, so settled and rooted was I in these things, that they became as a second nature to me; the which, as I have also with soberness considered since, did so offend the Lord, that even in my childhood he did scare and affrighten me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me with fearful visions. For often, after I have spent this and the other day in sin, I have in my bed been greatly afflicted, while asleep, with the apprehensions of devils and wicked spirits, who still, as I then thought, laboured to draw me away with them, of which I could never be rid.
6. Also I should, at these years, be greatly afflicted and troubled with the thoughts of the fearful torments of h.e.l.l-fire; still fearing, that it would be my lot to be found at last among those devils and h.e.l.lish fiends, who are there bound down with the chains and bonds of darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.
7. These things, I say, when I was but a child, but nine or ten years old, did so distress my soul, that then in the midst of my many sports and childish vanities, amidst my vain companions, I was often much cast down, and afflicted in my mind therewith, yet could I not let go my sins: yea, I was also then so overcome with despair of life and heaven, that I should often wish, either that there had been no h.e.l.l, or that I had been a devil; supposing they were only tormentors; that if it must needs be, that I went thither, I might be rather a tormentor, than be tormented myself.