The Heavenly Footman; Or, A Description of the Man That Gets to Heaven: With Directions How to Run So as to ObtainBunyan, John
ReligionComparative
The Heavenly Footman; Or, A Description of the Man That Gets to Heaven: With Directions How to Run So as to Obtain
Bunyan, John
Christian life
1. In the doctrine of _justification_ there is a great deal of the
cross. In that, a man is forced to suffer the destruction of his own
righteousness for the righteousness of another. This is no easy matter
for a man to do. I assure you it stretcheth every vein in his heart,
before he will be brought to yield to it. What! for a man to deny,
reject, abhor, and throw away all his prayers, tears, alms, keeping of
sabbaths, hearing, reading with the rest, in the point of
justification, and to count them accursed; and to be willing, in the
very midst of the sense of his sins, to throw himself wholly upon the
righteousness and obedience of another man, abhorring his own,
counting it as a deadly sin, as the open breach of the law! I say, to
do this indeed and in truth, is the biggest piece of the cross; and
therefore Paul calleth this very thing a suffering; where he saith,
"And I have suffered the loss of all things," (which principally was
his righteousness,) "that I might win Christ, and be found in him, not
having (but rejecting) my own righteousness." That is the first.
2. In the doctrine of _mortification_ is also much of the cross. Is it
nothing for a man to lay hands on his vile opinions, on his vile sins,
on his bosom sins, on his beloved, pleasant, darling sins, that stick
as close to him as the flesh sticks to the bones? What! to lose all
these brave things that my eyes behold, for that which I never saw
with my eyes? What! to lose my pride, my covetousness, my vain
company, sports, and pleasures, and the rest? I tell you this is no
easy matter; if it were, what need of all those prayers, sighs,
watchings? What need we be so backward to it? Nay, do you not see,
that some men before they will set about this work, will even venture
the loss of their souls, heaven, God, Christ, and all? What mean else
all those delays and put-offs, saying, 'Stay a little longer; I am
loath to leave my sins while I am so young, and in health?' Again,
what is the reason else that others do it so by the halves, coldly,
and seldom; notwithstanding they are convinced over and over, and
over, nay, and also promise to amend; and yet all is in vain? I will
assure you, to cut off right hands, and pluck out right eyes, is no
pleasure to the flesh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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