The Riches of Bunyan: Selected from His WorksBunyan, John
Religion
The Riches of Bunyan: Selected from His Works
Bunyan, John
Theology, Doctrinal
3. Thy fear that Christ will not receive thee, may arise from a
sense of THY OWN UNWORTHINESS. Thou seest what a poor, sorry,
wretched, worthless creature thou art; and seeing this, thou fearest
Christ will not receive thee. "Alas," sayst thou, "I am the vilest
of all men, a townsinner, a ringleading sinner. I am not only a
sinner my self, but I have made others twofold worse the children of
hell also. Besides, now I am under some awakenings and stirrings of
mind after salvation, even now I find my heart rebellious, carnal,
hard, treacherous, desperate, prone to unbelief, to despair; it
forgetteth the word, it wandereth, it runneth to the ends of the
earth. There is not, I am persuaded, one in all the world that hath
such a desperate wicked heart as mine is. My soul is careless to do
good; but none more earnest to do that which is evil.
"Can such a one as I am live in glory? Can a holy, a just, and a
righteous God think, with honor to his name, of saving such a vile
creature as I am? Saved I would be; and who is there that would not,
were he in my condition? Indeed I wonder at the madness and folly of
others, when I see them leap and skip so carelessly about the mouth
of hell. Bold sinner, how darest thou tempt God by laughing at the
breach of his holy law? But, alas, they are not so bad one way, but
I am worse another; I wish myself were any body but myself. And yet,
here again I know not what to wish. When I see such as I believe are
coming to Jesus Christ, Oh I bless them. But I am confounded in
myself, to see how unlike I am to a very good many in the world.
They can hear, read, pray, remember, repent, he humble, and do every
thing better than so vile a wretch as I."
Thus the sense of unworthiness creates and heightens fears in the
hearts of them that are coming to Jesus Christ. But indeed it should
not, for who needs the physician but the sick? Or whom did Christ
come into the world to save, but the chief of sinners? Wherefore,
the more thou seest thy sins, the faster fly thou to Jesus Christ.
As it is with the man that carrieth his broken arm in a sling to the
bonesetter, still, as he thinks of his broken arm, and as he feels
the pain and anguish, he hastens his pace to the man. And if Satan
meets thee, and asketh, "Whither goest thou?" tell him thou art
maimed, and art going to the Lord Jesus. If he objects thine own
unworthiness, tell him, that even as the sick seeketh the physician;
as he that hath broken bones seeks him that can set them; so thou
art going to Jesus Christ for healing for thy sin-sick soul.
But it ofttimes happeneth to him that flies for his life, he
despairs of escaping, and therefore delivers himself up into the
hand of the pursuer. But up, up, sinner; be of good cheer; Christ
came to save the unworthy one. Be not faithless, but believing. Come
away, man. The Lord Jesus calls thee, saying, ".And him that cometh
to me, I will in nowise cast out."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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