A HOLY LIFE - Intro 2

a treatise by John Bunyan

edited in modern English by Jon Cardwell

I told you before that there is a twofold faith, and now I will tell you that there are two sorts of good works; and with reference to his faith, a man may be deviously suspect, even by the works that he chooses to be acquainted with.

There are works that cost nothing, and works that are costly. And take note of this, the unstable faith will choose for itself the easiest works it can find. For example, there is reading, praying, hearing of sermons, baptism, breaking of bread, church fellowship, preaching, and the like; and there is mortification of lusts, charity, simplicity, open-heartedness with a liberal hand to the poor, and many like these as well. Now the unstable faith picks and chooses, and it takes and leaves, but the true faith does not.

There are a great number of professors of Christ now in England that have nothing that distinguishes them from the worst of men, but their praying, reading, hearing of sermons, baptism, church fellowship, and breaking of bread. Separate them from these things, and everywhere else they are as filthy as any other, even in their whole life and behavior. In this, they have chosen the easiest things for them to do, and yet they do not love to be justly found in practicing the other. This is a certain sign that their faith is nothing, and that these things, even the things with which they practice frequently, are things they attend to, not for the purpose for which God has appointed them, but to delude and ruin themselves at the same time.

Praying, hearing, reading; why are these things ordained except that we might, by the godly use of them, gain more knowledge of God, and be strengthened by His grace to serve Him better according to His moral law? Baptism, fellowship, and the Lord’s Supper are ordained for the same purpose also. But there is a vast difference between using these things and the use of them for this purpose. A man may pray, yes, even pray for such things, as if he had them, so that he might be made better in morals without having a desire to be better in morals, or a love for the things he prays for. A man may read and hear, not to learn to do good things, but merely to know how; yes, he may be dead to doing moral goodness, and yet be zealous for reading and hearing all his days. Therefore, the people, among all professors, that are zealous for good works are the peculiar ones to Christ (Titus 2:14). What has a man done that is baptized if he does not pursue the purpose for which that appointment was ordained? Likewise, I say the same of fellowship, of breaking of bread, &etc. For all these things we should use to support our faith, to mortify the flesh, and strengthen us to walk in newness of life by the rule of the moral law. Nor can that man be esteemed holy whose life is stained with immoralities. Let him be what he can in all other things. As it pertains to practical righteousness, my mind is like the man’s who said to Christ upon this very question, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that He is one, and there is no other besides Him. And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:28-33). To love my neighbor as myself, to do as I desire to have done to me, this is the law and the prophets. And he that is altogether a stranger to these things, how can the love of God be dwelling in him; or how will he manifest to another that his faith will save him?

Satan is afraid that men should hear of justification by Christ, for fear that they should embrace it. Yet, if he can succeed in keeping them from grasping it, though they hear about it and even see it, and practice lesser things, he can bear with it much better; yes, he will labor to make such professors bold to conclude that they shall enjoy Christ by that kind of faith, though by that it they cannot embrace Him, nor lay hold of Him. For Satan knows that whatever length of time or energy a man exerts to engage in a profession of Christ with a faith that looks on without enabling that man to receive or embrace Him, that faith will ultimately leave him with nothing but mistakes and disappointments.

The gospel comes to some with talk only. The faith of such stands only in a verbal sound; but the apostle was resolved not to know or take notice of such a faith (1 Thessalonians 1:4, 5). He says, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:18-20). He whose faith stands only in saying, “I believe,” has his works in bare words also, and as much lacing the outward acts as the other, and both insignificant enough. “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:15-17). Therefore, Satan can allow this kind of faith because it is somewhat related to his own (James 2:19).

Besides, what greater contempt can be cast upon Christ than by such wordy professors is cast upon Him? These are the men, by their practice, say that the gospel is but an empty sound. Yet, the more they profess, the louder they proclaim it to be this way, to Christ’s disgrace, while they, not withstanding their profession of faith, hold and maintain their association with the devil and sin. The Son of God was manifest that He might destroy the works of the devil, yet these men profess His faith and keep these works alive in the world (1 John 3). Shall these be regarded for such as believe to the saving of the soul? For a man to be content with this kind of faith, and to seek salvation by it, what could possibly be a greater provocation to God?

The devil laughs here because he knows he has not lost his servant by this kind of faith, but rather, he has made use of the gospel, that glorious Word of Life, to bind his captive in his chains that much more quickly and securely, because the he presumes he has the right faith.

I marvel to see sin so high amidst the swarms of professors that are found in every corner of this land. No other reason can be given for it except that the gospel has lost its accustomed virtue; or perhaps because professors lack faith therein. But do you think it is for the first reason? No, the Word of our God shall stand in its strength forever; therefore, the faith of such men is not right; they have replaced shields of gold with shields of brass; or instead of the primitive faith that came by the operation of God, they got to themselves a faith that stands by the power and in the wisdom of man (2 Chronicles 12:9, 10; Colossians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 2:4, 5). And to say no more of this, why is God so angry with this land unless it was for the sin of the professors that dwell in it, polluting His name with their gifts and with their idols? God has been provoked most bitterly by us, while we have profaned His name, making use of His name, His word, and ordinances, to serve ourselves, so I say, “O Lord, what will You do to this land?” We are all looking for something; even for something that carries terror and dread in the sound of its wings as it comes, though we do not know the form nor face of it.[i][ii] One cries out, another has his hands upon his loins, and a third is driven insane from what he sees with his eyes and hears with his ears. Just as their faith has served them concerning justification, so it now serves them with regard to repentance and reformation: it can do nothing here neither; for though men cry out and have their hands upon their loins for fear, as mentioned earlier, yet, where is the church? the house? the man that stands in the gap for the land in order to turn away this wrath by repentance and correction of life? Behold the Lord comes forth out of His place and will come down and tread upon the places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him and the valleys will be divided, as wax before the fire and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. But what is the cause of all this? —For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel (Micah 1:5).

It is that which may be observed by them that can see clearly, that all God has done to us has already been unsuccessful in bringing humility and reformation, by which His judgments must be turned away. Repentance is rare this day, and yet without doubt, that without which, things will grow worse and worse. As for them that hope that God will save His people, even if only from temporal judgments, whether they repent and reform or do otherwise, I must leave them and their opinions together. I have found this: that sometimes repentance, even of the godly, has come too late to divert such judgments. And, how some of the godly should be so indulged as to be saved from punishment without repentance, when the true and unfeigned repentance of others will not deliver them, I confess, leaves me in a wilderness! Yet the very saddest thing of all is that sin, through our familiarity to it, has become no sin. These days, the rampant wickedness has become no sin with many. Surely this was the case with Israel or else how could they say when the prophets so bitterly denounced God’s judgments against them, “I am innocent; surely His anger has turned from me” (Jeremiah 2:35)? When custom or bad example has taken away the conscience of sin, it is a sign that that soul is in a dangerous laziness; and yet this is the condition of most of those that profess to believe among us this day. But, let us leave this and proceed further.

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[i] How clearly is here portrayed the wretched state of this country towards the close of the reign of Charles II. It is the natural eloquence of one whose very thoughts were governed by scriptural expression. The martyrdoms of Essex, of Russel, and of Sydney —the uncertainty of the life of a debauched monarch, with the gloomy prospect of a popish successor, filled the country with dismal forebodings. —ED. [G. Offor’s original footnote]

[ii] It sounds strikingly similar to many of the conditions and circumstances we face in the United States of America today. [J. Cardwell’s additional footnote]

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[“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”]