Some Gospel Truths Opened, Title page – To the reader
SOME Gospel-truths Opened according to the Scriptures.
OR,
The Divine and Humane Nature of Christ Jesus, his coming into the World; his Righteousness, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Intercession, and second comming to Judgment, plainly demonstrated and proved.
And also,
Answers to severall Questions, with profitable directions to stand fast in the Doctrine of Jesus the son of Mary, against those blustring storms of the Devils temptations, which do at this day, like so many Scorpions, break loose from the bottomless pit, to bite and torment those that have not tasted the vertue of Jesus by the revelation of the Spirit of God.
Published for the good of Gods chosen ones, by that unworthy servant of Christ John Bunnyan, of Bedford, By the grace of God, Preacher of the Gospel of his dear Son.
Jesus saith, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man commeth to the Father, but by me, Jo. 14. 6.
Neither is there salvation in any other, Act. 4. 12.
London, Printed for J. Wright the younger at the Kings head in the Old-baily. 1656.
To the Reader,
REader:
thou hast in this small Treatise, set beforethee, the several pieces of that great and glorious mysterie, Jesus Christ, God manifested in the flesh: and if thou art enlightned by the spirit of Christ, here thou maiest see by that spirit, how Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Son of Mary, is both true God and true Man, both Natures making but one Christ one Jesus, as Phil. 2. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, verses, where speaking first of his being God, and then of his taking upon him the nature of man; afterward in the 8 and 9 verses he saith, he (meaning this Jesus) humbled himself, &c. and God (meaning the Father) hath highly exalted him, &c. speaking of both natures God and Man as together making but one Christ; who is the Saviour, and is to be beleeved and trusted in for Salvation, not only as God, but as man also; and those who do not thus make him the object of their faith, will surely fall short of pardon of sin, and of salvation, Act. 13. 38, 39. through this man (speaking of Christ as crucified at Jerusalem) is preached unto you forgiveness of sins: and in the 1 Tim. 2. 5. saith he, there is one Mediatour between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; and this discovers the damnable errors of those commonly called …, who on the … deny him that … of the Virgin … true God as … as true man: and this is also quite contrary to those commonly called Familists, Ranters, Quakers or others, who on the other hand either deny Christ to be a reall man without them, blasphemously fancying him to be only God manifest in their flesh; or else make his humane nature with the fulnesse of the Godhead in it, to be but a type of God to be manifest in the saints, and so according to their wicked imagination, his humane nature was to be laid aside after he had offered it up upon the crosse without the gate at Jerusalem, contrary to Acts the 1. 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11 verses, compared with the last chapter of Luke verses 34, 39, 40, 50, 51. where it is clearly held forth that the man Christ rose againe out of the grave with the same body which was crucified and laid in the grave, and was taken up above the clouds into heaven with the same real body, and that he shal again descend from heaven in that same glorious body of flesh, as Acts 1. 9, 10, 11. and this sure truth, of Christ being the Saviour & Mediatour, as man, and not only as God, will also shew serious believers what to thinke of some, who though they will not (it may be) deny that Christ is a real man without them in the heavens as well as God, yet doe own him to be the Saviour only as God, first dwelling in that flesh that was born of the Virgin, and then dwelling in Saints, and thus both beginning and perfecting their Salvation within them, and so indeed doe hold Christ as man, to be only (I say to be only) the saved or glorified one of God, together with the Saints his members, only something in another and more glorious manner and meisure then the Saints; and these highflown people are in this very like to Familists and Quakers, undervaluing the Lord Jesus Christ, God-man, and though they may speake much of Christ, yet they doe not rightly and savingly lay him for their foundation. Now as a helpe against all these dangerous things, thou hast here the maine things of Christ laid down before thee briefly, and fully proved by the Scriptures: first of his being true God out of flesh from eternity, and then of his taking flesh, or the nature of man upon him in the wombe of the Virgin, and so his fulfilling the Law, his dying for sins at Jerusalem, his rising againe without, his ascending into heaven without, and not into a fancyed heaven only within, as some say; his interceding in heaven for all his, and his comming again in his body of flesh to judge the world. And if thou art yet in a state of nature, though covered over with an outside profession, here thou maiest find something (if the spirit of Christ meet thee in reading) to convince thee of the sad condition thou art in, and to shew thee the righteousness thou art to fly to by faith, and to trust in for salvation, when convinced of sin; which is a righteousness wrought by that God-man Jesus Christ without thee, dying without thee at Jerusalem for sinners: here also thou maiest see the difference between true and faise faith. If thou art a true believer, as these things are the foundation of thy faith; so they may be of great use for thee to meditate upon, and to exercise thy faith in, particularly in meditation, and in this way to seek daily for a higher faith in these truths to be given into thy heart from heaven; and there is a great need of this, for though these truthes be commonly known amongst professors to the notion of them; yet very few know or believe them aright: nay it may well be said in this age, that, if the faith of the true saints was wel sifted, and tradition notion and the apprehensions of their own reason and fancy was sifted out, most of them would be found to have very little knowledge of, and faith in, these common truths.
Secondly, these truths being put thus together and plainly proved by the Scriptures may be a great help (through the Spirit concurring) to strengthen thee against all those damnable heresies which are spread abroad, which deny the Lord Jesus Christ either plainly or more cunningly and mysteriously. And thirdly, the more thou art rooted and set down from heaven in the faith of these truths of Christ, to believe fully the glorious reality of them, & their interest in them, the more heavenly peace and joy, thou wilt have 1. Pet. 1. 7, 8. & also thou wilt hereby attain the more true holiness & purity of heart and life, Acts 15. 9. purifying their hearts by faith: and then the more thou hast of the right faith of Christ and of his things in thy heart, the more strong and valiant wilt thou be in spirit to doe any worke private or publick for Jestis Christ, like Stephen Acts 6 ver. 8. who being full of faith and of the holy spirit was also full of power. In this book thou hast also laid down from the Scriptures how Jesus Christ is without the Saints as man, and yet dwelleth within them, that is, somthing of his divine nature or his blessed spirit dwels within them, which spirit is somtime called the spirit of Christ. Rom. 8. 9. he that hath not the spirit of Christ, &c. and sometime called Christ, Rom. 8. 10. if Christ be in you, &c. and also how we may know whether it be Christ and the spirit of Christ within or a false spirit calling it self Christ, & that is thus, if it be indeed Christ within, that is, the spirit of Christ God-man: why then it teaches that man or woman in whom it is, to apply, and trust in Christ without for Salvation, Christ as born of the Virgin Mary, as fulfilling the Law without them, as dying without the gate of Jerusalem as a sacrifice for sin, it teaches them to trust in the man Christ as rising againe out of the grave without them, as ascending into, and interceding in heaven without for them; and as to come from that heaven againe in his flesh to judge the world: Thus the man Christ himself saith Joh. 16. 13. When he (the spirit of truth) is come &c. he shall glorifie me, v. 14. he shall make you more to prize, admire and glorifie me, who am both God and man; And who shal be absent from you touching my body. Then followes, For he shall take of mine (of my glorious things) and shew them to you; He shall take my divine and humane Nature, my birth, my person and offices, my obedience, death, satisfaction, my resurrection, ascension, and intercession, and of my second comming in the clouds with my mighty Angels to judgement, and shall shew them, or cleer them up to you; He shall take of my salvation, which I have wrought for you in my own person without you; And he shall take of my glorie and exaltation in the heavens, and shew to you: Now to minde this one thing, and to be set down in a right understanding of it, by the Spirit, from the Scriptures, will be of great concernment to thee and me; for, for want of this, many professors have split themselves, some looking only on what Christ hath done & suffered without them, resting in an historical, traditional and indeed a fancyed faith of it, without looking for the Spirit of Jesus Christ to come with power into their hearts, without which they cannot rightly know, nor rightly believe in Christ the Son of God without them, so as to have any share or interest in him, Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his: Others have been depending too much upon somthing they call Christ and the righteousness of Christ within them, in opposition to Christ and his righteousnesse without them, from which all true saints have their justification and comfort, it being received through the operation of the spirit▪ which dwels in them; and however these may talk much of Christ within them, yet it is manifest, that it is not the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of the Divel; in that it doth not glorifie, but sleight and reject the man Christ and his righteousnesse which was wrought without them: Reader, in this book thou wilt not meet with high-flown aerie notions, which some delight in, counting them high mysteries, but the sound, plain, common (and yet spiritual and and mysterious) truths of the Gospel, and if thou art a believer thou must needs reckon them so, and the more, if thou hast not only the faith of them in thy heart, but art daily living in the spiritual sence and feeling of them, and of thy interest in them. Neither doth this Treatise offer to the doubtful controversial things, or matters of opinion, as some Books chiefly doe, which when insisted upon more, the weightier things of the gospell, have alwayes done more hurt then good: but here thou hast things certain, and necessary to be believed, which thou canst not too much study. Therefore pray, that thou maiest receive this word which is according to the Scriptures in faith and love, not as the word of man, but as the word of God, without respect of persons, and be not offended because Christ holds forth the glorious treasure of the gospel to thee in a poor earthen vessell, by one, who hath neither the greatness nor the wisdome of this world to commend him to thee; for as the Scripture saith, Christ (who was low and contemptible in the world himself) ordinarily chuseth such for himself, and for the doing of his work, 1 Cor. 1. 26, 27, 28. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, &c. this man is not chosen out of an earthly, but out of the heavenly University, the Church of Christ, which Church, as furnished with the spirit, gifts, and graces of Christ, was; in the beginning, and still … will be to the end … the world, that, out o… which the word of the Lord, and … gospel Ministers … proceed, whether … or unlearned, as to humane learning, 1 Cor. 12. 2…, 28. And though this man hath not the learning or wisdome of man, yet, through grace, he hath received the teaching of God, and the learning of the spirit of Christ, which is the thing that makes a man both a Christian and a Minister of the Gospell, as Isa. 50. 4. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, &c. compared with Luke 2. 18. where Christ, as man, saith, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, &c. He hath, through grace, taken these three heavenly degrees, to wit, union with Christ, the anointing of the spirit, and experience of the temptations of Satan, which doe more fit a man for that weighty work of preaching the Gospell, then all Vniversity Learning and degrees that can be had.
My end in writing these few lines is not to set up man, but having had experience with many other saints of this mans soundnesse in the faith, of his godly conversation, and his ability to preach the gospel not by humane art, but by the spirit of Christ, and that with much success in the conversion of sinners when there are so many carnal empty preachers both learned and unlearned; I say, having had experience of this, and judging this Booke may be very profitable to many others, as well as to my selfe: I thought it my duty upon this account (though I be very unfit for it) to beare witnesse with my brother to the plain and simple (and yet glorious) truths of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now Reader the Lord give thee and me a right understanding in these things, that we may live and dye not with a traditional notional dead faith, but with a right spiritual lively faith of Christ, in our heart…, wrought by the mighty power of God; such a faith as may make Jesus Christ more reall and precious to us then any thing in the world, as may purifie our hearts, and make us new creatures, that so we may be sure to escape the wrath to come, and after this life enjoy eternal life and glory through the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.
Farewel. Thine to serve thee in the Lord Jesus, John Burton.