OF SEEKING SALVATION YOUNG. – John Bunyan

Question. Did ever God punish little children for sin against him? Answer. Yes; when the flood came, he drowned all the little children that were in the old world; he also burnt up all the little children which were in Sodom; and because upon a time the little children at Bethel mocked the prophet as he was going to worship God, God let loose two she-bears upon them, which tore forty and two of them to pieces. 2 Kings 2:23,24. Question. Alas! what shall we little children do? Answer. Either go on in your sins; or “remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come.” Ecclesiastes 12:1. Question. Why do you mock us, to bid us go on in our sins? You had need pray for us, that God would save us. Answer. I do not mock you, but as the wise man doth; and besides, I do pray for you, and wish your salvation. Question. How doth the wise man mock us? Answer. Thus: “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee to judgment.” Ecclesiastes 11:9. Question. What a kind of mocking is this? Answer. Such a one as is mixed with the greatest seriousness; as if he should say, Aye, do, sinners; go on in your sins if you dare; do, live in your vanities; but God will have a time to judge you for them. Question. Is not this just as when my father bids me be naughty if I will; but if I be naughty, he will beat me for it? Answer. Yes; or like that saying of Joshua, “If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve.” Serve your sins at your peril. Joshua 24:15. Question. Is it not best then for me to serve God? Answer. Yes; for they that serve the devil must be where he is, and they that serve God and Christ, must be where they are. John 12:26; Matthew 25:41. Question. But when had I best begin to serve God? Answer. Just now. “Remember now thy Creator.” Now thou hast the gospel before thee, now thy heart is tender, and will be soonest broken. Question. But if I follow my play and sports a little longer, may I not come time enough? Answer. I cannot promise thee that — for there be little graves in the churchyard; and who can tell but that thy young life is short; or if thou dost live, perhaps thy day of grace may be as short, as was Ishmael’s of old. Read also Proverbs 1:24-26. Question. But if I stay a little longer before I turn, I may have more wit to serve God than now I have; may I not? Answer. If thou stayest longer, thou wilt have more sin, and perhaps less wit; for the bigger sinner, the bigger fool. Proverbs 1:22. Question. If I serve God sometimes, and my sin sometimes, how then! Answer. No man can serve two masters: thou canst not serve God and thy sins. God saith, “My son, give me thy heart.” Also thy soul and body are his; but the double-minded man is forbidden to think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Matthew 6:24; Proverbs 23:26; Corinthians 6:20; James 1:7,8. Question. Do you find many such little children as I am serve God? Answer. Not many; yet some I do. Samuel served him, being a child; when Josiah was young he began to seek after the God of his father David; and how kindly did our Lord Jesus take it, to see the little children run tripping before him, and crying, “Hosanna to the son of David!” <090301> Samuel 3:1; 2 Chronicles 34:3; Matthew 21:15,16. Question. Then I am not like to have many companions, if I, thus young, begin to serve God, am I? Answer. “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Yet some companions thou wilt have. David counted himself a companion of all them that love God’s testimonies; all the godly, though grey-headed, will be thy companions; yea, and thou shalt have either one or more of the angels of God in heaven to attend on, and minister for thee. Matthew 7:13,14; <19B963> Psalm 119:63; Matthew 18:10. Question. But I am like to be slighted, and despised by other little children, if I begin already to serve God; am I not? Answer. If children be so rude as to mock the prophets and ministers of God, no marvel if they also mock thee; but it is a poor heaven that is not worth enduring worse things than to be mocked for the seeking and obtaining of. 2 Kings 2:23,24. Question. But how should I serve God? I do not know how to worship him. Answer. The true worshipers worship God in spirit and truth. John 4:24; Philippians 3:3. Question. What is meant by worshiping him in the Spirit? Answer. To worship him in God’s Spirit and in my own; that is, to worship him, being wrought over in my very heart by the good Spirit of God, to a hearty compliance with his will. Romans 1:9; 6:17; <19A103> Psalm 101:3. Question. What is it to worship him in truth? Answer. To do all that we do in his worship according to his word; (for his word is truth;) and to do it without dissimulation. Hebrews 8:5; John 17:17; Psalm 26:6; <19B819> Psalm 118:19,20. You may take the whole thus: Then do you worship God aright, when in heart and life you walk according to his word. Question. How must I do to worship him with my spirit and Heart? Answer. Thou must first get the good knowledge of him. “And thou Solomon, my son, (said David,) know thou the God of thy fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart.” Mind you, he first bids know him, and then serve him with a perfect heart. 1 Chronicles 28:9. Question. Is it easy to get a true knowledge of God? Answer. No. Thou must cry after knowledge, and lift up thy voice for understanding. “If thou seekest for her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:1-5. Question. How comes it to be so difficult a thing to attain the true knowledge of God? Answer. By reason of the pride and ignorance that is in us, as also by reason of our wicked ways. Psalm 10:4; Ephesians 4:18,19; Titus 1:16. Question. But do not all profess they know God? Answer. Yes; but their supposed knowledge of him varieth as much as do their faces or complexions, some thinking he is this, and some that. Question. Will you show me a little how they vary in their thoughts about him? Answer. Yes. Some count him a kind of heartless God, that will neither do evil nor good; some count him a kind of ignorant and blind God, that can neither know nor see through the clouds; some again count him an inconsiderable God, not worth the enjoying, if it must not be but with the loss of this world, and their lusts. Moreover, some think him to be altogether such a one as themselves, one that hath as little hatred to sin as themselves, and as little love to holiness as themselves. Zephaniah 1:12; Job 22:12,13; Job 21:9-16; Psalm 1:21. Question. Are there any more false opinions of God? Answer. Yes. There are three other false opinions of God. 1. Some think he is all mercy and no justice, and that therefore they may live as they list. 2. Others think he is all justice and no mercy, and that therefore they had as good go on in their sins and be damned, as turn and be never the better. 3. Others think he is both justice and mercy, but yet think also, that his justice is such, as they can pacify with their own good works, and save themselves with their own right hand, ( Romans 3:8; Jeremiah 2:25; Job 40:14,) contrary to these scriptures, Habakkuk 1:13; Isaiah 45:21. Question. How then shall I know when I have the true knowledge of God? Answer. When the knowledge of him and the Holy Scriptures agree. Question. The Scriptures! Do not all false opinions of him flow from the Scriptures? Answer. No, in no wise. It is true, men father their errors upon the Scriptures, when indeed they flow from the ignorance of their hearts. Ephesians 4:18. Question. But how if I do not understand the Holy Bible? Must I then go without the true knowledge of God? Answer. His name is manifested by his word. The Scriptures are they that testify of him, and they are able to make the man of God perfect in all things, and wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. John 17:6-8; John 5:39; 2 Timothy 3:15,16. Question. But what must one that knoweth not God do, to get the knowledge of God? Answer. Let him apply his heart unto the Scriptures, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, (even this world,) until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in his heart. Proverbs 22:17; 23:12; 2 Peter 1:19,20. Question. But how shall I know when I have found by the scriptures the true knowledge of God? Answer. When thou hast also found a true knowledge of thyself. Isaiah 6:5; Job 42:5,6. Question. What is it for me to know myself? Answer. Then thou knowest thyself, when thou art in thine own eyes a loathsome, polluted, wretched, miserable sinner, and that not any thing done by thee can pacify God unto thee. Job 42:56; Ezekiel 20:43,44; Romans 7:24.

J. B.