BUNYAN’S LAST SERMON:
PREACHED JULY 1688
“
Which were born
,
not of blood
,
nor of the will of the flesh
,
nor of the will of man
,
but of God
;” John i. 13.
The words have a dependence on what goes before, and therefore I must direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You have it thus,—“He came to his own, but his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God.” In the words before, you have two things—
First
, Some of his own rejecting him when he offered himself to them.
Secondly
, Others of his own receiving him, and making him welcome. Those that reject him he also passes by; but those that receive him, he gives them power to become the sons of God. Now, lest any one should look upon it as good luck or fortune, says he, “They were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” They that did not receive him, they were only born of flesh and blood; but those that receive him, they have God to their father, they receive the doctrine of Christ with a vehement desire.
First
, I will shew you what he means by “blood.” They that believe are born to it, as an heir is to an inheritance; they are born of God; not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; not of blood—that is, not by generation; not born to the kingdom of heaven by the flesh; not because I am the son of a godly man or woman. That is meant by blood, Acts xvii. 26, “He has made of one blood all nations.” But when he says here, “not of blood,” he rejects all carnal privileges they did boast of. They boasted they were Abraham’s seed. No, no, says he, it is not of blood; think not to say you have Abraham to your father, you must be born of God if you go to the kingdom of heaven.
Secondly
, “Nor of the will of the flesh.” What must we understand by that?
It is taken for those vehement inclinations that are in man to all manner of looseness, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. That must not be understood here; men are made the children of God by fulfilling their lustful desires; it must be understood here in the best sense. There is not only in carnal men a will to be vile, but there is in them a will to be saved also—a will to go to heaven also. But this it will not do, it will not privilege a man in the things of the kingdom of God. Natural desires after the things of another world, they are not an argument to prove a man shall go to heaven whenever he dies. I am not a free willer, I do abhor it; yet there is not the wickedest man but he desires some time or other to be saved. He will read some time or other, or, it may be, pray; but this will not do—“It is not in him that wills, nor in him that runs, but in God that shews mercy;” there is willing and running, and yet to no purpose; Rom. ix. 16, “Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, have not obtained it.” Here I do not understand as if the apostle had denied a virtuous course of life to be the way to heaven, but that a man without grace, though he have natural gifts, yet he shall not obtain privilege to go to heaven, and be the son of God. Though a man without grace may have a will to be saved, yet he cannot have that will God’s way. Natu