The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (books to read to improve english .TXT) 📕

But O! what is there wrapped up in this Christ, this secret of God?

why, all treasures of life, of heaven, and happiness—“In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” And “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2).

This also is that hidden One, that is so full of grace to save sinners, and so full of truth and faithfulness to keep promise and covenant with them, that their eyes must needs convey, even by every glance they make upon his person, offices, and relation, such affecting ravishments to the heart, that it would please them that see him, even to be killed with that sight. This secret of the Lord shall be, nay is, with them that fear him, for he dwelleth in their heart by faith. “And he will shew them his covenant.” That is, the covenant that is confirmed of God in Christ, that everlasting and eternal covenant, and show him too that he himself is wrapped up therein, as in a bundle of life with the Lord his God. These are the thoughts, purposes, and promises of God to them that fear him.

Fourth Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? his eye is always over thee for good, to keep thee from all evil—“Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine”

(Psa 33:18,19). His eye is upon them; that is, to watch over them for good. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. His eyes are upon them, and he will keep them as a shepherd doth his sheep; that is, from those wolves that seek to devour them, and to swallow them up in death. His eyes are upon them; for they are the object of his delight, the rarities of the world, in whom, saith he, is all my delight. His eye is upon them, as I said before, to teach and instruct them—“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye” (Psa 32:8; 2 Chron 7:15,16). The eye of the Lord, therefore, is upon them, not to take advantage of them, to destroy them for their sins, but to guide, to help, and deliver them from death; from that death that would feed upon their souls—“To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.” Take death here for death spiritual, and death eternal; and the famine here, not for that that is for want of bread and water, but for that which comes on many for want of the Word of the Lord (Rev 20:14; Amos 8:11,12); and then the sense is this, the man that feareth the Lord shall neither die spiritually nor eternally; for God will keep him with his eye from all those things that would in such a manner kill him. Again, should there be a famine of the Word; should there want both the Word and them that preach it in the place that thou dost dwell, yet bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure; thou shalt not die of the famine, because thou fearest God. I say, that man shall not, behold he shall not, because he feareth God, and this the next head doth yet more fully manifest.

Fifth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? fear him for this advantage more and more—“O fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord,” that fear him, “shall not want any good thing” (Psa 34:9,10). Not anything that God sees good for them shall those men want that fear the Lord. If health will do them good, if sickness will do them good, if riches will do them good, if poverty will do them good, if life will do them good, if death will do them good, then they shall not want them, neither shall any of these come nigh them, if they will not do them good. The lions, the wicked people [19] of the world that fear not God, are not made sharers in this great privilege; all things fall out to them contrary, because they fear not God. In the midst of their sufficiency, they are in want of that good that God puts into the worst things that the man that feareth God doth meet with in the world.

Sixth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? he hath given charge to the armies of heaven to look after, take charge of, to camp about, and to deliver thee—“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” (Psa 34:7). This also is a privilege entailed to them that in all generations fear the Lord.

The angels, the heavenly creatures, have it in commission to take the charge of them that fear the Lord; one of them is able to slay of men in one night 185,000. These are they that camped about Elisha like horses of fire, and chariots of fire, when the enemy came to destroy him. They also helped Hezekiah against the band of the enemy, because he feared God (2 Kings 6:17; Isa 37:36; Jer 26:19).

“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them”; that is, lest the enemy should set upon them on any side; but let him come where he will, behind or before, on this side or that, the angel of the Lord is there to defend them. “The angel.” It may be spoken in the singular number, perhaps, to show that every one that feareth God hath his angel to attend on him, and serve him. When the church, in the Acts, was told that Peter stood at the door and knocked; at first they counted the messenger mad, but when she did constantly affirm it, they said, It is his angel (Acts 12:13-15). So Christ saith of the children that came unto him, “their angels behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” Their angels; that is, those of them that feared God, had each of them his angel, who had a charge from God to keep them in their way. We little think of this, yet this is the privilege of them that fear the Lord; yea, if need be, they shall all come down to help them and to deliver them, rather than, contrary to the mind of their God, they should by any be abused—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb 1:14).

[Quest.] But how do they deliver them? for so says the text—“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” Answ. The way that they take to deliver them that fear the Lord, is sometimes by smiting of their enemies with blindness, that they may not find them; and so they served the enemies of Lot (Gen 19:10,11). Sometimes by smiting of them with deadly fear; and so they served those that laid siege against Samaria (2 Kings 7:6). And sometimes by smiting of them even with death itself; and thus they served Herod, after he had attempted to kill the apostle James, and also sought to vex certain others of the church (Acts 12). These angels that are servants to them that fear the Lord, are them that will, if God doth bid them, revenge the quarrel of his servants upon the stoutest monarch on earth.

This, therefore, is a glorious privilege of the men that fear the Lord. Alas! they are, some of them, so mean that they are counted not worth taking notice of by the high ones of the world; but their betters do respect them. The angels of God count not themselves too good to attend on them, and camp about them to deliver them.

This, then, is the man that hath his angel to wait upon him, even he that feareth God.

Seventh Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? salvation is nigh unto thee—“Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land” (Psa 85:9). This is another privilege for them that fear the Lord. I told you before, that the angel of the Lord did encamp about them, but now he saith, “his salvation is also nigh them”; the which although it doth not altogether exclude the conduct of angels,[20] but include them; yet it looketh further.

“Surely his salvation,” his saving, pardoning grace, “is nigh them that fear him”; that is, to save them out of the hand of their spiritual enemies. The devil, and sin, and death, do always wait even to devour them that fear the Lord, but to deliver them from these his salvation doth attend them. So then, if Satan tempts, here is their salvation nigh; if sin, by breaking forth, beguiles them, here is God’s salvation nigh them; yea, if death itself shall suddenly seize upon them, why, here is their God’s salvation nigh them.

I have seen that great men’s little children must go no whither without their nurses be at hand. If they go abroad, their nurses must go with them; if they go to meals, their nurses must go with them; if they go to bed, their nurses must go with them; yea, and if they fall asleep, their nurses must stand by them. O my brethren, those little ones that fear the Lord, they are the children of the highest, therefore they shall not walk alone, be at their spiritual meats alone, go to their sick-beds, or to their graves alone; the salvation of their God is nigh them, to deliver them from the evil.

This is then the glory that dwells in the land of them that fear the Lord.

Eighth Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? hearken yet again—“The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children” (Psa 103:17). This still confirms what was last asserted, that is, that his salvation is nigh unto them. His salvation, that is, pardoning mercy, that is nigh them. But mind it, there he says it is nigh them; but here it is upon them. His mercy is upon them, it covereth them all over, it encompasseth them about as with a shield. Therefore they are said in another place to be clothed with salvation, and covered with the robe of righteousness. The mercy of the Lord is upon them, that is, as I said, to shelter and defend them. The mercy, the pardoning preserving mercy, the mercy of the Lord is upon them, who is he then that can condemn them? (Rom 8).

But there yet is more behind, “The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them.” It was designed for them before the world was, and shall be upon them when the world itself is ended; from everlasting to everlasting it is on them that fear him. This from everlasting to everlasting is that by which, in another place, the eternity of God himself is declared—“From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psa 90:2). The meaning, then, may be this; that so long as God hath his being, so long shall the man that feareth him find mercy at his hand. According to that of Moses—“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them” (Deut 33:27).

Child of God, thou that fearest God, here is mercy nigh thee, mercy enough, everlasting mercy upon thee. This is long-lived mercy. It