The Riches of Bunyan: Selected from His WorksBunyan, John
Religion
The Riches of Bunyan: Selected from His Works
Bunyan, John
Theology, Doctrinal
Dost thou fear God? The least DRACHM of that fear giveth the
privilege to be blessed with the greatest saint: "He will bless them
that fear the Lord, small and great." Psalm 115:13. Art thou in
thine own thoughts, or in the thoughts of others, of these last
small ones, small in grace, small in gifts, small in esteem upon
this account? Yet if thou fearest God, if thou fearest God indeed,
thou art certainly blessed with the best of saints. The least star
stands as fixed as the brightest of them all, in heaven. "He shall
bless them that fear him, small and great." He shall bless them,
that is, with the same blessing of eternal life. For the difference
in degrees of grace in saints doth not make the blessing, as to its
nature, differ. It is the same heaven, the same life, the same
glory, and the same eternity of felicity, that they are in the text
promised to be blessed with. Christ at the day of judgment
particularly mentioneth and owneth the least: "Inasmuch as ye did it
not to one of the least." The least then was there, in his kingdom
and in his glory, as well as the greatest of all.
Dost thou fear God? Why, the Holy Ghost hath on purpose indited for
thee a whole psalm to sing concerning thyself. So that thou mayest
even as thou art, in thy calling, bed, journey, or whenever, sing
out thine own blessed and happy condition to thine own comfort, and
the comfort of thy fellows. The psalm is called the 128th Psalm.
"Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; he is their help and
their shield." Psalm 115:11. Now what a privilege is this: an
exhortation in general to sinners, as sinners, to trust in him, is a
privilege great and glorious; but for a man to be singled out from
his neighbors, for a man to be spoken to from heaven as it were by
name, and to be told that God has given him a license, a special and
peculiar grant to trust in him, this is abundantly more; and yet
this is the grant that God has given that man that feareth the Lord.
"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 want no good thing." Psalm
34:9, 10.
Not any thing 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.
Sinner, hast thou deferred to fear the Lord? Is thy heart still so
stubborn as not to say yet, Let us fear the Lord? O, the Lord hath
taken notice of this thy rebellion, and is preparing some dreadful
judgments for thee. "Shall I not visit for these things, saith the
Lord; shall not my soul be avenged of such a nation as this?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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