The Riches of Bunyan: Selected from His WorksBunyan, John
Religion
The Riches of Bunyan: Selected from His Works
Bunyan, John
Theology, Doctrinal
"So soon as the man overtook me, he was but a word and a blow; for
down he knocked me, and laid me for dead. But when I was a little
come to myself again, I asked him wherefore he served me so. He
said, 'Because of thy secret inclination to Adam the first;' and
with that he struck me another deadly blow on the breast, and beat
me down backwards; so I lay at his foot as dead as before. When I
came to myself again, I cried to him for mercy; but he said, 'I
know not how to show mercy;' and with that knocked me down again. He
had doubtless made an end of me, but that one came by and bid him
forbear."
CHRISTIAN. "Who was it that bid him forbear?"
FAITHFUL. "I did not know him at first, but as he went by I
perceived the holes in his hands and his side; then I concluded that
he was our Lord. So I went up the hill."
CHRISTIAN. "The man that overtook you was Moses. He spareth none,
neither knoweth he how to show mercy to those that transgress his
law."
FAITHFUL. "I know it very well; it was not the first time that he
has met with me. It was he that came to me when I dwelt securely at
home, and that told me he would burn my house over my head if I
staid there."
This ungodly fear of God, is that which will put men upon adding to
the revealed will of God their own inventions and their own
performances of them, as a means to pacify the anger of God. For the
truth is, where this ungodly fear reigneth, there is no end of law
and duty. When those that you read of in the hook of Kings, 2 Kings,
17: 26, were destroyed by the lions because they had set up idolatry
in the land of Israel, they sent for a priest from Babylon that
might teach them the manner of the God of the land; but behold, when
they knew it, being taught it by the priest, yet their fear would
not suffer them to be content with that worship only. "They feared
the Lord," saith the text, "and served their own gods." And again,
"So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images."
It was this fear also that put the Pharisees upon inventing so many
traditions; as the washing of cups, and beds, and tables, and
basins, with abundance of such other gear. Mark 7: 4. None knows the
many dangers that an ungodly fear of God will drive a man into.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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