The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (best book clubs txt) 📖

to wound us deadly in every, or in some private place, if mercy did not compass us round about, round about as with a shield? He went round about Job, to see by what hog-hole he might get at him, that he might smite him under the fifth rib.[20] But, behold, he found he was hedged out round about; wherefore he could not come at him but through the sides of mercy; and, therefore, what he did to him must be for good. Even thus also shall it be in conclusion with all the wrath of our enemies, when they have done what they can; by the mercy of God, we shall be made to stand. ‘Why boasteth thou thyself in mischief,’ said David, ‘O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually’ (Psa 52:1). And that will sanctify to me whatever thou doest against me! This, therefore, is another singular encouragement to Israel to hope in the Lord; for that there is with him mercy to compass us round about.

Here is, I say, room for hope, and for the exercise thereof; when we feel ourselves after the worst manner assaulted. ‘Wherefore should I fear,’ said David, ‘in the day of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?’ (Psa 49:5). Wherefore? Why now there is all the reason in the world to fear the day of evil is come upon thee, and the iniquity of thy heels doth compass thee about. The hand of God is upon thee, and thy sins, which are the cause, stand round about thee, to give in evidence against thee; and therefore thou must fear. No, saith David, that is not a sufficient reason; he that trusteth in the Lord, Mercy shall compass him about.

Here is ground also to pray in faith, as David, saying, ‘Keep me as the apple of the eye, hid me under the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about’ (Psa 17:8,9).

Seventh. As all this tender, great, rich, much abounding mercy, compasseth us about; so that we may hope in the God of our mercy, it is said this mercy IS TO FOLLOW US. ‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’ (Psa 23:6). It shall follow me, go with me, and be near me, in all the way that I go (Psa 32:8). There are these six things to be gathered out of this text, for the further support of our hope.

1. It shall follow us to guide us in the way. I will guide thee with mine eye, says God, that is, in the way that thou shalt go. The way of man to the next world, is like the way from Egypt to Canaan, a way not to be wound out but by the pillar of a cloud by day, and a flame of fire by night; that is, with the Word and Spirit. ‘Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory’

(Psa 73:24). Thou shalt guide me from the first step to the last that I shall take in this my pilgrimage: Goodness and mercy shall follow me.

2. As God in mercy will guide, so by the same he will uphold our goings in his paths. We are weak, wherefore though the path we go in were never so plain, yet we are apt to stumble and fall. But ‘when I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up’ (Psa 94:18). Wherefore we should always turn our hope into prayer, and say, Lord, ‘hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not’ (Psa 17:5). Be not moved; let mercy follow me.

3. As the God of our mercy has mercy to guide us, and uphold us; so by the same will he instruct us when we are at a loss, at a stand.

‘I led Israel about,’ says God, ‘I instructed him, and kept him as the apple of mine eye’ (Deut 32:10). I say we are often at a loss; David said, after all his brave sayings, in Psalm 119, ‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant’ (v 176). Indeed a Christian is not so often out of the way, as he is at a stand therein, and knows not what to do. But here also is his mercy as to that. ‘Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left’ (Isa 30:21). Mercy follows for this.

4. Mercy shall follow to carry thee when thou art faint. We have many fainting and sinking fits as we go. ‘He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom,’ or upon eagles’ wings (Isa 40:11). He made Israel to ride on the high places of the earth, and made him to suck honey out of the rock (Deut 32:13).

5. Mercy shall follow us, to take us up when we are fallen, and to heal us of those wounds that we have caught by our falls. ‘The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down’ (Psa 145:14). And again: ‘The Lord openeth the yes of the blind; the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down; the Lord loveth the righteous’ (Psa 146:8). Or, as we have it in another place, ‘The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand’ (Psa 37:23,24). Here is mercy for a hoping Israelite; and yet this is not all.

6. Mercy shall follow us to pardon our sins as they are committed.

For though by the act of justification, we are for ever secured from a state of condemnation; yet as we are children, we need forgiveness daily, and have need to pray, ‘Our Father, forgive us our trespasses.’ Now, that we may have daily forgiveness for our daily sins and trespasses, mercy and goodness must follow us; or as Moses has it, ‘And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord! let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance’ (Exo 34:9). Join to this that prayer of his, which you find in Numbers: ‘Now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now,’ or hitherto (Num 14:17-19).

How many times, think you, did Israel stand in need of pardon, from Egypt, until they came to Canaan? Even so many times wilt thou need pardon from the day of thy conversion to the day of death; to the which God will follow Israel, that he may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Eighth. As all this tender, great, rich, abounding, compassing mercy, shall follow Israel to do him good; so shall it do him EVERY GOOD

TURN, in delivering of him from every judgment that by sin he hath laid himself obnoxious to, with rejoicing. For ‘mercy rejoiceth against judgment’ (James 2:13). That is, applying it to the mercy of God towards his, it rejoiceth in delivering us form the judgments that we have deserved; yea, it delivereth us from all our woes with rejoicing. In the margin it is ‘glorieth’; it glorieth in doing this great thing for us. I have thought, considering how often I have procured judgments and destructions to myself, that God would be weary of pardoning, or else that he would pardon with grudging.

But the Word said, ‘He fainteth not nor is weary’ (Isa 40;28). ‘I will rejoice over them to do them good,—with my whole heart, and with my whole soul’ (Jer 32:41). This doing of us good with rejoicing, this saving of us from deserved judgments with rejoicing, this getting the victory over our destructions for us, with rejoicing; O! it is a marvellous thing! ‘O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory’; the victory for us (Psa 98:1).

And as Paul said, ‘We are more than conquerors through him’ (Rom 8:37); and this he did with triumph and rejoicing (Col 2:15). The heart is seen ofttimes, more in the manner than in the act that is acted; more in the manner of doing than in doing of the thing.

The wickedness of the heart of Moab was more seen in the manner of action than in the words that he spake against Israel. ‘For since thou spakest [of] against him thou skippedst for joy’ (Jer 48:27).

So Edom rejoiced at the calamity of his brother; he looked on it and rejoiced: and in his rejoicing appeared the badness of his heart, and the great spite that he had against his brother Jacob (Oba 10:14).

Now, my brethren, I beseech you consider, that God hath not only showed you mercy, but hath done it with rejoicing. Mercy doth not only follow you, but it follows you with rejoicing: yea, it doth not only prevent your ruin, by our repeated transgressions procured, but it doth it with rejoicing. Here is the very heart of mercy seen, in that it rejoiceth against judgment. Like unto this is that in Zephaniah: ‘The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty: he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing’ (Zeph 3:17,18).

There are many things that show with what an heart mercy is of God extended, as is afore described, to Israel for his salvation; but this, that it acteth with rejoicing, that it saveth with rejoicing, and gets the victory over judgment with rejoicing! is a wonderful one, and one that should be taken notice of by Israel, for his encouragement to hope. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with him there is mercy,’ tender, great, rich, multiplying mercy, mercy that compasseth us about, that goeth with us all the way, and mercy that rejoiceth to overcome every judgment that seeketh our destruction, as we go toward our Father’s house and kingdom!

It is said in the Word, God delighteth in mercy. ‘Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy’ (Micah 7:18). Here then is a reason of the rejoicing of mercy against judgment. Why, mercy is God’s delight; or, as another hath it, ‘Mercy pleaseth thee.’ What a man delights in, that he will set on foot, and that he will seek to manage, that he will promote, and that he will glory in the success and prosperity of. Why, the text saith, God delighteth in mercy: nor do I believe, how odious soever the comparison may seem to be, that ever man delighteth more in sin, than God hath delighted in showing mercy. Has man given himself for sin? God has given his Son for us, that he might show us mercy (John 3:16). Has man lain at wait for opportunities for sin? God has waited