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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 604

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 It may well be said, ‘God is love’! (1 John 4:16). Man may well say so, ‘O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy’ (Psa 107:1-3). What shall we call this if it be love for a fellow-creature to give a bit of bread, a coat, a cup of cold…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 602

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 Here then is the mercy with which Israel is concerned, and with God as an encouragement to them that should hope, to hope in him. It is mercy from everlasting; it is mercy of an ancient date; it is mercy in the root of the thing. For it is from this mercy in the root of the thing. For it is from this mercy, this mercy from everlasting, that all, and all…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 603

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 [SECOND. What is to be inferred from this reason?] Should it be said there is such a lord has a son, a poor decrepit thing; he is forced to wear things to strengthen his ankles, things to improve his knees, things to enhance his loins, things to keep up his bowels, things to improve his shoulders, his neck, his hands, fingers; yea, he cannot speak but by…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 601

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 Now, my brethren, I beseech you consider, that God 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 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…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 600

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 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 forever’ (Psa 23:6). It shall follow me, go with me, and be near me, in all the…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 599

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 I tell you, Sirs, you must not trust your own apprehensions nor judgments with the mercy of God; you do not know how he can cause it to abound; that which seems to be short and shrunk up to you, he can draw out, and cause to abound exceedingly. There is a breadth, length, depth, and height therein, when God will please to open it; that for the infiniteness…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 598

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 As they are called a multitude, they are called mercies manifold. There is no single flower in God’s gospel garden; they are all double and treble; there is a wheel within a wheel, a blessing within a blessing, and all the mercies of God. Manifold; a man cannot receive one, but he receives many, many folded up, one within another. For instance, 1. If a man…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 597

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 And now, cries, he, ‘GREAT mercy or NO mercy; for little mercy will do me no good’; such a poor creature thus expostulateth the case with God, ‘Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee?’ (Psa 88:10). Lord, I have destroyed myself, can I live? My sins are more than the sands, can I live? Lord, every one of them is sin of the…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 596

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 The words being thus briefly touched upon, I shall come to treat of two things. FIRST, more distinctly, I shall show you what kind of mercy is with the Lord, as a reason to encourage Israel to hope. SECONDLY, And then shall show what is to be inferred from this reason, ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy.’ [FIRST, The kind of…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 595

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 3. The promising help that seems to be in other things are great hindrances to a steady fixing, by hope, on God; there are suitable frames of heart, enlargements in duties, with other the like, that have through the darkness, and the legality of our spirits been great hindrances to Israel. Not that their natural tendency is to turn us aside, but our corrupt…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 594

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 3. God takes much delight in the exercise of hope because it construes all God’s dispensations, at present, towards it, for the best: ‘When he hath tried me I shall come forth like gold’ (Job 23:10). This is the language of hope. God, saith the soul, is doing me good, making me better, refining my inward man. Take a professor without hope; either he suffers…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 593

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 3. Hope will use our calling to support the soul and help it, by that, to exercise itself in a way of expectation of good from God. Hence, the apostle prays for the Ephesians, that they may be made to see what is ‘the hope of their calling’; that is, what good that is which by their calling they have ground to hope is laid up in heaven, and to be brought…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 592

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 Fourth. The word ‘LET’ is sometimes used to refer to a request or an entreaty. ‘I pray thee, LET Tamar my sister come’ (2 Sam 13:6). ‘LET it be granted to the Jews to do,’ &c. (Esth 9:13). And if it is so to be taken here, or if in the best sense, this interpretation of it may here be admitted, the consideration thereof is impressive; for then it is all one…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 591

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684  [SECOND. The manner by which the exhortation is expressed.] and sometimes signifies this, and sometimes that, even according to the nature or reason of the thing under debate Having thus briefly touched upon those three things that are contained in the matter of the exhortation, I now come to speak a word to the manner of praises by which the exhortation…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 590

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 For these are formed for that very end, that they might hope in the Lord; yea, the word, and testament are given to them for this purpose (Psa 78:5-7). These are prisoners of hope all the time they are in the state of nature, even as the whole creation is subjected under hope, all the time of its bondage, by the sin and villainy of man. Unto them, it shall…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 589

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 His faithfulness also greatly encourages his hope for the accomplishment of all that he has promised to his people. ‘Hath he said it, and shall he not make it good?’ When he promised to bring Israel into the land of Canaan, he accomplished it with a title. ‘There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came…

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Works of John Bunyan: WHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH. 588

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684 So then, that we might in the next world be heirs of the highest good, God has made us heirs of his own good self; ‘Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ’; heirs of God through Christ (Rom 18:17; Gal 4:7). This God, this eternal God, therefore, is of necessity to be the object of our hope, because he is, of grace, become our hope. The church in heaven,…