The Riches of Bunyan | Page 9

that God made use of as a means, either more
remote or near, to bring thee to Jesus Christ? Was it the removing of
thy habitation, the change of thy condition, the loss of relations, estate,
or the like? Was it the casting of thine eye upon some good book, the
hearing thy neighbors talk of heavenly things, the beholding of God's
judgments as executed upon others, or thine own deliverance from
them, or thy being strangely cast under the ministry of some godly man?
O take notice of such providence or providences. They were sent and
managed by mighty power to do thee good. God himself hath joined
himself to this chariot, yea, and so blessed it that it failed not to
accomplish the thing for which it was sent.

CONDESCENSION OF GOD.
Notwithstanding there is such a revelation of God in his word, in the
book of creatures, and in the book of providences, yet the scripture says,
"Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of
him;" so great is God above all that we have read, heard, or seen of him,
either in the Bible, in heaven, or earth, or sea, or what else is to be
understood. But now that a poor mortal, a lump of sinful flesh, or, as
the scripture phrase is, poor dust and ashes, should be in the favor, in
the heart, and wrapped up in the compassions of such a God! O
amazing; O astonishing consideration! And yet, "this God is our God
for ever and ever, and he will be our guide even unto death."
MERCY OF GOD.
As God has mercies to bestow, and as he has designed to bestow them,
so those mercies are no fragments or the leavings of others, but mercies
that are full and complete to do for thee what thou wantest, wouldst
have, or canst desire. As I may so say, God has his bags that were never
yet untied, never yet broken up, but laid by him through a thousand
generations for those that he commands to hope in his mercy.
I tell you, sirs, you must not trust your own apprehensions nor
judgments of 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 and
length and depth and height therein, when God will please to open it,
that for its infiniteness can swallow up not only all thy sins, but all thy
thoughts and imaginations, and that also can drown thee at last. "Now
unto him that is able," as to mercy, "to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto
him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world
without end. Amen."
This therefore is a wonderful thing, and shall be wondered at to all
eternity, that the river of mercy, that at first did seem to be but ancle
deep, should so rise and rise that at last it became "waters to swim in, a
river that could not be passed over." Ezck. 47:5.
GOD THE JUSTIFIER.
The first cause of justification before God dependeth upon the will of
God, who will justify because he will; therefore the meritorious cause
must also be of his own providing, else his will cannot herein be

absolute; for if justification depend upon our personal performances,
then not upon the will of God. He may not have mercy upon whom he
will, but on whom man's righteousness will give him leave; but his will,
not ours, must rule here, therefore his righteousness and his only. So
then, men are justified from the curse in the sight of God, while sinners
in themselves.
GLORY OF GOD IN REDEMPTION.
In redemption by the blood of Christ, God is said to abound towards us
in all WISDOM. Here we see the highest contradictions reconciled;
here justice kisseth the sinner; here a man stands just in the sight of
God, while confounded at his own pollutions; and here he that hath
done no good, hath yet a sufficient righteousness, "even the
righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ."
The JUSTICE of God is here more seen than in punishing all the
damned.
The MYSTERY OF GOD'S WILL is here more seen than in hanging
the earth upon nothing; while he condemneth Christ though righteous,
and justifieth us though sinners, while he "maketh him to be sin for us,
and us the righteousness of God in him."
The POWER of God is here more seen than in making heaven and
earth; for, for one to hear