The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1, John Bunyan [reading like a writer TXT] 📗

it in another place, ‘Hide not thy face from me. Hear me speedily, O Lord,’ saith he, ‘my spirit faileth; hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit’ (Psa 143:7). So that God’s presence is the desire of the righteous for this cause also, even for that by it they gather that God delighteth in them. ‘By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemies doth not triumph over me’ (Psa 41:11). And is this all? No.

‘And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever’ (Psa 41:12).

As by the presence of God being with us we know ourselves to be the people of God: so by this presence of God the world themselves are sometimes convinced who we are also.

Thus Abimelech saw that God was with Abraham (Gen 21:22). Thus Abimelech saw that God was with Isaac (Gen 26:20,29). Pharaoh knew that God was with Joseph (Gen 41:38). Saul ‘saw and knew that the Lord was with David’ (1 Sam 18:28). Saul’s servant knew that the Lord was with Samuel (1 Sam 9:6). Belshazzar’s queen knew, also, that God was with Daniel. Darius knew, also, that God was with Daniel.

And when the enemy saw the boldness of Peter and John, ‘they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus’ (Acts 4:13). The girl that was a witch, knew that Paul was a servant of the most high God (Acts 16:17). There is a glory upon them that have God with them, a glory that sometimes glances and flashes out into the faces of those that behold the people of God; ‘And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly upon him, saw Stephen’s face, as it had been the face of an angel’; such rays of Divine majesty did show themselves therein (Acts 6:15).

The reason is, for that, (1.) such have with them the wisdom of God (2 Sam 14:17-20). (2.) Such, also, have special bowels and compassions of God for others. (3.) Such have more of his majesty upon them than others (1 Sam 16:4). (4.) Such, their words and ways, their carriages and doings, are attended with that of God that others are destitute of (1 Sam 3:19,20). (5.) Such are holier, and of more convincing lives in general, than other people are (2

Kings 4:9). Now there is both comfort and honour in this; for what comfort like that of being a holy man of God? And what honour like that of being a holy man of God? This, therefore, is the desire of the righteous, to wit, to have communion with God. Indeed none like God, and to be desired as he, in the thoughts of a righteous man.

2. And this leads me to the second thing, namely, The liberty of the enjoyment of his holy ordinances; for, next to God himself, nothing is so dear to a righteous man as the enjoyment of his holy ordinances.

‘One thing,’ said David, ‘have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after,’ namely, ‘that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple’ (Psa 27:4). The temple of the Lord was the dwelling-house of God, there he recorded his name, and there he made known himself unto his people (Psa 11:4; Habb 2:20). Wherefore this was the cause why David so earnestly desired to dwell there too, ‘To behold,’ saith he, ‘the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.’ There he had promised his presence to his people, yea, and to bring thither a blessing for them; ‘In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee’

(Exo 20:24). For this cause, therefore, as I said, it is why the righteous do so desire that they may enjoy the liberty of the ordinances and appointments of their God; to wit, that they may attain to, and have communion maintained with him. Alas! the righteous are as it were undone, if God’s ordinances be taken from them: ‘How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God’ (Psa 84:1,2). Behold what a taking the good man was in, because at this time he could not attain to so frequent a being in the temple of God as his soul desired. It even longed and fainted, yea, and his heart and his flesh cried out for the God that dwelt in the temple at Jerusalem.

Yea, he seems in the next words to envy the very birds that could more commonly frequent the temple than he: ‘The sparrow,’ saith he, ‘hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God’ (Psa 84:3). And then blesseth all them that had the liberty of temple worship, saying, ‘Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee’ (Psa 84:4). Then he cries up the happiness of those that in Zion do appear before God (Psa 84:7). After this he cries out unto God, that he would grant him to be partaker of this high favour, saying, ‘O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer,’ &c. ‘For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand: I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness’ (Psa 84:8-10).

But why is all this? what aileth the man thus to express himself?

Why, as I said, the temple was the great ordinance of God; there was his true worship performed, there God appeared, and there his people were to find him. This was, I say, the reason why the Psalmist chose out, and desired this one thing, above all the things that were under heaven, even ‘to behold there the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.’ There were to be seen the shadows of things in the heavens; the candlestick, the table of shewbread, the holiest of all, where was the golden censer, the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, the golden pot that had manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the tables of the covenant, and the cherubims of glory overshadowing the mercyseat, which were all of them then things by which God showed himself merciful to them (Heb 9:1-5 compared with 9:23 and 8:5).

Do you think that love-letters are not desired between lovers?

Why these, God’s ordinances, they are his love-letters, and his love-tokens too. No marvel then if the righteous do so desire them: ‘More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb’ (Psa 19:10, 119:72-127).

Yea, this judgment wisdom itself passes upon these things. ‘Receive,’

saith he, ‘my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies: and all the things that may be desired, are not to be compared to it’ (Prov 8:10,11).

For this cause therefore are the ordinances of God so much desired by the righteous. In them they meet with God; and by them they are builded, and nourished up to eternal life. ‘As new born babes,’

says Peter, ‘desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby’ (1 Peter 2:2). As milk is nourishing to children, so is the word heard, read, and meditated on, to the righteous. Therefore it is their desire.

Christ made himself known to them in breaking of bread; who, who would not then, that loves to know him, be present at such an ordinance? (Luke 24:35). Ofttimes the Holy Ghost, in the comfortable influence of it, has accompanied the baptized in the very act of administering it.[10] Therefore, ‘in the way of thy judgments,’

or appointments, ‘O Lord, we thy people have waited for thee: the desire of their soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee’

(Isa 26:8). Church fellowship, or the communion of saints, is the place where the Son of God loveth to walk; his first walking was in Eden, there he converted our first parents: ‘And come, my beloved,’

says he, ‘let us get up to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth; there will I give thee my loves’ (Cant 7:12). Church fellowship, rightly managed, is the glory of all the world. No place, no community, no fellowship, is adorned and bespangled with those beauties as is a church rightly knit together to their head, and lovingly serving one another. ‘In his temple doth every one speak of his glory’ (Psa 29:9). Hence the church is called the place of God’s desire on earth. ‘This is my rest for ever, here I will dwell, for I have desired it’ (Psa 132:13-16). And again, thus the church confesseth when she saith, ‘I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me’ (Cant 7:10).[11]

No marvel then if this be the one thing that David desired, and that which he would seek after, namely, ‘to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.’ And this also shows you the reason why God’s people of old used to venture so hardly for ordinances, and to get to them with the peril of their lives, ‘because of the sword of the wilderness’ (Lam 5:9).[12]

They were their bread, they were their water, they were their milk, they were their honey. Hence the sanctuary was called ‘the desire of their eyes, and that which their soul pitieth, or the pity of their soul.’ They had rather have died than lost it, or than that it should have been burned down as it was (Eze 24:21,25).

When the children of Israel had lost the ark, they count that the glory was departed from Israel. But when they had lost all, what a complaint made they then! ‘He hath violently taken away his tabernacles, as if it were of a garden, he hath destroyed his places of the assembly. The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Sion, and hath despised, in the indignation of his anger, the king and the priest’ (Lam 2:6). Wherefore, upon this account, it was that the church in those days counted the punishment of her iniquity greater than the punishment of Sodom (Lam 4:6; 1 Sam 4:22).

By these few hints you may perceive what is the ‘desire of the righteous.’ But this is spoken of with reference to things present, to things that the righteous desire to enjoy while they are here; communion with God while here; and his ordinances in their purity while here. I come, therefore, in the second place, to show you that the righteous have desires that reach further, desires that have so long a neck as to look into the world to come.

[Desires that can only be accomplished or enjoyed in eternity.]

Second. Then the desires of the righteous are after that which yet they know cannot be enjoyed till after death. And those are comprehended under these two heads—1. They desire that presence of their Lord which is personal. 2. They desire to be in that country where their Lord personally is, that heavenly country.

1. [They desire that presence of their Lord which is personal.] For the first of these, says Paul, ‘I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.’ Thus you have it in Philippians 1:23, ‘I have a desire to be with Christ.’

In our first sort of desires, I told you