A30211:452
A treatise of the fear of God showing what it is, and how distinguished…A treatise of the fear of God shewing what it is, and how distinguished…
A treatise of the fear of God showing what it is, and how distinguished from that what is not so : also whence it comes, who has it, what are the effects, and what the privileges of those that have it in their hearts / by John Bunyan.A treatise of the fear of God shewing what it is, and how distinguished from that what is not so : also whence it comes, who has it, what are the effects, and what the priviledges of those that have it in their hearts / by John Bunyan.
London: printed for N. Ponder, 1679
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
In his love and in his pity be redeemed them, In his love and in his pity. In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them; in his love, and in his pity he redeemed them, and bare them, and carried them all the day of old, Isa. 63.9.
I say, in that he is said to pity them, it is as much as to say, he condoleth, feeleth, and sympathizeth with them in all their afflictions and temptations. So that this is the happiness of him that feareth God, he has a God to pity him, and to be touched with all his miseries. 'Tis said in Judges, His soul was grieved for the miseries of Israel, (Judg. 10.16.) and in the Hebrews, He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and can succour them that are tempted (Chap. 4.15. Chap. 2.17.18.
But further let us take notice of the comparison. As a Father pitieth his Children, so ⟨p. 148⟩the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Here is not only pity, but the pity of a relation, a Father. 'Tis said in another place. Can a woman (a mother) forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb? yea she may, yet will not I forget thee. The pity of neighbours and acquaintance helpeth in times of distress, but the pity of a Father and a mother, is pity with an over and above. The Lord, says James, is very pitiful, and of tender mercy, Pharaoh called Joseph his tender Father, because he provided for him against the famine, but how tender a Father is God? how full of bowels, how full of pity? Jam. 5.11.