The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan: Volume XIII: Israel's Hope Encouraged; The Desire of the Righteous Granted; The Saints Privilege and Profit; Christ a Compleat Saviour; The Saints Knowledge of Christ's Love; Of Antichrist, and His Ruine
John Bunyan
Clarendon Press
1994
sidottu
The six treatises which make up this concluding volume of Bunyan's Miscellaneous Works were all published posthumously, in the 1692 Folio edited by Charles Doe. Most of them seem to have been composed in the final ten years of his life, while he was the height of his fame as a preacher and writer. They are characteristic Bunyan productions, designed to edify, exhort, and comform the saints, and brimful of his conviction that the Christian pilgrimage is a strenuous affair, calling for constant vigilence, self-examination and courage. The theme of endurance under persecution is prominent, and in a late millenarian work, Of Antichrist, and His Ruine, Bunyan offers a sombre, but eloquent account of the approaching downfall of the great enemy of the ture church, the Antichrist. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bunyan is careful not to name dates, or interpret the apocalyptic texts too literally, but a striking feature of this work is his belief that kings would be God's chosen intruments in the destruction of Antichrist.
