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Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

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Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1

J >> John Bunyan >> The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1




'To all people to whom this present writing shall com, J. Bunyan of
the parish of St. Cuthbirt's, in the towne of Bedford, in the county
of Bedford, Brazier send greeting. Know ye, that I the said John
Bunyan as well for, and in consideration of the natural affection
and loue which I have, and bear vnto my welbeloued wife, Elizabeth
Bunyan, as also for divers other good causes and considerations, me
at this present especially moneing, have given and granted, and by
these presents, do give, grant, and conferm vnto the said Elizabeth
Bunyan, my said wife, all and singuler my goods, chattels, debts,
ready mony, plate, rings, household stuffe, aparrel, vtensills,
brass, peuter, beding, and all other my substance, whatsoever moueable
and immoueable, of what kinde, nature, quality, or condition soever
the same are or be, and in what place or places soever the same be,
shall or may be found as well in mine own custodies, possession, as
in the possession, hands, power, and custody of any other person,
or persons whatsoever. To have and to hold all and singuler the
said goods, chattels, debts, and all other, the aforesaid premises
vnto the said Elizabeth, my wife, her executors, administerators,
and assigns to her and their proper vses and behoofs, freely and
quietly without any matter of challinge, claime, or demand of me
the said John Bunyan, or of any other person, or persons, whatsoever
for me in my name, by my means cavs or procurement, and without any
mony or other thing, therefore to be yeeilded, paid or done vnto
me the said John Bunyan, my executors, administrators or assigns.
And I, the said John Bunyan, all and singular, the aforesaid goods,
chattels, and premises to the said Elizabeth my wife, her executors,
administrators, and assignes to the vse aforesaid, against all
people do warrant and forever defend by these presents. And further,
know ye, that I the said John Bunyan have put the said Elizabeth,
my wife, in peacable and quiet possession of all and singuler the
aforesaid premises, by the delivrye vnto her at the ensealing hereof
one coyned peece of silver, commonly called two pence, fixed on
the seal of these presents.[317]

'In wittnes wherof, I the said John Bunyan have herevnto set my
hand and seall this 23d day of December, in the first year of the
reigne of our soueraigne lord, King James the Second of England,
&c., in the year of our lord and saviour, Jesus Christ, 1685.

John Bunyan

Sealed and delivered in the presence of vs, whos names are here
vnder written:--


John Bardolph. Willm Hawkes.
Nicholas Malin. Lewes Norman.


It appears from this deed that Bunyan continued in business as a
brazier, and it is very probable that he carried it on until his
decease. This deed secured to his wife what little he possessed,
without the trouble or expense of applying to the ecclesiastical
courts for probate of a will.

Among other opinions which then divided the Christian world, was
a very important one relative to the law of the ten commandments,
whether it was given to the world at large, or limited to the
Jews as a peculiar nation until the coming of Messiah, and whether
our Lord altered or annulled the whole or any part of that law.
This question involves the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.
An awful curse is denounced upon those who do not continue in ALL
things which are written in the book of the law to do them (Gal
3:10; Deut 27:26). When an innovation upon the almost universal
practice of infant baptism had become an object of inquiry only to
be answered from the New Testament, it is not surprising that the
serious question, why God's Sabbath-day had been altered, should
also be agitated with deep feeling. Generally, those who advocated
the restoration of the Jewish Sabbath were decidedly of opinion
that believers only were fit subjects for baptism, and that the
scriptural mode of administering it was by immersion; hence they
were called Seventh-day Baptists--Sabbatarians, or Sabbath-keepers.

Bunyan entered with very proper and temperate zeal into this
controversy. Popular feeling had no influence over him; nor could
he submit to the opinions of the ancient fathers. His storehouse
of knowledge was limited to the revealed will of God, and there
he found ample material to guide his opinion. His work upon this
subject is called, Questions about the Nature and Perpetuity of
the Seventh-day Sabbath; and proof that the First Day of the Week
is the Christian Sabbath. It is one of the smallest of his volumes,
but so weighty in argument as never to have been answered.

We now arrive at the last year of his eventful and busy life,
during which he published six important volumes, and left twelve
others in manuscript, prepared for publication. A list of these will
be found in The Struggler;[318] they are upon the most important
subjects, which are very admirably treated. We notice among these,
The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, or Good News for the Vilest of Men.
It is a specimen of preaching calculated to excite the deepest
interest, and afford the strongest consolation to a soul oppressed
with the sense of sin. Great sinner! thou art called to mercy by
name. Arise! shoulder thy way into court through any crowd,--'say,
Stand away, devil; stand away all discouragements; my Saviour calls
me to receive mercy.' In this treatise, Bunyan has repeated from
memory what he had read in some book when in prison, four and twenty
years before. It is a curious legend, which he doubtless believed
to be true, and it displays his most retentive memory.[319] His
poetry, like his prose, was not written to gain a name, but to make
a deep impression. One of his professed admirers made a strange
mistake when he called them doggerel rhymes.[320] His Caution to
Watch Against Sin is full of solemn and impressive thoughts, the
very reverse of doggerel or burlesque. his poem on the house of
God is worthy of a most careful perusal; and thousands have been
delighted and improved with his emblems. One rhyme in the Pilgrim
can never be forgotten--


'He that is down need fear no fall;
He that is low no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide,' &c.


The careful perusal of every one of his treatises, has excited in
my mind a much livelier interest than any other religious works
which, in a long life, have come under my notice. In fact, the
works of Bunyan to a country minister may be compared to a vast
storehouse, most amply replenished with all those solemn subjects
which call for his prayerful investigation; well arranged, ready of
access, striking in their simplicity, full of vivid ideas conveyed
in language that a novice may understand. They are all so admirably
composed that pious persons, whether in houses of convocation or
of parliament, or the inmates of a workhouse, may equally listen
to them with increasing delight and instruction. No man ever more
richly enjoyed the magnificent language of Job. He called it 'that
blessed book.'[321] The deep interest that he took in its scenery
may be traced through all his writings. His spirit, with its mighty
powers, grasped the wondrous truths so splendidly pourtrayed in
that most ancient book. The inspired writings, which so eminently
give wisdom to the simple, expanded his mind, while his mental
powers were strengthened and invigorated by his so deeply drinking
into the spirit of the inspired volume.

The time was drawing near when, in the midst of his usefulness, and
with little warning, he was to be summoned to his eternal rest. He
had been seriously attacked with that dangerous pestilence which,
in former years, ravaged this country, called the sweating sickness,
a malady as mysterious and fatal as the cholera has been in later
times. The disease was attended by great prostration of strength;
but, under the careful management of his affectionate wife, his
health became sufficiently restored to enable him to undertake a
work of mercy; from the fulfillment of which, as a blessed close
to his incessant earthly labour, he was to ascend to his Father and
his God to be crowned with immortality. A father had been seriously
offended with his son, and had threatened to disinherit him. To
prevent the double mischief of a father dying in anger with his
child, and the evil consequence to the child of his being cut off
from his patrimony, Bunyan again ventured, in his weak state, on
his accustomed work, to win the blessings of the peace-maker. He
made a journey on horseback to Reading, it being the only mode of
travelling at that time, and he was rewarded with success. Returning
home by way of London to impart the gratifying intelligence, he was
overtaken by excessive rains, and, in an exhausted state, he found
a kindly refuge in the house of his Christian friend Mr. Strudwick,
and was there seized with a fatal fever. His much-loved wife, who
had so powerfully pleaded for his liberty with the judges, and to
whom he had been united thirty years, was at a great distance from
him. Bedford was then two days' journey from London. Probably at
first, his friends had hopes of his speedy recovery; but when the
stroke came, all his feelings, and those of his friends, appear to
have been absorbed, by the anticipated blessings of immortality,
to such an extent, that no record is left as to whether his wife,
or any of his children, saw him cross the river of death. There is
abundant testimony of his faith and patience, and that the presence
of God was eminently with him.

He bore his trying sufferings with all the patience and fortitude
that might be expected from such a man. His resignation was most
exemplary; his only expressions were 'a desire to depart, to be
dissolved, to be with Christ.' His sufferings were short, being
limited to ten days. He enjoyed a holy frame of mind, desiring his
friends to pray with him, and uniting fervently with them in the
exercise. His last words, while struggling with death, were, 'Weep
not for me, but for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who will, no doubt, through the mediation of his blessed
Son, receive me, though a sinner; where I hope we ere long shall
meet, to sing the new song, and remain everlastingly happy, world
without end. Amen.' He felt the ground solid under his feet in passing
the black river which has no bridge, and followed his pilgrim into
the celestial city in August, 1688, in the sixtieth year of his age.
There is some uncertainty as to the day of his decease: Charles
Doe, in the Struggler, 1692, has August 31, and this has been copied
in all his portraits. In the life appended to the Grace Abounding,
1692, his death-day is stated as August 12; and in the memoir
appended to the third part of the Pilgrim, also in 1692, the date
is August 17. The circumstances of his peaceful decease are well
compared by Dr. Cheever to the experience of Mr. Standfast, when he
was called to pass the river: the great calm--the firm footing--the
address to by-standers--until his countenance changed, his strong
man bowed under him, and his last words were, 'Take me, for I come
to thee.' Then the joy among the angels while they welcomed the
hero of such spiritual fights, and conducted his wandering soul to
the New Jerusalem, which he had so beautifully described as 'the
holy city'; and then his wonder and amazement to find how infinitely
short his description came to the blissful reality.

The deep affliction that his church was plunged into led to several
special meetings. Wednesday, the 4th of September, 'was kept in
prayer and humiliation for this heavy stroke upon us--the death of
dear brother Bunyan; it was appointed also, that Wednesday next be
kept in prayer and humiliation on the same account. At the meeting
held on the 11th, it was appointed that all the brethren meet
together on the 18th of this month, September, to humble themselves
for this heavy hand of God upon us, and also to pray unto the Lord
for counsel and direction what to do, in order to seek out for a
fit person to make choice of for an elder. On the 18th, when the
whole congregation met to humble themselves before God, by fasting
and prayer, for his heavy and severe stroke upon us in taking away
our honoured brother Bunyan by death, it was agreed by the whole
congregation that care be taken to seek out for one suitably qualified
to be chosen an elder among us, and that care was committed by the
whole to the brethren at Bedford.' Thus did the church manifest
that they had improved in wisdom under his ministry by flying, in
their extreme distress, to the only source of consolation.

The saddest feelings of sorrow extended to every place where he
had been known. His friend, the Rev. G. Cockayn, of London, says,
'it pleased the Lord to remove him, to the great loss and inexpressible
grief of many precious souls.' Numerous elegies, acrostics, and
poems were published on the occasion of his decease, lamenting the
loss thus sustained by his country--by the church at large, and
particularly by the church and congregation at Bedford. One of
these, 'written by a dear friend of his,' is a fair sample of the
whole:--

A SHORT ELEGY IN MEMORY OF MR. JOHN BUNYAN, WRITTEN BY A DEAR FRIEND
OF HIS.


The pilgrim traveling the world's vast stage,
At last does end his weary pilgrimage:
He now in pleasant valleys does sit down,
And, for his toil, receives a glorious crown.
The storms are past, the terrors vanish all,
Which in his way did so affrighting fall;
He grieves nor sighs no more, his race is run
Successfully, that was so well begun.
You'll say he's dead: O no, he cannot die,
He's only changed to immortality--
Weep not for him, who has no cause of tears;
Hush, then, your sighs, and calm your needless fears.
If anything in love to him is meant,
Tread his last steps, and of your sins repent:
If knowledge of things here at all remains
Beyond the grave, to please him for his pains
And suffering in this world; live, then, upright,
And that will be to him a grateful sight.
Run such a race as you again may meet,
And find your conversation far more sweet;
When purged from dross, you shall, unmix'd, possess
The purest essence of eternal bliss

'He in the pulpit preached truth first, and then
He in his practice preached it o'er again.'


His remains were interred in Bunhill Fields, in the vault of his
friend Mr. Strudwick, at whose house he died. His tomb[322] has been
visited by thousands of pilgrims, blessing God for his goodness in
raising up such a man, so signally fitted to be a blessing to the
times in which he lived. All the accounts of his decease, published
at the time, agree as to his place of burial. The words of Mr. Doe,
who probably attended the funeral, are, 'he was buried in the new
burying-place, near the artillery ground, where he sleeps to the
morning of the resurrection.'[323] His Life and Actions, 1692,
records that 'his funeral was performed with much decency, and he
was buried in the new burying-ground by Moorfields.' The Struggler
calls it 'Finsbury burying-ground, where many London Dissenting
ministers are laid.'[324] Bunhill Fields burying-ground for
Dissenters was first opened in 1666. The inscription upon the tomb
to his memory was engraven many years after his funeral. It is not
contained in the list of inscriptions published in 1717. His widow
survived him four years. He had six children by his first wife,
three of whom survived him--Thomas, Joseph, and Sarah. His son
Thomas joined his church in 1673, and was a preacher in 1692. He
appears to have been usefully employed in visiting absent members
until December 1718. My kind friend, the Rev. J. P. Lockwood,
rector of South Hackney, recently discovered entries in the register
of Kimbolton, in Huntingdonshire, probably of the descendants of
this son, Thomas. November 26, 1698, John Bonion and Mary Rogers,
married: she was buried, September 7, 1706; and he again married
Anne, and buried her in 1712, leaving a son and two daughters. His
death is not recorded. One of the descendants, Hannah Bunyan, died
in 1770, aged seventy-six years, and lies in the burial-ground by
the meeting-house at Bedford. John Bunyan's son, Joseph, settled at
Nottingham, and marrying a wealthy woman, conformed to the Church.
A lineal descendant of his was living, in 1847, at Islington, near
London, aged eighty-four, Mrs. Senegar, a fine hearty old lady, and
a Strict Baptist. She said to me, 'Sir, excuse the vanity of an old
woman, but I will show you how I sometimes spend a very pleasant
half-hour.' She took down a portrait on canvas of her great
forefather, and propped it up on the table with a writing-desk, with
a looking-glass by its side. 'There, Sir, I look at the portrait,
and then at myself, and can trace every feature; we resemble each
other like two pins.' 'Excepting the imperial and moustachios,' I
replied; to which she readily assented. It was the fact that there
was a striking family likeness between the picture and her reflection
in the looking-glass. Another descendant, from the same branch
of the family, is now living at Lincoln. He was born in 1775, and
possessed a quarto Bible, published by Barker and Bill in 1641, given
by John Bunyan to his son Joseph. This was preserved in his family
until the present year, when it came into the editor's possession,
with the following relics, which were, and I trust will yet be
preserved with the greatest care:--An iron pencase, made by Bunyan
the brazier, with some stumps of old pens, with which it is said
he wrote some of his sermons and books; the buckles worn by him,
and his two pocket-knives, one of them made before springs were
invented, and which is kept open by turning a ferrule; his apple-scoop,
curiously carved, and a seal; his pocket-box of scales and weights
for money, being stamped with the figures on each side of the coins
of James and Charles I.[325] These were given by Robert Bunyan,
in 1839, then sixty-four years of age, to a younger branch of the
family, Mr. Charles Robinson, of Wilford, near Nottingham (his
sister's son), for safe custody. He died in 1852; while his aged
uncle remains in good health, subject to the infirmities of his
seventy-eighth year. On many of the blank spaces in the Bible are
the registers of births and deaths in the family, evidently written
at the time. Those relics are deposited in a carved oak box. They
were sold with the late Mr. Robinson's effects, January, 1853, and
secured for me by my excellent friend James Dix, Esq., of Bristol,
who met with them immediately after the sale, on one of his journeys
at Nottingham. They are not worshipped as relics, nor have they
performed miracles, but as curiosities of a past age they are worthy
of high consideration. Everything that was used by him, and that
survives the ravages of time, possesses a peculiar charm; even the
chair in which he at is preserved in the vestry of the new chapel,
and is shown to those who make the pilgrimage to the shrine of
Bunyan.[326]

In the same vestry is also a curious inlaid cabinet, small, and
highly finished. It descended from Bunyan to a lady who lived to
an advanced age--Madam Bithray; from her to the Rev. Mr. Voley; and
of his widow it was purchased to ornament the vestry of Bunyan's
meeting-house.

The personal appearance and character of our pilgrim's guide,
drawn by his friend Charles Doe, will be found at the end of
his Grace Abounding; to which is appended his Dying Sayings--'of
sin--afflictions--repentance and coming to Christ--of prayer--of
the Lord's day, sermons, and week days: "Make the Lord's day the
market for thy soul"--of the love of the world--of suffering--of
death and judgment--of the joys of heaven--and the torments of
hell.'

How inscrutable are the ways of God! Had Bunyan lived a month longer,
he would have witnessed the glorious Revolution--the escape of
a great nation. The staff and hope of Protestant Europe was saved
from a subtle--a Jesuitical attempt--to introduce Popery and
arbitrary government. The time of his death, as a release from the
incumbrance of a material body, was fixed by infinite wisdom and
love at that juncture, and it ought not to be a cause of regret.
His interest in the welfare of the church ceased not with his mortal
life. How swiftly would his glorified spirit fly to see the landing
of William, and hover with joy over the flight of the besotted
James! He was now in a situation to prove the truth of that saying,
'the angels desire to look into' the truth and spread of the glad
tidings. How he would prove the reality of his opinion, expressed
in The Holy War, of the interest taken by the inhabitants of
heaven in the prosperity of the church on earth. When Mansoul was
conquered, the spirits that witnessed the victory 'shouted with
that greatness of voice, and sung with such melodious notes, that
they caused them that dwell in the highest orbs to open their
windows, and put out their heads and look down to see the cause of
that glory' (Luke 15:7-10).[327] So may we imagine that the happy,
happy, glorified spirit of Bunyan would look down rejoicing, when,
a few years after he had yielded up his pastoral cares, the seed
which he had been instrumental in sowing produced its fruit in
such numbers, that the old meeting-house was pulled down, and in
its place a large and respectable one was erected. And again, on
the 20th February, 1850, with what joy would he look down upon the
opening of a still larger, more commodious, and handsome meeting-house,
bearing his name, and capable of holding 1150 worshippers. One of
Bunyan's pungent, alarming sayings to the careless was, 'Once die,
we cannot come back and die better.'[328] If anything could tempt
him, in his angelic body, to re-visit this earth, it would be to
address the multitude at the new Bunyan Chapel with his old sermon
on The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, or Good News to the Vilest of Men.
But we have Moses and the prophets--Christ and his apostles; if
we shut our ears to them, neither should we listen to a messenger
from the New Jerusalem.

When it is recollected that Bunyan received the most imperfect
rudiments of education in a charity school when very young, which
were 'almost entirely' obliterated by bad habits--that he was a
hard-working man through life, maintaining himself, a wife, and four
children, by his severe labour as a brazier--and yet, by personal
efforts, he educated himself and wrote sixty-two valuable religious
treatises, numbering among them his inimitable allegories, The
Pilgrim's Progress and Holy War, made a Concordance to the Bible,
and conducted important controversies. Preaching, while at liberty,
almost innumerable sermons on the Lord's-days and week-days, early
in the morning and late at night. Visiting his flock with pastoral
care--founding churches in the villages, and even in towns and
cities far distant from his dwelling--constantly giving advice to
promote peace and good will, and rendering benevolent aid by long
journeys! His whole life presents to us a picture of most astonishing,
energetic perseverance. Every moment of time must have been employed
as if he valued it as a precious trust, which, if once lost, could
never be regained. Who of us can compare our life with his last
thirty years, and not blush with shame!

The finest trait in Bunyan's Christian character was his deep,
heartfelt humility. This is the more extraordinary from his want
of secular education, and his unrivalled talent. The more we learn,
the greater is the field for research that opens before us, insomuch
that the wisest philosophers have most seriously felt the little
progress they have made. He acknowledged to Mr. Cockayn, who considered
him the most eminent man, and a star of the first magnitude in the
firmament of the churches,[329] that spiritual pride was his easily
besetting sin, and that he needed the thorn in the flesh, lest he
should be exalted above measure. A sense of this weakness probably
led him to peculiar watchfulness against it. His self-abasement was
neither tinctured with affectation, nor with the pride of humility.
His humble-mindedness appeared to arise form his intimate communion
with Heaven. In daily communion with God, he received a daily
lesson of deeper and deeper humility. 'I am the high and lofty One,
I inhabit eternity! verily this consideration is enough to make a
broken-hearted man creep into a mouse-hole, to hide himself from such
majesty! There is room in this man's heart for God to dwell.'[330]
'I find it one of the hardest things that I can put my soul upon,
even to come to God, when warmly sensible that I am a sinner, for
a share in grace and mercy. I cannot but with a thousand tears say,
"God be merciful to me a sinner" (Ezra 9:15).'[331]

The Revs. Messrs. Chandler and Wilson, bear the following testimony
as eye-witnesses to his character:--'His fancy and invention were
very pregnant and fertile. His wit was sharp and quick--his memory
tenacious, it being customary with him to commit his sermons
to writing after he had preached them,' a proof of extraordinary
industry. 'His understanding was large and comprehensive--his judgment
sound and deep in the fundamentals of the gospel. His experience
of Satan's temptations in the power and policy of them, and of
Christ's presence in, and by his Word and Spirit to succour and
comfort him, was more than ordinary; the grace of God was magnified
in him and by him, and a rich anointing of the Spirit was upon him;
and yet this great saint was always in his own eyes the chiefest
of sinners, and the least of saints. He was not only well furnished
with the helps and endowments of nature, beyond ordinary, but eminent
in the graces and gifts of the Spirit, and fruits of holiness. He
was from first to last established in, and ready to maintain, that
God-like principle of having communion with saints as such, without
any respect to difference in things disputable among the godly. His
carriage was condescending, affable, and meek to all, yet bold and
courageous for Christ. He was much struck at, in the lat times of
persecution; being far from any sinful compliance to save himself,
he did cheerfully bear the cross.' Such was the character given
of him by these two eminent divines, in 1693, while his memory, in
its fullest fragrance, was cherished by all the churches.