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Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1

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




This humility peculiarly fitted him to instruct the young, of whom
he was very fond--


'Nor do I blush, although I think some may
Call me a baby, 'cause I with them play;
I do 't to show them how each fingle fangle
On which they doating are, their souls entangle;
And, since at gravity they make a tush,
My very beard I cast behind a bush.'[332]


He had friends among the rich as well as the poor. Of this his
solid gold ring and handsome cabinet are proofs. From a letter
in the Ellis correspondence, we learn that Bunyan had so secured
the affections of the Lord Mayor of London, as to be called his
chaplain.[333]

Among his religious friends and associates he must have been a
pleasing, entertaining, lively companion. However solemn, nay awful,
had been his experience when walking through the Valley of the
Shadow of Death, yet when emerging from the darkness and enjoying
the sunshine of Divine favour, he loved social intercourse and
communion of saints. It is one of the slanders heaped upon Christianity
to call it a gloomy, melancholy theme: though 'it is better to go
to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting,' yet the
wisely pious man will endeavour, even at an elegant entertainment
or a Lord Mayor's dinner, to drop useful hints. Whenever Bunyan
describes a social party, especially a feast, he always introduces
a wholesome dish; and it is singular, in the abundance of publications,
that we have not been favoured with John Bunyan's Nuts to Crack
at Religious Entertainments, or a Collection of his Pious Riddles.
Thus, at the splendid royal feast given to Emmanuel, when he entered
Mansoul in triumph, 'he entertained the town with some curious
riddles, of secrets drawn up by his father's secretary, by the
skill and wisdom of Shaddai, the like to which there are not in any
kingdom.' 'Emmanuel also expounded unto them some of those riddles
himself, but O how were they lightened! They saw what they never
saw, they could not have thought that such rarities could have been
couched in such few and ordinary words. The lamb, the sacrifice,
the rock, the door, the way.'[334] 'The second Adam was before the
first, and the second covenant was before the first.'[335] 'Was
Adam bad before he eat the forbidden fruit?'[336] 'How can a man
say his prayers without a word being read or uttered?'[337] 'How
do men speak with their feet?' Answer, Proverbs 6:13.[338] 'Why was
the brazen laver made of the women's looking-glasses?'[339] 'How
can we comprehend that which cannot be comprehended, or know that
which passeth knowledge?'[340] 'Who was the founder of the state
or priestly domination over religion?'[341] What is meant by the
drum of Diabolus and other riddles mentioned in The Holy War?[342]
The poetical riddles in The Pilgrim's Progress are very striking--


'A man there was, though some did count him mad,
The more he cast away, the more he had.'

How can 'evil make the soul from evil turn.'[343]

Can 'sin be driven out of the world by suffering?'[344]

'Though it may seem to some a riddle,
We use to light our candles at the middle.'[345]

'What men die two deaths at once?'[346]

'Are men ever in heaven and on earth at the same time?'[347]

'Can a beggar be worth ten thousand a-year and not know it?'[348]


He even introduced a dance upon the destruction of Despair, Mr.
Ready-to-halt, with his partner Miss Much-afraid, while Christiana
and Mercy furnished the music. 'True, he could not dance without
one crutch in his hand; but I promise you he footed it well. Also
the girl was to be commended, for she answered the music handsomely.'
Is this the gloomy fanaticism of a Puritan divine? It is true,
that promiscuous dancing, or any other amusement tending to evil,
he had given up and discountenanced, but all his writings tend to
prove that the Christian only can rationally and piously enjoy the
world that now is, while living in the delightful hope of bliss in
that which is to come.

Bunyan's personal appearance and character was drawn by his friend
Mr. Doe. 'He appeared in countenance stern and rough, but was mild
and affable; loving to reconcile differences and make friendships.
He made it his study, above all other things, not to give occasion
of offence. In his family he kept a very strict discipline in
prayer and exhortations. He had a sharp, quick eye, and an excellent
discerning of persons; of good judgment and quick wit. Tall
in stature, strong-boned; somewhat of a ruddy face with sparkling
eyes; his hair reddish, but sprinkled with gray; nose well set;
mouth moderately large; forehead something high, and his habit
always plain and modest.'

My determination in writing this memoir has been to follow the
scriptural example, by fairly recording every defect discoverable
in Bunyan's character; but what were considered by some to be
blemishes, after his conversion, appear, in my estimation, to be
beauties. His moral and religious character was irreproachable,
and his doctrinal views most scriptural; all agree in this, that
he was a bright and shining light; unrivalled for his allegories,
and for the vast amount of his usefulness. His friend, Mr. Wilson,
says, 'Though his enemies and persecutors, in his lifetime, did
what they could to vilify and reproach him, yet, being gone, he
that before had the testimony of their consciences, hath now their
actual commendation and applause.'[349] To this we may add, that
he was without sectarianism, a most decided Bible Christian. This
reveals the secret of his striking phraseology. It was in the sacred
pages of Divine truth that he learned grammar and rhetoric. Style,
and all his knowledge of the powers of language--all were derived
from the only source of his religious wisdom and learning. He lived,
and thought, and wrote under the influence of the holy oracles,
translated by the Puritans in 1560, compared with the version of
1611. This gives a charm to all his works, and suits them to every
human capacity.

Reader, the object of biography is to excite emulation. Why should
not others arise as extensively to bless the world as Bunyan did?
The storehouses of heaven from which he was replenished with holy
treasures, are inexhaustible. As he said, 'God has bags of mercy yet
unsealed.' We have the same holy oracles, and the same mercy-seat.
The time is past for merely challenging the right to personal
judgment of religious truths. In Britain the lions are securely
chained, and the cruel giants disabled. The awful crime of imprisoning
and torturing man for conscience' sake, exists only in kingdoms
where darkness reigns--


''Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy.'


We stand upon higher ground than our forefathers; we take our more
solemn stand upon the imperative duty of personal investigation--that
no one can claim the name of Christian, unless he has laid aside
all national, or family, or educational prejudices, and drawn from
the holy oracles alone all his scheme of salvation and rules of
conduct. All the secret of Bunyan's vast usefulness, the foundation
of all his honour, is, that the fear of God swallowed up the fear of
man; that he was baptized into the truths of revelation, and lived
to exemplify them. He was a bright and shining light in a benighted
world; and of him it may be most emphatically said, 'Blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours;
and their works do follow them.'

GEORGE OFFOR.



FOOTNOTES:

1. For a most interesting account of the rise of Sixtus V, see the
new volume of the Lounger's Common-place Book, 1807, p. 152.

2. The Rev. J. H. A. Rudd, the Vicar of Elstow, has most kindly
furnished me with an extract from the registers of all the entries
relative to Bunyan's family. The register commences in 1641, and has
been searched to 1750. It confirms the Rev. J. Juke's impression,
that soon after Bunyan joined Gifford's church he left Elstow to
live in Bedford.

Thomas Bonion, buried, Dec. 9, 1641. Margaret Bonion, wife, buried,
June 20, 1644. Margaret Bonion, b., July 24, 1644. Charles, the
son of Thos. Bunion, bapt., May 22, 1645. Charles Bunion, bur.,
May 30, 1645. Mary, the daught. of Joh. Bonion, bapt., July 20,
1650 Elizabeth, the daughter of John Bonyon, was born 14th day of
April, 1654.

Thomas Bonion of the town of Bedford, and Elizabeth _______ of
the parish of Elstow, were married, May 10, 1656. (The Christian
name of the husband, and the surname of the wife, are very much
obliterated.)

Ann Bonyonn, Widdo, was buried, 12th day of April, 1659. Thos.
Bunyan, buried, Feby. 7th, 1675. Ann Bunyon, Widdo, buried in
Woolen, September 25, 1680.

The marriage here recorded, May 10, 1656, could not be that of John
Bunyan to his second wife Elizabeth; for she declared to Judge Hale
in August, 1661, that she had 'not been married to him yet full
two years.'--Vol. i. 61.

3. This cottage has long ceased to exist, and has been replaced by
another of the poorest description. But from an old print we have
given in the Plate, p. 1, vol. i., a representation of the original,
with the shed at side often mentioned as 'The forge'; thus leading
us to believe, that to the 'tinker's' humble calling might be united
that of the 'smith,' a more manly and honourable trade.

4. Grace Abounding, No. 2.

5. Vol. iii., p. 674.

6. Vol. ii., p. 140.

7. Vol. i., p. 490.

8. Vol. ii., p. 617.

9. Grace Abounding, No. 18.

10. Extracted from the first edition in the British Museum. It was
much altered in the subsequent impressions.

11. In 1566, Sir Thomas Harper, Lord Mayor of London, gave £180
for thirteen acres and a rood of meadow land in Holborn. This was
settled, in trust, to promote the education of the poor in and
round Bedford. In 1668, it produced a yearly revenue of £99--a
considerable sum in that day, but not in any proportion to the
present rental, which amounts to upwards of £12,000 a-year.

12. Grace Abounding, No. 3.

13. Vol. i., p. 618.

14. Grace Abounding, No. 4.

15. Philip's Life of Bunyan, p. 4.

16. Vol. iii., p. 597.

17. Vol. ii., p. 564.

18. Grace Abounding, No. 27.

19. Grace Abounding, No. 5.

20. Ibid., No. 8.

21. Life, p. vii.

22. Ibid. p. viii.

23. Life, pp. xli., xlii.

24. Vol. i., p. 79.

25. Job 33:15.

26. Grace Abounding, No. 5, vol. i., p. 6.

27. Life appended to the first and second editions of the forged
third part of Pilgrim's Progress.

28. Grace Abounding, Nos. 12-14, vol. i., p. 7. How do these
hair-breadth escapes illustrate the unerring providence of God,
and the short-sightedness of even pious Christians. It is easy to
imagine the exclamations of a reflecting character when hearing
of the marvelous escapes of this wicked youth. 'Dark providences!
the good and benevolent are snatched away; but such a plague as this
has his life preserved to pester us still. Short-sighted mortal,
"shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"' No life in the
British empire was so precious in the sight and gracious purposes
of God, as that of the poor depraved lad; which was thus preserved
by the special care of Divine providence.

29. Life appended to part third of Pilgrim's Progress, 1692. This
is omitted from the third edition (1700), and all the subsequent
ones.

30. Vol. ii., p. 74.

31. Vol. i., p. 732.

32. Vol. ii., p. 738.

33. Vol. ii., p. 709; ii., p. 45; ii., 601.

34. Vol. iii., p. 727; v. 7, 8.

35. The women were remarkably active in defending the town.

36. Thoresby's Leicester, 4to, p. 128.

37. Hist. of Rebellion, edition 1712, vol. ii., p. 652.

38. Vol. i., p. 661.

39. Vol. iii., p. 357.

40. Vol. iii., p. 113, 358.

41. Vol. i., p. 726.

42. Vol. i., p. 694.

43. The Political Sentiments of John Bunyan, re-published by John
Martin, 1798.

44. Life of Bunyan, 1692, p. 12.

45. Ibid., 1692, p. 13.

46. Vol. i., p. 7.

47. The Pathway to Heaven is the work of that pious puritan Dent,
and is full of those striking illustrations which were admirably
adapted to prepare Bunyan for writing his allegories. A copy with
the name Ma Bunyann, written on the title page, has long been in
the editor's library. We give a facsimile of the writing, as it
has been supposed that of Bunyan. This is very doubtful; it appears
more like a woman's hand; but, if it is the name of Mrs. Bunyan,
then it indicates that his daughter Mary, baptized 20th July, 1650,
was called after her.

48. Life of Bunyan, 1691, p. 13.

49. This is a solemn consideration; many profess to serve God while
they are bond-slaves to sin; and many are servants in his family
who are not sons, nor heirs, of heaven. Blessed are those who are
both servants and sons.

50. Vol. i., p. 7, 8.

51. Jan. 3, 1644-5.

52. Aug. 23, 1645.

53. 4to Edit., 1644.

54. Neale, 1822, vol. ii., p. 220.

55. Life of Alfred, comparing him to Charles I. Preface. 8vo. 1634.

56. Vol. i., p. 8, 9.

57. The game of cat, tipcat, or "sly," so called by Wilson, in his
life of Bunyan [Wilson's Edition of Works, vol. i., fol. 1736], is
an ancient game well known in many parts of the kingdom. A number
of holes are made in the ground, at equal distances, in a circular
direction; a player is stationed at each hole; the opposite party
stand around; one of them throws the cat to the batsman nearest to
him; every time the cat is struck, the batsmen run from one hole
to the next, and score as many as they change positions; but if the
cat is thrown between them before reaching the hole, the batsman
is out [Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 8vo., p. 110]. Such was the
childish game played by men on the Lord's-day.

58. Life by C. Doe, 1698.

59. Vol. i., p. 9.

60. Saved by Grace, vol. i., p. 351.

61. Vol. i., p. 9; No. 32.

62. Folio edition, pp. 595-6.

63. In the Engraving, p. 1, vol. i., is a view of part of the
village green, Elstow, with the ancient building now used as a
school-house, as seen from the church-yard. This building is older
than the time of Bunyan, and was the scene of village meetings at
the period in which he lived, and doubtless associated with his
dancing and thoughtless amusements, as the green itself was the scene
of the game of cat. A view looking towards the church is given in
Vignette to vol. i. of the Works.

64. Vol. i., p. 10.

65. Southey's Life, pp. xxv., xxxii.

66. Vol. i., p. 80.

67. Vol. i., p. 11.

68. Vol. iii., p. 607.

69. Heresiography. 4tp. 1654. p. 143.

70. Vol. iii., p. 151.

71. Vol. iii., p. 118.

72. Vol. i., p. 11.

73. Vol. i., p. 11.

74. Vol. i., p. 591.

75. The Rev. H. J. Rose, in his Biographical Dictionary, distorts
this singular affair into, 'he laid claim to a faith of such
magnitude as to work miracles!'

76. Vol. i., p. 12.

77. Vol. iii., pp. 155, 156.

78. Vol. i., p. 12.

79. It is as easy for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
as for a man to pass through this door with the world on his back.

80. Vol. i., p. 13.

81. Vol. i., p. 13.

82. Holy War, vol. iii., p. 342, 346.

83. Bunyan on the Throne of Grace, vol. i., p. 677.

84. Vol. i., p. 80.

85. Holy War, vol. iii., p. 297.

86. Vol. i., p. 14.

87. Vol. iii., p. 123.

88. Addison.

89. Vol. i., p. 14.

90. April 1645. About 300 discontented persons got together in
Kent, and took Sir Percival Hart's house; Colonel Blunt attacked
and dispersed them with horse and foot, regained the house, and
made the chief of them prisoners. Whitelock, folio 137.

91. Vol. i., p. 15.

92. Vol. i., p. 15; No. 82.

93. Vol. i., p. 16.

94. Vol. i., p. 17, 18.

95. Vol. iii., p. 113.

96. Bunyan's Saints' Privilege and Profit, vol. i., p. 661.

97. Bunyan's Saved by Grace, vol. i., p. 340.

98. Vol. i., p. 17.

99. Bunyan's Christ a Complete Saviour, vol. i., p. 210.

100. Rogers on Trouble of Mind. Preface. Thus temptations are suited
to the state of the inquiring soul; the learned man who studies
Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas, is filled with doubts arising from
'philosophy and vain deceit, profane and vain babblings'; the
unlettered mechanic is tried not by logic, but by infernal artillery;
the threatenings of God's Word are made to obscure the promises.
It is a struggle which, to one possessing a vivid imagination, is
attended with almost intolerable agonies--unbelief seals up the
door of mercy.

Bunyan agreed with his learned contemporary, Milton, in the invisible
agency of good and bad spirits.

'Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when
we wake and when we sleep!'

The malignant demons watch their opportunity to harass the pilgrim
with evil thoughts, injected when least expected.

101. Vol. i., p. 19.

102. Vol. i., p. 20.

103. The anxiety of this pious teacher was to press upon his
hearers to take special heed, not to receive any truth upon trust
from any man, but to pray over it and search 'the Holy Word.'
This, Mr. Southey designates, 'doctrine of a most perilous kind.'
How happy would it be for society if every religious teacher
pressed this perilous doctrine upon their hearers, that it might
bring forth the same fruit universally, as it did specially in
Bunyan. Compare Grace Abounding, No. 117, and Southey's Life, p.
27, 28.

104. Vol. i., p. 21.

105. Vol. i., p. 22.

106. Vol. iii., p. 115.

107. Vol. iii., p. 270.

108. Luther fell into the same mistake as to the Baptists, that
Bunyan did as to the Quakers. Both were keenly alive to the honour
of Christianity, and were equally misled by the loose conduct
of some unworthy professors. Luther charges the Baptists as being
'devils possessed with worse devils' [Preface to Galatians]. 'It is
all one whether he be called a Frank, a Turk, a Jew, or an Anabaptist'
[Com. Gal. iv. 8, 9]. 'Possessed with the devil, seditious, and
bloody men' [Gal. v. 19]. Even a few days before his death, he wrote
to his wife, 'Dearest Kate, we reached Halle at eight o'clock, but
could not get on to Eisleben, for there met us a great Anabaptist,
with waves and lumps of ice, which threatened us with a second
baptism.' Bunyan, in the same spirit, calls the Quakers 'a company
of loose ranters, light notionists, shaking in their principles!' [Vol.
ii., p. 133, 9, 21]. Denying the Scriptures and the resurrection
[Com. Gal. iv. 29]. These two great men went through the same
furnace of the regeneration; and Bunyan, notwithstanding Luther's
prejudices against the Baptists, most affectionately recommended
his Comment on the Galatians, as an invaluable work for binding up
the broken-hearted.

109. Vol. i., p. 23.

110. Vol. ii., p. 181.

111. Vol. ii., p. 260.

112. Vol. i., p. 25; No. 158.

113. See note in vol. i., p. 26.

114. Vol. i., p. 29.

115. Vol. i., p. 30

116. The study of those scriptures, in order that the solemn question
might be safely resolved, 'Can such a fallen sinner rise again?'
was like the investigation of the title to an estate upon which a
whole livelihood depended. Every apparent flaw must be critically
examined. Tremblingly alive to the importance of a right decision,
his prayers were most earnest; and at length, to his unspeakable
delight, the word of the law and wrath gave place to that of life
and grace.

117. Vol. i., p. 35.

118. Vol. iii., p. 100.

119. Irish sixpences, which passed for fourpence-halfpenny. See the
note on vol. i., p. 36. Since writing that note I have discovered
another proof of the contempt with which that coin was
treated:--'Christian, the wife of Robert Green, of Brexham,
Somersetshire, in 1663, is said to have made a covenant with the
devil; he pricked the fourth finger of her right hand, between the
middle and upper joints, and took two drops of her blood on his
finger, giving her a fourpence-halfpenny. Then he spake in private
with Catharine her sister, and vanished, leaving a smell of brimstone
behind!'--Turner's Remarkable Providences, folio, 1667, p. 28.

120. Vol. i., p. 36.

121. Holy War.

122. Vol. ii., p. 141.

123. Luther and Tyndale.

124. Vol. iii., p. 398.

125. Vol. i., p. 495.

126. Vol. iii., p. 398.

127. Vol. iii., p.190.

128. Vol. iii., p. 186.

129. Bunyan on Christian Behaviour, vol. ii., p. 550.

130. Vol. ii., p. 570.

131. Vol. ii., p. 585.

132. The Nineteenth Article.

133. The sufferings of the Episcopalians were severe; they drank
the bitter cup which they had shortly before administered to the
Puritans. Under suspicion of disloyalty to the Commonwealth, they
were most unjustly compelled to swallow the Covenant as a religious
test, or leave preaching and teaching. Their miseries were not
to be compared with those of the Puritans. Laud was beheaded for
treason, but none were put to death for nonconformity. It was an
age when religious liberty was almost unknown. These sufferings
were repaid by an awful retaliation and revenge, when Royalty and
Episcopacy were restored.

134. Penn's Christian Quaker.

135. Folio, p. 417.

136. Vol. iii., p. 107.

137. Vol. iii., p. 765. The author of Bunyan's Life, published in
1690, dates his baptism 'about the year 1653.'

138. Life from his Cradle to his Grave, 1700.

139. September 21.

140. In the same year, and about the same period, Oliver Cromwell
was made Lord Protector. Upon this coincidence, Mr. Carlisle uses
the following remarkable language:--'Two common men thus elevated,
putting their hats upon their heads, might exclaim, "God enable me
to be king of what lies under this! For eternities lie under it,
and infinities, and heaven also and hell! and it is as big as the
universe, this kingdom; and I am to conquer it, or be for ever
conquered by it. Now, WHILE IT IS CALLED TO-DAY!'"

141. In possession of the Society of Antiquities.

142. Vol. i., p. 39.

143. Vol. i., p. 20.

144. Reading and Preaching.

145. Not to wait for one another, each one to come in good time.

146. Alluding to Bunyan, or his co-pastor, Burton, or to both of
them.

147. Bunyan was about twenty-seven years of age.

148. This letter was copied into the church records at the time:
the original cannot be found. It was published with Ryland's Funeral
Sermon on Symonds, 1788, and in Jukes' very interesting account of
Bunyan's church, in 1849. The signature is copied from an original
in the Milton State Papers, library of the Antiquarian Society.

149. Vol. i., p. 39.

150. Vol. i., p. 545.

151. Grace Abounding, No. 255, vol. i., p. 39.

152. Vol. i., p. 545.

153. Grace Abounding, No 255-259, vol. i., p. 39.

154. Vol. i., p. 40.

155. Vol. iii., p. 655.

156. Rogers on Trouble of Mind.

157. Grace Abounding, No. 260.

158. 1st edition, p. 355.

159. Vol. ii., p. 425.

160. Vol. i., p. 40.

161. Vol. i., p. 769.

162. Vol. i., p. 549.

163. Church Book, 1671.

164. This secrecy became needful after the Restoration, as noticed
more fully afterwards, p. lix. During those years of persecution,
a frequent place of resort was a dell in Wain-wood, about three
miles from Hitchin. Of this locality the following notice will be
acceptable:--On the 19th of May, 1853, a splendidly hot day, my
pilgrimage to the shrines of Bunyan was continued at Hitchin and its
vicinity, in company with S. B. Geard, Esq. Here it was my honour
to shake hands with honest Edward Foster, whose grandfather often
entertained and sheltered John Bunyan. So singular a case I had
never met with, that three lives should connect, in a direct line,
evidence of transactions which occurred at a distance of 190 years.
His grandfather was born in 1642, and for many years was a friend
and companion of the illustrious dreamer. In 1706, when he was
sixty-four years of age, his youngest son was born, and in 1777,
when that son was seventy-one years of age, his youngest son was
born, and in 1853 he has the perfect use of limbs and faculties,
and properly executes the important office of assistant overseer
to his extensive parish. With such direct testimony, we visited
the very romantic dell, where, in the still hours of midnight, the
saints of God were wont to meet and unite in Divine worship. It
is a most romantic dell, in Wain-wood, which crowns a hill about
three miles from Hitchin. We had some difficulty in making our
way through the underwood--crushing the beautiful hyacinths and
primroses which covered the ground in the richest profusion, and
near the top of the hill came suddenly upon this singular dell--a
natural little eminence formed the pulpit, while the dell would
hold under its shade at least a thousand people--and now I must
give you the countryman's eloquent description of the meetings of
his ancestors. "Here, under the canopy of heaven, with the rigour
of winter's nipping frost, while the clouds, obscuring the moon,
have discharged their flaky treasures, they often assembled while
the highly-gifted and heavenly-minded Bunyan has broken to them the
bread of life. The word of the Lord was precious in those days. And
here over his devoted head, while uncovered in prayer, the pious
matrons warded off the driving hail and snow, by holding a shawl
over him by its four corners. In this devoted dell these plain
unpolished husbandmen, like the ancient Waldenses, in the valleys
of Piedmont, proved themselves firm defenders of the faith in its
primitive purity, and of Divine worship in its primitive style."