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Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1

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




307. Sutcliff's History of Bunyan's Church.

308. Vol. iii., p. 245.

309. A beautiful satire is contained in the account of the
traitors--tradition, human wisdom, and man's invention. This picture
is drawn by an inimitable artist. Nor have we seen anything more
admirably adapted to the present state of our Tractarian times.
Vol. iii. 277.

310. Vol. i., p. 22, No. 128.

311. Vol. ii., p. 574.

312. Life, 1692.

313. Grace Abounding (continued), vol. i., p. 63, and Life, 1692.

314. Vol. i., p. 505.

315. Vol. i., p. 719.

316. Vol. i., p. 753.

317. Some of the wax remains, but the coin is lost.

318. Vol. iii., p. 763.

319. Vol. i., p. 81.

320. Mr. Philip, Critique on Bunyan, p. vi. and xvi.

321. Vol. ii., p. 425.

322. Vol. iii., p. 766.

323. Grace Abounding, 1692.

324. No. 25, E.; 26, W.; 26, N.; 27, S.

325. As matters of curious interest to all lovers of Bunyan, we
insert, in the accompanying page, engravings of these relics, from
drawings by Mr. Edward Offor.

326. The chair is engraved above, and it will be seen that it has
suffered some little dilapidation since the last published engraving
of it. The legs have been cut down to suit the height of one of
his successors in the ministry!! With regard to the pulpit, an old
resident in Bedford says--The celebrated John Howard presented a
new pulpit in the room of the old one, which was cut up. Of part
of the wood a table was made, which now belongs to Mrs. Hillyerd.

327. Vol. iii., p. 297.

328. Vol. i., p. 714.

329. Vol. i., p. 686.

330. Vol. i., pp. 690, 691.

331. Vol. ii., p. 261.

332. Vol. iii., p. 748.

333. It is noticed, in a letter to the Secretary for Ireland,
dated September 6, 1688--'On teusday last died the Lord Mayor Sir
J. Shorter. A few days before died Bunnian his lordship's teacher
or chaplain a man said to be gifted that way though once a cobler'
[Ellis's Cor., vol. ii., p. 161]. We can excuse the sarcasm of a
Roman Catholic, and with equal good nature, and more truth, remark,
that the great and eminent pope, Sixtus V., was once a swineherd--not
a bad school in which to study how to keep up a despotic sway over
the Papacy.

334. Vol. iii., p. 308.

335. Law and Grace, marg., vol. i., p. 524.

336. Vol. ii., p. 651.

337. Vol. i., pp. 634, 635.

338. Vol. ii., p. 653.

339. Vol. i., p. 647.

340. Vol. ii., p. 15.

341. Vol. ii., p. 497.

342. Vol. iii., p. 251.

343. Emblem xiv., vol. iii., p. 751.

344. Christ is made known by the sufferings of his saints, vol.
ii., p. 701, and note.

345. Vol. iii., p. 751, and note.

346. Vol. iii., p. 595.

347. Vol. ii., p. 22.

348. Vol. ii., p. 257.

349. Works, folio, 1693.

***

GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS:

A BRIEF AND FAITHFUL RELATION OF THE EXCEEDING MERCY OF GOD IN
CHRIST TO HIS POOR SERVANT, JOHN BUNYAN;

WHEREIN IS PARTICULARLY SHOWED THE MANNER OF HIS CONVERSION, HIS
SIGHT AND TROUBLE FOR SIN, HIS DREADFUL TEMPTATIONS, ALSO HOW HE
DESPAIRED OF GOD'S MERCY, AND HOW THE LORD AT LENGTH THROUGH CHRIST
DID DELIVER HIM FROM ALL THE GUILT AND TERROR THAT LAY UPON HIM.

Whereunto is added a brief relation of his call to the work of
the ministry, of his temptations therein, as also what he hath met
with in prison. All which was written by his own hand there, and
now published for the support of the weak and tempted people of
God.

"Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he
hath done for my soul."--Psalm 66:16.

London: Printed by George Larkin, 1666.

This title page was afterwards altered, and instead of what follows
the first line, he inserted,

Or a brief and faithful relation of the exceeding mercy of God in
Christ to his poor servant, John Bunyan; namely, in his taking of
him out of the dunghill, and converting of him to the faith of his
blessed Son, Jesus Christ. Here is also particularly showed, what
sight of, and what trouble he had for sin; and also what various
temptations he hath met with, and how God hath carried him through
them.

Corrected and much enlarged now by the Author, for the benefit of
the tempted and dejected Christian.

ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.

The great utility of remarkable accounts of the ways of God in
bringing his sheep into the fold, must be admitted by all. The Bible
abounds with these manifestations of Divine grace from the gentle
voice that called Samuel, even unto the thunder which penetrated
the soul of one, who followed the church with continued malignity,
calling unto him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"--a voice
so terrible, and accompanied by such a flood of light, as to strike
the persecutor to the earth, and for a season to deprive him of
sight.

The 'Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners' is doubly interesting,
as it unfolds to us not only the return of a notorious prodigal,
but a wondrous system of education, by which a chosen man was fitted
for a wondrous work; heavenly and spiritual learning, which could
not have been obtained in all the schools and universities in the
world. It enabled a poor, vile, unlettered rebel--a blasphemous
travelling tinker, to become a most eminent preacher; one whose
native powers, sanctified by harrowing but hallowing feelings,
attracted the deep attention of the most learned and pious of his
contemporaries, while it carried conviction to the most impious and
profane. Even beyond all this, his spiritual acquirements fitted
him, without scholastic learning, to become the most popular, the
most attractive, the most useful of English authors. His works
increase remarkably in popularity. As time rolls on, they are still
read with deeper and deeper interest, while his bodily presence
and labours mingle in the records of the events of bygone ages.

Bunyan's account of his singular trials and temptations may have
excited alarm in the minds of some young Christians lest they should
be in an unconverted state, because they have not been called to
pass through a similar mode of training. Pray recollect, my dear
young Christian, that all are not called to such important public
labours as Bunyan, or Whitfield, or Wesley. All the members of
the Christian family are trained to fit them for their respective
positions in the church of Christ. It is a pleasant and profitable
exercise to look back to the day of our espousals, and trace the
operations of Divine grace in digging us from the hole of the pit;
but the important question with us all should be, not so much HOW
we became enlightened, but NOW do we love Christ? Now do we regret
our want of greater conformity to his image? If we can honestly
answer these questions in the affirmative, we are believers, and
can claim our part in that precious promise, "Whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die." Spiritual life is ours, and
eternal life is essentially connected with it, and must be our portion,
without an inquiry into the means by which we were called, whether
by the thunders and lighting of Sinai, as Paul was smitten, or by
the "still small voice" (Acts 9:3,4; 1 Kings 19:12; Job 4:16,17).

The value of such a narrative to a terror-stricken prodigal is
vividly shown by Bunyan, in his 'Jerusalem Sinner Saved,' in one
of those colloquial pieces of composition in which he eminently
shone. 'Satan is loath to part with a great sinner. "What, my true
servant," quoth he, "my old servant, wilt thou forsake me now?
Having so often sold thyself to me to work wickedness, wilt thou
forsake me now? Thou horrible wretch, dost not know, that thou hast
sinned thyself beyond the reach of grace, and dost think to find
mercy now? Art not thou a murderer, a thief, a harlot, a witch,
a sinner of the greatest size, and dost thou look for mercy now?
Dost thou think that Christ will foul his fingers with thee? It
is enough to make angels blush, saith Satan, to see so vile a one
knock at heaven-gates for mercy, and wilt thou be so abominably
bold to do it?" Thus Satan dealt with me, says the great sinner,
when at first I came to Jesus Christ. And what did you reply? Saith
the tempted. Why, I granted the whole charge to be true, says the
other. And what, did you despair, or how? No, saith he, I said, I
am Magdalene, I am Zacheus, I am the thief, I am the harlot, I am
the publican, I am the prodigal, and one of Christ's murderers; yea,
worse than any of these; and yet God was so far off from rejecting
of me, as I found afterwards, that there was music and dancing
in his house for me, and for joy that I was come home unto him. O
blessed be God for grace, says the other, for then I hope there is
favour for me.'

The 'Grace Abounding' is a part of Bunyan's prison meditations,
and strongly reminds us of the conversation between Christian and
Hopeful on the enchanted ground.

'Christian. Now then, to prevent drowsiness in this place, let us
fall into good discourse.

'Hopeful. With all my heart.

'Christian. Where shall we begin?

'Hopeful. Where God began with us.'

To prevent drowsiness, to beguile the time, he looks back to his
past experience, and the prison became his Patmos--the gate of
heaven--a Bethel, in which his time was occupied in writing for
the benefit of his fellow-Christians. He looks back upon all the
wondrous way through which the Lord had led him from the City of
Destruction to Mount Zion. While writing his own spiritual pilgrimage,
his great work broke upon his imagination.


'And thus it was: I writing of the way,
And race of saints, in this our gospel day,
Fell suddenly into an allegory
About their journey, and the way to glory.'


'As you read the "Grace Abounding," you are ready to say at every
step, here is the future author of the "Pilgrim's Progress." It
is as if you stood beside some great sculptor, and watched every
movement of his chisel, having seen his design; so that at every
blow some new trait of beauty in the future statue comes clearly
into view.'[1]

A great difference of opinion has been expressed by learned men as
to whether Bunyan's account of himself is to be understood literally,
as it respects his bad conduct before his conversion, or whether
he views himself through a glass, by which his evil habits are
magnified. No one can doubt his perfect honesty. He plainly narrates
his bad, as well as his redeeming qualities; nor does his narrative
appear to be exaggerated. He was the son of a travelling tinker,
probably a gipsy, 'the meanest and most despised rank in the land';
when, alarmed at his sins, recollection that the Israelites were
once the chosen people of God, he asked his father, whether he was
of that race; as if he thought that his family were of some peculiar
people, and it was easy for such a lad to blend the Egyptians with
the Israelitish race. When he was defamed, his slanderers called
him a witch, or fortune teller, a Jesuit, a highwayman, or the like.
Brought up to his father's trade, with his evil habits unchecked, he
became a very depraved lad; and when he states his sad character,
it is with a solemn pledge that his account is strictly true. Probably,
with a view to the full gratification of his sinful propensities,
he entered the army, and served among the profligate soldiers of
Charles I at the siege of Leicester.[2]

During this time, he was ill at ease; he felt convinced of sin,
or righteousness, and of judgment, without a hope of mercy. Hence
his misery and internal conflicts, perhaps the most remarkable
of any upon record. His own Giant Despair seized him with an iron
grasp. He felt himself surrounded by invisible beings, and in the
immediate presence of a holy God. By day, he was bewildered with
tormenting visions, and by night alarming dreams presented themselves
to him upon his bed. The fictitious appeared to his terrified
imagination realities. His excited spirit became familiar with
shapeless forms and fearful powers. The sorrows of death, and the
pains of hell, got hold upon him. His internal conflict was truly
horrible, as one who thought himself under the power of demons;
they whispered in his ears--pulled his clothes; he madly fought,
striking at imaginary shades with his hands, and stamping with
his feet at the destroyer. Thoughts of the unpardonable sin beset
him, his powerful bodily frame became convulsed with agony, as if
his breast bone would split, and he burst asunder like Judas. He
possessed a most prolific mind, affording constant nourishment to
this excited state of his feelings. He thought that he should be
bereft of his wits; than a voice rushed in at the window like the
noise of wind, very pleasant, and produced a great calm in his
soul. His intervals of ease, however, were short; the recollection
of his sins, and a fear that he had sold his Saviour, haunted his
affrighted spirit. His soul became so tormented, as to suggest to
his ideas the suffering of a malefactor broken upon the wheel. The
climax of these terrors is narrated at paragraph No. 187. 'Thus was
I always sinking, whatever I did think or do. So one day I walked
to a neighbouring town, and sat down upon a settle in the street,
and fell into a very deep pause about the most fearful state my
sin had brought me to; and, after long musing, I lifted up my head,
but methought I saw as if the sun that shineth in the heavens did
grudge to give light; and as if the very stones in the street, and
tiles upon the houses, did bend themselves against me; methought
that they all combined together, to banish me out of the world; I
was abhorred of them, and unfit to dwell among them, or be a partaker
of their benefits, because I had sinned against the Saviour.' In
this deep abyss of misery, THAT love which has heights and depths
passing knowledge, laid under him the everlasting arms, and raised
him from the horrible pit in miry clay, when no human powers could
have reached his case. Dr. Cheever eloquently remarks, that 'it was
through this valley of the shadow of death, overhung by darkness,
peopled with devils, resounding with blasphemy and lamentations;
and passing amidst quagmires and pitfalls, close by the very mouth
of hell, that Bunyan journeyed to that bright and fruitful land
of Beulah, in which he sojourned during the latter days of his
pilgrimage.' The only trace which his cruel sufferings and temptations
seen to have left behind them, was an affectionate compassion for
those who were still in the state in which he had once been.

Young Christians, you must not imagine that all these terrors are
absolute prerequisites to faith in the Saviour. God, as a sovereign,
calls his children to himself by various ways. Bunyan's was a very
extraordinary case, partly from his early habits--his excitable
mind, at a period so calculated to fan a spark of such feelings
into a flame. His extraordinary inventive faculties, softened down
and hallowed by this fearful experience, became fitted for most
extensive usefulness.

To eulogize this narrative, would be like 'gilding refined gold';
but I cannot help remarking, among a multitude of deeply interesting
passages, his observations upon that honest open avowal of Christian
principles, which brought down severe persecution upon him. They
excite our tenderest sympathy; his being dragged from his home and
wife and children, he says, 'hath oft been to me, as the pulling
my flesh from my bones; my poor blind child, what sorrow art thou
like to have for thy portion in this world! thou must be beaten,
must beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities,
though I cannot now endure the wind should blow upon thee. O, I saw
I was as a man who was pulling down his house upon the head of his
wife and children; yet, recollecting myself, thought I, I must
venture you all with God.' How awful must be the state of the
wretched persecutor, who occasions such sufferings to the children
of the most high God!

In this edition, the greatest care has been taken to preserve the
exact words of the author, as he first published them; where he
altered or added to the text in subsequent editions, it is marked
with an inverted comma, or inserted in the notes. Obsolete words and
customs are explained; the numbering of his sections is continued,
in addition to which, it is divided into chapters for family reading,
upon the plan of the late Rev. J. Ivimey; double inverted commas
denote quotations of Scripture.

The reader is strongly pressed to keep in his recollection
the peculiar use made of the word should, by the author in this
narrative. It is from the Saxon scealan, to be obliged. Thus, in
the Saxon gospels (Matt 27:15), "the governor should release unto
the people a prisoner"; in our version it is, "was wont to release,"
meaning that custom compelled him so to do. In Bunyan's phraseology,
the word should is used in the same sense, that is, to show that,
under peculiar circumstances, his feelings or position involuntarily
produced a certain result. Thus, in No. 6, Troubled with the thoughts
of judgment and condemnation I should tremble; and in No. 15, The
father of his wife having left her two books, in these I should
sometimes read; probably the only books he then had. It is remarkable,
that although the Saxon language had not been spoken in Bedfordshire
for many centuries, still many valuable words remained in use.

The order in which this thrilling narrative of Bunyan's religious
feelings and experience is now for the first time published, is, I.
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners--his call to the ministry,
and his imprisonment for refusing to attend the Church of England
service. II. His Relation of the Circumstances attending his
incarceration in Bedford Jail. III. The continuation of his Life
to his decease, written by one of his friends, and always printed
with Grace Abounding. IV. His Dying Thoughts. V. His Prison
Meditations--verses which were probably sold on a broadside or sheet
of paper by his children, to procure necessaries for his family.

The length of the notes may need some apology; the only one the
editor can make is his veneration for John Bunyan, and his earnest
desire to render this inestimable book more deeply interesting, by
explaining manners, customs, and words not now in use; the note on
No. 232, occupied the time of one whole day.

The errors, omissions, and additions, which existed to a most
extraordinary extent through the book, have been corrected, and the
text restored to its primitive beauty; among many hundred of these
errors, one may suffice as a specimen; it is in Bunyan's preface,
'God did not play in convincing of me, the devil did not play in
tempting of me,' this is altered in many editions to 'God did not
play in tempting of me.'

Most earnestly do I hope that this republication, now for the first
time, for nearly two hundred years, given in its native excellence
and purity, may be attended with the Divine blessing, to the comfort
of many despairing Jerusalem sinners; to the building up of the
church of Christ on earth; to the extension of pure, heart-felt,
genuine Christianity; and to the confusion of the persecutors. They
intended, by shutting the pious pilgrim up in a dungeon, to prevent
his voice from being heard to the comfort of his poor neighbours,
and by which violence, his persecutors have caused his voice to
burst the prison doors and walls, and to be heard over the whole
world. His 'Pilgrim's Progress,' which was written in prison, has
been, and now is, a guide to Christian pilgrims of all nations,
kindreds, tribes, and people, teaching them not to rest content
in any national religion, but personally to search the Scriptures,
with earnest supplications to the God of mercy and truth, that they
may be guided to Christ, as the Alpha and Omega of their salvation.

GEORGE OFFOR.

A PREFACE, OR BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PUBLISHING OF THIS WORK, WRITTEN
BY THE AUTHOR THEREOF, AND DEDICATED TO THOSE WHOM GOD HATH COUNTED
HIM WORTHY TO BEGET TO FAITH, BY HIS MINISTRY IN THE WORD.

Children, grace be with you, Amen. I being taken from you in presence,
and so tied up, that I cannot perform that duty that from God doth
lie upon me to youward, for your further edifying and building
up in faith and holiness, &c., yet that you may see my soul hath
fatherly care and desire after your spiritual and everlasting
welfare; I now once again, as before, from the top of Shenir and
Hermon, so 'now' from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the
leopards (Song 4:8), do look yet after you all, greatly longing to
see your safe arrival into the desired haven.[3]

I thank God upon every remembrance of you; and rejoice, even while
I stick between the teeth of the lions in the wilderness, at the
grace, and mercy, and knowledge of Christ our saviour, which God
hath bestowed upon you, with abundance of faith and love. Your
hungerings and thirstings also after further acquaintance with the
Father, in his Son; your tenderness of heart, your trembling at
sin, your sober and holy deportment also, before both God and men,
is great refreshment to me; "For ye are my glory and joy" (1 Thess
2:20).

I have sent you here enclosed, a drop of that honey, that I have
taken out of the carcase of a lion (Judg 14:5-9). I have eaten
thereof myself also, and am much refreshed thereby. (Temptations,
when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson;
but if we overcome them, the next time we see them, we shall find
a nest of honey within them.) The Philistines understand me not. It
is 'something of' a relation of the work of God upon my own soul,
even from the very first, till now; wherein you may perceive
my castings down, and raisings up; for he woundeth, and his hands
make whole. It is written in the Scripture (Isa 38:19), "The father
to the children shall make known the truth of God." Yea, it was
for this reason I lay so long at Sinai (Deut 4:10,11), to see the
fire, and the cloud, and the darkness, that I might fear the Lord
all the days of my life upon earth, and tell of his wondrous works
to my children (Psa 78:3-5).

Moses (Num 33:1,2) writ of the journeyings of the children of
Israel, from Egypt to the land of Canaan; and commanded also, that
they did remember their forty years' travel in the wilderness.
"Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee
these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove
thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep
his commandments, or no" (Deut 8:2). Wherefore this I have endeavoured
to do; and not only so, but to publish it also; that, if God will,
others may be put in remembrance of what he hath done for their
souls, by reading his work upon me.

It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the
very beginnings of grace with their souls. "It is a night to be
much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land
of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the
children of Israel in their generations" (Exo 12:42). "O my God,"
saith David (Psa 42:6), "my soul is cast down within me; therefore
will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites,
from the hill Mizar." He remembered also the lion and the bear,
when he went to fight with the giant of Gath (1 Sam 17:36,37).

It was Paul's accustomed manner (Acts 22), and that when tried for
his life (Acts 24), even to open, before his judges, the manner of
his conversion: he would think of that day, and that hour, in the
which he first did meet with grace;[4] for he found it support
unto him. When God had brought the children of Israel through the
Red Sea, far into the wilderness, yet they must turn quite about
thither again, to remember the drowning of their enemies there
(Num 14:25). For though they sang his praise before, yet "they soon
forgat his works" (Psa 106:11-13).

In this discourse of mine you may see much; much, I say, of the
grace of God towards me. I thank God I can count it much, for it
was above my sins and Satan's temptations too. I can remember my
fears, and doubts, and sad months with comfort; they are as the head
of Goliah in my hand. There was nothing to David like Goliah's
sword, even that sword that should have been sheathed in his bowels;
for the very sight and remembrance of that did preach forth God's
deliverance to him. Oh, the remembrance of my great sins, of my
great temptations, and of my great fears of perishing for ever!
They bring afresh into my mind the remembrance of my great help,
my great support from heaven, and that the great grace that God
extended to such a wretch as I.

My dear children, call to mind the former days, "and the years of
ancient times: remember also your songs in the night; and commune
with your own heart" (Psa 73:5-12). Yea, look diligently, and leave
no corner therein unsearched, for there is treasure hid, even the
treasure of your first and second experience of the grace of God
toward you. Remember, I say, the word that first laid hold upon
you; remember your terrors of conscience, and fear of death and
hell; remember also your tears and prayers to God; yea, how you
sighed under every hedge for mercy. Have you never a hill Mizar to
remember? Have you forgot the close, the milk house, the stable,
the barn, and the like, where God did visit your soul?[5] Remember
also the Word--the Word, I say, upon which the Lord hath caused
you to hope. If you have sinned against light; if you are tempted
to blaspheme; if you are down in despair; if you think God fights
against you; or if heaven is hid from your eyes, remember it was
thus with your father, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.