John Lothrop Motley - "The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1566"

Inez Haynes Irwin - "The Native Son"

Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne - "Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v6"

John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1607(a)"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1

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




While this trial clouded his spirits, he was called to endure
temptations which are common to most, if not all, inquiring souls,
and which frequently produce much anxiety. He plunged into the
university problems of predestination, before he had completed his
lower grammar-school exercises on faith and repentance. Am I one of
the elect? or has the day of grace been suffered to pass by never
to return? 'Although he was in a flame to find the way to heaven
and glory,' these questions afflicted and disquieted him, so that
the very strength of his body was taken away by the force and
power thereof. 'Lord, thought I, what if I should not be elected!
It may be you are not, said the tempter; it may be so, indeed
thought I. Why then, said Satan, you had as good leave off, and
strive no farther; for if indeed you should not be elected and
chosen of God, there is no talk of your being saved; "for it is
neither of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy."

'By these things I was driven to my wit's end, not knowing what to
say, or how to answer these temptations. Indeed, I little thought
that Satan had thus assaulted me, but that rather it was my own
prudence thus to start the question: for that the elect only obtained
eternal life; that I without scruple did heartily close withal;
but that myself was one of them, there lay all the question.'[81]

Thus was he for many weeks oppressed and cast down, and near
to 'giving up the ghost of all his hopes of ever attaining life,'
when a sentence fell with weight upon his spirit--'Look at the
generations of old and see; did ever any trust in the Lord and was
confounded' (Ecclesiasticus 2:10). This encouraged him to a diligent
search from Genesis to Revelation, which lasted for above a year,
and although he could not find that sentence, yet he was amply
rewarded for this diligent examination of the Holy Oracles, and
thus he obtained 'yet more experience of the love and kindness of
God.' At length he found it in the Apocrypha, and, although not the
language of inspiration, yet as it contained the sum and substance
of the promises, he took the comfort of it, and it shone before his
face for years. The fear that the day of grace had passed pressed
heavily upon him; he was humbled, and bemoaned the time that he
had wasted. Now he was confronted with that 'grim-faced one, the
Captain Past-hope, with his terrible standard,' carried by Ensign
Despair, red colours, with a hot iron and a hard heart, and
exhibited at Eye-gate.[82] At length these words broke in upon his
mind, 'compel them to come in, that my house may be filled--and yet
there is room.' This Scripture powerfully affected him with hope,
that there was room in the bosom and in the house of Jesus for his
afflicted soul.

His next temptation was to return to the world. This was that
terrible battle with Apollyon, depicted in the Pilgrim's Progress,
and it is also described at some length in the Jerusalem Sinner
Saved. Among many very graphic and varied pictures of his own
experience, he introduces the following dialogue with the tempter,
probably alluding to the trials he was now passing through. Satan
is loath to part with a great sinner. 'This day is usually attended
with much evil towards them that are asking the way to Zion, with
their faces thitherward. Now the devil has lost a sinner; there is
a captive has broke prison, and one run away from his master. Now
hell seems to be awakened from sleep, the devils are come out. They
roar, and roaring they seek to recover their runaway. Now tempt
him, threaten him, flatter him, stigmatize him, throw dust into
his eyes, poison him with error, spoil him while he is upon the
potter's wheel, anything to keep him from coming to Christ.'[83]
'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
thou 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 Zaccheus, 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. Yea, as I told you, such
a one is a continual spectacle in the church, for every one by to
behold God's grace and wonder by.[84] These are the 'things the
angels desire to look into' (1 Peter 1:12), or as Bunyan quaintly
says, this is the music which causes 'them that dwell in the higher
orbs to open their windows, put out their heads, and look down to
see the cause of that glory' (Lev 15:7,10).[85]

As he became less agitated with fear, and drew consolation more
frequently from the promises, with a timid hope of salvation, he
began to exhibit singular powers of conception in spiritualizing
temporal things. His first essay was to find the hidden meaning
in the division of God's creatures into clean and unclean. Chewing
the cud, and parting the hoof, he conceived to be emblematical of
our feeding upon the Word of God, and parting, if we would be saved,
with the ways of ungodly men.[86] It is not sufficient to chew the
cud like the hare--nor to part the hoof like the wine--we must do
both; that is, possess the word of faith, and that be evidenced
by parting with our outward pollutions. This spiritual meaning of
part of the Mosaic dispensation is admirably introduced into the
Pilgrim's Progress, when Christian and Faithful analyse the character
of Talkative.[87] This is the germ of that singular talent which
flourished in after-life, of exhibiting a spiritual meaning drawn
from every part of the Mosaic dispensation, and which leads one of
our most admired writers[88] to suggest, that if Bunyan had lived
and written during the early days of Christianity, he would have
been the greatest of the fathers.

Although he had received that portion of comfort which enabled him
to indulge in religious speculations, still his mind was unsettled,
and full of fears. He now became alarmed lest he had not been
effectually called to inherit the kingdom of heaven.[89] He felt
still more humbled at the weakness of human nature, and at the
poverty of wealth. Could this call have been gotten for money, and
'could I have given it; had I a whole world, it had all gone ten
thousand times over for this.' In this he was sincere, and so he
was when he said, I would not lose one promise, or have it struck
out of the Bible, if in return I could have as much gold as would
reach from London to York, piled up to the heavens. In proportion
to his soul's salvation, honour was a worthless phantom, and gold
but glittering dust. His earnest desire was to hear his Saviour's
voice calling him to his service. Like many young disciples, he
regretted not having been born when Christ was manifest in the flesh.
'Would I had been Peter or John!' their privations, sufferings,
martyrdom, was nothing in comparison to their being with, and hearing
the voice of the Son of God calling them to his service. Strange,
but general delusion! as if Christ were not the same yesterday, to
day, and for ever. Groaning for a sense of pardon, he was comforted
by Joel--'I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed,
for the Lord dwelleth in Zion' (Joel 3:21), and he was led to seek
advice and assistance from a neighbouring minister, and from pious
persons.

The poor women in Bedford, whose conversation had been blessed to
his thorough awakening, were sought for, and to them he unfolded his
sorrows. They were members of a Baptist church, under the pastoral
care of John Gifford, a godly, painstaking, and most intelligent
minister, whose history is very remarkable. In early life he had
been, like Bunyan, a thoroughly depraved character; like him had
entered the army, and had been promoted to the rank of a major
in the royal forces. Having made an abortive attempt to raise a
rebellion in his native county of Kent,[90] he and eleven others were
made prisoners, tried by martial law, and condemned to the gallows.
On the night previous to the day appointed for his execution, his
sister found access to the prison. The guards were asleep, and his
companions drowned in intoxication. She embraced the favourable
moment, and set him at liberty. He lay concealed in a ditch for
three days, till the heat of the search was over, and in disguise
escaped to London, and thence to Bedford, where, aided by some
great people who favoured the royal cause, he commenced business
as a doctor. Here his evil habits followed him, notwithstanding his
merciful deliverance. Swearing, drunkenness, gambling, and other
immoral practices, rendered him a curse to others, especially to
the Puritans, whom he bitterly persecuted. One night he lost fifteen
pounds at play, and, becoming outrageous, he cast angry reproaches
upon God. In this state he took up a book by R. Bolton--he read,
and his conscience was terror-stricken. Distress, under conviction
of sin, followed him. He searched his Bible, and found pardon
and acceptance. He now sought acquaintance with those whom before
he had persecuted, but, like Paul, when in similar circumstances,
'they were all afraid of him.' His sincerity soon became apparent;
and, uniting with eleven others, they formed a church. These men
had thrown off the fetters of education, and were, unbiased by any
sectarian feeling, being guided solely by their prayerful researches
into divine truth as revealed in the Bible. Their whole object
was to enjoy Christian communion--to extend the reign of grace--to
live to the honour of Christ--and they formed a new, and at that time
unheard-of, community. Water-baptism was to be left to individual
conviction; they were to love each other equally, whether they
advocated baptism in infancy, or in riper years. The only thing
essential to church-fellowship, in Mr. Gifford's opinion, was--'UNION
WITH CHRIST; this is the foundation of all saints' communion, and
not any judgment about externals.' To the honour of the Baptists,
these peaceable principles appear to have commenced with two or
three of their ministers, and for the last two centuries they have
been, like heavenly leaven, extending their delightful influence
over all bodies of Christians.

Such was the man to whom Bunyan was introduced for religious
advice and consolation; and he assisted in forming those enlarged
and nonsectarian principles which made his ministry blessed, and will
render his Works equally acceptable to all evangelical Christians
in every age of the church. Introduced to such a minister, and
attending social meetings for prayer and Christian converse, he felt
still more painfully his own ignorance, and the inward wretchedness
of his own heart. 'His corruptions put themselves forth, and
his desires for heaven seemed to fail.' In fact, while he compared
himself with his former self, he was a religious giant; in comparison
with these pious, long-standing Christians, he dwindled into a
pigmy; and in the presence of Christ he became, in his own view,
less than nothing, and vanity. He thus describes his feelings:--'I
began to sink--my heart laid me low as hell. I was driven as with
a tempest--my heart would be unclean--the Canaanites would dwell
in the land.'[91] He was like the child which the father brought
to Christ, who, while he was coming to Him, was thrown down by the
devil, and so rent and torn that he lay and wallowed, foaming. His
heart felt so hard, that with many a bitter sigh he cried, 'Good
Lord! break it open. Lord, break these gates of brass, and cut these
bars of iron asunder' (Psa 107:16). Little did he then think that
his bitterness of spirit was a direct answer to such prayers.
Breaking the heart was attended with anguish in proportion as it
had been hardened. During this time he was tender and sensitive
as to the least sin; 'now I durst not take a pin or a stick, my
conscience would smart at every touch.' 'O, how gingerly did I then
go in all I said or did!'[92] 'Still sin would as naturally bubble
out of my heart as water would bubble out of a fountain.' He felt
surprised when he saw professors much troubled at their losses, even
at the death of the dearest relative. His whole concern was for his
salvation. He imagined that he could bear these small afflictions
with patience; but 'a wounded spirit who can bear?'

In the midst of all these miseries, and at times regretting that he
had been endowed with an immortal spirit, liable to eternal ruin,
he was jealous of receiving comfort, lest it might be based upon
any false foundation. Still as his only hope he was constant in
his attendance upon the means of grace, and 'when comforting time
was come,' he heard one preach upon two words of a verse, which
conveyed strong consolation to his weary spirit; the words were, 'my
love' (Song 4:1). From these words the minister drew the following
conclusions:--1. That the church, and so every saved soul, is Christ's
love, even when loveless; 2. Christ's love is without a cause; 3.
They are Christ's love when hated of the world; 4. Christ's love
when under temptation and under desertion; 5. Christ's love from
first to last.[93] Now was his heart filled with comfort and hope.
'I could believe that my sins should be forgiven me'; and, in a
state of rapture, he thought that his trials were over, and that
the savour of it would go with him through life. Alas! his enjoyment
was but for a season--the preparation of his soul for future
usefulness was not yet finished. In a short time the words of our
Lord to Peter came powerfully into his mind--'Satan hath desired
to have you'; and so strong was the impression they made, that he
thought some man addressed them to him; he even turned his head to
see who it was that thus spoke to him. This was the forerunner of
a cloud and a storm that was coming upon him. It was the gathering
up of Satan's mighty strength, to have, if possible, overwhelmed
him. His narrative of this internal tempest in his soul--this last
great struggle with the powers of darkness--is very striking.

'About the space of a month after, a very great storm came down
upon me, which handled me twenty times worse than all I had met
with before; it came stealing upon me, now by one piece, then by
another. First, all my comfort was taken from me; then darkness
seized upon me; after which, whole floods of blasphemies, both
against God, Christ, and the Scriptures, were poured upon my spirit,
to my great confusion and astonishment. These blasphemous thoughts
were such as also stirred up questions in me against the very
being of God, and of his only beloved Son. As, whether there were
in truth a God or Christ, or no? And whether the Holy Scriptures
were not rather a fable, and cunning story, than the holy and pure
Word of God.

'These suggestions, with many others, which at this time I may not,
dare not utter, neither by word nor pen, did make such a seizure upon
my spirit, and did so overweigh my heart, both with their number,
continuance, and fiery force, that I felt as if there were nothing
else but these from morning to night within me, and as though indeed
there could be room for nothing else; and also concluded, that God
had, in very wrath to my soul, given me up unto them, to be carried
away with them as with a mighty whirlwind.

'Only by the distaste that they gave unto my spirit, I felt there
was something in me that refused to embrace them.'[94]

Here are the facts which are allegorized in the history of
Christian, passing through the Valley of Humiliation, and fighting
with the Prince of the power of the air. 'Then Apollyon, espying his
opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and wrestling
with him, gave him a dreadful fall; and with that Christian's
sword flew out of his hand.' This was the effect of his doubts of
the inspiration of the Scriptures--the sword of the Spirit. 'I am
sure of thee now, said Apollyon; and with that he had almost pressed
him to death, so that Christian began to despair of life; but as
God would have it, while Apollyon was fetching of his last blow,
Christian nimbly stretched out his hand for his sword, and caught
it, saying, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, when I fall I
shall arise" (Matt 7:8), and with that gave him a deadly thrust,
which made him give back as one that had received his mortal wound.
Christian perceiving that, made at him again, saying, "Nay, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved
us"; and with that Apollyon spread forth his dragon wings, and sped
him away.'[95] What an awful moment, when he fell unarmed before
his ferocious enemy! 'Faith now has but little time to speak to
the conscience--it is now struggling for life--it is now fighting
with angels--with infernals--all it can do now is to cry, groan,
sweat, fear, fight, and gasp for life.'[96] How desperate the
conflict--the mouth of hell yawning to swallow him--man cannot aid
the poor warrior, all his help is in God. Is it not a wonder to see
a poor creature, who in himself is weaker than the moth, to stand
against and overcome all devils--all the world--all his lusts and
corruptions; or, if he fall, is it not a wonder to see him, when
devils and guilt are upon him, to rise again, stand upon his legs,
walk with God again, and persevere in faith and holiness?[97]

This severe conflict lasted for about a year. He describes his
feelings at times as resembling the frightful pangs of one broken
on the wheel. The sources of his misery were fears that he had sinned
against the Holy Ghost; and that through his hardness of heart and
impatience in prayer--he should not persevere to the end. During
all this time, occasional visits of mercy kept him from despair;
and at some intervals filled him with transports of joy. At one
time so delightfully was his burden removed that he could not tell
how to contain himself. 'I thought I could have spoken of his love
and of his mercy to me, even to the very crows that sat upon the
ploughed lands before me, had they been capable to have understood
me.'[98] Thus his feelings were controlled by reason, very different
to the poor madman who, in olden time, is represented as preaching
to the fish. With Bunyan it was a hallowed joy--a gush of holy
gladness, in which he wished all creation to participate. his heart
was baptized in hope. 'I know that my Redeemer liveth'; and with
holy Job, he wished to perpetuate his joy by a memorial not in
rock, but in a book of resemblance. 'I would I had a pen and ink
here to write it down.' This is the first desire that he expressed
to proclaim or publish to others the great Saviour he had found:
but he was not yet prepared; he must pass through deeper depths,
and possess a living knowledge of Divine truth, burnt into his soul
by satanic fires.

Very soon after this, he was harassed with fear lest he should part
with Christ. The tempter, as he did with Christian in the Valley of
the Shadow of Death, suggested blasphemies to him, which he thought
had proceeded from his own mind. 'Satan troubled him with his
stinking breath. How many strange, hideous, and amazing blasphemies
have some that are coming to Christ had injected upon their spirits
against him.'[99] 'The devil is indeed very busy at work during
the darkness of a soul. He throws in his fiery darts to amazement,
when we are encompassed with the terrors of a dismal night; he is
bold and undaunted in his assaults, and injects with a quick and
sudden malice a thousand monstrous and abominable thoughts of God,
which seem to be the motions of our own minds, and terribly grieve
and trouble us.'[100]

What makes those arrows more penetrating and distressing is, that
Satan, with subtle art, tips them with sentences of Scripture. 'No
place for repentance'; 'rejected'; 'hath never forgiveness,' and
other passages which, by the malignant ingenuity of the fiend, are
formed by his skill as the cutting and barbed points of his shafts.
At one time Bunyan concluded that he was possessed of the devil;
then he was tempted to speak and sin against the Holy Ghost. He
thought himself alone in such a tempest, and that no one had ever
felt such misery as he did. When in prayer, his mind was distracted
with the thought that Satan was pulling his clothes; he was even
tempted to fall down and worship him. Then he would cry after God,
in awful fear that eventually Satan would overcome him. During all
this time he was struggling against the tempter; and, at length,
the dayspring visited him in these words, 'I am persuaded that
nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.'
Again he was cast down with a recollection of his former blasphemies.
What reason can I have to hope for an inheritance in eternal life?
The questions was answered with that portion of Scripture, 'If God
be for us, who can be against us?' These were visits which, like
Peter's sheet, of a sudden were caught up to heaven again.[101]
At length the Sun of Righteousness arose, and shone upon him with
healing influence. 'He hath made peace through the blood of his
cross,' came with power to his mind, followed by the consoling words
of the apostle, 'Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same;
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage' (Heb 2:14,15). This was the
key that opened every lock in Doubting Castle. The prisoner escaped
to breathe the air of hope, and joy, and peace. 'This,' said he,
'was a good day to me, I hope I shall not forget it.' 'I thought
that the glory of those words was then so weighty on me, that I
was, both once and twice, ready to swoon as I sat, not with grief
and trouble, but with solid joy and peace.'

His mind was now in a fit state to seek for church fellowship, as a
further means of advance in his knowledge of Divine love. To effect
this object, he was naturally led to the Baptist church at Bedford,
to which those pious women belonged whose Christian communion had
been blessed to him. I sat under the ministry of holy Mr. Gifford,
whose doctrine, by God's grace, was much for my stability.[102]
Although his soul was led from truth to truth, his trials were not
over--he passed through many severe exercises before he was received
into communion with the church.[103]

At length he determined to become identified with a body of
professed Christians, who were treated with great scorn by other
sects because they denied infant baptism, and he became engaged in
the religious controversies which were fashionable in those days.
We have noticed his encounter with the Ranters, and he soon had
to give battle to persons called Quakers. Before the Society of
Friends was formed, and their rules of discipline were published,
many Ranters and others, some of whom were bad characters and held
the wildest opinions, passed under the name of Quakers. Some of
these denied that the Bible was the Word of God; and asserted that
the death of Christ was not a full atonement for sin--that there
is no future resurrection, and other gross errors. The Quakers,
who were afterwards united to form the Society of Friends, from the
first denied all those errors. Their earliest apologist, Barclay,
in his theses on the Scriptures, says, 'They are the doctrines of
Christ, held forth in precious declarations, spoken and written
by the movings of God's Spirit.' Whoever it was that asserted the
heresies, to Bunyan the investigation of them, in the light of Divine
truth, was attended with great advantages. It was through 'this
narrow search of the Scriptures that he was not only enlightened,
but greatly confirmed and comforted in the truth.'[104]

He longed to compare his experience with that of some old and eminent
convert, and 'God did cast into his hand' Luther On the Galatians,
'so old that it was ready to fall piece from piece, if I did but
turn it over.'[105] The commentary of this enlightened man was
a counterpart to his own feelings. 'I found,' says Bunyan, 'my
condition, in his experience so largely and profoundly handled,
as if his book had been written out of my own heart. I prefer the
book before all others as most fit for a wounded conscience.' This
was the 'voice of a man' that Christian 'heard as going before him
in the Valley of the Shadow of Death,' and was glad that some who
feared God were in this valley as well as himself, who could say,
'I will fear no evil for thou art with me.'[106] In many things
Luther and Bunyan were men of similar temperament. Like Emmanuel's
captains, in the Holy War, they were 'very stout rough-hewn men;
men that were fit to break the ice, and to make their way by dint
of sword.'[107] They were animated by the same principles, and
fought with the same weapons; and although Luther resided in a castle
protected by princes, was furnished with profound scholastic learning,
and became a terror to Popery; yet the voice of the unlettered
tinker, issuing from a dreary prison, bids fair to be far more
extensively heard and blessed than that of this most illustrious
reformer.[108]