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Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1

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




Religious feelings and conduct have at all times a tendency to
promote the comfort, and elevate the character of the poor. How
often have we seen them thus blessed; the ragged family comfortably
clothed, the hungry fed, and the inmates of a dirty miserable cottage
or hovel become a pattern of cleanly happiness. One of Bunyan's
biographers, who was an eye-witness, bears this testimony. 'By this
time his family was increased, and as that increased God increased
his stores, so that he lived now in great credit among his neighbours.'
He soon became a respectable member of civil as well as religious
society; for, by the time that he joined the church, his Christian
character was so fully established, that, notwithstanding the meanness
of his origin and employment, he was considered worthy of uniting
in a memorial to the Lord Protector. It was to recommend two
gentlemen to form part of the council, after Cromwell had dissolved
the Long Parliament. It is a curious document, very little known,
and illustrative of the peculiar style of these eventful times.

Letter from the people of Bedfordshire to the Lord Generall Cromwell,
and the Councell of the army.

May 13th, 1653.

May it please your Lordship, and the rest of the council of the
army. We (we trust) servants of Jesus Christ, inhabitants in the
county of Bedford, haveing fresh upon our hearts the sadde oppressions
we have (a long while) groan'd under from the late parlayment, and
now eyeing and owning (through grace) the good hand of God in this
great turne of providence, being persuaded that it is from the Lord
that you should be instrument in his hand at such a time as this,
for the electing of such persons whoe may goe in and out before his
people in righteousnesse, and governe these nations in judgment,
we having sought the Lord for yow, and hopeing that God will still
doe greate things by yow, understanding that it is in your hearte
through the Lord's assistance, to establish an authority consisting
of men able, loveing truth, feareing God, and hateing covetouseness;
and we having had some experience of men with us, we have judged
it our duty to God, to yow, and to the rest of his people, humbly
to present two men, viz., Nathaniell Taylor, and John Croke, now
Justices of Peace in our County, whom we judge in the Lord qualified
to manage a trust in the ensuing government. All which we humbly
referre to your serious considerations, and subscribe our names
this 13th day of May, 1653--

John Eston, Clement Berridge, Isaac Freeman, John Grewe, John
Bunyan, William Dell, John Gifford, William Baker, junr., William
Wheelar, Ja. Rush, Anth. Harrington, John Gibbs, Tho. Varrse,
Richard Spensley, John Donne, Michael Cooke, Edward Covinson, Tho.
Gibbs, John Ramsay, John Hogge, Edward White, Robert English, John
Jeffard, John Browne, John Edridge, John Ivory, John White, George
Gee, Daniell Groome, Charles Peirse, Ambrose Gregory, Luke Parratt,
Thomas Cooke, William Page, Thomas Knott, Thomas Honnor. These to
the Lord Generall Cromwell, and the rest of the councell of the
army, present.[141]

Bunyan's daughter Elizabeth was born at Elstow, April 14, 1654, and
a singular proof of his having changed his principles on baptism
appears in the church register. His daughter Mary was baptized
in 1650, but his Elizabeth in 1654 is registered as born, but no
mention is made of baptism.

The poor harassed pilgrim having been admitted into communion with
a Christian church, enjoyed fully, for a short season, his new
privileges. He thus expresses his feelings:--'After I had propounded
to the church that my desire was to walk in the order and ordinances
of Christ with them, and was also admitted by them: while I thought
of that blessed ordinance of Christ, which was his last supper
with his disciples before his death, that scriptures, "this do in
remembrance of me," was made a very precious word unto me; for by
it the Lord came down upon my conscience with the discovery of his
death for my sins: and as I then felt, did as if he plunged me in
the virtue of the same.'[142]

In this language we have an expression which furnishes a good
sample of his energetic feelings. He had been immersed in water at
his baptism, and doubtless believed it to be a figure of his death
to sin and resurrection to holiness; and when he sat at the Lord's
table he felt that he was baptized into the virtue of his Lord's
death; he is plunged into it, and feels the holy influence covering
his soul with all its powers.

His pastor, John Gifford, was a remarkably pious and sensible man,
exactly fitted to assist in maturing the mind of his young member.
Bunyan had, for a considerable time, sat under his ministry, and
had cultivated acquaintance with the members of his church; and so
prayerfully had he made up his mind as to this important choice of
a church, with which he might enter into fellowship, that, although
tempted by the most alluring prospects of greater usefulness,
popularity, and emolument, he continued his church fellowship with
these poor people through persecution and distress, imprisonment
and the threats of transportation, or an ignominious death, until
he crossed the river 'which has no bridge,' and ascended to the
celestial city, a period of nearly forty years. Of the labours of
his first pastor, John Gifford, but little is known, except that
he founded the church of Christ at Bedford, probably the first, in
modern times, which allowed to every individual freedom of judgment
as to water baptism; receiving all those who decidedly appeared
to have put on Christ, and had been received by him; but avoiding,
with godly jealousy, any mixture of the world with the church. Mr.
Gifford's race was short, consistent, and successful. Bunyan calls
him by an appellation, very probably common in his neighbourhood
and among his flock, 'holy Mr. Gifford';[143] a title infinitely
superior to all the honours of nobility, or of royalty. He was
a miracle of mercy and grace, for a very few years before he had
borne the character of an impure and licentious man--an open enemy
to the saints of God. His pastoral letter, left upon record in the
church-book, written when drawing near the end of his pilgrimage,
is most admirable; it contains an allusion to his successors, Burton
or Bunyan, and must have had a tendency in forming their views of
a gospel church. Even Mr. Southey praises this puritanic epistle
as exemplifying 'a wise and tolerant and truly Christian spirit':
and as it has not been published in any life of Bunyan, I venture
to introduce it without abridgement:--

To the Church over which God made me an overseer when I was in the
world.

I beseech you, brethren beloved, let these following words (wrote
in my love to you, and care over you, when our heavenly Father
was removing me to the kingdom of his dear Son), be read in your
church-gatherings together. I shall not now, dearly beloved, write
unto you about that which is the first, and without which all other
things are as nothing in the sight of God, viz., the keeping the
mystery of the faith in a pure conscience; I shall not, I say, write
of these things, though the greatest, having spent my labours among
you, to root you and build you up in Christ through the grace you
have received; and to press you to all manner of holiness in your
conversations, that you may be found of the Lord, without spot,
and blameless, at His coming. But the things I shall speak to you
of, are about your CHURCH AFFAIRS, which I fear have been little
considered by most of you; which things, if not mended aright,
and submitted unto, according to the will of God, will by degrees
bring you under divisions, distractions, and at last, to confusion
of that gospel order and fellowship which now, through grace, you
enjoy. Therefore, my brethren, in the first place, I would not
have any of you ignorant of this, that every one of you are as much
bound now to walk with the church in all love; and in the ordinances
of Jesus Christ our Lord, as when I was present among you: neither
have any of you liberty to join yourselves to any other society,
because your pastor is removed from you; for you were not joined
to the ministry, but to Christ, and the church; and this is and was
the will of God in Christ to all the churches of the saints, read
Acts 2:42; and compare it with Acts 1:14, 15. And I charge you
before the Lord, as you will answer it at the coming of our Lord
Jesus, that none of you be found guilty herein.

Secondly. Be constant in your church assemblies. Let all the work
which concerns the church be done faithfully among you; as admission
of members, exercising of gifts, election of officers, as need
requires, and all other things as if named, which the Scriptures
being searched, will lead you into, through the Spirit; which things,
if you do, the Lord will be with you, and you will convince others
that Christ is your head, and your dependency is not upon man; but
if you do the work of the Lord negligently, if you mind your own
things and not the things of Christ, if you grow of indifferent
spirits, whether you mind the work of the Lord in his church
or no, I fear the Lord by degrees will suffer the comfort of your
communion to be dried up, and the candlestick which is yet standing
to be broken in pieces; which God forbid.

Now, concerning your admission of members, I shall leave you to the
Lord for counsel, who hath hitherto been with you; only thus much
I think expedient to stir up your remembrance in; that after you
are satisfied in the work of grace in the party you are to join
with, the said party do solemnly declare (before some of the church
at least), That Union with Christ is the foundation of all saints'
communion; and not any ordinances of Christ, or any judgment
or opinion about externals; and the said party ought to declare,
whether a brother or sister, that through grace they will walk in
love with the church, though there should happen any difference in
judgment about other things. Concerning separation from the church
about baptism, laying on of hands, anointing with oil, psalms, or
any externals, I charge every one of you respectively, as you will
give an account for it to our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge
both quick and dead at his coming, that none of you be found guilty
of this great evil; which, while some have committed, and that
through a zeal for God, yet not according to knowledge, they have
erred from the law of the love of Christ, and have made a rent from
the true church, which is but one. I exhort you, brethren, in your
comings together, Let all things be done decently, and in order,
according to the Scriptures. Let all things be done among you
without strife and envy, without self-seeking and vain-glory. Be
clothed with humility, and submit to one another in love. Let the
gifts of the church be exercised according to order. Let no gift be
concealed which is for edification; yet let those gifts be chiefly
exercised which are most for the perfecting of the saints. Let
your discourses be to build up one another in your most holy faith,
and to provoke one another to love and good works: if this be not
well-minded, much time may be spent and the church reap little or
no advantage. Let there be strong meat for the strong, and milk
for babes. In your assemblies avoid all disputes which gender to
strife, as questions about externals, and all doubtful disputations.
If any come among you who will be contentious in these things,
let it be declared that you have no such order, nor any of the
churches of God. If any come among you with any doctrine contrary
to the doctrine of Christ, you must not treat with such an one as
with a brother, or enter into dispute of the things of faith with
reasonings (for this is contrary to the Scriptures); but let such
of the brethren who are the fullest of the Spirit, and the word of
Christ, oppose such an one steadfastly face to face, and lay open
his folly to the church, from the Scriptures. If a brother through
weakness speak anything contrary to any known truth of God (though
not intended by him), some other brother of the church must
in love clear up the truth, lest many of the church be laid under
temptation. Let no respect of persons be in your comings-together;
when you are met as a church there's neither rich nor poor, bond
nor free in Christ Jesus. 'Tis not a good practice to be offering
places or seats when those who are rich come in; especially it is
a great evil to take notice of such in time of prayer, or the word;
then are bowings and civil observances at such times not of God.
Private wrongs are not presently to be brought unto the church. If
any of the brethren are troubled about externals, let some of the
church (let it not be a church business) pray for and with such
parties.

None ought to withdraw from the church if any brother should walk
disorderly, but he that walketh disorderly must bear his own burden,
according to the Scriptures. If any brother should walk disorderly,
he cannot be shut out from any ordinance before church censure.
Study among yourselves what is the nature of fellowship, as the
word,[144] prayer, and breaking of bread; which, whilst few, I
judge, seriously consider, there is much falling short of duty in
the churches of Christ. You that are most eminent in profession,
set a pattern to all the rest of the church. Let your faith, love,
and zeal, be very eminent; if any of you cast a dim light, you will
do much hurt in the church. Let there be kept up among you solemn
days of prayer and thanksgiving; and let some time be set apart, to
seek God for your seeds, which thing hath hitherto been omitted. Let
your deacons have a constant stock by them, to supply the necessity
of those who are in want. Truly, brethren, there is utterly a fault
among you that are rich, especially in this thing, 'tis not that
little which comes from you on the first day of the week that will
excuse you. I beseech you, be not found guilty of this sin any
longer. He that sows sparingly will reap sparingly. Be not backward
in your gatherings-together; let none of you willingly stay till
part of the meeting be come,[145] especially such who should be
examples to the flock. One or two things are omitted about your
comings-together, which I shall here add. I beseech you, forbear
sitting in prayer, except parties be any way disabled; 'tis not a
posture which suits with the majesty of such an ordinance. Would you
serve your prince so? In prayer, let all self-affected expressions
be avoided, and all vain repetitions. God hath not gifted, I judge,
every brother to be a mouth to the church. Let such as have most
of the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, shut up all your
comings-together, that ye may go away with your hearts comforted
and quickened.

Come together in time, and leave off orderly; for God is a God of
order among his saints. Let none of you give offence to his brethren
in indifferent things, but be subject to one another in love. Be
very careful what gifts you approve of by consent for public service.

Spend much time before the Lord, about choosing a pastor, for though
I suppose he is before you,[146] whom the Lord hath appointed, yet
it will be no disadvantage to you, I hope, if you walk a year or
two as you are before election; and then, if you be all agreed, let
him be set apart, according to the Scriptures. Salute the brethren
who walk not in fellowship with you, with the same love and name
of brother or sister as those who do.

Let the promises made to be accomplished in the latter days, be
often urged before the Lord in your comings-together; and forget
not your brethren in bonds. Love him much for the work's sake, who
labours over you in the word and doctrine. Let no man despise his
youth.[147] Muzzle not the mouth of the ox that treads out the
corn to you. Search the Scriptures; let some of them be read to
you about this thing. If your teacher at any time be laid aside,
you ought to meet together as a church, and build up one another.
If the members at such a time will go to a public ministry, it
must first be approved of by the church. Farewell; exhort, counsel,
support, reprove one another in love.

Finally, brethren, be all of one mind, walk in love one to another,
even as Christ Jesus hath loved you, and given himself for you.
Search the Scriptures for a supply of those things wherein I am
wanting. Now the God of peace, who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ
from the dead, multiply his peace upon you, and preserve you to
his everlasting kingdom by Jesus Christ. Stand fast: the Lord is
at hand.

That this was written by me, I have set my name to it, in the
presence of two of the brethren of the church.

John Gifford.[148]

Bunyan was now settled under the happiest circumstances, and doubtless
looked forward to much religious enjoyment. A pious wife--peace
in his soul--a most excellent pastor, and in full communion with
a Christian church. Alas! his enjoyments were soon interrupted;
again a tempest was to agitate his mind, that he might be more deeply
humbled and prepared to become a Barnabas or son of consolation to
the spiritually distressed.

It is a remarkable fact, that upon the baptism of our Lord, after
that sublime declaration of Jehovah--'this is my beloved Son,'
'Jesus was led into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.' As
it was with their leader, so it frequently happens to his followers.
After having partaken, for the first time, of the holy enjoyments
of the Lord's table--tending to exalt and elevate them, they are
often abased and humbled in their own esteem, by the assaults of
Satan and his temptations, aided by an evil heart of unbelief. Thus
Christian having been cherished in the house called Beautiful, and
armed for the conflict, descended into the Valley of Humiliation,
encountered Apollyon in deadly combat, and walked through the Valley
of the Shadow of Death. 'For three quarters of a year, fierce and
said temptations did beset me to blasphemy, that I could never have
rest nor ease. But at last the Lord came in upon my soul with that
same scripture, by which my soul was visited before; and after that,
I have been usually very well and comfortable in the partaking of
that blessed ordinance; and have, I trust, therein discerned the
Lord's body, as broken for my sins, and that his precious blood hath
been shed for my transgressions.'[149] This is what Bunyan calls,
'the soul killing to itself its sins, its righteousness, wisdom,
resolutions, and the things which it trusted in by nature'; and
then receiving 'a most glorious, perfect, and never-fading life.'
The life of Christ in all its purity and perfections imputed to
me--'Sometimes I bless the Lord my soul hath had this life not only
imputed to me, but the very glory of it upon my soul--the Son of
God himself in his own person, now at the right hand of his Father
representing me complete before the mercy-seat in his ownself.'
'There was my righteousness just before the eyes of Divine glory.'[150]

About this period his robust hardy frame gave way under the attack
of disease, and we have to witness his feelings when the king of
terrors appeared to be beginning his deadly work. Whether the fiery
trials, the mental tempest through which he had passed, were too
severe for his bodily frame, is not recorded. His narrative is, that,
'Upon a time I was somewhat inclining to a consumption, wherewith,
about the spring I was suddenly and violently seized, with much
weakness in my outward man; insomuch that I thought I could not
live.'[151] This is slightly varied in his account of this illness
in his Law and Grace. He there says, 'having contracted guilt upon
my soul, and having some distemper of body upon me, I supposed
that death might now so seize upon, as to take me away from among
men.[152] These serious considerations led to a solemn investigation
of his hopes. His having been baptized, his union to a church, the
good opinion of his fellow-men, are not in the slightest degree
relied upon as evidences of the new birth, or of a death to sin
and resurrection to holiness.' 'Now began I afresh to give myself
up to a serious examination after my state and condition for the
future, and of my evidences for that blessed world to come: for
it hath, I bless the name of God, been my usual course, as always,
so especially in the day of affliction, to endeavour to keep my
interest in the life to come, clear before my eye.

'But I had no sooner began to recall to mind my former experience
of the goodness of God to my soul, but there came flocking into my
mind an innumerable company of my sins and transgressions: amongst
which these were at this time most to my affliction, namely,
my deadness, dullness, and coldness in holy duties; my wanderings
of heart, my wearisomeness in all good things, my want of love to
God, his ways and people, with this at the end of all, "Are these
the fruits of Christianity? Are these the tokens of a blessed man?"

'At the apprehension of these things my sickness was doubled upon
me, for now was I sick in my inward man, my soul was clogged with
guilt; now also was my former experience of God's goodness to me
quite taken out of my mind, and hid as if it had never been, nor seen.
Now was my soul greatly pinched between these two considerations,
"Live I must not, die I dare not." Now I sunk and fell in my spirit,
and was giving up all for lost; but as I was walking up and down
in my house, as a man in a most woeful state, that word of God took
hold of my heart, Ye are "justified freely by his grace, through
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ" (Rom 3:24). But O! what a
turn it made upon me!

'Now was I as one awakened out of some troublesome sleep and dream;
and listening to this heavenly sentence, I was as if I had heard
it thus expounded to me:--"Sinner, thou thinkest, that because of
thy sins and infirmities, I cannot save thy soul; but behold my Son
is by me, and upon him I look, and not on thee, and will deal with
thee according as I am pleased with him." At this I was greatly
lightened in my mind, and made to understand, that God could
justify a sinner at any time; it was but his looking upon Christ,
and imputing of his benefits to us, and the work was forthwith
done.'[153]

'Now was I got on high, I saw myself within the arms of grace and
mercy; and though I was before afraid to think of a dying hour, yet
now I cried, Let me die. Now death was lovely and beautiful in my
sight, for I saw that we shall never live indeed, till we be gone
to the other world. I saw more in those words, "Heirs of God" (Rom
8:17), than ever I shall be able to express. "Heirs of God," God
himself is the portion of his saints.'[154]

As his mental agitation subsided into this delicious calm, his bodily
health was restored; to use his own figure, Captain Consumption,
with all his men of death, were[155] routed, and his strong bodily
health trimphed over disease; or, to use the more proper language
of an eminent Puritan, 'When overwhelmed with the deepest sorrows,
and that for many doleful months, he who is Lord of nature healed
my body, and he who is the Father of mercies and God of all grace
has proclaimed liberty to the captive, and given rest to my weary
soul.'[156] Here we have a key to the most eventful picture in
the Pilgrim's Progress--The Valley of the Shadow of Death--which
is placed in the midst of the journey. When in the prime of life,
death looked at him and withdrew for a season. It was the shadow
of death that came over his spirit.

The church at Bedford having increased, Bunyan was chosen to fill
the honourable office of a deacon. No man could have been better
fitted for that office than Bunyan was. He was honesty itself, had
suffered severe privations, so as to feel for those who were pinched
with want; he had great powers of discrimination, to distinguish
between the poverty of idleness, and that distress which arises from
circumstances over which human foresight has no control, so as to
relieve with propriety the pressure of want, without encouraging
the degrading and debasing habit of depending upon alms, instead
of labouring to provide the necessaries of life. He had no fine
clothes to be spoiled by trudging down the filthiest lanes, and
entering the meanest hovels to relieve suffering humanity. The
poor--and that is the great class to whom the gospel is preached,
and by whom it is received--would hail him as a brother. Gifted in
prayer, full of sound and wholesome counsel drawn from holy writ,
he must have been a peculiar blessing to the distressed, and to all
the members who stood in need of advice and assistance. Such were
the men intended by the apostles, 'men of honest report, full
of the Holy Ghost and wisdom' (Acts 6:3), whom the church were to
select, to relieve the apostles from the duties of ministration to
the wants of the afflicted members, in the discharge of which they
had given offence.

While thus actively employed, he was again visited with a severe
illness, and again was subject to a most searching and solemn
investigation as to his fitness to appear before the judgment-seat
of God. 'All that time the tempter did beset me strongly, labouring
to hide from me my former experience of God's goodness; setting
before me the terrors of death, and the judgment of God, insomuch
that at this time, through my fear of miscarrying for ever, should
I now die, I was as one dead before death came; I thought that
there was no way but to hell I must.'[157]