his ignorance, brutal manners, low station, nor from the fanaticism of
the age in which he lived. Did the similar feeling of Job or David
spring from these polluted fountains? He is a stranger to Christ’s
school that confounds its discipline with mental drunkenness, or with
the other depraved sources alluded to by Southey. The luxurious
imagination which ruled over him, must be curbed and brought into
subjection to Christ. He must be weaned from a reliance upon sudden
impulses to rely upon Divine truth. The discovery of errors by
scriptural investigation was putting on armour of proof.
Self-confidence was gradually swallowed up by dependence upon the
word—the result of the severest spiritual training. Those painful
exercises produced a life of holiness and usefulness. Can the thistle
produce grapes, or the noxious weeds corn? Never! His experience came
from heaven, in mercy to his soul, and to make him a blessing to
millions of his race. By this he was made truly wise, civilized,
enlightened, and elevated. Every painful feeling was measured by Divine
rule—weighed in the sanctuary balance—not one iota too much or too
little to form his noble character. He has been compared with Lord
Byron, one of our most impassioned thinkers and writers; but the noble
poet’s heart-griefs were on the wrong side. Judging of his own feelings
by those painted on his heroes—they fight for freedom only to gratify
lust, pride, and ambition, while the future appeared in dark, dreary
uncertainty. But Bunyan strives to be released from the slavery of sin
and Satan, that he might enjoy the liberty of being a servant of
Christ, whose service is perfect freedom, with a glorious vista of
eternity occasionally breaking in upon his soul.
Well may it be said of him:—Simple, enchanting man! what does not the
world owe to thee and to the great Being who could produce such as
thee? Teacher alike of the infant and of the aged; who canst direct the
first thought and remove the last doubt of man; property alike of the
peasant and the prince; welcomed by the ignorant and honoured by the
wise; thou hast translated Christianity into a new language, and that a
universal one! Thou art the prose poet of all time!
THE FOURTH PERIOD.
BUNYAN ENTERS INTO CONTROVERSY—BECOMES AN AUTHOR—OFFENDS A PERSECUTING
MAGISTRACY, AND IS PROCEEDED AGAINST AT THE SESSIONS UNDER AN ACT OF
THE COMMONWEALTH—IS ACCUSED OF REPORTING A STRANGE CHARGE OF
WITCHCRAFT—PUBLICLY DISPUTES WITH THE QUAKERS.
In proportion as a man becomes a public character, especially if
eminent for talent and usefulness in the church, so will his enemies
increase. The envy of some and the malice of others will invent
slanders, or, what is worse, put an evil construction upon the most
innocent conduct, in the hope of throwing a shade over that brightness
which reveals their own defects. In this they are aided by all the
craft, and cunning, and power of Satan, the archenemy of man. The
purity of gospel truth carries with it the blessed fruits of the
highest order of civilization; the atmosphere in which it lives is
‘good will to man.’ Salvation is a free gift, direct from God to the
penitent sinner. It cannot be obtained by human aid, nor for all the
gold in the universe. It cannot possibly be traded in, bought, or sold,
but is bestowed without money or price. Hence the opposition of
Antichrist. The cry or groan of the contrite enters heaven and brings
down blessings, while the most elegant and elaborately-composed prayer,
not springing from the heart, is read or recited in vain. Human
monarchs must be approached by petitions drawn up in form, and which
may be accepted, although the perfection of insincerity and hypocrisy.
The King of kings accepts no forms; he knows the heart, and requires
the approach of those who worship him to be in sincerity and in truth;
the heart may plead without words, God accepteth the groans and sighs
of those that fear him. These were the notions that Bunyan had drawn
from the Holy Oracles, and his conversation soon made him a favourite
with the Puritans, while it excited feelings of great hostility among
the neighbouring clergy and magistrates.
Bunyan’s conversion from being a pest to the neighbourhood to becoming
a pious man, might have been pardoned had he conformed to the
Directory; but for him to appear as a Dissenter and a public teacher,
without going through the usual course of education and ordination, was
an unpardonable offence. The opinions of man gave him no concern; all
his anxiety was to have the approbation of his God, and then to walk
accordingly, braving all the dangers, the obloquy, and contempt that
might arise from his conscientious discharge of duties, for the
performance of which he knew that he alone must give a solemn account
at the great day.
He entered upon the serious work of the ministry with fear and
trembling, with much heart-searching, earnest prayer, and the advice of
the church to which he was united, not with any pledge to abide by
their decision contrary to his own conviction, but to aid him in his
determination. His own account of these important inquiries is very
striking:—‘After I had been about five or six years awakened, and
helped myself to see both the want and worth of Jesus Christ our Lord,
and also enabled to venture my soul upon him, some of the most able
among the saints with us, for judgment and holiness of life, as they
conceived, did perceive that God had counted me worthy to understand
something of his will in His holy and blessed Word, and had given me
utterance, in some measure, to express what I saw to others for
edification; therefore they desired me, and that with much earnestness,
that I would be willing at some times to take in hand, in one of the
meetings, to speak a word of exhortation unto them. The which, though
at the first it did much dash and abash my spirit, yet being still by
them desired and entreated, I consented to their request, and did
twice, at two several assemblies in private, though with much weakness
and infirmity, discover my gift amongst them; at which they did
solemnly protest, as in the sight of the great God, they were both
affected and comforted, and gave thanks to the Father of mercies for
the grace bestowed on me.
‘After this, sometimes, when some of them did go into the country to
teach, they would also that I should go with them; where, though as yet
I did not, nor durst not, make use of my gift in an open way, yet more
privately, as I came amongst the good people in those places, I did
sometimes speak a word of admonition unto them also, the which they, as
the other, received with rejoicing at the mercy of God to me-ward,
professing their souls were edified thereby.
‘Wherefore at last, being still desired by the church, after some
solemn prayer to the Lord, with fasting, I was more particularly called
forth, and appointed to a more ordinary and public preaching of the
word, not only to and amongst them that believed, but also to offer the
gospel to those who had not yet received the faith thereof.’[173]
The ministry of Bunyan’s pastor, whom he affectionately called holy Mr.
Gifford, must have been wonderfully blessed. In 1650 only twelve pious
men and women were formed into a Christian church, and, although
subject to fierce persecution, they had so increased that in 1672 ten
members had been solemnly set apart for the work of the ministry, and
they became a blessing to the country round Bedford. The benighted
state of the villages was a cause of earnest prayer that men might be
sent out, apt to teach, and willing to sacrifice liberty, and even
life, to promote the peaceful reign of the Redeemer. The names of the
men who were thus set apart were—John Bunyan, Samuel Fenn, Joseph
Whiteman, John Fenn, Oliver Scott, Luke Ashwood, Thomas Cooper, Edward
Dent, Edward Isaac, and Nehemiah Coxe.[174] Four of these were
permitted to fulfil their course without notoriety; the others were
severely persecuted, fined and imprisoned, but not forsaken.
Encouraged by the opinion of the church which had been so prayerfully
formed, that it was his duty to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation,
Bunyan entered upon his important work, and was soon encouraged by a
hope that his labours were useful to his fellow-men. ‘About this time,’
he narrates, ‘I did evidently find in my mind a secret pricking forward
thereto, though, I bless God, not for desire of vain glory, for at that
time I was most sorely afflicted with the fiery darts of the devil
concerning my eternal state. But yet I could not be content unless I
was found in the exercise of my gift; unto which also I was greatly
animated, not only by the continual desires of the godly, but also by
that saying of Paul to the Corinthians, “I beseech you, brethren [ye
know the household of Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits of Achaia,
and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints],
that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with
us, and laboureth” (1 Cor 16:15,16).
‘By this text I was made to see that the Holy Ghost never intended that
men, who have gifts and abilities, should bury them in the earth, but
rather did command and stir up such to the exercise of their gift, and
also did commend those that were apt and ready so to do.
‘Wherefore, though of myself, of all the saints the most unworthy, yet
I, but with great fear and trembling at the sight of my own weakness,
did set upon the work, and did according to my gift, and the proportion
of my faith, preach that blessed gospel that God had showed me in the
holy Word of truth; which, when the country understood, they came in to
hear the Word by hundreds, and that from all parts. And I thank God he
gave unto me some measure of bowels and pity for their souls, which did
put me forward to labour with great diligence and earnestness, to find
out such a word as might, if God would bless it, lay hold of and awaken
the conscience, in which also the good Lord had respect to the desire
of his servant; for I had not preached long before some began to be
touched, and be greatly afflicted in their minds at the apprehension of
the greatness of their sin, and of their need of Jesus Christ.
‘But I at first could not believe that God should speak by me to the
heart of any man, still counting myself unworthy; yet those who were
thus touched would love me, and have a particular respect for me; and
though I did put it from me that they should be awakened by me, still
they would confess it, and affirm it before the saints of God. They
would also bless God for me, unworthy wretch that I am! and count me
God’s instrument that showed to them the way of salvation.
‘Wherefore, seeing them in both their words and deeds to be so
constant, and also in their hearts so earnestly pressing after the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, rejoicing that ever God did send me where
they were; then I began to conclude that it might be so, that God had
owned in his work such a foolish one as I; and then came that word of
God to my heart with much sweet refreshment, “The blessing of him that
was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to
sing for joy” (Job 29:13).
‘At this therefore I rejoiced; yea, the tears of those whom God did
awaken by my preaching would be both solace and encouragement to me. I
thought on those sayings, “Who is he that maketh me glad, but the same
that is made sorry by me” (2 Cor 2:2). And again, “Though I be not an
apostle to others, yet doubtless I am unto you: for the seal of my
apostleship are ye in the Lord” (1 Cor 9:2). These things, therefore,
were as an another argument unto me, that God had called me to, and
stood by me in this work.
‘In my preaching of the Word I took special notice of this one thing,
namely, that the Lord did lead me to begin where his Word begins with
sinners; that is, to condemn all flesh, and to open and allege, that
the curse of God by the law doth belong to, and lay hold on all men as
they come into the world, because of sin. Now this part of my work I
fulfilled with great feeling, for the terrors of the law, and guilt for
my transgressions, lay heavy on my own conscience. I preached what I
felt, what I smartingly did feel, even that under which my poor soul
did groan and tremble to astonishment. Indeed, I have been as one sent
to them from the dead; I went myself in chains to preach to them in
chains; and carried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded
them to beware of.[175] I can truly say, that when I have been to
preach, I have gone full of guilt and terror even to the pulpit-door,
and there it hath been taken off, and I have been at liberty in my mind
until I have done my work, and then, immediately, even before I could
get down the pulpit stairs, I have been as bad as I was before: yet God
carried me on with a strong hand, for neither guilt nor hell could take
me off my work. Thus I went on for the space of two years, crying out
against men’s sins, and their fearful state because of them.’[176]
A man so much in earnest soon became a most acceptable and popular
preacher. He studied his sermons carefully, and wrote such memorandums
and notes as might refresh his memory before going into the pulpit,
although his intensity of feeling, his ready utterance, and natural
eloquence which charmed his hearers, and his extensive usefulness as a
preacher, render it quite improbable that he restricted himself to
notes while publicly engaged in sacred services. They must have aided
him when he did not enjoy liberty of utterance. ‘At times when I have
begun to speak the Word with much liberty, I have been presently so
straitened in speech that I scarcely knew what I was about, or as if my
head had been in a bag.’[177] They were valuable, also, as a proof that
all he said had its exclusive reference to the world to come, without
the mixture of politics, which might have given offence to the
Government. Thus, when he was apprehended for neglecting to attend the
church service and for preaching the gospel, in his conversation with
Mr. Cobb, the magistrate’s clerk, he said ‘that, to cut off all
occasions of suspicion from any, as touching the harmlessness of my
doctrine, in private I would willingly take the pains to give any one
the notes of all my sermons, for I do sincerely desire to live quietly
in my country, and to submit to the present authority.’[178] In such
troublesome times these would afford abundant proof that he was
desirous of submitting to all the political institutions of his
country, while he dared not conform to human laws affecting his faith
or his mode of worshipping God, for which he alone was to stand
answerable at the great day.
The employment of his time in earning a maintenance for his family, and
his constant engagements to preach, interfered with the proper
fulfillment of his duties as a deacon of the church. His resignation of
this important office is thus recorded in the minutes of the church—‘At
a meeting held on the 27th of the 6th month, 1657, the deacon’s office
was transferred from John Bunyan to John Pernie, because he could no
longer discharge its duties aright, in consequence of his being so much
employed in preaching.’
We cannot wonder that his time was incessantly employed. His was no
ordinary case. He had to recover and improve upon the little education
he had received, and lost again by dissipated habits. He must have made
every effort, by his diligent study of the Bible, to gain that
spiritual knowledge which alone could enable him to proclaim the
unsearchable riches of Christ, and that profound internal converse with
the throne of God which appears in all his writings. In addition to all
this, he was engaged in continual controversy with a variety of sects,
which, in his sober judgment, opposed the simplicity of the gospel.
Among these the Ranters, or Sweet Singers, were very conspicuous. It is
difficult to discover what were their opinions, but they appear to have
been nearly like the Dutch Adamites; they were severely persecuted, by
public authority, under the Commonwealth, for blasphemy. George Fox
found some of them in prison at Coventry in 1649, and held a short
disputation with them. They claimed each one to be GOD, founding their
notion on such passages as 1 Corinthians 14:25, ‘God is in you of a
truth.’ Fox quaintly asked them whether it would rain the next day; and
upon their answering that they could not tell, ‘Then said I unto them,
God can tell.’[179] Strange as it may appear, the Ranters had many
followers, while numerous pious people were troubled by their impudence
and perversion of Scripture, but more especially by their being a
persecuted people. Taking advantage of the inquiries that were excited
by these strange doctrines, Bunyan determined to become an author, that
he might set forth more extensively than he could do by preaching, the
truths of the gospel in their native purity, simplicity, and beauty, as
an antidote to fanaticism. The learned and eloquent looked with
contempt upon the follies of the Ranters, Familists, and some loose
Quakers, ‘and only deigned to abuse them with raillery, while the poor
unlettered tinker wrote against them.’ To indite a work would be to him
a pleasant recreation, but writing a book must have been extremely
difficult, and have required extraordinary patience. This will be
better seen by a specimen of his handwriting, now in the Bedford
Library, found in Fox’s Book of Martyrs, the three volumes of which
beguiled many of his tedious hours when in prison.
To write a volume, containing about twenty-five thousand words, must
have been a serious task to such a scribe.
It is interesting to trace his improvement in calligraphy while
recovering his lost education, and advancing in proficiency in an art
so essential to his constantly extending usefulness. The next is a more
useful running hand, however defective in orthography and grammar; it
is from the first page of a copy of Bishop Andrews’ sermons[180]—
The inscription in a copy of his Holy City, 1665, in Dr. Williams’ or
the Dissenter’s Library, Red Cross Street, is in a still more useful
hand, as good as that of most authors of that day—
The autograph in Powell’s Concordance, in the library of the Baptist
Academy, Bristol, is in a fair hand—
His autograph is in possession of the Society of Antiquaries. The
document to which it is subscribed is written in a remarkably neat
hand, addressed to the Lord Protector. The signatures appear to be
written as if in the writer’s best style.[181]
Signature to the deed of gift[182]—
In addition to the motives which have been noticed as inducing him to
become an author, it appears, that in the course of his itinerating
labours, he was much grieved with the general depravity which had
overspread all classes of society. Evil communications had corrupted
the great mass, and occasioned an aversion to hear the gospel, which
plunged the people into carnal security. When roused by his preaching
they too often found refuge in despair, or in vain attempts to impose
upon God their unholy self-righteousness, endeavouring ‘to earn heaven
with their fingers’ ends’;[183] anything rather than submit to receive
salvation as the free gift of God, and thus be led to consecrate all
their powers to his glory and the comfort of society. A few who
appeared to have thought on this solemn subject, without any change of
conduct, are called by Bunyan ‘light notionists, with here and there a
legalist,’[184] or those who relied upon a creed without the fruits of
righteousness, and some of these imbibed notions of the strangest
kind—that the light within was all-sufficient, without any written
revelation of the will of God—that the account of Christ’s personal
appearance on earth was a myth, to represent his residence in the
persons of believers, in whom he suffers, is crucified, buried, and
raised again to spiritual life—that such persons might do whatever
their inclinations led them to, without incurring guilt or sin; in
short, many sinned that grace might abound!! Some of them professed to
be the Almighty God manifest in the flesh. All this took place in what
was called a Christian country, upon which millions of treasure had
been spent to teach religion by systems, which had persecuted the
honest, pious professors of vital Christianity to bonds, imprisonment,
and death. This had naturally involved the kingdom in impiety and gross
immorality. The discovery of the awful state of his country, while he
was engaged in preaching in the villages round Bedford induced him, in
the humble hope of doing good, to become an author, and with trembling
anxiety he issued to the world the first production of his pen, in
1656, under the title of Some Gospel Truths Opened According to the
Scriptures; and, as we shall presently find, it met with a rough
reception, plunging him into controversy, which in those days was
conducted with bitter acrimony.
Before it was published, he sought the approbation and protection of
Mr. John Burton, who had been united with Mr. Gifford in the pastoral
charge of the church to which Bunyan belonged. The testimony that he
gives is very interesting:—
‘Here thou hast things certain and necessary to be believed, which thou
canst not too much study. Therefore pray that thou mayest receive it,
so it is according to the Scriptures, in faith and love, not as the
word of man but as the word of God, and be not offended, because Christ
holds forth the glorious treasure of the gospel to thee in a poor
earthen vessel, by one who hath neither the greatness nor the wisdom of
this world to commend him to thee; for as the Scriptures saith, Christ,
who was low and contemptible in the world himself, ordinarily chooseth
such for himself and for the doing of his work. “Not many wise men
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world.” This man [Bunyan] is not
chosen out of an earthly, but out of the heavenly university, the
church of Christ, furnished with the Spirit, gifts, and graces of
Christ—out of which, to the end of the world, the word of the Lord and
all true gospel ministers must proceed. And, though this man hath not
the learning or wisdom of man; yet, through grace, he hath received the
teaching of God, and the learning of the Spirit of Christ. He hath
taken these three heavenly degrees—union with Christ, the anointing of
the Spirit, and experience of the temptations of Satan—which do more
fit a man for the mighty work of preaching the gospel, than all the
university learning and degrees that can be had. I have had experience
with many other saints of this man’s [Bunyan’s] soundness in the faith,
his godly conversation, and his ability to preach the gospel, not by
human art, but by the Spirit of Christ, and that with much success in
the conversion of sinners. I thought it my duty to bear witness with my
brother to these glorious truths of the Lord Jesus Christ.’[185]
Bunyan was twenty-eight years of age when he published this work, and
as he attacked the follies of his times, and what he deemed to be
heresies, were exposed to Scripture light and condemned without mercy,
it very naturally involved him in controversy. This brought forth the
remarkable resources of his mind, which was stored with the
Scriptures—his fearlessness—ready wit and keen retort, much sanctified
by an earnest desire for the salvation of his opponents. An
extraordinary man, younger than himself, full of energy and enthusiasm,
entered the lists with him; and in Edward Burrough, very properly
called a son of thunder and of consolation, Bunyan found an able
disputant. He was talented, pious, and fearless in his Master’s work,
and became eminently useful in laying the foundation of the Society of
Friends. Soon after this he was numbered with the noble army of martyrs
at the age of twenty-eight, being sacrificed in Newgate, at the shrine
of religious intolerance.