there was no test of character nor rules of discipline for those who
assumed that name. They were very dissimilar men to their quiet and
unobtrusive descendants. The markets, fairs, and every public concourse
were attended by them, denouncing false weights and measures,
drunkenness and villany, with the curses of the Almighty, calling upon
the people, frequently with furious and fearful energy and powerful
eloquence, to repent, and cry unto God, that his mercy might be
extended to the salvation of their immortal souls. their zeal led them
to many breaches of good manners. They would enter churches, and after
the service, when the quiet folks were thinking of gratifying their
bodies with a substantial dinner, they were arrested by the violent
declamation of a man or woman, frequently denouncing the priest as
being the blind leading the blind. This naturally led to a scene of
riot and confusion, in which the Quakers were in many cases handled
with great barbarity. among these disturbers were mingled persons of
bad character. The violence of sectarian feeling in the churches thus
disturbed, made no discrimination between bad and good; they were
equally subjected to the roughest treatment. Bunyan attacked those who
denied that Christ had appeared in the world as Emmanuel, God with us
‘in fashion as a man,’ that by the infinite merits of his life and
death imputed to believers, they might be made holy. His attack was
also directed against those who refused obedience to the written Word,
or who relied upon inward light in contradistinction and preference to
the Bible. The title to Burrough’s answer is a strange contrast to the
violence of his language—The Gospel of Peace Contended for in the
Spirit of Meekness and Love. In this spirit of meekness he calls his
opponents ‘crafty fowlers preying upon the innocent’; and lovingly
exclaims, ‘How long shall the righteous be a prey to your teeth, ye
subtle foxes; your dens are in darkness, and your mischief is hatched
upon your beds of secret whoredoms.’ The unhallowed spirit of the age
mistook abuse for argument, and harsh epithets for faithful
dealing.[186]
Bunyan replied in _A Vindication of Gospel Truths_, to the great
satisfaction of all his friends; and although Burrough answered this
tract also, Bunyan very wisely allowed his railing opponent to have the
last word, and applied his great powers to more important labours than
caviling with one who in reality did not differ with him. The Quaker
had been seriously misled by supposing that the Baptist was a hireling
preacher; and we must be pleased that he was so falsely charged,
because it elicited a crushing reply. Burrough, in reply to an
imputation made by Bunyan, that the Quakers were the false prophets
alluded to in Scripture, observed that ‘in those days there was not a
Quaker heard of.’ ‘Friend,’ replied Bunyan, ‘thou hast rightly said,
there was not a Quaker heard of indeed, though there were many
Christians heard of then. Again, to defend thyself thou throwest the
dirt in my face, saying, If we should diligently trace thee, we should
find thee in the steps of the false prophets, through fancied words,
through covetousness, making merchandise of souls, loving the wages of
unrighteousness.’ To which Bunyan replied; ‘Friend, dost thou speak
this as from thy own knowledge, or did any other tell thee so? However,
that spirit that led thee out this way, is a lying spirit; for though I
be poor, and of no repute in the world as to outward things, yet
through grace I have learned, by the example of the apostle, to preach
the truth, and also to work with my hands, both for mine own living,
and for those that are with me, when I have opportunity. And I trust
that the Lord Jesus, who hath helped me to reject the wages of
unrighteousness hitherto, will also help me still, so that I shall
distribute that which God hath given me freely, and not for filthy
lucre sake.’[187] Thus had he learned of the apostle to ‘make the
gospel of Christ without charge’ (1 Cor 9:18); and upon this subject
they strangely agreed. The same agreement existed between them upon the
necessity of inward light from the Holy Spirit; without which they both
considered the Bible to be a dead letter. The peculiar principle which
separates the Quaker from every other Christian community, has nothing
to do with the light within. Upon that subject all evangelical sects
are agreed. The substantial difference is whether our Lord intended the
work of the ministry to be exclusively a work of benevolence, charity,
and love, binding all who are capable of using the talent intrusted to
them, to do it without worldly reward. Surely every man may be
satisfied in his own mind upon such a subject, without quarrelling
with, or anathematizing each other. Bunyan and Burrough agreed, without
knowing it, in the sentiments of their illustrious and learned
cotemporary, John Milton, as to the ministry being without charge; and
had they, when offended, followed their Master’s rule, ‘If thy brother
trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him
alone’ (Matt 18:15), had they met, and on their knees before the throne
of grace, sought from heaven wisdom and charity in defending Divine
truth, we can easily imagine that the approbation of God would have
been manifested, by sending them on their important work in peaceful
unity. They had been immersed in the same deep and solemn regeneration,
and their ardent object was the same—to spread the influence of the
kingdom of Christ.
When Christians of various denominations meet in prayer, how it melts
down their sectarian bitterness. In this controversy, mention is made
of a total abstinence movement in the time of the commonwealth, a germ
which has put forth its mighty efforts in our more peaceful and happy
times. A cloud now hovered over Bunyan, and threatened him with
troubles of a very different kind to those of religious controversy. It
will startle many of our readers to hear that, under the government of
Cromwell, Bunyan was persecuted for his religious opinions and
practices. Mr. Jukes, in his interesting History of Bunyan’s Church,
thus refers to it: ‘Soon after he had resigned the office of deacon in
1657, the hand of persecution was raised against him; for at a meeting
of the church, held on the 25th day of the twelfth month, in the same
year (Feb. 1658), it was agreed that the 3d day of the next month be
set apart to seek God in the behalf of our brother Wheeler, who hath
been long ill in body, whereby his ministry hath been hindered; and
also about the church affairs, and the affairs of the nation; and for
our brother Whitbread, who has long been ill; and also for counsel what
to do with respect to the indictment of brother Bunyan at the assizes,
for preaching at Eaton.’[188]
Although persecution for religious opinions assumed a milder form under
the Commonwealth, the great principles of religious freedom and
equality were neither known nor practiced. The savage barbarities
perpetrated upon Prynne, Bastwick, Burton, Leighton, and others, by
Charles I and his archbishop, Laud, were calculated to open the eyes of
the nation to the wickedness and inutility of sanguinary or even any
laws to govern the conscience, or interfere with Divine worship. Alas!
even those who suffered and survived became, in their turn,
persecutors. The great object of persecution was the book of Common
Prayer, the use of which was rigorously prohibited. The clergy were
placed in an extremely awkward predicament. No sooner was the Act of
Parliament passed ordering the Directory to be used and the Prayer-book
to be laid aside, than the king, by his royal proclamation, issued from
Oxford, November 13, 1645, ordered the Directory to be set aside, and
the Common Prayer to be used in all the churches and chapels. Both
these orders were under very severe penalties.
The Act against atheistical opinions, which passed August 9, 1650,
illustrates the extraordinary state of the times. The preamble states
that, ‘Divers men and women have lately discovered themselves to be
most monstrous in their opinions, and loose in all wicked and
abominable practices.’ It then enacts that—‘Any one, not being mad, who
pretends to be God Almighty, or who declares that unrighteousness,
uncleanness, swearing, drunkenness, and the like filthiness and
brutishness, or denying the existence of God, or who shall profess that
murder, adultery, incest, fornication, uncleanness, filthy or
lascivious speaking, are not wicked, sinful, impious, abominable, and
detestable, shall be imprisoned, and, for a second offence, be
transported.’[189]
One of the Acts that affected Bunyan was passed April 26, 1645, cap.
52—‘None may preach but ordained ministers, except such as, intending
the ministry, shall, for trial of their gifts, be allowed by such as be
appointed by both houses of Parliament.’ This was amended by ‘an
ordinance appointing commissioners for approbation of public
preachers,’ March, 1653. In this Dr. Owen, Goodwin, Caryl, and many
others are named, who were to judge of the candidate’s fitness to
preach.[190] The Act which more seriously touched Bunyan was that of
May 2, 1648, which enacts that any person saying, ‘that man is bound to
believe no more than by his reason he can comprehend, or that the
baptizing of infants is unlawful, or such baptism is void, and that
such persons ought to be baptized again, and, in pursuance thereof,
shall baptize any person formerly baptized, shall be imprisoned until
he gives security that he will not publish or maintain the said error
any more.’[191] It was these intolerant proceedings that led Milton to
publish a poem On the New Forcers of Conscience, beginning with these
lines—
‘Dare ye, for this, adjure the civil sword,
To force our consciences that Christ set free.’
This last-mentioned ungracious and uncalled-for Act against the
Baptists, led some violent spirits to print a paper, entitled, ‘The
Second Part of England’s new Chains Discovered,’ this was read in many
Baptist meeting-houses, and the congregations called upon to subscribe
it: fortunately, they were peaceably disposed, and denounced it to the
House of Commons in a petition, dated April 2, 1649. Mr. Kiffin and the
others were called in, when the Speaker returned them this answer—‘The
House doth take notice of the good affection to the Parliament and
public you have expressed, both in this petition and otherways. They
have received satisfaction thereby, concerning your disclaiming that
pamphlet, which gave such just offence to the Parliament, and also
concerning your disposition to live peaceably, and in submission to the
civil magistracy; your expressions whereof they account very Christian
and seasonable. That for yourselves and other Christians, walking
answerable to such professions as in this petition you make, they do
assure you of liberty and protection, so far as God shall enable them,
in all things consistent with godliness, honesty, and civil
peace.’[192] Whether it was in consequence of this good understanding
having remained between the Baptists and the Parliament, or from some
application to the Protector, or from some unknown cause, the
persecution was stayed;[193] for the indictment does not appear to have
been tried, and Bunyan is found to have been present, and to have taken
a part in the affairs of the church, until the 25th day of the 2d
Month, 1660 (April), when ‘it was ordered, according to our agreement,
that our brother, John Bunyan, do prepare to speak a word at the next
church meeting and that our brother Whiteman fail not to speak to him
of it.’[194]
This invitation was very probably intended to introduce him to the
congregation, with a view to his becoming an assistant pastor, but
before it took place, he again appeared before the public as an author.
The second production of his pen is a solemn and most searching work,
founded upon the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, under the title
of A Few Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soul; by that poor
and contemptible Servant of Jesus Christ, John Bunyan, 1658. His
humility led him to seek the patronage of his pastor; and Mr. Gifford,
under the initials of J. G., wrote a preface of thirty-eight pages, but
he dying before it reached the second edition, that preface was
discontinued, and the title somewhat altered. The only copy of this
first edition yet discovered is in the royal library at the British
Museum. It appears to have belonged to Charles II, who, with more wit
than decorum, has bound it up, as a supplement, to an extremely
licentious book, as if it was intended to say, ‘Her house is the way to
hell, going down to the chamber of death’; or that a licentious life
endeth in ‘sighs from hell.’
Mr. Gifford, in this preface, after strongly recommending the work,
speaks of the author in the most respectful and affectionate terms,
showing that his zeal, and energy, and great usefulness had excited the
envy of many who ought to have encouraged him as one taught by the
Spirit, and used in his hand to do souls good—‘divers have felt the
power of the Word delivered by him; and I doubt not but that many more
may, if the Lord continues him in his work’; and he gives this as a
reason ‘why the archers have shot so sorely at him’; and then
scripturally proves that no objection should be made to his valuable
services from his want of human learning. As the whole of this
interesting preface is accurately reprinted with the book, the reader
is referred to it without further extracts.[195] The Editor’s
introduction to these Sighs was written under very solemn feelings,
produced by reading this searching treatise. The rich man is intended
to personify those who, neglecting salvation, die in their sins, while
Lazarus personates all those who humbly receive salvation as the gift
of God; who, however they may suffer in this world, retain their
integrity to death. In this parable, a voice is heard from the place of
torment—the cry is a ‘drop of water,’ the slightest relief to
unutterable woes; and that a messenger may be sent to warn his
relatives, lest they should be plunged into the same torment. The
impassable gulf defies the vain request, while the despised Christian
reposes in everlasting and indescribable enjoyment. This little volume
was very popular; nine editions were printed and sold in the author’s
lifetime, besides pirated copies. Bunyan’s feelings and mode of
preaching are well described in the Grace Abounding,[196] and will be
felt by every attentive reader of his Sighs from Hell:—‘When I have
been preaching, I thank God, my heart hath often, with great
earnestness, cried to God that he would make the Word effectual to the
salvation of the soul. Wherefore I did labour so to speak the Word, as
that thereby, if it were possible, the sin and person guilty might be
particularized by it.’
‘And when I have done the exercise, it hath gone to my heart, to think
the Word should now fall as rain on stony places; still wishing from my
heart, O! that they who have heard me speak this day, did but see as I
do, what sin, death, hell, and the curse of God is; and also what the
grace, and love, and mercy of God is, through Christ, to men in such a
case as they are who are yet estranged from him.
‘For I have been in my preaching, especially when I have been engaged
in the doctrine of life by Christ, without works, as if an angel of God
had stood by at my back to encourage me.’
Such feelings are not limited to Bunyan, but are most anxiously felt by
all our pious ministers. How fervently ought their hearers to unite in
approaches to the mercy-seat, that the Divine blessing may make the
Word fruitful.
In those days it was not an uncommon thing for the hearers, at the
close of the sermon, to put questions to the preacher, sometimes to
elicit truth, or to express a cordial union of sentiments, or to
contradict what the minister had said. Upon one occasion, Mr. Bunyan,
after his sermon, had a singular dispute with a scholar. It is narrated
by Mr. C. Doe, who was a personal friend and great admirer of our
author, and who probably heard it from his own mouth, and will be found
in the Struggler, inserted vol. iii., p. 767.
It is the common taunt of the scorner, and sometimes a stone of
stumbling to the inquirer, that, while the Christian believes in the
intensity of the Saviour’s sufferings, and that God was made flesh that
he might offer himself as an atonement to redeem mankind, yet few are
saved, in comparison with those who are lost—broad is the way that
leadeth to destruction, and many walk therein, while few attempt the
narrow way to life; that four sorts of hearers are described by the
Saviour, only one receiving the truth; as if the doleful realms of
darkness and misery would be more thickly peopled than those of light
and happiness, and Satan prove stronger than Christ. Such cavilers
forget that the far greater portion of mankind die in infancy, purified
by the Saviour’s sufferings, and enter heaven in the perfection of
manhood. As Mr. Toplady justly observes, what a vista does this open to
the believer through the dreary gloom of the infidel! They forget,
also, that all those who gain the narrow path, once helped to throng
the road to destruction; and that the hearers, whose hardened deceitful
hearts rejected the gospel under one sermon, may, by mercy, have them
opened to receive it under another. And who dares to limit the
Almighty? The power that prepared the spirit of the thief, when upon
the cross, even in his last moments, for the pure enjoyments of heaven,
still exists. Is the arm of the Lord shortened that he cannot save? The
myriads of heaven will be found countless as are the sands upon the
sea-shore, and the harmony of their worship shall swell like the voice
of many waters and mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluja, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth.’ What! Satan stronger than the Almighty
Redeemer? Perish the thought. Still how common is the question, which
one of the disciples put to his master, ‘Lord, are there few that be
saved?’ How striking the answer! ‘Strive to enter in at the strait
gate’ (Luke 13:23). Encumber not thy mind with such needless inquiries,
but look to thine own salvation.
Another very singular anecdote is related, which proves that the use of
the churches was not then limited to any one sect. ‘Being to preach in
a church in a country village (before the restoration of king Charles)
in Cambridgeshire, and the people being gathered together in the
church-yard, a Cambridge scholar, and none of the soberest of ’em
neither, enquired what the meaning of that concourse of people was, it
being upon the week day, and being told, That one Bunyan, a tinker, was
to preach there, he gave a boy twopence to hold his horse, saying, He
was resolved to hear the tinker prate; and so went into the church to
hear him. But God met with him there by his ministry, so that he came
out much changed, and would, by his good will, hear none but the tinker
for a long time after, he himself becoming a very eminent preacher in
that county afterwards. This story I know to be true, having many a
time discoursed with the man, and, therefore, I could not but set it
down as a singular instance of the power of God that accompanied his
ministry.’[197]
Bunyan’s veneration for the Scriptures, as the only source and standard
of religious knowledge, led him into frequent controversies. In common
with the Christian world, he wholly depended upon the enlightening
influence of the Holy Spirit to impress the Divine truths of revelation
upon the mind, and also to illustrate, open, and apply the sacred
writings to the heart of man. Unable to read the Bible in the original
languages in which it was written, he wisely made use of every aid that
might enable him to study its contents with the greatest advantage. It
was his habit to examine the two translations then in common use. The
present authorized version, first published in 1611, is that to which
he usually refers; comparing it with the favourite Puritan version made
by the refugees at Geneva, and first printed in 1560. He sometimes
quotes the Genevan, and so familiar were the two translations, that in
several instances he mixes them in referring from memory to passages of
holy writ.
Upon one of his journeys, being upon the road near Cambridge, he was
overtaken by a scholar, who concluded that he was an itinerant
preacher, whether from having heard him, or observing his serious
deportment, or his Bible reading, does not appear, although the latter
was probably the reason. But the student determined to have a brush
with him, and said, ‘How dare you preach from the Bible, seeing you
have not the original, being not a scholar?’ Then said Mr. Bunyan,
‘Have you the original?’ ‘Yes, said the scholar.’ ‘Nay, but,’ said Mr.
Bunyan, ‘have you the very self-same original copies that were written
by the penmen of the Scriptures, prophets and apostles?’ ‘No,’ said the
scholar, ‘but we have the true copies of these originals.’ ‘How do you
know that?’ said Mr. Bunyan. ‘How?’ said the scholar. ‘Why, we believe
what we have is a true copy of the original.’ ‘Then,’ said Mr. Bunyan,
‘so do I believe our English Bible is a true copy of the original.’
Then away rid the scholar.[198] As neither persecution nor railing, nor
temptations, nor the assaults of Satan, produced any effect upon Bunyan
to prevent his preaching, but rather excited his zeal and energy, means
of a more deadly nature were resorted to, to injure or prevent his
usefulness. As Mr. Gifford said, ‘The archers shot sorely at him’ by
the most infamous and unfounded slanders, which he thus narrates:—
‘When Satan perceived that his thus tempting and assaulting of me would
not answer his design, to wit, to overthrow my ministry, and make it
ineffectual, as to the ends thereof: then he tried another way, which
was to stir up the minds of the ignorant and malicious to load me with
slanders and reproaches. Now, therefore, I may say, that what the devil
could devise, and his instruments invent, was whirled up and down the
country against me, thinking, as I said, that by that means they should
make my ministry to be abandoned. It began, therefore, to be rumoured
up and down among the people, that I was a witch, a Jesuit, a
highwayman, and the like. To all which, I shall only say, God knows
that I am innocent. But as for mine accusers, let them provide
themselves to meet me before the tribunal of the Son of God, there to
answer for all these things, with all the rest of their iniquities,
unless God shall give them repentance for them, for the which I pray
with all my heart.
‘But that which was reported with the boldest confidence, was, that I
had my misses, yea, two wives at once, and the like. Now these
slanders, with the others, I glory in, because but slanders, foolish,
or knavish lies, and falsehoods cast upon me by the devil and his seed;
and should I not be dealt with thus wickedly by the world, I should
want one sign of a saint, and a child of God. “Blessed are ye (said the
Lord Jesus) when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say
all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake; rejoice and be
exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you.”
‘These things therefore, upon mine own account, trouble me not. No,
though they were twenty times more than they are, I have a good
conscience; and whereas they speak evil of me, they shall be ashamed
that falsely accuse my good conversation in Christ. Therefore I bind
these lies and slanders to me as an ornament, it belongs to my
Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached, and
reviled. I rejoice in reproaches for Christ’s sake. My foes have missed
their mark in this their shooting at me. I am not the man. If all the
fornicators and adulterers in England were hanged by the neck till they
be dead, John Bunyan, the object of their envy, would be still alive
and well. I know not whether there be such a thing as a woman breathing
under the copes of the whole heaven, but by their apparel, their
children, or by common fame, except my wife.