pleasing, entertaining, lively companion. However solemn, nay awful,
had been his experience when walking through the Valley of the Shadow
of Death, yet when emerging from the darkness and enjoying the sunshine
of Divine favour, he loved social intercourse and communion of saints.
It is one of the slanders heaped upon Christianity to call it a gloomy,
melancholy theme: though ‘it is better to go to the house of mourning
than to the house of feasting,’ yet the wisely pious man will
endeavour, even at an elegant entertainment or a Lord Mayor’s dinner,
to drop useful hints. Whenever Bunyan describes a social party,
especially a feast, he always introduces a wholesome dish; and it is
singular, in the abundance of publications, that we have not been
favoured with John Bunyan’s Nuts to Crack at Religious Entertainments,
or a Collection of his Pious Riddles. Thus, at the splendid royal feast
given to Emmanuel, when he entered Mansoul in triumph, ‘he entertained
the town with some curious riddles, of secrets drawn up by his father’s
secretary, by the skill and wisdom of Shaddai, the like to which there
are not in any kingdom.’ ‘Emmanuel also expounded unto them some of
those riddles himself, but O how were they lightened! They saw what
they never saw, they could not have thought that such rarities could
have been couched in such few and ordinary words. The lamb, the
sacrifice, the rock, the door, the way.’[334] ‘The second Adam was
before the first, and the second covenant was before the first.’[335]
‘Was Adam bad before he eat the forbidden fruit?’[336] ‘How can a man
say his prayers without a word being read or uttered?’[337] ‘How do men
speak with their feet?’ Answer, Proverbs 6:13.[338] ‘Why was the brazen
laver made of the women’s looking-glasses?’[339] ‘How can we comprehend
that which cannot be comprehended, or know that which passeth
knowledge?’[340] ‘Who was the founder of the state or priestly
domination over religion?’[341] What is meant by the drum of Diabolus
and other riddles mentioned in The Holy War?[342] The poetical riddles
in The Pilgrim’s Progress are very striking—
‘A man there was, though some did count him mad,
The more he cast away, the more he had.’
How can ‘evil make the soul from evil turn.’[343]
Can ‘sin be driven out of the world by suffering?’[344]
‘Though it may seem to some a riddle,
We use to light our candles at the middle.’[345]
‘What men die two deaths at once?’[346]
‘Are men ever in heaven and on earth at the same time?’[347]
‘Can a beggar be worth ten thousand a-year and not know it?’[348]
He even introduced a dance upon the destruction of Despair, Mr.
Ready-to-halt, with his partner Miss Much-afraid, while Christiana and
Mercy furnished the music. ‘True, he could not dance without one crutch
in his hand; but I promise you he footed it well. Also the girl was to
be commended, for she answered the music handsomely.’ Is this the
gloomy fanaticism of a Puritan divine? It is true, that promiscuous
dancing, or any other amusement tending to evil, he had given up and
discountenanced, but all his writings tend to prove that the Christian
only can rationally and piously enjoy the world that now is, while
living in the delightful hope of bliss in that which is to come.
Bunyan’s personal appearance and character was drawn by his friend Mr.
Doe. ‘He appeared in countenance stern and rough, but was mild and
affable; loving to reconcile differences and make friendships. He made
it his study, above all other things, not to give occasion of offence.
In his family he kept a very strict discipline in prayer and
exhortations. He had a sharp, quick eye, and an excellent discerning of
persons; of good judgment and quick wit. Tall in stature, strong-boned;
somewhat of a ruddy face with sparkling eyes; his hair reddish, but
sprinkled with gray; nose well set; mouth moderately large; forehead
something high, and his habit always plain and modest.’
My determination in writing this memoir has been to follow the
scriptural example, by fairly recording every defect discoverable in
Bunyan’s character; but what were considered by some to be blemishes,
after his conversion, appear, in my estimation, to be beauties. His
moral and religious character was irreproachable, and his doctrinal
views most scriptural; all agree in this, that he was a bright and
shining light; unrivalled for his allegories, and for the vast amount
of his usefulness. His friend, Mr. Wilson, says, ‘Though his enemies
and persecutors, in his lifetime, did what they could to vilify and
reproach him, yet, being gone, he that before had the testimony of
their consciences, hath now their actual commendation and
applause.’[349] To this we may add, that he was without sectarianism, a
most decided Bible Christian. This reveals the secret of his striking
phraseology. It was in the sacred pages of Divine truth that he learned
grammar and rhetoric. Style, and all his knowledge of the powers of
language—all were derived from the only source of his religious wisdom
and learning. He lived, and thought, and wrote under the influence of
the holy oracles, translated by the Puritans in 1560, compared with the
version of 1611. This gives a charm to all his works, and suits them to
every human capacity.
Reader, the object of biography is to excite emulation. Why should not
others arise as extensively to bless the world as Bunyan did? The
storehouses of heaven from which he was replenished with holy
treasures, are inexhaustible. As he said, ‘God has bags of mercy yet
unsealed.’ We have the same holy oracles, and the same mercy-seat. The
time is past for merely challenging the right to personal judgment of
religious truths. In Britain the lions are securely chained, and the
cruel giants disabled. The awful crime of imprisoning and torturing man
for conscience’ sake, exists only in kingdoms where darkness reigns—
‘’Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy.’
We stand upon higher ground than our forefathers; we take our more
solemn stand upon the imperative duty of personal investigation—that no
one can claim the name of Christian, unless he has laid aside all
national, or family, or educational prejudices, and drawn from the holy
oracles alone all his scheme of salvation and rules of conduct. All the
secret of Bunyan’s vast usefulness, the foundation of all his honour,
is, that the fear of God swallowed up the fear of man; that he was
baptized into the truths of revelation, and lived to exemplify them. He
was a bright and shining light in a benighted world; and of him it may
be most emphatically said, ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,
that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.’
GEORGE OFFOR.
FOOTNOTES:
1. For a most interesting account of the rise of Sixtus V, see the new
volume of the Lounger’s Common-place Book, 1807, p. 152.
2. The Rev. J. H. A. Rudd, the Vicar of Elstow, has most kindly
furnished me with an extract from the registers of all the entries
relative to Bunyan’s family. The register commences in 1641, and has
been searched to 1750. It confirms the Rev. J. Juke’s impression, that
soon after Bunyan joined Gifford’s church he left Elstow to live in
Bedford.
Thomas Bonion, buried, Dec. 9, 1641. Margaret Bonion, wife, buried,
June 20, 1644. Margaret Bonion, b., July 24, 1644. Charles, the son of
Thos. Bunion, bapt., May 22, 1645. Charles Bunion, bur., May 30, 1645.
Mary, the daught. of Joh. Bonion, bapt., July 20, 1650 Elizabeth, the
daughter of John Bonyon, was born 14th day of April, 1654.
Thomas Bonion of the town of Bedford, and Elizabeth _______ of the
parish of Elstow, were married, May 10, 1656. (The Christian name of
the husband, and the surname of the wife, are very much obliterated.)
Ann Bonyonn, Widdo, was buried, 12th day of April, 1659. Thos. Bunyan,
buried, Feby. 7th, 1675. Ann Bunyon, Widdo, buried in Woolen, September
25, 1680.
The marriage here recorded, May 10, 1656, could not be that of John
Bunyan to his second wife Elizabeth; for she declared to Judge Hale in
August, 1661, that she had ‘not been married to him yet full two
years.’—Vol. i. 61.
3. This cottage has long ceased to exist, and has been replaced by
another of the poorest description. But from an old print we have given
in the Plate, p. 1, vol. i., a representation of the original, with the
shed at side often mentioned as ‘The forge’; thus leading us to
believe, that to the ‘tinker’s’ humble calling might be united that of
the ‘smith,’ a more manly and honourable trade.
4. Grace Abounding, No. 2.
5. Vol. iii., p. 674.
6. Vol. ii., p. 140.
7. Vol. i., p. 490.
8. Vol. ii., p. 617.
9. Grace Abounding, No. 18.
10. Extracted from the first edition in the British Museum. It was much
altered in the subsequent impressions.
11. In 1566, Sir Thomas Harper, Lord Mayor of London, gave £180 for
thirteen acres and a rood of meadow land in Holborn. This was settled,
in trust, to promote the education of the poor in and round Bedford. In
1668, it produced a yearly revenue of £99—a considerable sum in that
day, but not in any proportion to the present rental, which amounts to
upwards of £12,000 a-year.
12. Grace Abounding, No. 3.
13. Vol. i., p. 618.
14. Grace Abounding, No. 4.
15. Philip’s Life of Bunyan, p. 4.
16. Vol. iii., p. 597.
17. Vol. ii., p. 564.
18. Grace Abounding, No. 27.
19. Grace Abounding, No. 5.
20. Ibid., No. 8.
21. Life, p. vii.
22. Ibid. p. viii.
23. Life, pp. xli., xlii.
24. Vol. i., p. 79.
25. Job 33:15.
26. Grace Abounding, No. 5, vol. i., p. 6.
27. Life appended to the first and second editions of the forged third
part of Pilgrim’s Progress.
28. Grace Abounding, Nos. 12-14, vol. i., p. 7. How do these
hair-breadth escapes illustrate the unerring providence of God, and the
short-sightedness of even pious Christians. It is easy to imagine the
exclamations of a reflecting character when hearing of the marvelous
escapes of this wicked youth. ‘Dark providences! the good and
benevolent are snatched away; but such a plague as this has his life
preserved to pester us still. Short-sighted mortal, “shall not the
Judge of all the earth do right?”’ No life in the British empire was so
precious in the sight and gracious purposes of God, as that of the poor
depraved lad; which was thus preserved by the special care of Divine
providence.
29. Life appended to part third of Pilgrim’s Progress, 1692. This is
omitted from the third edition (1700), and all the subsequent ones.
30. Vol. ii., p. 74.
31. Vol. i., p. 732.
32. Vol. ii., p. 738.
33. Vol. ii., p. 709; ii., p. 45; ii., 601.
34. Vol. iii., p. 727; v. 7, 8.
35. The women were remarkably active in defending the town.
36. Thoresby’s Leicester, 4to, p. 128.
37. Hist. of Rebellion, edition 1712, vol. ii., p. 652.
38. Vol. i., p. 661.
39. Vol. iii., p. 357.
40. Vol. iii., p. 113, 358.
41. Vol. i., p. 726.
42. Vol. i., p. 694.
43. The Political Sentiments of John Bunyan, re-published by John
Martin, 1798.
44. Life of Bunyan, 1692, p. 12.
45. Ibid., 1692, p. 13.
46. Vol. i., p. 7.
47. The Pathway to Heaven is the work of that pious puritan Dent, and
is full of those striking illustrations which were admirably adapted to
prepare Bunyan for writing his allegories. A copy with the name Ma
Bunyann, written on the title page, has long been in the editor’s
library. We give a facsimile of the writing, as it has been supposed
that of Bunyan. This is very doubtful; it appears more like a woman’s
hand; but, if it is the name of Mrs. Bunyan, then it indicates that his
daughter Mary, baptized 20th July, 1650, was called after her.
48. Life of Bunyan, 1691, p. 13.
49. This is a solemn consideration; many profess to serve God while
they are bond-slaves to sin; and many are servants in his family who
are not sons, nor heirs, of heaven. Blessed are those who are both
servants and sons.
50. Vol. i., p. 7, 8.
51. Jan. 3, 1644-5.
52. Aug. 23, 1645.
53. 4to Edit., 1644.
54. Neale, 1822, vol. ii., p. 220.
55. Life of Alfred, comparing him to Charles I. Preface. 8vo. 1634.
56. Vol. i., p. 8, 9.
57. The game of cat, tipcat, or “sly,” so called by Wilson, in his life
of Bunyan [Wilson’s Edition of Works, vol. i., fol. 1736], is an
ancient game well known in many parts of the kingdom. A number of holes
are made in the ground, at equal distances, in a circular direction; a
player is stationed at each hole; the opposite party stand around; one
of them throws the cat to the batsman nearest to him; every time the
cat is struck, the batsmen run from one hole to the next, and score as
many as they change positions; but if the cat is thrown between them
before reaching the hole, the batsman is out [Strutt’s Sports and
Pastimes, 8vo., p. 110]. Such was the childish game played by men on
the Lord’s-day.
58. Life by C. Doe, 1698.
59. Vol. i., p. 9.
60. Saved by Grace, vol. i., p. 351.
61. Vol. i., p. 9; No. 32.
62. Folio edition, pp. 595-6.
63. In the Engraving, p. 1, vol. i., is a view of part of the village
green, Elstow, with the ancient building now used as a school-house, as
seen from the church-yard. This building is older than the time of
Bunyan, and was the scene of village meetings at the period in which he
lived, and doubtless associated with his dancing and thoughtless
amusements, as the green itself was the scene of the game of cat. A
view looking towards the church is given in Vignette to vol. i. of the
Works.
64. Vol. i., p. 10.
65. Southey’s Life, pp. xxv., xxxii.
66. Vol. i., p. 80.
67. Vol. i., p. 11.
68. Vol. iii., p. 607.
69. Heresiography. 4tp. 1654. p. 143.
70. Vol. iii., p. 151.
71. Vol. iii., p. 118.
72. Vol. i., p. 11.
73. Vol. i., p. 11.
74. Vol. i., p. 591.
75. The Rev. H. J. Rose, in his Biographical Dictionary, distorts this
singular affair into, ‘he laid claim to a faith of such magnitude as to
work miracles!’
76. Vol. i., p. 12.
77. Vol. iii., pp. 155, 156.
78. Vol. i., p. 12.
79. It is as easy for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, as for
a man to pass through this door with the world on his back.
80. Vol. i., p. 13.
81. Vol. i., p. 13.
82. Holy War, vol. iii., p. 342, 346.
83. Bunyan on the Throne of Grace, vol. i., p. 677.
84. Vol. i., p. 80.
85. Holy War, vol. iii., p. 297.
86. Vol. i., p. 14.
87. Vol. iii., p. 123.
88. Addison.
89. Vol. i., p. 14.
90. April 1645. About 300 discontented persons got together in Kent,
and took Sir Percival Hart’s house; Colonel Blunt attacked and
dispersed them with horse and foot, regained the house, and made the
chief of them prisoners. Whitelock, folio 137.
91. Vol. i., p. 15.
92. Vol. i., p. 15; No. 82.
93. Vol. i., p. 16.
94. Vol. i., p. 17, 18.
95. Vol. iii., p. 113.
96. Bunyan’s Saints’ Privilege and Profit, vol. i., p. 661.
97. Bunyan’s Saved by Grace, vol. i., p. 340.
98. Vol. i., p. 17.
99. Bunyan’s Christ a Complete Saviour, vol. i., p. 210.
100. Rogers on Trouble of Mind. Preface. Thus temptations are suited to
the state of the inquiring soul; the learned man who studies Plato,
Aristotle, and Aquinas, is filled with doubts arising from ‘philosophy
and vain deceit, profane and vain babblings’; the unlettered mechanic
is tried not by logic, but by infernal artillery; the threatenings of
God’s Word are made to obscure the promises. It is a struggle which, to
one possessing a vivid imagination, is attended with almost intolerable
agonies—unbelief seals up the door of mercy.
Bunyan agreed with his learned contemporary, Milton, in the invisible
agency of good and bad spirits.
‘Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we
wake and when we sleep!’
The malignant demons watch their opportunity to harass the pilgrim with
evil thoughts, injected when least expected.
101. Vol. i., p. 19.
102. Vol. i., p. 20.
103. The anxiety of this pious teacher was to press upon his hearers to
take special heed, not to receive any truth upon trust from any man,
but to pray over it and search ‘the Holy Word.’ This, Mr. Southey
designates, ‘doctrine of a most perilous kind.’ How happy would it be
for society if every religious teacher pressed this perilous doctrine
upon their hearers, that it might bring forth the same fruit
universally, as it did specially in Bunyan. Compare Grace Abounding,
No. 117, and Southey’s Life, p. 27, 28.
104. Vol. i., p. 21.
105. Vol. i., p. 22.
106. Vol. iii., p. 115.
107. Vol. iii., p. 270.
108. Luther fell into the same mistake as to the Baptists, that Bunyan
did as to the Quakers. Both were keenly alive to the honour of
Christianity, and were equally misled by the loose conduct of some
unworthy professors. Luther charges the Baptists as being ‘devils
possessed with worse devils’ [Preface to Galatians]. ‘It is all one
whether he be called a Frank, a Turk, a Jew, or an Anabaptist’ [Com.
Gal. iv. 8, 9]. ‘Possessed with the devil, seditious, and bloody men’
[Gal. v. 19]. Even a few days before his death, he wrote to his wife,
‘Dearest Kate, we reached Halle at eight o’clock, but could not get on
to Eisleben, for there met us a great Anabaptist, with waves and lumps
of ice, which threatened us with a second baptism.’ Bunyan, in the same
spirit, calls the Quakers ‘a company of loose ranters, light
notionists, shaking in their principles!’ [Vol. ii., p. 133, 9, 21].
Denying the Scriptures and the resurrection [Com. Gal. iv. 29]. These
two great men went through the same furnace of the regeneration; and
Bunyan, notwithstanding Luther’s prejudices against the Baptists, most
affectionately recommended his Comment on the Galatians, as an
invaluable work for binding up the broken-hearted.
109. Vol. i., p. 23.
110. Vol. ii., p. 181.
111. Vol. ii., p. 260.
112. Vol. i., p. 25; No. 158.
113. See note in vol. i., p. 26.
114. Vol. i., p. 29.
115. Vol. i., p. 30
116. The study of those scriptures, in order that the solemn question
might be safely resolved, ‘Can such a fallen sinner rise again?’ was
like the investigation of the title to an estate upon which a whole
livelihood depended. Every apparent flaw must be critically examined.
Tremblingly alive to the importance of a right decision, his prayers
were most earnest; and at length, to his unspeakable delight, the word
of the law and wrath gave place to that of life and grace.
117. Vol. i., p. 35.
118. Vol. iii., p. 100.
119. Irish sixpences, which passed for fourpence-halfpenny. See the
note on vol. i., p. 36. Since writing that note I have discovered
another proof of the contempt with which that coin was
treated:—‘Christian, the wife of Robert Green, of Brexham,
Somersetshire, in 1663, is said to have made a covenant with the devil;
he pricked the fourth finger of her right hand, between the middle and
upper joints, and took two drops of her blood on his finger, giving her
a fourpence-halfpenny. Then he spake in private with Catharine her
sister, and vanished, leaving a smell of brimstone behind!’—Turner’s
Remarkable Providences, folio, 1667, p. 28.
120. Vol. i., p. 36.
121. Holy War.
122. Vol. ii., p. 141.
123. Luther and Tyndale.
124. Vol. iii., p. 398.
125. Vol. i., p. 495.
126. Vol. iii., p. 398.
127. Vol. iii., p.190.
128. Vol. iii., p. 186.
129. Bunyan on Christian Behaviour, vol. ii., p. 550.
130. Vol. ii., p. 570.
131. Vol. ii., p. 585.
132. The Nineteenth Article.
133. The sufferings of the Episcopalians were severe; they drank the
bitter cup which they had shortly before administered to the Puritans.
Under suspicion of disloyalty to the Commonwealth, they were most
unjustly compelled to swallow the Covenant as a religious test, or
leave preaching and teaching. Their miseries were not to be compared
with those of the Puritans. Laud was beheaded for treason, but none
were put to death for nonconformity. It was an age when religious
liberty was almost unknown. These sufferings were repaid by an awful
retaliation and revenge, when Royalty and Episcopacy were restored.
134. Penn’s Christian Quaker.
135. Folio, p. 417.
136. Vol. iii., p. 107.
137. Vol. iii., p. 765. The author of Bunyan’s Life, published in 1690,
dates his baptism ‘about the year 1653.’
138. Life from his Cradle to his Grave, 1700.
139. September 21.
140. In the same year, and about the same period, Oliver Cromwell was
made Lord Protector. Upon this coincidence, Mr. Carlisle uses the
following remarkable language:—‘Two common men thus elevated, putting
their hats upon their heads, might exclaim, “God enable me to be king
of what lies under this! For eternities lie under it, and infinities,
and heaven also and hell! and it is as big as the universe, this
kingdom; and I am to conquer it, or be for ever conquered by it. Now,
WHILE IT IS CALLED TO-DAY!’”
141. In possession of the Society of Antiquities.
142. Vol. i., p. 39.
143. Vol. i., p. 20.
144. Reading and Preaching.
145. Not to wait for one another, each one to come in good time.
146. Alluding to Bunyan, or his co-pastor, Burton, or to both of them.
147. Bunyan was about twenty-seven years of age.
148. This letter was copied into the church records at the time: the
original cannot be found. It was published with Ryland’s Funeral Sermon
on Symonds, 1788, and in Jukes’ very interesting account of Bunyan’s
church, in 1849. The signature is copied from an original in the Milton
State Papers, library of the Antiquarian Society.
149. Vol. i., p. 39.
150. Vol. i., p. 545.
151. Grace Abounding, No. 255, vol. i., p. 39.
152. Vol. i., p. 545.
153. Grace Abounding, No 255-259, vol. i., p. 39.
154. Vol. i., p. 40.
155. Vol. iii., p. 655.
156. Rogers on Trouble of Mind.
157. Grace Abounding, No. 260.
158. 1st edition, p. 355.
159. Vol. ii., p. 425.
160. Vol. i., p. 40.
161. Vol. i., p. 769.
162. Vol. i., p. 549.
163. Church Book, 1671.
164. This secrecy became needful after the Restoration, as noticed more
fully afterwards, p. lix. During those years of persecution, a frequent
place of resort was a dell in Wain-wood, about three miles from
Hitchin. Of this locality the following notice will be acceptable:—On
the 19th of May, 1853, a splendidly hot day, my pilgrimage to the
shrines of Bunyan was continued at Hitchin and its vicinity, in company
with S. B. Geard, Esq. Here it was my honour to shake hands with honest
Edward Foster, whose grandfather often entertained and sheltered John
Bunyan. So singular a case I had never met with, that three lives
should connect, in a direct line, evidence of transactions which
occurred at a distance of 190 years. His grandfather was born in 1642,
and for many years was a friend and companion of the illustrious
dreamer. In 1706, when he was sixty-four years of age, his youngest son
was born, and in 1777, when that son was seventy-one years of age, his
youngest son was born, and in 1853 he has the perfect use of limbs and
faculties, and properly executes the important office of assistant
overseer to his extensive parish. With such direct testimony, we
visited the very romantic dell, where, in the still hours of midnight,
the saints of God were wont to meet and unite in Divine worship. It is
a most romantic dell, in Wain-wood, which crowns a hill about three
miles from Hitchin. We had some difficulty in making our way through
the underwood—crushing the beautiful hyacinths and primroses which
covered the ground in the richest profusion, and near the top of the
hill came suddenly upon this singular dell—a natural little eminence
formed the pulpit, while the dell would hold under its shade at least a
thousand people—and now I must give you the countryman’s eloquent
description of the meetings of his ancestors. “Here, under the canopy
of heaven, with the rigour of winter’s nipping frost, while the clouds,
obscuring the moon, have discharged their flaky treasures, they often
assembled while the highly-gifted and heavenly-minded Bunyan has broken
to them the bread of life. The word of the Lord was precious in those
days. And here over his devoted head, while uncovered in prayer, the
pious matrons warded off the driving hail and snow, by holding a shawl
over him by its four corners. In this devoted dell these plain
unpolished husbandmen, like the ancient Waldenses, in the valleys of
Piedmont, proved themselves firm defenders of the faith in its
primitive purity, and of Divine worship in its primitive style.”
Their horses on which they rode, from various parts, were sheltered in
neighbouring friendly farms, while they, to avoid suspicion, ascended
the hill by scarcely visible footpaths. Could fine weather be insured,
it would form a lovely spot for a meeting to celebrate the third
jubilee of religious toleration—there listen to a Bunyan of our age,
and devise measures for religious equality. Then we might close the
service by solemnly objuring every system which gave power to tyrannise
over the rights of conscience. Here, as in other places where Bunyan
founded churches, the cause of Christ hath spread. At Hitchin, in 1681,
about thirty-five Christians united in the following covenant:—
‘We who, through the mercy of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have
obtained grace to give ourselves to the Lord, and one to another by the
will of God, to have communion with one another, as saints in one
gospel fellowship:—Do, before God our Father, and our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the holy angels, agree and promise to walk together in this
one gospel communion and fellowship as a church of Jesus Christ, in
love to the Lord and one to another, and endeavour to yield sincere and
hearty obedience to the laws, ordinances, and appointments of our Lord
and Lawgiver in his church. And also do agree and promise, the Lord
assisting, to follow after the things which make for peace, and things
wherewith one may edify another, that so living and walking in love and
peace, the God of love and peace may be with us. Amen.’
This was probably drawn by Bunyan, and so simple and comprehensive has
it proved, that the church has flourished, and lately a spacious and
handsome place of worship has been erected, to accommodate a thousand
worshippers, at a cost of £3000, all paid for, with a surplus fund in
hand for contingencies, of £500. In addition, there are also large and
commodious chapels for the Independents, Wesleyans, and Quakers.
165. Christ a Complete Saviour, vol. i., p. 210.
166. Law and Grace, vol. i., pp. 549, 550.