offer to God, and a contrite spirit put in the room of all offerings,
as they are, and you may see it so, if you compare the text with that
verse which goes before it; I say, why is it counted better than all,
were they all put together, if any one part or if all external parts of
worship, were they put together, could be able to render the man a
sound and a rightly made new creature without it? ‘A broken heart, a
contrite spirit, God will not despise’; but both thou, and all thy
service, he will certainly slight and reject, if, when thou comest to
him, a broken heart be wanting; wherefore here is the point, Come
broken, come contrite, come sensible of, and sorry for thy sins, or thy
coming will be counted no coming to God aright; and if so, consequently
thou wilt get no benefit thereby.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This is beautifully and most impressively described in the
Pilgrim’s Progress, when the bitter feelings of poor Christian under
convictions of sin, alarm his family and put it quite ‘out of
order.’—Ed.
[2] This quotation is from the Genevan or Puritan version of the
Bible.—Ed.
[3]. ‘Fish-whole’ is a very striking and expressive term, highly
illustrative of the feelings and position of David when he was accosted
by the prophet. The word ‘whole’ is from the Saxon, which language
abounded in Bunyan’s native county of Bedford—first introduced by an
ancient colony of Saxons, who had settled there. It means hale, hearty,
free from disease, as a fish is happy in its native element—‘They that
are WHOLE, need not a physician, but they that are sick,’ Luke 5:31.
David had no smitings of conscience for his cruelty and enormous guilt;
he was like a ‘fish whole,’ in the full enjoyment of every providential
blessing; while, spiritually, he was dead in sin. God loved and pitied
him, and sent a cunning angler. Nathan the prophet there in the bait,
which David eagerly seized; the hook entered his conscience, and he
became as a fish wounded, and nigh unto death.—Ed.
[4] The words of Tindal are, ‘The sacrifice of God is a troubled
sprete, a broken and a contrite hert, O God, shalt thou not despise.’
The same Hebrew word occurs in the original, both as to the spirit and
the heart. Bunyan is quite right in preferring our authorised version
of this verse. Coverdale, Tindal, Taverner, and Cranmer, all agree. The
Genevan uses ‘a contrite spirit,’ and the Bishops ‘a mortified
spirit.’—Ed.
[5] No one could speak more feelingly upon this subject than our
author. He had been in deep waters—in soul-harrowing fear, while his
heart—hard by nature—was under the hammer of the Word.—‘My soul was
like a broken vessel. O, the unthought of imaginations, frights, fears,
and terrors, that are affected by a thorough application of guilt,
yielded to desperation!’ Like the man that had his dwelling among the
tombs.—Grace Abounding, No. 186.
[6] The Christian, if he thinks of possessing good motions, joins with
such thoughts his inability to carry them into effect. ‘When I would do
good, evil is present with me.’ How different is this to the
self-righteous Ignorance, so vividly pictured in the Pilgrim’s
Progress:—
Ignor.—I am always full of good motions that come into my mind, to
comfort me as I walk.
Chris.—What good motions? pray tell us.
Ignor.—Why, I think of God and heaven.
Chris.—So do the devils and damned souls!’
The whole of that deeply interesting dialogue illustrates the
difficulty of self-knowledge, which can only be acquired by the
teaching of the Holy Spirit.
[7] ‘All to brake’; an obsolete mode of expression for ‘altogether
broke.’—Ed.
[8] ‘Orts’; an obsolete word in England, derived from the Anglo-Saxon.
Any worthless leaving or refuse. It is thus used by Shakespeare in his
Troylus and Cresida, act 5, s. 2:—
‘The fractions of her faith, orts of her love:
The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics
Of her ore-eaten faith.’—Ed.
[9] This is in exact agreement with the author’s experience, which he
had published twenty-two years before, under the title of Grace
Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,—‘I was more loathsome in my own eyes
than was a toad, and I thought I was so in God’s eyes too. Sin and
corruption, I said, would as naturally bubble out of my heart as water
would out of a fountain. I thought that none but the devil himself
could equal me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind.’ A sure
sign that God, as his heavenly Father, was enlightening his memory by
the Holy Spirit.—Ed.
[10] This account of the author’s interview with a pious, humble woman,
is an agreeable episode, which relieves the mind without diverting it
from the serious object of the treatise. It was probably an event which
took place in one of those pastoral visits which Bunyan was in the
habit of making, and which, if wisely made, so endears a minister to
the people of his charge. Christ and a crust is the common saying to
express the sentiment that Christ is all in all. The pitcher has
reference to the custom of pilgrims in carrying at their girdle a
vessel to hold water, the staff having a crook by which it was dipped
up from a well or river.—Ed.
[11] However hard, and even harsh, these terms may appear, they are
fully justified; and with all the author’s great ability and renown, he
has the grace of humility to acknowledge that, by nature and practice,
he had been the biggest of fools.—Ed.
[12] Man must be burnt out of the stronghold in which he trusted.
‘Saved, yet so as by fire.’ ‘Baptized with the Holy Ghost, even fire.’
‘His word is as a fire.’ Reader, the work of regeneration and
purification is a trying work; may each inquire, Has this fire burnt up
my wood, hay, stubble?—Ed.
[13] To ‘daff’ or ‘doff’; to do off or throw aside—used by Shakespeare,
but now obsolete,—
Where is his son,
The nimble-footed madcap, Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daft the world aside
And let it pass?—Ed.
[14] ‘Sin will at first, just like a beggar, crave One penny or one
halfpenny to have; And if you grant its first suit, ’twill aspire From
pence to pounds, and so will still mount higher To the whole
soul!’—Bunyan’s Caution Against Sin.—Ed.
[15] This is faithful dealing. How many millions of lies are told to
the All-seeing God, with unblushing effrontery, every Lord’s day—when
the unconcerned and careless, or the saint of God, happy, most happy in
the enjoyment of Divine love, are led to say, ‘Have mercy upon us
miserable sinners.’—Ed.
[16] ‘In grain’ is a term used in dyeing, when the raw material is dyed
before being spun or wove; the colour thus takes every grain, and
becomes indelible. So with sin and folly; it enters every grain of
human nature.—Ed.
[17] These frightful exhibitions, by drawing a criminal from Newgate to
Tyburn to be executed, were of common occurrence until the reign of
George III, when such numbers were put to death that it was found
handier for the wholesale butchery to take place at Newgate, by a new
drop, where twenty or thirty could be hung at once!! When will such
brutalizing exhibitions cease?—Ed.
PAUL’S DEPARTURE AND CROWN;
OR,
AN EXPOSITION UPON 2 TIM. IV. 6-8
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR
How great and glorious is the Christian’s ultimate destiny—a kingdom
and a crown! Surely it hath not entered into the heart of man to
conceive what ear never heard, nor mortal eye ever saw? the mansions of
the blest—the realms of glory—‘a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory.’ For whom can so precious an inheritance be intended? How are
those treated in this world who are entitled to so glorious, so
exalted, so eternal, and unchangeable an inheritance in the world to
come? How do the heirs to immortality conduct themselves in such a
prospect? An inheritance sure and certain—an absolute reversion which
no contingency can possibly affect. All these are inquiries of the
deepest interest—the most solemn importance. Above all, when we inquire
as to our personal title to the heavenly mansions—Am I one of the heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ?—most intensely should this question
agitate the soul, when we reflect that, unless we are entitled to this
inestimable reversion, we must be plunged into the most awful, the most
irretrievable and external torments! There is no middle way—no escape
from hell, but by going to heaven. Is heaven reserved only for the
noble and the learned, like Paul? God forbid! but, on the contrary, we
hear the voice of the divinity proclaiming, ‘Not many wise men after
the flesh—not many mighty—not many noble.’ ‘Thus saith the Lord, Heaven
is my throne, the earth my footstool.’ He looketh upon the high and
low—the learned and the noble—the mighty princes and the unlettered
labourer; and then makes this wondrous declaration—‘To this man will I
look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth
at my word.’ The world will treat such humble ones as it treated the
Lord of life and glory, with scorn, contempt, insult, robbery—death.
They bear all with patience—return good for evil—are the followers of
him who went about doing good—are known as living epistles, because
they have been with Christ; they daily enjoy his guidance and
protection, and in their desires after conformity to his image, they
breathe the atmosphere of heaven. This is what the heir of glory
strives after; but, alas! he has to encounter an evil heart, an
ensnaring world, and the reproaches and revilings of his fellow-men,
aided by satanic influence. Can we wonder, then, that he who is thus
besieged, and believes that his work is finished, should, with Paul, be
ready to depart and receive his rich inheritance? The lapse of time
affects not the strong consolations of hope; as it was with Paul, so
Bunyan felt. His longings after the heavenly manna abounded when the
cold hand of death pressed upon his brow; his desire was ‘to be
dissolved, and to be with Christ’; when his course of temple and
relative duty was run, he waited for the messenger from the celestial
city to conduct him home. Christian, are you actively engaged in
fulfilling the duties of your course? or, in the humble hope that your
course is accomplished, are you patiently waiting the heavenly
messenger? If the Christian’s state is one of trial now, it was much
more so in former times. We can have very little idea of the feelings
of a dissenter from the religion of the State, like Paul, under the
cruel Nero, or like Bunyan, under the debauched Charles the Second—both
of them liable, without a moment’s warning, to be carried away to
prison, or to be murdered, privately or publicly, for refusing
submission to civil governors in matters of faith or worship. Although
they possessed every loyal and patriotic feeling, they dared not obey
those human laws which usurped the prerogatives of God, by interfering
with divine worship. Their lives were in their hands; in the midst of
imminent danger they boldly avowed the truth, and set us a noble
example. Their intercourse with heaven was doubly sweet from the
uncertainty of liberty and life. For them to live was Christ, and
therefore they well knew the gain of dying. In proportion as temporal
blessings were eminently doubtful, so spiritual and eternal benefits
were precious.
This treatise was one of those ten excellent manuscripts found already
prepared for the press, after the unexpected decease of its pious
author. It bears the marks of having been composed, and perhaps
preached, towards the end of his pilgrimage. Had his valuable life been
spared a few months longer, this work would, very probably, have been
enlarged, and the sub-divisions somewhat improved. The principal heads
are now inserted as separate lines, to assist the reader in referring
to its several parts; and notes are added to explain old words and
customs, and, in some cases, to point out a few of the beautiful and
striking passages with which it abounds. Many of these ought to be
indelibly impressed upon our minds. ‘The words of the Lord are pure
words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times’
(Psa 12:6). The question naturally arises—What is this ‘furnace of
earth’ in which the Lord’s words are purified? Seven being the number
of perfection, conveys the idea that it will be in the furnace until it
appears perfectly refined. Bunyan considers that these earthen furnaces
are the bodies of the saints. In the trials, troubles, and persecutions
to which they are subjected, the Word bears them up triumphantly, so
that the purity and excellency of the holy oracles conspicuously
appears, like the trial of faith mentioned by Peter (1 Peter 1:7). Dr.
Gill considers that these crucibles mean Christ and his ministers;
while Bunyan, with his enlarged mind, identifies them with the whole of
Christ’s followers. Some of these crucibles prove not to be genuine,
and perish in the using, not being able to abide the fire. Such was the
case with one of Mr. Bunyan’s friends. John Childs, who, for fear of
persecution, conformed, became horror-stricken for the denial of his
Master, and notorious for having destroyed himself.
In this treatise it is most affectionately impressed upon us to heap up
treasures that will go with us into the unseen world, as of greater
importance than those things which perish with the using. ‘A Christian,
and spend thy time, thy strength, and parts,’ for that which maketh to
itself wings and fleeth away! ‘Remember thou art a man of another
world, a subject of a more noble kingdom—that of God, and of heaven.
Make not heavenly things stoop to the world; but hoist up thy mind to
the things that are above, and practically hold forth before all the
world the blessed word of life.’ If death is the king of terrors to
fallen humanity, still there are truths abounding with consolation,
that when the Christian departs, the angels are ready, as in the case
of Lazarus, to convey the happy spirit to Abraham’s bosom; the struggle
is short, and then comes the reward. In this world we must have
tribulation; but in heaven white robes, the palm of victory, and the
conqueror’s crown, await the saints. Paul heard a voice which raised
his soul above the fears of death, and gave him a desire to depart; its
melodious sound invited him home—it was the voice of eternal truth,
saying, ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do
follow them.’
GEO. OFFOR.
PAUL’S DEPARTURE AND CROWN.
‘For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at
hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing.’—2 Timothy 4:6-8
These words were, by the apostle Paul, written to Timothy, whom he had
begot to the faith, by the preaching of the gospel of Christ; in which
are many things of great concernment both for instruction and
consolation; something of which I shall open unto you for your profit
and edification. But before I come to the words themselves, as they are
a relation of Paul’s case, I shall take notice of something from them
as they depend upon the words going before, being a vehement
exhortation to Timothy to be constant and faithful in his work; which,
in brief, may be summed up in these particulars: 1st, A solemn binding
charge before God and Jesus Christ our Lord, that he be constant in
preaching the Word, whether in or out of season, reproving, rebuking,
and exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine; and that because of
that ungodly spirit that would possess professors after he was dead;
for the time will come, saith he, that they will not endure sound
doctrine, neither sound reproof, nor sound trial of their state and
condition by the Word, but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears,—the plague that once God
threatened to rebellious Israel (Deut 28:27)—and be turned unto fables.
Much like this is that in the Acts of the Apostles, ‘For I know this,
that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not
sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch,
and remember, that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn
every one night and day with tears’ (Acts 20:29-31)
This evil then is to be prevented:—by a diligent watchfulness in
ministers;—By a diligent preaching the word of the Lord;—and, By sound
and close rebukes, reproofs, and exhortations to those in whosoever the
least there appears any swerving or turning aside from the gospel. The
ministers of the gospel have each of them all that authority that
belongs to their calling and office, and need not to stay for power
from men to put the laws of Christ in his church into due and full
execution (Titus 2:15). This ‘remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of
many people as a dew from the Lord,—that tarrieth not for man, nor
waiteth for the sons of men’ (Micah 5:7). Therefore he adds, ‘Watch
thou in all things, endure afflictions,’ if thou shouldst be opposed in
thy work, ‘do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy
ministry’ (2 Tim 4:5).[1] How our time-serving and self-saving
ministers will salve their conscience from the stroke that God’s Word
will one day give them, and how they will stand before the
judgment-seat to render an account of this their doings, let them see
to it; surely God will require it of their hand!
But, O Timothy, do thou be diligent, do thou watch in all things, do
thou endure affliction, do thou the work of an evangelist, make thou
full proof of thy ministry, ‘for I am not ready to be offered,’ &c. The
words, then, of my text are a reason of this exhortation to Timothy,
that he should continue watchful, and abide faithful in his calling.
‘For I am now ready to be offered’; that is, to be put to death for the
gospel.
Hence then learn two things,
First, That the murders and outrage that our brethren suffer at the
hands of wicked men should not discourage those that live, from a full
and faithful performance of their duty to God and man, whatever may be
the consequence thereof. Or thus, when we see our brethren before us
fall to the earth by death, through the violence of the enemies of God,
for their holy and Christian profession, we should covet to make good
their ground against them, though our turn should be the next. We
should valiantly do in this matter, as is the custom of soldiers in
war; take great care that the ground be maintained, and the front kept
full and complete. ‘Thou, therefore,’ saith Paul, ‘endure hardness as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ’ (2 Tim 2:3). And in another place, We
should not be moved by these afflictions, but endure by resisting even
unto blood (1 Thess 3:3). Wherefore Paul saith again, ‘Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his
prisoner; but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel,
according to the power of God’ (2 Tim 1:8). Thus let the spirit of
Moses rest upon Joshua (Num 27:20), and the spirit of Elijah rest upon
Elisha (2 Kings 2:15). Stand up, therefore, like valiant worthies, as
the ministers of my God, and fly not every man to his own, while the
cause, and ways, and brethren of our Lord are buffeted and condemned by
the world. And remember, that those that keep the charge of the Lord
when most go a-whoring from under their God, they, when he turns the
captivity of his people, shall be counted worthy to come nigh unto him,
‘to offer the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God.’ But for the rest,
though they may yet stand before the people, because they stood before
them in a way of idolatry, yet it shall not be to their honour, nor to
their comfort; but to their shame, as the same scripture saith (Eze
44:10-16).
1. Let this therefore smite with conviction those that, in this day of
Jacob’s trouble, have been false with God, his cause, and people: I
say, those first and especially as the chief ringleaders of this
cowardliness, who have done it against light, profession, and
resolutions. Behold, thou hast sinned against the Lord, and be sure thy
sins will find thee out; and though thou mayest now have as a judgment
of God upon thee, thy right eye darkened that thou mayest not see, yet
awakening time will overtake thee, and that too between the straits,
when he will show thee, to the great confusion of thy face, and the
amazement of them that behold thee, how great an affront he counts it
to be left by thee, in a day when his truth is cast down to the ground
(Rom 11:10). I have often thought of that prophet that went down from
Judah to Bethel, to prophesy against the idolatry that was there set up
by the King; who, because he kept not the commandment of God, but did
eat and drink in that place, at the persuasion of a lying prophet, was
met at last by a lion, who slew him there in the way, where his carcase
was made a spectacle of God to passengers (1 Kings 13). If thou be
spiritual, judge what I say; and think not to be one of that number
that shall have the harps of God, when God appears for Zion, and that
shall sing that song of Moses, and also the song of the Lamb; for that
is only for those who have fought the godly fight, and gotten the
victory over the beast, his image, mark, number, and name.
2. Let this also be an awe to thee, who hast hankerings to do as the
other: Beware, and remember Judas, and the end God brought upon him; he
will not always bear such things; these times have showed us already
that he beholds them with great dislike; why should thou hang up in
chains as a terror to all that know thee? And never object that some
have done it, and yet are at peace in their souls; for peace in a
sinful course is one of the greatest of curses. And ‘the man that
wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the
congregation of the dead’ (Prov 21:6).
[Second.] The Second thing to be learned from these words, as they have
a relation to them going before, is encouragement to those that are yet
in the storm; and that from three great arguments.
1. Paul’s peace and comfort now at the time of his death, which he
signifieth to Timothy by these three expressions, ‘I have fought a good
fight—I have finished my course—I have kept the faith.’
2. By the blessed reward he should have for his labour from Christ in
another world, together with all those that love the appearing of the
Lord, at ‘that great and notable day.’
3. That now his last act should not be inferior to any act he did for
God, while he was alive and preached in the world; for his body should
now be an offering, a sacrifice well-pleasing to God. To all which I
shall speak something in my discourse upon these words; and, therefore,
to come to them:
‘I AM NOW READY TO BE OFFERED.’
In these words we have to inquire into two things. FIRST. What it is to
be ‘offered.’ SECOND. What it is to be ‘ready to be offered up.’ ‘I am
now ready to be offered.’
[WHAT IT IS TO BE OFFERED.]
FIRST. For the first of these. Paul, by saying he was ‘to be offered,’
alludeth to some of the sacrifices that of old were under the law; and
thereby signifieth to Timothy that his death and martyrdom for the
gospel should be both sweet in the nostrils of God, and of great profit
to his church in this world; for so were the sacrifices of old. Paul,
therefore, lifts his eyes up higher than simply to look upon death, as
it is the common fate of men; and he had good reason to do it, for his
death was violent; it was also for Christ, and for his church and
truth; and it is usual with Paul thus to set out the suffering of the
saints, which they undergo for the name and testimony of Jesus. Yea, he
will have our prayers a sacrifice; our praises, thanksgiving, and
mortification, sacrifices; almsdeed, and the offering up of the
Gentiles, sacrifices, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost; and here his
death also must be for a sacrifice, and an acceptable offering to God
(Heb 13:15,16; Rom 12:1,2, 15:16).