26 An equally cruel scene took place in the presence of Stow, the historian, in the reign of Elizabeth. The bailiff of Romford coming to London, was asked by the curate of Aldgate the news: he replied, "Many men be up in Ess.e.x," [Qu. not in bed?]. For this he was hung the next morning in front of Mr. Stow"s house. How grateful ought we to be that such sanguinary laws have fled, with the dark mists of error and cruelty, before the spreading light of the gospel.--Ed.
27 They shed their blood for Him who afterwards shed his blood for them. These were the infantry of the n.o.ble army of martyrs. If these infants were thus baptized with blood, though their own, into the church triumphant, it could be said that what they got in heaven abundantly compensated for what they lost on earth.--Henry.
28 Nearly all Protestants agree as to the salvation of infants dying in their infancy--Toplady and the Calvinists on the ground of their being in the covenant of grace; others because they had not personally transgressed; supposing that the sufferings and death of the body is the penalty of original sin. Holy Scripture appears to settle this question very satisfactorily, by requiring childlike docility as a preparation for the Spirit"s working. The language of the Saviour is, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of G.o.d" (Luke 18:16). "Such" as die in infancy--"such" adults as, with childlike simplicity, search the Scriptures, and fly for refuge to the Saviour. "It is NOT the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish" (Matt 18:14). "It were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck, and be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones" (Luke 17:2).--Ed.
29 "To down with"; to receive, to swallow. "Probably it will hardly down with any body at first hearing."--Locke.--Ed.
30 "New-fashioned carriages"; not equipages to ride in, but dainty formalities. "Nor in my carriage a feigned niceness shown."--Dryden.
"Trades in the carriage of a holy saint."--Shakespeare.--Ed.
31 Bunyan, when sent to prison, was thus threatened: "If you do not go to church, or transport yourself, you must stretch by the neck for it." This led to those painful reflections: "If I should make a scrabbling shift to clamber up the ladder, yet I should, either with quaking or other symptoms of faintings, give occasion to the enemy to reproach the way of G.o.d and his people for their timorousness."--Grace Abounding, No. 334.--Ed.
32 This is a truly Bunyanish mode of expression--clear, comprehensive, quaint; but so striking as to make an indelible impression.--Ed.
33 A life of faith and holiness is the Christian"s badge and livery. No particular costume, that may conceal a carnal heart--not a baptismal profession, that may be made by a hypocrite; but it is "the hidden man of the heart," evidenced by a "meek and quiet spirit--in all holy conversations and G.o.dliness." This is the Christian"s badge and livery, by which he becomes "a living epistle, known and read of all men."--Ed.
34 These awful cruelties were practised upon Richard Atkins, in July, 1581. He went to Rome to reprove the people of idolatry.
In St. Peter"s Church, he knocked the chalice out of the priest"s hand, and spilt the wine; he then endeavoured to seize the host, but was prevented. For these mad pranks he suffered savage torments.--Fox, edit. 1631, vol. 3, p. 1022.--Ed.
35 Every Christian must be decided in his own conscience as to the formalities of religion; but he who prefers talking of forms and ceremonies to communion in the substance, is in a melancholy state.--Ed.
36 What a severe reproach it is to human nature, to see a lovely child in rags and shoeless, running the streets, exposed to the pitiless weather, while a splendid equipage pa.s.ses, in which a lady holds up her lapdog at the window to give it an airing!!
Is not this a greater crime than sends many a poor wretch to the treadmill?--Ed.
37 Revenge naturally rises in the mind of man under a sense of injury. To return good for evil is one of the effects of the new birth. But while this is done, it is also our duty to pet.i.tion kings and parliaments to remove evils.--Ed.
38 "Forth of doors"; out of doors, public.--Ed.
39 "Now it is Christmas"; instead of keeping one day in the year to commemorate the nativity of Christ in excessive feasting, every day must be kept holy, in the recollection both of the birth and death of the Saviour. All eyes are upon the young convert, watching for his halting; therefore, let every day be holy.--Ed.
40 A striking expression. If a man"s righteousness be killed, it must be by his own will. He must be the butcher to kill himself.--Ed.
41 It is indeed sad to see professors, for the sake of paltry pelf, or to escape from persecution, denying the Lord Jesus. It subjects religion to scorn and contempt, and doubles the sorrows and sufferings of real Christians. Bunyan expresses himself here in a most admirable manner.--Ed.
42 Bunyan"s familiarity with these ill.u.s.trious men was obtained by reading Fox"s Acts and Monuments, when in prison.--Ed.
43 "Quail"; to overpower. Well might the abettors of Antichrist wonder at the Christian"s support under the most cruel tortures.
While "looking unto Jesus" and the bright visions of eternal glory, like Stephen, he can pray of his enemies, and tranquilly fall asleep while undergoing the most frightful sufferings.--Ed.
44 "A naked man"; unarmed, or defenceless. "Had I but serv"d my G.o.d with half the zeal I serv"d my king, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies." Shakespeare"s Wolsey.--Ed.
45 How impossible is it for a natural man to understand this new creation--a new heart, a new birth. How different is regeneration to water-baptism. How awful the delusion to be mistaken in this, the foundation of all hope of a blessed immortality. "Create in me a clean heart, O G.o.d!" How consoling the fact: "Now a creation none can destroy but a Creator!" and "changes not, therefore we are not consumed."--Ed.
46 "O happie he who doth possesse Christ for his fellow-prisoner, who doth gladde With heavenly sunbeames jails that are most sad."
Written on the prison walls of the Tower of London by William Prynne.--Ed.
47 "Sore temptations" poor Bunyan found them. When dragged from his home to prison, he speaks of his poor blind daughter in language of impa.s.sioned solicitude: "Poor child, thought I, what sorrow art thou like to have for thy portion in this world! Thou must be beaten, must beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities, though I cannot now endure the wind shall blow upon thee! Oh! the hardships I thought my blind one might go under would break my heart to pieces."--"The parting with my wife and poor children hath oft been to me in this place as the pulling my flesh from my bones."--Grace Abounding, 327, 328.--Ed.
48 "Thodes"; whirlwinds. This word does not occur in any English dictionary or glossary. It gave me much trouble, and a walk of seven miles, to discover its meaning. It is the Saxon for noise, whirlwind, turbulence. This provincial word was probably derived from some Saxon tribe that settled in Bedfordshire.--Ed.
49 "To shuck"; to shake violently--from which is the noun, "a pea-shuck," the sh.e.l.l from which peas have been shaken.--Ed.
50 How correct, but how dismal a picture is here drawn of the persecutor! G.o.d has wise and holy ends in protecting and prolonging the lives even of very wicked men. "Slay them not, lest my people forget; scatter them by thy power." Compare Ecclessiastes 8:10.
Pity the persecutor--pray for him; but if he repent not, stand off; "G.o.d will have his full blow at him in his time," and crush him down into misery and despair.--Ed.
51 Like a mult.i.tude of pa.s.sages in Bunyan"s writings, this pa.s.sage is exceedingly striking. It ill.u.s.trates our Lord"s words in Matthew 5:44,45: "Love your enemies--that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."--Ed.
52 "Stage"; upon which many a Nonconformist stood with his head in the pillory. "Ladder" to the gallows, upon which victims suffered death by hanging.--Ed.
AN EXHORTATION TO PEACE AND UNITY
[ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT BY THE EDITOR]
This treatise was first published in 1688, after Bunyan"s death, at the end of the second edition of the Barren Fig Tree, with a black border round the t.i.tle. It was continued in the third edition 1692, but was subsequently omitted, although the Barren Fig Tree was printed for the same publisher. It has been printed in every edition of Bunyan"s Works. Respect for the judgment of others leads me to allow it a place in the first complete edition, although I have serious doubts whether it was written by him, for these reasons:--
1. It appears to have been totally unknown to his personal friends, Charles Doe and others, who very carefully gathered up, not only all his published works, but his ma.n.u.scripts also. An interesting list of these was given in the "Struggler," 1691. Nor is it found in any publisher"s list of Bunyan"s Works.
2. The style is not that of Bunyan, nor is it even Bunyanish. It has none of those striking remarks that render all his treatises so deeply interesting.
3. The author introduces sc.r.a.ps of Latin references to "Machiavel,"
to the "learned Stillingfleet," and to ancient heathen writers.
The frequent recurrence of the words, "as a certain learned man observes," is very foreign to Bunyan"s manner of confirming his sentiments. "Thus saith the Lord," is the seal of his testimony.
4. Misapplication of Scripture (Acts 9:31) as if the "rest" was from internal dissensions, when in fact it was from external persecution.
5. The terms "infallible," "excommunication," and "reason," are used in a way not at all Bunyanish.
6. How would his spirit have been grieved at a sentence which occurs: "Would a heathen G.o.d refuse to answer such prayers in which the supplicants were not agreed; and shall we think the true G.o.d will answer them?" Do stocks or stones answer prayers?
7. Bunyan"s peculiar practice of admitting all the Lord"s children to the Lord"s table; all such as he hoped were spiritually baptized, without reference to water-baptism, is here directly opposed. The author refers to 1 Corinthians 12:13 on which text he says--"I need not go about to confute that notion that some of late have had of this text, viz., that the baptism here spoken of is the baptism of the Spirit, because you have not owned and declared that notion as your judgment, but on the contrary." The fact is, that Bunyan is one of those here noticed as "some of late," and his church did hold that judgment. His comment on this text is, "not of water, for by one SPIRIT are we all baptized into one body."--Reason of my Practice. And in his "Differences about Water-Baptism no Bar to Communion," he thus argues upon that text, "Here is a baptism mentioned by which they are initiated into one body; now that this is the baptism of water is utterly against the words of the text; for by one SPIRIT we are all baptized into one body."--"It is the unity of the Spirit, not water, that is intended." Bunyan was the great champion for the practice of receiving all to church-communion whom G.o.d had received in Christ, without respect to water-baptism; and had he changed his sentiments upon a subject which occasioned him so much hostility, even from his Baptist brethren, it would have been heralded forth as a triumph.
In 1684, four years prior to his death, he republished these sentiments in the first edition of "A Holy Life the Beauty of Christianity"; his words are--"Men are wedded to their opinions more than the law of grace and love will permit. Here is a Presbyter, here an Independent, a Baptist, so joined each man to his own opinions, that they cannot have that communion one with another, as by the testament of the Lord Jesus they are commanded and enjoined."
Bunyan, there can be no doubt, lived and died in the conviction, that differences were permitted among Christians to stimulate them to search the Scriptures, and to exercise the grace of forbearance, as was the case in the primitive churches, in their disputes about meats and days, and even as to whether the Gentiles were to be visited with the gospel.
8. Bunyan is ever pressing the duty of private judgment in all the affairs of religion; not to be scared with the taunts of "schism,"
"division-makers," "new separatists," "wiser than your teachers,"
and similar arrows, drawn from Satan"s quiver, which occur in this exhortation.
Judging from the style--the reference to the laying on of hands--the Latin quotations, and those from learned men, it appears somewhat like the pen of D"Anvers, who answered Bunyan upon the question--Whether water-baptism is a scriptural term of communion? It is, however, now faithfully reprinted, that our readers may form their own judgment.
Hackney, New-Year"s Day, 1850 GEORGE OFFOR.