Hast thou forgotten that most solemn vow Thou mad"st to G.o.d, when thou didst crave he bow His ear unto thee would, and give thee grace, And would thee also in his arms embrace?
That vow, I say, whereby thou then didst bind Thyself to him, that now thy roving mind Recoil against him should, and fling away From him, and his commandments disobey.
What has he done? wherein has he offended?
Thou actest now, as if thou wast intended To prove him guilty of unrighteousness, Of breach of promise, or that from distress He could, or would not save thee, or that thou Hast found a better good than he; but how Thou wilt come off, or how thou wilt excuse Thyself, "cause thou art gone, and did refuse To wait upon him that consider well; Thou art as yet alive, on this side h.e.l.l.
Is"t not a shame, a stinking shame to be Cast forth G.o.d"s vineyard as a barren tree?
To be thrown o"er the pales, and there to lie, Or be pick"d up by th" next that pa.s.seth by?
Well, thou hast turn"d away, return again; Bethink thyself, thy foot from sin refrain; Hark! thou art call"d upon, stop not thine ear: Return, backsliding children, come, draw near Unto your G.o.d; repent, and he will heal Your base backslidings, to you will reveal That grace and peace which with him doth remain, For them that turn away, and turn again.
Take with thee words, come to the throne of grace There supplicate thy G.o.d, and seek his face; Like to the prodigal, confess thy sin, Tell him where, and how vicious thou hast been.
Suppose he shall against thee shut the door, Knock thou the louder, and cry out the more; What if he makes thee there to stand a while?
Or makes as if he would not reconcile To thee again? Yet take thee no denial, Count all such carriages but as a trial Whether thou art in earnest in thy suit, As one truly forlorn and dest.i.tute; But hide thou nought of all that thou hast done, Open thy bosom, make confession Of all thy wickedness, tell every whit; Hast thou a secret sin? don"t cover it; Confess, thyself judge, if thou wouldst not die; Who doth himself judge, G.o.d doth justify.
To sin, and stand in"t, is the highest evil; This makes a man most like unto the devil; This bids defiance unto G.o.d and grace; This man resists him spitteth in his face, Scorns at his justice, mocketh at his power, Tempts him, provokes him, grieves him every hour: When he ariseth, he will recompense This st.u.r.dy rebel for his impenitence: Be not incorrigible then, come back again, There"s hope, beg mercy while life doth remain.
Obj. But I fear I am lost and cast away, Sentence is past, and who reverse it may?
Ans. The sentence past, admitteth or reprieve; Yea, of a pardon, canst thou but believe.
TURN AGAIN SINNER, NEVER MAKE A DOUBT, COME, THE LORD JESUS WILL NOT CAST THEE OUT.
FOOTNOTES:
1. 4to, London, 1642. In the editor"s library.
2. "That advance," preferment, or progress towards perfection.--Ed.
3. "Mo," a usual contraction for more in former times, now obsolete.--Ed.
4. Probably referring to the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15.--Ed.
5. This may refer to the Levitical law, Exodus 21:28-36. The ox that had gored any one to death, "shall be surely stoned" without possibility of escape, but the backslider or manslayer, although he lie equally under the sentence of death, yet may escape to the city of refuge.--Ed.
6. These stanzas afford an excellent ill.u.s.tration to the meaning of Bunyan in his Pilgrim"s Progress, where Christian, before the cross, receives the roll or certificate--loses it for a season in the arbour on the hill Difficulty, when loitering and sleeping on his way to the Interpreter"s house, but regains it by repentance and prayers, and eventually, having crossed the river, gives it in at the gate of the Celestial City, and is admitted.--Ed.
7. Bunyan considered that baptism is to follow belief, and that christening a child was a misplacing the ordinance. So also with he Lord"s Supper--that it was to be a public showing forth the death of the Saviour, and if administered in private, or with any other view, it was misplaced.--Ed.
8. It is a rare thing for Bunyan to use a foreign word; but all pious persons in his time were familiar with, and generally used, the Puritan or Genevan Bible, vulgarly called the Breeches Bible, an extremely valuable book; in the marginal notes of which, on this pa.s.sage is the following explanation, ""wilde gourdes," which the apoticaries call coloquintida, and is most vehement and dangerous in purging."--Ed.
9. The university or college in which Bunyan so highly graduated, is the only one where ministers can be instructed in this spiritual physic. It is Christ"s college or school, neither at Oxford or Cambridge, but in the Bible. There, and there only, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, can the Christian bishop or under shepherd receive instruction in the precious remedies against Satan"s devices, or in specifics to cure spiritual maladies.--Ed.
10. "He had in his pocket A MAP of all ways leading to or from the celestial city; wherefore he struck a light, for he never went without his tinder box, and took a view of his book or map; which bid him be careful, in that place, to turn to the right hand way.
And had he not here been careful to look in his map, they had, in all probability, been smothered in the mud; for just before them, and that in the cleanest way, was a pit, and none knows how deep, full of nothing but mud, there made on purpose to destroy pilgrims in. Then thought I with myself, who that goeth on pilgrimage, but would have one of these maps about him, that he may look when he is at a stand which is the way he must take."--Pilgrim"s Progress, Part Second.
11. These hints to deacons are invaluable. They must have been the result of long intimacy and enlightened watchfulness over the conduct of the poor. To distinguish between the noisy beggar and the un.o.btrusive sufferer--to administer relief in just proportions, "the word the rule, and want the law," in spite of all that influence which is constantly brought to bear upon those who distribute any common charity fund. It requires much of the fear of G.o.d in the heart, and a solemn sense of responsibility at the great day.
The terms, "crumbs of charity," are beautifully expressive of the general poverty of Christian churches.--Ed.
12. Bunyan"s idea of this scriptural order of female deacons is very striking, and worthy the solemn consideration of all Christian churches. They are to be chosen from such as are "widows indeed, who trust in G.o.d, and continue in supplications and prayers night and day," 1 Timothy 5:5. They are to devote themselves to the sick--to be patterns of good works--and, if needful, to be fed and clothed at the expense of the church, verse 16. If to this were added to examine and educate the children, they might be most eminently useful.--Ed.
13. These instructions are like "apples of gold in pictures of silver." Thrice happy are those churches whose members act in conformity with these scriptural rules. But is there a member who dares to violate them? Poor wretched creature, the Lord have mercy on thee.--Ed.
14. Happy is that Christian, who, in obedience to his Lord"s command, is so humble as to seek out the brother who has offended him; "Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone," is the divine command. Is it not at the peril of our souls wilfully to violate this self-humiliating but imperative law?--Ed.
15. To "frump," to mock or browbeat.--Ed.
16. "Greatly nosed," taken by the nose, ridiculed.--Ed.
17. "Frampered" or frampold, peevish, crossgrained, rugged; now obsolete.--Ed.
JOHN BUNYAN ON THE TERMS OF COMMUNION AND FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS AT THE TABLE OF THE LORD;
COMPRISING
I. HIS CONFESSION OF FAITH, AND REASON OF HIS PRACTICE; II. DIFFERENCES ABOUT WATER BAPTISM NO BAR TO COMMUNION; AND III.
PEACEABLE PRINCIPLES AND TRUE[1]
ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT BY THE EDITOR.
Reader, these are extraordinary productions that will well repay an attentive perusal. It is the confession of faith of a Christian who had suffered nearly twelve years" imprisonment, under persecution for conscience sake. Shut up with his Bible, you have here the result of a prayerful study of those holy oracles. It produced a difference in practice from his fellow Christians of ALL denominations, the reasons for which are added to this confession; with a defence of his principles and practice, proving them to be peaceable and true. In all this an unlettered man displays the ac.u.men of a thoroughly educated polemical theologian. The author was driven to these publications to defend himself from the slanders which were showered down upon him, by all parties, for nearly eighteen years, and by the attempts which were made to take away his members, injure the peace of his congregation, and alienate him from the church to which he was tenderly attached. His first inquiry is, Who are to be admitted to the Lord"s table; and his reply is, Those whom G.o.d has received: they have become his children, and are ent.i.tled to sit at their Father"s table: such only as have examined themselves, and by their conduct lead the church to hope that they have pa.s.sed from death unto life. The practice of those who admit unG.o.dly persons because they have submitted to some outward ceremonies, he severely condemns. The mixture of the church and the world he deems to be spiritual adultery, the prolific source of sin, and one of the causes of the deluge. The Lord"s table is scripturally fenced around: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers"; "what communion hath light with darkness; Christ with Belial; the temple of G.o.d with idols? be ye separate, touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you." "Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of G.o.d, not to doubtful disputations." "Withdraw from them that walk disorderly, working not; but busy bodies; unless with quietness they work and eat their own bread. If any are proud, doting about questions and strifes of words, evil surmisings, perverse disputings, supposing that gain is G.o.dliness; from such withdraw." Bunyan rests all upon the word,--the characters are described who are to be excluded from the Lord"s table; but in no instance is it upon record that any one was excluded because he had not been baptized in water.
And who will dare to make any addition to holy writ?
The practice of making the mode in which water baptism was administered a term of communion, existed among the Independents long before Bunyan"s time. Crosby, in his History of the Baptists, makes some long extracts from a book ent.i.tled, "The sin and danger of admitting Anabaptists to continue in the congregational churches, and the inconsistency of such a practice with the principles of both." In America, Cotton and the Independents severely persecuted their Baptist brethren, even to deportation.
As the Baptists increased in numbers, they refused to admit any to the Lord"s table, even to occasional communion, who had not been baptized in water upon a profession of faith: in fact, the difference between those who consider baptism to be a relative duty to be performed by parents in having their infants sprinkled, and those who deem it a personal duty to be immersed in water, as a public putting on of Christ, is so great, as to require the utmost powers of charity to preserve peace. Thus it was in the primitive churches, where great differences prevailed even as to the duty of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles; the keeping of days probably extending to the Jewish sabbath, and to the abstaining from certain meats, with other ordinances of the Jewish law.
Bunyan saw all the difficulties of this question: he was satisfied that baptism is a personal duty, in respect to which every individual must be satisfied in his own mind, and over which no church had any control; and that the only inquiry as to the fitness of a candidate for church fellowship should be, whether the regenerating powers of the Holy Ghost had baptized the spirit of the proposed member into newness of life. This is the only livery by which a Christian can be known. Bunyan very justly condemns the idea of water baptism being either the Christian"s livery or his marriage to the Saviour.
We do well, in our examinations into this subject, to note carefully the various applications of the word baptize, and not always attach the use of water to the term. There is a being baptized in a cloud, and in the sea, to protect G.o.d"s Israel from their deadly foes; a baptism in sufferings; a baptism in water unto repentance; a baptism in fire, or the Holy Ghost; a baptism into the doctrine of the Trinity (Matt 28:19). Bunyan had no doubt upon this subject; he deemed water baptism an important personal duty; and that a death to sin, and resurrection to newness of life--a different tint, or dye, given to the character--was best figured by immersion in water: still he left it to every individual to be satisfied in his own mind as to this outward sign of the invisible grace. "Strange," he says, "take two Christians equal on all points but this; nay, let one go far beyond the other for grace and holiness; yet this circ.u.mstance of water shall drown and sweep away all his excellencies; not counting him worthy of that reception that with hand and heart shall be given to a novice in religion, because he consents to water."
For these catholic principles he was most roughly handled. Deune, in a pamphlet in the Editor"s possession, called him a devil; and likened him to Timri, who slew his master. The most learned of the Baptist ministers entered upon the controversy. They invited him to a grand religious tournament, where he would have stood one against a legion. A great meeting was appointed, in London, for a public disputation--as was common among the puritans--and in which the poor country mechanic was to be overwhelmed with scholastic learning and violence; but Bunyan wisely avoided a collision which could have answered no valuable purpose, and which bid fair to excite angry feelings. He had appealed to the press as the calmest and best mode of controversy; and to that mode of appeal he adhered. Three learned men undertook the cause against Bunyan: these were, D"Anvers, W. Kiffin, and T. Paul. When these lettered, able, and distinguished disputants published their joint answer, it contained much scurrilous abuse. Their brother, Bunyan, was in prison, and they visited him with gall and wormwood.
He closes his reply with these remarkable words, "Thine to serve thee, Christians, so long as I can look out at those eyes that have had so much dirt thrown at them by many."
The late Mr. Robert Hall, in his controversy upon this subject with Mr. Kinghorn, in which--having demolished Kinghorn"s castle in a few pages--he, in order to make a book, amused the public by kicking the ruins about, thus adverts to these treatises: "The most virulent reproaches were cast upon the admirable Bunyan, during his own time, for presuming to break the yoke; and whoever impartially examines the spirit of Mr. Booth"s Apology, will perceive that its venerable author regards him, together with his successors, much in the light of rebels and insurgents, or, to use the mildest terms, as contumacious despisers of legitimate authority."[2]
We cannot have a more decided proof of Bunyan"s great powers, and of his being much in advance of his times, than by the opinions of which he was the Christian pioneer having spread so extensively through the Baptist denomination. In this his predictions were fully verified. It is surprising that pious dissenters should ever have made uniformity in outward ceremonies of more importance than inward holiness, as a term of communion. Such sentiments naturally attach to state churches; and ought to be found only with those bodies which exist merely for political purposes, and for it are rewarded with earthly power, pomp, and wealth. I close these observations by quoting the words of Bunyan"s learned antagonists, published within a few years of this controversy, and during his lifetime. his sentiments appear to have had a hallowed effect even upon their minds, and produced an apology for their conduct. It is in the appendix to the Baptist confession of faith, republished in 1677: "We would not be misconstrued, as if the discharge of our consciences did any way disoblige or alienate our affections or conversations from any others that fear the Lord: earnestly desiring to approve ourselves to be such as follow after peace with holiness. We continue our practice, not out of obstinacy, but we do therein according to the best of our understandings, in that method which we take to be most agreeable to the scriptures. The christening of infants, we find by church history, to have been a very ancient practice; still we leave every one to give an account of himself to G.o.d. And if in any case debates between Christians are not plainly determinable by the scriptures, we leave it to the second coming of Christ." In 1689, the year after Bunyan"s death, this appendix was omitted from the Baptist confession of faith.
May the time soon arrive when water shall not quench love, but when all the churches militant shall form one army, with one object,--that of extending the Redeemer"s kingdom.--GEO. OFFOR.
A CONFESSION OF MY FAITH, AND A REASON OF MY PRACTICE; OR, WITH WHO, AND WHO NOT, I CAN HOLD CHURCH FELLOWSHIP, OR THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS.
SHEWING, BY DIVERSE ARGUMENTS, THAT THOUGH I DARE NOT COMMUNICATE WITH THE OPENLY PROFANE, YET I CAN WITH THOSE VISIBLE SAINTS THAT DIFFER ABOUT WATER-BAPTISM. WHEREIN IS ALSO DISCOURSED, WHETHER THAT BE THE ENTERING ORDINANCE INTO FELLOWSHIP, OR NO.
"I believed, therefore have I spoken."--Psalm 116:10