Bunyan's awakening works

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Introduction

John Bunyan is preeminently a man of the people. He sprang from, represents, and speaks to, the masses; though destined by his writings to become the teacher of nobles and kings, and nowhere more than in this free land, where every man is at once a citizen and a sovereign. Here, even more than elsewhere, will the poor sympathize with his origin, and the rich with his wrongs, the honest with his upright spirit, and the humane with his long unjust imprisonment, the intelligent with the attractions of his genius, and the pious with the deep struggles of his evangelical experience. No class can doubt his entire sincerity. None can deny hir benevolent spirit. All must feel his peculiar and inimitable power.

1 1 the notices prefixed to his Pilgrim's Progress and the

I iy War, volumes previously issued by our Society, perhaps

__„agh has been said on the leading incidents of his Life.

The present Introduction will therefore be limited to an

outline of his character as a Preacher, and as a Writer.

As a Preacher, probably Bunyan has had few superiors. It is needless to speak of the qualities which made him popular. The effects are sufficient. However loudly Church and State officials might " open upon him/' scholars marvelled at his wisdom, and " the common people heard him gladly." Besides the " hundreds from all parts" that flocked to his preaching, in Bedford and other shires, Dr. Southey tells us his reputation was so great in London, " that if a day's

11 INTRODUCTION.

notice were given, the meeting-house in Southwark, at which he generally preached, would not contain half the people." "I have seen (says an eye witness) "by my computation about twelve hundred persons to hear him at a morning lecture, on a working day, in dark winter time." "I also computed about three thousand that came to hear him at a town's-end meeting house; so that half were fain to go back again for want of room; and then himself was fain at a back door to be pulled almost over people, to get up stairs to the pulpit. " The learned and pious Dr. Owen, that giant of evangelical theology, is reported to have said to Charles II. (who rallied him for " going to hear an illiterate Tinker prate,") "Please your Majesty, could I possess that Tinker's abilities for preaching, I would gladly relinquish all my learning." Charles Doe, with affectionate admiration, calls him, "Our great Grospel Preacher," — "the Champion of our Age."

Yet, Dr. Southey has said, " Had it not been for the encouragement Bunyan received from the Baptists, he might have lived and died a Tinker." Be this as it may, Baptists will know how to prize such a concession — not to their superior wisdom — but to the wisdom of Christ in the free and scriptural Constitution of their churches. And although as a body, they have little cause for gratitude for the manner in which they are treated by Robert Philip in his " Life and Times of Bunyan," they may thank him for a like acknowledgment. "Both the world and the Church (he says) are indebted to the Baptists for the ministry of John Bunyan." (p. 312.) "Any orthodox Congregational or Presbyterian Church of that day would have treated him with equal tenderness. So would pious Episcopalians, had they known him as well as the 'Baptists did. I much doubt, however, if any other orthodox body would have followed up his welcome into their fellowship, by calling him out to the ministry." (p. 180.) If this be so, that single fact is sufficient

INTRODUCTION. Hi

to justify our denominational existence. But we quote it here, for another end. Are not Baptists then specially bound to perpetuate and spread his Practical Works — the embalmed spirit of such a Preacher — wherever they exist ? Will they not be responsible, if being dead, Bunyan does not still speak by these admirable productions ? productions whose " power and pathos eclipse all learning, and throw every thing into the shade, but the wisdom which winneth souls."

For as Bunyan spoke, so he wrote. All his books were written, as it were, out of his own heart, and directed to the hearts of his fellow men. And that heart of his, so long and sorely tried, was in alliance with an intellect of wonderful power, and an imagination no less wonderful. And " the laws of his intellectual being blended so with its spiritual aspirations and responsibilities, that his head can never be analyzed apart from his heart." Then too, Bunyan, with all his hearty homeliness, had a healthy, and indeed, exquisite taste. He loved the true, the pure, the graceful, the noble, the beautiful and the sublime. Wit and humor (as in Sir Thomas More) at times gleam forth amidst the gravity, the solemn earnestness, the subduing tenderness of his sentiments and style. His roughness is not rudeness. His occasional coarseness is less from ignorance than choice. He knew when he transgressed the laws of taste ; but he acted at such times in obedience to a higher law. His sympathy with the poor and ignorant and erring, was by the grace of Grod experimental and heartfelt ; and he spoke to them, and wrote for them, in the style which they could understand and feel, because he devoutly longed to do them good. His words were " picked and packed," as he says ; but it was for the use of the popular mind. There are innumerable passages, however, to prove what he modestly affirms, that he " could have stept into a higher style." That he did not, considering whom he addressed, and for

IV INTRODUCTION.

what end, is his everlasting praise. No man of sense would wish the diction of Bunyan essentially different from what it is — " a well of pure old English undented."

As a Writer, Bunyan is chiefly known by his Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War. These Allegories have given their Author a place among the English Classics. Though slowly recognized as such in the world of letters, his position is now sure. To say nothing of others, the unanimous verdict of a critical jury composed of such men as Addison, Swift, Lord Karnes, Dr. Johnson, Cowper, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, Southey, Montgomery, Mackintosh and Macaulay, men differing so widely in other things, can never be set aside. Nor are American critics, from Dr. Franklin to Dr. Cheever, a whit behind their transatlantic brethren in their appreciation of Bunyan. In original creative genius, the unlettered Tinker of Elstow, the humble Baptist Pastor of Bedford, is ranked with Milton and Shakespeare. His name is enrolled among the few, the immortal names

That were not born to die."

In his own walk of literature, he is pronounced without a rival. He has succeeded where all others have failed. He has left all competition hopeless. If Milton is the prince of poets, Bunyan is the prince of dreamers — and his dreams are truly " of the stuff that life is made of" — and bright with the lustre of a better world.

It is not, however, the design of this Introduction to speak of Bunyan as the Master of Religious Allegory. It is to call attention rather to his other writings — writings less widely known, but in which the same splendid powers, sanctified by Divine Grace, are employed in a more direct, and, therefore, more eloquent manner, to unfold and enforce the Gospel of Christ. And we have spoken of his inimitable Allegories chiefly for the sake of the Practical Works

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winch are herewith presented to the public, in a form (to say the least) more readable than in any previous edition. And what inference is more natural or rational than this — that the man whom Grod so richly endowed to write the Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War, " in allegory so perfect as to hide itself, like light, while revealing through its colorless and undistorting medium all beside," might be expected to develope the same great principles, and the same superior qualities of mind, in other works to which he applied himself as a faithful minister of Jesus Christ.

These Practical Works will show that Bunyan is master of more arts than Allegory. He is equally master of Analysis, of Argument, of Illustration, of Appeal. Though too fond of typical interpretation, he is often very happy in Exposition. Though too minute and multifarious in his Divisions, he is generally very judicious in their Arrangement. His Observation is keen ; his experimental Insight is profound. His anticipation of objections is natural, and his answers just and forcible. His Descriptions are often perfect pictures. His Apostrophes are frequent and animated. His Dialogues, in which he abounds, are as life-like as if taken from men's lips. His Applications are by turns, terrible and tender, searching and consoling. If below Charnock in dignity, he is his equal in depth and discernment. If less systematic and learned than Owen, he is his rival in the knowledge of the heart, and of the devices of Satan, as well in the skilful use of the gospel as a divine relief. If at all inferior in fire and vehemence to Baxter, he is more plain, more picturesque, more evangelical, more startlingly or subduingly eloquent. If less tender than Flavel, he has superior originality, variety and strength. In fact, he unites in a remarkable degree the best qualities of all his celebrated contemporaries, and in some qualities probably excels them. His general style, though never polished, and,*at times, descending to coarseness, is generally clear and pure ; and

1*

VI INTRODUCTION.

remarkable for its vernacular words and idioms, penetrating the popular ear and heart beyond almost any other writer.

Men who have excelled in the pulpit have often failed with the pen. This was the case with Whitfield. But it was not so with Bunyan. Let any man compare the written discourses of these two distinguished men, and while admiring the general harmony of their views and spirit, he must be struck with their difference in mere mental power. In originality, discrimination, point, pungency, imagination, beauty and sublimity, Bunyan is the superior. Only in pathos is he rivalled by Whitfield.

While necessarily differing from Mr. Byland in some parts of the above estimate of Bunyan, we fully agree with him in the following opinion, expressed more than sixty years ago. " As a popular practical writer, on a great variety of important subjects for the use of the bulk of common Christians, I will dare to afiirm that he has few equals in the Christian world. I am persuaded there never has been a writer in the English language whose works have spread so wide, and have been read by so many millions of people, as Mr. Bunyan' s." Since then, in what language known to civilized man, have they not in part been translated ?

One of the most wonderful things in the history of this wonderful man is, that notwithstanding his want of early education ; his conversion from a course of great profaneness ; his daily itinerant labors at one period ; his imprisonment for twelve years together in Bedford jail, where he was obliged to support himself and family by tagging laces; and the constant demands for his preaching both in city and country after he came out; he was yet one of the most fruitful authors of his time. Not less than sixty pieces of his composition appear in the Catalogue of his friend Charles Doe, published soon after Bunyan' s death. Even this is incomplete, for it does not include his Saint's Privilege, Pastoral Letters and Dying Sayings, which raise the num-

INTRODUCTION. Vll

ber to sixty-six. This is about two on an average for every year of his ministerial life. And although a few of them are but short poems and tracts, most of them are elaborate treatises, on which Bunyan laid out the full strength of his mind and soul.

Bunyan' s Complete "Works, if printed in the same style as those of Andrew Fuller, issued by our Society, would probably fall little, if any, short of three thousand large octavo pages. Only about one-half have ever been re-printed in this country, in the most perfect edition, and the selection of those published is, in some cases, by no means creditable to the knowledge or judgment of the publisher.

Yet the quality of the whole is quite as remarkable as the quantity. His rich experience, his ready memory, his clear quick conscience, his rare gifts of genius, taste and imagination, impart a novelty, variety, beauty, freshness and force of illustration peculiarly his own. On the most common themes he is seldom common-place. How could he be indeed, and yet be John Bunyan ? " It is yet to be shown (says the author of the Chronological Critique) how, and why, and when he did so much, and did it so well."

The writings of Bunyan (excluding all apocryphal pieces, and including all that fairly belongs to him), we have already said amount to sixty-six. They may be conveniently classed for our present purpose under six heads — Allegorical, Poetical, Typical, Doctrinal (including his Catechetical and Controversial pieces) Biographical and Practical. Thus classed, about one-half of them come under the last of these heads, and of these the present series will be composed. The practical element is indeed largely infused into all the rest. His warmest controversies glow with a divine unction. Even his occasional errors, show his paramount endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Let him have this praise, even with his error on Church Communion.

It is well known that several pieces which go under the

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

name of Bunyan, such as the " Pilgrim's Progress, Part Third;" "The World to Come;" " Heart's Ease in Heart Trouble/' &c, are not his. They are not found in any good edition of his Works. But there is one piece, found in almost all editions, which is yet doubtful. As Critics, as Christians, and as Baptists, we should be glad to find clear testimony that it is Bunyan' s. It is, indeed, quoted and praised as his by Dr. Southey, by Alexander Philip, and by Hobert Philip; though the latter, with singular inconsistency, denies it to be Bunyan's, and in the next chapter quotes it as his, with the highest commendation. If Bunyan really wrote it, however, he must not only have greatly extended his reading, and polished his style, but also essentially changed his views of Open Communion in the latter part of his life. This does not seem at first sight probable, after he had twice written in defence of them ; though he lived fourteen years after his last defence appeared, and may have discovered his error.*

And here seems the proper place to notice the great injustice done to the Baptists on this subject, by Mr. Robert Philip, throughout his " Life and Times of Bunyan," and his " Chronological Critique." He uniformly speaks of them as actuated by " bigotry," and as "sprinkling" (not to say "immersing") other Christians "with the bitter waters of Close Communion." All this is in very bad taste, to say nothing of its temper. But the point of most importance is this. It leads Mr. Philip to say what is not true in fact, when the facts were before his eyes. Thus he quotes (C. C. p. 24.) Bunyan's noble and touching language pre-

* Precisely such a change, it is well known, took place in the views of the excellent Isaac Backus, the candid and discriminating author of the Church History of New England. If any one would see this subject of Communion set in the clearest light, let him read " Curtis on Communion," a fundamental and admirable work, just issued, by the American Baptist Publication Society, alike fitted to satisfy, improve and delight the inquiring Christian.

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fixed to his Confession of Faith (1672) : " I have not hitherto been so sordid as to stand to a doctrine, right or wrong ; much less when so weighty an argument as above eleven years' imprisonment is continually dogging me to weigh and pause (poise ?) and poise again, the grounds and foundations of those principles for which I have thus suffered. But having not only at my trial asserted them, but also since, even all this tedious tract of time, in cool blood, a thousand times, by the word of God, examined them, and found them good, I cannot, I dare not now revolt, or deny the same, on pain of eternal damnation." Mr-. Philip adds, " This, solemn as it is, refers to his Open Communion principles as well as to his Creed." It is sufficient to say in reply, that Bunyan himself expressly distinguishes between them, styling one class " the principles for which he suffered/' and calling the other, with great modesty, his " present judgment." It is not impossible, therefore, however unlikely, that this " judgment" may have afterward been changed; and that the "Exhortation to Peace and Unity" grew out of the change, and was intended to justify it in the gentlest manner possible. One thing is certain, that the Author of that admirable " Exhortation" was a Strict Communion Baptist ; and his clear judgment, large views, and lovely temper, are the best rebuke to Mr. Philip's rhetoric on Close Communion.

It was a just remark of Dr. Southey that the works of Bunyan have been printed without any regard to Arrangement. He suggests the Order of Time (if ascertained),, as the best , since it would enable the critical reader to trace the progress of Bunyan' s intellectual developement. Mr. Philip in his Chronological Critique (to which we have repeatedly referred) has sought to follow out this suggestion, by the aid of Charles Doe's " Catalogue Table." But that Catalogue avowedly gives the order of publication, not of composition, and these two differ widely. Mr. Philip,

X INTRODUCTION.

through forgetfulness of this difference, falls into some singular errors. The most remarkable one is a denial of the prison origin of the Pilgrim's Progress; and this solely on the ground that it was not published till 1677, five years after Bunyan was set at liberty. This novel opinion of Mr. Philip, is not only contrary to all the other evidence, but actually contradicts Bunyan himself; as has been fully shown by George Offor, Esq., of London, in his noble Introduction to the Hanserd Knollys' Society's edition of the Pilgrim.

It is, however, but just to Mr. Philip to say, that notwithstanding these unfortunate mistakes, his Chronological Critique contains many beautiful and valuable thoughts, and many just criticisms on Bunyan's successive works, of which we may yet find occasion to avail ourselves for the advantage of the present edition. Most critics have confined their remarks to the Allegories, or to the Grace Abounding. The more credit, therefore, is due to one, who, for the first time, has attempted to trace the characteristic merits and defects of Bunyan's other works — -and this, as far as he could, in the order of their successive production; thus throwing over them new and engaging lights of association, comparison, circumstances, and progress.

The Arrangement of the Practical Works in this edition is the first that has been attempted on a systematic plan. As it is designed, however, for general readers, (rather than for critics,) the particular plan pursued has been chosen for their benefit. The main principle of it is to follow the Order of the Author's experience in the work of the Ministry. As this corresponds with the order of Nature and of Scripture, we prefer it to all others for practical purposes. Bunyan himself thus describes its successive stages :

"In my preaching of the word, I took special notice of this one thing, namely, that the Lord did lead me to begin where his word begins with sinners} that is, to condemn all

INTRODUCTION XI

flesh, and to open and allege, that the curse of God by the law, doth belong to, and lay hold on, all men as they come into the world because of sin. Now this part of my work I fulfilled with great sense; for the terrors of the law, and guilt for my transgressions, lay heavy on my conscience. I preached what I felt, what I smartingly did feel; even that under which my poor soul did groan and tremble to astonishment. Indeed I have been as one sent to them from the dead. I went myself in chains to speak to them in chains; and carried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to beware of. — Thus I went on for the space of two years; crying out against men's sins, and their fearful state because of them. After which, the Lord came in upon my own soul, with some sure peace and comfort through Christ; for he did give me many sweet discoveries of his blessed grace through him. Wherefore now I altered my preaching, (for still I preached what I saw and felt.) Now, therefore, I did much labor to hold forth Jesus Christ in all his offices, relations, and benefits unto the world ; and did strive, also, to discover, to condemn, and remove those false supports and props on which the world doth lean, and by them fall and perish. On these things, also, I staid as long as the other."

This is the way in which Bunyan was led on, in the execution of his ministerial work, by the Spirit of God. We say, the Spirit of God, with emphasis ; for the saving effects produced by his ministry demonstrate the guiding and cooperating influence of the Holy Spirit of Truth, whose revealed office it is to " convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." Not that God is limited to our methods. He has his own reserved resources of Sovereign Wisdom, as well as Sovereign Grace. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. He can, at any moment, surprise and encourage us by new and unexpected manifestations of mercy. The combinations of his wisdom, like his understanding, are infinite. But his

Xll INTRODUCTION.

ordinary method of bringing souls to Christ, is that of which we speak; wherein he calls us to be workers together with him, and in which he gives us the promise of his support and blessing to the end of the world.

Let it be admitted that there was something peculiar in the case of Bunyan, both as a man, and as a Minister. Yet that peculiarity does not belong to the nature, or tendency of the Holy Spirit's influence, but only to its degree and depth, as modified by acting through so rich a combination of faculties, with so little aid from without. And this explains the reason of Bunyan' s popularity with the great mass of experimental Christians, every where. He opens to them his own deeply exercised heart, and their hearts throb with vital sympathy. He goes beyond them, but still they feel that he is one of them. He holds in his hand a key that opens the most intricate wards of their own religious experience. He at once interprets, confirms, and exalts their pious emotions while he describes his own, and shows them the just and solid foundation for those emotions in the Scriptures — in the revealed character and glory of God, in the perfection of his law, in the terrible evil of sin, in the sufferings of Christ as a Redeemer, in the sanctifying influences of the Spirit, in the beauty of holiness, in the brevity of life, in the insignificance of worldly good, and the all-absorbing greatness of an advancing eternity, with its judicial awards of human destiny. On all these things his spiritual discernment is wonderful. And hence from his pen, now, as once from his living lips, the Gospel comes, "not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. " And hence, also, however often read, his writings are always new.

In pursuance, therefore, of this process in the Author's ministerial course, the several volumes issued by our Society will be arranged. In the present volume we shall group together the works most fitted to awaken the conscience of the care-

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less; in the next volume, those most suited to invite and encourage awakened sinners to come to Christ for salvation, by unfolding his gracious offices, relations and benefits; and in those volumes which follow, to search the spirits of professors, and build up sincere believers in the full life, power, and joy of their holy faith. Thus each volume, also, being complete of itself, may be sold separately, and may be employed as a specific means of effecting specific good.

But something more than arrangement has been attempted in this edition. Treatises have been divided into chapters; paragraphs brought into their natural connexion; sentences ehortened, and made clear by proper punctuation; references rearranged and verified ; a few pleonasms retrenched ; some obsolete words changed; and ungrammatical forms, as well as errors of the press, corrected. Something has also been done to remove the perplexity of too minute divisions. In short, the work of the Editor has been directed, without altering the texture of Bunyan's style, to show to the reader "how forcible are right words" on religious topics when uttered in pure old English, from a soul like Bunyan's.

When we look around us, and see what is done by private publishers, by Publication Societies, by artists and by critics, by trade sales, and by Colporteur operations, to multiply, embellish and circulate the Pilgrim's Progress, &c. the words of his friend Charles Doe, "the Struggler (as he calls himself) for the preservation of Bunyan's works," seem to have in them more than the mere enthusiasm of friendship, or the forecast of critical sagacity. Written a hundred and sixty years since, they sound now as if endowed with

-something of prophetic strain.

" Christians in town and country (he observes) can testifythat their comforts under his ministry have been to an admiration, so that their joy showed itself by much weeping. His Pilgrim's Progress wins so smoothly upon the affections, and

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so insensibly distils the Gospel into them, that a hundred thousand have been printed [within thirteen years] in England ; besides that, it hath been printed in France, Holland, New England, Welsh; whereby the Author has become famous. And it may be the cause of spreading his other Gospel books over the European and American world, and in process of time, it may be, to the whole universe."

Of the particular works, of an awakening character, associated in the present volume, a few words will now be said.

The first (from which the volume takes its name), " The Greatness of the Soul," is scarcely known among us, though one of the noblest of Bunyan's practical works. It was originally delivered in a series of discourses at Pinner's Hall, London, and was published in 1682, the same year with the " Holy "War." It is undoubtedly the basis of that fine Allegory — in the opinion of Dr. Barnes, " the greatest book written by uninspired man." "This consideration itself (says Mr. Philip), throws much light upon both the Allegory and the Pinner's Hall Sermon. They are worthy of each other. Indeed, had not Bunyan been pondering the Greatness, and thus, the worth of the Soul, he could not have found in it the Population of Mansouh nor even its Mao-istracv- On the other hand, had not the Powers and Affections of the Soul taken allegoric forms and military action, which derive life from well known men and events, even he could not have condensed the massive thoughts, nor struck out the brilliant lights, that abound in the Sermon. This hint renders criticism utterly needless in the case of the Treatise on the Soul. It is the mine out of which he dug all the ore of his Allegory."

From these remarks, it is evident nothing could be more appropriate, in view of the relation between the two works, than that the Holy War should be immediately followed by the Greatness of the Soul. The comparison between them must be full of interest, independent of the great

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merits of the latter in itself, and in its relation to the other works which follow it in this volume. Indeed, there is reason to believe (as Mr. Philip observes, Life and Times, p. 453) that this is the sermon, or rather series of sermons on the Greatness of the Soul, which Dr. Owen attended with such admiration, and which prompted his emphatic reply to Charles II. already mentioned "They account (adds Mr. Philip) for the electrifying effects of his Ministry." To say nothing of other parts, what has modern eloquence to offer more awfully sublime than the passage, commencing page 137 of this volume on the Loss of the Soul?

The second work, entitled " Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of A Lost Soul," naturally follows, as it seems to take up the subject where the other leaves it; and illustrates in a thousand lights the condition of a lost soul, especially in the intermediate state between Death and the Resurrection. It is a sort of running comment on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the sixteenth chapter of Luke; but such a comment as no other man could write except John Bunyan. Here, he indeed, appears a Boanerges, and many of his thoughts are more terrible than thunderbolts to the guilty soul. "Hell is naked before him, and Destruction hath no covering." It is remarkable that this, the first of Bunyan' s practical works, was written about the same time with Baxter's " Call to the Unconverted," in 1657. It is not certain which was published first. Their object is the same; their method only is different, illustrating the variety of their Lord' s gifts ; the books had like power, popularity and usefulness. Baxter was thirteen years older than Bunyan, and had better advantages of education. Baxter pleads and persuades, more like a practised pious writer; Bunyan warns and entreats sinners, "as one sent to them from the dead." Mr. Philip justly observes, " There was, from the first, in Bunyan's spirit, as in Whitfield's, a ' secret place of thunder/ and ( a fountain of tears/ that discharged