And I reckon I shall not be out of the way if I observe and say, What hath the devil or his agents gotten by putting our great gospel minister, Bunyan, in prison? for in prison, as before mentioned, he wrote many excellent books, that have published to the world his great grace, and great truth, and great judgment, and great ingenuity; and to instance, in one, 'THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS,' be hath suited to the life of a traveller so exactly and pleasantly, and to the life of a Christian, that this very book, besides the rest, hath done the superstitious sort of men and their practice more harm, or rather good, as I may call it, than if he had been let alone at his meeting at Bedford to preach the gospel to his own auditory, as it might have fallen out; for none but priest-ridden people know how to cavil at it, it wins so smoothly upon their affections, and so insensibly distils the gospel into them; and hath been printed in France, Holland, New England, and in Welsh, and about a hundred thousand in England, whereby they are made some means of grace, and the author become famous, and may be the cause of spreading his other gospel books over the European and American world, and, in process of time, may be so to the whole universe.'

At the assizes, a plea of guilty was recorded; | and although numerous prisoners, charged with crimes, were liberated at the coronation of Charles II., his case did not come within the proclamation, and he appeared to be doomed to hopeless imprisonment or to an untimely end. Happily, the regulations of the jail allowed him the use of his Bible and Fox's Book of Martyrs, and of the materials for writing. His time was beguiled with tagging laces to provide for his poor family; in praying with and exhorting his fellow-prisoners, and in the composing of books, which were extensively published, for the instruction of the world. He soon became, like Joseph in Pharaoh's prison, a favourite with the jailer, who was at times severely threatened for the privileges he allowed this prisoner for Christ. Among the books that he wrote in prison, we shall find that the most prominent and important one was the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' Charles Doe, who was a personal friend of Mr. Bunyan's, and who called him an apostle of our age, if we have any,' thus narrates the fact in his Struggler for the Preservation of Mr. John Bunyan's Labours:' In the year 1660 (being the year King Charles returned to England), having preached about five years, the rage of gospel enemies was so great, that, November 12th, they took him prisoner, at a meeting of good people, and put him in Bedford jail; and there he continued about six years, and then was let out again, 1666. Being the year of the burning of London, and a little after his release, they took him again, at a meeting, and put him in the same jail, where he lay six years more. And after he was released again, they took him again, and put him in prison the third time; but that proved but for about half a year. Whilst he was thus twelve years and a half in prison, he wrote several of his published books, as by many of their epistles appears; as Pray by the Spirit,' Holy City,' Resurrection,' 'Grace Abounding,' and others; also, 'THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS,' as himself and many others have said.' Mr. Doe thus argues upon the fact:

this den, and he thus described it:-The men and women felons associate together; their night rooms are two dungeons -only one court for debtors and felons-no infirmary-no bath.—Howard's Lazarettoes and Prisons, 4to, 1789, p. 150. Well might Bunyan call it a den!' The gate-house was pulled down in 1765, and the prison was demolished very soon after Howard had unveiled its gloomy wretchedness. The bridge was only fourteen feet wide; the dungeons must have been small indeed. How strange an apartment did God select for his servant, in which to write this important book!

A deeply-interesting paper usually appended to Bunyan's Works, folio, 1692. 2 Upon his first release from prison, in 1666, he published Grace Abounding,' and in the title-page states also what he hath met with in prison. All which was written by his own hand there.' The Preface to A Defence of Justification' is dated from prison, 1671. So his 'Confession:'-“Thine in bonds for the gospel.'

This agrees with Bunyan's marginal glossary, as to the place where he was located when visited with this wondrous dream. As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a den; and I laid me down i that place to sleep; and as I slept I dreamed a dream.' The marginal note to that place where was a den,' is THE JAIL.' This was first added to the fourth edition, 1680; he had probably been asked, what was meant by the den, and from that time, in every edition, he publishes that his meaning was, 'THE JAIL.' That Bunyan attached much importance to these marginal notes, as a KEY to his works, is plainly stated in his verses to the reader of the Holy War:'

* The Margent.

And thus it was: I writing of the way
And race of saints, in this our gospel day,
Fell suddenly into an allegory

About their journey, and the way to glory.

In more than twenty things, which I set down;
This done, I twenty more had in my crown;
And they again began to multiply,

Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
Nay then, thought I, if that you breed so fast,
I'll put you by yourselves, lest you at last
Should prove ad infinitum, and eat out
The book that I already am about.

This simple statement requires no comment. In jail he was writing some book of the way and race of saints,' most probably his own spiritual experience, when the idea came over his mind to represent a Christian's course from his conviction of sin to his arrival in glory, as a journey from the city of destruction to the celestial city. This is the opinion, very elegantly expressed, of Dr. Cheever; As you read the "Grace 'Abounding,' you are ready to say at every step, Here is the future author of the "Pilgrim's Progress." It is as if you stood by the side of some great sculptor, and watched every movement of his chisel, having had his design explained to you before, so that at every blow some new trait of beauty in the future statue comes clearly into view.' While thus employed, he was suddenly struck with the thought of his great allegory, and at once commenced writing it, and in a short time his first part was completed. It may be inferred that he wrote these two books about the same time, because what he omitted in the first edition of Grace Abounding' he also omitted in the first edition of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' but inserted it in the subsequent editions of both these books; one of these is his singular illustration of gospel truth from the unclean beasts, being those that neither chewed the cud nor divided the hoof-one of the conversations between Hopeful and Christian. This is also introduced as an addition to ‘Grace Abounding,' No. 71. It was familiar with Bunyan to

connect the term 'den' with his cell in the prison. Thus, when narrating his spiritual imprisonment in Doubting Castle, the Giant, instead of ordering his prisoners to their cell or dungeon, says, 'Get you down into your DEN again.' So also in the preface to 'Grace Abounding, 'he thus addresses his converts: 'I being taken from you in presence, and so tied up that I cannot perform that duty that from God doth lie upon me to youward, I now once again, as before, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, so now from the lion's DEN do look yet after you all, greatly longing to see your safe arrival into the desired haven.'

The continuation of Grace Abounding' was written by ‘a true friend and long acquaintance' of Mr. Bunyan's; That his good end may be known as well as his evil beginning, I have taken upon me from my knowledge, and the best account given by other of his friends, to piece this to the thread, too soon broken off, and so lengthen it out to his entering upon eternity.' In this we are told of his long imprisonment, and that IN PRISON HE WROTE the Pilgrim's Progress,' First Part. The mode in which it was written, and the use made of it, in illustrating his addresses to his fellowprisoners, has been handed down by one of themMr. Marsom, an estimable and pious preacher, who was confined with Mr. Bunyan in Bedford jail, for conscience' sake. His grand-daughter married Mr. Gurney, the grandfather of the late Baron Gurney, and of W. B. Gurney, Esq., his brother, the justlyvenerated Treasurer of the Baptist Missionary Society, and he furnished me with the following facts: Thomas Marsom was an ironmonger, and pastor of the Baptist Church at Luton; he died in January 1726, at a very advanced age. This Thomas Marsom was a fellow-prisoner with Bunyan; and my grandfather, who knew him well, was in the habit of repeating to his son, my father, many interesting circumstances which he had heard from him, connected with his imprisonment. One of these was, that Bunyan read the manuscript of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' to his fellow-prisoners, requesting their opinion upon it. The descriptions naturally excited a little pleasantry, and Marsom, who was of a sedate turn, gave his opinion against the publication; but on reflection, requested permission to take the manuscript to his own cell, that he might read it alone. Having done so, he returned it with an earnest recommendation that it should be published.' How easily can we imagine the despised Christians in prison for their Lord's sake, thus beguiling the dreary hours. How admirably could the poor preacher illustrate his discourses to his fellow-prisoners by the various adventures of his pilgrims. IIe had received calls to join more wealthy churches, but he affectionately cleaved to his poor flock at Bedford- Sup

pose his exhortation to have been founded on these words, Freely ye have received, freely give;' how admirably could he introduce all the jesuitic subtleties of Bye-ends, Money-love, and his party, and refute the arguments they had been taught by one Gripe-man of Love Gain, a market town in the county of Coveting, in the north. Imagine him to be exhorting his fellow-prisoners on the Terrors of the Lord,' and you would anticipate his leading in the burdened Christian, recount ing the awful dream of the day of judgment, at the Interpreter's house, and narrating his adventures in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Or when preaching on the words, Resist the devil,' who like him could recount the fight with Apollyon?

any

These facts are placed before the reader lest one should for a moment entertain a doubt which would cast a shade over one of the glories of the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' It is an imperishable monument to the folly and wickedness of persecution to prevent the spread of religious principles. The enemies of the Christian faith imprisoned John Bunyan to prevent his preaching the gospel to a few poor people, and by it he preaches and will preach to millions of every clime. Keep these facts in recollection-the evidence of C. Doe who had it from Bunyan's own mouth; his own key'den,'' the jail ;' the testimony of one who long enjoyed his friendship, published within four years of his decease; the tradition handed down by a fellow-prisoner-none of which evidence was ever denied by the advocates for persecution. If we refuse such testimony, neither should we believe if Bunyan was permitted to come from the invisible world and proclaim its truth with the trump of an archangel.

6

There are very strong internal proofs that the Pilgrim was written long before it was published. A second edition issued from the same press, by the same publishers, in the same year, 1678; and there is found a striking difference in the spelling of many words in these two editions, such as 'drownded' is corrected to drowned,' 'Slow of Despond to Slough of Despond,' chaulk' to 'chalk,' 'travailler' to 'traveller,' countrey' to 'country,' 'raggs' to rags,' brust' to burst.' This may readily be accounted for by the author's having kept the work in manuscript for some years before it was printed, and that he had at length consented to send it to the printers as he had written it. There is an apparent difference of twenty years in the orthography of these two books, which were published in the same year, besides some considerable additions of new characters in the second edition. The printer appears to have followed the manuscript as to spelling, punctuation, capitals, and italics. It proves, that

notwithstanding his very numerous and important engagements, Bunyan found time to cultivate and improve his talents in composition, between the time when he wrote the first, and published the second edition.

The reason why it was not published for several years after his release, appears to have arisen from the difference of opinion expressed by his friends as to the propriety of printing a book which treated so familiarly the most solemn subjects.

'Well, when I had thus put my ends together,
I show'd them others, that I might see whether
They would condemn them, or them justify:

And some said, Let them live; some, Let them die. Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so. Some said, It might do good; others said, No.' Somewhat similar to this, was the conference of dissenting ministers when Sunday Schools were first attempted; the desecration of the Lord's Day was pleaded against them, and it was only by a very small majority that institutions were sanctioned, which advanced the spread of Divine truth with a rapidity as extraordinary as the spread of the missionary spirit, or even as is the increased speed of travelling by the aid of steam.

Thus it was debated whether the Pilgrim should walk forth or not, fearing lest the singularity of his dress should excite vain or trivial thoughts in the readers, like the disturbance at Vanity Fair; or it might arise from a fear lest the various characters and dialogues should be considered as approaching in the slightest degree to the drama. It is impossible to account for the different feelings excited in the minds of men by reading the same narrative in which all are equally interested. In this case the fear was, lest it should tend to excite a light or trifling spirit, while the solemn realities of eternity were under consideration. In most cases, reading this volume has had a solemnizing effect upon the mind. Some have tried to read it, but have shut it up with fear, because it leads directly to the inquiry, Have I felt the burden of sin? Have I fled for refuge? Others have been deterred, because it has such home-thrusts at hypocrisy, and such cutting remarks upon those who profess godliness, but in secret are wanton and godless. The folly of reliance upon an imperfect obedience to the law for the pardon of sin, repeatedly and faithfully urged, is a hard and humbling lesson. It mercilessly exposes the worthlessness of all those things which are most prized by the worldling. No book has so continued and direct a tendency to solemn self-examination. Every character that is drawn makes a powerful appeal to the conscience, and leads almost irresistibly to the mental inquiry, Lord, is it I?' No work is calculated to infuse deeper solemnity into the mind of an attentive reader. Well might

་

Mr. Macaulay in his review say, 'The allegory of Bunyan has been read by many thousands with tears;' or as some pious man has written upon the fly-leaf of the fourth edition, 1680

'Sleep on, good man,

Continue still thy dreame. Your allegories do,

I think, resemble

Some landskip vision

At which souls tremble."

In addition to the serious opposition of his friends to the publication of the Pilgrim, we should also consider the author's other engagements. After so long, so harassing, so unjust an imprisonment, much of his time must have been spent in restoring order to his house and in his church; in paying pastoral visits, recovering lost stations which had been suspended during the violence of persecution, and in extending his devotional and ministerial exercises in all the villages around Bedford which were within his reach. Such was the great extent of his labours in that and the adjoining counties, as to obtain for him the title of Bishop of Bedford. As his popular talents became known, the sphere of his usefulness extended, so that an eye-witness testified, that when he preached in London, ‘if there were but one day's notice given, there would be more people come together to hear him preach, than the meeting-house could hold. I have seen, to hear him preach, about twelve hundred at a morning lecture, by seven o'clock on a working day, in the dark winter time.' Such popularity must have occasioned a considerable tax upon his time, in addition to which he was then warmly engaged in his controversy on Baptism, and in some admirable practical works. These were probably some of the reasons why a humble, pious author, hesitated for several years to publish a work, on the practical bearings of which his friends had expressed such opposite opinions. At length he made up his mind

1

3

'Since you are thus divided,

I print it will; and so the case decided.'

By Thomas Collins, written on the blank leaf of the fourth edition, 1680, presented to the Editor by Bullar, Esq., Southampton.

2 Charles Doe, in the Struggler. 3 This controversy was, whether or not water-baptism is a pre-requisite to receiving the Lord's Supper, and who is to be the judge as to the mode of its administration. Some of the

churches agreed with the Church of England as to their power to decree rites and ceremonies. Not so John Bunyan. He considered that this question should be left to the personal decision of every candidate. The fruits of the new birth, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which alone is the door of admission to the Saviour's family, was, in his opinion, the only question to be decided by the church, as a pre-requisite to admission to the table of his Lord. See Mat. ii. 11; Mar. i. 8; Lu. iii. 16; Jn. i. 26-33; compared with He. vi. 2, and Ep. iv. 5.

VOL. III.

CHAPTER III.

BUNYAN'S QUALIFICATIONS 10 WRITE THE 'PILGRIM'S PRO

GRESS' SANCTIFIED BY PRISON DISCIPLINE.

That the author of the Pilgrim was pre-eminently qualified to write such a work is proved by its vast circulation, and by the extraordinary interest which it created, and has kept alive, for nearly two centuries, throughout the world. This ought not to excite surprise, when it is recollected that it was the production of a man profoundly learned in all the subtleties of the human heart; deeply skilled in detecting error and sophistry; thoroughly humbled under a sense of his own unworthiness. He was baptized into the Divine truths of Christianity by the searching, wounding, and healing influences of the Holy Spirit. Shut up for twelve years with his Bible, all the rags of popery and heathenism were stripped off, and he came out a living body of divinity, comparatively free from mere human doctrines or systems. The spirit of the prophets and apostles breathes in his language. His was an education which all the academies and universities in the world could not have communicated. He was deeply learned in that wisdom that is from above,' Ja. iii. 17, and can be acquired only in the school of Christ. His spirit was nurtured by close, unwearied, prayerful searching of the Word of life-by perpetual watchfulness over the workings of his spirit, and by inward communion with God. He knew well what was meant by ‘groanings which cannot be uttered,' Ro. viii. 26, as well as by being 'caught up,' as it were, to 'the third heaven,' even to paradise,' and in his spirit to hear unspeakable words which it is not possible for man to utter.' 2 Co. xii. 4. Previous to his imprisonment he had gone through every severe spiritual trial: with the Psalmist he had sunk in deep mire where there was no standing; the powers of darkness, like the floods, overflow me,' Ps. Ixix. 2; and with him he could also sing, I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up,' Ps. xxx. 1; Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave,' Ps. xxx. 3; 'He brought me up out of an horrible pit,' Ps. xL 2; Thou hast healed me;' Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.' In his happier days, even while in a gloomy jail, he felt that he was an inhabitant of that invisible, holy, spiritual Jerusalem, the universal church of Christ, encompassed by the Lord as a wall of fire, and the glory in the midst of her.' He lived in an atmosphere, and used a language, unknown to the wisdom of this world, and which a poet-laureate mistook for reveries, for the hot and cold fits of a spiritual ague,' or for the paroxysms of disease.* His mind was deeply imbued with all that was

4 Southey's Life of Bunyan, xxxii.

2

gion. In proportion as his Christian course became pure and lovely, so his former life must have been surveyed with unmitigated severity and abhorrence.

These mental conflicts are deeply interesting; they arose from an agonized mind-a sincere and determined spirit roused by Divine revelation, opening before his astonished but bewildered mind, solemn, eternal realities. He that sits in the scorner's seat may scoff at them, while he who is earnestly inquiring after the way, the truth, and the life, will examine them with prayerful seriousness. In after-life, the recollection of these emotions filled his lips with words that pierced his hearers.

When at liberty, his energetic eloquence had attracted to his sermons every class. It is said that the great Dr. John Owen was asked by the King how a man of his learning could attend to hear a tinker preach, he replied, May it please your Majesty, had I the tinker's abilities, I would most gladly relinquish my learning.' Thus did a man, profoundly versed in scholastic literature, and that sanctified by piety, bow to the superiority of the Spirit's teaching. The unlettered tinker led captive, by his consecrated natural eloquence, one of the most eminent divines of his day.

Considering the amazing popularity of the Pilgrim's Progress,' and its astonishing usefulness to all classes of mankind, in all the countries of the earth, may we not attribute its author's deep and hallowed feelings, severe trials, and every lesson of Divine wisdom he received, as being intended by the Holy Spirit to fit him to write this surprising Dream?

Bunyan was a master of rhetoric, and logic, and moral philosophy, without studying those sciences, or perhaps even understanding the terms by which they are designated. His Bible (wondrous book!) was his library. All his genius was nurtured from the living fountain of truth; it purified his style, and adapted his work, by its simplicity and energy, to every understanding. His key to its mysteries was earnest, holy prayer; and musing over the human heart, and watching the operations of nature, afforded him an ample illustration of its sacred truths. His labour in tagging laces required no application of mind, so that his time for study was every moment of his life that he could save from sleep, and even then his ever-active spirit was busy in dreams, many of which contained valuable lessons, so that his mind became most richly stored, and was perpetually overflowing.

Nor must it be forgotten, that in addition to his heavenly, he possessed peculiar earthly qualifications for his important work. He had been the very ringleader in all manner of vice and ungodliness. John Ryland's description of his character is written with peculiar pungency: No man of common sense and common integrity can deny, that Bunyan, the tinker of Elstow, was a practical atheist, a worthless, contemptible infidel, a vile rebel to God and goodness, a common profligate, a soul-despising, a soul-murdering, a soul-damuing thoughtless wretch, as could exist on the face of the earth. Now be astonished, O heaven, to eternity, and wonder, O earth and hell! while time endures. Behold this very man become a miracle of mercy, a mirror of wisdom, goodness, holiness, truth, and love. See his polluted soul cleansed and adorned by Divine grace, his guilt pardoned, the Divine law inscribed upon his heart, the Divine image or the resemblance of God's moral perfections impressed upon his soul." He had received the mere rudiments of education, but vicious habits had almost utterly' blotted out of his memory every useful lesson; so that he must have had, when impressed with Divine truth, great determination to have enabled him not only to recover the instruction which he had received in his younger days, but even to have added to it such stores of valuable information. In this, his natural quickness of perception and retentive memory must have been of extreme value. Having been mixed up intimately with every class of men, and seen them in their most unguarded moments, it enabled him to draw his characters in such vivid colours, and with such graphic accuracy. Filled with an inspiration which could be drawn from the Bible alone, he has delineated characters as touching and interesting to us in the nineteenth century as they were to our pilgrim forefathers of a bygone