Works of John Bunyan Volume I Part 16

260. Vol. i., p. 741.

261. This jug is in possession of Mrs. Hillyard, widow of the late Mr. Hillyard, who was minister of the chapel for fifty years, and died in 1839. One tradition says the jug was used as noted in the text; another that his broth was brought to 'chapel' in it, for his Sunday dinner, in the vestry.

262. Vol. ii., p. 737-739.

263. 2 Cor 1:5; vol. ii., p. 735.

264. Vol. ii., p. 700.

265. Vol. i., p. 47.

266. Vol. i., p. 278; and vol. iii., p. 13.

267. Vol. ii., p. 593.

268. Vol. ii., p. 594.--Heroic man! British Christians are most deeply indebted to thee, and thy fellow-sufferers, for the high privileges they now enjoy. May thy name be had in everlasting remembrance.

269. Vol. i., p. 62.

270. It has been doubted whether he was justified in thus making excursions from the prison. This may be answered by the question--Was Peter justified in leaving the prison, and going to the prayer-meeting at Mary's house? Acts 12:7-19.

271. Vol. iii., p. 19.

272. Rapin.

273. For an accurate copy of this declaration, see vol. iii., p.

21.

274. The ecclesiastical year commenced in March. The tenth month means December.

275. For a copy of these licenses, see vol. iii., p. 24.

276. 4to, vol. vii., p. 75.

277. I am greatly indebted to J. P. Brown, Esq., James Street, Islington, for directing my attention to these letters.

278. Vol. iii., pp. 21-29.

279. Vol. iii., p. 27.

280. Vol. i., p. 47; No. 319.

281. Jukes' History of Bunyan's Church, p. 24.

282. Continuation of Life to Grace Abounding.

283. It is generally believed at Bedford, that, after Bunyan was imprisoned, his family removed from Elstow to Bedford, in order that they might have more frequent access to him; and that, on his release, he made his abode there. His humble dwelling was much like that of his father at Elstow, most una.s.suming; just such a cottage as a poor wounded sinner would feel at home in when visiting his pastor for advice. The late Rev. J. Geard, of Hitchin, in his Diary, says--'July 17, 1774. I preached, for the first time, at Bedford, to the successors of good Mr. Bunyan's congregation, and the next day called at the house where he used to live, and went into the room that tradition reported was his study. This house, though it had been the habitation of so truly great a man, was now let for about 40s. per annum.' Allowing for the difference in the value of money, Bunyan would have now paid 16s. a-year rent for his humble abode. It will be always matter of regret, that it was not purchased and preserved by the members of the 'Old Meeting,' when it was offered them before its destruction; we procured, however, a drawing of it, which is here engraved. The cottage was in the parish of St. Cuthbert, in the street opposite the meeting-house, and here Bunyan lived, while he was pastor, from 1681 to 1688.

284. Pilgrim, vol. iii., p. 198.

285. Vol. ii., p. 649.

286. Vol. ii., p. 538.

287. Vol. ii., p. 219.

288. Vol. i., p. 757.

289. Vol. ii., 649.

290. Vol. ii., p. 638.

291. Vol. ii., p. 641.

292. Vol. iii., p. 758.

293. Christian Church, 8vo, 1747, p. 280.

294. The General Doctrine of Toleration, applied to Free Communion, p. 8. George Whitefield most warmly approved the communion of all G.o.d's saints with each other. This, I must own, more particularly endears Mr. Bunyan to my heart. He was of a catholic spirit. The want of water (adult baptism), with this man of G.o.d, was no bar to outward Christian communion. And I am persuaded that if, like him, we were more deeply and experimentally baptized into the benign and gracious influences of the blessed Spirit, we should be less baptized into the waters of strife about circ.u.mstantials and non-essentials.

For being thereby rooted and grounded in the love of G.o.d, we should necessarily be constrained to think and let think, bear with and forbear one another in love, and without saying, I am of Paul, Apollos, or Cephas; have but one grand, laudable, disinterested strife, namely, who should live, preach, and exalt the ever-loving, altogether-lovely Jesus most.

295. Vol. iii., p. 398.

296. He hesitated as to the propriety of publis.h.i.+ng it, probably from the influence of the weighty opinion of Martin Luther. 'The people are greatly delighted with allegories and similitudes, and therefore Christ oftentimes useth them; for they are, as it were, certain pictures which set forth things as if they were painted before our eyes. Paul was a marvelous cunning workman in handling allegories, but Origen and Jerome turn plain Scriptures into unfit and foolish allegories. Therefore, to use allegories, it is oftentimes a very dangerous thing' [Com. on Gal. iv. 21]. Such instructions, from one he so much venerated, curbed his exuberant imagination, and made him doubly watchful, lest allegorizing upon subjects of such vast importance might 'darken counsel by words without knowledge.'

297. Vol. iii., p. 739.

298. Even Dean Swift, in his popular Letter to a Young Divine, says, 'I have been better entertained, and more informed by a few pages in the Pilgrim's Progress, than by a long discourse upon the will and the intellect, and simple and complex ideas.' Nothing short of extraordinary merit could have called for such a eulogy from so severe a critic.

299. Vol. iii., p. 166.

300. Within the Editor's memory, polished writers hesitated to name our incomparable allegorist, on account of his humble name and education. Thus Cowper sang--

'I name thee not, lest so despised a name Should move a sneer at thy deserved fame.'

Now nearly all men find it difficult to do that name sufficient honour. One of the most splendid steam-s.h.i.+ps in America is called after his name. A magnificent s.h.i.+p, for the China trade, was built at Aberdeen by Walter Hood & Co., which so swiftly traversed the ocean as to have made the voyage from Canton to London in ninety-nine days, without any aid from steam. This beautiful and grand specimen of the perfection of naval architecture is named The John Bunyan.

Roman Catholics have printed large editions of the Pilgrim, with slight omissions, for circulation among the young under the care of the nuns. Our English fanatics have committed a crime that would make a papist blush. A Rev. E. Neale has clumsily altered the Pilgrim's Progress, that Bunyan might appear to teach the things which Bunyan's righteous heaven-born soul abhorred. It is a piece of matchless self-conceit to think of mending that which has been admired by the wisest of the human race in all nations, and which has obtained an unbounded popularity. Such an attempt to alter it is an acknowledgment that all the boasted power of Oxford, Exeter, and Rome, are unable to invent a tale to supersede the matchless beauties of the work of our spiritually-minded, heavenly-a.s.sisted brazier. If Mr. Neale should, at any time, alter a deed and the punishment for that felony is transportation for life. A similar forgery was committed in a recent London edition of Dr. Cheever's Hill Difficulty. The Tractarians, doubtless, commit these scandalous outrages upon the Fathers, and all other writers, and deserve the contempt of every honest, upright mind.

301. Vol. i., p. 473.

302. Vol. i., p. 480.

303. Two views of this meeting-house, an exterior and interior, after its conversion into a workshop, are given in the Plate facing page i. of this Memoir. In the interior, part of the beams and pillars that supported the gallery still remain.

304. Toplady's Works, vol. iv., p. 463.

305. Vol. iii., p. 637.