Works of John Bunyan Volume I Part 174

1. How many thousands rush into the presence of G.o.d with unholy, thoughtless familiarity, by repeating the form called the Lord's prayer. His infinite holiness should make us tremblingly apply to his throne of grace. In the name of the Redeemer, and in his mediation alone, the sinner can find access, and be emboldened to draw nigh and receive grace to help in our everyday time of need.--Ed.

2. 'Though the phrase, "throne of grace," be only once named in the Bible, yet the thing signified is so savoury, significant, and suitable, that this form of speaking is become famous among Christians, and will be used to the end of time.'--Traill.--Ed.

3. This is an allusion to Jeremiah 18:1-10 the potter and his wheel, upon which he forms his vessels of clay to honour or to dishonour as he pleaseth. So G.o.d worketh all things according to his will, all tending to the good of his church, because his resting-place is the mercy-seat.--Ed.

4. Quoted from the Genevan or puritan version.--Ed.

5. 'Grace was poured so plentifully from heaven, that it did not only countervail sin, but above measure pa.s.seth it.' Note to the Genevan Bible.--Ed.

6. Not by the person or body, but mentally. It matters little whether the body is sitting, kneeling, or standing; riding, walking, or lying down; the throne of grace is equally accessible, if the spirit is prostrate before it--the spontaneous effusions of the soul in sighs or groans, or joyful exclamations, or the pouring forth of heart-felt words; but all must be under a sense of the mediation of Jesus.--Ed.

7. s.m.u.tches or smudges. 'And with a kind of amber smirch my face.'--Shakespeare.--Ed.

8. 'In all our distresses, infirmities, and darkness in this world, we should get up to that mountain of myrrh and hill of frankincense, Canticles 4:6;--the pa.s.sion of Christ, which was bitter like myrrh; and to the intercession of Christ, which is sweet like incense.'--Dr.

Bates.--Ed.

9. How dreadful for a sinner to enter upon a way, expecting it to be a living way to life and happiness, and find it the dead way to death and eternal destruction. O my soul, try thy way, and, by the a.s.sistance of the Holy Spirit, ascertain whether it is the living way to everlasting life, or the dead way to eternal misery.--Ed.

10. Such was the opinion of naturalists in the olden time, Bartolomeus, on the properties of things, thus speaks of goats'

blood--'The goat's hot blood neshethe (softeneth) and carveth the hard ardamant stone, that neither fire nor iron may overcome.' Book 18 cap. 60.--Ed.

11. What laid the cornerstone of this throne, but grace? What brings in the inhabitants, preserves them, perfects them, but grace?--Traill.

'Grace all the work shall crown, Thro' everlasting days; It lays in heaven the topmost stone, And well deserves the praise.'--Rippon.

12. Perfectly impressed upon their memories.--Ed.

13. From the Genevan version.--Ed.

14. Bunyan here refers to the marginal note in the Genevan bible, Exodus 30. The high priest's was.h.i.+ng 'signifying that he that cometh to G.o.d must be washed from all sin and corruption.'--Ed.

15. This sea was full of pure water, a figure of the word, without mixture of men's inventions. See the typical meaning of the molten sea and the laver, fully explained and ill.u.s.trated by Bunyan, in Solomon's Temple Spiritualized of this edition.--Ed.

16. Our first lesson is of sin, righteousness, and judgment; second, Christ's obedience unto death for our salvation; third, Christ ascended to G.o.d's right hand, the Mediator and Advocate. Thus the bitter comes before the sweet, to make the sweet the sweeter.--Ed.

17. Alluding to these destructive operations of nature, the whirlwind and the whirlpool, the first whirling fancies that Christ saves from the punishment, and not from the power of sin, takes them from the gospel hope, and the second receives them into the vortex of misery. O my soul, be watchful unto prayer at a throne of grace, for who can withstand the whirlpool if once within its influence?--Ed.

18. To see the fulness and freeness of the treasures of grace in Christ--to see that we must partake of it or perish--to be looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, are indeed powerful incentives to keep us near the throne of grace.--Ed.

19. Probably a frightful military saying heard by Bunyan, when serving in the debauched army of Charles I, from some of Prince Rupert's cavaliers.--Ed.

20. How much this paragraph reminds us of the experience of poor Christian in his fearful battle with the fiend! 'In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight--he spake like a dragon; and, on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian's heart. I never saw him, all the while, give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged sword; then, indeed, he did smile and look upward; but it was the dreadfullest fight that ever I saw.'--Ed.

21. 'Spaked'; marked with small spots.--Ed.

22. Inst.i.tuted, inducted, or installed.--Ed.

23. Exposed to violence--blindfolded or hoodwinked.--Ed.

24. Protestants can have little idea of the idolatry used in the Church of Rome. Something may be gathered from the following directions, given in a very beautiful office for Good Friday, corrected by royal authority, in conformity with the breviary and missal of our holy father Pope Urban VIII, printed at Paris by Posset:--

'The priest having retired a little behind the altar, the deacon takes the cross (a plain wooden cross without the figure), covered with a veil, and gives it to the priest, who turns to the people and shows the top of the cross, before which they all prostrate themselves and kiss the ground, singing Ecce lignum crucis. He then removes the veil from the right limb of the cross, and lifts it up, singing, still louder, Behold the wood of the cross; again the people prostrate themselves. The priest then comes to the middle of the altar, and taking off the veil, exhibits the wooden cross to be adored; then setting it down, he goes on his knees, and rising, takes off his shoes and approaches the cross to wors.h.i.+p it, making three genuflections, and kisses it. All the clergy who are present take off their shoes, prostrate themselves, wors.h.i.+p and kiss the cross in the order of their dignity. All the officers of the church, and all the people, follow in the same manner to adore it, while solemn music and chanting attends and completes the ceremony.' Thus a wooden board, made into the shape of a cross by some joiner, receives Divine honours. Talk not of heathen idols. Who can wonder that honest John Bunyan felt indignation, and exclaimed, 'O idolatry! O blasphemy!'--Ed.

25. An extraneous taste that leaves a sting behind, as, 'She had a tongue with a tang.' 'The wine has a tang of the cask.'--Ed.

26. This use of the word 'resent' has been long obsolete; it expressed a deep sense or strong perception of good as well as evil; in this place it means, 'proved to have been satisfactory or gratifying.'--Ed.

27. How sublime is the Christian system, in its adaptation to all G.o.d's intelligent creatures! So lovely in its simplicity, that the child--nay, even the poor Bushman of Africa, or the half-idiot native of New South Wales--is able readily to comprehend how G.o.d, for Christ's sake, can blot out all iniquities and transgressions; while the n.o.blest intellect admires and adores its vast and extensive ramifications of mercies. Blessings numerous and unbounded are developed, reaching, in their ultimate effects, far beyond the utmost stretch of human perception, even when the most brilliant imagination is enlightened and sanctified by the Holy Ghost. The intentions of mercy commence in the purposes of G.o.d before the creation--are infinite in extent--and eternal in duration. How is Divine wisdom and mercy thus displayed in the adaptation of the gospel to the personal inquiry and reception of every individual of the human race!--Ed.

28. The beginning, increase, and perfection of life eternal, consists in holy knowledge; that G.o.d and Christ are of the same nature, equal in power and glory. As Christ is the most excellent object, therefore the knowledge of Christ is, and must be the most excellent knowledge; not only all the excellencies of the creatures are found in him, but all excellencies, yea, the fulness of the G.o.dhead, dwells in him bodily. All learning, in comparison of the knowledge of Christ, is the most contemptible ignorance. He is the wisdom of G.o.d, and our highest wisdom will be, with holy Paul, to part with whatever is most dear and precious to us, that we may win Christ, receiving him as he is revealed in the word of truth.--Mason.

29. Power of exercising affection and feeling.--Ed.

30. Bunyan's daughter, Mary, was blind, and thus became an object of his tenderest solicitude. When he was sent to prison for preaching, he felt for her far more than for all other worldly objects. 'My poor blind child. O the thoughts of the hards.h.i.+p she might go under would break my heart to pieces.'--Grace Abounding, No. 320 and 329.--Ed.

31. It is a stupendous and unspeakably blessed privilege that Christ and believers are one flesh. Husband and wife, soul and body, are not so closely united as Christ and believers are to each other.

He has carried their sorrows, borne their punishment, and procured complete redemption for them. And eternal blessings on him! he now ever liveth in heaven to act and intercede for them. He there exercises a tender and compa.s.sionate spirit towards his suffering children and servants here on earth. His love and pity to every individual of his church, infinitely exceeds that of the most affectionate parent towards their offspring. Our extremity is his opportunity--he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, will give consolation under, sanctify, and at length deliver the G.o.dly out of all temptations and afflictions.--Mason.

32. As this is Satan's temptation in the time of poverty, so the time of prosperity is equally dangerous--the love of gain, when it possesses the soul, is insatiable. Satan whispers into the ear, and the heart too readily entertains the wicked thought--'Get money; if you cannot do it honestly, still get money.' The most contemptible meannesses have been practised by the wealthy. O beware of that ruinous idolatry, covetousness.--Ed.

33. Query, is this that part of a Christian's experience referred to in the Pilgrim's Progress, the second part of the Valley of the Shadow of Death?--Ed.

34. No man could speak more experimentally on the pain inflicted by slander, although utterly unfounded, than John Bunyan. So eminent a man became a mark for Satan and his emissaries to shoot at. He was charged with witchcraft, called a highwayman, and every slander that malice could invent was heaped upon him. His remedy, his consolation, was the throne of grace--a specific that never did, nor ever will fail.--Ed.

35. The late Rev. John Newton, who lived to a good old age, in his latter days used to tell his friends--'I am like a parcel, packed up and directed, only waiting the carrier to take me to my destination'; blessed tranquility under such solemn circ.u.mstances.--Ed.

36. This is ill.u.s.trated by the account of Hopeful's experience in the Pilgrim's Progress; he says, 'If I look narrowly into the best of what I do now, I still see sin, new sin, mixing itself with the best of that I do; so that now I am forced to conclude, that, notwithstanding my former fond conceits of myself and duties, I have committed sin enough IN ONE DUTY to send me to h.e.l.l, though my former life had been faultless.'--Ed.

37. Grace, mercy, peace, justification, sanctification, and glorification, all flow from Christ the propitiatory sacrifice, in whom, as his beloved, the Father accepts us graciously, and loves us freely.--Mason.

38. Spiritual strength, like bodily food, must be renewed day by day. The necessity of daily food for our bodies should remind us of that bread that cometh down from heaven, and that water of life which, as a river, maketh glad the city of our G.o.d. 'As oft as ye do this,' eat and drink, 'ye do show the Lord's death.' O that such a recollection may have an abiding influence upon our souls!--Ed.

39. In those days travellers did well to advance as far in a day as we now do in an hour. To make a country tour, required then the same precautions, as to supplies, as it now does to make the grand tour of Europe. To have carried coin would have been a great enc.u.mbrance, as well as risk from robbers. How accurately Bunyan knew the mode used in such cases to secure supplies, and with what beautiful simplicity it is spiritualized.--Ed.

40. How truly and solemnly is the downward road of a sinner here portrayed. 1. Drawn aside by l.u.s.t. 2. A lie to conceal his wicked folly. 3. Intoxication, to drown his convictions and harden his conscience. 4. The consequent ruin of his worldly prospects; and, 5. A vain effort by fraud to keep up his credit!!!--Ed.

41. It was in Bunyan's time the universally received opinion that Satan appeared in the shape of animals to allure poor wretches into sin--Shakespeare, Judge Hale, Cotton Mather, Baxter, with all our eminent men, believed in these supernatural appearances.--Ed.

THE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE;

OR,

THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART: