ford, or in any other place, room, or house, licensed by his Majestie's memorand. The said Bunyan showed his licence to Mr. Mayor; Mr. Overinge, Mr. Freeman, and Mr. Browne being then present, the 6th day of October, 1672." His first object, upon recovering his liberty, was the proper arrangement of his worldly business, that he might provide for the wants of his family, a matter of little difficulty, with their frugal habits. The cottage in which he took up his abode was of the humblest class. He, at the same time, entered with all his soul into his beloved work of preaching and writing, to set forth the glories of Immanuel. While a capacious meeting-house was being constructed, the pastor was indefatigable in visiting the sick and preaching from house to house, settling churches in villages, reconciling differences, and extending the sacred influences of the gospel, so that in a very short time he attained the appellation of Bishop Bunyan. When he opened the meeting-house, it was so thronged that many were constrained to stay without, though it was very spacious, every one striving to partake of his instructions." And here he lived in much peace and quiet of mind, contenting himself with that little God had bestowed upon him, and sequestering himself from all secular employments to follow that of his call to the ministry. The word "sequestering," and his being described in deeds, for some years after this, as a brazier, lead us to conclude, that he continued his business, but so as to allow him much time for his Christian duties and his benevolent pursuits. V.-BUNYAN'S PASTORAL DUTIES, WORKS, POPULARITY, AND DEATH. Many members were added to the church, and, on the 6th of the 11th month, in 1673, his spirit was greatly refreshed. His son Thomas passed the lions, and was welcomed into the house Beautiful, uniting in full communion with the ehurch to which his father ministered. Doubtless there was, as Mercy expresses it," music in the house, music in the heart, and music also in heaven, for joy that be was there." He afterwards became a village preacher. Bunyan had a severe controversy with his brother ministers as to water baptism being a pre-requisite to the Lord's table. His opinion was, that all those who were admitted to spiritual communion with Christ, must be received into church fellowship, leaving the application of water to private judgment. Still he was most decided as to the importance of baptism and the Lord's Supper. "Do you think that love-letters are not desired between lovers? Why these, God's ordinances, are his love letters, and his love tokens too. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb.'" "Christ made himself known to his disciples in breaking of bread; who would not, then, that loves to know him, be present at such an ordinance? Ofttimes the Holy Ghost, in his comfortable influence, has accompanied the baptized in the very act of administering of it." His views of the fellowship of the saints were equally lovely:-"Church fellowship, rightly managed, is the glory of all the world. No place, no community, no fellowship is adorned and bespangled with those beauties, as is a church rightly knit together to their Head, and lovingly serving one another." Such he admitted to the table of their common Lord, while he dared not to communicate with the profane. A new era was now dawning upon him, which, during the last ten years of his life, added tenfold to his popularity. For many years, his beautifully simple but splendid allegory, The Pilgrim's Progress, lay slumbering in his drawer. Numerous had been his consultations with his pious associates and friends, and various had been their opinions, whether it was serious enough to be published. All of them had a solemn sense of the impropriety of anything like trifling as to the way of escape from destruction. It appears strange to us, who have witnessed the very solemn impressions in all cases made by reading that book, that there could have been a doubt of the propriety of treating in a colloquial manner, and even under the fashion of a dream, those most important truths. The result of all those consultations was his determination, "I print it will;" and it has raised an imperishable monument to his memory. Up to this time, all Bunyan's popularity arose from his earlier works, his public and private labours, and his sufferings. Leaving out of the question those most extraordinary books, The Pilgrim's Progress and Holy War, his other writings ought to have handed down his name, with honour and popularity, to the latest posterity. While the logical treatises of learned evangelists are well calculated to furnish instruction to those who are determined to obtain knowledge, the works of Bunyan create that very determination, and furnish that very knowledge, blended with amusement that fixes it in the memory. In The Pilgrim's Progress, the world has acknowledged one train of beauties; picture after picture, most beautifully finished, exhibiting the road from destruction to the celestial city; our only difficulty in such a display being to decide as to which is the most interesting and striking piece of scenery. The learned have ransacked the literature of all ages and countries to find the storehouses from whence these ideas were drawn. But vain have been all their researches. Human wisdom is hum. bled before an unlettered artizan who never felt his own brilliant allegorical powers. His soul had been baptized into Scriptural truths conceived in the imagery of the Bible. His whole mind was deeply tinted with the sublime scenery of Job, of Isaiah, of our Lord, and of all the inspired penmen. This alone was his ample storehouse. The researches of nearly two centuries have proved the truth of his perfect claim to originality. "The purifying influence of The Pilgrim's Progress may be traced in the writings of many imaginative authors. How does it in several parts beautify the admirable tale of Uncle Tom and his Cabin. In that inimitable scene, the death of the lovely Eva, the distressed negro, watching with intense anxiety the progress of death, says, "When that blessed child goes into the kingdom, they'll open the door so wide, we'll all get a look in at the glory." Whence comes this strange idea, not limited to the poor negro, but felt by thousands who have watched over departing saints? It comes from the entrance of Christian and Hopeful into the celestial city-"I looked in after them, and, behold, the city shone like the sun; the streets, also, were paved with gold, and in them they walked with crowns on their heads, palms in their hands, and golden harps to sing praises, which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them." Thousands of Christians have shed tears of joy at this glimpse of an eternal weight of glory. In 1682, Bunyan published his incomparable allegory, The Holy War; and, two years later, he completed his Pilgrim's Progress with the journey of Christiana, her four boys, and her lovely companion, Mercy. As his active and invaluable life drew towards its close, his labours were redoubled. His long imprisonment must have undermined his robust frame. He closed his affectionate advice to his beloved flock on their Christian behaviour:-" Thus have I written to you before I die, to provoke you to faith and holiness, and to love one another when I am deceased, and shall be in Paradise, as, through grace, I comfortably believe; yet it is not there, but here I must do you good." The blandishments and threatenings of James II. were escaped by his watchfulness, lest "his inward man should catch cold." In his last days, he aimed a deadly thrust at Satan, by preparing for the press a fearless treatise on Antichrist, and his Ruin. His popularity was very great. When he preached in London, his congregation was much more numerous than the meeting-house would hold. One of his contemporaries states, that about 1200 attended a morning lecture on a week-day, in the winter, at seven o'clock, and on the Lord's-day about 3000, "so that he was pulled almost over people to get into the pulpit." Like all popular men, he suffered from the tongue of slander. He was called a wizard, a Jesuit, a highwayman. The affecting narrative of Agnes Beaumont detects some of these wicked aspersions. "These I glory in," said Bunyan, "because they are false." Returning home from a visit of mercy to Reading, to reconcile an offended father to his son, he was seized with a fatal fever, at the house of a friend, Mr. Strudwick, of London. His resignation was most exemplary; his desire was to depart and be with Christ. He felt the ground in passing the black river; and followed his pilgrims into the Celestial City on the 31st of August, 1688. His birth year witnessed the "Bill of Rights;" his death year the deliverance of England from Popish tyranny. His remains lie in Bunhill Fields, under a table tomb. |