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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29929-8.txt b/29929-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08f47f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/29929-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5725 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bunyan, by James Anthony Froude + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Bunyan + + +Author: James Anthony Froude + + + +Release Date: September 7, 2009 [eBook #29929] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN*** + + +E-text prepared by Sankar Viswanathan, Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier, and +the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +English Men of Letters + +Edited by John Morley + +BUNYAN + +by + +JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE + + + + + + + +London +Macmillan and Co. +1880 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. PAGE + + EARLY LIFE 1 + + CHAPTER II. + + CONVICTION OF SIN 16 + + CHAPTER III. + + GRACE ABOUNDING 35 + + CHAPTER IV. + + CALL TO THE MINISTRY 52 + + CHAPTER V. + + ARREST AND TRIAL 65 + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE BEDFORD GAOL 78 + + CHAPTER VII. + + LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMAN 90 + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE HOLY WAR 114 + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS 151 + + CHAPTER X. + + LAST DAYS AND DEATH 173 + + + + + +BUNYAN. + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY LIFE. + + +'I was of a low and inconsiderable generation, my father's house being +of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all families in the +land.' 'I never went to school, to Aristotle or Plato, but was brought +up in my father's house in a very mean condition, among a company of +poor countrymen.' 'Nevertheless, I bless God that by this door He +brought me into the world to partake of the grace and life that is by +Christ in His Gospel.' This is the account given of himself and his +origin by a man whose writings have for two centuries affected the +spiritual opinions of the English race in every part of the world more +powerfully than any book or books, except the Bible. + +John Bunyan was born at Elstow, a village near Bedford, in the year +1628. It was a memorable epoch in English history, for in that year +the House of Commons extorted the consent of Charles I. to the +Petition of Right. The stir of politics, however, did not reach the +humble household into which the little boy was introduced. His father +was hardly occupied in earning bread for his wife and children as a +mender of pots and kettles: a tinker,--working in neighbours' houses +or at home, at such business as might be brought to him. 'The +Bunyans,' says a friend, 'were of the national religion, as men of +that calling commonly were.' Bunyan himself, in a passage which has +been always understood to refer to his father, describes him 'as an +honest poor labouring man, who, like Adam unparadised, had all the +world to get his bread in, and was very careful to maintain his +family.' In those days there were no village schools in England; the +education of the poor was an apprenticeship to agriculture or +handicraft; their religion they learnt at home or in church. Young +Bunyan was more fortunate. In Bedford there was a grammar school, +which had been founded in Queen Mary's time by the Lord Mayor of +London, Sir William Harper. Hither, when he was old enough to walk to +and fro, over the mile of road between Elstow and Bedford, the child +was sent, if not to learn Aristotle and Plato, to learn at least 'to +read and write according to the rate of other poor men's children.' + +If religion was not taught at school, it was taught with some care in +the cottages and farmhouses by parents and masters. It was common in +many parts of England, as late as the end of the last century, for the +farmers to gather their apprentices about them on Sunday afternoons, +and to teach them the Catechism. Rude as was Bunyan's home, religious +notions of some kind had been early and vividly impressed upon him. He +caught, indeed, the ordinary habits of the boys among whom he was +thrown. He learnt to use bad language, and he often lied. When a +child's imagination is exceptionally active, the temptations to +untruth are correspondingly powerful. The inventive faculty has its +dangers, and Bunyan was eminently gifted in that way. He was a +violent, passionate boy besides, and thus he says of himself that for +lying and swearing he had no equal, and that his parents did not +sufficiently correct him. Wickedness, he declares in his own +remorseful story of his early years, became a second nature to him. +But the estimate which a man forms of himself in later life, if he has +arrived at any strong abhorrence of moral evil, is harsher than others +at the time would have been likely to have formed. Even then the poor +child's conscience must have been curiously sensitive, and it revenged +itself upon him in singular tortures. + +'My sins,' he says, 'did so offend the Lord that even in my childhood +He did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me +with dreadful visions. I have been in my bed greatly afflicted while +asleep, with apprehensions of devils and wicked spirits, who still, as +I then thought, laboured to draw me away with them, of which I could +never be rid. I was afflicted with thoughts of the Day of Judgment +night and day, trembling at the thoughts of the fearful torments of +hell fire.' When, at ten years old, he was running about with his +companions in 'his sports and childish vanities,' these terrors +continually recurred to him, yet 'he would not let go his sins.' + +Such a boy required rather to be encouraged than checked in seeking +innocent amusements. Swearing and lying were definite faults which +ought to have been corrected; but his parents, perhaps, saw that there +was something unusual in the child. To them he probably appeared not +worse than other boys, but considerably better. They may have thought +it more likely that he would conquer his own bad inclinations by his +own efforts, than that they could mend him by rough rebukes. + +When he left school he would naturally have been bound apprentice, +but his father brought him up at his own trade. Thus he lived at home, +and grew to manhood there, forming his ideas of men and things out of +such opportunities as the Elstow neighbourhood afforded. + +From the time when the Reformation brought them a translation of it, +the Bible was the book most read--it was often the only book which was +read--in humble English homes. Familiarity with the words had not yet +trampled the sacred writings into practical barrenness. No doubts or +questions had yet risen about the Bible's nature or origin. It was +received as the authentic word of God Himself. The Old and New +Testament alike represented the world as the scene of a struggle +between good and evil spirits; and thus every ordinary incident of +daily life was an instance or illustration of God's Providence. This +was the universal popular belief, not admitted only by the intellect, +but accepted and realised by the imagination. No one questioned it, +save a few speculative philosophers in their closets. The statesman in +the House of Commons, the judge on the Bench, the peasant in a midland +village, interpreted literally by this rule the phenomena which they +experienced or saw. They not only believed that God had miraculously +governed the Israelites, but they believed that as directly and +immediately He governed England in the seventeenth century. They not +only believed that there had been a witch at Endor, but they believed +that there were witches in their own villages, who had made compacts +with the devil himself. They believed that the devil still literally +walked the earth like a roaring lion: that he and the evil angels were +perpetually labouring to destroy the souls of men; and that God was +equally busy overthrowing the devil's work, and bringing sin and +crimes to eventual punishment. + +In this light the common events of life were actually looked at and +understood, and the air was filled with anecdotes so told as to +illustrate the belief. These stories and these experiences were +Bunyan's early mental food. One of them, which had deeply impressed +the imagination of the Midland counties, was the story of 'Old Tod.' +This man came one day into court, in the Summer Assizes at Bedford, +'all in a dung sweat,' to demand justice upon himself as a felon. No +one had accused him, but God's judgment was not to be escaped, and he +was forced to accuse himself. 'My Lord,' said Old Tod to the judge, 'I +have been a thief from my childhood. I have been a thief ever since. +There has not been a robbery committed these many years, within so +many miles of this town, but I have been privy to it.' The judge, +after a conference, agreed to indict him of certain felonies which he +had acknowledged. He pleaded guilty, implicating his wife along with +him, and they were both hanged. + +An intense belief in the moral government of the world creates what it +insists upon. Horror at sin forces the sinner to confess it, and makes +others eager to punish it. 'God's revenge against murder and adultery' +becomes thus an actual fact, and justifies the conviction in which it +rises. Bunyan was specially attentive to accounts of judgments upon +swearing, to which he was himself addicted. He tells a story of a man +at Wimbledon, who, after uttering some strange blasphemy, was struck +with sickness, and died cursing. Another such scene he probably +witnessed himself,[1] and never forgot. An alehouse-keeper in the +neighbourhood of Elstow had a son who was half-witted. The favourite +amusement, when a party was collected drinking, was for the father to +provoke the lad's temper, and for the lad to curse his father and wish +the devil had him. The devil at last did have the alehouse-keeper, and +rent and tore him till he died. 'I,' says Bunyan, 'was eye and ear +witness of what I here say. I have heard Ned in his roguery cursing +his father, and his father laughing thereat most heartily, still +provoking of Ned to curse that his mirth might be increased. I saw his +father also when he was possessed. I saw him in one of his fits, and +saw his flesh as it was thought gathered up in an heap about the +bigness of half an egg, to the unutterable torture and affliction of +the old man. There was also one Freeman, who was more than an ordinary +doctor, sent for to cast out the devil, and I was there when he +attempted to do it. The manner whereof was this. They had the +possessed in an outroom, and laid him upon his belly upon a form, with +his head hanging down over the form's end. Then they bound him down +thereto; which done, they set a pan of coals under his mouth, and put +something therein which made a great smoke--by this means, as it was +said, to fetch out the devil. There they kept the man till he was +almost smothered in the smoke, but no devil came out of him, at which +Freeman was somewhat abashed, the man greatly afflicted, and I made to +go away wondering and fearing. In a little time, therefore, that which +possessed the man carried him out of the world, according to the +cursed wishes of his son.' + +[Footnote 1: The story is told by Mr. Attentive in the 'Life of Mr. +Badman;' but it is almost certain that Bunyan was relating his own +experience.] + +The wretched alehouse-keeper's life was probably sacrificed in this +attempt to dispossess the devil. But the incident would naturally +leave its mark on the mind of an impressionable boy. Bunyan ceased to +frequent such places after he began to lead a religious life. The +story, therefore, most likely belongs to the experiences of his first +youth after he left school; and there may have been many more of a +similar kind, for, except that he was steady at his trade, he grew up +a wild lad, the ringleader of the village apprentices in all manner of +mischief. He had no books, except a life of Sir Bevis of Southampton, +which would not tend to sober him; indeed, he soon forgot all that he +had learnt at school, and took to amusements and doubtful adventures, +orchard-robbing, perhaps, or poaching, since he hints that he might +have brought himself within reach of the law. In the most passionate +language of self-abhorrence, he accuses himself of all manner of sins, +yet it is improbable that he appeared to others what in later life he +appeared to himself. He judged his own conduct as he believed that it +was regarded by his Maker, by whom he supposed eternal torment to have +been assigned as the just retribution for the lightest offence. Yet he +was never drunk. He who never forgot anything with which he could +charge himself, would not have passed over drunkenness, if he could +remember that he had been guilty of it; and he distinctly asserts, +also, that he was never in a single instance unchaste. In our days, a +rough tinker who could say as much for himself after he had grown to +manhood, would be regarded as a model of self-restraint. If, in +Bedford and the neighbourhood, there was no young man more vicious +than Bunyan, the moral standard of an English town in the seventeenth +century must have been higher than believers in Progress will be +pleased to allow. + +He declares that he was without God in the world, and in the sense +which he afterwards attached to the word this was probably true. But +serious thoughts seldom ceased to work in him. Dreams only reproduce +the forms and feelings with which the waking imagination is most +engaged. Bunyan's rest continued to be haunted with the phantoms which +had terrified him when a child. He started in his sleep, and +frightened the family with his cries. He saw evil spirits in monstrous +shapes and fiends blowing flames out of their nostrils. 'Once,' says a +biographer, who knew him well, and had heard the story of his visions +from his own lips, 'he dreamed that he saw the face of heaven as it +were on fire, the firmament crackling and shivering with the noise of +mighty thunder, and an archangel flew in the midst of heaven, sounding +a trumpet, and a glorious throne was seated in the east, whereon sat +One in brightness like the morning star. Upon which, he thinking it +was the end of the world, fell upon his knees and said, "Oh, Lord, +have mercy on me! What shall I do? The Day of Judgment is come and I +am not prepared."' + +At another time 'he dreamed that he was in a pleasant place jovial and +rioting, when an earthquake rent the earth, out of which came bloody +flames, and the figures of men tossed up in globes of fire, and +falling down again with horrible cries and shrieks and execrations, +while devils mingled among them, and laughed aloud at their torments. +As he stood trembling, the earth sank under him, and a circle of +flames embraced him. But when he fancied he was at the point to +perish, One in shining white raiment descended and plucked him out of +that dreadful place, while the devils cried after him to take him to +the punishment which his sins had deserved. Yet he escaped the danger, +and leapt for joy when he awoke and found it was a dream.' + +Mr. Southey, who thinks wisely that Bunyan's biographers have +exaggerated his early faults, considers that at worst he was a sort of +'blackguard.' This, too, is a wrong word. Young village blackguards do +not dream of archangels flying through the midst of heaven, nor were +these imaginations invented afterwards, or rhetorically exaggerated. +Bunyan was undoubtedly given to story-telling as a boy, and the +recollection of it made him peculiarly scrupulous in his statements in +later life. One trait he mentions of himself which no one would have +thought of who had not experienced the feeling, yet every person can +understand it and sympathise with it. These spectres and hobgoblins +drove him wild. He says, 'I was so overcome with despair of life and +heaven, that I should often wish either that there had been no hell, +or that I had been a devil; supposing that they were only tormentors, +and that, if it must needs be that I went thither, I might rather be a +tormentor than tormented myself.' + +The visions at last ceased. God left him to himself, as he puts it, +and gave him over to his own wicked inclinations. He fell, he says, +into all kinds of vice and ungodliness without further check. The +expression is very strong, yet when we look for particulars we can +find only that he was fond of games which Puritan preciseness +disapproved. He had high animal spirits, and engaged in lawless +enterprises. Once or twice he nearly lost his life. He is sparing of +details of his outward history, for he regarded it as nothing but +vanity; but his escapes from death were providences, and therefore he +mentions them. He must have gone to the coast somewhere, for he was +once almost drowned in a creek of the sea. He fell out of a boat into +the river at another time, and it seems that he could not swim. +Afterwards he seized hold of an adder, and was not bitten by it. These +mercies were sent as warnings, but he says that he was too careless +to profit by them. He thought that he had forgotten God altogether, +and yet it is plain that he had not forgotten. A bad young man, who +has shaken off religion because it is a restraint, observes with +malicious amusement the faults of persons who make a profession of +religion. He infers that they do not really believe it, and only +differ from their neighbours in being hypocrites. Bunyan notes this +disposition in his own history of Mr. Badman. Of himself, he says: +'Though I could sin with delight and ease, and take pleasure in the +villanies of my companions, even then, if I saw wicked things done by +them that professed goodness, it would make my spirit tremble. Once, +when I was in the height of my vanity, hearing one swear that was +reckoned a religious man, it made my heart to ache.' + +He was now seventeen, and we can form a tolerably accurate picture of +him--a tall, active lad, working as his father's apprentice, at his +pots and kettles, ignorant of books, and with no notion of the world +beyond what he could learn in his daily drudgery, and the talk of the +alehouse and the village green; inventing lies to amuse his +companions, and swearing that they were true; playing bowls and +tipcat, ready for any reckless action, and always a leader in it, yet +all the while singularly pure from the more brutal forms of vice, and +haunted with feverish thoughts, which he tried to forget in +amusements. It has been the fashion to take his account of himself +literally, and represent him as the worst of reprobates, in order to +magnify the effects of his conversion, and perhaps to make +intelligible to his admiring followers the reproaches which he heaps +upon himself. They may have felt that they could not be wrong in +explaining his own language in the only sense in which they could +attach a meaning to it. Yet, sinner though he may have been, like all +the rest of us, his sins were not the sins of coarseness and +vulgarity. They were the sins of a youth of sensitive nature and very +peculiar gifts: gifts which brought special temptations with them, and +inclined him to be careless and desperate, yet from causes singularly +unlike those which are usually operative in dissipated and uneducated +boys. + +It was now the year 1645. Naseby Field was near, and the first Civil +War was drawing to its close. At this crisis Bunyan was, as he says, +drawn to be a soldier; and it is extremely characteristic of him and +of the body to which he belonged, that he leaves us to guess on which +side he served. He does not tell us himself. His friends in after life +did not care to ask him, or he to inform them, or else they also +thought the matter of too small importance to be worth mentioning with +exactness. There were two traditions, and his biographers chose +between them as we do. Close as the connection was in that great +struggle between civil and religious liberty--flung as Bunyan was +flung into the very centre of the conflict between the English people +and the Crown and Church and aristocracy--victim as he was himself of +intolerance and persecution, he never but once took any political +part, and then only in signing an address to Cromwell. He never showed +any active interest in political questions; and if he spoke on such +questions at all after the Restoration, it was to advise submission to +the Stuart Government. By the side of the stupendous issues of human +life, such miserable _rights_ as men might pretend to in this world +were not worth contending for. The only _right_ of man that he thought +much about, was the right to be eternally damned if he did not lay +hold of grace. King and subject were alike creatures whose sole +significance lay in their individual immortal souls. Their relations +with one another upon earth were nothing in the presence of the awful +judgment which awaited them both. Thus whether Bunyan's brief career +in the army was under Charles or under Fairfax must remain doubtful. +Probability is on the side of his having been with the Royalists. His +father was of 'the national religion.' He himself had as yet no +special convictions of his own. John Gifford, the Baptist minister at +Bedford, had been a Royalist. The only incident which Bunyan speaks of +connected with his military experience points in the same direction. +'When I was a soldier,' he says, 'I was with others drawn out to go to +such a place to besiege it. But when I was just ready to go, one of +the company desired to go in my room. Coming to the siege as he stood +sentinel he was shot in the heart with a musket bullet and died.' +Tradition agrees that the place to which these words refer was +Leicester. Leicester was stormed by the King's troops a few days +before the battle of Naseby. It was recovered afterwards by the +Parliamentarians, but on the second occasion there was no fighting, as +it capitulated without a shot being fired. Mr. Carlyle supposes that +Bunyan was not with the attacking party, but was in the town as one of +the garrison, and was taken prisoner there. But this cannot be, for he +says expressly that he was one of the besiegers. Legend gathers freely +about eminent men, about men especially who are eminent in religion, +whether they are Catholic or Protestant. Lord Macaulay is not only +positive that the hero of the English Dissenters fought on the side of +the Commonwealth, but he says, without a word of caution on the +imperfection of the evidence, 'His Greatheart, his Captain Boanerges, +and his Captain Credence, are evidently portraits of which the +originals were among those martial saints who fought and expounded in +Fairfax's army.'[2] + +[Footnote 2: _Life of Bunyan_: Collected Works, vol. vii. p. 299.] + +If the martial saints had impressed Bunyan so deeply, it is +inconceivable that he should have made no more allusion to his +military service than in this brief passage. He refers to the siege +and all connected with it merely as another occasion of his own +providential escapes from death. + +Let the truth of this be what it may, the troop to which he belonged +was soon disbanded. He returned at the end of the year to his tinker's +work at Elstow, much as he had left it. The saints, if he had met with +saints, had not converted him. 'I sinned still,' he says, 'and grew +more and more rebellious against God and careless of my own +salvation.' An important change of another kind, however, lay before +him. Young as he was he married. His friends advised it, for they +thought that marriage would make him steady. The step was less +imprudent than it would have been had Bunyan been in a higher rank of +life, or had aimed at rising into it. The girl whom he chose was a +poor orphan, but she had been carefully and piously brought up, and +from her acceptance of him, something more may be inferred about his +character. Had he been a dissolute idle scamp, it is unlikely that a +respectable woman would have become his wife when he was a mere boy. +His sins, whatever these were, had not injured his outward +circumstances; it is clear that all along he worked skilfully and +industriously at his tinkering business. He had none of the habits +which bring men to beggary. From the beginning of his life to the end +of it he was a prudent, careful man, and, considering the station to +which he belonged, a very successful man. + +'I lighted on a wife,' he says, 'whose father was counted godly. We +came together as poor as poor might be, not having so much household +stuff as a dish or a spoon between us. But she had for her portion two +books, "The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven," and "The Practice of +Piety," which her father had left her when he died. In these two books +I sometimes read with her. I found some things pleasing to me, but all +this while I met with no conviction. She often told me what a godly +man her father was, how he would reprove and correct vice both in his +house and among his neighbours, what a strict and holy life he lived +in his day both in word and deed. These books, though they did not +reach my heart, did light in me some desire to religion.' + +There was still an Established Church in England, and the constitution +of it had not yet been altered. The Presbyterian platform threatened +to take the place of Episcopacy, and soon did take it; but the +clergyman was still a priest and was still regarded with pious +veneration in the country districts as a semi-supernatural being. The +altar yet stood in its place, the minister still appeared in his +surplice, and the Prayers of the Liturgy continued to be read or +intoned. The old familiar bells, Catholic as they were in all the +emotions which they suggested, called the congregation together with +their musical peal, though in the midst of triumphant Puritanism. The +'Book of Sports,' which, under an order from Charles I., had been read +regularly in Church, had in 1644 been laid under a ban; but the gloom +of a Presbyterian Sunday was, is, and for ever will be detestable to +the natural man; and the Elstow population gathered persistently after +service on the village green for their dancing, and their leaping, +and their archery. Long habit cannot be transformed in a day by an +Edict of Council, and amidst army manifestoes and battles of Marston +Moor, and a king dethroned and imprisoned, old English life in +Bedfordshire preserved its familiar features. These Sunday sports had +been a special delight to Bunyan, and it is to them which he refers in +the following passage, when speaking of his persistent wickedness. On +his marriage he became regular and respectable in his habits. He says, +'I fell in with the religion of the times to go to church twice a day, +very devoutly to say and sing as the others did, yet retaining my +wicked life. Withal I was so overrun with the spirit of superstition +that I adored with great devotion even all things, both the high +place, priest, clerk, vestment, service, and what else belonging to +the Church, counting all things holy therein contained, and especially +the priest and clerk most happy and without doubt greatly blessed. +This conceit grew so strong in my spirit, that had I but seen a +priest, though never so sordid and debauched in his life, I should +find my spirit fall under him, reverence, and be knit to him. Their +name, their garb, and work did so intoxicate and bewitch me.' + +Surely if there were no other evidence, these words would show that +the writer of them had never listened to the expositions of the +martial saints. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CONVICTION OF SIN. + + +The 'Pilgrim's Progress' is the history of the struggle of human +nature to overcome temptation and shake off the bondage of sin, under +the convictions which prevailed among serious men in England in the +seventeenth century. The allegory is the life of its author cast in an +imaginative form. Every step in Christian's journey had been first +trodden by Bunyan himself; every pang of fear and shame, every spasm +of despair, every breath of hope and consolation, which is there +described, is but a reflexion as on a mirror from personal experience. +It has spoken to the hearts of all later generations of Englishmen +because it came from the heart; because it is the true record of the +genuine emotions of a human soul; and to such a record the emotions of +other men will respond, as one stringed instrument vibrates +responsively to another. The poet's power lies in creating sympathy; +but he cannot, however richly gifted, stir feelings which he has not +himself known in all their intensity. + + Ut ridentibus arrident ita flentibus adflent + Humani vultus. Si vis me flere dolendum est + Primum ipsi tibi. + +The religious history of man is essentially the same in all ages. It +takes its rise in the duality of his nature. He is an animal, and as +an animal he desires bodily pleasure and shrinks from bodily pain. As +a being capable of morality, he is conscious that for him there exists +a right and wrong. Something, whatever that something may be, binds +him to choose one and avoid the other. This is his religion, his +religatio, his obligation, in the sense in which the Romans, from whom +we take it, used the word; and obligation implies some superior power +to which man owes obedience. The conflict between his two dispositions +agitates his heart, and perplexes his intellect. To do what the +superior power requires of him, he must thwart his inclinations. He +dreads punishment, if he neglects to do it. He invents methods by +which he can indulge his appetites, and finds a substitute by which he +can propitiate his invisible ruler or rulers. He offers sacrifices; he +institutes ceremonies and observances. This is the religion of the +body, the religion of fear. It is what we call superstition. In his +nobler moods he feels that this is but to evade the difficulty. He +perceives that the sacrifice required is the sacrifice of himself. It +is not the penalty for sin which he must fear, but the sin itself. He +must conquer his own lower nature. He must detach his heart from his +pleasures, and he must love good for its own sake, and because it is +his only real good; and this is spiritual religion or piety. Between +these two forms of worship of the unseen, the human race has swayed to +and fro from the first moment in which they learnt to discern between +good and evil. Superstition attracts, because it is indulgent to +immorality by providing means by which God can be pacified. But it +carries its antidote along with it, for it keeps alive the sense of +God's existence; and when it has produced its natural effects, when +the believer rests in his observances and lives practically as if +there was no God at all, the conscience again awakes. Sacrifices and +ceremonies become detested as idolatry, and religion becomes +conviction of sin, a fiery determination to fight with the whole soul +against appetite, vanity, self-seeking, and every mean propensity +which the most sensitive alarm can detect. The battle unhappily is +attended with many vicissitudes. The victory, though practically it +may be won, is never wholly won. The struggle brings with it every +variety of emotion, alternations of humility and confidence, +despondency and hope. The essence of it is always the same--the effort +of the higher nature to overcome the lower. The form of it varies from +period to period, according to the conditions of the time, the +temperament of different people, the conception of the character of +the Supreme Power, which the state of knowledge enables men to form. +It will be found even when the puzzled intellect can see no light in +Heaven at all, in the stern and silent fulfilment of moral duty. It +will appear as enthusiasm; it will appear as asceticism. It will +appear wherever there is courage to sacrifice personal enjoyment for a +cause believed to be holy. We must all live. We must all, as we +suppose, in one shape or other give account for our actions; and +accounts of the conflict are most individually interesting when it is +an open wrestle with the enemy; as we find in the penances and +austerities of the Catholic saints, or when the difficulties of belief +are confessed and detailed, as in David's Psalms, or in the Epistles +of St. Paul. St. Paul, like the rest of mankind, found a law in his +members warring against the law which was in his heart. The problem +presented to him was how one was to be brought into subjection to the +other, and the solution was by 'the putting on of Christ.' St. Paul's +mind was charged with the ideas of Oriental and Greek philosophy then +prevalent in the Roman Empire. His hearers understood him, because he +spoke in the language of the prevailing speculations. We who have not +the clue cannot, perhaps, perfectly understand him; but his words have +been variously interpreted as human intelligence has expanded, and +have formed the basis of the two great theologies which have been +developed out of Christianity. The Christian religion taught that evil +could not be overcome by natural human strength. The Son of God had +come miraculously upon earth, had lived a life of stainless purity, +and had been offered as a sacrifice to redeem men conditionally from +the power of sin. The conditions, as English Protestant theology +understands them, are nowhere more completely represented than in the +'Pilgrim's Progress.' The Catholic theology, rising as it did in the +two centuries immediately following St. Paul, approached probably +nearer to what he really intended to say. + +Catholic theology, as a system, is a development of Platonism. The +Platonists had discovered that the seat of moral evil was material +substance. In matter, and therefore in the human body, there was +either some inherent imperfection, or some ingrained perversity and +antagonism to good. The soul so long as it was attached to the body +was necessarily infected by it; and as human life on earth consisted +in the connection of soul and body, every single man was necessarily +subject to infirmity. Catholic theology accepted the position and +formulated an escape from it. The evil in matter was a fact. It was +explained by Adam's sin. But there it was. The taint was inherited by +all Adam's posterity. The flesh of man was incurably vitiated, and if +he was to be saved a new body must be prepared for him. This Christ +had done. That Christ's body was not as other men's bodies was proved +after his resurrection, when it showed itself independent of the +limitations of extended substance. In virtue of these mysterious +properties it became the body of the Corporate Church into which +believers were admitted by baptism. The natural body was not at once +destroyed, but a new element was introduced into it, by the power of +which, assisted by penance and mortification, and the spiritual food +of the Eucharist, the grosser qualities were gradually subdued, and +the corporeal system was changed. Then body and spirit became alike +pure together, and the saint became capable of obedience, so perfect +as not only to suffice for himself, but to supply the wants of others. +The corruptible put on incorruption. The bodies of the saints worked +miracles, and their flesh was found unaffected by decay after hundreds +of years. + +This belief so long as it was sincerely held issued naturally in +characters of extreme beauty; of beauty so great as almost to +demonstrate its truth. The purpose of it, so far as it affected +action, was self-conquest. Those who try with their whole souls to +conquer themselves find the effort lightened by a conviction that they +are receiving supernatural assistance; and the form in which the +Catholic theory supposed the assistance to be given was at least +perfectly innocent. But it is in the nature of human speculations, +though they may have been entertained at first in entire good faith, +to break down under trial, if they are not in conformity with fact. +Catholic theology furnished Europe with a rule of faith and action +which lasted 1500 years. For the last three centuries of that period +it was changing from a religion into a superstition, till, from being +the world's guide, it became its scandal. 'The body of Christ' had +become a kingdom of this world, insulting its subjects by the +effrontery of its ministers, the insolence of its pretensions, the +mountains of lies which it was teaching as sacred truths. Luther +spoke; and over half the Western world the Catholic Church collapsed, +and a new theory and Christianity had to be constructed out of the +fragments of it. + +There was left behind a fixed belief in God and in the Bible as His +revealed word, in a future judgment, in the fall of man, in the +atonement made for sin by the death of Christ, and in the new life +which was made possible by His resurrection. The change was in the +conception of the method by which the atonement was imagined to be +efficacious. The material or sacramental view of it, though it +lingered inconsistently in the mind even of Luther himself, was +substantially gone. New ideas adopted in enthusiasm are necessarily +extreme. The wrath of God was held to be inseparably and eternally +attached to every act of sin, however infirm the sinner. That his +nature could be changed, and that he could be mystically strengthened +by incorporation with Christ's body in the Church was contrary to +experience, and was no longer credible. The conscience of every man, +in the Church or out of it, told him that he was daily and hourly +offending. God's law demanded a life of perfect obedience, eternal +death being the penalty of the lightest breach of it. No human being +was capable of such perfect obedience. He could not do one single act +which would endure so strict a scrutiny. All mankind were thus +included under sin. The Catholic Purgatory was swept away. It had +degenerated into a contrivance for feeding the priests with money, and +it implied that human nature could in itself be renovated by its own +sufferings. Thus nothing lay before the whole race except everlasting +reprobation. But the door of hope had been opened on the cross of +Christ. Christ had done what man could never do. He had fulfilled the +law perfectly. God was ready to accept Christ's perfect righteousness +as a substitute for the righteousness which man was required to +present to him, but could not. The conditions of acceptance were no +longer sacraments or outward acts, or lame and impotent efforts after +a moral life, but faith in what Christ had done; a complete +self-abnegation, a resigned consciousness of utter unworthiness, and +an unreserved acceptance of the mercy held out through the Atonement. +It might have been thought that since man was born so weak that it was +impossible for him to do what the law required, consideration would be +had for his infirmity; that it was even dangerous to attribute to the +Almighty a character so arbitrary as that He would exact an account +from his creatures which the creature's necessary inadequacy rendered +him incapable of meeting. But the impetuosity of the new theology +would listen to no such excuses. God was infinitely pure, and nothing +impure could stand in his sight. Man, so long as he rested on merit of +his own, must be for ever excluded from his presence. He must accept +grace on the terms on which it was held out to him. Then and then only +God would extend his pity to him. He was no longer a child of wrath: +he was God's child. His infirmities remained, but they were constantly +obliterated by the merits of Christ. And he had strength given to him, +partially, at least, to overcome temptation, under which, but for that +strength, he would have fallen. Though nothing which he could do could +deserve reward, yet he received grace in proportion to the firmness of +his belief; and his efforts after obedience, imperfect though they +might be, were accepted for Christ's sake. A good life, or a constant +effort after a good life, was still the object which a man was bound +to labour after. Though giving no claim to pardon, still less for +reward, it was the necessary fruit of a sense of what Christ had done, +and of love and gratitude towards him. Good works were the test of +saving faith, and if there were no signs of them, the faith was +barren: it was not real faith at all. + +This was the Puritan belief in England in the seventeenth century. The +reason starts at it, but all religion is paradoxical to reason. God +hates sin, yet sin exists. He is omnipotent, yet evil is not overcome. +The will of man is free, or there can be no guilt, yet the action of +the will, so far as experience can throw light on its operation, is as +much determined by antecedent causes as every other natural force. +Prayer is addressed to a Being assumed to be omniscient, who knows +better what is good for us than we can know, who sees our thought +without requiring to hear them in words, whose will is fixed and +cannot be changed. Prayer, therefore, in the eye of reason is an +impertinence. The Puritan theology is not more open to objection on +the ground of unreasonableness than the Catholic theology or any other +which regards man as answerable to God for his conduct. We must judge +of a creed by its effects on character, as we judge of the +wholesomeness of food as it conduces to bodily health. And the creed +which swept like a wave through England at that time, and recommended +itself to the noblest and most powerful intellects, produced also in +those who accepted it a horror of sin, an enthusiasm for justice, +purity, and manliness, which can be paralleled only in the first age +of Christianity. Certainly there never was such a theory to take man's +conceit out of him. He was a miserable wretch, so worthless at his +best as to deserve everlasting perdition. If he was to be saved at +all, he could be saved only by the unmerited grace of God. In himself +he was a child of the devil; and hell, not in metaphor, but in hard +and palpable fact, inevitably waited for him. This belief, or the +affectation of this belief, continues to be professed, but without a +realisation of its tremendous meaning. The form of words is repeated +by multitudes who do not care to think what they are saying. Who can +measure the effect of such a conviction upon men who were in earnest +about their souls, who were assured that this account of their +situation was actually true, and on whom, therefore, it bore with +increasing weight in proportion to their sincerity? + +With these few prefatory words, I now return to Bunyan. He had begun +to go regularly to church, and by Church he meant the Church of +England. The change in the constitution of it, even when it came, did +not much alter its practical character in the country districts. At +Elstow, as we have seen, there was still a high place; there was still +a liturgy; there was still a surplice. The Church of England is a +compromise between the old theology and the new. The Bishops have the +apostolical succession, but many of them disbelieve that they derive +any virtue from it. The clergyman is either a priest who can absolve +men from sins, or he is a minister as in other Protestant communions. +The sacraments are either means of grace, or mere outward signs. A +Christian is either saved by baptism, or saved by faith, as he pleases +to believe. In either case he may be a member of the Church of +England. The effect of such uncertain utterances is to leave an +impression that in defining such points closely, theologians are +laying down lines of doctrines about subjects of which they know +nothing, that the real truth of religion lies in what is common to the +two theories, the obligation to lead a moral life; and to this +sensible view of their functions the bishops and clergy had in fact +gradually arrived in the last century, when the revival of what is +called earnestness, first in the form of Evangelicalism, and then of +Anglo-Catholicism, awoke again the old controversies. + +To a man of fervid temperament suddenly convinced of sin, incapable of +being satisfied with ambiguous answers to questions which mean life or +death to him, the Church of England has little to say. If he is quiet +and reasonable, he finds in it all that he desires. Enthusiastic ages +and enthusiastical temperaments demand something more complete and +consistent. The clergy under the Long Parliament caught partially the +tone of the prevailing spirit. The reading of the 'Book of Sports' had +been interdicted, and from their pulpits they lectured their +congregations on the ungodliness of the Sabbath amusements. But the +congregations were slow to listen, and the sports went on. + +One Sunday morning, when Bunyan was at church with his wife, a sermon +was delivered on this subject. It seemed to be especially addressed to +himself, and it much affected him. He shook off the impression, and +after dinner he went as usual to the green. He was on the point of +striking at a ball when the thought rushed across his mind, Wilt thou +leave thy sins and go to Heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell? He +looked up. The reflection of his own emotion was before him in visible +form. He imagined that he saw Christ himself looking down at him from +the sky. But he concluded that it was too late for him to repent. He +was past pardon. He was sure to be damned, and he might as well be +damned for many sins as for few. Sin at all events was pleasant, the +only pleasant thing that he knew, therefore he would take his fill of +it. The sin was the game, and nothing but the game. He continued to +play, but the Puritan sensitiveness had taken hold of him. An +artificial offence had become a real offence when his conscience was +wounded by it. He was reckless and desperate. + +'This temptation of the devil,' he says, 'is more usual among poor +creatures than many are aware of. It continued with me about a month +or more; but one day as I was standing at a neighbour's shop-window, +and there cursing and swearing after my wonted manner, there sate +within the woman of the house and heard me, who, though she was a +loose and ungodly wretch, protested that I swore and cursed at such a +rate that she trembled to hear me. I was able to spoil all the youths +in a whole town. At this reproof I was silenced and put to secret +shame, and that too, as I thought, before the God of Heaven. I stood +hanging down my head and wishing that I might be a little child that +my father might learn me to speak without this wicked sin of swearing, +for, thought I, I am so accustomed to it that it is vain to think of a +reformation.' + +These words have been sometimes taken as a reflection on Bunyan's own +father, as if he had not sufficiently checked the first symptoms of a +bad habit. If this was so, too much may be easily made of it. The +language in the homes of ignorant workmen is seldom select. They have +not a large vocabulary, and the words which they use do not mean what +they seem to mean. But so sharp and sudden remorse speaks remarkably +for Bunyan himself. At this time he could have been barely twenty +years old, and already he was quick to see when he was doing wrong, +to be sorry for it, and to wish that he could do better. Vain the +effort seemed to him, yet from that moment 'he did leave off swearing +to his own great wonder,' and he found 'that he could speak better and +more pleasantly than he did before.' + +It lies in the nature of human advance on the road of improvement, +that, whatever be a man's occupation, be it handicraft, or art, or +knowledge, or moral conquest of self, at each forward step which he +takes he grows more conscious of his shortcomings. It is thus with his +whole career, and those who rise highest are least satisfied with +themselves. Very simply Bunyan tells the story of his progress. On his +outward history, on his business and his fortunes with it, he is +totally silent. Worldly interests were not worth mentioning. He is +solely occupied with his rescue from spiritual perdition. Soon after +he had profited by the woman's rebuke, he fell in 'with a poor man +that made profession of religion and talked pleasantly of the +Scriptures.' Earnestness in such matters was growing common among +English labourers. Under his new friend's example, Bunyan 'betook him +to the Bible, and began to take great pleasure in reading it,' but +especially, as he admits frankly (and most people's experience will +have been the same), 'especially the historical part; for as for St. +Paul's Epistles and Scriptures of that nature, he could not away with +them, being as yet ignorant of the corruption of his nature, or of the +want and worth of Jesus Christ to save him.' + +Not as yet understanding these mysteries, he set himself to reform his +life. He became strict with himself in word and deed. 'He set the +Commandments before him for his way to Heaven.' 'He thought if he +could but keep them pretty well he should have comfort.' If now and +then he broke one of them, he suffered in conscience; he repented of +his fault, he made good resolutions for the future and struggled to +carry them out. 'His neighbours took him to be a new man, and +marvelled at the alteration.' Pleasure of any kind, even the most +innocent, he considered to be a snare to him, and he abandoned it; he +had been fond of dancing, but he gave it up. Music and singing he +parted with, though it distressed him to leave them. Of all +amusements, that in which he had most delighted had been in ringing +the bells in Elstow church tower. With his bells he could not part all +at once. He would no longer ring himself: but when his friends were +enjoying themselves with the ropes, he could not help going now and +then to the tower door to look on and listen; but he feared at last +that the steeple might fall upon him and kill him. We call such +scruples in these days exaggerated and fantastic. We are no longer in +danger ourselves of suffering from similar emotions. Whether we are +the better for having got rid of them, will be seen in the future +history of our race. + +Notwithstanding his struggles and his sacrifices, Bunyan found that +they did not bring him the peace which he expected. A man can change +his outward conduct, but if he is in earnest he comes in sight of +other features in himself which he cannot change so easily; the +meannesses, the paltrinesses, the selfishnesses which haunt him in +spite of himself, which start out upon him at moments the most +unlocked for, which taint the best of his actions and make him loathe +and hate himself. Bunyan's life was now for so young a person a model +of correctness; but he had no sooner brought his actions straight than +he discovered that he was admiring and approving of himself. No +situation is more humiliating, none brings with it a feeling of more +entire hopelessness. 'All this while,' he says, 'I knew not Christ, +nor grace, nor faith, nor hope, and had I then died my state had been +most fearful. I was but a poor painted hypocrite, going about to +establish my own righteousness.' + +Like his own Pilgrim, he had the burden on his back of his conscious +unworthiness. How was he to be rid of it? + +'One day in a street in Bedford, as he was at work in his calling, he +fell in with three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun +talking about the things of God.' He was himself at that time 'a brisk +talker' about the matters of religion, and he joined these women. +Their expressions were wholly unintelligible to him. 'They were +speaking of the wretchedness of their own hearts, of their unbelief, +of their miserable state. They did contemn, slight, and abhor their +own righteousness as filthy and insufficient to do them any good. They +spoke of a new birth and of the work of God in their hearts, which +comforted and strengthened them against the temptations of the Devil.' + +The language of the poor women has lost its old meaning. They +themselves, if they were alive, would not use it any longer. The +conventional phrases of Evangelical Christianity ring untrue in a +modern ear like a cracked bell. We have grown so accustomed to them as +a cant, that we can hardly believe that they ever stood for sincere +convictions. Yet these forms were once alive with the profoundest of +all moral truths; a truth not of a narrow theology, but which lies at +the very bottom of the well, at the fountain-head of human morality; +namely, that a man who would work out his salvation must cast out +self, though he rend his heart-strings in doing it; not love of +self-indulgence only, but self-applause, self-confidence, self-conceit +and vanity, desire or expectation of reward; self in all the subtle +ingenuities with which it winds about the soul. In one dialect or +another, he must recognise that he is himself a poor creature not +worth thinking of, or he will not take the first step towards +excellence in any single thing which he undertakes. + +Bunyan left the women and went about his work, but their talk went +with him. 'He was greatly affected.' 'He saw that he wanted the true +tokens of a godly man.' He sought them out and spoke with them again +and again. He could not stay away; and the more he went the more he +questioned his condition. + +'I found two things,' he says, 'at which I did sometimes marvel, +considering what a blind ungodly wretch but just before I was; one a +great softness and tenderness of heart, which caused me to fall under +the conviction of what, by Scripture, they asserted; the other a great +bending of my mind to a continual meditating on it. My mind was now +like a horse-leech at the vein, still crying Give, give; so fixed on +eternity and on the kingdom of heaven (though I knew but little), that +neither pleasure, nor profit, nor persuasion, nor threats could loosen +it or make it let go its hold. It is in very deed a certain truth; it +would have been then as difficult for me to have taken my mind from +heaven to earth, as I have found it often since to get it from earth +to heaven.' + +Ordinary persons who are conscious of trying to do right, who resist +temptations, are sorry when they slip, and determine to be more on +their guard for the future, are well contented with the condition +which they have reached. They are respectable, they are right-minded +in common things, they fulfil their every-day duties to their +families and to society with a sufficiency for which the world speaks +well of them, as indeed it ought to speak; and they themselves +acquiesce in the world's verdict. Any passionate agitation about the +state of their souls they consider unreal and affected. Such men may +be amiable in private life, good neighbours, and useful citizens; but +be their talents what they may, they could not write a 'Pilgrim's +Progress,' or ever reach the Delectable Mountains, or even be +conscious that such mountains exist. + +Bunyan was on the threshold of the higher life. He knew that he was a +very poor creature. He longed to rise to something better. He was a +mere ignorant, untaught mechanic. He had not been to school with +Aristotle and Plato. He could not help himself or lose himself in the +speculations of poets and philosophers. He had only the Bible, and +studying the Bible he found that the wonder-working power in man's +nature was Faith. Faith! What was it? What did it mean? Had he faith? +He was but 'a poor sot,' and yet he thought that he could not be +wholly without it. The Bible told him that if he had faith as a grain +of mustard seed, he could work miracles. He did not understand +Oriental metaphors; here was a simple test which could be at once +applied. + +'One day,' he writes, 'as I was between Elstow and Bedford, the +temptation was hot upon me to try if I had faith by doing some +miracle. I must say to the puddles that were in the horse-pads, "be +dry," and truly at one time I was agoing to say so indeed. But just as +I was about to speak, the thought came into my mind: Go under yonder +hedge first and pray that God would make you able. But when I had +concluded to pray, this came hot upon me, that if I prayed and came +again and tried to do it, and yet did nothing notwithstanding, then +be sure I had no faith but was a castaway and lost. Nay, thought I, if +it be so, I will never try it yet, but will stay a little longer. Thus +was I tossed between the Devil and my own ignorance, and so perplexed +at some times that I could not tell what to do.' + +Common sense will call this disease, and will think impatiently that +the young tinker would have done better to attend to his business. But +it must be observed that Bunyan was attending to his business, toiling +all the while with grimed hands over his pots and kettles. No one ever +complained that the pots and kettles were ill-mended. It was merely +that being simple-minded, he found in his Bible that besides earning +his bread he had to save or lose his soul. Having no other guide he +took its words literally, and the directions puzzled him. + +He grew more and more unhappy--more lowly in his own eyes-- + + 'Wishing him like to those more rich in hope'-- + +like the women who were so far beyond him on the heavenly road. He was +a poet without knowing it, and his gifts only served to perplex him +further. His speculations assumed bodily forms which he supposed to be +actual visions. He saw his poor friends sitting on the sunny side of a +high mountain refreshing themselves in the warmth, while he was +shivering in frost and snow and mist. The mountain was surrounded by a +wall, through which he tried to pass, and searched long in vain for an +opening through it. At last he found one, very straight and narrow, +through which he struggled after desperate efforts. 'It showed him,' +he said, 'that none could enter into life but those who were in +downright earnest, and unless they left the wicked world behind them, +for here was only room for body and soul, but not for body and soul +and sin.' The vision brought him no comfort, for it passed away and +left him still on the wrong side: a little comfortable self-conceit +would have set him at rest. But, like all real men, Bunyan had the +worst opinion of himself. He looked at his Bible again. He found that +he must be elected. Was he elected? He could as little tell as whether +he had faith. He knew that he longed to be elected, but 'the Scripture +trampled on his desire,' for it said, 'It is not of him that willeth, +or of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy;' therefore, +unless God had chosen him his labour was in vain. The Devil saw his +opportunity; the Devil among his other attributes must have possessed +that of omnipresence, for whenever any human soul was in straits, he +was personally at hand to take advantage of it. + +'It may be that you are not elected,' the tempter said to Bunyan. 'It +may be so indeed,' thought he. 'Why then,' said Satan, 'you had as +good leave off and strive no farther; for if indeed you should not be +elected and chosen of God, there is no talk of your being saved.' + +A comforting text suggested itself. 'Look at the generations of old; +did any ever trust in the Lord and was confounded?' But these exact +words, unfortunately, were only to be found in the Apocrypha. And +there was a further distressing possibility, which has occurred to +others besides Bunyan. Perhaps the day of grace was passed. It came on +him one day as he walked in the country that perhaps those good people +in Bedford were all that the Lord would save in those parts, and that +he came too late for the blessing. True, Christ had said, 'Compel them +to come in, for yet there is room.' It might be 'that when Christ +spoke those words,' He was thinking of him--him among the rest that +he had chosen, and had meant to encourage him. But Bunyan was too +simply modest to gather comfort from such aspiring thoughts. Be +desired to be converted, craved for it, longed for it with all his +heart and soul. 'Could it have been gotten for gold,' he said, 'what +would I not have given for it. Had I had a whole world it had all gone +ten thousand times over for this, that my soul might have been in a +converted state. But, oh! I was made sick by that saying of Christ: +"He called to Him whom He would, and they came to Him." I feared He +would not call me.' + +Election, conversion, day of grace, coming to Christ, have been pawed +and fingered by unctuous hands for now two hundred years. The bloom is +gone from the flower. The plumage, once shining with hues direct from +heaven, is soiled and bedraggled. The most solemn of all realities +have been degraded into the passwords of technical theology. In +Bunyan's day, in camp and council chamber, in High Courts of +Parliament, and among the poor drudges in English villages, they were +still radiant with spiritual meaning. The dialect may alter; but if +man is more than a brief floating bubble on the eternal river of time; +if there be really an immortal part of him which need not perish; and +if his business on earth is to save it from perishing, he will still +try to pierce the mountain barrier. He will still find the work as +hard as Bunyan found it. We live in days of progress and +enlightenment; nature on a hundred sides has unlocked her storehouses +of knowledge. But she has furnished no 'open sesame' to bid the +mountain gate fly wide which leads to conquest of self. There is still +no passage there for 'body and soul and sin.' + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GRACE ABOUNDING. + + +The women in Bedford, to whom Bunyan had opened his mind, had been +naturally interested in him. Young and rough as he was, he could not +have failed to impress anyone who conversed with him with a sense that +he was a remarkable person. They mentioned him to Mr. Gifford, the +minister of the Baptist Church at Bedford. John Gifford had, at the +beginning of the Civil War, been a loose young officer in the king's +army. He had been taken prisoner when engaged in some exploit which +was contrary to the usages of war. A court-martial had sentenced him +to death, and he was to have been shot in a few hours, when he broke +out of his prison with his sister's help, and, after various +adventures, settled at Bedford as a doctor. The near escape had not +sobered him. He led a disorderly life, drinking and gambling, till the +loss of a large sum of money startled him into seriousness. In the +language of the time he became convinced of sin, and joined the +Baptists, the most thorough-going and consistent of all the Protestant +sects. If the Sacrament of Baptism is not a magical form, but is a +personal act, in which the baptised person devotes himself to Christ's +service, to baptise children at an age when they cannot understand +what they are doing may well seem irrational and even impious. + +Gifford, who was now the head of the Baptist community in the town, +invited Bunyan to his house, and explained the causes of his distress +to him. He was a lost sinner. It was true that he had parted with his +old faults, and was leading a new life. But his heart was unchanged; +his past offences stood in record against him. He was still under the +wrath of God, miserable in his position, and therefore miserable in +mind. He must become sensible of his lost state, and lay hold of the +only remedy, or there was no hope for him. + +There was no difficulty in convincing Bunyan that he was in a bad way. +He was too well aware of it already. In a work of fiction, the +conviction would be followed immediately by consoling grace. In the +actual experience of a living human soul, the medicine operates less +pleasantly. + +'I began,' he says, 'to see something of the vanity and inward +wretchedness of my wicked heart, for as yet I knew no great matter +therein. But now it began to be discovered unto me, and to work for +wickedness as it never did before. Lusts and corruptions would +strongly put themselves forth within me in wicked thoughts and desires +which I did not regard before. Whereas, before, my soul was full of +longing after God; now my heart began to hanker after every foolish +vanity.' + +Constitutions differ. Mr. Gifford's treatment, if it was ever good for +any man, was too sharp for Bunyan. The fierce acid which had been +poured into his wounds set them all festering again. He frankly admits +that he was now farther from conversion than before. His heart, do +what he would, refused to leave off desiring forbidden pleasures, and +while this continued, he supposed that he was still under the law, and +must perish by it. He compared himself to the child who, as he was +being brought to Christ, was thrown down by the devil and wallowed +foaming. A less healthy nature might have been destroyed by these +artificially created and exaggerated miseries. He supposed he was +given over to unbelief and wickedness, and yet he relates with +touching simplicity:-- + +'As to the act of sinning I was never more tender than now. I durst +not take up a pin or a stick, though but so big as a straw, for my +conscience now was sore and would smart at every touch. I could not +tell how to speak my words for fear I should misplace them.' + +But the care with which he watched his conduct availed him nothing. He +was on a morass 'that shook if he did but stir,' and he was 'there +left both of God and Christ and the Spirit, and of all good things.' +'Behind him lay the faults of his childhood and youth, every one of +which he believed to be recorded against him. Within were his +disobedient inclinations, which he conceived to be the presence of the +Devil in his heart. If he was to be presented clean of stain before +God he must have a perfect righteousness which was to be found only in +Christ, and Christ had rejected him. 'My original and inward +pollution,' he writes, 'was my plague and my affliction. I was more +loathsome in my own eyes than was a toad, and I thought I was so in +God's eyes too. I thought every one had a better heart than I had. I +could have changed heart with anybody. I thought none but the Devil +himself could equal me for inward wickedness and pollution. Sure, +thought I, I am given up to the Devil and to a reprobate mind; and +thus I continued for a long while, even for some years together.' + +And all the while the world went on so quietly; these things over +which Bunyan was so miserable not seeming to trouble anyone except +himself; and, as if they had no existence except on Sundays and in +pious talk. Old people were hunting after the treasures of this life, +as if they were never to leave the earth. Professors of religion +complained when they lost fortune or health; what were fortune and +health to the awful possibilities which lay beyond the grave? To +Bunyan the future life of Christianity was a reality as certain as the +next day's sunrise; and he could have been happy on bread and water if +he could have felt himself prepared to enter it. Every created being +seemed better off than he was. He was sorry that God had made him a +man. He 'blessed the condition of the birds, beasts, and fishes, for +they had not a sinful nature. They were not obnoxious to the wrath of +God. They were not to go to hell-fire after death.' He recalled the +texts which spoke of Christ and forgiveness. He tried to persuade +himself that Christ cared for him. He could have talked of Christ's +love and mercy 'even to the very crows which sate on the ploughed land +before him.' But he was too sincere to satisfy himself with formulas +and phrases. He could not, he would not, profess to be convinced that +things would go well with him when he was not convinced. Cold spasms +of doubt laid hold of him--doubts, not so much of his own salvation, +as of the truth of all that he had been taught to believe; and the +problem had to be fought and grappled with, which lies in the +intellectual nature of every genuine man, whether he be an Æschylus or +a Shakespeare, or a poor working Bedfordshire mechanic. No honest soul +can look out upon the world and see it as it really is, without the +question rising in him whether there be any God that governs it at +all. No one can accept the popular notion of heaven and hell as +actually true, without being as terrified as Bunyan was. We go on as +we do, and attend to our business and enjoy ourselves, because the +words have no real meaning to us. Providence in its kindness leaves +most of us unblessed or uncursed with natures of too fine a fibre. + +Bunyan was hardly dealt with. 'Whole floods of blasphemies,' he says, +'against God, Christ, and the Scriptures were poured upon my spirit; +questions against the very being of God and of his only beloved Son, +as whether there was in truth a God or Christ, or no, and whether the +Holy Scriptures were not rather a fable and cunning story than the +holy and pure Word of God.' + +'How can you tell,' the tempter whispered, 'but that the Turks have as +good a Scripture to prove their Mahomet the Saviour, as we have to +prove our Jesus is? Could I think that so many tens of thousands in so +many countries and kingdoms should be without the knowledge of the +right way to heaven, if there were indeed a heaven, and that we who +lie in a corner of the earth, should alone be blessed therewith. Every +one doth think his own religion the rightest, both Jews, Moors, and +Pagans; and how if all our faith, and Christ, and Scripture should be +but "a think so" too.' St. Paul spoke positively. Bunyan saw shrewdly +that on St. Paul the weight of the whole Christian theory really +rested. But 'how could he tell but that St. Paul, being a subtle and +cunning man, might give himself up to deceive with strong delusions?' +'He was carried away by such thoughts as by a whirlwind.' + +His belief in the active agency of the Devil in human affairs, of +which he supposed that he had witnessed instances, was no doubt a +great help to him. If he could have imagined that his doubts or +misgivings had been suggested by a desire for truth, they would have +been harder to bear. More than ever he was convinced that he was +possessed by the devil. He 'compared himself to a child carried off by +a gipsy.' 'Kick sometimes I did,' he says, 'and scream, and cry, but +yet I was as bound in the wings of temptation, and the wind would bear +me away.' 'I blessed the dog and toad, and counted the condition of +everything that God had made far better than this dreadful state of +mine. The dog or horse had no soul to perish under the everlasting +weight of hell for sin, as mine was like to do.' + +Doubts about revelation and the truth of Scripture were more easy to +encounter then than they are at present. Bunyan was protected by want +of learning, and by a powerful predisposition to find the objections +against the credibility of the Gospel history to be groundless. +Critical investigation had not as yet analysed the historical +construction of the sacred books, and scepticism, as he saw it in +people round him, did actually come from the devil, that is from a +desire to escape the moral restraints of religion. The wisest, +noblest, best instructed men in England, at that time regarded the +Bible as an authentic communication from God, and as the only +foundation for law and civil society. The masculine sense and strong +modest intellect of Bunyan ensured his acquiescence in an opinion so +powerfully supported. Fits of uncertainty recurred even to the end of +his life; it must be so with men who are honestly in earnest; but his +doubts were of course only intermittent, and his judgment was in the +main satisfied that the Bible was, as he had been taught, the Word of +God. This, however, helped him little; for in the Bible he read his +own condemnation. The weight which pressed him down was the sense of +his unworthiness. What was he that God should care for him? He fancied +that he heard God saying to the angels, 'This poor, simple wretch doth +hanker after me, as if I had nothing to do with my mercy but to bestow +it on such as he. Poor fool, how art thou deceived! It is not for such +as thee to have favour with the Highest.' + +Miserable as he was, he clung to his misery as the one link which +connected him with the object of his longings. If he had no hope of +heaven, he was at least distracted that he must lose it. He was afraid +of dying, yet he was still more afraid of continuing to live; lest the +impression should wear away through time, and occupation and other +interests should turn his heart away to the world, and thus his wounds +might cease to pain him. + +Readers of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' sometimes ask with wonder, why, +after Christian had been received into the narrow gate, and had been +set forward upon his way, so many trials and dangers still lay before +him. The answer is simply that Christian was a pilgrim, that the +journey of life still lay before him, and at every step temptations +would meet him in new, unexpected shapes. St. Anthony in his hermitage +was beset by as many fiends as had ever troubled him when in the +world. Man's spiritual existence is like the flight of a bird in the +air; he is sustained only by effort, and when he ceases to exert +himself he falls. There are intervals, however, of comparative calm, +and to one of these the storm-tossed Bunyan was now approaching. He +had passed through the Slough of Despond. He had gone astray after Mr. +Legality, and the rocks had almost overwhelmed him. Evangelist now +found him and put him right again, and he was to be allowed a +breathing space at the Interpreter's house. As he was at his ordinary +daily work his mind was restlessly busy. Verses of Scripture came into +his head, sweet while present, but like Peter's sheet caught up again +into heaven. We may have heard all our lives of Christ. Words and +ideas with which we have been familiar from childhood are trodden into +paths as barren as sand. Suddenly, we know not how, the meaning +flashes upon us. The seed has found its way into some corner of our +minds where it can germinate. The shell breaks, the cotyledons open, +and the plant of faith is alive. So it was now to be with Bunyan. + +'One day,' he says, 'as I was travelling into the country, musing on +the wickedness of my heart, and considering the enmity that was in me +to God, the Scripture came into my mind, "He hath made peace through +the blood of His cross." I saw that the justice of God and my sinful +soul could embrace and kiss each other. I was ready to swoon, not with +grief and trouble, but with solid joy and peace.' Everything became +clear: the Gospel history, the birth, the life, the death of the +Saviour; how gently he gave himself to be nailed on the cross for his +(Bunyan's) sins. 'I saw Him in the spirit,' he goes on, 'a Man on the +right hand of the Father, pleading for me, and have seen the manner of +His coming from Heaven to judge the world with glory.' + +The sense of guilt which had so oppressed him was now a key to the +mystery. 'God,' he says, 'suffered me to be afflicted with temptations +concerning these things, and then revealed them to me.' He was crushed +to the ground by the thought of his wickedness; 'the Lord showed him +the death of Christ, and lifted the weight away.' + +Now he thought he had a personal evidence from Heaven that he was +really saved. Before this, he had lain trembling at the mouth of hell; +now he was so far away from it that he could scarce tell where it was. +He fell in at this time with a copy of Luther's commentary on the +Epistle to the Galatians, 'so old that it was like to fall to pieces.' +Bunyan found in it the exact counterpart of his own experience: 'of +all the books that he had ever met with, it seemed to him the most fit +for a wounded conscience.' + +Everything was supernatural with him: when a bad thought came into his +mind, it was the devil that put it there. These breathings of peace he +regarded as the immediate voice of his Saviour. Alas! the respite was +but short. He had hoped that his troubles were over, when the tempter +came back upon him in the most extraordinary form which he had yet +assumed, Bunyan had himself left the door open; the evil spirits could +only enter 'Mansoul' through the owner's negligence, but once in, they +could work their own wicked will. How it happened will be told +afterwards. The temptation itself must be described first. Never was a +nature more perversely ingenious in torturing itself. + +He had gained Christ, as he called it. He was now tempted 'to sell and +part with this most blessed Christ, to exchange Him for the things of +this life--for anything.' If there had been any real prospect of +worldly advantage before Bunyan, which he could have gained by +abandoning his religious profession, the words would have had a +meaning; but there is no hint or trace of any prospect of the kind; +nor in Bunyan's position could there have been. The temptation, as he +called it, was a freak of fancy: fancy resenting the minuteness with +which he watched his own emotions. And yet he says, 'It lay upon me +for a year, and did follow me so continually that I was not rid of it +one day in a month, sometimes not an hour in many days together, +unless when I was asleep. I could neither eat my food, stoop for a +pin, chop a stick, or cast my eye to look on this or that, but still +the temptation would come, "Sell Christ for this, sell Him for that! +Sell Him! Sell Him!"' + +He had been haunted before with a notion that he was under a spell; +that he had been fated to commit the unpardonable sin; and he was now +thinking of Judas, who had been admitted to Christ's intimacy, and had +then betrayed him. Here it was before him--the very thing which he had +so long dreaded. If his heart did but consent for a moment, the deed +was done. His doom had overtaken him. He wrestled with the thought as +it rose, thrust it from him 'with his hands and elbows,' body and mind +convulsed together in a common agony. As fast as the destroyer said, +'Sell Him,' Bunyan said, 'I will not; I will not; I will not, not for +thousands, thousands, thousands of worlds!' One morning as he lay in +his bed, the voice came again, and would not be driven away. Bunyan +fought against it, till he was out of breath. He fell back exhausted, +and without conscious action of his will, the fatal sentence passed +through his brain, 'Let Him go if He will.' + +That the 'selling Christ' was a bargain in which he was to lose all +and receive nothing is evident from the form in which he was overcome. +Yet if he had gained a fortune by fraud or forgery, he could not have +been more certain that he had destroyed himself. + +Satan had won the battle, and he, 'as a bird shot from a tree, had +fallen into guilt and despair.' He got out of bed, 'and went moping +into the fields,' where he wandered for two hours, 'as a man bereft of +life, and now past recovering,' 'bound over to eternal punishment.' He +shrank under the hedges, 'in guilt and sorrow, bemoaning the hardness +of his fate.' In vain the words now came back that had so comforted +him, 'The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin.' They had no +application to him. He had acquired his birthright, but, like Esau, he +had sold it, and could not any more find place for repentance. True it +was said that 'all manner of sins and blasphemies should be forgiven +unto men,' but only such sins and blasphemies as had been committed in +the natural state. Bunyan had received grace, and after receiving it, +had sinned against the Holy Ghost. + +It was done, and nothing could undo it. David had received grace, and +had committed murder and adultery after it. But murder and adultery, +bad as they might be, were only transgressions of the law of Moses. +Bunyan had sinned against the Mediator himself, 'he had sold his +Saviour.' One sin, and only one there was which could not be pardoned, +and he had been guilty of it. Peter had sinned against grace, and even +after he had been warned. Peter, however, had but denied his Master. +Bunyan had sold him. He was no David or Peter, he was Judas. It was, +very hard. Others naturally as bad as he had been saved. Why had he +been picked out to be made a Son of Perdition? A Judas! Was there any +point in which he was better than Judas? Judas had sinned with +deliberate purpose: he 'in a fearful hurry,' and 'against prayer and +striving.' But there might be more ways than one of committing the +unpardonable sin, and there might be degrees of it. It was a dreadful +condition. The old doubts came back. + +'I was now ashamed,' he says, 'that I should be like such an ugly man +as Judas. I thought how loathsome I should be to all the saints at the +Day of Judgment. I was tempted to content myself by receiving some +false opinion, as that there should be no such thing as the Day of +Judgment, that we should not rise again, that sin was no such grievous +thing, the tempter suggesting that if these things should be indeed +true, yet to believe otherwise would yield me ease for the present. If +I must perish, I need not torment myself beforehand.' + +Judas! Judas! was now for ever before his eyes. So identified he was +with Judas that he felt at times as if his breastbone was bursting. A +mark like Cain's was on him. In vain he searched again through the +catalogue of pardoned sinners. Manasseh had consulted wizards and +familiar spirits. Manasseh had burnt his children in the fire to +devils. He had found mercy; but, alas! Manasseh's sins had nothing of +the nature of selling the Saviour. To have sold the Saviour 'was a sin +bigger than the sins of a country, of a kingdom, or of the whole +world--not all of them together could equal it.' + +His brain was overstrained, it will be said. Very likely. It is to be +remembered, however, who and what he was, and that he had overstrained +it in his eagerness to learn what he conceived his Maker to wish him +to be--a form of anxiety not common in this world. The cure was as +remarkable as the disorder. One day he was 'in a good man's shop,' +still 'afflicting himself with self-abhorrence,' when something seemed +to rush in through an open window, and he heard a voice saying, 'Didst +ever refuse to be justified by the blood of Christ?' Bunyan shared the +belief of his time. He took the system of things as the Bible +represented it; but his strong common sense put him on his guard +against being easily credulous. He thought at the time that the voice +was supernatural. After twenty years he said modestly that he 'could +not make a judgment of it.' The effect, any way, was as if an angel +had come to him and had told him that there was still hope. Hapless as +his condition was, he might still pray for mercy, and might possibly +find it. He tried to pray, and found it very hard. The devil whispered +again that God was tired of him; God wanted to be rid of him and his +importunities, and had, therefore, allowed him to commit this +particular sin that he might hear no more of him. He remembered Esau, +and thought that this might be too true: 'the saying about Esau was a +flaming sword barring the way of the tree of life to him.' Still he +would not give in. 'I can but die,' he said to himself, 'and if it +must be so, it shall be said that such an one died at the feet of +Christ in prayer.' + +He was torturing himself with illusions. Most of the saints in the +Catholic Calendar have done the same. The most remorseless philosopher +can hardly refuse a certain admiration for this poor uneducated +village lad struggling so bravely in the theological spider's web. The +'Professors' could not comfort him, having never experienced similar +distresses in their own persons. He consulted 'an Antient Christian,' +telling him that he feared that he had sinned against the Holy Ghost, +The Antient Christian answered gravely that he thought so too. The +devil having him at advantage, began to be witty with him. The devil +suggested that as he had offended the second or third Person of the +Trinity, he had better pray the Father to mediate for him with Christ +and the Holy Spirit. Then the devil took another turn. Christ, he +said, was really sorry for Bunyan, but his case was beyond remedy. +Bunyan's sin was so peculiar, that it was not of the nature of those +for which He had bled and died, and had not, therefore, been laid to +His charge. To justify Bunyan he must come down and die again, and +that was not to be thought of. 'Oh!' exclaimed the unfortunate victim, +'the unthought-of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors, that are +effected by a thorough application of guilt (to a spirit) that is +yielded to desperation. This is the man that hath his dwelling among +the tombs.' + +Sitting in this humour on a settle in the street at Bedford, he was +pondering over his fearful state. The sun in heaven seemed to grudge +its light to him. 'The stones in the street and the tiles on the +houses did bend themselves against him.' Each crisis in Bunyan's mind +is always framed in the picture of some spot where it occurred. He was +crying 'in the bitterness of his soul, How can God comfort such a +wretch as I am?' As before, in the shop, a voice came in answer, 'This +sin is not unto death.' The first voice had brought him hope which was +almost extinguished; the second was a message of life. The night was +gone, and it was daylight. He had come to the end of the Valley of the +Shadow of Death, and the spectres and the hobgoblins which had +jibbered at him suddenly all vanished. A moment before he had supposed +that he was out of reach of pardon, that he had no right to pray, no +right to repent, or, at least, that neither prayer nor repentance +could profit him. If his sin was not to death, then he was on the same +ground as other sinners. If they might pray, he might pray, and might +look to be forgiven on the same terms. He still saw that his 'selling +Christ' had been 'most barbarous,' but despair was followed by an +extravagance, no less unbounded, of gratitude, when he felt that +Christ would pardon even this. + +'Love and affection for Christ,' he says, 'did work at this time such +a strong and hot desire of revengement upon myself for the abuse I had +done to Him, that, to speak as then I thought, had I had a thousand +gallons of blood in my veins, I could freely have spilt it all at the +command of my Lord and Saviour. The tempter told me it was vain to +pray. Yet, thought I, I will pray. But, said the tempter, your sin is +unpardonable. Well, said I, I will pray. It is no boot, said he. Yet, +said I, I will pray: so I went to prayer, and I uttered words to this +effect: Lord, Satan tells me that neither Thy mercy nor Christ's blood +is sufficient to save my soul. Lord, shall I honour Thee most by +believing that Thou wilt and canst, or him, by believing that Thou +neither wilt nor canst? Lord, I would fain honour Thee by believing +that Thou wilt and canst. As I was there before the Lord, the +Scripture came, Oh! man, great is thy faith, even as if one had +clapped me on the back.' + +The waves had not wholly subsided; but we need not follow the +undulations any farther. It is enough that after a 'conviction of +sin,' considerably deeper than most people find necessary for +themselves, Bunyan had come to realise what was meant by salvation in +Christ, according to the received creed of the contemporary Protestant +world. The intensity of his emotions arose only from the completeness +with which he believed it. Man had sinned, and by sin was made a +servant of the devil. His redemption was a personal act of the Saviour +towards each individual sinner. In the Atonement Christ had before him +each separate person whom he designed to save, blotting out his +offences, however heinous they might be, and recording in place of +them his own perfect obedience. Each reconciled sinner in return +regarded Christ's sufferings as undergone immediately for himself, and +gratitude for that great deliverance enabled and obliged him to devote +his strength and soul thenceforward to God's service. In the +seventeenth century, all earnest English Protestants held this belief. +In the nineteenth century, most of us repeat the phrases of this +belief, and pretend to hold it. We think we hold it. We are growing +more cautious, perhaps, with our definitions. We suspect that there +may be mysteries in God's nature and methods which we cannot fully +explain. The outlines of 'the scheme of salvation' are growing +indistinct; and we see it through a gathering mist. Yet the essence of +it will remain true whether we recognise it or not. While man remains +man he will do things which he ought not to do. He will leave undone +things which he ought to do. To will, may be present with him; but how +to perform what he wills, he will never fully know, and he will still +hate 'the body of death' which he feels clinging to him. He will try +to do better. When he falls he will struggle to his feet again. He +will climb and climb on the hill side, though he never reaches the +top, and knows that he can never reach it. His life will be a failure, +which he will not dare to offer as a fit account of himself, or as +worth a serious regard. Yet he will still hope that he will not be +wholly cast away, when after his sleep in death he wakes again. + +Now, says Bunyan, there remained only the hinder part of the tempest. +Heavenly voices continued to encourage him. 'As I was passing in the +field,' he goes on, 'I heard the sentence, thy righteousness is in +heaven; and methought I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ +at God's right hand, there I say, as my righteousness, so that +wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me He +wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. Now did my +chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my affliction and +irons; my temptations also fled away, so that from that time those +dreadful Scriptures of God left off to trouble me. Now went I home +rejoicing for the grace and love of God. Christ of God is made unto us +wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. I now +lived very sweetly at peace with God through Christ. Oh! methought, +Christ, Christ! There was nothing but Christ before my eyes. I was not +now only looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as +of His blood, burial, and resurrection, but considered Him as a whole +Christ. All those graces that were now green in me were yet but like +those cracked groats and fourpence half-pennies which rich men carry +in their purses, while their gold is in their trunks at home. Oh! I +saw my gold was in my trunk at home in Christ my Lord and Saviour. The +Lord led me into the mystery of union with the Son of God, that I was +joined to Him, that I was flesh of His flesh. If He and I were one, +His righteousness was mine, His merits mine, His victory mine. Now I +could see myself in heaven and earth at once; in heaven by my Christ, +though on earth by my body and person. Christ was that common and +public person in whom the whole body of His elect are always to be +considered and reckoned. We fulfilled the law by Him, died by Him, +rose from the dead by Him, got the victory over sin and death, the +devil and hell by Him. I had cause to say, Praise ye the Lord. Praise +God in His sanctuary.' + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CALL TO THE MINISTRY. + + +The Pilgrim falls into the hands of Giant Despair because he has +himself first strayed into Byepath Meadow. Bunyan found an explanation +of his last convulsion in an act of unbelief, of which, on looking +back, he perceived that he had been guilty. He had been delivered out +of his first temptation. He had not been sufficiently on his guard +against temptations that might come in the future. Nay, he had himself +tempted God. His wife had been overtaken by a premature confinement, +and was suffering acutely. It was at the time when Bunyan was +exercised with questions about the truth of religion altogether. As +the poor woman lay crying at his side, he had said mentally, 'Lord, if +Thou wilt now remove this sad affliction from my wife, and cause that +she be troubled no more therewith this night, then I shall know that +Thou canst discern the more secret thoughts of the heart.' In a moment +the pain ceased and she fell into a sleep which lasted till morning. +Bunyan, though surprised at the time, forgot what had happened, till +it rushed back upon his memory, when he had committed himself by a +similar mental assent to selling Christ. He remembered the proof which +had been given to him that God could and did discern his thoughts. God +had discerned this second thought also, and in punishing him for it +had punished him at the same time for the doubt which he had allowed +himself to feel. 'I should have believed His word,' he said, 'and not +have put an "if" upon the all-seeingness of God.' + +The suffering was over now, and he felt that it had been infinitely +beneficial to him. He understood better the glory of God and of his +Son. The Scriptures had opened their secrets to him, and he had seen +them to be in very truth the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Never so +clearly as after this 'temptation' had he perceived 'the heights of +grace, and love, and mercy.' Two or three times 'he had such strange +apprehensions of the grace of God as had amazed him.' The impression +was so overpowering that if it had continued long 'it would have +rendered him incapable for business.' He joined his friend Mr. +Gifford's church. He was baptised in the Ouse, and became a professed +member of the Baptist congregation. Soon after, his mental conflict +was entirely over, and he had two quiet years of peace. Before a man +can use his powers to any purpose, he must arrive at some conviction +in which his intellect can acquiesce. 'Calm yourself,' says Jean Paul; +'it is your first necessity. Be a stoic if nothing else will serve.' +Bunyan had not been driven into stoicism. He was now restored to the +possession of his faculties, and his remarkable ability was not long +in showing itself. + +The first consequence of his mental troubles was an illness. He had a +cough which threatened to turn into consumption. He thought it was all +over with him, and he was fixing his eyes 'on the heavenly Jerusalem +and the innumerable company of angels;' but the danger passed off, and +he became well and strong in mind and body. Notwithstanding his +various miseries, he had not neglected his business, and had indeed +been specially successful. By the time that he was twenty-five years +old he was in a position considerably superior to that in which he was +born. 'God,' says a contemporary biographer, 'had increased his stores +so that he lived in great credit among his neighbours.' On May 13, +1653, Bedfordshire sent an address to Cromwell approving the dismissal +of the Long Parliament, recognising Oliver himself as the Lord's +instrument, and recommending the county magistrates as fit persons to +serve in the Assembly which was to take its place. Among thirty-six +names attached to this document, appear those of Gifford and Bunyan. +This speaks for itself: he must have been at least a householder and a +person of consideration. It was not, however, as a prosperous brazier +that Bunyan was to make his way. He had a gift of speech, which, in +the democratic congregation to which he belonged, could not long +remain hid. Young as he was, he had sounded the depths of spiritual +experience. Like Dante he had been in hell--the popular hell of +English Puritanism--and in 1655 he was called upon to take part in the +'ministry.' He was modest, humble, shrinking. The minister when he +preached was, according to the theory, an instrument uttering the +words not of himself but of the Holy Spirit. A man like Bunyan, who +really believed this, might well be alarmed. After earnest entreaty, +however, 'he made experiment of his powers' in private, and it was at +once evident that, with the thing which these people meant by +inspiration, he was abundantly supplied. No such preacher to the +uneducated English masses was to be found within the four seas. He +says that he had no desire of vain glory; no one who has studied his +character can suppose that he had. He was a man of natural genius, +who believed the Protestant form of Christianity to be completely +true. He knew nothing of philosophy, nothing of history, nothing of +literature. The doubts to which he acknowledged being without their +natural food, had never presented themselves in a form which would +have compelled him to submit to remain uncertain. Doubt, as he had +felt it, was a direct enemy of morality and purity, and as such he had +fought with it and conquered it. Protestant Christianity was true. All +mankind were perishing unless they saw it to be true. This was his +message; a message--supposing him to have been right--of an importance +so immeasurable that all else was nothing. He was still 'afflicted +with the fiery darts of the devil,' but he saw that he must not bury +his abilities. 'In fear and trembling,' therefore, he set himself to +the work, and 'did according to his power preach the Gospel that God +had shewn him.' + +'The Lord led him to begin where his Word began--with sinners. This +part of my work,' he says, 'I fulfilled with a great sense, for the +terrors of the law and guilt for my transgressions lay heavy on my +conscience. I preached what I felt. I had been sent to my hearers as +from the dead. I went myself in chains to preach to them in chains, +and carried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to +beware of. I have gone full of guilt and terror to the pulpit door; +God carried me on with a strong hand, for neither guilt nor hell could +take me off.' + +Many of Bunyan's addresses remain in the form of theological +treatises, and that I may not have to return to the subject, I shall +give some account of them. His doctrine was the doctrine of the best +and strongest minds in Europe. It had been believed by Luther, it had +been believed by Knox. It was believed at that moment by Oliver +Cromwell as completely as by Bunyan himself. It was believed, so far +as such a person could be said to believe anything, by the all +accomplished Leibnitz himself. Few educated people use the language of +it now. In them it was a fire from heaven shining like a sun in a dark +world. With us the fire has gone out; in the place of it we have but +smoke and ashes, and the Evangelical mind in search of 'something +deeper and truer than satisfied the last century,' is turning back to +Catholic verities. What Bunyan had to say may be less than the whole +truth: we shall scarcely find the still missing part of it in lines of +thought which we have outgrown. + +Bunyan preached wherever opportunity served--in woods, in barns, on +village greens, or in town chapels. The substance of his sermons he +revised and published. He began, as he said, with sinners, explaining +the condition of men in the world. They were under the law, or they +were under grace. Every person that came into the world was born under +the law, and as such was bound, under pain of eternal damnation, to +fulfil completely and continually every one of the Ten Commandments. +The Bible said plainly, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in +all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' 'The +soul that sinneth it shall die.' The Ten Commandments extended into +many more, and to fail in a single one was as fatal as to break them +all. A man might go on for a long time, for sixty years perhaps, +without falling. Bunyan does not mean that anyone really could do all +this, but he assumes the possibility; yet he says if the man slipped +once before he died, he would eternally perish. The law does not refer +to words and actions only, but to thoughts and feelings. It followed +a man in his prayers, and detected a wandering thought. It allowed no +repentance to those who lived and died under it. If it was asked +whether God could not pardon, as earthly judges pardon criminals, the +answer was, that it is not the law which is merciful to the earthly +offender but the magistrate. The law is an eternal principle. The +magistrate may forgive a man without exacting satisfaction. The law +knows no forgiveness. It can be as little changed as an axiom of +mathematics. Repentance cannot undo the past. Let a man leave his sins +and live as purely as an angel all the rest of his life, his old +faults remain in the account against him, and his state is as bad as +ever it was. God's justice once offended knows not pity or compassion, +but runs on the offender like a lion and throws him into prison, there +to lie to all eternity unless infinite satisfaction be given to it. +And that satisfaction no son of Adam could possibly make. + +This conception of Divine justice, not as a sentence of a judge, but +as the action of an eternal law, is identical with Spinoza's. That +every act involves consequences which cannot be separated from it, and +may continue operative to eternity, is a philosophical position which +is now generally admitted. Combined with the traditionary notions of a +future judgment and punishment in hell, the recognition that there was +a law in the case and that the law could not be broken, led to the +frightful inference that each individual was liable to be kept alive +and tortured through all eternity. And this, in fact, was the fate +really in store for every human creature unless some extraordinary +remedy could be found. Bunyan would allow no merit to anyone. He would +not have it supposed that only the profane or grossly wicked were in +danger from the law. 'A man,' he says, 'may be turned from a vain, +loose, open, profane conversation and sinning against the law, to a +holy, righteous, religious life, and yet be under the same state and +as sure to be damned as the others that are more profane and loose.' +The natural man might think it strange, but the language of the curse +was not to be mistaken. Cursed is every one who has failed to fulfil +the whole law. There was not a person in the whole world who had not +himself sinned in early life. All had sinned in Adam also, and St. +Paul had said in consequence, 'There is none that doeth good, no, not +one! The law was given not that we might be saved by obeying it, but +that we might know the holiness of God and our own vileness, and that +we might understand that we should not be damned for nothing. God +would have no quarrelling at His just condemning of us at that day.' + +This is Bunyan's notion of the position in which we all naturally +stand in this world, and from which the substitution of Christ's +perfect fulfilment of the law alone rescues us. It is calculated, no +doubt, to impress on us a profound horror of moral evil when the +penalty attached to it is so fearful. But it is dangerous to introduce +into religion metaphysical conceptions of 'law.' The cord cracks that +is strained too tightly; and it is only for brief periods of high +spiritual tension that a theology so merciless can sustain itself. No +one with a conscience in him will think of claiming any merit for +himself. But we know also that there are degrees of demerit, and, +theory or no theory, we fall back on the first verse of the English +Liturgy, as containing a more endurable account of things. + +For this reason, among others, Bunyan disliked the Liturgy. He thought +the doctrine of it false, and he objected to a Liturgy on principle. +He has a sermon on Prayer, in which he insists that to be worth +anything prayer must be the expression of an inward feeling; and that +people cannot feel in lines laid down for them. Forms of prayer he +thought especially mischievous to children, as accustoming them to use +words to which they attached no meaning. + +'My judgment,' he says, 'is that men go the wrong way to learn their +children to pray. It seems to me a better way for people to tell their +children betimes what cursed creatures they are, how they are under +the wrath of God by reason of original and actual sin; also to tell +them the nature of God's wrath and the duration of misery, which if +they would conscientiously do, they would sooner learn their children +to pray than they do. The way that men learn to pray is by conviction +of sin, and this is the way to make our "sweet babes" do so too.' + +'Sweet babes' is unworthy of Bunyan. There is little sweetness in a +state of things so stern as he conceives. He might have considered, +too, that there was a danger of making children unreal in another and +worse sense by teaching them doctrines which neither child nor man can +comprehend. It may be true that a single sin may consign me to +everlasting hell, but I cannot be made to acknowledge the justice of +it. 'Wrath of God' and such expressions are out of place when we are +brought into the presence of metaphysical laws. Wrath corresponds to +free-will misused. It is senseless and extravagant when pronounced +against actions which men cannot help, when the faulty action is the +necessary consequence of their nature, and the penalty the necessary +consequence of the action. + +The same confusion of thought lies in the treatment of the kindred +subjects of Free-will, Election, and Reprobation. The logic must be +maintained, and God's moral attributes simultaneously vindicated. +Bunyan argues about it as ingeniously as Leibnitz himself. Those who +suppose that specific guilt attaches to particular acts, that all men +are put into the world, free to keep the Commandments or to break +them, that they are equally able to do one as to do the other, and +are, therefore, proper objects of punishment, hold an opinion which is +consistent in itself, but is in entire contradiction with facts. +Children are not as able to control their inclinations as grown men, +and one man is not as able to control himself as another. Some have no +difficulty from the first, and are constitutionally good; some are +constitutionally weak, or have incurable propensities for evil. Some +are brought up with care and insight; others seem never to have any +chance at all. So evident is this, that impartial thinkers have +questioned the reality of human guilt in the sense in which it is +generally understood. Even Butler allows that if we look too curiously +we may have a difficulty in finding where it lies. And here, if +anywhere, there is a real natural truth in the doctrine of Election, +independent of the merit of those who are so happy as to find favour. +Bunyan, however, reverses the inference. He will have all guilty +together, those who do well and those who do ill. Even the elect are +in themselves as badly off as the reprobate, and are equally included +under sin. Those who are saved are saved for Christ's merits and not +for their own. + +Men of calmer temperament accept facts as they find them. They are too +conscious of their ignorance to insist on explaining problems which +are beyond their teach. Bunyan lived in an age of intense religious +excitement, when the strongest minds were exercising themselves on +those questions. It is noticeable that the most effective intellects +inclined to necessitarian conclusions: some in the shape of Calvinism, +some in the corresponding philosophic form of Spinozism. From both +alike there came an absolute submission to the decrees of God, and a +passionate devotion to his service; while the morality of Free-will is +cold and calculating. Appeals to a sense of duty do not reach beyond +the understanding. The enthusiasm which will stir men's hearts and +give them a real power of resisting temptation must be nourished on +more invigorating food. + +But I need dwell no more on a subject which is unsuited for these +pages. + +The object of Bunyan, like that of Luther, like that of all great +spiritual teachers, was to bring his wandering fellow-mortals into +obedience to the commandments, even while he insisted on the +worthlessness of it. He sounded the strings to others which had +sounded loudest in himself. When he passed from mysticism into matters +of ordinary life, he showed the same practical good sense which +distinguishes the chief of all this order of thinkers--St. Paul. There +is a sermon of Bunyan's on Christian behaviour, on the duties of +parents to children, and masters to servants, which might be studied +with as much advantage in English households as the 'Pilgrim's +Progress' itself. To fathers he says, 'Take heed that the misdeeds for +which thou correctest thy children be not learned them by thee. Many +children learn that wickedness of their parents, for which they beat +and chastise them. Take heed that thou smile not upon them to +encourage them in small faults, lest that thy carriage to them be an +encouragement to them to commit greater faults. Take heed that thou +use not unsavoury and unseemly words in thy chastising of them, as +railing, miscalling, and the like--this is devilish. Take heed that +thou do not use them to many chiding words and threatenings, mixed +with lightness and laughter. This will harden.' + +And again: 'I tell you that if parents carry it lovingly towards their +children, mixing their mercies with loving rebukes, and their loving +rebukes with fatherly and motherly compassions, they are more likely +to save their children than by being churlish and severe to them. Even +if these things do not save them, if their mercy do them no good, yet +it will greatly ease them at the day of death to consider, I have done +by love as much as I could to save and deliver my child from hell.' + +Whole volumes on education have said less, or less to the purpose, +than these simple words. Unfortunately, parents do not read Bunyan. He +is left to children. + +Similarly, he says to masters:-- + +'It is thy duty so to behave thyself to thy servant that thy service +may not only be for thy good, but for the good of thy servant, and +that in body and soul. Deal with him as to admonition as with thy +children. Take heed thou do not turn thy servants into slaves by +overcharging them in thy work with thy greediness. Take heed thou +carry not thyself to thy servant as he of whom it is said, "He is such +a man of Belial that his servants cannot speak to him." The Apostle +bids you forbear to threaten them, because you also have a Master in +Heaven. Masters, give your servants that which is just, just labour +and just wages. Servants that are truly godly care not how cheap they +serve their masters, provided they may get into godly families, or +where they may be convenient for the Word. But if a master or +mistress takes this opportunity to make a prey of their servants, it +is abominable. I have heard poor servants say that in some carnal +families they have had more liberty to God's things and more fairness +of dealing than among many professors. Such masters make religion to +stink before the inhabitants of the land.' + +Bunyan was generally charitable in his judgment upon others. If there +was any exception, it was of Professors who discredited their calling +by conceit and worldliness. + +'No sin,' he says, 'reigneth more in the world than pride among +Professors. The thing is too apparent for any man to deny. We may and +do see pride display itself in the apparel and carriage of Professors +almost as much as among any in the land. I have seen church members so +decked and bedaubed with their fangles and toys that when they have +been at worship I have wondered with what faces such painted persons +could sit in the place where they were without swooning. I once talked +with a maid, by way of reproof for her fond and gaudy garment; she +told me the tailor would make it so. Poor proud girl, she gave orders +to the tailor to make it so.' + +I will give one more extract from Bunyan's pastoral addresses. It +belongs to a later period in his ministry, when the law had, for a +time, remade Dissent into a crime; but it will throw light on the part +of his story which we are now approaching, and it is in every way very +characteristic of him. He is speaking to sufferers under persecution. +He says to them:-- + +'Take heed of being offended with magistrates, because by their +statutes they may cross thy inclinations. It is given to them to bear +the sword, and a command is to thee, if thy heart cannot acquiesce +with all things, with meekness and patience to suffer. Discontent in +the mind sometimes puts discontent into the mouth; and discontent in +the mouth doth sometimes also put a halter about thy neck. For as a +man speaking a word in jest may for that be hanged in earnest, so he +that speaks in discontent may die for it in sober sadness. Above all, +get thy conscience possessed more and more with this, that the +magistrate is God's ordinance, and is ordered of God as such; that he +is the minister of God to thee for good, and that it is thy duty to +fear him and to pray for him; to give thanks to God for him and be +subject to him; as both Paul and Peter admonish us; and that not only +for wrath, but for conscience sake. For all other arguments come short +of binding the soul when this argument is wanting, until we believe +that of God we are bound thereto. + +'I speak not these things as knowing any that are disaffected to the +government, for I love to be alone, if not with godly men, in things +that are convenient. I speak to show my loyalty to the king, and my +love to my fellow-subjects, and my desire that all Christians shall +walk in ways of peace and truth.' + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ARREST AND TRIAL. + + +Bunyan's preaching enterprise became an extraordinary success. All the +Midland Counties heard of his fame, and demanded to hear him. He had +been Deacon under Gifford at the Bedford Church; but he was in such +request as a preacher, that, in 1657, he was released from his duties +there as unable to attend to them. Sects were springing up all over +England as weeds in a hotbed. He was soon in controversy; Controversy +with Church of England people; Controversy with the Ranters, who +believed Christ to be a myth; Controversy with the Quakers who, at +their outset, disbelieved in his Divinity and in the inspiration of +the Scriptures. Envy at his rapidly acquired reputation brought him +baser enemies. He was called a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman. It was +reported that he had 'his misses,' that he had two wives, &c. 'My foes +have missed their mark in this,' he said with honest warmth: 'I am not +the man. If all the fornicators and adulterers in England were hanged +by the neck, John Bunyan, the object of their envy, would be still +alive and well. I know not whether there be such a thing as a woman +breathing under the cope of the whole heavens but by their apparel, +their children, or common fame, except my wife.' + +But a more serious trial was now before him. Cromwell passed away. The +Protectorate came to an end. England decided that it had had enough of +Puritans and republicans, and would give the Stuarts and the +Established Church another trial. A necessary consequence was the +revival of the Act of Uniformity. The Independents were not meek like +the Baptists, using no weapons to oppose what they disapproved but +passive resistance. The same motives which had determined the original +constitution of a Church combining the characters of Protestant and +Catholic, instead of leaving religion free, were even more powerful at +the Restoration than they had been at the accession of Elizabeth. +Before toleration is possible, men must have learnt to tolerate +toleration itself; and in times of violent convictions, toleration is +looked on as indifference, and indifference as Atheism in disguise. +Catholics and Protestants, Churchmen and Dissenters, regarded one +another as enemies of God and the State, with whom no peace was +possible. Toleration had been tried by the Valois princes in France. +Church and chapel had been the rendezvous of armed fanatics. The +preachers blew the war-trumpet, and every town and village had been +the scene of furious conflicts, which culminated in the Massacre of +St. Bartholomew. The same result would have followed in England if the +same experiment had been ventured. The different communities were +forbidden to have their separate places of worship, and services were +contrived which moderate men of all sorts could use and interpret +after their own convictions. The instrument required to be delicately +handled. It succeeded tolerably as long as Elizabeth lived. When +Elizabeth died, the balance was no longer fairly kept. The High Church +party obtained the ascendancy and abused their power. Tyranny brought +revolution, and the Catholic element in turn disappeared. The Bishops +were displaced by Presbyterian elders. The Presbyterian elders became +in turn 'hireling wolves,' 'old priest' written in new characters. +Cromwell had left conscience free to Protestants. But even he had +refused equal liberty to Catholics and Episcopalians. He was gone too, +and Church and King were back again. How were they to stand? The stern +resolute men, to whom the Commonwealth had been the establishment of +God's kingdom upon earth, were as little inclined to keep terms with +Antichrist as the Church people had been inclined to keep terms with +Cromwell. To have allowed them to meet openly in their conventicles +would have been to make over the whole of England to them as a +seed-bed in which to plant sedition. It was pardonable, it was even +necessary, for Charles II. and his advisers, to fall back upon +Elizabeth's principles, at least as long as the ashes were still +glowing. Indulgence had to be postponed till cooler times. With the +Fifth Monarchy men abroad, every chapel, except those of the Baptists, +would have been a magazine of explosives. + +Under the 35th of Elizabeth, Nonconformists refusing to attend worship +in the parish churches were to be imprisoned till they made their +submission. Three months were allowed them to consider. If at the end +of that time they were still obstinate, they were to be banished the +realm; and if they subsequently returned to England without permission +from the Crown, they were liable to execution as felons. This Act had +fallen with the Long Parliament, but at the Restoration it was held to +have revived and to be still in force. The parish churches were +cleared of their unordained ministers. The Dissenters' chapels were +closed. The people were required by proclamation to be present on +Sundays in their proper place. So the majority of the nation had +decided. If they had wished for religious liberty they would not have +restored the Stuarts, or they would have insisted on conditions, and +would have seen that they were observed. + +Venner's plot showed the reality of the danger and justified the +precaution. + +The Baptists and Quakers might have been trusted to discourage +violence, but it was impossible to distinguish among the various +sects, whose tenets were unknown and even unsettled. The great body of +Cromwell's spiritual supporters believed that armed resistance to a +government which they disapproved was not only lawful, but was +enjoined. + +Thus, no sooner was Charles II. on the throne than the Nonconformists +found themselves again under bondage. Their separate meetings were +prohibited, and they were not only forbidden to worship in their own +fashion, but they had to attend church, under penalties. The Bedford +Baptists refused to obey. Their meeting-house in the town was shut up, +but they continued to assemble in woods and outhouses; Bunyan +preaching to them as before, and going to the place in disguise. +Informers were soon upon his track. The magistrates had received +orders to be vigilant. Bunyan was the most prominent Dissenter in the +neighbourhood. He was too sensible to court martyrdom. He had intended +to leave the town till more quiet times, and had arranged to meet a +few of his people once more to give them a parting address. It was +November 12, 1660. The place agreed on was a house in the village of +Samsell near Harlington. Notice of his intention was privately +conveyed to Mr. Wingate, a magistrate in the adjoining district. The +constables were set to watch the house, and were directed to bring +Bunyan before him. Some member of the congregation heard of it. Bunyan +was warned, and was advised to stay at home that night, or else to +conceal himself. His departure had been already arranged; but when he +learnt that a warrant was actually out against him, he thought that he +was bound to stay and face the danger. He was the first Nonconformist +who had been marked for arrest. If he flinched after he had been +singled out by name, the whole body of his congregation would be +discouraged. Go to church he would not, or promise to go to church; +but he was willing to suffer whatever punishment the law might order. +Thus at the time and place which had been agreed on, he was in the +room, at Samsell, with his Bible in his hand, and was about to begin +his address, when the constables entered and arrested him. He made no +resistance. He desired only to be allowed to say a few words, which +the constables permitted. He then prepared to go with them. He was not +treated with any roughness. It was too late to take him that night +before the magistrate. His friends undertook for his appearance when +he should be required, and he went home with them. The constables came +for him again on the following afternoon. + +Mr. Wingate, when the information was first brought to him, supposed +that he had fallen on a nest of Fifth Monarchy men. He enquired, when +Bunyan was brought in, how many arms had been found at the meeting. +When he learnt that there were no arms, and that it had no political +character whatever, he evidently thought it was a matter of no +consequence. He told Bunyan that he had been breaking the law, and +asked him why he could not attend to his business. Bunyan said that +his object in teaching was merely to persuade people to give up their +sins. He could do that and attend to his business also. Wingate +answered that the law must be obeyed. He must commit Bunyan for trial +at the Quarter Sessions; but he would take bail for him, if his +securities would engage that he would not preach again meanwhile. +Bunyan refused to be bailed on any such terms. Preach he would and +must, and the recognizances would be forfeited. After such an answer, +Wingate could only send him to gaol: he could not help himself. The +committal was made out, and Bunyan was being taken away, when two of +his friends met him, who were acquainted with Wingate, and they begged +the constable to wait. They went in to the magistrate. They told him +who and what Bunyan was. The magistrate had not the least desire to be +hard, and it was agreed that if he would himself give some general +promise of a vague kind he might be let go altogether. Bunyan was +called back. Another magistrate who knew him had by this time joined +Wingate. They both said that they were reluctant to send him to +prison. If he would promise them that he would not call the people +together any more, he might go home. + +They had purposely chosen a form of words which would mean as little +as possible. But Bunyan would not accept an evasion. He said that he +would not force the people to come together, but if he was in a place +where the people were met, he should certainly speak to them. The +magistrate repeated that the meetings were unlawful. They would be +satisfied if Bunyan would simply promise that he would not call such +meetings. It was as plain as possible that they wished to dismiss the +case, and they were thrusting words into his mouth which he could use +without a mental reservation; but he persisted that there were many +ways in which a meeting might be called; if people came together to +hear him, knowing that he would speak, he might be said to have called +them together. + +Remonstrances and entreaties were equally useless, and, with extreme +unwillingness, they committed him to Bedford Gaol to wait for the +sessions. + +It is not for us to say that Bunyan was too precise. He was himself +the best judge of what his conscience and his situation required. To +himself, at any rate, his trial was at the moment most severe. He had +been left a widower a year or two before, with four young children, +one of them blind. He had lately married a second time. His wife was +pregnant. The agitation at her husband's arrest brought on premature +labour, and she was lying in his house in great danger. He was an +affectionate man, and the separation at such a time was peculiarly +distressing. After some weeks the quarter sessions came on. Bunyan was +indicted under the usual form, that he 'being a person of such and +such condition had since such a time devilishly and perniciously +abstained from coming to church to hear Divine service, and was a +common upholder of unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great +disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of this kingdom, +contrary to the laws of our Sovereign Lord the King.' + +There seems to have been a wish to avoid giving him a formal trial. He +was not required to plead, and it may have been thought that he had +been punished sufficiently. He was asked why he did not go to church? +He said that the Prayer-book was made by man; he was ordered in the +Bible to pray with the spirit and the understanding, not with the +spirit and the Prayer-book. The magistrates, referring to another Act +of Parliament, cautioned Bunyan against finding fault with the +Prayer-book, or he would bring himself into further trouble. Justice +Keelin who presided said (so Bunyan declares, and it has been the +standing jest of his biographers ever since) that the Prayer-book had +been in use ever since the Apostles' time. Perhaps the words were that +parts of it had been then in use (the Apostles' Creed, for instance), +and thus they would have been strictly true. However this might be, +they told him kindly, as Mr. Wingate had done, that it would be better +for him if he would keep to his proper work. The law had prohibited +conventicles. He might teach, if he pleased, in his own family and +among his friends. He must not call large numbers of people together. +He was as impracticable as before, and the magistrates, being but +unregenerate mortals, may be pardoned if they found him provoking. If, +he said, it was lawful for him to do good to a few, it must be equally +lawful to do good to many. He had a gift, which he was bound to use. +If it was sinful for men to meet together to exhort one another to +follow Christ, he should sin still. + +He was compelling the Court to punish him, whether they wished it or +not. He describes the scene as if the choice had rested with the +magistrates to convict him or to let him go. If he was bound to do his +duty, they were equally bound to do theirs. They took his answers as a +plea of guilty to the indictment, and Justice Keelin, who was +chairman, pronounced his sentence in the terms of the Act. He was to +go to prison for three months; if, at the end of three months, he +still refused to conform, he was to be transported; and if he came +back without license he would be hanged. Bunyan merely answered, 'If +I were out of prison to-day, I would preach, the Gospel again +to-morrow.' More might have followed, but the gaoler led him away. + +There were three gaols in Bedford, and no evidence has been found to +show in which of the three Bunyan was confined. Two of them, the +county gaol and the town gaol, were large roomy buildings. Tradition +has chosen the third, a small lock-up, fourteen feet square, which +stood over the river between the central arches of the old bridge; and +as it appears from the story that he had at times fifty or sixty +fellow-prisoners, and as he admits himself that he was treated at +first with exceptional kindness, it may be inferred that tradition, in +selecting the prison on the bridge, was merely desiring to exhibit the +sufferings of the Nonconformist martyr in a sensational form, and that +he was never in this prison at all. When it was pulled down in 1811 a +gold ring was found in the rubbish, with the initials 'J. B.' upon it. +This is one of the 'trifles light as air' which carry conviction to +the 'jealous' only, and is too slight a foundation on which to assert +a fact so inherently improbable. + +When the three months were over, the course of law would have brought +him again to the bar, when he would have had to choose between +conformity and exile. There was still the same desire to avoid +extremities, and as the day approached, the clerk of the peace was +sent to persuade him into some kind of compliance. Various +insurrections had broken out since his arrest, and must have shown +him, if he could have reflected, that there was real reason for the +temporary enforcement of the Act. He was not asked to give up +preaching. He was asked only to give up public preaching. It was well +known that he had no disposition to rebellion. Even the going to +church was not insisted on. The clerk of the peace told him that he +might 'exhort his neighbours in private discourse,' if only he would +not bring the people together in numbers, which the magistrates would +be bound to notice. In this way he might continue his usefulness, and +would not be interfered with. + +Bunyan knew his own freedom from seditious intentions. He would not +see that the magistrates could not suspend the law and make an +exception in his favour. They were going already to the utmost limit +of indulgence. But the more he disapproved of rebellion, the more +punctilious he was in carrying out resistance of another kind which he +held to be legitimate. He was a representative person, and he thought +that in yielding he would hurt the cause of religious liberty. 'The +law,' he said, 'had provided two ways of obeying--one to obey +actively, and if he could not in conscience obey actively, then to +suffer whatever penalty was inflicted on him.' + +The clerk of the peace could produce no effect. Bunyan rather looked +on him as a false friend trying to entangle him. The three months +elapsed, and the magistrates had to determine what was to be done. If +Bunyan was brought before them, they must exile him. His case was +passed over and he was left in prison, where his wife and children +were allowed to visit him daily. He did not understand the law or +appreciate their forbearance. He exaggerated his danger. At the worst +he could only have been sent to America, where he might have remained +as long as he pleased. He feared that he might perhaps be hanged. + +'I saw what was coming,' he said, 'and had two considerations +especially on my heart, how to be able to endure, should my +imprisonment be long and tedious, and how to be able to encounter +death should that be my portion. I was made to see that if I would +suffer rightly, I must pass sentence of death upon everything that can +properly be called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my +wife, my children, my health, my enjoyments all as dead to me, and +myself as dead to them. Yet I was a man compassed with infirmities. +The parting with my wife and poor children hath often been to me in +this place (the prison in which he was writing) as the pulling of my +flesh from my bones; and that not only because I am too, too, fond of +those great mercies, but also because I should have often brought to +my mind the hardships, miseries, and wants my poor family was like to +meet with should I be taken from them, especially my poor blind child, +who lay nearer my heart than all I had besides. Poor child, thought I, +what sorrow art thou like to have for thy portion in this world! Thou +must be beaten, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand +calamities, though I cannot now endure the wind should blow on thee. +But yet, thought I, I must venture all with God, though it goeth to +the quick to leave you. I was as a man who was pulling down his house +upon the head of his wife and children. Yet thought I, I must do it--I +must do it. I had this for consideration, that if I should now venture +all for God, I engaged God to take care of my concernments. Also I had +dread of the torments of hell, which I was sure they must partake of +that for fear of the cross do shrink from their profession. I had this +much upon my spirit, that my imprisonment might end in the gallows for +aught I could tell. In the condition I now was in I was not fit to +die, nor indeed did I think I could if I should be called to it. I +feared I might show a weak heart, and give occasion to the enemy. This +lay with great trouble on me, for methought I was ashamed to die with +a pale face and tottering knees for such a cause as this. The things +of God were kept out of my sight. The tempter followed me with, "But +whither must you go when you die? What will become of you? What +evidence have you for heaven and glory, and an inheritance among them +that are sanctified?" Thus was I tossed many weeks; but I felt it was +for the Word and way of God that I was in this condition. God might +give me comfort or not as He pleased. I was bound, but He was +free--yea, it was my duty to stand to His Word, whether He would ever +look upon me or no, or save me at the last. Wherefore, thought I, the +point being thus, I am for going on and venturing my eternal state +with Christ, whether I have comfort here or no. If God does not come +in, thought I, I will leap off the ladder even blindfold into +eternity, sink or swim, come heaven, come hell. Now was my heart full +of comfort.' + +The ladder was an imaginary ladder, but the resolution was a genuine +manly one, such as lies at the bottom of all brave and honourable +action. Others who have thought very differently from Bunyan about +such matters have felt the same as he felt. Be true to yourself +whatever comes, even if damnation come. Better hell with an honest +heart, than heaven with cowardice and insincerity. It was the more +creditable to Bunyan, too, because the spectres and hobgoblins had +begun occasionally to revisit him. + +'Of all temptations I ever met with in my life,' he says, 'to question +the being of God and the truth of His Gospel is the worst and worst to +be borne. When this temptation comes it takes my girdle from me and +removes the foundation from under me. Though God has visited my soul +with never so blessed a discovery of Himself, yet afterwards I have +been in my spirit so filled with darkness, that I could not so much as +once conceive what that God and that comfort was with which I had been +refreshed.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE BEDFORD GAOL. + + +The irregularities in the proceedings against Bunyan had perhaps been +suggested by the anticipation of the general pardon which was expected +in the following spring. At the coronation of Charles, April 23, 1661, +an order was issued for the release of prisoners who were in gaol for +any offences short of felony. Those who were waiting their trials were +to be let go at once. Those convicted and under sentence might sue out +a pardon under the Great Seal at any time within a year from the +proclamation. Was Bunyan legally convicted or not? He had not pleaded +directly to the indictment. No evidence had been heard against him. +His trial had been a conversation between himself and the Court. The +point had been raised by his friends. His wife had been in London to +make interest for him, and a peer had presented a petition in Bunyan's +behalf in the House of Lords. The judges had been directed to look +again into the matter at the midsummer assizes. The high sheriff was +active in Bunyan's favour. The Judges Twisden, Chester, and no less a +person than Sir Matthew Hale, appear to have concluded that his +conviction was legal, that he could not be tried again, and that he +must apply for pardon in the regular way. His wife, however, at the +instance of the sheriff, obtained a hearing, and they listened +courteously to what she had to say. When she had done, Mr. Justice +Twisden put the natural question, whether, if her husband was +released, he would refrain from preaching in public for the future. If +he intended to repeat his offence immediately that he was at liberty, +his liberty would only bring him into a worse position. The wife at +once said that he dared not leave off preaching as long as he could +speak. The judge asked if she thought her husband was to be allowed to +do as he pleased. She said that he was a peaceable person, and wished +only to be restored to a position in which he could maintain his +family. They had four small children who could not help themselves, +one of them being blind, and they had nothing to live upon as long as +her husband was in prison but the charity of their friends. Hale +remarked that she looked very young to have four children. 'I am but +mother-in-law to them,' she said, 'having not been married yet full +two years. I was with child when my husband was first apprehended, but +being young, I being dismayed at the news fell in labour, and so +continued for eight days. I was delivered, but my child died.' + +Hale was markedly kind. He told her that as the conviction had been +recorded they could not set it aside. She might sue out a pardon if +she pleased, or she might obtain 'a writ of error,' which would be +simpler and less expensive. + +She left the court in tears--tears, however, which were not altogether +tears of suffering innocence. 'It was not so much,' she said, 'because +they were so hardhearted against me and my husband, but to think what +a sad account such poor creatures would have to give at the coming of +the Lord.' No doubt both Bunyan and she thought themselves cruelly +injured, and they confounded the law with the administration of it. +Persons better informed than they often choose to forget that judges +are sworn to administer the law which they find, and rail at them as +if the sentences which they are obliged by their oaths to pass were +their own personal acts. + +A pardon, it cannot be too often said, would have been of no use to +Bunyan, because he was determined to persevere in disobeying a law +which he considered to be unjust. The most real kindness which could +be shown to him was to leave him where he was. His imprisonment was +intended to be little more than nominal. His gaoler, not certainly +without the sanction of the sheriff, let him go where he pleased; once +even so far as London. He used his liberty as he had declared that he +would. 'I followed my wonted course of preaching,' he says, 'taking +all occasions that were put in my hand to visit the people of God.' +This was deliberate defiance. The authorities saw that he must be +either punished in earnest or the law would fall into contempt. He +admitted that he expected to be 'roundly dealt with.' His indulgences +were withdrawn, and he was put into close confinement. + +Sessions now followed sessions, and assizes, assizes. His detention +was doubtless irregular, for by law he should have been sent beyond +the seas. He petitioned to be brought to trial again, and complained +loudly that his petition was not listened to; but no legislator, in +framing an Act of Parliament, ever contemplated an offender in so +singular a position. Bunyan was simply trying his strength against the +Crown and Parliament. The judges and magistrates respected his +character, and were unwilling to drive him out of the country; he had +himself no wish for liberty on that condition. The only resource, +therefore, was to prevent him forcibly from repeating an offence that +would compel them to adopt harsh measures which they were so earnestly +trying to avoid. + +Such was the world-famous imprisonment of John Bunyan, which has been +the subject of so much eloquent declamation. It lasted in all for more +than twelve years. It might have ended at any time if he would have +promised to confine his addresses to a private circle. It did end +after six years. He was released under the first declaration of +indulgence; but as he instantly recommenced his preaching, he was +arrested again. Another six years went by; he was again let go, and +was taken once more immediately after, preaching in a wood. This time +he was detained but a few months, and in form more than reality. The +policy of the government was then changed, and he was free for the +rest of his life. + +His condition during his long confinement has furnished a subject for +pictures which if correct would be extremely affecting. It is true +that, being unable to attend to his usual business, he spent his +unoccupied hours in making tags for bootlaces. With this one fact to +build on, and with the assumption that the scene of his sufferings was +the Bridge Lockhouse, Nonconformist imagination has drawn a 'den' for +us, 'where there was not a yard or a court to walk in for daily +exercise;' 'a damp and dreary cell;' 'a narrow chink which admits a +few scanty rays of light to render visible the abode of woe;' 'the +prisoner, pale and emaciated, seated on the humid earth, pursuing his +daily task, to earn the morsel which prolongs his existence and his +confinement together. Near him, reclining in pensive sadness, his +blind daughter, five other distressed children, and an affectionate +wife, whom pinching want and grief have worn down to the gate of +death. Ten summer suns have rolled over the mansion of his misery +whose reviving rays have never once penetrated his sad abode,' &c. &c. + +If this description resembles or approaches the truth, I can but say +that to have thus abandoned to want their most distinguished pastor +and his family was intensely discreditable to the Baptist community. +English prisons in the seventeenth century were not models of good +management. But prisoners, whose friends could pay for them, were not +consigned to damp and dreary cells; and in default of evidence of +which not a particle exists, I cannot charge so reputable a community +with a neglect so scandalous. The entire story is in itself +incredible. Bunyan was prosperous in his business. He was respected +and looked up to by a large and growing body of citizens, including +persons of wealth and position in London. He was a representative +sufferer fighting the battle of all the Nonconformists in England. He +had active supporters in the town of Bedford and among the gentlemen +of the county. The authorities, so far as can be inferred from their +actions, tried from the first to deal as gently with him as he would +allow them to do. Is it conceivable that the Baptists would have left +his family to starve; or that his own confinement would have been made +so absurdly and needlessly cruel? Is it not far more likely that he +found all the indulgences which money could buy and the rules of the +prison would allow? Bunyan is not himself responsible for these wild +legends. Their real character appears more clearly when we observe how +he was occupied during these years. + +Friends, in the first place, had free access to him, and strangers who +were drawn to him by reputation; while the gaol was considered a +private place, and he was allowed to preach there, at least +occasionally, to his fellow-prisoners. Charles Doe, a distinguished +Nonconformist, visited him in his confinement, and has left an account +of what he saw. 'When I was there,' he writes, 'there were about sixty +dissenters besides himself, taken but a little before at a religious +meeting at Kaistor, in the county of Bedford, besides two eminent +dissenting ministers, Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Dun, by which means the +prison was much crowded. Yet, in the midst of all that hurry, I heard +Mr. Bunyan both preach and pray with that mighty spirit of faith and +plerophory of Divine assistance, that he made me stand and wonder. +Here they could sing without fear of being overheard; no informers +prowling round, and the world shut out.' + +This was not all. A fresh and more severe Conventicle Act was passed +in 1670. Attempts were made to levy fines in the town of Bedford. +There was a riot there. The local officers refused to assist in +quelling it. The shops were shut. Bedford was occupied by soldiers. +Yet, at this very time, Bunyan was again allowed to go abroad through +general connivance. He spent his nights with his family. He even +preached now and then in the woods. Once when he had intended to be +out for the night, information was given to a clerical magistrate in +the neighbourhood, who disliked him, and a constable was sent to +ascertain if the prisoners were all within ward. Bunyan had received a +hint of what was coming. He was in his place when the constable came; +and the governor of the gaol is reported to have said to him, 'You may +go out when you please, for you know better when to return than I can +tell you.' Parliament might pass laws, but the execution of them +depended on the local authorities. Before the Declaration of +Indulgence, the Baptist church in Bedford was reopened. Bunyan, while +still nominally in confinement, attended its meetings. In 1671 he +became an Elder; in December of that year he was chosen Pastor. The +question was raised whether, as a prisoner, he was eligible. The +objection would not have been set aside had he been unable to +undertake the duties of the office. These facts prove conclusively +that, for a part at least of the twelve years, the imprisonment was +little more than formal. He could not have been in the Bridge Gaol +when he had sixty fellow-prisoners, and was able to preach to them in +private. It is unlikely that at any time he was made to suffer any +greater hardships than were absolutely inevitable. + +But whether Bunyan's confinement was severe or easy, it was otherwise +of inestimable value to him. It gave him leisure to read and reflect. +Though he preached often, yet there must have been intervals, perhaps +long intervals, of compulsory silence. The excitement of perpetual +speech-making is fatal to the exercise of the higher qualities. The +periods of calm enabled him to discover powers in himself of which he +might otherwise have never known the existence. Of books he had but +few; for a time only the Bible and Foxe's 'Martyrs.' But the Bible +thoroughly known is a literature of itself--the rarest and the richest +in all departments of thought or imagination which exists. Foxe's +'Martyrs,' if he had a complete edition of it, would have given him a +very adequate knowledge of history. With those two books he had no +cause to complain of intellectual destitution. He must have read more, +however. He knew George Herbert--perhaps Spenser--perhaps 'Paradise +Lost.' But of books, except of the Bible, he was at no time a great +student. Happily for himself, he had no other book of Divinity, and he +needed none. His real study was human life as he had seen it, and the +human heart as he had experienced the workings of it. Though he never +mastered successfully the art of verse, he had other gifts which +belong to a true poet. He had imagination, if not of the highest, yet +of a very high order. He had infinite inventive humour, tenderness, +and, better than all, powerful masculine sense. To obtain the use of +these faculties he needed only composure, and this his imprisonment +secured for him. He had published several theological compositions +before his arrest, which have relatively little value. Those which he +wrote in prison--even on theological subjects--would alone have made +him a reputation as a Nonconformist divine. In no other writings are +the peculiar views of Evangelical Calvinism brought out more clearly, +or with a more heartfelt conviction of their truth. They have +furnished an arsenal from which English Protestant divines have ever +since equipped themselves. The most beautiful of them, 'Grace +Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,' is his own spiritual biography, +which contains the account of his early history. The first part of the +'Pilgrim's Progress' was composed there as an amusement. To this, and +to his other works which belong to literature, I shall return in a +future chapter. + +Visitors who saw him in the gaol found his manner and presence as +impressive as his writings. 'He was mild and affable in conversation,' +says one of them, 'not given to loquacity or to much discourse, unless +some urgent occasion required. It was observed he never spoke of +himself or of his talents, but seemed low in his own eyes. He was +never heard to reproach or revile any, whatever injury he received, +but rather rebuked those who did so. He managed all things with such +exactness as if he had made it his study not to give offence.' + +The final 'Declaration of Indulgence' came at last, bringing with it +the privilege for which Bunyan had fought and suffered. Charles II. +cared as little for liberty as his father or his brother, but he +wished to set free the Catholics, and as a step towards it he conceded +a general toleration to the Protestant Dissenters. Within two years of +the passing of the Conventicle Act of 1670, this and every other penal +law against Nonconformists was suspended. They were allowed to open +their 'meeting houses' for 'worship and devotion,' subject only to a +few easy conditions. The localities were to be specified in which +chapels were required, and the ministers were to receive their +licenses from the Crown. To prevent suspicions, the Roman Catholics +were for the present excluded from the benefit of the concession. Mass +could be said, as before, only in private houses. A year later the +Proclamation was confirmed by Act of Parliament. + +Thus Bunyan's long imprisonment was ended. The cause was won. He had +been its foremost representative and champion, and was one of the +first persons to receive the benefit of the change of policy. He was +now forty-four years old. The order for his release was signed on May +8, 1672. His license as pastor of the Baptist chapel at Bedford was +issued on the 9th. He established himself in a small house in the +town. 'When he came abroad,' says one, 'he found his temporal affairs +were gone to wreck, and he had as to them to begin again as if he had +newly come into the world. But yet he was not destitute of friends who +had all along supported him with necessaries, and had been very good +to his family: so that by their assistance, getting things a little +about him again, he resolved, as much as possible, to decline worldly +business, and give himself wholly up to the service of God.' As much +as possible; but not entirely. In 1685, being afraid of a return of +persecution, he made over, as a precaution, his whole estate to his +wife; 'All and singular his goods, chattels, debts, ready money, +plate, rings, household stuff, apparel, utensils, brass, pewter, +bedding, and all his other substance.' In this deed he still describes +himself as a brazier. The language is that of a man in easy, if not +ample circumstances. 'Though by reason of losses which he sustained by +imprisonment,' says another biographer, 'his treasures swelled not to +excess, he always had sufficient to live decently and creditably.' His +writings and his sufferings had made him famous throughout England. He +became the actual head of the Baptist community. Men called him, half +in irony, half in seriousness, Bishop Bunyan, and he passed the rest +of his life honourably and innocently, occupied in writing, preaching, +district visiting, and opening daughter churches. Happy in his work, +happy in the sense that his influence was daily extending--spreading +over his own country, and to the far-off settlements in America, he +spent his last years in his own land of Beulah, Doubting Castle out of +sight, and the towers and minarets of Emmanuel Land growing nearer and +clearer as the days went on. + +He had not detected, or at least, at first, he did not detect, the +sinister purpose which lay behind the Indulgence. The exception of the +Roman Catholics gave him perfect confidence in the Government, and +after his release he published a 'Discourse upon Antichrist,' with a +preface, in which he credited Charles with the most righteous +intentions, and urged his countrymen to be loyal and faithful to him. +His object in writing it, he said, 'was to testify his loyalty to the +King, his love to the brethren, and his service to his country.' +Antichrist was of course the Pope, the deadliest of all enemies to +vital Christianity. To its kings and princes England owed its past +deliverance from him. To kings England must look for his final +overthrow. + +'As the noble King Henry VIII. did cast down the Antichristian +worship, so he cast down the laws that held it up; so also did the +good King Edward his son. The brave Queen Elizabeth, also, the sister +of King Edward, left of things of this nature to her lasting fame +behind her.' Cromwell he dared not mention--perhaps he did not wish to +mention him. But he evidently believed that there was better hope in +Charles Stuart than in conspiracy and revolution. + +'Kings,' he said, 'must be the men that shall down with Antichrist, +and they shall down with her in God's time. God hath begun to draw the +hearts of some of them from her already, and He will set them in time +against her round about. If, therefore, they do not that work so fast +as we would have them, let us exercise patience and hope in God. 'Tis +a wonder they go as fast as they do since the concerns of whole +kingdoms lie upon their shoulders, and there are so many Sanballats +and Tobias's to flatter them and misinform them. Let the King have +visibly a place in your hearts, and with heart and mouth give God +thanks for him. He is a better Saviour of us than we may be aware of, +and hath delivered us from more deaths than we can tell how to think. +We are bidden to give God thanks for all men, and in the first place +for kings, and all that are in authority. Be not angry with them, no +not in thy thought. But consider if they go not in the work of +Reformation so fast as thou wouldest they should, the fault may be +thine. Know that thou also hast thy cold and chill frames of heart, +and sittest still when thou shouldest be up and doing. Pray for the +long life of the King. Pray that God would give wisdom and judgment to +the King. Pray that God would discern all plots and conspiracies +against his person and government. I do confess myself one of the +old-fashioned professors that wish to fear God and honour the King. I +am also for blessing them that curse me, for doing good to them that +hate me, and for praying for them that despitefully use me and +persecute me; and I have had more peace in the practice of these +things than all the world are aware of.' + +The Stuarts, both Charles and James, were grateful for Bunyan's +services. The Nonconformists generally went up and down in Royal +favour; lost their privileges and regained them as their help was +needed or could be dispensed with. But Bunyan was never more molested. +He did what he liked. He preached where he pleased, and no one +troubled him or called him to account. He was not insincere. His +constancy in enduring so long an imprisonment which a word from him +would have ended, lifts him beyond the reach of unworthy suspicions. +But he disapproved always of violent measures. His rule was to submit +to the law; and where, as he said, he could not obey actively, then to +bear with patience the punishment that might be inflicted on him. +Perhaps he really hoped, as long as hope was possible, that good might +come out of the Stuarts. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMAN. + + +To his contemporaries Bunyan was known as the Nonconformist Martyr, +and the greatest living Protestant preacher. To us he is mainly +interesting through his writings, and especially through the +'Pilgrim's Progress.' Although he possessed, in a remarkable degree, +the gift of expressing himself in written words, he had himself no +value for literature. He cared simply for spiritual truth, and +literature in his eyes was only useful as a means of teaching it. +Every thing with which a reasonable man could concern himself was +confined within the limits of Christian faith and practice. Ambition +was folly. Amusement was idle trifling in a life so short as man's, +and with issues so far-reaching depending upon it. To understand, and +to make others understand, what Christ had done, and what Christ +required men to do, was the occupation of his whole mind, and no +object ever held his attention except in connection with it. With a +purpose so strict, and a theory of religion so precise, there is +usually little play for imagination or feeling. Though we read +Protestant theology as a duty, we find it as dry in the mouth as +sawdust. The literature which would please must represent nature, and +nature refuses to be bound into our dogmatic systems. No object can be +pictured truly, except by a mind which has sympathy with it. +Shakespeare no more hates Iago than Iago hates himself. He allows Iago +to exhibit himself in his own way, as nature does. Every character, if +justice is to be done to it, must be painted at its best, as it +appears to itself; and a man impressed deeply with religious +convictions is generally incapable of the sympathy which would give +him an insight into what he disapproves and dislikes. And yet Bunyan, +intensely religious as he was, and narrow as his theology was, is +always human. His genius remains fresh and vigorous under the least +promising conditions. All mankind being under sin together, he has no +favourites to flatter, no opponents to misrepresent. There is a +kindliness in his descriptions, even of the Evil One's attacks upon +himself. + +The 'Pilgrim's Progress,' though professedly an allegoric story of the +Protestant plan of salvation, is conceived in the large, wide spirit +of humanity itself. Anglo-Catholic and Lutheran, Calvinist and Deist +can alike read it with delight, and find their own theories in it. +Even the Romanist has only to blot out a few paragraphs, and can +discover no purer model of a Christian life to place in the hands of +his children. The religion of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is the religion +which must be always and everywhere, as long as man believes that he +has a soul and is responsible for his actions; and thus it is that, +while theological folios once devoured as manna from Heaven now lie on +the bookshelves dead as Egyptian mummies, this book is wrought into +the mind and memory of every well-conditioned English or American +child; while the matured man, furnished with all the knowledge which +literature can teach him, still finds the adventures of Christian as +charming as the adventures of Ulysses or Æneas. He sees there the +reflexion of himself, the familiar features of his own nature, which +remain the same from era to era. Time cannot impair its interest, or +intellectual progress make it cease to be true to experience. + +But the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' though the best known, is not the only +work of imagination which Bunyan produced; he wrote another religious +allegory, which Lord Macaulay thought would have been the best of its +kind in the world if the 'Pilgrim's Progress' had not existed. The +'Life of Mr. Badman,' though now scarcely read at all, contains a +vivid picture of rough English life in the days of Charles II. Bunyan +was a poet, too, in the technical sense of the word, and though he +disclaimed the name, and though rhyme and metre were to him as Saul's +armour to David, the fine quality of his mind still shows itself in +the uncongenial accoutrements. + +It has been the fashion to call Bunyan's verse doggerel; but no verse +is doggerel which has a sincere and rational meaning in it. Goethe, +who understood his own trade, says that the test of poetry is the +substance which remains when the poetry is reduced to prose. Bunyan +had infinite invention. His mind was full of objects which he had +gathered at first hand, from observation and reflection. He had +excellent command of the English language, and could express what he +wished with sharp, defined outlines, and without the waste of a word. +The rhythmical structure of his prose is carefully correct. Scarcely a +syllable is ever out of place. His ear for verse, though less true, is +seldom wholly at fault, and whether in prose or verse, he had the +superlative merit that he could never write nonsense. If one of the +motives of poetical form be to clothe thought and feeling in the dress +in which it can lie most easily remembered, Bunyan's lines are often +as successful as the best lines of Quarles or George Herbert. Who, for +instance, could forget these?-- + + Sin is the worm of hell, the lasting fire: + Hell would soon lose its heat should sin expire; + Better sinless in hell than to be where + Heaven is, and to be found a sinner there. + +Or these, on persons whom the world calls men of spirit:-- + + Though you dare crack a coward's crown, + Or quarrel for a pin, + You dare not on the wicked frown, + Or speak against their sin. + +The 'Book of Ruth' and the 'History of Joseph' done into blank verse +are really beautiful idylls. The substance with which he worked, +indeed, is so good that there would be a difficulty in spoiling it +completely; but the prose of the translation in the English Bible, +faultless as it is, loses nothing in Bunyan's hands, and if we found +these poems in the collected works of a poet laureate, we should +consider that a difficult task had been accomplished successfully. +Bunyan felt, like the translators of the preceding century, that the +text was sacred, that his duty was to give the exact meaning of it, +without epithets or ornaments, and thus the original grace is +completely preserved. + +Of a wholly different kind, and more after Quarles's manner, is a +collection of thoughts in verse, which he calls a book for boys and +girls. All his observations ran naturally in one direction; to minds +possessed and governed by religion, nature, be their creed what it +may, is always a parable reflecting back their own views. + +But how neatly expressed are these 'Meditations upon an Egg':-- + + The egg's no chick by falling from a hen, + Nor man's a Christian till he's born again; + The egg's at first contained in the shell, + Men afore grace in sin and darkness dwell; + The egg, when laid, by warmth is made a chicken, + And Christ by grace the dead in sin doth quicken; + The egg when first a chick the shell's its prison, + So flesh to soul who yet with Christ is risen. + +Or this, 'On a Swallow':-- + + This pretty bird! Oh, how she flies and sings; + But could she do so if she had not wings? + Her wings bespeak my faith, her songs my peace; + When I believe and sing, my doubtings cease. + +Though the Globe Theatre was, in the opinion of Nonconformists, 'the +heart of Satan's empire,' Bunyan must yet have known something of +Shakespeare. In the second part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' we find:-- + + Who would true valour see, + Let him come hither; + One here will constant be, + Come wind, come weather. + +The resemblance to the song in 'As You Like It' is too near to be +accidental:-- + + Who doth ambition shun, + And loves to be in the sun; + Seeking the food he eats, + And pleased with what he gets, + Come hither, come hither, come hither. + Here shall be no enemy, + Save winter and rough weather. + +Bunyan may, perhaps, have heard the lines, and the rhymes may have +clung to him without his knowing whence they came. But he would never +have been heard of outside his own communion, if his imagination had +found no better form of expression for itself than verse. His especial +gift was for allegory, the single form of imaginative fiction which he +would not have considered trivial, and his especial instrument was +plain, unaffected Saxon prose. 'The Holy War' is a people's Paradise +Lost and Paradise Regained in one. The 'Life of Mr. Badman' is a +didactic tale, describing the career of a vulgar, middle-class, +unprincipled scoundrel. + +These are properly Bunyan's 'works,' the results of his life so far as +it affects the present generation of Englishmen; and as they are +little known, I shall give an account of each of them. + +The 'Life of Badman' is presented as a dialogue between Mr. Wiseman +and Mr. Attentive. Mr. Wiseman tells the story, Mr. Attentive comments +upon it. The names recall Bunyan's well-known manner. The figures +stand for typical characters; but as the _dramatis personæ_ of many +writers of fiction, while professing to be beings of flesh and blood +are no more than shadows, so Bunyan's shadows are solid men whom we +can feel and handle. + +Mr. Badman is, of course, one of the 'reprobate.' Bunyan considered +theoretically that a reprobate may to outward appearance have the +graces of a saint, and that there may be little in his conduct to mark +his true character. A reprobate may be sorry for his sins, he may +repent and lead a good life. He may reverence good men and may try to +resemble them; he may pray, and his prayers may be answered; he may +have the spirit of God, and may receive another heart, and yet he may +be under the covenant of works, and may be eternally lost. This +Bunyan could say while he was writing theology; but art has its rules +as well as its more serious sister, and when he had to draw a living +specimen, he drew him as he had seen him in his own Bedford +neighbourhood. + +Badman showed from childhood a propensity for evil. He was so +'addicted to lying that his parents could not distinguish when he was +speaking the truth. He would invent, tell, and stand to the lies which +he invented, with such an audacious face, that one might read in his +very countenance the symptoms of a hard and desperate heart. It was +not the fault of his parents; they were much dejected at the +beginnings of their son, nor did he want counsel and correction, if +that would have made him better: but all availed nothing.' + +Lying was not Badman's only fault. He took to pilfering and stealing. +He robbed his neighbours' orchards. He picked up money if he found it +lying about. Especially, Mr. Wiseman notes that he hated Sundays. +'Reading Scriptures, godly conferences, repeating of sermons and +prayers, were things that he could not away with.' 'He was an enemy to +that day, because more restraint was laid upon him from his own ways +than was possible on any other.' Mr. Wiseman never doubts that the +Puritan Sunday ought to have been appreciated by little boys. If a +child disliked it, the cause could only be his own wickedness. Young +Badman 'was greatly given also to swearing and cursing.' 'He made no +more of it' than Mr. Wiseman made 'of telling his fingers.' 'He +counted it a glory to swear and curse, and it was as natural to him as +to eat, drink, or sleep.' Bunyan, in this description, is supposed to +have taken the picture from himself. But too much may be made of this. +He was thinking, perhaps, of what he might have been if God's grace +had not preserved him. He himself was saved. Badman is represented as +given over from the first. Anecdotes, however, are told of +contemporary providential judgments upon swearers, which had much +impressed Bunyan. One was of a certain Dorothy Mately, a woman whose +business was to wash rubbish at the Derby lead mines. Dorothy (it was +in the year when Bunyan was first imprisoned), had stolen twopence +from the coat of a boy who was working near her. When the boy taxed +her with having robbed him, she wished the ground might swallow her up +if she had ever touched his money. Presently after, some children who +were watching her, saw a movement in the bank on which she was +standing. They called to her to take care, but it was too late. The +bank fell in, and she was carried down along with it. A man ran to +help her, but the sides of the pit were crumbling round her: a large +stone fell on her head; the rubbish followed, and she was overwhelmed. +When she was dug out afterwards, the pence were found in her pocket. +Bunyan was perfectly satisfied that her death was supernatural. To +discover miracles is not peculiar to Catholics. They will be found +wherever there is an active belief in immediate providential +government. + +Those more cautious in forming their conclusions will think, perhaps, +that the woman was working above some shaft in the mine, that the +crust had suddenly broken, and that it would equally have fallen in +when gravitation required it to fall, if Dorothy Mately had been a +saint. They will remember the words about the Tower of Siloam. But to +return to Badman. + +His father, being unable to manage so unpromising a child, bound him +out as an apprentice. The master to whom he was assigned was as good +a man as the father could find: uptight, Godfearing, and especially +considerate of his servants. He never worked them too hard. He left +them time to read and pray. He admitted no light or mischievous books +within his doors. He was not one of those whose religion 'hung as a +cloke in his house, and was never seen on him when he went abroad.' +His household was as well fed and cared for as himself, and he +required nothing of others of which he did not set them an example in +his own person. + +This man did his best to reclaim young Badman, and was particularly +kind to him. But his exertions were thrown away. The good-for-nothing +youth read filthy romances on the sly. He fell asleep in church, or +made eyes at the pretty girls. He made acquaintance with low +companions. He became profligate, got drunk at alehouses, sold his +master's property to get money, or stole it out of the cashbox. Thrice +he ran away and was taken back again. The third time he was allowed to +go. 'The House of Correction would have been the most fit for him, but +thither his master was loath to send him, for the love he bore his +father.' + +He was again apprenticed; this time to a master like himself. Being +wicked he was given over to wickedness. The ways of it were not +altogether pleasant. He was fed worse and he was worked harder than he +had been before; when he stole, or neglected his business, he was +beaten. He liked his new place, however, better than the old. 'At +least, there was no godliness in the house, which he hated worst of +all.' + +So far, Bunyan's hero was travelling the usual road of the Idle +Apprentice, and the gallows would have been the commonplace ending of +it. But this would not have answered Bunyan's purpose. He wished to +represent the good-for-nothing character, under the more instructive +aspect of worldly success, which bad men may arrive at as well as +good, if they are prudent and cunning. Bunyan gives his hero every +chance. He submits him from the first to the best influences; he +creates opportunities for repentance at every stage of a long +career--opportunities which the reprobate nature cannot profit by, yet +increases its guilt by neglecting. + +Badman's term being out, his father gives him money and sets him up as +a tradesman on his own account. Mr. Attentive considers this to have +been a mistake. Mr. Wiseman answers that even in the most desperate +cases, kindness in parents is more likely to succeed than severity, +and if it fails they will have the less to reproach themselves with. +The kindness is, of course, thrown away. Badman continues a loose +blackguard, extravagant, idle and dissolute. He comes to the edge of +ruin. His situation obliges him to think; and now the interest of the +story begins. He must repair his fortune by some means or other. The +easiest way is by marriage. There was a young orphan lady in the +neighbourhood, who was well off and her own mistress. She was a +'professor' eagerly given to religion, and not so wise as she ought to +have been. Badman pretends to be converted. He reforms, or seems to +reform. He goes to meeting, sings hymns, adopts the most correct form +of doctrine, tells the lady that he does not want her money, but that +he wants a companion who will go with him along the road to Heaven. He +was plausible, good-looking, and, to all appearance, as absorbed as +herself in the one thing needful. The congregation warn her, but to no +purpose. She marries him, and finds what she has done too late. In +her fortune he has all that he wanted. He swears at her, treats her +brutally, brings prostitutes into his house, laughs at her religion, +and at length orders her to give it up. When she refuses, Bunyan +introduces a special feature of the times, and makes Badman threaten +to turn informer, and bring her favourite minister to gaol. The +informers were the natural but most accursed products of the +Conventicle Acts. Popular abhorrence relieved itself by legends of the +dreadful judgments which had overtaken these wretches. + +In St. Neots an informer was bitten by a dog. The wound gangrened and +the flesh rotted off his bones. In Bedford 'there was one W. S.' +(Bunyan probably knew him too well), 'a man of very wicked life, and +he, when there seemed to be countenance given to it, would needs turn +informer. Well, so he did, and was as diligent in his business as most +of them could be. He would watch at nights, climb trees and range the +woods of days, if possible to find out the meeters, for then they were +forced to meet in the fields. Yea, he would curse them bitterly, and +swore most fearfully what he would do to them when he found them. +Well, after he had gone on like a Bedlam in his course awhile, and had +done some mischief to the people, he was stricken by the hand of God. +He was taken with a faltering in his speech, a weakness in the back +sinews of his neck, that ofttimes he held up his head by strength of +hand. After this his speech went quite away, and he could speak no +more than a swine or a bear. Like one of them he would gruntle and +make an ugly noise, according as he was offended or pleased, or would +have anything done. He walked about till God had made a sufficient +spectacle of his judgments for his sin, and then, on a sudden, he was +stricken, and died miserably.' + +Badman, says Mr. Wiseman, 'had malice enough in his heart' to turn +informer, but he was growing prudent and had an eye to the future. As +a tradesman he had to live by his neighbours. He knew that they would +not forgive him, so 'he had that wit in his anger that he did it not.' +Nothing else was neglected to make the unfortunate wife miserable. She +bore him seven children, also typical figures. 'One was a very +gracious child, that loved its mother dearly. This child Mr. Badman +could not abide, and it oftenest felt the weight of its father's +fingers. Three were as bad as himself. The others that remained became +a kind of mongrel professors, not so bad as their father nor so good +as their mother, but betwixt them both. They had their mother's +notions and their father's actions. Their father did not like them +because they had their mother's tongue. Their mother did not like them +because they had their father's heart and life, nor were they fit +company for good or bad. They were forced with Esau to join in +affinity with Ishmael, to wit, to look out for a people that were +hypocrites like themselves, and with them they matched and lived and +died.' + +Badman meanwhile, with the help of his wife's fortune, grew into an +important person, and his character becomes a curious study. 'He +went,' we are told, 'to school with the Devil, from his childhood to +the end of his life.' He was shrewd in matters of business, began to +extend his operations, and 'drove a great trade.' He carried a double +face. He was evil with the evil. He pretended to be good with the +good. In religion he affected to be a freethinker, careless of death +and judgment, and ridiculing those who feared them 'as frighted with +unseen bugbears.' But he wore a mask when it suited him, and admired +himself for the ease with which he could assume whatever aspect was +convenient. 'I can be religious and irreligious,' he said; 'I can be +anything or nothing. I can swear and speak against swearing. I can lie +and speak against lying. I can drink, wench, be unclean, and defraud, +and not be troubled for it. I can enjoy myself and am master of my own +ways, not they of me. This I have attained with much study, care, and +pains.' 'An Atheist Badman was, if such a thing as an Atheist could +be. He was not alone in that mystery. There was abundance of men of +the same mind and the same principle. He was only an arch or chief one +among them.' + +Mr. Badman now took to speculation, which Bunyan's knowledge of +business enabled him to describe with instructive minuteness. His +adventures were on a large scale, and by some mistakes and by personal +extravagance he had nearly ruined himself a second time. In this +condition he discovered a means, generally supposed to be a more +modern invention, of 'getting money by hatfuls.' + +'He gave a sudden and great rush into several men's debts to the value +of four or five thousand pounds, driving at the same time a very great +trade by selling many things for less than they cost him, to get him +custom and blind his creditors' eyes. When he had well feathered his +nest with other men's goods and money, after a little while he breaks; +while he had by craft and knavery made so sure of what he had, that +his creditors could not touch a penny. He sends mournful sugared +letters to them, desiring them not to be severe with him, for he bore +towards all men an honest mind, and would pay them as far as he was +able. He talked of the greatness of the taxes, the badness of the +times, his losses by bad debts, and he brought them to a composition +to take five shillings in the pound. His release was signed and +sealed, and Mr. Badman could now put his head out of doors again, and +be a better man than when he shut up shop by several thousands of +pounds.' + +Twice or three times he repeated the same trick with equal success. It +is likely enough that Bunyan was drawing from life and perhaps from a +member of his own congregation; for he says that 'he had known a +professor do it.' He detested nothing so much as sham religion which +was put on as a pretence. 'A professor,' he exclaims, 'and practise +such villanies as these! Such an one is not worthy the name. Go +professors, go--leave off profession unless you will lead your lives +according to your profession. Better never profess than make +profession a stalking horse to sin, deceit, the devil, and hell.' + +Bankruptcy was not the only art by which Badman piled up his fortune. +The seventeenth century was not so far behind us as we sometimes +persuade ourselves. 'He dealt by deceitful weights and measures. He +kept weights to buy by and weights to sell by, measures to buy by and +measures to sell by. Those he bought by were too big, and those he +sold by were too little. If he had to do with other men's weights and +measures, he could use a thing called sleight of hand. He had the art +besides to misreckon men in their accounts, whether by weight or +measure or money; and if a question was made of his faithful dealing, +he had his servants ready that would vouch and swear to his look or +word. He would sell goods that cost him not the best price by far, for +as much as he sold his best of all for. He had also a trick to mingle +his commodity, that that which was bad might go off with the least +mistrust. If any of his customers paid him money, he would call for +payment a second time, and if they could not produce good and +sufficient ground of the payment, a hundred to one but they paid it +again.' + +'To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest' was Mr. +Badman's common rule in business. According to modern political +economy, it is the cardinal principle of wholesome trade. In Bunyan's +opinion it was knavery in disguise, and certain to degrade and +demoralise everyone who acted upon it. Bunyan had evidently thought on +the subject. Mr. Attentive is made to object:-- + +'But you know that there is no settled price set by God upon any +commodity that is bought or sold under the sun; but all things that we +buy and sell do ebb and flow as to price like the tide. How then shall +a man of tender conscience do, neither to wrong the seller, buyer, nor +himself in the buying and selling of commodities?' + +Mr. Wiseman answers in the spirit of our old Acts of Parliament, +before political economy was invented:-- + +'Let a man have conscience towards God, charity to his neighbours, and +moderation in dealing. Let the tradesman consider that there is not +that in great gettings and in abundance which the most of men do +suppose; for all that a man has over and above what serves for his +present necessity and supply, serves only to feed the lusts of the +eye. Be thou confident that God's eyes are upon thy ways; that He +marks them, writes them down, and seals them up in a bag against the +time to come. Be sure that thou rememberest that thou knowest not the +day of thy death. Thou shalt have nothing that thou mayest so much as +carry away in thy hand. Guilt shall go with thee if thou hast gotten +thy substance dishonestly, and they to whom thou shalt leave it shall +receive it to their hurt. These things duly considered, I will shew +thee how thou should'st live in the practical part of this art. Art +thou to buy or sell? If thou sellest do not commend. If thou buyest do +not dispraise, any otherwise but to give the thing that thou hast to +do with its just value and worth. Art thou a seller and do things grow +cheap? set not thy hand to help or hold them up higher. Art thou a +buyer and do things grow dear? use no cunning or deceitful language to +pull them down. Leave things to the Providence of God, and do thou +with moderation submit to his hand. Hurt not thy neighbour by crying +out Scarcity, scarcity! beyond the truth of things. Especially take +heed of doing this by way of a prognostic for time to come. This +wicked thing may be done by hoarding up (food) when the hunger and +necessity of the poor calls for it. If things rise do thou be grieved. +Be also moderate in all thy sellings, and be sure let the poor have a +pennyworth, and sell thy corn to those who are in necessity; which +thou wilt do when thou showest mercy to the poor in thy selling to +him, and when thou undersellest the market for his sake because he is +poor. This is to buy and sell with a good conscience. The buyer thou +wrongest not, thy conscience thou wrongest not, thyself thou wrongest +not, for God will surely recompense with thee.' + +These views of Bunyan's are at issue with modern science, but his +principles and ours are each adjusted to the objects of desire which +good men in those days and good men in ours have respectively set +before themselves. If wealth means money, as it is now assumed to do, +Bunyan is wrong and modern science right. If wealth means moral +welfare, then those who aim at it will do well to follow Bunyan's +advice. It is to be feared that this part of his doctrine is less +frequently dwelt upon by those who profess to admire and follow him, +than the theory of imputed righteousness or justification by faith. + +Mr. Badman by his various ingenuities became a wealthy man. His +character as a tradesman could not have been a secret from his +neighbours, but money and success coloured it over. The world spoke +well of him. He became 'proud and haughty,' took part in public +affairs, 'counted himself as wise as the wisest in the country, as +good as the best, and as beautiful as he that had the most of it.' 'He +took great delight in praising himself, and as much in the praises +that others gave him.' 'He could not abide that any should think +themselves above him, or that their wit and personage should be by +others set before his.' He had an objection, nevertheless, to being +called proud, and when Mr. Attentive asked why, his companion answered +with a touch which reminds us of De Foe, that 'Badman _did not tell +him the reason_. He supposed it to be that which was common to all +vile persons. They loved their vice, but cared not to bear its name.' +Badman said he was unwilling to seem singular and fantastical, and in +this way he justified his expensive and luxurious way of living. +Singularity of all kinds he affected to dislike, and for that reason +his special pleasure was to note the faults of professors. 'If he +could get anything by the end that had scandal in it, if it did but +touch professors, however falsely reported, oh, then he would glory, +laugh and be glad, and lay it upon the whole party. Hang these rogues, +he would say, there is not a barrel better herring in all the holy +brotherhood of them. Like to like, quoth the Devil to the collier. +This is your precise crew, and then he would send them all home with a +curse.' + +Thus Bunyan developed his specimen scoundrel, till he brought him to +the high altitudes of worldly prosperity; skilful in every villanous +art, skilful equally in keeping out of the law's hands, and feared, +admired and respected by all his neighbours. The reader who desires to +see Providence vindicated would now expect to find him detected in +some crimes by which justice could lay hold, and poetical retribution +fall upon him in the midst of his triumph. An inferior artist would +certainly have allowed his story to end in this way. But Bunyan, +satisfied though he was that dramatic judgments did overtake offenders +in this world with direct and startling appropriateness, was yet aware +that it was often otherwise, and that the worst fate which could be +inflicted on a completely worthless person was to allow him to work +out his career unvisited by any penalties which might have disturbed +his conscience and occasioned his amendment. He chose to make his +story natural, and to confine himself to natural machinery. The +judgment to come Mr. Badman laughed at 'as old woman's fable,' but his +courage lasted only as long as he was well and strong. One night as he +was riding home drunk, his horse fell and he broke his leg. 'You would +not think,' says Mr. Wiseman, 'how he swore at first. Then coming to +himself, and finding he was badly hurt, he cried out, after the manner +of such, Lord help me; Lord have mercy on me; good God deliver me, and +the like. He was picked up and taken home, where he lay some time. In +his pain he called on God, but whether it was that his sin might be +pardoned and his soul saved, or whether to be rid of his pain,' Mr. +Wiseman 'could not determine.' This leads to several stories of +drunkards which Bunyan clearly believed to be literally true. Such +facts or legends were the food on which his mind had been nourished. +They were in the air which contemporary England breathed. + +'I have read in Mr. Clarke's Looking-glass for Sinners,' Mr. Wiseman +said, 'that upon a time a certain drunken fellow boasted in his cups +that there was neither heaven nor hell. Also he said he believed that +man had no soul, and that for his own part he would sell his soul to +any that would buy it. Then did one of his companions buy it of him +for a cup of wine, and presently the devil, in man's shape, bought it +of that man again at the same price; and so in the presence of them +all laid hold of the soul-seller, and carried him away through the air +so that he was no more heard of.' + +Again: + +'There was one at Salisbury drinking and carousing at a tavern, and he +drank a health to the devil, saying that if the devil would not come +and pledge him, he could not believe that there was either God or +devil. Whereupon his companions, stricken with fear, hastened out of +the room, and presently after, hearing a hideous noise and smelling a +stinking savour, the vintner ran into the chamber, and coming in he +missed his guest, and found the window broken, the iron bars in it +bowed and all bloody, but the man was never heard of afterwards.' + +These visitations were answers to a direct challenge of the evil +spirit's existence, and were thus easy to be accounted for. But no +devil came for Mr. Badman. He clung to his unfortunate neglected wife. +'She became his dear wife, his godly wife, his honest wife, his duck, +his dear and all.' He thought he was dying, and hell and all its +horrors rose up before him. 'Fear was in his face, and in his tossings +to and fro he would often say I am undone, I am undone, my vile life +hath undone me.' Atheism did not help him. It never helped anyone in +such extremities Mr. Wiseman said; as he had known in another +instance:-- + +'There was a man dwelt about twelve miles off from us,' he said, 'that +had so trained up himself in his Atheistical notions, that at last he +attempted to write a book against Jesus Christ and the Divine +authority of the Scriptures. I think it was not printed. Well, after +many days God struck him with sickness whereof he died. So being sick, +and musing of his former doings, the book that he had written tore his +conscience as a lion would tear a kid. Some of my friends went to see +him, and as they were in his chamber one day he hastily called for pen +and ink and paper, which, when it was given to him, he took it and +writ to this purpose. "I such an one in such a town must go to hell +fire for writing a book against Jesus Christ." He would have leaped +out of the window to have killed himself, but was by them prevented of +that, so he died in his bed by such a death as it was.' + +Badman seemed equally miserable. But deathbed repentances, as Bunyan +sensibly said, were seldom of more value than 'the howling of a dog.' +The broken leg was set again. The pain of body went, and with it the +pain of mind. He was assisted out of his uneasiness, says Bunyan, with +a characteristic hit at the scientific views then coming into fashion, +'by his doctor,' who told him that his alarms had come 'from an +affection of the brain, caused by want of sleep;' 'they were nothing +but vapours and the effects of his distemper.' He gathered his spirits +together, and became the old man once more. His poor wife, who had +believed him penitent, broke her heart, and died of the +disappointment. The husband gave himself up to loose connections with +abandoned women, one of whom persuaded him one day, when he was drunk, +to make her a promise of marriage, and she held him to his word. Then +retribution came upon him, with the coarse, commonplace, yet rigid +justice which fact really deals out. The second bad wife avenged the +wrongs of the first innocent wife. He was mated with a companion 'who +could fit him with cursing and swearing, give him oath for oath, and +curse for curse. They would fight and fly at each other like cat and +dog.' In this condition--for Bunyan, before sending his hero to his +account, gave him a protracted spell of earthly discomforts--they +lived sixteen years together. Fortune, who had so long favoured his +speculations, turned her back upon him. Between them they 'sinned all +his wealth away,' and at last parted 'as poor as howlets.' + +Then came the end. Badman was still in middle life, and had naturally +a powerful constitution; but his 'cups and his queans' had undermined +his strength. Dropsy came, and gout, with worse in his bowels, and 'on +the top of them all, as the captain of the men of death that came to +take him away,' consumption. Bunyan was a true artist, though he knew +nothing of the rules, and was not aware that he was an artist at all. +He was not to be tempted into spoiling a natural story with the +melodramatic horrors of a sinner's deathbed. He had let his victim +'howl' in the usual way, when he meant him to recover. He had now +simply to conduct him to the gate of the place where he was to receive +the reward of his iniquities. It was enough to bring him thither still +impenitent, with the grave solemnity with which a felon is taken to +execution. + +'As his life was full of sin,' says Mr. Wiseman, 'so his death was +without repentance. He had not, in all the time of his sickness, a +sight and a sense of his sins; but was as much at quiet as if he had +never sinned in his life: he was as secure as if he had been sinless +as an angel. When he drew near his end, there was no more alteration +in him than what was made by his disease upon his body. He was the +selfsame Mr. Badman still, not only in name, but in condition, and +that to the very day of his death and the moment in which he died. +There seemed not to be in it to the standers by so much as a strong +struggle of nature. He died like a lamb, or, as men call it, like a +chrisom child, quietly and without fear.' + +To which end of Mr. Badman Bunyan attaches the following remarks: 'If +a wicked man, if a man who has lived all his days in notorious sin, +dies quietly, his quiet dying is so far from being a sign of his being +saved that it is an incontestable proof of his damnation. No man can +be saved except he repents; nor can he repent that knows not that he +is a sinner: and he that knows himself to be a sinner will, I warrant +him, be molested for his knowledge before he can die quietly. I am no +admirer of sick-bed repentance; for I think verily it is seldom good +for anything. But I see that he that hath lived in sin and profaneness +all his days, as Badman did, and yet shall die quietly, that is, +without repentance steps in between his life and his death, is +assuredly gone to hell. When God would show the greatness of his anger +against sin and sinners in one word, He saith, Let them alone! Let +them, alone--that is, disturb them not. Let them go on without +control: Let the devil enjoy them peaceably. Let him carry them out of +the world unconverted quietly. This is the sorest of judgments. I do +not say that all wicked men that are molested at their death with a +sense of sin and fear of hell do therefore go to heaven; for some are +made to see and are left to despair. But I say there is no surer sign +of a man's damnation than to die quietly after a sinful life, than to +sin and die with a heart that cannot repent. The opinion, therefore, +of the common people of this kind of death is frivolous and vain.' + +So ends this very remarkable story. It is extremely interesting, +merely as a picture of vulgar English life in a provincial town such +as Bedford was when Bunyan lived there. The drawing is so good, the +details so minute, the conception so unexaggerated, that we are +disposed to believe that we must have a real history before us. But +such a supposition is only a compliment to the skill of the composer. +Bunyan's inventive faculty was a spring that never ran dry. He had a +manner, as I said, like De Foe's, of creating the illusion that we are +reading realities, by little touches such as 'I do not know,' 'He did +not tell me this,' or the needless introduction of particulars +irrelevant to the general plot such as we always stumble on in life, +and writers of fiction usually omit. Bunyan was never prosecuted for +libel by 'Badman's' relations, and the character is the corresponding +contrast to Christian in the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' the pilgrim's +journey being in the opposite direction to the other place. Throughout +we are on the solid earth, amidst real experiences. No demand is made +on our credulity by Providential interpositions, except in the +intercalated anecdotes which do not touch the story itself. The wicked +man's career is not brought to the abrupt or sensational issues so +much in favour with ordinary didactic tale-writers. Such issues are +the exception, not the rule, and the edifying story loses its effect +when the reader turns from it to actual life, and perceives that the +majority are not punished in any such way. Bunyan conceals nothing, +assumes nothing, and exaggerates nothing. He makes his bad man sharp +and shrewd. He allows sharpness and shrewdness to bring him the +rewards which such qualities in fact command. Badman is successful, he +is powerful; he enjoys all the pleasures which money can buy; his bad +wife helps him to ruin, but otherwise he is not unhappy, and he dies +in peace. Bunyan has made him a brute, because such men do become +brutes. It is the real punishment of brutal and selfish habits. There +the figure stands; a picture of a man in the rank of English life with +which Bunyan was most familiar, travelling along the primrose path to +the everlasting bonfire, as the way to Emmanuel's Land was through the +Slough of Despond and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Pleasures are +to be found among the primroses, such pleasures as a brute can be +gratified by. Yet the reader feels that even if there was no bonfire, +he would still prefer to be with Christian. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE HOLY WAR. + + +The supernatural has been successfully represented in poetry, +painting, or sculpture, only at particular periods of human history, +and under peculiar mental conditions. The artist must himself believe +in the supernatural, or his description of it will be a sham, without +dignity and without credibility. He must feel himself able at the same +time to treat the subject which he selects with freedom, throwing his +own mind boldly into it, or he will produce, at best, the hard and +stiff forms of literal tradition. When Benvenuto Cellini was preparing +to make an image of the Virgin, he declares gravely that Our Lady +appeared to him that he might know what she was like; and so real was +the apparition that for many months after, he says that his friends +when the room was dark could see a faint aureole about his head. Yet +Benvenuto worked as if his own brain was partly the author of what he +produced, and, like other contemporary artists, used his mistresses +for his models, and was no servile copyist of phantoms seen in +visions. There is a truth of the imagination, and there is a truth of +fact, religion hovering between them, translating one into the other, +turning natural phenomena into the activity of personal beings; or +giving earthly names and habitations to mere creatures of fancy. +Imagination creates a mythology. The priest takes it and fashions out +of it a theology, a ritual, or a sacred history. So long as the priest +can convince the world that he is dealing with literal facts, he holds +reason prisoner, and imagination is his servant. In the twilight when +dawn is coming near but has not yet come; when the uncertain nature of +the legend is felt, though not intelligently discerned; imagination is +the first to resume its liberty; it takes possession of its own +inheritance, it dreams of its gods and demigods, as Benvenuto dreamt +of the Virgin, and it re-shapes the priest's traditions in noble and +beautiful forms. Homer and the Greek dramatists would not have dared +to bring the gods upon the stage so freely, had they believed Zeus and +Apollo were living persons, like the man in the next street, who might +call the poet to account for what they were made to do and say; but +neither, on the other hand, could they have been actively conscious +that Zeus and Apollo were apparitions, which had no existence, except +in their own brains. + +The condition is extremely peculiar. It can exist only in certain +epochs, and in its nature is necessarily transitory. Where belief is +consciously gone the artist has no reverence for his work, and +therefore can inspire none. The greatest genius in the world could not +reproduce another Athene like that of Phidias. But neither must the +belief be too complete. The poet's tongue stammers when he would bring +beings before us who, though invisible, are awful personal existences, +in whose stupendous presence we one day expect to stand. As long as +the conviction survives that he is dealing with literal truths, he is +safe only while he follows with shoeless feet the letter of the +tradition. He dares not step beyond, lest he degrade the Infinite to +the human level, and if he is wise he prefers to content himself with +humbler subjects. A Christian artist can represent Jesus Christ as a +man because He was a man, and because the details of the Gospel +history leave room for the imagination to work. To represent Christ as +the Eternal Son in heaven, to bring before us the Persons of the +Trinity consulting, planning, and reasoning, to take us into their +everlasting Council Chamber, as Homer takes us into Olympus, will be +possible only when Christianity ceases to be regarded as a history of +true facts. Till then it is a trespass beyond the permitted limits, +and revolts us by the inadequacy of the result. Either the artist +fails altogether by attempting the impossible, or those whom he +addresses are themselves intellectually injured by an unreal treatment +of truths hitherto sacred. They confound the representation with its +object, and regard the whole of it as unreal together. + +These observations apply most immediately to Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' +and are meant to explain the unsatisfactoriness of it. Milton himself +was only partially emancipated from the bondage of the letter; half in +earth, half 'pawing to get free' like his own lion. The war in heaven, +the fall of the rebel angels, the horrid splendours of Pandemonium +seem legitimate subjects for Christian poetry. They stand for +something which we regard as real, yet we are not bound to any actual +opinions about them. Satan has no claim on reverential abstinence; and +Paradise and the Fall of Man are perhaps sufficiently mythic to permit +poets to take certain liberties with them. But even so far Milton has +not entirely succeeded. His wars of the angels are shadowy. They have +no substance like the battles of Greeks and Trojans, or Centaurs and +Lapithæ; and Satan could not be made interesting without touches of a +nobler nature, that is, without ceasing to be the Satan of the +Christian religion. But this is not his worst. When we are carried up +into heaven and hear the persons of the Trinity conversing on the +mischiefs which have crept into the universe, and planning remedies +and schemes of salvation like Puritan divines, we turn away +incredulous and resentful. Theologians may form such theories for +themselves, if not wisely, yet without offence. They may study the +world in which they are placed, with the light which can be thrown +upon it by the book which they call the Word of God. They may form +their conclusions, invent their schemes of doctrine, and commend to +their flocks the interpretation of the mystery at which they have +arrived. The cycles and epicycles of the Ptolemaic astronomers were +imperfect hypotheses, but they were stages on which the mind could +rest for a more complete examination of the celestial phenomena. But +the poet does not offer us phrases and formulas; he presents to us +personalities living and active, influenced by emotions and reasoning +from premises; and when the unlimited and incomprehensible Being whose +attributes are infinite, of whom from the inadequacy of our ideas we +can only speak in negatives, is brought on the stage to talk like an +ordinary man, we feel that Milton has mistaken the necessary limits of +his art. + +When Faust claims affinity with the Erdgeist, the spirit tells him to +seek affinities with beings which he can comprehend. The commandment +which forbade the representation of God in a bodily form, forbids the +poet equally to make God describe his feelings and his purposes. Where +the poet would create a character he must himself comprehend it first +to its inmost fibre. He cannot comprehend his own Creator. Admire as +we may 'Paradise Lost;' try as we may to admire 'Paradise Regained;' +acknowledge as we must the splendour of the imagery and the stately +march of the verse; there comes upon us irresistibly a sense of the +unfitness of the subject for Milton's treatment of it. If the story +which he tells us is true, it is too momentous to be played with in +poetry. We prefer to hear it in plain prose, with a minimum of +ornament and the utmost possible precision of statement. Milton +himself had not arrived at thinking it to be a legend, a picture like +a Greek Mythology. His poem falls between two modes of treatment and +two conceptions of truth; we wonder, we recite, we applaud, but +something comes in between our minds and a full enjoyment, and it will +not satisfy us better as time goes on. + +The same objection applies to 'The Holy War' of Bunyan. It is as I +said, a people's version of the same series of subjects--the creation +of man, the fall of man, his redemption, his ingratitude, his lapse, +and again his restoration. The chief figures are the same, the action +is the same, though more varied and complicated, and the general +effect is unsatisfactory from the same cause. Prose is less ambitious +than poetry. There is an absence of attempts at grand effects. There +is no effort after sublimity, and there is consequently a lighter +sense of incongruity in the failure to reach it. On the other hand, +there is the greater fulness of detail so characteristic of Bunyan's +manner; and fulness of detail on a theme so far beyond our +understanding is as dangerous as vague grandiloquence. In 'The +Pilgrim's Progress' we are among genuine human beings. The reader +knows the road too well which Christian follows. He has struggled +with him in the Slough of Despond. He has shuddered with him in the +Valley of the Shadow of Death. He has groaned with him in the dungeons +of Doubting Castle. He has encountered on his journey the same +fellow-travellers. Who does not know Mr. Pliable, Mr. Obstinate, Mr. +Facing-both-ways, Mr. Feeble Mind, and all the rest? They are +representative realities, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. 'If +we prick them they bleed, if we tickle them they laugh,' or they make +us laugh. 'They are warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer' +as we are. The human actors in 'The Holy War' are parts of +men--special virtues, special vices: allegories in fact as well as in +name, which all Bunyan's genius can only occasionally substantiate +into persons. The plot of 'The Pilgrim's Progress' is simple. 'The +Holy War' is prolonged through endless vicissitudes, with a doubtful +issue after all, and the incomprehensibility of the Being who allows +Satan to defy him so long and so successfully is unpleasantly and +harshly brought home to us. True it is so in life. Evil remains after +all that has been done for us. But life is confessedly a mystery. 'The +Holy War' professes to interpret the mystery, and only restates the +problem in a more elaborate form. Man Friday on reading it would have +asked even more emphatically, 'Why God not kill the Devil?' and +Robinson Crusoe would have found no assistance in answering him. For +these reasons, I cannot agree with Macaulay in thinking that if there +had been no 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 'The Holy War' would have been the +first of religious allegories. We may admire the workmanship, but the +same undefined sense of unreality which pursues us through Milton's +epic would have interfered equally with the acceptance of this. The +question to us is if the facts are true. If true they require no +allegories to touch either our hearts or our intellects. + +'The Holy War' would have entitled Bunyan to a place among the masters +of English literature. It would never have made his name a household +word in every English-speaking family on the globe. + +The story which I shall try to tell in an abridged form is introduced +by a short prefatory poem. Works of fancy, Bunyan tells us, are of +many sorts, according to the author's humour. For himself he says to +his reader: + + I have something else to do + Than write vain stories thus to trouble you. + What here I say some men do know too well; + They can with tears and joy the story tell. + The town of Mansoul is well known to many, + Nor are her troubles doubted of by any + That are acquainted with those histories + That Mansoul and her wars anatomize. + + Then lend thine ears to what I do relate + Touching the town of Mansoul and her state, + How she was lost, took captive, made a slave, + And how against him set that should her save, + Yea, how by hostile ways she did oppose + Her Lord and with his enemy did close, + For they are true; he that will them deny + Must needs the best of records vilify. + + For my part, I myself was in the town + Both when 'twas set up and when pulling down. + I saw Diabolus in his possession, + And Mansoul also under his oppression: + Yea I was there when she him owned for Lord, + And to him did submit with one accord. + + When Mansoul trampled upon things divine, + And wallowed in filth as doth a swine, + When she betook herself unto his arms, + Fought her Emmanuel, despised his charms; + Then was I there and did rejoice to see + Diabolus and Mansoul so agree. + + Let no man count me then a fable maker, + Nor make my name or credit a partaker + Of their derision. What is here in view + Of mine own knowledge I dare say is true. + +At setting out we are introduced into the famous continent of +'Universe,' a large and spacious country lying between the two +poles--'the people of it not all of one complexion nor yet of one +language, mode or way of religion; but differing as much as the +planets themselves, some right, some wrong, even as it may happen to +be.' + +In this country of 'Universe' was a fair and delicate town and +corporation called 'Mansoul,' a town for its building so curious, for +its situation so commodious, for its privileges so advantageous, that +with reference to its original (state) there was not its equal under +heaven. The first founder was Shaddai, who built it for his own +delight. In the midst of the town was a famous and stately palace +which Shaddai intended for himself.[3] He had no intention of allowing +strangers to intrude there. And the peculiarity of the place was that +the walls of Mansoul[4] could never be broken down or hurt unless the +townsmen consented. Mansoul had five gates which in like manner could +only be forced if those within allowed it. These gates were Eargate, +Eyegate, Mouthgate, Nosegate, and Feelgate. Thus provided, Mansoul +was at first all that its founder could desire. It had the most +excellent laws in the world. There was not a rogue or a rascal inside +its whole precincts. The inhabitants were all true men. + +[Footnote 3: Bunyan says in a marginal note, that by this palace he +means the heart.] + +[Footnote 4: The body.] + +Now there was a certain giant named Diabolus--king of the blacks or +negroes, as Bunyan noticeably calls them--the negroes standing for +sinners or fallen angels. Diabolus had once been a servant of Shaddai, +one of the chief in his territories. Pride and ambition had led him to +aspire to the crown which was settled on Shaddai's Son. He had formed +a conspiracy and planned a revolution. Shaddai and his Son, 'being all +eye,' easily detected the plot. Diabolus and his crew were bound in +chains, banished, and thrown into a pit, there to 'abide for ever.' +This was their sentence; but out of the pit, in spite of it, they in +some way contrived to escape. They ranged about full of malice against +Shaddai, and looking for means to injure him. They came at last on +Mansoul. They determined to take it, and called a council to consider +how it could best be done. Diabolus was aware of the condition that no +one could enter without the inhabitants' consent. Alecto, Apollyon, +Beelzebub, Lucifer (Pagan and Christian demons intermixed +indifferently) gave their several opinions. Diabolus at length at +Lucifer's suggestion decided to assume the shape of one of the +creatures over which Mansoul had dominion; and he selected as the +fittest that of a snake, which at that time was in great favour with +the people as both harmless and wise. + +The population of Mansoul were simple, innocent folks who believed +everything that was said to them. Force, however, might be necessary +as well as cunning, and the Tisiphone, a fury of the Lakes, was +required to assist. The attempt was to be made at Eargate. A certain +Captain Resistance was in charge of this gate, whom Diabolus feared +more than any one in the place. Tisiphone was to shoot him. + +The plans being all laid, Diabolus in his snake's dress approached the +wall, accompanied by one 'Ill Pause,' a famous orator, the Fury +following behind. He asked for a parley with the heads of the town. +Captain Resistance, two of the great nobles, Lord 'Innocent,' and Lord +'Will be Will,' with Mr. Conscience, the Recorder, and Lord +Understanding, the Lord Mayor, came to the gate to see what he wanted. +Lord 'Will be Will' plays a prominent part in the drama both for good +and evil. He is neither Free Will, nor Wilfulness, nor Inclination, +but the quality which metaphysicians and theologians agree in +describing as 'the Will.' 'The Will' simply--a subtle something of +great importance; but what it is they have never been able to explain. + +Lord Will be Will inquired Diabolus's business. Diabolus, 'meek as a +lamb,' said he was a neighbour of theirs. He had observed with +distress that they were living in a state of slavery, and he wished to +help them to be free. Shaddai was no doubt a great prince, but he was +an arbitrary despot. There was no liberty where the laws were +unreasonable, and Shaddai's laws were the reverse of reasonable. They +had a fruit growing among them, in Mansoul, which they had but to eat +to become wise. Knowledge was well known to be the best of +possessions. Knowledge was freedom; ignorance was bondage; and yet +Shaddai had forbidden them to touch this precious fruit. + +At that moment Captain Resistance fell dead, pierced by an arrow from +Tisiphone. Ill Pause made a flowing speech, in the midst of which +Lord Innocent fell also, either through a blow from Diabolus, or +'overpowered by the stinking breath of the old villain Ill Pause.' The +people flew upon the apple tree; Eargate and Eyegate were thrown open, +and Diabolus was invited to come in; when at once he became King of +Mansoul and established himself in the castle.[5] + +[Footnote 5: The heart.] + +The magistrates were immediately changed. Lord Understanding ceased to +be Lord Mayor. Mr. Conscience was no longer left as Recorder. Diabolus +built up a wall in front of Lord Understanding's palace, and shut off +the light, 'so that till Mansoul was delivered the old Lord Mayor was +rather an impediment than, an advantage to that famous town.' Diabolus +tried long to bring 'Conscience' over to his side, but never quite +succeeded. The Recorder became greatly corrupted, but he could not be +prevented from now and then remembering Shaddai; and when the fit was +on him he would shake the town with his exclamations. Diabolus +therefore had to try other methods with him. 'He had a way to make the +old gentleman when he was merry unsay and deny what in his fits he had +affirmed, and this was the next way to make him ridiculous and to +cause that no man should regard him.' To make all secure Diabolus +often said, 'Oh, Mansoul, consider that, notwithstanding the old +gentleman's rage and the rattle of his high thundering words, you hear +nothing of Shaddai himself.' The Recorder had pretended that the voice +of the Lord was speaking in him. Had this been so, Diabolus argued +that the Lord would have done more than speak. 'Shaddai,' he said, +'valued not the loss nor the rebellion of Mansoul, nor would he +trouble himself with calling his town to a reckoning.' + +In this way the Recorder came to be generally hated, and more than +once the people would have destroyed him. Happily his house was a +castle near the waterworks. When the rabble pursued him, he would pull +up the sluices,[6] let in the flood, and drown all about him. + +[Footnote 6: Fears.] + +Lord Will be Will, on the other hand, 'as high born as any in +Mansoul,' became Diabolus's principal minister. He had been the first +to propose admitting Diabolus, and he was made Captain of the Castle, +Governor of the Wall, and Keeper of the Gates. Will be Will had a +clerk named Mr. Mind, a man every way like his master, and Mansoul was +thus brought 'under the lusts' of Will and Intellect. Mr. Mind had in +his house some old rent and torn parchments of the law of Shaddai. The +Recorder had some more in his study; but to these Will be Will paid no +attention, and surrounded himself with officials who were all in +Diabolus's interest. He had as deputy one Mr. Affection, 'much +debauched in his principles, so that he was called Vile Affection.' +Vile Affection married Mr. Mind's daughter, Carnal Lust, by whom he +had three sons--Impudent, Black Mouth, and Hate Reproof; and three +daughters--Scorn Truth, Slight Good, and Revenge. All traces of +Shaddai were now swept away. His image, which had stood in the +market-place, was taken down, and an artist called Mr. No Truth was +employed to set up the image of Diabolus in place of it. Lord +Lustings--'who never savoured good, but evil'--was chosen for the new +Lord Mayor. Mr. Forget Good was appointed Recorder. There were new +burgesses and aldermen, all with appropriate names, for which Bunyan +was never at a loss--Mr. Incredulity, Mr. Haughty, Mr. Swearing, Mr. +Hardheart, Mr. Pitiless, Mr. Fury, Mr. No Truth, Mr. Stand to Lies, +Mr. Falsepeace, Mr. Drunkenness, Mr. Cheating, Mr. Atheism, and +another; thirteen of them in all. Mr. Incredulity was the eldest, Mr. +Atheism the youngest in the company--a shrewd and correct arrangement. +Diabolus, on his part, set to work to fortify Mansoul. He built three +fortresses--'The Hold of Defiance' at Eyegate, that the light might be +darkened there;' 'Midnight Hold' near the old Castle, to keep Mansoul +from knowledge of itself; and 'Sweet Sin Hold' in the market-place, +that there might be no desire of good there. These strongholds being +established and garrisoned, Diabolus thought that he had made his +conquest secure. + +So far the story runs on firmly and clearly. It is vivid, consistent +in itself, and held well within the limits of human nature and +experience. But, like Milton, Bunyan is now, by the exigencies of the +situation, forced upon more perilous ground. He carries us into the +presence of Shaddai himself, at the time when the loss of Mansoul was +reported in heaven. + +The king, his son, his high lords, his chief captains and nobles were +all assembled to hear. There was universal grief, in which the king +and his son shared or rather seemed to share--for at once the drama of +the Fall of mankind becomes no better than a Mystery Play. 'Shaddai +and his son had foreseen it all long before, and had provided for the +relief of Mansoul, though they told not everybody thereof--but because +they would have a share in condoling of the misery of Mansoul they +did, and that at the rate of the highest degree, bewail the losing of +Mansoul'--'thus to show their love and compassion.' + +'Paradise Lost' was published at the time that Bunyan wrote this +passage. If he had not seen it, the coincidences of treatment are +singularly curious. It is equally singular, if he had seen it, that +Milton should not here at least have taught him to avoid making the +Almighty into a stage actor. The Father and Son consult how 'to do +what they had designed before.' They decide that at a certain time, +which they preordain, the Son,'a sweet and comely person,' shall make +a journey into the Universe and lay a foundation there for Mansoul's +deliverance. Milton offends in the scene less than Bunyan; but Milton +cannot persuade us that it is one which should have been represented +by either of them. They should have left 'plans of salvation' to +eloquent orators in the pulpit. + +Though the day of deliverance by the method proposed was as yet far +off, the war against Diabolus was to be commenced immediately. The +Lord Chief Secretary was ordered to put in writing Shaddai's +intentions, and cause them to be published.[7] Mansoul, it was +announced, was to be put into a better condition than it was in before +Diabolus took it. + +[Footnote 7: The Scriptures.] + +The report of the Council in Heaven was brought to Diabolus, who took +his measures accordingly, Lord Will be Will standing by him and +executing all his directions Mansoul was forbidden to read Shaddai's +proclamation. Diabolus imposed a great oath on the townspeople never +to desert him; he believed that if they entered into a covenant of +this kind Shaddai could not absolve them from it. They 'swallowed the +engagement as if it had been a sprat in the mouth of a whale.' Being +now Diabolus's trusty children, he gave them leave 'to do whatever +their appetites prompted to do.' They would thus involve themselves in +all kinds of wickedness, and Shaddai's son 'being Holy' would be less +likely to interest himself for them. When they had in this way put +themselves, as Diabolus hoped, beyond reach of mercy, he informed +them that Shaddai was raising an army to destroy the town. No quarter +would be given, and unless they defended themselves like men they +would all be made slaves. Their spirit being roused, he armed them +with the shield of unbelief, 'calling into question the truth of the +Word.' He gave them a helmet of hope--'hope of doing well at last, +whatever lives they might lead'; for a breastplate a heart as hard as +iron, 'most necessary for all that hated Shaddai;' and another piece +of most excellent armour, 'a drunken and prayerless spirit that +scorned to cry for mercy.' Shaddai on his side had also prepared his +forces. He will not as yet send his son. The first expedition was to +fail and was meant to fail. The object was to try whether Mansoul +would return to obedience. And yet Shaddai knew that it would not +return to obedience. Bunyan was too ambitious to explain the +inexplicable. Fifty thousand warriors were collected, all chosen by +Shaddai himself. There were four leaders--Captain Boanerges, Captain +Conviction, Captain Judgment, and Captain Execution--the martial +saints, with whom Macaulay thinks Bunyan made acquaintance when he +served, if serve he did, with Fairfax. The bearings on their banners +were three black thunderbolts--the Book of the Law, wide open, with a +flame of fire bursting from it; a burning, fiery furnace; and a +fruitless tree with an axe at its root. These emblems represent the +terrors of Mount Sinai, the covenant of works which was not to +prevail. + +The captains come to the walls of Mansoul, and summon the town to +surrender. Their words 'beat against Eargate, but without force to +break it open.' The new officials answer the challenge with defiance. +Lord Incredulity knows not by what right Shaddai invades their +country. Lord Will be Will and Mr. Forget Good warn them to be off +before they rouse Diabolus. The townspeople ring the bells and dance +on the walls. Will be Will double-bars the gates. Bunyan's genius is +at its best in scenes of this kind. 'Old Mr. Prejudice, with sixty +deaf men,' is appointed to take charge of Eargate. At Eargate, too, +are planted two guns, called Highmind, and Heady, 'cast in the earth +by Diabolus's head founder, whose name was Mr. Puffup.' + +The fighting begins, but the covenant of works makes little progress. +Shaddai's captains, when advancing on Mansoul, had fallen in with +'three young fellows of promising appearance' who volunteered to go +with them--Mr. Tradition, Mr. Human Wisdom, and Mr. Man's Invention.' +They were allowed to join, and were placed in positions of trust, the +captains of the covenant being apparently wanting in discernment. They +were taken prisoners in the first skirmish, and immediately changed +sides and went over to Diabolus. More battles follow. The roof of the +Lord Mayor's house is beaten in. The law is not wholly ineffectual. +Six of the Aldermen, the grosser moral sins--Swearing, Stand to Lies, +Drunkenness, Cheating, and others--are overcome and killed. Diabolus +grows uneasy and loses his sleep. Old Conscience begins to talk again. +A party forms in the town in favour of surrender, and Mr. Parley is +sent to Eargate to treat for terms. The spiritual sins--False Peace, +Unbelief, Haughtiness, Atheism--are still unsubdued and vigorous. The +conditions offered are that Incredulity, Forget Good, and Will be Will +shall retain their offices; Mansoul shall be continued in all the +liberties which it enjoys under Diabolus; and a further touch is added +which shows how little Bunyan sympathised with modern notions of the +beauty of self-government. No new law or officer shall have any power +in Mansoul without the people's consent. + +Boanerges will agree to no conditions with rebels. Incredulity and +Will be Will advise the people to stand by their rights, and refuse to +submit to 'unlimited' power. The war goes on, and Incredulity is made +Diabolus's universal deputy. Conscience and Understanding, the old +Recorder and Mayor, raise a mutiny, and there is a fight in the +streets. Conscience is knocked down by a Diabolonian called 'Mr. +Benumming.' Understanding had a narrow escape from being shot. On the +other hand Mr. Mind, who had come over to the Conservative side, laid +about bravely, tumbled old Mr. Prejudice into the dirt, and kicked him +where he lay. Even Will be Will seemed to be wavering in his +allegiance to Diabolus. 'He smiled and did not seem to take one side +more than another.' The rising, however, is put down--Understanding +and Conscience are imprisoned, and Mansoul hardens its heart, chiefly +'being in dread of slavery,' and thinking liberty too fine a thing to +be surrendered. + +Shaddai's four captains find that they can do no more. The covenant of +works will not answer. They send home a petition,'by the hand of that good +man Mr. Love to Mansoul,' to beg that some new general may come to lead +them. The preordained time has now arrived, and Emmanuel himself is to take +the command. He, too, selects his captains--Credence and Good Hope, +Charity, and Innocence, and Patience; and the captains have their squires, +the counterparts of themselves--Promise and Expectation, Pitiful, Harmless, +and Suffer Long. Emmanuel's armour shines like the sun. He has forty-four +battering rams and twenty-two slings--the sixty-six books of the +Bible--each made of pure gold. He throws up mounds and trenches, and arms +them with his rams, five of the largest being planted on Mount Hearken, +over against Eargate. Bunyan was too reverent to imitate the Mystery Plays, +and introduce a Mount Calvary with the central sacrifice upon it. The +sacrifice is supposed to have been already offered elsewhere. Emmanuel +offers mercy to Mansoul, and when it is rejected he threatens judgment and +terror. Diabolus, being wiser than man, is made to know that his hour is +approaching. He goes in person to Mouthgate to protest and remonstrate. He +asks why Emmanuel is come to torment him. Mansoul has disowned Shaddai and +sworn allegiance to himself. He begs Emmanuel to leave him to rule his own +subjects in peace. + +Emmanuel tells him 'he is a thief and a liar.' 'When,' Emmanuel is +made to say, 'Mansoul sinned by hearkening to thy lie, I put in and +became a surety to my Father, body for body, soul for soul, that I +would make amends for Mansoul's transgressions, and my Father did +accept thereof. So when the time appointed was come, I gave body for +body, soul for soul, life for life, blood for blood, and so redeemed +my beloved Mansoul. My Father's law and justice, that were both +concerned in the threatening upon transgression, are both now +satisfied, and very well content that Mansoul should be delivered.' + +Even against its deliverers, Mansoul was defended by the original +condition of its constitution. There was no way into it but through +the gates. Diabolus, feeling that Emmanuel still had difficulties +before him, withdrew from the wall, and sent a messenger, Mr. Loth to +Stoop, to offer alternative terms, to one or other of which he +thought Emmanuel might consent. Emmanuel might be titular sovereign +of all Mansoul, if Diabolus might keep the administration of part of +it. If this could not be, Diabolus requested to be allowed to reside +in Mansoul as a private person. If Emmanuel insisted on his own +personal exclusion, at least he expected that his friends and kindred +might continue to live there, and that he himself might now and then +write them letters, and send them presents and messages, 'in +remembrance of the merry times they had enjoyed together.' Finally, he +would like to be consulted occasionally when any difficulties arose in +Mansoul. + +It will be seen that in the end Mansoul was, in fact, left liable to +communications from Diabolus very much of this kind. Emmanuel's +answer, however, is a peremptory No. Diabolus must take himself away, +and no more must be heard of him. Seeing that there was no other +resource, Diabolus resolves to fight it out. There is a great battle +under the walls, with some losses on Emmanuel's side, even Captain +Conviction receiving three wounds in the mouth. The shots from the +gold slings mow down whole ranks of Diabolonians. Mr. Love no Good and +Mr. Ill Pause are wounded. Old Prejudice and Mr. Anything run away. +Lord Will be Will, who still fought for Diabolus, was never so daunted +in his life: 'he was hurt in the leg, and limped.' + +Diabolus, when the fight was over, came again to the gate with fresh +proposals to Emmanuel. 'I,' he said, 'will persuade Mansoul to receive +thee for their Lord, and I know that they will do it the sooner when +they understand that I am thy deputy. I will show them wherein they +have erred, and that transgression stands in the way to life. I will +show them the Holy law to which they must conform, even that which +they have broken. I will press upon them the necessity of a +reformation according to thy law. At my own cost I will set up and +maintain a sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul.' This +obviously means the Established Church. Unable to keep mankind +directly in his own service, the Devil offers to entangle them in the +covenant of works, of which the Church of England was the +representative. Emmanuel rebukes him for his guile and deceit. 'I will +govern Mansoul,' he says, 'by new laws, new officers, new motives, and +new ways. I will pull down the town and build it again, and it shall +be as though it had not been, and it shall be the glory of the whole +universe.' + +A second battle follows. Eargate is beaten in. The Prince's army +enters and advances as far as the old Recorder's house, where they +knock and demand entrance. 'The old gentleman, not fully knowing their +design, had kept his gates shut all the time of the fight. He as yet +knew nothing of the great designs of Emmanuel, and could not tell what +to think.' The door is violently broken open, and the house is made +Emmanuel's head-quarters. The townspeople, with Conscience and +Understanding at their head, petition that their lives may be spared; +but Emmanuel gives no answer, Captain Boanerges and Captain Conviction +carrying terror into all hearts. Diabolus, the cause of all the +mischief, had retreated into the castle.[8] He came out at last, and +surrendered, and in dramatic fitness he clearly ought now to have been +made away with in a complete manner. Unfortunately, this could not be +done. He was stripped of his armour, bound to Emmanuel's chariot +wheels, and thus turned out of Mansoul 'into parched places in a salt +land, where he might seek rest and find none.' The salt land proved +as insecure a prison, for this embarrassing being as the pit where he +was to have abode for ever. + +[Footnote 8: The heart.] + +Meanwhile, Mansoul being brought upon its knees, the inhabitants were +summoned into the castle yard, when Conscience, Understanding, and +Will be Will were committed to ward. They and the rest again prayed +for mercy, but again without effect. Emmanuel was silent. They drew +another petition, and asked Captain Conviction to present it for them. +Captain Conviction declined to be an advocate for rebels, and advised +them to send it by one of themselves, with a rope about his neck. Mr. +Desires Awake went with it. The Prince took it from his hands, and +wept as Desires Awake gave it in. Emmanuel bade him go his way till +the request could be considered. The unhappy criminals knew not how to +take the answer. Mr. Understanding thought it promised well. +Conscience and Will be Will, borne down by shame for their sins, +looked for nothing but immediate death. They tried again. They threw +themselves on Emmanuel's mercy. They drew up a confession of their +horrible iniquities. This, at least, they wished to offer to him +whether he would pity them or not. For a messenger some of them +thought of choosing one Old Good Deed. Conscience, however, said that +would never do. Emmanuel would answer, 'Is Old Good Deed yet alive in +Mansoul? Then let Old Good Deed save it.' Desires Awake went again +with the rope on his neck, as Captain Conviction recommended. Mr. Wet +Eyes went with him, wringing his hands. + +Emmanuel still held out no comfort; he promised merely that in the +camp the next morning he would give such an answer as should be to his +glory. Nothing but the worst was now looked for. Mansoul passed the +night in sackcloth and ashes. When day broke, the prisoners dressed +themselves in mourning, and were carried to the camp in chains, with +ropes on their necks, beating their breasts. Prostrate before +Emmanuel's throne, they repeated their confession. They acknowledged +that death and the bottomless pit would be no more than a just +retribution for their crimes. As they excused nothing and promised +nothing, Emmanuel at once delivered them their pardons sealed with +seven seals. He took off their ropes and mourning, clothed them in +shining garments, and gave them chains and jewels. + +Lord Will be Will 'swooned outright.' When he recovered, 'the Prince' +embraced and kissed him. The bells in Mansoul were set ringing. +Bonfires blazed. Emmanuel reviewed his army; and Mansoul, ravished at +the sight, prayed him to remain and be their King for ever. He entered +the city again in triumph, the people strewing boughs and flowers +before him. The streets and squares were rebuilt on a new model. Lord +Will be Will, now regenerate, resumed the charge of the gates. The old +Lord Mayor was reinstated. Mr. Knowledge was made Recorder, 'not out +of contempt for old Conscience, who was by-and-bye to have another +employment.' Diabolus's image was taken down and broken to pieces, and +the inhabitants of Mansoul were so happy that they sang of Emmanuel in +their sleep. + +Justice, however, remained to be done on the hardened and impenitent. + +There were 'perhaps necessities in the nature of things,' as Bishop +Butler says, and an example could not be made of the principal +offender. But his servants and old officials were lurking in the lanes +and alleys. They were apprehended, thrown into gaol, and brought to +formal trial. Here we have Bunyan at his best. The scene in the court +rises to the level of the famous trial of Faithful in Vanity Fair. The +prisoners were Diabolus's Aldermen, Mr. Atheism, Mr. Incredulity, Mr. +Lustings, Mr. Forget Good, Mr. Hardheart, Mr. Falsepeace, and the +rest. The proceedings were precisely what Bunyan must have witnessed +at a common English Assizes. The Judges were the new Recorder and the +new Mayor. Mr. Do-right was Town Clerk. A jury was empanelled in the +usual way. Mr. Knowall, Mr. Telltrue, and Mr. Hatelies were the +principal witnesses. + +Atheism was first brought to the bar, being charged 'with having +pertinaciously and doltingly taught that there was no God.' He pleaded +Not Guilty. Mr. Knowall was placed in the witness-box and sworn. + +'My Lord,' he said, 'I know the prisoner at the bar. I and he were +once in Villains Lane together, and he at that time did briskly talk +of diverse opinions. And then and there I heard him say that for his +part he did believe that there was no God. "But," said he, "I can +profess one and be religious too, if the company I am in and the +circumstances of other things," said he, "shall put me upon it.'" + +Telltrue and Hatelies were next called. + + _Telltrue._ My Lord, I was formerly a great companion of the + prisoner's, for the which I now repent me; and I have often + heard him say, and with very great stomach-fulness, that he + believed there was neither God, Angel, nor Spirit. + + _Town Clerk._ Where did you hear him say so? + + _Telltrue._ In Blackmouth Lane and in Blasphemers Row, and + in many other places besides. + + _Town Clerk._ Have you much knowledge of him? + + _Telltrue._ I know him to be a Diabolonian, the son of a + Diabolonian, and a horrible man to deny a Deity. His + father's name was Never be Good, and he had more children + than this Atheism. + + _Town Clerk._ Mr. Hatelies. Look upon the prisoner at the + bar. Do you know him? + + _Hatelies._ My Lord, this Atheism is one of the vilest + wretches that ever I came near or had to do with in my life. + I have heard him say that there is no God. I have heard him + say that there is no world to come, no sin, nor punishment + hereafter; and, moreover, I have heard him say that it was + as good to go to a bad-house as to go to hear a sermon. + + _Town Clerk._ Where did you hear him say these things? + + _Hatelies._ In Drunkards Row, just at Rascal Lane's End, at + a house in which Mr. Impiety lived. + +The next prisoner was Mr. Lustings, who said that he was of high birth +and 'used to pleasures and pastimes of greatness.' He had always been +allowed to follow his own inclinations, and it seemed strange to him +that he should be called in question for things which not only he but +every man secretly or openly approved. + +When the evidence had been heard against him he admitted frankly its +general correctness. + +'I,' he said, 'was ever of opinion that the happiest life that a man +could live on earth was to keep himself back from nothing that he +desired; nor have I been false at any time to this opinion of mine, +but have lived in the love of my notions all my days. Nor was I ever +so churlish, having found such sweetness in them myself, as to keep +the commendation of them from others.' + +Then came Mr. Incredulity. He was charged with having encouraged the +town of Mansoul to resist Shaddai. Incredulity too had the courage of +his opinions. + +'I know not Shaddai,' he said. 'I love my old Prince. I thought it my +duty to be true to my trust, and to do what I could to possess the +minds of the men of Mansoul to do their utmost to resist strangers and +foreigners, and with might to fight against them. Nor have I nor +shall I change my opinion for fear of trouble, though you at present +are possessed of place and power.' + +Forget Good pleaded age and craziness. He was the son of a Diabolonian +called Love Naught. He had uttered blasphemous speeches in Allbase +Lane, next door to the sign of 'Conscience Seared with a Hot Iron;' +also in Flesh Lane, right opposite the Church; also in Nauseous +Street; also at the sign of the 'Reprobate,' next door to the 'Descent +into the Pit.' + +Falsepeace insisted that he was wrongly named in the indictment. His +real name was Peace, and he had always laboured for peace. When war +broke out between Shaddai and Diabolus, he had endeavoured to +reconcile them, &c. Evidence was given that Falsepeace was his right +designation. His father's name was Flatter. His mother, before she +married Flatter, was called Mrs. Sootheup. When her child was born she +always spoke of him as Falsepeace. She would call him twenty times a +day, my little Falsepeace, my pretty Falsepeace, my sweet rogue +Falsepeace! &c. + +The court rejected his plea. He was told 'that he had wickedly +maintained the town of Mansoul in rebellion against its king, in a +false, lying, and damnable peace, contrary to the law of Shaddai. +Peace that was not a companion of truth and holiness, was an accursed +and treacherous peace, and was grounded on a lie.' + +No Truth had assisted with his own hands in pulling down the image of +Shaddai. He had set up the horned image of the beast Diabolus at the +same place, and had torn and consumed all that remained of the laws of +the king. + +Pitiless said his name was not Pitiless, but Cheer Up. He disliked to +see Mansoul inclined to melancholy, and that was all his offence. +Pitiless, however, was proved to be the name of him. It was a habit of +the Diabolonians to assume counterfeit appellations. Covetousness +called himself Good Husbandry; Pride called himself Handsome; and so +on. + +Mr. Haughty's figure is admirably drawn in a few lines. Mr. Haughty, +when arraigned, declared 'that he had carried himself bravely, not +considering who was his foe, or what was the cause in which he was +engaged. It was enough for him if he fought like a man and came off +victorious.' + +The jury, it seems, made no distinctions between opinions and acts. +They did not hold that there was any divine right in man to think what +he pleased, and to say what he thought. Bunyan had suffered as a +martyr; but it was as a martyr for truth, not for general licence. The +genuine Protestants never denied that it was right to prohibit men +from teaching lies, and to punish them if they disobeyed. The +persecution of which they complained was the persecution of the honest +man by the knave. + +All the prisoners were found guilty by a unanimous verdict. Even Mr. +Moderate, who was one of the jury, thought a man must be wilfully +blind who wished to spare them. They were sentenced to be executed the +next day. Incredulity contrived to escape in the night. Search was +made for him, but he was not to be found in Mansoul. He had fled +beyond the walls, and had joined Diabolus near Hell Gate. The rest, we +are told, were crucified--crucified by the hands of the men of Mansoul +themselves. They fought and struggled at the place of execution so +violently that Shaddai's secretary was obliged to send assistance. +But justice was done at last, and all the Diabolonians, except +Incredulity, were thus made an end of. + +They were made an end of for a time only. Mansoul, by faith in Christ, +and by the help of the Holy Spirit, had crucified all manner of sin in +its members. It was faith that had now the victory. Unbelief had, +unfortunately, escaped. It had left Mansoul for the time, and had gone +to its master the Devil. But unbelief, being intellectual, had not +been crucified with the sins of the flesh, and thus could come back, +and undo the work which faith had accomplished. I do not know how far +this view approves itself to the more curious theologians. Unbelief +itself is said to be a product of the will; but an allegory must not +be cross-questioned too minutely. + +The cornucopia of spiritual blessings was now opened on Mansoul. All +offences were fully and completely forgiven. A Holy Law and Testament +was bestowed on the people for their comfort and consolation, with a +portion of the grace which dwelt in the hearts of Shaddai and Emmanuel +themselves. They were to be allowed free access to Emmanuel's palace +at all seasons, he himself undertaking to hear them and redress their +grievances, and they were empowered and enjoined to destroy all +Diabolonians who might be found at any time within their precincts. + +These grants were embodied in a charter which was set up in gold +letters on the castle door. Two ministers were appointed to carry on +the government--one from Shaddai's court; the other a native of +Mansoul. The first was Shaddai's chief secretary, the Holy Spirit. He, +if they were obedient and well-conducted, would be 'ten times better +to them than the whole world.' But they were cautioned to be careful +of their behaviour, for if they grieved him he would turn against +them, and the worst might then be looked for. The second minister was +the old Recorder, Mr. Conscience, for whom, as was said, a new office +had been provided. The address of Emmanuel to Conscience in handing +his commission to him contains the essence of Bunyan's creed. + +'Thou must confine thyself to the teaching of moral virtues, to civil +and natural duties. But thou must not attempt to presume to be a +revealer of those high and supernatural mysteries that are kept close +in the bosom of Shaddai, my father. For those things knows no man; nor +can any reveal them but my father's secretary only.... In all high and +supernatural things, thou must go to him for information and +knowledge. Wherefore keep low and be humble; and remember that the +Diabolonians that kept not their first charge, but left their own +standing, are now made prisoners in the pit. Be therefore content with +thy station. I have made thee my father's vicegerent on earth in the +things of which I have made mention before. Take thou power to teach +them to Mansoul; yea, to impose them with whips and chastisements if +they shall not willingly hearken to do thy commandments.... And one +thing more to my beloved Mr. Recorder, and to all the town of Mansoul. +You must not dwell in nor stay upon anything of that which he hath in +commission to teach you, as to your trust and expectation of the next +world. Of the next world, I say; for I purpose to give another to +Mansoul when this is worn out. But for that you must wholly and solely +have recourse to and make stay upon the doctrine of your teacher of +the first order. Yea, Mr. Recorder himself must not look for life from +that which he himself revealeth. His dependence for that must be +founded in the doctrine of the other preacher. Let Mr. Recorder also +take heed that he receive not any doctrine or points of doctrine that +are not communicated to him by his superior teacher, nor yet within +the precincts of his own formal knowledge.' + +Here, as a work of art, the 'Holy War' should have its natural end. +Mansoul had been created pure and happy. The Devil plotted against it, +took it, defiled it. The Lord of the town came to the rescue, drove +the Devil out, executed his officers and destroyed his works. Mansoul, +according to Emmanuel's promise, was put into a better condition than +that in which it was originally placed. New laws was drawn for it. New +ministers were appointed to execute them. Vice had been destroyed. +Unbelief had been driven away. The future lay serene and bright before +it; all trials and dangers being safely passed. Thus we have all the +parts of a complete drama--the fair beginning, the perils, the +struggles, and the final victory of good. At this point, for purposes +of art, the curtain ought to fall. + +For purposes of art--not, however, for purposes of truth. For the +drama of Mansoul was still incomplete, and will remain incomplete till +man puts on another nature or ceases altogether to be. Christianity +might place him in a new relation to his Maker, and, according to +Bunyan, might expel the Devil out of his heart. But for practical +purposes, as Mansoul too well knows, the Devil is still in possession. +At intervals--as in the first centuries of the Christian era, for a +period in the middle ages, and again in Protestant countries for +another period at the Reformation--mankind made noble efforts to drive +him out, and make the law of God into reality. But he comes back +again, and the world is again as it was. The vices again flourish +which had been nailed to the Cross. The statesman finds it as little +possible as ever to take moral right and justice for his rule in +politics. The Evangelical preacher continues to confess and deplore +the desperate wickedness of the human heart. The Devil had been +deposed, but his faithful subjects have restored him to his throne. +The stone of Sisyphus has been brought to the brow of the hill only to +rebound again to the bottom. The old battle has to be fought a second +time, and, for all we can see, no closing victory will ever be in +'this country of Universe.' Bunyan knew this but too well. He tries to +conceal it from himself by treating Mansoul alternately as the soul of +a single individual from which the Devil may be so expelled as never +dangerously to come back, or as the collective souls of the Christian +world. But, let him mean which of the two he will, the overpowering +fact remains that, from the point of view of his own theology, the +great majority of mankind are the Devil's servants through life, and +are made over to him everlastingly when their lives are over; while +the human race itself continues to follow its idle amusements and its +sinful pleasures as if no Emmanuel had ever come from heaven to rescue +it. Thus the situation is incomplete, and the artistic treatment +necessarily unsatisfactory--nay in a sense even worse than +unsatisfactory, for the attention of the reader, being reawakened by +the fresh and lively treatment of the subject, refuses to be satisfied +with conventional explanatory commonplaces. His mind is puzzled; his +faith wavers in its dependence upon a Being who can permit His work to +be spoilt, His power defied, His victories even, when won, made +useless. + +Thus we take up the continuation of the 'Holy War' with a certain +weariness and expectation of disappointment. The delivery of Mansoul +has not been finished after all, and, for all that we can see, the +struggle between Shaddai and Diabolus may go on to eternity. Emmanuel, +before he withdraws his presence, warns the inhabitants that many +Diabolonians are still lurking about the outside walls of the town.[9] +The names are those in St. Paul's list--Fornication, Adultery, Murder, +Anger, Lasciviousness, Deceit, Evil Eye, Drunkenness, Revelling, +Idolatry, Witchcraft, Variance, Emulation, Wrath, Strife, Sedition, +Heresy. If all these were still abroad, not much had been gained by +the crucifixion of the Aldermen. For the time, it was true, they did +not show themselves openly. Mansoul after the conquest was clothed in +white linen, and was in a state of peace and glory. But the linen was +speedily soiled again. Mr. Carnal Security became a great person in +Mansoul. The Chief Secretary's functions fell early into abeyance. He +discovered the Recorder and Lord Will be Will at dinner in Mr. Carnal +Security's parlour, and ceased to communicate with them. Mr. Godly +Fear sounded an alarm, and Mr. Carnal Security's house was burnt by +the mob; but Mansoul's backslidings grew worse. It had its fits of +repentance, and petitioned Emmanuel, but the messenger could have no +admittance. The Lusts of the Flesh came out of their dens. They held a +meeting in the room of Mr. Mischief, and wrote to invite Diabolus to +return. Mr. Profane carried their letter to Hell Gate. Cerberus opened +it, and a cry of joy ran through the prison. Beelzebub, Lucifer, +Apollyon, and the rest of the devils came crowding to hear the news. +Deadman's bell was rung. Diabolus addressed the assembly, putting them +in hopes of recovering their prize. 'Nor need you fear, he said, that +if ever we get Mansoul again, we after that shall be cast out any +more. It is the law of that Prince that now they own, that if we get +them a second time they shall be ours for ever.' He returned a warm +answer to his friend, 'which was subscribed as given at the Pit's +mouth, by the joint consent of all the Princes of Darkness, by me, +Diabolus.' The plan was to corrupt Mansoul's morals, and three devils +of rank set off disguised to take service in the town, and make their +way into the households of Mr. Mind, Mr. Godly Fear, and Lord Will be +Will. Godly Fear discovered his mistake and turned the devil out. The +other two established themselves successfully, and Mr. Profane was +soon at Hell Gate again to report progress. Cerberus welcomed him with +a 'St. Mary, I am glad to see thee.' Another council was held in +Pandemonium, and Diabolus was impatient to show himself again on the +scene. Apollyon advised him not to be in a hurry. 'Let our friends,' +he said, 'draw Mansoul more and more into sin--there is nothing like +sin to devour Mansoul;' but Diabolus would not wait for so slow a +process, and raised an army of Doubters 'from the land of Doubting on +the confines of Hell Gate Hill.' 'Doubt,' Bunyan always admitted, had +been his own most dangerous enemy. + +[Footnote 9: The Flesh.] + +Happily the townspeople became aware of the peril which threatened +them. Mr. Prywell, a great lover of Mansoul, overheard some +Diabolonians talking about it at a place called Vile Hill. He carried +his information to the Lord Mayor; the Recorder rang the Alarm Bell; +Mansoul flew to penitence, held a day of fasting and humiliation, and +prayed to Shaddai. The Diabolonians were hunted out, and all that +could be found were killed. So far as haste and alarm would permit, +Mansoul mended its ways. But on came the Doubting army, led by +Incredulity, who had escaped crucifixion--'none was truer to Diabolus +than he'--on they came under their several captains, Vocation +Doubters, Grace Doubters, Salvation Doubters, &c.--figures now gone to +shadow; then the deadliest foes of every English Puritan soul. Mansoul +appealed passionately to the Chief Secretary; but the Chief Secretary +'had been grieved,' and would have nothing to say to it. The town +legions went out to meet the invaders with good words, Prayer, and +singing of Psalms. The Doubters replied with 'horrible objections,' +which were frightfully effective. Lord Reason was wounded in the head +and the Lord Mayor in the eye; Mr. Mind received a shot in the +stomach, and Conscience was hit near the heart; but the wounds were +not mortal. Mansoul had the best of it in the first engagement. Terror +was followed by boasting and self-confidence; a night sally was +attempted--night being the time when the Doubters were strongest. The +sally failed, and the men of Mansoul were turned to rout. Diabolus's +army attacked Eargate, stormed the walls, forced their way into the +town, and captured the whole of it except the castle. Then 'Mansoul +became a den of dragons, an emblem of Hell, a place of total +darkness.' 'Mr. Conscience's wounds so festered that he could have no +rest day or night.' 'Now a man might have walked for days together in +Mansoul, and scarce have seen one in the town that looked like a +religious man. Oh, the fearful state of Mansoul now!' 'Now every +corner swarmed with outlandish Doubters; Red Coats and Black Coats +walked the town by clusters, and filled the houses with hideous +noises, lying stories, and blasphemous language against Shaddai and +his Son.' + +This is evidently meant for fashionable London in the time of Charles +II. Bunyan was loyal to the King. He was no believer in moral +regeneration through political revolution. But none the less he could +see what was under his eyes, and he knew what to think of it. + +All was not lost, for the castle still held out. The only hope was in +Emmanuel, and the garrison proposed to petition again in spite of the +ill reception of their first messengers. Godly Fear reminded them that +no petition would be received which was not signed by the Lord +Secretary, and that the Lord Secretary would sign nothing which he had +not himself drawn up. The Lord Secretary, when appealed to in the +proper manner, no longer refused his assistance. Captain Credence flew +up to Shaddai's court with the simple words that Mansoul renounced all +trust in its own strength and relied upon its Saviour. This time its +prayer would be heard. + +The devils meanwhile, triumphant though they were, discovered that +they could have no permanent victory unless they could reduce the +castle. 'Doubters at a distance,' Beelzebub said, 'are but like +objections repelled by arguments. Can we but get them into the hold, +and make them possessors of that, the day will be our own.' The object +was, therefore, to corrupt Mansoul at the heart. + +Then follows a very curious passage. Bunyan had still his eye on +England, and had discerned the quarter from which her real danger +would approach. Mansoul, the Devil perceived, 'was a market town, much +given to commerce.' 'It would be possible to dispose of some of the +Devil's wares there.' The people would be filled full, and made rich, +and would forget Emmanuel. 'Mansoul,' they said, 'shall be so cumbered +with abundance, that they shall be forced to make their castle a +warehouse.' Wealth once made the first object of existence, +'Diabolus's gang will have easy entrance, and the castle will be our +own.' + +Political economy was still sleeping in the womb of futurity. Diabolus +was unable to hasten its birth, and an experiment which Bunyan thought +would certainly have succeeded was not to be tried. The _Deus ex +Machinâ_ appeared with its flaming sword. The Doubting army was cut to +pieces, and Mansoul was saved. Again, however, the work was +imperfectly done. Diabolus, like the bad genius in the fairy tale, +survived for fresh mischief. Diabolus flew off again to Hell Gate, and +was soon at the head of a new host; part composed of fugitive Doubters +whom he rallied, and part of a new set of enemies called _Bloodmen_, +by whom we are to understand persecutors, 'a people from a land that +lay under the Dog Star.' 'Captain Pope' was chief of the Bloodmen. His +escutcheon 'was the stake, the flame, and good men in it.' The +Bloodmen had done Diabolus wonderful service in time past. 'Once they +had forced Emmanuel out of the Kingdom of the Universe, and why, +thought he, might they not do it again?' + +Emmanuel did not this time go in person to the encounter. It was +enough to send his captains. The Doubters fled at the first onset. +'The Bloodmen, when they saw that no Emmanuel was in the field, +concluded that no Emmanuel was in Mansoul. Wherefore, they, looking +upon what the captains did to be, as they called it, a fruit of the +extravagancy of their wild and foolish fancies, rather despised them +than feared them.' 'They proved, nevertheless, chicken-hearted, when +they saw themselves matched and equalled.' The chiefs were taken +prisoners, and brought to trial like Atheism and his companions, and +so, with an address from the Prince, the story comes to a close. + +Thus at last the 'Holy War' ends or seems to end. It is as if Bunyan +had wished to show that though the converted Christian was still +liable to the assaults of Satan, and even to be beaten down and +overcome by him, his state was never afterwards so desperate as it had +been before the redemption, and that he had assistance ready at hand +to save him when near extremity. But the reader whose desire it is +that good shall triumph and evil be put to shame and overthrown +remains but partially satisfied; and the last conflict and its issues +leave Mansoul still subject to fresh attacks. Diabolus was still at +large. Carnal Sense broke prison and continued to lurk in the town. +Unbelief 'was a nimble Jack: him they could never lay hold of, though +they attempted to do it often.' Unbelief remained in Mansoul till the +time that Mansoul ceased to dwell in the country of the Universe; and +where Unbelief was Diabolus would not be without a friend to open the +gates to him. Bunyan says, indeed, that 'he was stoned as often as he +showed himself in the streets.' He shows himself in the streets much +at his ease in these days of ours after two more centuries. + +Here lies the real weakness of the 'Holy War.' It may be looked at +either as the war in the soul of each sinner that is saved, or as the +war for the deliverance of humanity. Under the first aspect it leaves +out of sight the large majority of mankind who are not supposed to be +saved, and out of whom, therefore, Diabolus is not driven at all. +Under the other aspect the struggle is still unfinished; the last act +of the drama has still to be played, and we know not what the +conclusion is to be. + +To attempt to represent it, therefore, as a work of art, with a +beginning, a middle, and an end, is necessarily a failure. The +mysteries and contradictions which the Christian revelation leaves +unsolved are made tolerable to us by Hope. We are prepared to find in +religion many things which we cannot understand; and difficulties do +not perplex us so long as they remain in a form to which we are +accustomed. To emphasise the problem by offering it to us in an +allegory, of which we are presumed to possess a key, serves only to +revive Man Friday's question, or the old dilemma which neither +intellect nor imagination has ever dealt with successfully. 'Deus aut +non vult tollere mala, aut nequit. Si non vult non est bonus. Si +nequit non est omnipotens.' It is wiser to confess with Butler that +'there may be necessities in the nature of things which we are not +acquainted with.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. + + +If the 'Holy War' is an unfit subject for allegorical treatment, the +'Pilgrim's Progress' is no less perfectly adapted for it. The 'Holy +War' is a representation of the struggle of human nature with evil, +and the struggle is left undecided. The 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a +representation of the efforts of a single soul after holiness, which +has its natural termination when the soul quits its mortal home and +crosses the dark river. Each one of us has his own life battle to +fight out, his own sorrows and trials, his own failures or successes, +and his own end. He wins the game, or he loses it. The account is +wound up, and the curtain falls upon him. Here Bunyan had a material +as excellent in itself as it was exactly suited to his peculiar +genius; and his treatment of the subject from his own point of +view--that of English Protestant Christianity--is unequalled and never +will be equalled. I may say never, for in this world of change the +point of view alters fast, and never continues in one stay. As we are +swept along the stream of time, lights and shadows shift their places, +mountain plateaus turn to sharp peaks, mountain ranges dissolve into +vapour. The river which has been gliding deep and slow along the +plain, leaps suddenly over a precipice and plunges foaming down a +sunless gorge. In the midst of changing circumstances the central +question remains the same--What am I? what is this world in which I +appear and disappear like a bubble? who made me? and what am I to do? +Some answer or other the mind of man demands and insists on receiving. +Theologian or poet offers at long intervals explanations which are +accepted as credible for a time. They wear out, and another follows, +and then another. Bunyan's answer has served average English men and +women for two hundred years, but no human being with Bunyan's +intellect and Bunyan's sincerity can again use similar language; and +the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is and will remain unique of its kind--an +imperishable monument of the form in which the problem presented +itself to a person of singular truthfulness, simplicity, and piety, +who after many struggles accepted the Puritan creed as the adequate +solution of it. It was composed exactly at the time when it was +possible for such a book to come into being; the close of the period +when the Puritan formula was a real belief, and was about to change +from a living principle into an intellectual opinion. So long as a +religion is fully alive, men do not talk about it or make allegories +about it. They assume its truth as out of reach of question, and they +simply obey its precepts as they obey the law of the land. It becomes +a subject of art and discourse only when men are unconsciously ceasing +to believe, and therefore the more vehemently think that they believe, +and repudiate with indignation the suggestion that doubt has found its +way into them. After this religion no longer governs their lives. It +governs only the language in which they express themselves, and they +preserve it eagerly, in the shape of elaborate observances or in the +agreeable forms of art and literature. + +The 'Pilgrim's Progress' was written before the 'Holy War,' while +Bunyan was still in prison at Bedford, and was but half conscious of +the gifts which he possessed. It was written for his own +entertainment, and therefore without the thought--so fatal in its +effects and so hard to be resisted--of what the world would say about +it. It was written in compulsory quiet, when he was comparatively +unexcited by the effort of perpetual preaching, and the shapes of +things could present themselves to him as they really were, +undistorted by theological narrowness. It is the same story which he +has told of himself in 'Grace Abounding,' thrown out into an objective +form. + +He tells us himself, in a metrical introduction, the circumstances +under which it was composed:-- + + When at the first I took my pen in hand, + Thus for to write, I did not understand + That I at all should make a little book + In such a mode. Nay, I had undertook + To make another, which when almost done, + Before I was aware I this begun. + + And thus it was.--I writing of the way + And race of saints in this our Gospel day, + Fell suddenly into an Allegory + About the 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 these 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. + + Well, so I did; but yet I did not think + To show to all the world my pen and ink + In such a mode. I only thought to make, + I knew not what. Nor did I undertake + Merely to please my neighbours; no, not I. + I did it mine own self to gratify. + + Neither did I but vacant seasons spend + In this my scribble; nor did I intend + But to divert myself in doing this + From worser thoughts which make me do amiss. + Thus I set pen to paper with delight, + And quickly had my thoughts in black and white; + For having now my method by the end, + Still as I pulled it came; and so I penned + It down: until at last it came to be + For length and breadth the bigness which you see. + + Well, when I had thus put my ends together, + I showed 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. + + Now was I in a strait, and did not see + Which was the best thing to be done by me. + At last I thought, since you are thus divided, + I print it will; and so the case decided. + +The difference of opinion among Bunyan's friends is easily explicable. +The allegoric representation of religion to men profoundly convinced +of the truth of it might naturally seem light and fantastic, and the +breadth of the conception could not please the narrow sectarians who +knew no salvation beyond the lines of their peculiar formulas. The +Pilgrim though in a Puritan dress is a genuine man. His experience is +so truly human experience, that Christians of every persuasion can +identify themselves with him; and even those who regard Christianity +itself as but a natural outgrowth of the conscience and intellect, +and yet desire to live nobly and make the best of themselves, can +recognise familiar foot-prints in every step of Christian's journey. +Thus the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a book, which, when once read, can +never be forgotten. We too, every one of us, are pilgrims on the same +road, and images and illustrations come back upon us from so faithful +an itinerary, as we encounter similar trials, and learn for ourselves +the accuracy with which Bunyan has described them. There is no +occasion to follow a story minutely which memory can so universally +supply. I need pause only at a few spots which are too charming to +pass by. + +How picturesque and vivid are the opening lines: + +'As I walked through the wilderness of this world I lighted on a +certain place where there was a den,[10] and I laid me down in that +place to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and +behold I saw a man, a man clothed in rags, standing with his face from +his own home with a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his +back.' + +[Footnote 10: The Bedford Prison.] + +The man is Bunyan himself as we see him in 'Grace Abounding.' His sins +are the burden upon his back. He reads his book and weeps and +trembles. He speaks of his fears to his friends and kindred. They +think 'some frenzy distemper has got into his head.' He meets a man in +the fields whose name is Evangelist. Evangelist tells him to flee from +the City of Destruction. He shows him the way by which he must go, and +points to the far-off light which will guide him to the wicket-gate. +He sets off, and his neighbours of course think him mad. The world +always thinks men mad who turn their backs upon it. Obstinate and +Pliable (how well we know them both!) follow to persuade him to +return. Obstinate talks practical common sense to him, and as it has +no effect, gives him up as a fantastical fellow. Pliable thinks that +there may be something in what he says, and offers to go with him. + +Before they can reach the wicket-gate, they fall into a 'miry slough.' +Who does not know the miry slough too? When a man begins for the first +time to think seriously about himself, the first thing that rises +before him is a consciousness of his miserable past life. Amendment +seems to be desperate. He thinks it is too late to change for any +useful purpose, and he sinks into despondency. + +Pliable finding the road disagreeable has soon had enough of it. He +scrambles out of the slough 'on the side which was nearest to his own +house' and goes home. Christian struggling manfully is lifted out 'by +a man whose name was Help,' and goes on upon his journey, but the +burden on his back weighs him down. He falls in with Mr. Worldly +Wiseman who lives in the town of Carnal Policy. Mr. Worldly Wiseman, +who looks like a gentleman, advises him not to think about his sins. +If he has done wrong he must alter his life and do better for the +future. He directs him to a village called Morality, where he will +find a gentleman well known in those parts, who will take his burden +off--Mr. Legality. Either Mr. Legality will do it himself, or it can +be done equally well by his pretty young son, Mr. Civility. + +The way to a better life does not lie in a change of outward action, +but in a changed heart. Legality soon passes into civility, according +to the saying that vice loses half its evil when it loses its +grossness. Bunyan would have said that the poison was the more deadly +from being concealed. Christian after a near escape is set straight +again. He is admitted into the wicket-gate and is directed how he is +to go forward. He asks if he may not lose his way. He is answered Yes, +'There are many ways (that) butt down on this and they are crooked and +wide. But thus thou mayest know the right from the wrong, that only +being straight and narrow.' + +Good people often suppose that when a man is once 'converted,' as they +call it, and has entered on a religious life, he will find everything +made easy. He has turned to Christ, and in Christ he will find rest +and pleasantness. The path of duty is unfortunately not strewed with +flowers at all. The primrose road leads to the other place. As on all +other journeys, to persevere is the difficulty. The pilgrim's feet +grow sorer the longer he walks. His lower nature follows him like a +shadow watching opportunities to trip him up, and ever appearing in +some new disguise. In the way of comfort he is allowed only certain +resting places, quiet intervals of peace when temptation is absent, +and the mind can gather strength and encouragement from a sense of the +progress which it has made. + +The first of these resting places at which Christian arrives is the +'Interpreter's House.' This means, I conceive, that he arrives at a +right understanding of the objects of human desire as they really are. +He learns to distinguish there between passion and patience, passion +which demands immediate gratification, and patience which can wait and +hope. He sees the action of grace on the heart, and sees the Devil +labouring to put it out. He sees the man in the iron cage who was once +a flourishing professor, but had been tempted away by pleasure and had +sinned against light. He hears a dream too--one of Bunyan's own early +dreams, but related as by another person. The Pilgrim himself was +beyond the reach of such uneasy visions. But it shows how profoundly +the terrible side of Christianity had seized on Bunyan's imagination +and how little he was able to forget it. + +'This night as I was in my sleep I dreamed, and behold the heavens +grew exceeding black: also it thundered and lightened in most fearful +wise, that it put me into an agony; so I looked up in my dream and saw +the clouds rack at an unusual rate, upon which I heard a great sound +of a trumpet, and saw also a man sit upon a cloud attended with the +thousands of heaven. They were all in a flaming fire, and the heaven +also was in a burning flame. I heard then a voice, saying, Arise ye +dead and come to judgment; and with that the rocks rent, the graves +opened, and the dead that were therein came forth. Some of them were +exceeding glad and looked upward, some sought to hide themselves under +the mountains. Then I saw the man that sate upon the cloud open the +book and bid the world draw near. Yet there was, by reason of a fierce +flame that issued out and came from before him, a convenient distance +betwixt him and them, as betwixt the judge and the prisoners at the +bar. I heard it also proclaimed to them that attended on the man that +sate on the cloud, Gather together the tares, the chaff, and the +stubble, and cast them into the burning lake. And with that the +bottomless pit opened just whereabouts I stood, out of the mouth of +which there came in an abundant manner smoke and coals of fire with +hideous noises. It was also said to the same persons, Gather the wheat +into my garner. And with that I saw many catched up and carried away +into the clouds, but I was left behind. I also sought to hide myself, +but I could not, for the man that sate upon the cloud still kept his +eye upon me. My sins also came into my mind, and my conscience did +accuse me on every side. I thought the day of judgment was come and I +was not ready for it.' + +The resting time comes to an end. The Pilgrim gathers himself +together, and proceeds upon his way. He is not to be burdened for ever +with the sense of his sins. It fell from off his back at the sight of +the cross. Three shining ones appear and tell him that his sins are +forgiven; they take off his rags and provide him with a new suit. + +He now encounters fellow-travellers; and the seriousness of the story is +relieved by adventures and humorous conversations. At the bottom of a hill +he finds three gentlemen asleep, 'a little out of the way.' These were +Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. He tries to rouse them, but does not +succeed. Presently two others are seen tumbling over the wall into the +Narrow Way. They are come from the land of Vain Glory, and are called +Formalist and Hypocrisy. Like the Pilgrim, they are bound for Mount Zion; +but the wicket-gate was 'too far about,' and they had come by a short cut. +'They had custom for it a thousand years and more; and custom being of so +long standing would be admitted legal by any impartial judge.' Whether +right or wrong they insist that they are in the way, and no more is to be +said. But they are soon out of it again. The hill is the hill Difficulty, +and the road parts into three. Two go round the bottom, as modern engineers +would make them. The other rises straight over the top. Formalist and +Hypocrisy choose the easy ways, and are heard of no more. Pilgrim climbs +up, and after various accidents comes to the second resting-place, the +Palace Beautiful, built by the Lord of the Hill to entertain strangers in. +The recollections of Sir Bevis of Southampton furnished Bunyan with his +framework. Lions guard the court. Fair ladies entertain him as if he had +been a knight-errant in quest of the Holy Grail. The ladies, of course, are +all that they ought to be: the Christian graces--Discretion, Prudence, +Piety, and Charity. He tells them his history. They ask him if he has +brought none of his old belongings with him. He answers yes; but greatly +against his will: his inward and carnal cogitations, with which his +countrymen, as well as himself, were so much delighted. Only in golden +hours they seemed to leave him. Who cannot recognise the truth of this? Who +has not groaned over the follies and idiocies that cling to us like the +doggerel verses that hang about our memories? The room in which he sleeps +is called Peace. In the morning he is shown the curiosities, chiefly +Scripture relics, in the palace. He is taken to the roof, from which he +sees far off the outlines of the Delectable Mountains. Next, the ladies +carry him to the armoury, and equip him for the dangers which lie next +before him. He is to go down into the Valley of Humiliation, and pass +thence through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. + +Bunyan here shows the finest insight. To some pilgrims the Valley of +Humiliation was the pleasantest part of the journey. Mr. Feeblemind, +in the second part of the story, was happier there than anywhere. But +Christian is Bunyan himself; and Bunyan had a stiff self-willed +nature, and had found his spirit the most stubborn part of him. Down +here he encounters Apollyon himself, 'straddling quite over the whole +breadth of the way'--a more effective devil than the Diabolus of the +'Holy War.' He fights him for half-a-day, is sorely wounded in head, +hand, and foot, and has a near escape of being pressed to death. +Apollyon spreads his bat wings at last, and flies away; but there +remains the Valley of the Shadow of Death, the dark scene of lonely +horrors. Two men meet him on the borders of it. They tell him the +valley is full of spectres; and they warn him, if he values his life, +to go back. Well Bunyan knew these spectres, those dreary misgivings +that he was toiling after an illusion; that 'good' and 'evil' had no +meaning except on earth, and for man's convenience; and that he +himself was but a creature of a day, allowed a brief season of what is +called existence, and then to pass away and be as if he had never +been. It speaks well for Bunyan's honesty that this state of mind +which religious people generally call wicked is placed directly in his +Pilgrim's path, and he is compelled to pass through it. In the valley, +close at the road-side, there is a pit, which is one of the mouths of +hell. A wicked spirit whispers to him as he goes by. He imagines that +the thought had proceeded out of his own heart. + +The sky clears when he is beyond the gorge. Outside it are the caves +where the two giants, Pope and Pagan, had lived in old times. Pagan +had been dead many a day. Pope was still living, 'but he had grown so +crazy and stiff in his joints that he could now do little more than +sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they went by, and +biting his nails because he could not come at them.' + +Here he overtakes 'Faithful,' a true pilgrim like himself. Faithful +had met with trials; but his trials have not resembled Christian's. +Christian's difficulties, like Bunyan's own, had been all spiritual. +'The lusts of the flesh' seem to have had no attraction for him. +Faithful had been assailed by 'Wanton,' and had been obliged to fly +from her. He had not fallen into the slough; but he had been beguiled +by the Old Adam, who offered him one of his daughters for a wife. In +the Valley of the Shadow of Death he had found sunshine all the way. +Doubts about the truth of religion had never troubled the simpler +nature of the good Faithful. + +Mr. Talkative is the next character introduced, and is one of the best +figures which Bunyan has drawn; Mr. Talkative, with Scripture at his +fingers' ends, and perfect master of all doctrinal subtleties, ready +'to talk of things heavenly or things earthly, things moral or things +evangelical, things sacred or things profane, things past or things to +come, things foreign or things at home, things essential or things +circumstantial, provided that all be done to our profit.' + +This gentleman would have taken in Faithful, who was awed by such a +rush of volubility. Christian has seen him before, knows him well, and +can describe him. 'He is the son of one Saywell. He dwelt in Prating +Row. He is for any company and for any talk. As he talks now with you +so will he talk when on the ale-bench. The more drink he hath in his +crown, the more of these things he hath in his mouth. Religion hath no +place in his heart, or home, or conversation; all that he hath lieth +in his tongue, and his religion is to make a noise therewith.' + +The elect, though they have ceased to be of the world, are still in +the world. They are still part of the general community of mankind, +and share, whether they like it or not, in the ordinary activities of +life. Faithful and Christian have left the City of Destruction. They +have shaken off from themselves all liking for idle pleasures. They +nevertheless find themselves in their journey at Vanity Fair, 'a fair +set up by Beelzebub 5000 years ago.' Trade of all sorts went on at +Vanity Fair, and people of all sorts were collected there: cheats, +fools, asses, knaves, and rogues. Some were honest, many were +dishonest; some lived peaceably and uprightly, others robbed, +murdered, seduced their neighbours' wives, or lied and perjured +themselves. Vanity Fair was European society as it existed in the days +of Charles II. Each nation was represented. There was British Row, +French Row, and Spanish Row. 'The wares of Rome and her merchandise +were greatly promoted at the fair, only the English nation with some +others had taken a dislike to them.' The pilgrims appear on the scene +as the Apostles appeared at Antioch and Rome, to tell the people that +there were things in the world of more consequence than money and +pleasure. The better sort listen. Public opinion in general calls them +fools and Bedlamites. The fair becomes excited, disturbances are +feared, and the authorities send to make inquiries. Authorities +naturally disapprove of novelties; and Christian and Faithful are +arrested, beaten, and put in the cage. Their friends insist that they +have done no harm, that they are innocent strangers teaching only what +will make men better instead of worse. A riot follows. The authorities +determine to make an example of them, and the result is the +ever-memorable trial of the two pilgrims. They are brought in irons +before my Lord Hategood, charged with 'disturbing the trade of the +town, creating divisions, and making converts to their opinions in +contempt of the law of the Prince.' + +Faithful begins with an admission which would have made it difficult +for Hategood to let him off, for he says that the Prince they talked +of, being Beelzebub, the enemy of the Lord, he defied him and all his +angels. Three witnesses were then called: Envy, Superstition, and +Pickthank. + +Envy says that Faithful regards neither prince nor people, but does +all he can to possess men with disloyal notions, which he call +principles of faith and holiness. + +Superstition says that he knows little of him, but has heard him say +that 'our religion is naught, and such by which no man can please God, +from which saying his Lordship well knows will follow that we are yet +in our sins, and finally shall be damned.' + +Pickthank deposes that he has heard Faithful rail on Beelzebub, and +speak contemptuously of his honourable friends my Lord Old Man, my +Lord Carnal Delight, my Lord Luxurious, my Lord Desire of Vain Glory, +my Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, and the rest of the nobility, +besides which he has railed against his lordship on the bench himself, +calling him an ungodly villain. + +The evidence was perfectly true, and the prisoner, when called on for +his defence, confirmed it. He says (avoiding the terms in which he was +said to rail and the like) that 'the Prince of the town, with all the +rabblement of his attendants by this gentleman named, are more fit for +a being in hell than in this town or country.' + +Lord Hategood has been supposed to have been drawn from one or other +of Charles II.'s judges, perhaps from either Twisden or Chester, who +had the conversation with Bunyan's wife. But it is difficult to see +how either one or the other could have acted otherwise than they did. +Faithful might be quite right. Hell might be and probably was the +proper place for Beelzebub, and for all persons holding authority +under him. But as a matter of fact, a form of society did for some +purpose or other exist, and had been permitted to exist for 5000 +years, owning Beelzebub's sovereignty. It must defend itself, or must +cease to be, and it could not be expected to make no effort at +self-preservation. Faithful had come to Vanity Fair to make a +revolution--a revolution extremely desirable, but one which it was +unreasonable to expect the constituted authorities to allow to go +forward. It was not a case of false witness. A prisoner who admits +that he has taught the people that their Prince ought to be in hell, +and has called the judge an ungodly villain, cannot complain if he is +accused of preaching rebellion. + +Lord Hategood charges the jury, and explains the law. 'There was an +Act made,' he says, 'in the days of Pharaoh the Great, servant to our +Prince, that lest those of a contrary religion should multiply and +grow too strong for him, their males should be thrown into the river. +There was also an Act made in the days of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, +that whoever would not fall down and worship his golden image should +be thrown into a fiery furnace. There was also an Act made in the days +of Darius that whoso for some time called upon any God but him should +be cast into the lion's den. Now the substance of these laws this +rebel hath broken, not only in thought (which is not to be borne), but +also in word and deed, which must, therefore, be intolerable. For that +of Pharaoh, his law was made upon a supposition to prevent mischief, +no crime being yet apparent. For the second and third you see his +disputations against our religion, and for the treason he hath +confessed he deserveth to die the death.' + +'Then went the jury out, whose names were Mr. Blindman, Mr. Nogood, +Mr. Malice, Mr. Lovelust, Mr. Liveloose, Mr. Heady, Mr. Highmind, Mr. +Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hatelight, and Mr. Implacable, who +every one gave in his private verdict against him among themselves, +and afterwards unanimously concluded to bring him in guilty before the +judge. And first, Mr. Blindman, the foreman, said: I see clearly that +this man is a heretic. Then said Mr. No Good, Away with such a fellow +from the earth. Aye, said Mr. Malice, I hate the very looks of him. +Then said Mr. Lovelust, I could never endure him. Nor I, said Mr. +Liveloose, for he would always be condemning my way. Hang him, hang +him, said Mr. Heady. A sorry scrub, said Mr. Highmind. My heart riseth +against him, said Mr. Enmity. He is a rogue, said Mr. Liar. Hanging is +too good for him, said Mr. Cruelty. Let us despatch him out of the +way, said Mr. Hatelight. Then, said Mr. Implacable, might I have all +the world given me, I could not be reconciled to him; therefore, let +us forthwith bring him in guilty of death.' + +Abstract qualities of character were never clothed in more substantial +flesh and blood than these jurymen. Spenser's knights in the 'Fairy +Queen' are mere shadows to them. Faithful was, of course, condemned, +scourged, buffeted, lanced in his feet with knives, stoned, stabbed, +at last burned, and spared the pain of travelling further on the +narrow road. A chariot and horses were waiting to bear him through the +clouds, the nearest way to the Celestial Gate. Christian, who it seems +had been remanded, contrives to escape. He is joined by Hopeful, a +convert whom he has made in the town, and they pursue their journey in +company. A second person is useful dramatically, and Hopeful takes +Faithful's place. Leaving Vanity Fair, they are again on the Pilgrim's +road. There they encounter Mr. Bye-ends. Bye-ends comes from the town +of Plain-Speech, where he has a large kindred, My Lord Turnabout, my +Lord Timeserver, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Two Tongues, the parson of +the parish. Bye-ends himself was married to a daughter of Lady +Feignings. Bunyan's invention in such things was inexhaustible. + +They have more trials of the old kind with which Bunyan himself was so +familiar. They cross the River of Life and even drink at it, yet for +all this and directly after, they stray into Bye Path Meadow. They +lose themselves in the grounds of Doubting Castle, and are seized upon +by Giant Despair--still a prey to doubt--still uncertain whether +religion be not a dream, even after they have fought with wild beasts +in Vanity Fair and have drunk of the water of life. Nowhere does +Bunyan show better how well he knew the heart of man. Christian even +thinks of killing himself in the dungeons of Doubting Castle. Hopeful +cheers him up, they break their prison, recover the road again, and +arrive at the Delectable Mountains in Emmanuel's own land. There it +might be thought the danger would be over, but it is not so. Even in +Emmanuel's Land there is a door in the side of a hill which is a +byeway to hell, and beyond Emmanuel's Land is the country of conceit, +a new and special temptation for those who think that they are near +salvation. Here they encounter 'a brisk lad of the neighbourhood,' +needed soon after for a particular purpose, who is a good liver, prays +devoutly, fasts regularly, pays tithes punctually, and hopes that +everyone will get to heaven by the religion which he professes, +provided he fears God and tries to do his duty. The name of this brisk +lad is Ignorance. Leaving him, they are caught in a net by Flatterer, +and are smartly whipped by 'a shining one,' who lets them out of it. +False ideas and vanity lay them open once more to their most dangerous +enemy. They meet a man coming towards them from the direction in which +they are going. They tell him that they are on the way to Mount Zion. +He laughs scornfully and answers:-- + +'There is no such place as you dream of in all the world. When I was +at home in my own country, I heard as you now affirm, and from hearing +I went out to see; and have been seeking this city these twenty years, +but I find no more of it than I did the first day I went out. I am +going back again and will seek to refresh myself with things which I +then cast away for hopes of that which I now see is not.' + +Still uncertainty--even on the verge of eternity--strange, doubtless, +and reprehensible to Right Reverend persons, who never 'cast away' +anything; to whom a religious profession has been a highway to +pleasure and preferment, who live in the comfortable assurance that as +it has been in this life so it will be in the next. Only moral +obliquity of the worst kind could admit a doubt about so excellent a +religion as this. But Bunyan was not a Right Reverend. Christianity +had brought him no palaces and large revenues, and a place among the +great of the land. If Christianity was not true his whole life was +folly and illusion, and the dread that it might be so clung to his +belief like its shadow. + +The way was still long. The pilgrims reach the Enchanted Ground and +are drowsy and tired. Ignorance comes up with them again. He talks +much about himself. He tells them of the good motives that come into +his mind and comfort him as he walks. His heart tells him that he has +left all for God and Heaven. His belief and his life agree together, +and he is humbly confident that his hopes are well-founded. When they +speak to him of Salvation by Faith and Conviction by Sin, he cannot +understand what they mean. As he leaves them they are reminded of one +Temporary, 'once a forward man in religion.' Temporary dwelt in +Graceless, 'a town two miles from Honesty, next door to one Turnback.' +He 'was going on pilgrimage, but became acquainted with one Save Self, +and was never more heard of.' + +These figures all mean something. They correspond in part to Bunyan's +own recollection of his own trials. Partly he is indulging his humour +by describing others who were more astray than he was. It was over at +last: the pilgrims arrive at the land of Beulah, the beautiful sunset +after the storms were all past. Doubting Castle can be seen no more, +and between them and their last rest there remains only the deep river +over which there is no bridge, the river of Death. On the hill beyond +the waters glitter the towers and domes of the Celestial City; but +through the river they must first pass, and they find it deeper or +shallower according to the strength of their faith. They go through, +Hopeful feeling the bottom all along; Christian still in character, +not without some horror, and frightened by hobgoblins. On the other +side they are received by angels, and are carried to their final home, +to live for ever in the Prince's presence. Then follows the only +passage which the present writer reads with regret in this admirable +book. It is given to the self-righteous Ignorance who, doubtless, had +been provoking with 'his good motives that comforted him as he +walked;' but Bunyan's zeal might have been satisfied by inflicting a +lighter chastisement upon him. He comes up to the river. He crosses +without the difficulties which attended Christian and Hopeful. 'It +happened that there was then at the place one Vain Hope, a Ferryman, +that with his boat' (some viaticum or priestly absolution) 'helped him +over.' He ascends the hill, and approaches the city, but no angels are +in attendance, 'neither did any man meet him with the least +encouragement.' Above the gate there was the verse written--'Blessed +are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the Tree +of Life, and may enter in through the gate into the city.' Bunyan, who +believed that no man could keep the commandments, and had no right to +anything but damnation, must have introduced the words as if to mock +the unhappy wretch who, after all, had tried to keep the commandments +as well as most people, and was seeking admittance, with a conscience +moderately at ease. 'He was asked by the men that looked over the +gate--Whence come you and what would you have?' He answered, 'I have +eaten and drunk in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our +street.' Then they asked him for his certificate, that they might go +in and show it to the king. So he fumbled in his bosom for one and +found none. Then said they, 'Have you none?' But the man answered +never a word. So they told the king but he would not come down to see +him, but commanded the two shining ones that conducted Christian and +Hopeful to the city to go out and take Ignorance and bind him hand and +foot, and have him away. Then they took him up and carried him through +the air to the door in the side of the hill, and put him in there. +'Then,' so Bunyan ends, 'I saw that there was a way to Hell even from +the gates of Heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction; so I +awoke, and behold it was a dream!' + +Poor Ignorance! Hell--such a place as Bunyan imagined Hell to be--was +a hard fate for a miserable mortal who had failed to comprehend the +true conditions of justification. We are not told that he was a vain +boaster. He could not have advanced so near to the door of Heaven if +he had not been really a decent man, though vain and silly. Behold, it +was a dream! The dreams which come to us when sleep is deep on the +soul may be sent direct from some revealing power. When we are near +waking, the supernatural insight may be refracted through human +theory. + +Charity will hope that the vision of Ignorance cast bound into the +mouth of Hell, when he was knocking at the gate of Heaven, came +through Homer's ivory gate, and that Bunyan here was a mistaken +interpreter of the spiritual tradition. The fierce inferences of +Puritan theology are no longer credible to us; yet nobler men than the +Puritans are not to be found in all English history. It will be well +if the clearer sight which enables us to detect their errors, enables +us also to recognise their excellence. + +The second part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' like most second parts, +is but a feeble reverberation of the first. It is comforting, no +doubt, to know that Christian's wife and children were not left to +their fate in the City of Destruction. But Bunyan had given us all +that he had to tell about the journey, and we do not need a repetition +of it. Of course there, are touches of genius. No writing of Bunyan's +could be wholly without it. But the rough simplicity is gone, and +instead of it there is a tone of sentiment which is almost mawkish. +Giants, dragons, and angelic champions carry us into a spurious fairy +land, where the knight-errant is a preacher in disguise. Fair ladies +and love matches, however decorously chastened, suit ill with the +sternness of the mortal conflict between the soul and sin. Christiana +and her children are tolerated for the pilgrim's sake to whom they +belong. Had they appealed to our interest on their own merits, we +would have been contented to wish them well through their +difficulties, and to trouble ourselves no further about them. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LAST DAYS AND DEATH. + + +Little remains to be told of Bunyan's concluding years. No friends +preserved his letters. No diaries of his own survive to gratify +curiosity. Men truly eminent think too meanly of themselves or their +work to care much to be personally remembered. He lived for sixteen +years after his release from the gaol, and those years were spent in +the peaceful discharge of his congregational duties, in writing, in +visiting the scattered members of the Baptist communion, or in +preaching in the villages and woods. His outward circumstances were +easy. He had a small but well-provided house in Bedford, into which he +collected rare and valuable pieces of old furniture and plate, and +other articles--presents, probably, from those who admired him. He +visited London annually to preach in the Baptist churches. The +'Pilgrim's Progress' spread his fame over England, over Europe, and +over the American settlements. It was translated into many languages; +and so catholic was its spirit, that it was adapted with a few +alterations for the use even of the Catholics themselves. He +abstained, as he had done steadily throughout his life, from all +interference with politics, and the Government in turn never again +meddled with him. He even received offers of promotion to larger +spheres of action which might have tempted a meaner nature. But he +could never be induced to leave Bedford, and there he quietly stayed +through changes of ministry, Popish plots, and Monmouth rebellions, +while the terror of a restoration of Popery was bringing on the +Revolution; careless of kings and cabinets, and confident that Giant +Pope had lost his power for harm, and thenceforward could only bite +his nails at the passing pilgrims. Once only, after the failure of the +Exclusion Bill, he seems to have feared that violent measures might +again be tried against him. It is even said that he was threatened +with arrest, and it was on this occasion that he made over his +property to his wife. The policy of James II., however, transparently +treacherous though it was, for the time gave security to the +Nonconformist congregations, and in the years which immediately +preceded the final expulsion of the Stuarts, liberty of conscience was +under fewer restrictions than it had been in the most rigorous days of +the Reformation, or under the Long Parliament itself. Thus the anxiety +passed away, and Bunyan was left undisturbed to finish his earthly +work. + +He was happy in his family. His blind child, for whom he had been so +touchingly anxious, had died while he was in prison. His other +children lived and did well; and his brave companion, who had spoken +so stoutly for him to the judges, continued at his side. His health, +it was said, had suffered from his confinement; but the only serious +illness which we hear of, was an attack of 'sweating sickness,' which +came upon him in 1687, and from which he never thoroughly recovered. +He was then fifty-nine, and in the next year he died. + +His end was characteristic. It was brought on by exposure when he was +engaged in an act of charity. A quarrel had broken out in a family at +Reading with which Bunyan had some acquaintance. A father had taken +offence at his son, and threatened to disinherit him. Bunyan undertook +a journey on horseback from Bedford to Reading in the hope of +reconciling them. He succeeded, but at the cost of his life. Returning +by London he was overtaken on the road by a storm of rain, and was +wetted through before he could find shelter. The chill, falling on a +constitution already weakened by illness, brought on fever. He was +able to reach the house of Mr. Strudwick, one of his London friends; +but he never left his bed afterwards. In ten days he was dead. The +exact date is uncertain. It was towards the end of August 1688, +between two and three months before the landing of King William. He +was buried in Mr. Strudwick's vault in the Dissenters' burying-ground +at Bunhill Fields. His last words were 'Take me, for I come to Thee.' + +So ended, at the age of sixty, a man who, if his importance may be +measured by the influence which he has exerted over succeeding +generations, must be counted among the most extraordinary persons whom +England has produced. It has been the fashion to dwell on the +disadvantages of his education, and to regret the carelessness of +nature which brought into existence a man of genius in a tinker's hut +at Elstow. Nature is less partial than she appears, and all situations +in life have their compensations along with them. + +Circumstances, I should say, qualified Bunyan perfectly well for the +work which he had to do. If he had gone to school, as he said, with +Aristotle and Plato; if he had been broken in at a university and been +turned into a bishop; if he had been in any one of the learned +professions, he might easily have lost or might have never known the +secret of his powers. He was born to be the Poet-apostle of the +English middle classes, imperfectly educated like himself; and, being +one of themselves, he had the key of their thoughts and feelings in +his own heart. Like nine out of ten of his countrymen, he came into +the world with no fortune but his industry. He had to work with his +hands for his bread, and to advance by the side of his neighbours +along the road of common business. His knowledge was scanty, though of +rare quality. He knew his Bible probably by heart. He had studied +history in Foxe's 'Martyrs,' but nowhere else that we can trace. The +rest of his mental furniture was gathered at first hand from his +conscience, his life, and his occupations. Thus every idea which he +received falling into a soil naturally fertile, sprouted up fresh, +vigorous, and original. He confessed to have felt--(as a man of his +powers could hardly have failed to feel)--continued doubts about the +Bible and the reality of the Divine government. It has been well said +that when we look into the world to find the image of God, it is as if +we were to stand before a looking-glass expecting to see ourselves +reflected there, and to see nothing. Education scarcely improves our +perception in this respect; and wider information, wider acquaintance +with the thoughts of other men in other ages and countries, might as +easily have increased his difficulties as have assisted him in +overcoming them. He was not a man who could have contented himself +with compromises and half-convictions. No force could have subdued him +into a decent Anglican divine--a 'Mr. Two Tongues, parson of the +parish.' He was passionate and thorough-going. The authority of +conscience presented itself to him only in the shape of religious +obligation. Religion once shaken into a 'perhaps,' would have had no +existence to him; and it is easy to conceive a university-bred Bunyan, +an intellectual meteor, flaring uselessly across the sky and +disappearing in smoke and nothingness. + +Powerful temperaments are necessarily intense. Bunyan, born a tinker, +had heard right and wrong preached to him in the name of the Christian +creed. He concluded after a struggle that Christianity was true, and +on that conviction he built himself up into what he was. It might have +been the same perhaps with Burns had he been born a century before. +Given Christianity as an unquestionably true account of the situation +and future prospects of man, the feature of it most appalling to the +imagination is that hell-fire--a torment exceeding the most horrible +which fancy can conceive, and extending into eternity--awaits the +enormous majority of the human race. The dreadful probability seized +hold on the young Bunyan's mind. He shuddered at it when awake. In the +visions of the night it came before him in the tremendous details of +the dreadful reality. It became the governing thought in his nature. + +Such a belief, if it does not drive a man to madness, will at least +cure him of trifling. It will clear his mind of false sentiment, take +the nonsense out of him, and enable him to resist vulgar temptation as +nothing else will. The danger is that the mind may not bear the +strain, that the belief itself may crack and leave nothing. Bunyan was +hardly tried, but in him the belief did not crack. It spread over his +character. It filled him first with terror; then with a loathing of +sin, which entailed so awful a penalty; then, as his personal fears +were allayed by the recognition of Christ, it turned to tenderness +and pity. + +There was no fanaticism in Bunyan; nothing harsh or savage. His +natural humour perhaps saved him. His few recorded sayings all refer +to the one central question; but healthy seriousness often best +expresses itself in playful quaintness. He was once going somewhere +disguised as a waggoner. He was overtaken by a constable who had a +warrant to arrest him. The constable asked him if he knew that devil +of a fellow Bunyan. 'Know him!' Bunyan said. 'You might call him a +devil if you knew him as well as I once did.' + +A Cambridge student was trying to show him what a divine thing reason +was--'reason, the chief glory of man which distinguished him from a +beast,' &c., &c. + +Bunyan growled out: 'Sin distinguishes man from beast. Is sin divine?' + +He was extremely tolerant in his terms of Church membership. He +offended the stricter part of his congregation by refusing even to +make infant baptism a condition of exclusion. The only persons with +whom he declined to communicate were those whose lives were openly +immoral. His chief objection to the Church of England was the +admission of the ungodly to the Sacraments. He hated party titles and +quarrels upon trifles. He desired himself to be called a Christian or +a Believer, or 'any name which was approved by the Holy Ghost.' +Divisions, he said, were to Churches like wars to countries. Those who +talked most about religion cared least for it; and controversies about +doubtful things, and things of little moment, ate up all zeal for +things which were practicable and indisputable. + +'In countenance,' wrote a friend, 'he appeared to be of a stern and +rough temper, but in his conversation mild and affable; not given to +loquacity or to much discourse in company unless some urgent occasion +required it; observing never to boast of himself or his parts, but +rather to seem low in his own eyes, and submit himself to the judgment +of others; abhorring lying and swearing, being just, in all that lay +in his power, to his word; not seeming to revenge injuries, loving to +reconcile differences and make friendships with all. He had a sharp +quick eye, with an excellent discerning of persons, being of good +judgment and quick wit.' 'He was tall of stature, strong boned, though +not corpulent, somewhat of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes, wearing +his hair on his upper lip; his hair reddish, but in his later days +time had sprinkled it with grey; his nose well set, but not declining +or bending; his mouth moderate large, his forehead something high, and +his habit always plain and modest.' + +He was himself indifferent to advancement, and he did not seek it for +his family. A London merchant offered to take his son into his house. +'God,' he said, 'did not send me to advance my family, but to preach +the Gospel.' He had no vanity--an exemption extremely rare in those +who are personally much before the public. The personal popularity was +in fact the part of his situation which he least liked. When he was to +preach in London, 'if there was but one day's notice the meeting house +was crowded to overflowing.' Twelve hundred people would be found +collected before seven o'clock on a dark winter's morning to hear a +lecture from him. In Zoar Street, Southwark, his church was sometimes +so crowded that he had to be lifted to the pulpit stairs over the +congregation's heads. It pleased him, but he was on the watch against +the pleasure of being himself admired. A friend complimented him once +after service, on 'the sweet sermon' which he had delivered. 'You need +not remind me of that,' he said. 'The Devil told me of it before I was +out of the pulpit.' + +'Conviction of sin' has become a conventional phrase, shallow and +ineffective even in those who use it most sincerely. Yet moral evil is +still the cause of nine-tenths of the misery in the world, and it is +not easy to measure the value of a man who could prolong the conscious +sense of the deadly nature of it, even under the forms of a +decomposing theology. Times are changing. The intellectual current is +bearing us we know not where, and the course of the stream is in a +direction which leads us far from the conclusions in which Bunyan and +the Puritans established themselves; but the truths which are most +essential for us to know cannot be discerned by speculative arguments. +Chemistry cannot tell us why some food is wholesome and other food is +poisonous. That food is best for us which best nourishes the body into +health and strength; and a belief in a Supernatural Power which has +given us a law to live by and to which we are responsible for our +conduct, has alone, of all the influences known to us, succeeded in +ennobling and elevating the character of man. The particular theories +which men have formed about it have often been wild and extravagant. +Imagination, agitated by fear or stimulated by pious enthusiasm, has +peopled heaven with demigods and saints--creations of fancy, human +forms projected upon a mist and magnified into celestial images. How +much is true of all that men have believed in past times and have now +ceased to believe, how much has been a too eager dream, no one now can +tell. It may be that other foundations may be laid hereafter for human +conduct on which an edifice can be raised no less fair and beautiful; +but no signs of it are as yet apparent. + +So far as we yet know, morality rests upon a sense of obligation; and +obligation has no meaning except as implying a Divine command, without +which it would cease to be. Until 'duty' can be presented to us in a +shape which will compel our recognition of it with equal or superior +force, the passing away of 'the conviction of sin' can operate only to +obscure our aspirations after a high ideal of life and character. The +scientific theory may be correct, and it is possible that we may be +standing on the verge of the most momentous intellectual revolution +which has been experienced in the history of our race. It may be so, +and also it may not be so. It may be that the most important factors +in the scientific equation are beyond the reach of human intellect. +However it be, the meat which gives strength to the man is poison to +the child; and as yet we are still children, and are likely to remain +children. 'Every relief from outward restraint,' says one who was not +given to superstition, 'if it be not attended with increased power of +self-command, is simply fatal.' Men of intelligence, therefore, to +whom life is not a theory, but a stern fact, conditioned round with +endless possibilities of wrong and suffering, though they may never +again adopt the letter of Bunyan's creed, will continue to see in +conscience an authority for which culture is no substitute; they will +conclude that in one form or other responsibility is not a fiction but +a truth; and, so long as this conviction lasts, the 'Pilgrim's +Progress' will still be dear to all men of all creeds who share in it, +even though it pleases the 'elect' modern philosophers to describe its +author as a 'Philistine of genius.' + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Now publishing, in crown 8vo. price 2_s._ 6_d._ each, + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. + +Edited by JOHN MORLEY. + + +JOHNSON. By LESLIE STEPHEN. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'The new series opens well with Mr. Leslie Stephen's sketch + of Dr. Johnson. It could hardly have been done better, and + it will convey to the readers for whom it is intended a + juster estimate of Johnson than either of the two essays of + Lord Macaulay.'--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + +SCOTT. By R. H. HUTTON. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'We could not wish for a more suggestive introduction to + Scott and his poems and novels.'--EXAMINER. + +GIBBON. By J.C. MORISON. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of the life + and works of the greatest among the world's historians, it + deserves the highest praise.'--EXAMINER. + +SHELLEY. By J.A. SYMONDS. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'The lovers of this great poet are to be congratulated at + having at their command so fresh, clear, and intelligent a + presentment of the subject, written by a man of adequate and + wide culture.'--ATHENÆUM. + +HUME. By Professor HUXLEY, F.R.S. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'It may fairly be said that no one now living could have + expounded Hume with more sympathy or with equal + perspicuity.'--ATHENÆUM. + +GOLDSMITH. By WILLIAM BLACK. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'Mr. Black brings a fine sympathy and taste to bear in his + criticism of Goldsmith's writings, as well as his sketch of + the incidents of his life.'--ATHENÆUM. + +DEFOE. By W. MINTO. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'Mr. Minto's book is careful and accurate in all that is + stated, and faithful in all that it suggests. It will repay + reading more than once.'--ATHENÆUM. + +BURNS. By Principal SHAIRP. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'It is impossible to desire fairer criticism than Principal + Shairp's on Burns's poetry.... None of the series has given + a truer estimate either of character or of genius than this + volume.'--SPECTATOR. + +SPENSER. By the Very Rev. the DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ +6_d._ + + 'Dr. Church is master of his subject, and writes always with + good taste.'--ACADEMY. + +THACKERAY. By ANTHONY TROLLOPE. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'Mr. Trollope's sketch is excellently adapted to fulfil the + purpose of the series in which it appears.'--ATHENÆUM. + +BURKE. By JOHN MORLEY. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'It is no disparagement to the literary studies already + published in this admirable series, to say that none of them + have surpassed, while few have equalled, this volume on + Burke.'--BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW. + +MILTON. By MARK PATTISON. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'The writer knows the times and the man, and of both he has + written with singular force and discrimination.'--SPECTATOR. + +HAWTHORNE. By HENRY JAMES. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +SOUTHEY. By Professor DOWDEN. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +BUNYAN. By JAMES A. FROUDE. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +CHAUCER. By Professor A.W. WARD. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Bunyan</p> +<p>Author: James Anthony Froude</p> +<p>Release Date: September 7, 2009 [eBook #29929]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Sankar Viswanathan, Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h4>English Men of Letters</h4> + +<h3>EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY</h3> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h1>BUNYAN</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h4>London</h4> + +<h3>MACMILLAN AND CO.</h3> + +<h3>1880</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER I.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocpg f1">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Early Life</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER II.</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Conviction of Sin</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER III.</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Grace Abounding</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Call To the Ministry</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER V.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Arrest and Trial</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VI.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">The Bedford Gaol</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VII.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Life and Death of Mr. Badman</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VIII.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">The Holy War</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER IX.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">The Pilgrim's Progress</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER X.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Last Days and Death</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2>BUNYAN.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h2>EARLY LIFE.</h2> + + +<p>'I was of a low and inconsiderable generation, my father's house being +of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all families in the +land.' 'I never went to school, to Aristotle or Plato, but was brought +up in my father's house in a very mean condition, among a company of +poor countrymen.' 'Nevertheless, I bless God that by this door He +brought me into the world to partake of the grace and life that is by +Christ in His Gospel.' This is the account given of himself and his +origin by a man whose writings have for two centuries affected the +spiritual opinions of the English race in every part of the world more +powerfully than any book or books, except the Bible.</p> + +<p>John Bunyan was born at Elstow, a village near Bedford, in the year +1628. It was a memorable epoch in English history, for in that year +the House of Commons extorted the consent of Charles I. to the +Petition of Right. The stir of politics, however, did not reach the +humble household into which the little boy was introduced. His father +was hardly occupied in earning bread for his wife and children as a +mender of pots and kettles: a tinker,—working<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> in neighbours' houses +or at home, at such business as might be brought to him. 'The +Bunyans,' says a friend, 'were of the national religion, as men of +that calling commonly were.' Bunyan himself, in a passage which has +been always understood to refer to his father, describes him 'as an +honest poor labouring man, who, like Adam unparadised, had all the +world to get his bread in, and was very careful to maintain his +family.' In those days there were no village schools in England; the +education of the poor was an apprenticeship to agriculture or +handicraft; their religion they learnt at home or in church. Young +Bunyan was more fortunate. In Bedford there was a grammar school, +which had been founded in Queen Mary's time by the Lord Mayor of +London, Sir William Harper. Hither, when he was old enough to walk to +and fro, over the mile of road between Elstow and Bedford, the child +was sent, if not to learn Aristotle and Plato, to learn at least 'to +read and write according to the rate of other poor men's children.'</p> + +<p>If religion was not taught at school, it was taught with some care in +the cottages and farmhouses by parents and masters. It was common in +many parts of England, as late as the end of the last century, for the +farmers to gather their apprentices about them on Sunday afternoons, +and to teach them the Catechism. Rude as was Bunyan's home, religious +notions of some kind had been early and vividly impressed upon him. He +caught, indeed, the ordinary habits of the boys among whom he was +thrown. He learnt to use bad language, and he often lied. When a +child's imagination is exceptionally active, the temptations to +untruth are correspondingly powerful. The inventive faculty has its +dangers, and Bunyan was eminently gifted in that way. He was a +violent, passionate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> boy besides, and thus he says of himself that for +lying and swearing he had no equal, and that his parents did not +sufficiently correct him. Wickedness, he declares in his own +remorseful story of his early years, became a second nature to him. +But the estimate which a man forms of himself in later life, if he has +arrived at any strong abhorrence of moral evil, is harsher than others +at the time would have been likely to have formed. Even then the poor +child's conscience must have been curiously sensitive, and it revenged +itself upon him in singular tortures.</p> + +<p>'My sins,' he says, 'did so offend the Lord that even in my childhood +He did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me +with dreadful visions. I have been in my bed greatly afflicted while +asleep, with apprehensions of devils and wicked spirits, who still, as +I then thought, laboured to draw me away with them, of which I could +never be rid. I was afflicted with thoughts of the Day of Judgment +night and day, trembling at the thoughts of the fearful torments of +hell fire.' When, at ten years old, he was running about with his +companions in 'his sports and childish vanities,' these terrors +continually recurred to him, yet 'he would not let go his sins.'</p> + +<p>Such a boy required rather to be encouraged than checked in seeking +innocent amusements. Swearing and lying were definite faults which +ought to have been corrected; but his parents, perhaps, saw that there +was something unusual in the child. To them he probably appeared not +worse than other boys, but considerably better. They may have thought +it more likely that he would conquer his own bad inclinations by his +own efforts, than that they could mend him by rough rebukes.</p> + +<p>When he left school he would naturally have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> bound apprentice, +but his father brought him up at his own trade. Thus he lived at home, +and grew to manhood there, forming his ideas of men and things out of +such opportunities as the Elstow neighbourhood afforded.</p> + +<p>From the time when the Reformation brought them a translation of it, +the Bible was the book most read—it was often the only book which was +read—in humble English homes. Familiarity with the words had not yet +trampled the sacred writings into practical barrenness. No doubts or +questions had yet risen about the Bible's nature or origin. It was +received as the authentic word of God Himself. The Old and New +Testament alike represented the world as the scene of a struggle +between good and evil spirits; and thus every ordinary incident of +daily life was an instance or illustration of God's Providence. This +was the universal popular belief, not admitted only by the intellect, +but accepted and realised by the imagination. No one questioned it, +save a few speculative philosophers in their closets. The statesman in +the House of Commons, the judge on the Bench, the peasant in a midland +village, interpreted literally by this rule the phenomena which they +experienced or saw. They not only believed that God had miraculously +governed the Israelites, but they believed that as directly and +immediately He governed England in the seventeenth century. They not +only believed that there had been a witch at Endor, but they believed +that there were witches in their own villages, who had made compacts +with the devil himself. They believed that the devil still literally +walked the earth like a roaring lion: that he and the evil angels were +perpetually labouring to destroy the souls of men; and that God was +equally busy overthrowing the devil's work, and bringing sin and +crimes to eventual punishment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + +<p>In this light the common events of life were actually looked at and +understood, and the air was filled with anecdotes so told as to +illustrate the belief. These stories and these experiences were +Bunyan's early mental food. One of them, which had deeply impressed +the imagination of the Midland counties, was the story of 'Old Tod.' +This man came one day into court, in the Summer Assizes at Bedford, +'all in a dung sweat,' to demand justice upon himself as a felon. No +one had accused him, but God's judgment was not to be escaped, and he +was forced to accuse himself. 'My Lord,' said Old Tod to the judge, 'I +have been a thief from my childhood. I have been a thief ever since. +There has not been a robbery committed these many years, within so +many miles of this town, but I have been privy to it.' The judge, +after a conference, agreed to indict him of certain felonies which he +had acknowledged. He pleaded guilty, implicating his wife along with +him, and they were both hanged.</p> + +<p>An intense belief in the moral government of the world creates what it +insists upon. Horror at sin forces the sinner to confess it, and makes +others eager to punish it. 'God's revenge against murder and adultery' +becomes thus an actual fact, and justifies the conviction in which it +rises. Bunyan was specially attentive to accounts of judgments upon +swearing, to which he was himself addicted. He tells a story of a man +at Wimbledon, who, after uttering some strange blasphemy, was struck +with sickness, and died cursing. Another such scene he probably +witnessed himself,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and never forgot. An alehouse-keeper in the +neighbourhood of Elstow had a son who was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>half-witted. The favourite +amusement, when a party was collected drinking, was for the father to +provoke the lad's temper, and for the lad to curse his father and wish +the devil had him. The devil at last did have the alehouse-keeper, and +rent and tore him till he died. 'I,' says Bunyan, 'was eye and ear +witness of what I here say. I have heard Ned in his roguery cursing +his father, and his father laughing thereat most heartily, still +provoking of Ned to curse that his mirth might be increased. I saw his +father also when he was possessed. I saw him in one of his fits, and +saw his flesh as it was thought gathered up in an heap about the +bigness of half an egg, to the unutterable torture and affliction of +the old man. There was also one Freeman, who was more than an ordinary +doctor, sent for to cast out the devil, and I was there when he +attempted to do it. The manner whereof was this. They had the +possessed in an outroom, and laid him upon his belly upon a form, with +his head hanging down over the form's end. Then they bound him down +thereto; which done, they set a pan of coals under his mouth, and put +something therein which made a great smoke—by this means, as it was +said, to fetch out the devil. There they kept the man till he was +almost smothered in the smoke, but no devil came out of him, at which +Freeman was somewhat abashed, the man greatly afflicted, and I made to +go away wondering and fearing. In a little time, therefore, that which +possessed the man carried him out of the world, according to the +cursed wishes of his son.'</p> + +<p>The wretched alehouse-keeper's life was probably sacrificed in this +attempt to dispossess the devil. But the incident would naturally +leave its mark on the mind of an impressionable boy. Bunyan ceased to +frequent such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> places after he began to lead a religious life. The +story, therefore, most likely belongs to the experiences of his first +youth after he left school; and there may have been many more of a +similar kind, for, except that he was steady at his trade, he grew up +a wild lad, the ringleader of the village apprentices in all manner of +mischief. He had no books, except a life of Sir Bevis of Southampton, +which would not tend to sober him; indeed, he soon forgot all that he +had learnt at school, and took to amusements and doubtful adventures, +orchard-robbing, perhaps, or poaching, since he hints that he might +have brought himself within reach of the law. In the most passionate +language of self-abhorrence, he accuses himself of all manner of sins, +yet it is improbable that he appeared to others what in later life he +appeared to himself. He judged his own conduct as he believed that it +was regarded by his Maker, by whom he supposed eternal torment to have +been assigned as the just retribution for the lightest offence. Yet he +was never drunk. He who never forgot anything with which he could +charge himself, would not have passed over drunkenness, if he could +remember that he had been guilty of it; and he distinctly asserts, +also, that he was never in a single instance unchaste. In our days, a +rough tinker who could say as much for himself after he had grown to +manhood, would be regarded as a model of self-restraint. If, in +Bedford and the neighbourhood, there was no young man more vicious +than Bunyan, the moral standard of an English town in the seventeenth +century must have been higher than believers in Progress will be +pleased to allow.</p> + +<p>He declares that he was without God in the world, and in the sense +which he afterwards attached to the word this was probably true. But +serious thoughts seldom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> ceased to work in him. Dreams only reproduce +the forms and feelings with which the waking imagination is most +engaged. Bunyan's rest continued to be haunted with the phantoms which +had terrified him when a child. He started in his sleep, and +frightened the family with his cries. He saw evil spirits in monstrous +shapes and fiends blowing flames out of their nostrils. 'Once,' says a +biographer, who knew him well, and had heard the story of his visions +from his own lips, 'he dreamed that he saw the face of heaven as it +were on fire, the firmament crackling and shivering with the noise of +mighty thunder, and an archangel flew in the midst of heaven, sounding +a trumpet, and a glorious throne was seated in the east, whereon sat +One in brightness like the morning star. Upon which, he thinking it +was the end of the world, fell upon his knees and said, "Oh, Lord, +have mercy on me! What shall I do? The Day of Judgment is come and I +am not prepared."'</p> + +<p>At another time 'he dreamed that he was in a pleasant place jovial and +rioting, when an earthquake rent the earth, out of which came bloody +flames, and the figures of men tossed up in globes of fire, and +falling down again with horrible cries and shrieks and execrations, +while devils mingled among them, and laughed aloud at their torments. +As he stood trembling, the earth sank under him, and a circle of +flames embraced him. But when he fancied he was at the point to +perish, One in shining white raiment descended and plucked him out of +that dreadful place, while the devils cried after him to take him to +the punishment which his sins had deserved. Yet he escaped the danger, +and leapt for joy when he awoke and found it was a dream.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Southey, who thinks wisely that Bunyan's bio<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>graphers have +exaggerated his early faults, considers that at worst he was a sort of +'blackguard.' This, too, is a wrong word. Young village blackguards do +not dream of archangels flying through the midst of heaven, nor were +these imaginations invented afterwards, or rhetorically exaggerated. +Bunyan was undoubtedly given to story-telling as a boy, and the +recollection of it made him peculiarly scrupulous in his statements in +later life. One trait he mentions of himself which no one would have +thought of who had not experienced the feeling, yet every person can +understand it and sympathise with it. These spectres and hobgoblins +drove him wild. He says, 'I was so overcome with despair of life and +heaven, that I should often wish either that there had been no hell, +or that I had been a devil; supposing that they were only tormentors, +and that, if it must needs be that I went thither, I might rather be a +tormentor than tormented myself.'</p> + +<p>The visions at last ceased. God left him to himself, as he puts it, +and gave him over to his own wicked inclinations. He fell, he says, +into all kinds of vice and ungodliness without further check. The +expression is very strong, yet when we look for particulars we can +find only that he was fond of games which Puritan preciseness +disapproved. He had high animal spirits, and engaged in lawless +enterprises. Once or twice he nearly lost his life. He is sparing of +details of his outward history, for he regarded it as nothing but +vanity; but his escapes from death were providences, and therefore he +mentions them. He must have gone to the coast somewhere, for he was +once almost drowned in a creek of the sea. He fell out of a boat into +the river at another time, and it seems that he could not swim. +Afterwards he seized hold of an adder, and was not bitten by it. These +mercies were sent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> as warnings, but he says that he was too careless +to profit by them. He thought that he had forgotten God altogether, +and yet it is plain that he had not forgotten. A bad young man, who +has shaken off religion because it is a restraint, observes with +malicious amusement the faults of persons who make a profession of +religion. He infers that they do not really believe it, and only +differ from their neighbours in being hypocrites. Bunyan notes this +disposition in his own history of Mr. Badman. Of himself, he says: +'Though I could sin with delight and ease, and take pleasure in the +villanies of my companions, even then, if I saw wicked things done by +them that professed goodness, it would make my spirit tremble. Once, +when I was in the height of my vanity, hearing one swear that was +reckoned a religious man, it made my heart to ache.'</p> + +<p>He was now seventeen, and we can form a tolerably accurate picture of +him—a tall, active lad, working as his father's apprentice, at his +pots and kettles, ignorant of books, and with no notion of the world +beyond what he could learn in his daily drudgery, and the talk of the +alehouse and the village green; inventing lies to amuse his +companions, and swearing that they were true; playing bowls and +tipcat, ready for any reckless action, and always a leader in it, yet +all the while singularly pure from the more brutal forms of vice, and +haunted with feverish thoughts, which he tried to forget in +amusements. It has been the fashion to take his account of himself +literally, and represent him as the worst of reprobates, in order to +magnify the effects of his conversion, and perhaps to make +intelligible to his admiring followers the reproaches which he heaps +upon himself. They may have felt that they could not be wrong in +explaining his own language in the only sense in which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> they could +attach a meaning to it. Yet, sinner though he may have been, like all +the rest of us, his sins were not the sins of coarseness and +vulgarity. They were the sins of a youth of sensitive nature and very +peculiar gifts: gifts which brought special temptations with them, and +inclined him to be careless and desperate, yet from causes singularly +unlike those which are usually operative in dissipated and uneducated +boys.</p> + +<p>It was now the year 1645. Naseby Field was near, and the first Civil +War was drawing to its close. At this crisis Bunyan was, as he says, +drawn to be a soldier; and it is extremely characteristic of him and +of the body to which he belonged, that he leaves us to guess on which +side he served. He does not tell us himself. His friends in after life +did not care to ask him, or he to inform them, or else they also +thought the matter of too small importance to be worth mentioning with +exactness. There were two traditions, and his biographers chose +between them as we do. Close as the connection was in that great +struggle between civil and religious liberty—flung as Bunyan was +flung into the very centre of the conflict between the English people +and the Crown and Church and aristocracy—victim as he was himself of +intolerance and persecution, he never but once took any political +part, and then only in signing an address to Cromwell. He never showed +any active interest in political questions; and if he spoke on such +questions at all after the Restoration, it was to advise submission to +the Stuart Government. By the side of the stupendous issues of human +life, such miserable <i>rights</i> as men might pretend to in this world +were not worth contending for. The only <i>right</i> of man that he thought +much about, was the right to be eternally damned if he did not lay +hold of grace. King<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> and subject were alike creatures whose sole +significance lay in their individual immortal souls. Their relations +with one another upon earth were nothing in the presence of the awful +judgment which awaited them both. Thus whether Bunyan's brief career +in the army was under Charles or under Fairfax must remain doubtful. +Probability is on the side of his having been with the Royalists. His +father was of 'the national religion.' He himself had as yet no +special convictions of his own. John Gifford, the Baptist minister at +Bedford, had been a Royalist. The only incident which Bunyan speaks of +connected with his military experience points in the same direction. +'When I was a soldier,' he says, 'I was with others drawn out to go to +such a place to besiege it. But when I was just ready to go, one of +the company desired to go in my room. Coming to the siege as he stood +sentinel he was shot in the heart with a musket bullet and died.' +Tradition agrees that the place to which these words refer was +Leicester. Leicester was stormed by the King's troops a few days +before the battle of Naseby. It was recovered afterwards by the +Parliamentarians, but on the second occasion there was no fighting, as +it capitulated without a shot being fired. Mr. Carlyle supposes that +Bunyan was not with the attacking party, but was in the town as one of +the garrison, and was taken prisoner there. But this cannot be, for he +says expressly that he was one of the besiegers. Legend gathers freely +about eminent men, about men especially who are eminent in religion, +whether they are Catholic or Protestant. Lord Macaulay is not only +positive that the hero of the English Dissenters fought on the side of +the Commonwealth, but he says, without a word of caution on the +imperfection of the evidence, 'His Greatheart, his Captain Boanerges,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +and his Captain Credence, are evidently portraits of which the +originals were among those martial saints who fought and expounded in +Fairfax's army.'<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>If the martial saints had impressed Bunyan so deeply, it is +inconceivable that he should have made no more allusion to his +military service than in this brief passage. He refers to the siege +and all connected with it merely as another occasion of his own +providential escapes from death.</p> + +<p>Let the truth of this be what it may, the troop to which he belonged +was soon disbanded. He returned at the end of the year to his tinker's +work at Elstow, much as he had left it. The saints, if he had met with +saints, had not converted him. 'I sinned still,' he says, 'and grew +more and more rebellious against God and careless of my own +salvation.' An important change of another kind, however, lay before +him. Young as he was he married. His friends advised it, for they +thought that marriage would make him steady. The step was less +imprudent than it would have been had Bunyan been in a higher rank of +life, or had aimed at rising into it. The girl whom he chose was a +poor orphan, but she had been carefully and piously brought up, and +from her acceptance of him, something more may be inferred about his +character. Had he been a dissolute idle scamp, it is unlikely that a +respectable woman would have become his wife when he was a mere boy. +His sins, whatever these were, had not injured his outward +circumstances; it is clear that all along he worked skilfully and +industriously at his tinkering business. He had none of the habits +which bring men to beggary. From the beginning of his life to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>the end +of it he was a prudent, careful man, and, considering the station to +which he belonged, a very successful man.</p> + +<p>'I lighted on a wife,' he says, 'whose father was counted godly. We +came together as poor as poor might be, not having so much household +stuff as a dish or a spoon between us. But she had for her portion two +books, "The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven," and "The Practice of +Piety," which her father had left her when he died. In these two books +I sometimes read with her. I found some things pleasing to me, but all +this while I met with no conviction. She often told me what a godly +man her father was, how he would reprove and correct vice both in his +house and among his neighbours, what a strict and holy life he lived +in his day both in word and deed. These books, though they did not +reach my heart, did light in me some desire to religion.'</p> + +<p>There was still an Established Church in England, and the constitution +of it had not yet been altered. The Presbyterian platform threatened +to take the place of Episcopacy, and soon did take it; but the +clergyman was still a priest and was still regarded with pious +veneration in the country districts as a semi-supernatural being. The +altar yet stood in its place, the minister still appeared in his +surplice, and the Prayers of the Liturgy continued to be read or +intoned. The old familiar bells, Catholic as they were in all the +emotions which they suggested, called the congregation together with +their musical peal, though in the midst of triumphant Puritanism. The +'Book of Sports,' which, under an order from Charles I., had been read +regularly in Church, had in 1644 been laid under a ban; but the gloom +of a Presbyterian Sunday was, is, and for ever will be detestable to +the natural man; and the Elstow population gathered persistently after +service<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> on the village green for their dancing, and their leaping, +and their archery. Long habit cannot be transformed in a day by an +Edict of Council, and amidst army manifestoes and battles of Marston +Moor, and a king dethroned and imprisoned, old English life in +Bedfordshire preserved its familiar features. These Sunday sports had +been a special delight to Bunyan, and it is to them which he refers in +the following passage, when speaking of his persistent wickedness. On +his marriage he became regular and respectable in his habits. He says, +'I fell in with the religion of the times to go to church twice a day, +very devoutly to say and sing as the others did, yet retaining my +wicked life. Withal I was so overrun with the spirit of superstition +that I adored with great devotion even all things, both the high +place, priest, clerk, vestment, service, and what else belonging to +the Church, counting all things holy therein contained, and especially +the priest and clerk most happy and without doubt greatly blessed. +This conceit grew so strong in my spirit, that had I but seen a +priest, though never so sordid and debauched in his life, I should +find my spirit fall under him, reverence, and be knit to him. Their +name, their garb, and work did so intoxicate and bewitch me.'</p> + +<p>Surely if there were no other evidence, these words would show that +the writer of them had never listened to the expositions of the +martial saints.</p> +<div class="footnotes"> + <h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + <div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The story is told by Mr. Attentive in the 'Life of Mr. +Badman;' but it is almost certain that Bunyan was relating his own +experience.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Life of Bunyan</i>: Collected Works, vol. vii. p. 299.</p></div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h2>CONVICTION OF SIN.</h2> + + +<p>The 'Pilgrim's Progress' is the history of the struggle of human +nature to overcome temptation and shake off the bondage of sin, under +the convictions which prevailed among serious men in England in the +seventeenth century. The allegory is the life of its author cast in an +imaginative form. Every step in Christian's journey had been first +trodden by Bunyan himself; every pang of fear and shame, every spasm +of despair, every breath of hope and consolation, which is there +described, is but a reflexion as on a mirror from personal experience. +It has spoken to the hearts of all later generations of Englishmen +because it came from the heart; because it is the true record of the +genuine emotions of a human soul; and to such a record the emotions of +other men will respond, as one stringed instrument vibrates +responsively to another. The poet's power lies in creating sympathy; +but he cannot, however richly gifted, stir feelings which he has not +himself known in all their intensity.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ut ridentibus arrident ita flentibus adflent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Humani vultus. Si vis me flere dolendum est<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Primum ipsi tibi.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The religious history of man is essentially the same in all ages. It +takes its rise in the duality of his nature. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> is an animal, and as +an animal he desires bodily pleasure and shrinks from bodily pain. As +a being capable of morality, he is conscious that for him there exists +a right and wrong. Something, whatever that something may be, binds +him to choose one and avoid the other. This is his religion, his +religatio, his obligation, in the sense in which the Romans, from whom +we take it, used the word; and obligation implies some superior power +to which man owes obedience. The conflict between his two dispositions +agitates his heart, and perplexes his intellect. To do what the +superior power requires of him, he must thwart his inclinations. He +dreads punishment, if he neglects to do it. He invents methods by +which he can indulge his appetites, and finds a substitute by which he +can propitiate his invisible ruler or rulers. He offers sacrifices; he +institutes ceremonies and observances. This is the religion of the +body, the religion of fear. It is what we call superstition. In his +nobler moods he feels that this is but to evade the difficulty. He +perceives that the sacrifice required is the sacrifice of himself. It +is not the penalty for sin which he must fear, but the sin itself. He +must conquer his own lower nature. He must detach his heart from his +pleasures, and he must love good for its own sake, and because it is +his only real good; and this is spiritual religion or piety. Between +these two forms of worship of the unseen, the human race has swayed to +and fro from the first moment in which they learnt to discern between +good and evil. Superstition attracts, because it is indulgent to +immorality by providing means by which God can be pacified. But it +carries its antidote along with it, for it keeps alive the sense of +God's existence; and when it has produced its natural effects, when +the believer rests in his observances and lives practically as if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +there was no God at all, the conscience again awakes. Sacrifices and +ceremonies become detested as idolatry, and religion becomes +conviction of sin, a fiery determination to fight with the whole soul +against appetite, vanity, self-seeking, and every mean propensity +which the most sensitive alarm can detect. The battle unhappily is +attended with many vicissitudes. The victory, though practically it +may be won, is never wholly won. The struggle brings with it every +variety of emotion, alternations of humility and confidence, +despondency and hope. The essence of it is always the same—the effort +of the higher nature to overcome the lower. The form of it varies from +period to period, according to the conditions of the time, the +temperament of different people, the conception of the character of +the Supreme Power, which the state of knowledge enables men to form. +It will be found even when the puzzled intellect can see no light in +Heaven at all, in the stern and silent fulfilment of moral duty. It +will appear as enthusiasm; it will appear as asceticism. It will +appear wherever there is courage to sacrifice personal enjoyment for a +cause believed to be holy. We must all live. We must all, as we +suppose, in one shape or other give account for our actions; and +accounts of the conflict are most individually interesting when it is +an open wrestle with the enemy; as we find in the penances and +austerities of the Catholic saints, or when the difficulties of belief +are confessed and detailed, as in David's Psalms, or in the Epistles +of St. Paul. St. Paul, like the rest of mankind, found a law in his +members warring against the law which was in his heart. The problem +presented to him was how one was to be brought into subjection to the +other, and the solution was by 'the putting on of Christ.' St. Paul's +mind was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> charged with the ideas of Oriental and Greek philosophy then +prevalent in the Roman Empire. His hearers understood him, because he +spoke in the language of the prevailing speculations. We who have not +the clue cannot, perhaps, perfectly understand him; but his words have +been variously interpreted as human intelligence has expanded, and +have formed the basis of the two great theologies which have been +developed out of Christianity. The Christian religion taught that evil +could not be overcome by natural human strength. The Son of God had +come miraculously upon earth, had lived a life of stainless purity, +and had been offered as a sacrifice to redeem men conditionally from +the power of sin. The conditions, as English Protestant theology +understands them, are nowhere more completely represented than in the +'Pilgrim's Progress.' The Catholic theology, rising as it did in the +two centuries immediately following St. Paul, approached probably +nearer to what he really intended to say.</p> + +<p>Catholic theology, as a system, is a development of Platonism. The +Platonists had discovered that the seat of moral evil was material +substance. In matter, and therefore in the human body, there was +either some inherent imperfection, or some ingrained perversity and +antagonism to good. The soul so long as it was attached to the body +was necessarily infected by it; and as human life on earth consisted +in the connection of soul and body, every single man was necessarily +subject to infirmity. Catholic theology accepted the position and +formulated an escape from it. The evil in matter was a fact. It was +explained by Adam's sin. But there it was. The taint was inherited by +all Adam's posterity. The flesh of man was incurably vitiated, and if +he was to be saved a new body must be prepared for him. This Christ +had done.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> That Christ's body was not as other men's bodies was proved +after his resurrection, when it showed itself independent of the +limitations of extended substance. In virtue of these mysterious +properties it became the body of the Corporate Church into which +believers were admitted by baptism. The natural body was not at once +destroyed, but a new element was introduced into it, by the power of +which, assisted by penance and mortification, and the spiritual food +of the Eucharist, the grosser qualities were gradually subdued, and +the corporeal system was changed. Then body and spirit became alike +pure together, and the saint became capable of obedience, so perfect +as not only to suffice for himself, but to supply the wants of others. +The corruptible put on incorruption. The bodies of the saints worked +miracles, and their flesh was found unaffected by decay after hundreds +of years.</p> + +<p>This belief so long as it was sincerely held issued naturally in +characters of extreme beauty; of beauty so great as almost to +demonstrate its truth. The purpose of it, so far as it affected +action, was self-conquest. Those who try with their whole souls to +conquer themselves find the effort lightened by a conviction that they +are receiving supernatural assistance; and the form in which the +Catholic theory supposed the assistance to be given was at least +perfectly innocent. But it is in the nature of human speculations, +though they may have been entertained at first in entire good faith, +to break down under trial, if they are not in conformity with fact. +Catholic theology furnished Europe with a rule of faith and action +which lasted 1500 years. For the last three centuries of that period +it was changing from a religion into a superstition, till, from being +the world's guide, it became its scandal. 'The body of Christ' had +become a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> kingdom of this world, insulting its subjects by the +effrontery of its ministers, the insolence of its pretensions, the +mountains of lies which it was teaching as sacred truths. Luther +spoke; and over half the Western world the Catholic Church collapsed, +and a new theory and Christianity had to be constructed out of the +fragments of it.</p> + +<p>There was left behind a fixed belief in God and in the Bible as His +revealed word, in a future judgment, in the fall of man, in the +atonement made for sin by the death of Christ, and in the new life +which was made possible by His resurrection. The change was in the +conception of the method by which the atonement was imagined to be +efficacious. The material or sacramental view of it, though it +lingered inconsistently in the mind even of Luther himself, was +substantially gone. New ideas adopted in enthusiasm are necessarily +extreme. The wrath of God was held to be inseparably and eternally +attached to every act of sin, however infirm the sinner. That his +nature could be changed, and that he could be mystically strengthened +by incorporation with Christ's body in the Church was contrary to +experience, and was no longer credible. The conscience of every man, +in the Church or out of it, told him that he was daily and hourly +offending. God's law demanded a life of perfect obedience, eternal +death being the penalty of the lightest breach of it. No human being +was capable of such perfect obedience. He could not do one single act +which would endure so strict a scrutiny. All mankind were thus +included under sin. The Catholic Purgatory was swept away. It had +degenerated into a contrivance for feeding the priests with money, and +it implied that human nature could in itself be renovated by its own +sufferings. Thus nothing lay before the whole race except everlasting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +reprobation. But the door of hope had been opened on the cross of +Christ. Christ had done what man could never do. He had fulfilled the +law perfectly. God was ready to accept Christ's perfect righteousness +as a substitute for the righteousness which man was required to +present to him, but could not. The conditions of acceptance were no +longer sacraments or outward acts, or lame and impotent efforts after +a moral life, but faith in what Christ had done; a complete +self-abnegation, a resigned consciousness of utter unworthiness, and +an unreserved acceptance of the mercy held out through the Atonement. +It might have been thought that since man was born so weak that it was +impossible for him to do what the law required, consideration would be +had for his infirmity; that it was even dangerous to attribute to the +Almighty a character so arbitrary as that He would exact an account +from his creatures which the creature's necessary inadequacy rendered +him incapable of meeting. But the impetuosity of the new theology +would listen to no such excuses. God was infinitely pure, and nothing +impure could stand in his sight. Man, so long as he rested on merit of +his own, must be for ever excluded from his presence. He must accept +grace on the terms on which it was held out to him. Then and then only +God would extend his pity to him. He was no longer a child of wrath: +he was God's child. His infirmities remained, but they were constantly +obliterated by the merits of Christ. And he had strength given to him, +partially, at least, to overcome temptation, under which, but for that +strength, he would have fallen. Though nothing which he could do could +deserve reward, yet he received grace in proportion to the firmness of +his belief; and his efforts after obedience, imperfect though they +might be, were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> accepted for Christ's sake. A good life, or a constant +effort after a good life, was still the object which a man was bound +to labour after. Though giving no claim to pardon, still less for +reward, it was the necessary fruit of a sense of what Christ had done, +and of love and gratitude towards him. Good works were the test of +saving faith, and if there were no signs of them, the faith was +barren: it was not real faith at all.</p> + +<p>This was the Puritan belief in England in the seventeenth century. The +reason starts at it, but all religion is paradoxical to reason. God +hates sin, yet sin exists. He is omnipotent, yet evil is not overcome. +The will of man is free, or there can be no guilt, yet the action of +the will, so far as experience can throw light on its operation, is as +much determined by antecedent causes as every other natural force. +Prayer is addressed to a Being assumed to be omniscient, who knows +better what is good for us than we can know, who sees our thought +without requiring to hear them in words, whose will is fixed and +cannot be changed. Prayer, therefore, in the eye of reason is an +impertinence. The Puritan theology is not more open to objection on +the ground of unreasonableness than the Catholic theology or any other +which regards man as answerable to God for his conduct. We must judge +of a creed by its effects on character, as we judge of the +wholesomeness of food as it conduces to bodily health. And the creed +which swept like a wave through England at that time, and recommended +itself to the noblest and most powerful intellects, produced also in +those who accepted it a horror of sin, an enthusiasm for justice, +purity, and manliness, which can be paralleled only in the first age +of Christianity. Certainly there never was such a theory to take man's +conceit out of him. He was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> miserable wretch, so worthless at his +best as to deserve everlasting perdition. If he was to be saved at +all, he could be saved only by the unmerited grace of God. In himself +he was a child of the devil; and hell, not in metaphor, but in hard +and palpable fact, inevitably waited for him. This belief, or the +affectation of this belief, continues to be professed, but without a +realisation of its tremendous meaning. The form of words is repeated +by multitudes who do not care to think what they are saying. Who can +measure the effect of such a conviction upon men who were in earnest +about their souls, who were assured that this account of their +situation was actually true, and on whom, therefore, it bore with +increasing weight in proportion to their sincerity?</p> + +<p>With these few prefatory words, I now return to Bunyan. He had begun +to go regularly to church, and by Church he meant the Church of +England. The change in the constitution of it, even when it came, did +not much alter its practical character in the country districts. At +Elstow, as we have seen, there was still a high place; there was still +a liturgy; there was still a surplice. The Church of England is a +compromise between the old theology and the new. The Bishops have the +apostolical succession, but many of them disbelieve that they derive +any virtue from it. The clergyman is either a priest who can absolve +men from sins, or he is a minister as in other Protestant communions. +The sacraments are either means of grace, or mere outward signs. A +Christian is either saved by baptism, or saved by faith, as he pleases +to believe. In either case he may be a member of the Church of +England. The effect of such uncertain utterances is to leave an +impression that in defining such points closely, theologians are +laying down lines of doctrines<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> about subjects of which they know +nothing, that the real truth of religion lies in what is common to the +two theories, the obligation to lead a moral life; and to this +sensible view of their functions the bishops and clergy had in fact +gradually arrived in the last century, when the revival of what is +called earnestness, first in the form of Evangelicalism, and then of +Anglo-Catholicism, awoke again the old controversies.</p> + +<p>To a man of fervid temperament suddenly convinced of sin, incapable of +being satisfied with ambiguous answers to questions which mean life or +death to him, the Church of England has little to say. If he is quiet +and reasonable, he finds in it all that he desires. Enthusiastic ages +and enthusiastical temperaments demand something more complete and +consistent. The clergy under the Long Parliament caught partially the +tone of the prevailing spirit. The reading of the 'Book of Sports' had +been interdicted, and from their pulpits they lectured their +congregations on the ungodliness of the Sabbath amusements. But the +congregations were slow to listen, and the sports went on.</p> + +<p>One Sunday morning, when Bunyan was at church with his wife, a sermon +was delivered on this subject. It seemed to be especially addressed to +himself, and it much affected him. He shook off the impression, and +after dinner he went as usual to the green. He was on the point of +striking at a ball when the thought rushed across his mind, Wilt thou +leave thy sins and go to Heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell? He +looked up. The reflection of his own emotion was before him in visible +form. He imagined that he saw Christ himself looking down at him from +the sky. But he concluded that it was too late for him to repent. He +was past pardon. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> was sure to be damned, and he might as well be +damned for many sins as for few. Sin at all events was pleasant, the +only pleasant thing that he knew, therefore he would take his fill of +it. The sin was the game, and nothing but the game. He continued to +play, but the Puritan sensitiveness had taken hold of him. An +artificial offence had become a real offence when his conscience was +wounded by it. He was reckless and desperate.</p> + +<p>'This temptation of the devil,' he says, 'is more usual among poor +creatures than many are aware of. It continued with me about a month +or more; but one day as I was standing at a neighbour's shop-window, +and there cursing and swearing after my wonted manner, there sate +within the woman of the house and heard me, who, though she was a +loose and ungodly wretch, protested that I swore and cursed at such a +rate that she trembled to hear me. I was able to spoil all the youths +in a whole town. At this reproof I was silenced and put to secret +shame, and that too, as I thought, before the God of Heaven. I stood +hanging down my head and wishing that I might be a little child that +my father might learn me to speak without this wicked sin of swearing, +for, thought I, I am so accustomed to it that it is vain to think of a +reformation.'</p> + +<p>These words have been sometimes taken as a reflection on Bunyan's own +father, as if he had not sufficiently checked the first symptoms of a +bad habit. If this was so, too much may be easily made of it. The +language in the homes of ignorant workmen is seldom select. They have +not a large vocabulary, and the words which they use do not mean what +they seem to mean. But so sharp and sudden remorse speaks remarkably +for Bunyan himself. At this time he could have been barely twenty +years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> old, and already he was quick to see when he was doing wrong, +to be sorry for it, and to wish that he could do better. Vain the +effort seemed to him, yet from that moment 'he did leave off swearing +to his own great wonder,' and he found 'that he could speak better and +more pleasantly than he did before.'</p> + +<p>It lies in the nature of human advance on the road of improvement, +that, whatever be a man's occupation, be it handicraft, or art, or +knowledge, or moral conquest of self, at each forward step which he +takes he grows more conscious of his shortcomings. It is thus with his +whole career, and those who rise highest are least satisfied with +themselves. Very simply Bunyan tells the story of his progress. On his +outward history, on his business and his fortunes with it, he is +totally silent. Worldly interests were not worth mentioning. He is +solely occupied with his rescue from spiritual perdition. Soon after +he had profited by the woman's rebuke, he fell in 'with a poor man +that made profession of religion and talked pleasantly of the +Scriptures.' Earnestness in such matters was growing common among +English labourers. Under his new friend's example, Bunyan 'betook him +to the Bible, and began to take great pleasure in reading it,' but +especially, as he admits frankly (and most people's experience will +have been the same), 'especially the historical part; for as for St. +Paul's Epistles and Scriptures of that nature, he could not away with +them, being as yet ignorant of the corruption of his nature, or of the +want and worth of Jesus Christ to save him.'</p> + +<p>Not as yet understanding these mysteries, he set himself to reform his +life. He became strict with himself in word and deed. 'He set the +Commandments before him for his way to Heaven.' 'He thought if he +could but keep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> them pretty well he should have comfort.' If now and +then he broke one of them, he suffered in conscience; he repented of +his fault, he made good resolutions for the future and struggled to +carry them out. 'His neighbours took him to be a new man, and +marvelled at the alteration.' Pleasure of any kind, even the most +innocent, he considered to be a snare to him, and he abandoned it; he +had been fond of dancing, but he gave it up. Music and singing he +parted with, though it distressed him to leave them. Of all +amusements, that in which he had most delighted had been in ringing +the bells in Elstow church tower. With his bells he could not part all +at once. He would no longer ring himself: but when his friends were +enjoying themselves with the ropes, he could not help going now and +then to the tower door to look on and listen; but he feared at last +that the steeple might fall upon him and kill him. We call such +scruples in these days exaggerated and fantastic. We are no longer in +danger ourselves of suffering from similar emotions. Whether we are +the better for having got rid of them, will be seen in the future +history of our race.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding his struggles and his sacrifices, Bunyan found that +they did not bring him the peace which he expected. A man can change +his outward conduct, but if he is in earnest he comes in sight of +other features in himself which he cannot change so easily; the +meannesses, the paltrinesses, the selfishnesses which haunt him in +spite of himself, which start out upon him at moments the most +unlocked for, which taint the best of his actions and make him loathe +and hate himself. Bunyan's life was now for so young a person a model +of correctness; but he had no sooner brought his actions straight than +he discovered that he was admiring and approving of himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> No +situation is more humiliating, none brings with it a feeling of more +entire hopelessness. 'All this while,' he says, 'I knew not Christ, +nor grace, nor faith, nor hope, and had I then died my state had been +most fearful. I was but a poor painted hypocrite, going about to +establish my own righteousness.'</p> + +<p>Like his own Pilgrim, he had the burden on his back of his conscious +unworthiness. How was he to be rid of it?</p> + +<p>'One day in a street in Bedford, as he was at work in his calling, he +fell in with three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun +talking about the things of God.' He was himself at that time 'a brisk +talker' about the matters of religion, and he joined these women. +Their expressions were wholly unintelligible to him. 'They were +speaking of the wretchedness of their own hearts, of their unbelief, +of their miserable state. They did contemn, slight, and abhor their +own righteousness as filthy and insufficient to do them any good. They +spoke of a new birth and of the work of God in their hearts, which +comforted and strengthened them against the temptations of the Devil.'</p> + +<p>The language of the poor women has lost its old meaning. They +themselves, if they were alive, would not use it any longer. The +conventional phrases of Evangelical Christianity ring untrue in a +modern ear like a cracked bell. We have grown so accustomed to them as +a cant, that we can hardly believe that they ever stood for sincere +convictions. Yet these forms were once alive with the profoundest of +all moral truths; a truth not of a narrow theology, but which lies at +the very bottom of the well, at the fountain-head of human morality; +namely, that a man who would work out his salvation must cast out +self, though he rend his heart-strings in doing it; not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> love of +self-indulgence only, but self-applause, self-confidence, self-conceit +and vanity, desire or expectation of reward; self in all the subtle +ingenuities with which it winds about the soul. In one dialect or +another, he must recognise that he is himself a poor creature not +worth thinking of, or he will not take the first step towards +excellence in any single thing which he undertakes.</p> + +<p>Bunyan left the women and went about his work, but their talk went +with him. 'He was greatly affected.' 'He saw that he wanted the true +tokens of a godly man.' He sought them out and spoke with them again +and again. He could not stay away; and the more he went the more he +questioned his condition.</p> + +<p>'I found two things,' he says, 'at which I did sometimes marvel, +considering what a blind ungodly wretch but just before I was; one a +great softness and tenderness of heart, which caused me to fall under +the conviction of what, by Scripture, they asserted; the other a great +bending of my mind to a continual meditating on it. My mind was now +like a horse-leech at the vein, still crying Give, give; so fixed on +eternity and on the kingdom of heaven (though I knew but little), that +neither pleasure, nor profit, nor persuasion, nor threats could loosen +it or make it let go its hold. It is in very deed a certain truth; it +would have been then as difficult for me to have taken my mind from +heaven to earth, as I have found it often since to get it from earth +to heaven.'</p> + +<p>Ordinary persons who are conscious of trying to do right, who resist +temptations, are sorry when they slip, and determine to be more on +their guard for the future, are well contented with the condition +which they have reached. They are respectable, they are right-minded +in common things, they fulfil their every-day duties to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +families and to society with a sufficiency for which the world speaks +well of them, as indeed it ought to speak; and they themselves +acquiesce in the world's verdict. Any passionate agitation about the +state of their souls they consider unreal and affected. Such men may +be amiable in private life, good neighbours, and useful citizens; but +be their talents what they may, they could not write a 'Pilgrim's +Progress,' or ever reach the Delectable Mountains, or even be +conscious that such mountains exist.</p> + +<p>Bunyan was on the threshold of the higher life. He knew that he was a +very poor creature. He longed to rise to something better. He was a +mere ignorant, untaught mechanic. He had not been to school with +Aristotle and Plato. He could not help himself or lose himself in the +speculations of poets and philosophers. He had only the Bible, and +studying the Bible he found that the wonder-working power in man's +nature was Faith. Faith! What was it? What did it mean? Had he faith? +He was but 'a poor sot,' and yet he thought that he could not be +wholly without it. The Bible told him that if he had faith as a grain +of mustard seed, he could work miracles. He did not understand +Oriental metaphors; here was a simple test which could be at once +applied.</p> + +<p>'One day,' he writes, 'as I was between Elstow and Bedford, the +temptation was hot upon me to try if I had faith by doing some +miracle. I must say to the puddles that were in the horse-pads, "be +dry," and truly at one time I was agoing to say so indeed. But just as +I was about to speak, the thought came into my mind: Go under yonder +hedge first and pray that God would make you able. But when I had +concluded to pray, this came hot upon me, that if I prayed and came +again and tried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> to do it, and yet did nothing notwithstanding, then +be sure I had no faith but was a castaway and lost. Nay, thought I, if +it be so, I will never try it yet, but will stay a little longer. Thus +was I tossed between the Devil and my own ignorance, and so perplexed +at some times that I could not tell what to do.'</p> + +<p>Common sense will call this disease, and will think impatiently that +the young tinker would have done better to attend to his business. But +it must be observed that Bunyan was attending to his business, toiling +all the while with grimed hands over his pots and kettles. No one ever +complained that the pots and kettles were ill-mended. It was merely +that being simple-minded, he found in his Bible that besides earning +his bread he had to save or lose his soul. Having no other guide he +took its words literally, and the directions puzzled him.</p> + +<p>He grew more and more unhappy—more lowly in his own eyes—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Wishing him like to those more rich in hope'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>like the women who were so far beyond him on the heavenly road. He was +a poet without knowing it, and his gifts only served to perplex him +further. His speculations assumed bodily forms which he supposed to be +actual visions. He saw his poor friends sitting on the sunny side of a +high mountain refreshing themselves in the warmth, while he was +shivering in frost and snow and mist. The mountain was surrounded by a +wall, through which he tried to pass, and searched long in vain for an +opening through it. At last he found one, very straight and narrow, +through which he struggled after desperate efforts. 'It showed him,' +he said, 'that none could enter into life but those who were in +downright earnest, and unless they left the wicked world behind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> them, +for here was only room for body and soul, but not for body and soul +and sin.' The vision brought him no comfort, for it passed away and +left him still on the wrong side: a little comfortable self-conceit +would have set him at rest. But, like all real men, Bunyan had the +worst opinion of himself. He looked at his Bible again. He found that +he must be elected. Was he elected? He could as little tell as whether +he had faith. He knew that he longed to be elected, but 'the Scripture +trampled on his desire,' for it said, 'It is not of him that willeth, +or of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy;' therefore, +unless God had chosen him his labour was in vain. The Devil saw his +opportunity; the Devil among his other attributes must have possessed +that of omnipresence, for whenever any human soul was in straits, he +was personally at hand to take advantage of it.</p> + +<p>'It may be that you are not elected,' the tempter said to Bunyan. 'It +may be so indeed,' thought he. 'Why then,' said Satan, 'you had as +good leave off and strive no farther; for if indeed you should not be +elected and chosen of God, there is no talk of your being saved.'</p> + +<p>A comforting text suggested itself. 'Look at the generations of old; +did any ever trust in the Lord and was confounded?' But these exact +words, unfortunately, were only to be found in the Apocrypha. And +there was a further distressing possibility, which has occurred to +others besides Bunyan. Perhaps the day of grace was passed. It came on +him one day as he walked in the country that perhaps those good people +in Bedford were all that the Lord would save in those parts, and that +he came too late for the blessing. True, Christ had said, 'Compel them +to come in, for yet there is room.' It might be 'that when Christ +spoke those words,' He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> was thinking of him—him among the rest that +he had chosen, and had meant to encourage him. But Bunyan was too +simply modest to gather comfort from such aspiring thoughts. Be +desired to be converted, craved for it, longed for it with all his +heart and soul. 'Could it have been gotten for gold,' he said, 'what +would I not have given for it. Had I had a whole world it had all gone +ten thousand times over for this, that my soul might have been in a +converted state. But, oh! I was made sick by that saying of Christ: +"He called to Him whom He would, and they came to Him." I feared He +would not call me.'</p> + +<p>Election, conversion, day of grace, coming to Christ, have been pawed +and fingered by unctuous hands for now two hundred years. The bloom is +gone from the flower. The plumage, once shining with hues direct from +heaven, is soiled and bedraggled. The most solemn of all realities +have been degraded into the passwords of technical theology. In +Bunyan's day, in camp and council chamber, in High Courts of +Parliament, and among the poor drudges in English villages, they were +still radiant with spiritual meaning. The dialect may alter; but if +man is more than a brief floating bubble on the eternal river of time; +if there be really an immortal part of him which need not perish; and +if his business on earth is to save it from perishing, he will still +try to pierce the mountain barrier. He will still find the work as +hard as Bunyan found it. We live in days of progress and +enlightenment; nature on a hundred sides has unlocked her storehouses +of knowledge. But she has furnished no 'open sesame' to bid the +mountain gate fly wide which leads to conquest of self. There is still +no passage there for 'body and soul and sin.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h2>GRACE ABOUNDING.</h2> + + +<p>The women in Bedford, to whom Bunyan had opened his mind, had been +naturally interested in him. Young and rough as he was, he could not +have failed to impress anyone who conversed with him with a sense that +he was a remarkable person. They mentioned him to Mr. Gifford, the +minister of the Baptist Church at Bedford. John Gifford had, at the +beginning of the Civil War, been a loose young officer in the king's +army. He had been taken prisoner when engaged in some exploit which +was contrary to the usages of war. A court-martial had sentenced him +to death, and he was to have been shot in a few hours, when he broke +out of his prison with his sister's help, and, after various +adventures, settled at Bedford as a doctor. The near escape had not +sobered him. He led a disorderly life, drinking and gambling, till the +loss of a large sum of money startled him into seriousness. In the +language of the time he became convinced of sin, and joined the +Baptists, the most thorough-going and consistent of all the Protestant +sects. If the Sacrament of Baptism is not a magical form, but is a +personal act, in which the baptised person devotes himself to Christ's +service, to baptise children at an age when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> they cannot understand +what they are doing may well seem irrational and even impious.</p> + +<p>Gifford, who was now the head of the Baptist community in the town, +invited Bunyan to his house, and explained the causes of his distress +to him. He was a lost sinner. It was true that he had parted with his +old faults, and was leading a new life. But his heart was unchanged; +his past offences stood in record against him. He was still under the +wrath of God, miserable in his position, and therefore miserable in +mind. He must become sensible of his lost state, and lay hold of the +only remedy, or there was no hope for him.</p> + +<p>There was no difficulty in convincing Bunyan that he was in a bad way. +He was too well aware of it already. In a work of fiction, the +conviction would be followed immediately by consoling grace. In the +actual experience of a living human soul, the medicine operates less +pleasantly.</p> + +<p>'I began,' he says, 'to see something of the vanity and inward +wretchedness of my wicked heart, for as yet I knew no great matter +therein. But now it began to be discovered unto me, and to work for +wickedness as it never did before. Lusts and corruptions would +strongly put themselves forth within me in wicked thoughts and desires +which I did not regard before. Whereas, before, my soul was full of +longing after God; now my heart began to hanker after every foolish +vanity.'</p> + +<p>Constitutions differ. Mr. Gifford's treatment, if it was ever good for +any man, was too sharp for Bunyan. The fierce acid which had been +poured into his wounds set them all festering again. He frankly admits +that he was now farther from conversion than before. His heart, do +what he would, refused to leave off desiring forbidden pleasures,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> and +while this continued, he supposed that he was still under the law, and +must perish by it. He compared himself to the child who, as he was +being brought to Christ, was thrown down by the devil and wallowed +foaming. A less healthy nature might have been destroyed by these +artificially created and exaggerated miseries. He supposed he was +given over to unbelief and wickedness, and yet he relates with +touching simplicity:—</p> + +<p>'As to the act of sinning I was never more tender than now. I durst +not take up a pin or a stick, though but so big as a straw, for my +conscience now was sore and would smart at every touch. I could not +tell how to speak my words for fear I should misplace them.'</p> + +<p>But the care with which he watched his conduct availed him nothing. He +was on a morass 'that shook if he did but stir,' and he was 'there +left both of God and Christ and the Spirit, and of all good things.' +'Behind him lay the faults of his childhood and youth, every one of +which he believed to be recorded against him. Within were his +disobedient inclinations, which he conceived to be the presence of the +Devil in his heart. If he was to be presented clean of stain before +God he must have a perfect righteousness which was to be found only in +Christ, and Christ had rejected him. 'My original and inward +pollution,' he writes, 'was my plague and my affliction. I was more +loathsome in my own eyes than was a toad, and I thought I was so in +God's eyes too. I thought every one had a better heart than I had. I +could have changed heart with anybody. I thought none but the Devil +himself could equal me for inward wickedness and pollution. Sure, +thought I, I am given up to the Devil and to a reprobate mind; and +thus I continued for a long while, even for some years together.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<p>And all the while the world went on so quietly; these things over +which Bunyan was so miserable not seeming to trouble anyone except +himself; and, as if they had no existence except on Sundays and in +pious talk. Old people were hunting after the treasures of this life, +as if they were never to leave the earth. Professors of religion +complained when they lost fortune or health; what were fortune and +health to the awful possibilities which lay beyond the grave? To +Bunyan the future life of Christianity was a reality as certain as the +next day's sunrise; and he could have been happy on bread and water if +he could have felt himself prepared to enter it. Every created being +seemed better off than he was. He was sorry that God had made him a +man. He 'blessed the condition of the birds, beasts, and fishes, for +they had not a sinful nature. They were not obnoxious to the wrath of +God. They were not to go to hell-fire after death.' He recalled the +texts which spoke of Christ and forgiveness. He tried to persuade +himself that Christ cared for him. He could have talked of Christ's +love and mercy 'even to the very crows which sate on the ploughed land +before him.' But he was too sincere to satisfy himself with formulas +and phrases. He could not, he would not, profess to be convinced that +things would go well with him when he was not convinced. Cold spasms +of doubt laid hold of him—doubts, not so much of his own salvation, +as of the truth of all that he had been taught to believe; and the +problem had to be fought and grappled with, which lies in the +intellectual nature of every genuine man, whether he be an Æschylus or +a Shakespeare, or a poor working Bedfordshire mechanic. No honest soul +can look out upon the world and see it as it really is, without the +question rising in him whether there be any God that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> governs it at +all. No one can accept the popular notion of heaven and hell as +actually true, without being as terrified as Bunyan was. We go on as +we do, and attend to our business and enjoy ourselves, because the +words have no real meaning to us. Providence in its kindness leaves +most of us unblessed or uncursed with natures of too fine a fibre.</p> + +<p>Bunyan was hardly dealt with. 'Whole floods of blasphemies,' he says, +'against God, Christ, and the Scriptures were poured upon my spirit; +questions against the very being of God and of his only beloved Son, +as whether there was in truth a God or Christ, or no, and whether the +Holy Scriptures were not rather a fable and cunning story than the +holy and pure Word of God.'</p> + +<p>'How can you tell,' the tempter whispered, 'but that the Turks have as +good a Scripture to prove their Mahomet the Saviour, as we have to +prove our Jesus is? Could I think that so many tens of thousands in so +many countries and kingdoms should be without the knowledge of the +right way to heaven, if there were indeed a heaven, and that we who +lie in a corner of the earth, should alone be blessed therewith. Every +one doth think his own religion the rightest, both Jews, Moors, and +Pagans; and how if all our faith, and Christ, and Scripture should be +but "a think so" too.' St. Paul spoke positively. Bunyan saw shrewdly +that on St. Paul the weight of the whole Christian theory really +rested. But 'how could he tell but that St. Paul, being a subtle and +cunning man, might give himself up to deceive with strong delusions?' +'He was carried away by such thoughts as by a whirlwind.'</p> + +<p>His belief in the active agency of the Devil in human affairs, of +which he supposed that he had witnessed instances, was no doubt a +great help to him. If he could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> have imagined that his doubts or +misgivings had been suggested by a desire for truth, they would have +been harder to bear. More than ever he was convinced that he was +possessed by the devil. He 'compared himself to a child carried off by +a gipsy.' 'Kick sometimes I did,' he says, 'and scream, and cry, but +yet I was as bound in the wings of temptation, and the wind would bear +me away.' 'I blessed the dog and toad, and counted the condition of +everything that God had made far better than this dreadful state of +mine. The dog or horse had no soul to perish under the everlasting +weight of hell for sin, as mine was like to do.'</p> + +<p>Doubts about revelation and the truth of Scripture were more easy to +encounter then than they are at present. Bunyan was protected by want +of learning, and by a powerful predisposition to find the objections +against the credibility of the Gospel history to be groundless. +Critical investigation had not as yet analysed the historical +construction of the sacred books, and scepticism, as he saw it in +people round him, did actually come from the devil, that is from a +desire to escape the moral restraints of religion. The wisest, +noblest, best instructed men in England, at that time regarded the +Bible as an authentic communication from God, and as the only +foundation for law and civil society. The masculine sense and strong +modest intellect of Bunyan ensured his acquiescence in an opinion so +powerfully supported. Fits of uncertainty recurred even to the end of +his life; it must be so with men who are honestly in earnest; but his +doubts were of course only intermittent, and his judgment was in the +main satisfied that the Bible was, as he had been taught, the Word of +God. This, however, helped him little; for in the Bible he read his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +own condemnation. The weight which pressed him down was the sense of +his unworthiness. What was he that God should care for him? He fancied +that he heard God saying to the angels, 'This poor, simple wretch doth +hanker after me, as if I had nothing to do with my mercy but to bestow +it on such as he. Poor fool, how art thou deceived! It is not for such +as thee to have favour with the Highest.'</p> + +<p>Miserable as he was, he clung to his misery as the one link which +connected him with the object of his longings. If he had no hope of +heaven, he was at least distracted that he must lose it. He was afraid +of dying, yet he was still more afraid of continuing to live; lest the +impression should wear away through time, and occupation and other +interests should turn his heart away to the world, and thus his wounds +might cease to pain him.</p> + +<p>Readers of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' sometimes ask with wonder, why, +after Christian had been received into the narrow gate, and had been +set forward upon his way, so many trials and dangers still lay before +him. The answer is simply that Christian was a pilgrim, that the +journey of life still lay before him, and at every step temptations +would meet him in new, unexpected shapes. St. Anthony in his hermitage +was beset by as many fiends as had ever troubled him when in the +world. Man's spiritual existence is like the flight of a bird in the +air; he is sustained only by effort, and when he ceases to exert +himself he falls. There are intervals, however, of comparative calm, +and to one of these the storm-tossed Bunyan was now approaching. He +had passed through the Slough of Despond. He had gone astray after Mr. +Legality, and the rocks had almost overwhelmed him. Evangelist now +found him and put him right again, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> he was to be allowed a +breathing space at the Interpreter's house. As he was at his ordinary +daily work his mind was restlessly busy. Verses of Scripture came into +his head, sweet while present, but like Peter's sheet caught up again +into heaven. We may have heard all our lives of Christ. Words and +ideas with which we have been familiar from childhood are trodden into +paths as barren as sand. Suddenly, we know not how, the meaning +flashes upon us. The seed has found its way into some corner of our +minds where it can germinate. The shell breaks, the cotyledons open, +and the plant of faith is alive. So it was now to be with Bunyan.</p> + +<p>'One day,' he says, 'as I was travelling into the country, musing on +the wickedness of my heart, and considering the enmity that was in me +to God, the Scripture came into my mind, "He hath made peace through +the blood of His cross." I saw that the justice of God and my sinful +soul could embrace and kiss each other. I was ready to swoon, not with +grief and trouble, but with solid joy and peace.' Everything became +clear: the Gospel history, the birth, the life, the death of the +Saviour; how gently he gave himself to be nailed on the cross for his +(Bunyan's) sins. 'I saw Him in the spirit,' he goes on, 'a Man on the +right hand of the Father, pleading for me, and have seen the manner of +His coming from Heaven to judge the world with glory.'</p> + +<p>The sense of guilt which had so oppressed him was now a key to the +mystery. 'God,' he says, 'suffered me to be afflicted with temptations +concerning these things, and then revealed them to me.' He was crushed +to the ground by the thought of his wickedness; 'the Lord showed him +the death of Christ, and lifted the weight away.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now he thought he had a personal evidence from Heaven that he was +really saved. Before this, he had lain trembling at the mouth of hell; +now he was so far away from it that he could scarce tell where it was. +He fell in at this time with a copy of Luther's commentary on the +Epistle to the Galatians, 'so old that it was like to fall to pieces.' +Bunyan found in it the exact counterpart of his own experience: 'of +all the books that he had ever met with, it seemed to him the most fit +for a wounded conscience.'</p> + +<p>Everything was supernatural with him: when a bad thought came into his +mind, it was the devil that put it there. These breathings of peace he +regarded as the immediate voice of his Saviour. Alas! the respite was +but short. He had hoped that his troubles were over, when the tempter +came back upon him in the most extraordinary form which he had yet +assumed, Bunyan had himself left the door open; the evil spirits could +only enter 'Mansoul' through the owner's negligence, but once in, they +could work their own wicked will. How it happened will be told +afterwards. The temptation itself must be described first. Never was a +nature more perversely ingenious in torturing itself.</p> + +<p>He had gained Christ, as he called it. He was now tempted 'to sell and +part with this most blessed Christ, to exchange Him for the things of +this life—for anything.' If there had been any real prospect of +worldly advantage before Bunyan, which he could have gained by +abandoning his religious profession, the words would have had a +meaning; but there is no hint or trace of any prospect of the kind; +nor in Bunyan's position could there have been. The temptation, as he +called it, was a freak of fancy: fancy resenting the minuteness with +which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> watched his own emotions. And yet he says, 'It lay upon me +for a year, and did follow me so continually that I was not rid of it +one day in a month, sometimes not an hour in many days together, +unless when I was asleep. I could neither eat my food, stoop for a +pin, chop a stick, or cast my eye to look on this or that, but still +the temptation would come, "Sell Christ for this, sell Him for that! +Sell Him! Sell Him!"'</p> + +<p>He had been haunted before with a notion that he was under a spell; +that he had been fated to commit the unpardonable sin; and he was now +thinking of Judas, who had been admitted to Christ's intimacy, and had +then betrayed him. Here it was before him—the very thing which he had +so long dreaded. If his heart did but consent for a moment, the deed +was done. His doom had overtaken him. He wrestled with the thought as +it rose, thrust it from him 'with his hands and elbows,' body and mind +convulsed together in a common agony. As fast as the destroyer said, +'Sell Him,' Bunyan said, 'I will not; I will not; I will not, not for +thousands, thousands, thousands of worlds!' One morning as he lay in +his bed, the voice came again, and would not be driven away. Bunyan +fought against it, till he was out of breath. He fell back exhausted, +and without conscious action of his will, the fatal sentence passed +through his brain, 'Let Him go if He will.'</p> + +<p>That the 'selling Christ' was a bargain in which he was to lose all +and receive nothing is evident from the form in which he was overcome. +Yet if he had gained a fortune by fraud or forgery, he could not have +been more certain that he had destroyed himself.</p> + +<p>Satan had won the battle, and he, 'as a bird shot from a tree, had +fallen into guilt and despair.' He got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> out of bed, 'and went moping +into the fields,' where he wandered for two hours, 'as a man bereft of +life, and now past recovering,' 'bound over to eternal punishment.' He +shrank under the hedges, 'in guilt and sorrow, bemoaning the hardness +of his fate.' In vain the words now came back that had so comforted +him, 'The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin.' They had no +application to him. He had acquired his birthright, but, like Esau, he +had sold it, and could not any more find place for repentance. True it +was said that 'all manner of sins and blasphemies should be forgiven +unto men,' but only such sins and blasphemies as had been committed in +the natural state. Bunyan had received grace, and after receiving it, +had sinned against the Holy Ghost.</p> + +<p>It was done, and nothing could undo it. David had received grace, and +had committed murder and adultery after it. But murder and adultery, +bad as they might be, were only transgressions of the law of Moses. +Bunyan had sinned against the Mediator himself, 'he had sold his +Saviour.' One sin, and only one there was which could not be pardoned, +and he had been guilty of it. Peter had sinned against grace, and even +after he had been warned. Peter, however, had but denied his Master. +Bunyan had sold him. He was no David or Peter, he was Judas. It was, +very hard. Others naturally as bad as he had been saved. Why had he +been picked out to be made a Son of Perdition? A Judas! Was there any +point in which he was better than Judas? Judas had sinned with +deliberate purpose: he 'in a fearful hurry,' and 'against prayer and +striving.' But there might be more ways than one of committing the +unpardonable sin, and there might be degrees of it. It was a dreadful +condition. The old doubts came back.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<p>'I was now ashamed,' he says, 'that I should be like such an ugly man +as Judas. I thought how loathsome I should be to all the saints at the +Day of Judgment. I was tempted to content myself by receiving some +false opinion, as that there should be no such thing as the Day of +Judgment, that we should not rise again, that sin was no such grievous +thing, the tempter suggesting that if these things should be indeed +true, yet to believe otherwise would yield me ease for the present. If +I must perish, I need not torment myself beforehand.'</p> + +<p>Judas! Judas! was now for ever before his eyes. So identified he was +with Judas that he felt at times as if his breastbone was bursting. A +mark like Cain's was on him. In vain he searched again through the +catalogue of pardoned sinners. Manasseh had consulted wizards and +familiar spirits. Manasseh had burnt his children in the fire to +devils. He had found mercy; but, alas! Manasseh's sins had nothing of +the nature of selling the Saviour. To have sold the Saviour 'was a sin +bigger than the sins of a country, of a kingdom, or of the whole +world—not all of them together could equal it.'</p> + +<p>His brain was overstrained, it will be said. Very likely. It is to be +remembered, however, who and what he was, and that he had overstrained +it in his eagerness to learn what he conceived his Maker to wish him +to be—a form of anxiety not common in this world. The cure was as +remarkable as the disorder. One day he was 'in a good man's shop,' +still 'afflicting himself with self-abhorrence,' when something seemed +to rush in through an open window, and he heard a voice saying, 'Didst +ever refuse to be justified by the blood of Christ?' Bunyan shared the +belief of his time. He took the system of things as the Bible +represented it; but his strong com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>mon sense put him on his guard +against being easily credulous. He thought at the time that the voice +was supernatural. After twenty years he said modestly that he 'could +not make a judgment of it.' The effect, any way, was as if an angel +had come to him and had told him that there was still hope. Hapless as +his condition was, he might still pray for mercy, and might possibly +find it. He tried to pray, and found it very hard. The devil whispered +again that God was tired of him; God wanted to be rid of him and his +importunities, and had, therefore, allowed him to commit this +particular sin that he might hear no more of him. He remembered Esau, +and thought that this might be too true: 'the saying about Esau was a +flaming sword barring the way of the tree of life to him.' Still he +would not give in. 'I can but die,' he said to himself, 'and if it +must be so, it shall be said that such an one died at the feet of +Christ in prayer.'</p> + +<p>He was torturing himself with illusions. Most of the saints in the +Catholic Calendar have done the same. The most remorseless philosopher +can hardly refuse a certain admiration for this poor uneducated +village lad struggling so bravely in the theological spider's web. The +'Professors' could not comfort him, having never experienced similar +distresses in their own persons. He consulted 'an Antient Christian,' +telling him that he feared that he had sinned against the Holy Ghost, +The Antient Christian answered gravely that he thought so too. The +devil having him at advantage, began to be witty with him. The devil +suggested that as he had offended the second or third Person of the +Trinity, he had better pray the Father to mediate for him with Christ +and the Holy Spirit. Then the devil took another turn. Christ, he +said, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> really sorry for Bunyan, but his case was beyond remedy. +Bunyan's sin was so peculiar, that it was not of the nature of those +for which He had bled and died, and had not, therefore, been laid to +His charge. To justify Bunyan he must come down and die again, and +that was not to be thought of. 'Oh!' exclaimed the unfortunate victim, +'the unthought-of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors, that are +effected by a thorough application of guilt (to a spirit) that is +yielded to desperation. This is the man that hath his dwelling among +the tombs.'</p> + +<p>Sitting in this humour on a settle in the street at Bedford, he was +pondering over his fearful state. The sun in heaven seemed to grudge +its light to him. 'The stones in the street and the tiles on the +houses did bend themselves against him.' Each crisis in Bunyan's mind +is always framed in the picture of some spot where it occurred. He was +crying 'in the bitterness of his soul, How can God comfort such a +wretch as I am?' As before, in the shop, a voice came in answer, 'This +sin is not unto death.' The first voice had brought him hope which was +almost extinguished; the second was a message of life. The night was +gone, and it was daylight. He had come to the end of the Valley of the +Shadow of Death, and the spectres and the hobgoblins which had +jibbered at him suddenly all vanished. A moment before he had supposed +that he was out of reach of pardon, that he had no right to pray, no +right to repent, or, at least, that neither prayer nor repentance +could profit him. If his sin was not to death, then he was on the same +ground as other sinners. If they might pray, he might pray, and might +look to be forgiven on the same terms. He still saw that his 'selling +Christ' had been 'most barbarous,' but despair was followed by an +extravagance, no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> less unbounded, of gratitude, when he felt that +Christ would pardon even this.</p> + +<p>'Love and affection for Christ,' he says, 'did work at this time such +a strong and hot desire of revengement upon myself for the abuse I had +done to Him, that, to speak as then I thought, had I had a thousand +gallons of blood in my veins, I could freely have spilt it all at the +command of my Lord and Saviour. The tempter told me it was vain to +pray. Yet, thought I, I will pray. But, said the tempter, your sin is +unpardonable. Well, said I, I will pray. It is no boot, said he. Yet, +said I, I will pray: so I went to prayer, and I uttered words to this +effect: Lord, Satan tells me that neither Thy mercy nor Christ's blood +is sufficient to save my soul. Lord, shall I honour Thee most by +believing that Thou wilt and canst, or him, by believing that Thou +neither wilt nor canst? Lord, I would fain honour Thee by believing +that Thou wilt and canst. As I was there before the Lord, the +Scripture came, Oh! man, great is thy faith, even as if one had +clapped me on the back.'</p> + +<p>The waves had not wholly subsided; but we need not follow the +undulations any farther. It is enough that after a 'conviction of +sin,' considerably deeper than most people find necessary for +themselves, Bunyan had come to realise what was meant by salvation in +Christ, according to the received creed of the contemporary Protestant +world. The intensity of his emotions arose only from the completeness +with which he believed it. Man had sinned, and by sin was made a +servant of the devil. His redemption was a personal act of the Saviour +towards each individual sinner. In the Atonement Christ had before him +each separate person whom he designed to save, blotting out his +offences, however heinous they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> might be, and recording in place of +them his own perfect obedience. Each reconciled sinner in return +regarded Christ's sufferings as undergone immediately for himself, and +gratitude for that great deliverance enabled and obliged him to devote +his strength and soul thenceforward to God's service. In the +seventeenth century, all earnest English Protestants held this belief. +In the nineteenth century, most of us repeat the phrases of this +belief, and pretend to hold it. We think we hold it. We are growing +more cautious, perhaps, with our definitions. We suspect that there +may be mysteries in God's nature and methods which we cannot fully +explain. The outlines of 'the scheme of salvation' are growing +indistinct; and we see it through a gathering mist. Yet the essence of +it will remain true whether we recognise it or not. While man remains +man he will do things which he ought not to do. He will leave undone +things which he ought to do. To will, may be present with him; but how +to perform what he wills, he will never fully know, and he will still +hate 'the body of death' which he feels clinging to him. He will try +to do better. When he falls he will struggle to his feet again. He +will climb and climb on the hill side, though he never reaches the +top, and knows that he can never reach it. His life will be a failure, +which he will not dare to offer as a fit account of himself, or as +worth a serious regard. Yet he will still hope that he will not be +wholly cast away, when after his sleep in death he wakes again.</p> + +<p>Now, says Bunyan, there remained only the hinder part of the tempest. +Heavenly voices continued to encourage him. 'As I was passing in the +field,' he goes on, 'I heard the sentence, thy righteousness is in +heaven; and methought I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +at God's right hand, there I say, as my righteousness, so that +wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me He +wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. Now did my +chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my affliction and +irons; my temptations also fled away, so that from that time those +dreadful Scriptures of God left off to trouble me. Now went I home +rejoicing for the grace and love of God. Christ of God is made unto us +wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. I now +lived very sweetly at peace with God through Christ. Oh! methought, +Christ, Christ! There was nothing but Christ before my eyes. I was not +now only looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as +of His blood, burial, and resurrection, but considered Him as a whole +Christ. All those graces that were now green in me were yet but like +those cracked groats and fourpence half-pennies which rich men carry +in their purses, while their gold is in their trunks at home. Oh! I +saw my gold was in my trunk at home in Christ my Lord and Saviour. The +Lord led me into the mystery of union with the Son of God, that I was +joined to Him, that I was flesh of His flesh. If He and I were one, +His righteousness was mine, His merits mine, His victory mine. Now I +could see myself in heaven and earth at once; in heaven by my Christ, +though on earth by my body and person. Christ was that common and +public person in whom the whole body of His elect are always to be +considered and reckoned. We fulfilled the law by Him, died by Him, +rose from the dead by Him, got the victory over sin and death, the +devil and hell by Him. I had cause to say, Praise ye the Lord. Praise +God in His sanctuary.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h2>CALL TO THE MINISTRY.</h2> + + +<p>The Pilgrim falls into the hands of Giant Despair because he has +himself first strayed into Byepath Meadow. Bunyan found an explanation +of his last convulsion in an act of unbelief, of which, on looking +back, he perceived that he had been guilty. He had been delivered out +of his first temptation. He had not been sufficiently on his guard +against temptations that might come in the future. Nay, he had himself +tempted God. His wife had been overtaken by a premature confinement, +and was suffering acutely. It was at the time when Bunyan was +exercised with questions about the truth of religion altogether. As +the poor woman lay crying at his side, he had said mentally, 'Lord, if +Thou wilt now remove this sad affliction from my wife, and cause that +she be troubled no more therewith this night, then I shall know that +Thou canst discern the more secret thoughts of the heart.' In a moment +the pain ceased and she fell into a sleep which lasted till morning. +Bunyan, though surprised at the time, forgot what had happened, till +it rushed back upon his memory, when he had committed himself by a +similar mental assent to selling Christ. He remembered the proof which +had been given to him that God could and did discern his thoughts. God +had discerned this second<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> thought also, and in punishing him for it +had punished him at the same time for the doubt which he had allowed +himself to feel. 'I should have believed His word,' he said, 'and not +have put an "if" upon the all-seeingness of God.'</p> + +<p>The suffering was over now, and he felt that it had been infinitely +beneficial to him. He understood better the glory of God and of his +Son. The Scriptures had opened their secrets to him, and he had seen +them to be in very truth the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Never so +clearly as after this 'temptation' had he perceived 'the heights of +grace, and love, and mercy.' Two or three times 'he had such strange +apprehensions of the grace of God as had amazed him.' The impression +was so overpowering that if it had continued long 'it would have +rendered him incapable for business.' He joined his friend Mr. +Gifford's church. He was baptised in the Ouse, and became a professed +member of the Baptist congregation. Soon after, his mental conflict +was entirely over, and he had two quiet years of peace. Before a man +can use his powers to any purpose, he must arrive at some conviction +in which his intellect can acquiesce. 'Calm yourself,' says Jean Paul; +'it is your first necessity. Be a stoic if nothing else will serve.' +Bunyan had not been driven into stoicism. He was now restored to the +possession of his faculties, and his remarkable ability was not long +in showing itself.</p> + +<p>The first consequence of his mental troubles was an illness. He had a +cough which threatened to turn into consumption. He thought it was all +over with him, and he was fixing his eyes 'on the heavenly Jerusalem +and the innumerable company of angels;' but the danger passed off, and +he became well and strong in mind and body.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> Notwithstanding his +various miseries, he had not neglected his business, and had indeed +been specially successful. By the time that he was twenty-five years +old he was in a position considerably superior to that in which he was +born. 'God,' says a contemporary biographer, 'had increased his stores +so that he lived in great credit among his neighbours.' On May 13, +1653, Bedfordshire sent an address to Cromwell approving the dismissal +of the Long Parliament, recognising Oliver himself as the Lord's +instrument, and recommending the county magistrates as fit persons to +serve in the Assembly which was to take its place. Among thirty-six +names attached to this document, appear those of Gifford and Bunyan. +This speaks for itself: he must have been at least a householder and a +person of consideration. It was not, however, as a prosperous brazier +that Bunyan was to make his way. He had a gift of speech, which, in +the democratic congregation to which he belonged, could not long +remain hid. Young as he was, he had sounded the depths of spiritual +experience. Like Dante he had been in hell—the popular hell of +English Puritanism—and in 1655 he was called upon to take part in the +'ministry.' He was modest, humble, shrinking. The minister when he +preached was, according to the theory, an instrument uttering the +words not of himself but of the Holy Spirit. A man like Bunyan, who +really believed this, might well be alarmed. After earnest entreaty, +however, 'he made experiment of his powers' in private, and it was at +once evident that, with the thing which these people meant by +inspiration, he was abundantly supplied. No such preacher to the +uneducated English masses was to be found within the four seas. He +says that he had no desire of vain glory; no one who has studied his +character can suppose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> that he had. He was a man of natural genius, +who believed the Protestant form of Christianity to be completely +true. He knew nothing of philosophy, nothing of history, nothing of +literature. The doubts to which he acknowledged being without their +natural food, had never presented themselves in a form which would +have compelled him to submit to remain uncertain. Doubt, as he had +felt it, was a direct enemy of morality and purity, and as such he had +fought with it and conquered it. Protestant Christianity was true. All +mankind were perishing unless they saw it to be true. This was his +message; a message—supposing him to have been right—of an importance +so immeasurable that all else was nothing. He was still 'afflicted +with the fiery darts of the devil,' but he saw that he must not bury +his abilities. 'In fear and trembling,' therefore, he set himself to +the work, and 'did according to his power preach the Gospel that God +had shewn him.'</p> + +<p>'The Lord led him to begin where his Word began—with sinners. This +part of my work,' he says, 'I fulfilled with a great sense, for the +terrors of the law and guilt for my transgressions lay heavy on my +conscience. I preached what I felt. I had been sent to my hearers as +from the dead. I went myself in chains to preach to them in chains, +and carried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to +beware of. I have gone full of guilt and terror to the pulpit door; +God carried me on with a strong hand, for neither guilt nor hell could +take me off.'</p> + +<p>Many of Bunyan's addresses remain in the form of theological +treatises, and that I may not have to return to the subject, I shall +give some account of them. His doctrine was the doctrine of the best +and strongest minds in Europe. It had been believed by Luther, it had +been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> believed by Knox. It was believed at that moment by Oliver +Cromwell as completely as by Bunyan himself. It was believed, so far +as such a person could be said to believe anything, by the all +accomplished Leibnitz himself. Few educated people use the language of +it now. In them it was a fire from heaven shining like a sun in a dark +world. With us the fire has gone out; in the place of it we have but +smoke and ashes, and the Evangelical mind in search of 'something +deeper and truer than satisfied the last century,' is turning back to +Catholic verities. What Bunyan had to say may be less than the whole +truth: we shall scarcely find the still missing part of it in lines of +thought which we have outgrown.</p> + +<p>Bunyan preached wherever opportunity served—in woods, in barns, on +village greens, or in town chapels. The substance of his sermons he +revised and published. He began, as he said, with sinners, explaining +the condition of men in the world. They were under the law, or they +were under grace. Every person that came into the world was born under +the law, and as such was bound, under pain of eternal damnation, to +fulfil completely and continually every one of the Ten Commandments. +The Bible said plainly, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in +all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' 'The +soul that sinneth it shall die.' The Ten Commandments extended into +many more, and to fail in a single one was as fatal as to break them +all. A man might go on for a long time, for sixty years perhaps, +without falling. Bunyan does not mean that anyone really could do all +this, but he assumes the possibility; yet he says if the man slipped +once before he died, he would eternally perish. The law does not refer +to words and actions only, but to thoughts and feelings. It fol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>lowed +a man in his prayers, and detected a wandering thought. It allowed no +repentance to those who lived and died under it. If it was asked +whether God could not pardon, as earthly judges pardon criminals, the +answer was, that it is not the law which is merciful to the earthly +offender but the magistrate. The law is an eternal principle. The +magistrate may forgive a man without exacting satisfaction. The law +knows no forgiveness. It can be as little changed as an axiom of +mathematics. Repentance cannot undo the past. Let a man leave his sins +and live as purely as an angel all the rest of his life, his old +faults remain in the account against him, and his state is as bad as +ever it was. God's justice once offended knows not pity or compassion, +but runs on the offender like a lion and throws him into prison, there +to lie to all eternity unless infinite satisfaction be given to it. +And that satisfaction no son of Adam could possibly make.</p> + +<p>This conception of Divine justice, not as a sentence of a judge, but +as the action of an eternal law, is identical with Spinoza's. That +every act involves consequences which cannot be separated from it, and +may continue operative to eternity, is a philosophical position which +is now generally admitted. Combined with the traditionary notions of a +future judgment and punishment in hell, the recognition that there was +a law in the case and that the law could not be broken, led to the +frightful inference that each individual was liable to be kept alive +and tortured through all eternity. And this, in fact, was the fate +really in store for every human creature unless some extraordinary +remedy could be found. Bunyan would allow no merit to anyone. He would +not have it supposed that only the profane or grossly wicked were in +danger from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> the law. 'A man,' he says, 'may be turned from a vain, +loose, open, profane conversation and sinning against the law, to a +holy, righteous, religious life, and yet be under the same state and +as sure to be damned as the others that are more profane and loose.' +The natural man might think it strange, but the language of the curse +was not to be mistaken. Cursed is every one who has failed to fulfil +the whole law. There was not a person in the whole world who had not +himself sinned in early life. All had sinned in Adam also, and St. +Paul had said in consequence, 'There is none that doeth good, no, not +one! The law was given not that we might be saved by obeying it, but +that we might know the holiness of God and our own vileness, and that +we might understand that we should not be damned for nothing. God +would have no quarrelling at His just condemning of us at that day.'</p> + +<p>This is Bunyan's notion of the position in which we all naturally +stand in this world, and from which the substitution of Christ's +perfect fulfilment of the law alone rescues us. It is calculated, no +doubt, to impress on us a profound horror of moral evil when the +penalty attached to it is so fearful. But it is dangerous to introduce +into religion metaphysical conceptions of 'law.' The cord cracks that +is strained too tightly; and it is only for brief periods of high +spiritual tension that a theology so merciless can sustain itself. No +one with a conscience in him will think of claiming any merit for +himself. But we know also that there are degrees of demerit, and, +theory or no theory, we fall back on the first verse of the English +Liturgy, as containing a more endurable account of things.</p> + +<p>For this reason, among others, Bunyan disliked the Liturgy. He thought +the doctrine of it false, and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> objected to a Liturgy on principle. +He has a sermon on Prayer, in which he insists that to be worth +anything prayer must be the expression of an inward feeling; and that +people cannot feel in lines laid down for them. Forms of prayer he +thought especially mischievous to children, as accustoming them to use +words to which they attached no meaning.</p> + +<p>'My judgment,' he says, 'is that men go the wrong way to learn their +children to pray. It seems to me a better way for people to tell their +children betimes what cursed creatures they are, how they are under +the wrath of God by reason of original and actual sin; also to tell +them the nature of God's wrath and the duration of misery, which if +they would conscientiously do, they would sooner learn their children +to pray than they do. The way that men learn to pray is by conviction +of sin, and this is the way to make our "sweet babes" do so too.'</p> + +<p>'Sweet babes' is unworthy of Bunyan. There is little sweetness in a +state of things so stern as he conceives. He might have considered, +too, that there was a danger of making children unreal in another and +worse sense by teaching them doctrines which neither child nor man can +comprehend. It may be true that a single sin may consign me to +everlasting hell, but I cannot be made to acknowledge the justice of +it. 'Wrath of God' and such expressions are out of place when we are +brought into the presence of metaphysical laws. Wrath corresponds to +free-will misused. It is senseless and extravagant when pronounced +against actions which men cannot help, when the faulty action is the +necessary consequence of their nature, and the penalty the necessary +consequence of the action.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> + +<p>The same confusion of thought lies in the treatment of the kindred +subjects of Free-will, Election, and Reprobation. The logic must be +maintained, and God's moral attributes simultaneously vindicated. +Bunyan argues about it as ingeniously as Leibnitz himself. Those who +suppose that specific guilt attaches to particular acts, that all men +are put into the world, free to keep the Commandments or to break +them, that they are equally able to do one as to do the other, and +are, therefore, proper objects of punishment, hold an opinion which is +consistent in itself, but is in entire contradiction with facts. +Children are not as able to control their inclinations as grown men, +and one man is not as able to control himself as another. Some have no +difficulty from the first, and are constitutionally good; some are +constitutionally weak, or have incurable propensities for evil. Some +are brought up with care and insight; others seem never to have any +chance at all. So evident is this, that impartial thinkers have +questioned the reality of human guilt in the sense in which it is +generally understood. Even Butler allows that if we look too curiously +we may have a difficulty in finding where it lies. And here, if +anywhere, there is a real natural truth in the doctrine of Election, +independent of the merit of those who are so happy as to find favour. +Bunyan, however, reverses the inference. He will have all guilty +together, those who do well and those who do ill. Even the elect are +in themselves as badly off as the reprobate, and are equally included +under sin. Those who are saved are saved for Christ's merits and not +for their own.</p> + +<p>Men of calmer temperament accept facts as they find them. They are too +conscious of their ignorance to insist on explaining problems which +are beyond their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> teach. Bunyan lived in an age of intense religious +excitement, when the strongest minds were exercising themselves on +those questions. It is noticeable that the most effective intellects +inclined to necessitarian conclusions: some in the shape of Calvinism, +some in the corresponding philosophic form of Spinozism. From both +alike there came an absolute submission to the decrees of God, and a +passionate devotion to his service; while the morality of Free-will is +cold and calculating. Appeals to a sense of duty do not reach beyond +the understanding. The enthusiasm which will stir men's hearts and +give them a real power of resisting temptation must be nourished on +more invigorating food.</p> + +<p>But I need dwell no more on a subject which is unsuited for these +pages.</p> + +<p>The object of Bunyan, like that of Luther, like that of all great +spiritual teachers, was to bring his wandering fellow-mortals into +obedience to the commandments, even while he insisted on the +worthlessness of it. He sounded the strings to others which had +sounded loudest in himself. When he passed from mysticism into matters +of ordinary life, he showed the same practical good sense which +distinguishes the chief of all this order of thinkers—St. Paul. There +is a sermon of Bunyan's on Christian behaviour, on the duties of +parents to children, and masters to servants, which might be studied +with as much advantage in English households as the 'Pilgrim's +Progress' itself. To fathers he says, 'Take heed that the misdeeds for +which thou correctest thy children be not learned them by thee. Many +children learn that wickedness of their parents, for which they beat +and chastise them. Take heed that thou smile not upon them to +encourage them in small faults, lest that thy carriage to them be an +en<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>couragement to them to commit greater faults. Take heed that thou +use not unsavoury and unseemly words in thy chastising of them, as +railing, miscalling, and the like—this is devilish. Take heed that +thou do not use them to many chiding words and threatenings, mixed +with lightness and laughter. This will harden.'</p> + +<p>And again: 'I tell you that if parents carry it lovingly towards their +children, mixing their mercies with loving rebukes, and their loving +rebukes with fatherly and motherly compassions, they are more likely +to save their children than by being churlish and severe to them. Even +if these things do not save them, if their mercy do them no good, yet +it will greatly ease them at the day of death to consider, I have done +by love as much as I could to save and deliver my child from hell.'</p> + +<p>Whole volumes on education have said less, or less to the purpose, +than these simple words. Unfortunately, parents do not read Bunyan. He +is left to children.</p> + +<p>Similarly, he says to masters:—</p> + +<p>'It is thy duty so to behave thyself to thy servant that thy service +may not only be for thy good, but for the good of thy servant, and +that in body and soul. Deal with him as to admonition as with thy +children. Take heed thou do not turn thy servants into slaves by +overcharging them in thy work with thy greediness. Take heed thou +carry not thyself to thy servant as he of whom it is said, "He is such +a man of Belial that his servants cannot speak to him." The Apostle +bids you forbear to threaten them, because you also have a Master in +Heaven. Masters, give your servants that which is just, just labour +and just wages. Servants that are truly godly care not how cheap they +serve their masters, provided they may get into godly families, or +where they may be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> convenient for the Word. But if a master or +mistress takes this opportunity to make a prey of their servants, it +is abominable. I have heard poor servants say that in some carnal +families they have had more liberty to God's things and more fairness +of dealing than among many professors. Such masters make religion to +stink before the inhabitants of the land.'</p> + +<p>Bunyan was generally charitable in his judgment upon others. If there +was any exception, it was of Professors who discredited their calling +by conceit and worldliness.</p> + +<p>'No sin,' he says, 'reigneth more in the world than pride among +Professors. The thing is too apparent for any man to deny. We may and +do see pride display itself in the apparel and carriage of Professors +almost as much as among any in the land. I have seen church members so +decked and bedaubed with their fangles and toys that when they have +been at worship I have wondered with what faces such painted persons +could sit in the place where they were without swooning. I once talked +with a maid, by way of reproof for her fond and gaudy garment; she +told me the tailor would make it so. Poor proud girl, she gave orders +to the tailor to make it so.'</p> + +<p>I will give one more extract from Bunyan's pastoral addresses. It +belongs to a later period in his ministry, when the law had, for a +time, remade Dissent into a crime; but it will throw light on the part +of his story which we are now approaching, and it is in every way very +characteristic of him. He is speaking to sufferers under persecution. +He says to them:—</p> + +<p>'Take heed of being offended with magistrates, because by their +statutes they may cross thy inclinations. It is given to them to bear +the sword, and a command is to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> thee, if thy heart cannot acquiesce +with all things, with meekness and patience to suffer. Discontent in +the mind sometimes puts discontent into the mouth; and discontent in +the mouth doth sometimes also put a halter about thy neck. For as a +man speaking a word in jest may for that be hanged in earnest, so he +that speaks in discontent may die for it in sober sadness. Above all, +get thy conscience possessed more and more with this, that the +magistrate is God's ordinance, and is ordered of God as such; that he +is the minister of God to thee for good, and that it is thy duty to +fear him and to pray for him; to give thanks to God for him and be +subject to him; as both Paul and Peter admonish us; and that not only +for wrath, but for conscience sake. For all other arguments come short +of binding the soul when this argument is wanting, until we believe +that of God we are bound thereto.</p> + +<p>'I speak not these things as knowing any that are disaffected to the +government, for I love to be alone, if not with godly men, in things +that are convenient. I speak to show my loyalty to the king, and my +love to my fellow-subjects, and my desire that all Christians shall +walk in ways of peace and truth.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h2>ARREST AND TRIAL.</h2> + + +<p>Bunyan's preaching enterprise became an extraordinary success. All the +Midland Counties heard of his fame, and demanded to hear him. He had +been Deacon under Gifford at the Bedford Church; but he was in such +request as a preacher, that, in 1657, he was released from his duties +there as unable to attend to them. Sects were springing up all over +England as weeds in a hotbed. He was soon in controversy; Controversy +with Church of England people; Controversy with the Ranters, who +believed Christ to be a myth; Controversy with the Quakers who, at +their outset, disbelieved in his Divinity and in the inspiration of +the Scriptures. Envy at his rapidly acquired reputation brought him +baser enemies. He was called a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman. It was +reported that he had 'his misses,' that he had two wives, &c. 'My foes +have missed their mark in this,' he said with honest warmth: 'I am not +the man. If all the fornicators and adulterers in England were hanged +by the neck, John Bunyan, the object of their envy, would be still +alive and well. I know not whether there be such a thing as a woman +breathing under the cope of the whole heavens but by their apparel, +their children, or common fame, except my wife.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>But a more serious trial was now before him. Cromwell passed away. The +Protectorate came to an end. England decided that it had had enough of +Puritans and republicans, and would give the Stuarts and the +Established Church another trial. A necessary consequence was the +revival of the Act of Uniformity. The Independents were not meek like +the Baptists, using no weapons to oppose what they disapproved but +passive resistance. The same motives which had determined the original +constitution of a Church combining the characters of Protestant and +Catholic, instead of leaving religion free, were even more powerful at +the Restoration than they had been at the accession of Elizabeth. +Before toleration is possible, men must have learnt to tolerate +toleration itself; and in times of violent convictions, toleration is +looked on as indifference, and indifference as Atheism in disguise. +Catholics and Protestants, Churchmen and Dissenters, regarded one +another as enemies of God and the State, with whom no peace was +possible. Toleration had been tried by the Valois princes in France. +Church and chapel had been the rendezvous of armed fanatics. The +preachers blew the war-trumpet, and every town and village had been +the scene of furious conflicts, which culminated in the Massacre of +St. Bartholomew. The same result would have followed in England if the +same experiment had been ventured. The different communities were +forbidden to have their separate places of worship, and services were +contrived which moderate men of all sorts could use and interpret +after their own convictions. The instrument required to be delicately +handled. It succeeded tolerably as long as Elizabeth lived. When +Elizabeth died, the balance was no longer fairly kept. The High Church +party obtained the ascendancy and abused<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> their power. Tyranny brought +revolution, and the Catholic element in turn disappeared. The Bishops +were displaced by Presbyterian elders. The Presbyterian elders became +in turn 'hireling wolves,' 'old priest' written in new characters. +Cromwell had left conscience free to Protestants. But even he had +refused equal liberty to Catholics and Episcopalians. He was gone too, +and Church and King were back again. How were they to stand? The stern +resolute men, to whom the Commonwealth had been the establishment of +God's kingdom upon earth, were as little inclined to keep terms with +Antichrist as the Church people had been inclined to keep terms with +Cromwell. To have allowed them to meet openly in their conventicles +would have been to make over the whole of England to them as a +seed-bed in which to plant sedition. It was pardonable, it was even +necessary, for Charles II. and his advisers, to fall back upon +Elizabeth's principles, at least as long as the ashes were still +glowing. Indulgence had to be postponed till cooler times. With the +Fifth Monarchy men abroad, every chapel, except those of the Baptists, +would have been a magazine of explosives.</p> + +<p>Under the 35th of Elizabeth, Nonconformists refusing to attend worship +in the parish churches were to be imprisoned till they made their +submission. Three months were allowed them to consider. If at the end +of that time they were still obstinate, they were to be banished the +realm; and if they subsequently returned to England without permission +from the Crown, they were liable to execution as felons. This Act had +fallen with the Long Parliament, but at the Restoration it was held to +have revived and to be still in force. The parish churches were +cleared of their unordained ministers. The Dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>senters' chapels were +closed. The people were required by proclamation to be present on +Sundays in their proper place. So the majority of the nation had +decided. If they had wished for religious liberty they would not have +restored the Stuarts, or they would have insisted on conditions, and +would have seen that they were observed.</p> + +<p>Venner's plot showed the reality of the danger and justified the +precaution.</p> + +<p>The Baptists and Quakers might have been trusted to discourage +violence, but it was impossible to distinguish among the various +sects, whose tenets were unknown and even unsettled. The great body of +Cromwell's spiritual supporters believed that armed resistance to a +government which they disapproved was not only lawful, but was +enjoined.</p> + +<p>Thus, no sooner was Charles II. on the throne than the Nonconformists +found themselves again under bondage. Their separate meetings were +prohibited, and they were not only forbidden to worship in their own +fashion, but they had to attend church, under penalties. The Bedford +Baptists refused to obey. Their meeting-house in the town was shut up, +but they continued to assemble in woods and outhouses; Bunyan +preaching to them as before, and going to the place in disguise. +Informers were soon upon his track. The magistrates had received +orders to be vigilant. Bunyan was the most prominent Dissenter in the +neighbourhood. He was too sensible to court martyrdom. He had intended +to leave the town till more quiet times, and had arranged to meet a +few of his people once more to give them a parting address. It was +November 12, 1660. The place agreed on was a house in the village of +Samsell near Harlington. Notice of his intention was privately +conveyed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> Mr. Wingate, a magistrate in the adjoining district. The +constables were set to watch the house, and were directed to bring +Bunyan before him. Some member of the congregation heard of it. Bunyan +was warned, and was advised to stay at home that night, or else to +conceal himself. His departure had been already arranged; but when he +learnt that a warrant was actually out against him, he thought that he +was bound to stay and face the danger. He was the first Nonconformist +who had been marked for arrest. If he flinched after he had been +singled out by name, the whole body of his congregation would be +discouraged. Go to church he would not, or promise to go to church; +but he was willing to suffer whatever punishment the law might order. +Thus at the time and place which had been agreed on, he was in the +room, at Samsell, with his Bible in his hand, and was about to begin +his address, when the constables entered and arrested him. He made no +resistance. He desired only to be allowed to say a few words, which +the constables permitted. He then prepared to go with them. He was not +treated with any roughness. It was too late to take him that night +before the magistrate. His friends undertook for his appearance when +he should be required, and he went home with them. The constables came +for him again on the following afternoon.</p> + +<p>Mr. Wingate, when the information was first brought to him, supposed +that he had fallen on a nest of Fifth Monarchy men. He enquired, when +Bunyan was brought in, how many arms had been found at the meeting. +When he learnt that there were no arms, and that it had no political +character whatever, he evidently thought it was a matter of no +consequence. He told Bunyan that he had been breaking the law, and +asked him why he could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> not attend to his business. Bunyan said that +his object in teaching was merely to persuade people to give up their +sins. He could do that and attend to his business also. Wingate +answered that the law must be obeyed. He must commit Bunyan for trial +at the Quarter Sessions; but he would take bail for him, if his +securities would engage that he would not preach again meanwhile. +Bunyan refused to be bailed on any such terms. Preach he would and +must, and the recognizances would be forfeited. After such an answer, +Wingate could only send him to gaol: he could not help himself. The +committal was made out, and Bunyan was being taken away, when two of +his friends met him, who were acquainted with Wingate, and they begged +the constable to wait. They went in to the magistrate. They told him +who and what Bunyan was. The magistrate had not the least desire to be +hard, and it was agreed that if he would himself give some general +promise of a vague kind he might be let go altogether. Bunyan was +called back. Another magistrate who knew him had by this time joined +Wingate. They both said that they were reluctant to send him to +prison. If he would promise them that he would not call the people +together any more, he might go home.</p> + +<p>They had purposely chosen a form of words which would mean as little +as possible. But Bunyan would not accept an evasion. He said that he +would not force the people to come together, but if he was in a place +where the people were met, he should certainly speak to them. The +magistrate repeated that the meetings were unlawful. They would be +satisfied if Bunyan would simply promise that he would not call such +meetings. It was as plain as possible that they wished to dismiss the +case, and they were thrusting words into his mouth which he could use<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +without a mental reservation; but he persisted that there were many +ways in which a meeting might be called; if people came together to +hear him, knowing that he would speak, he might be said to have called +them together.</p> + +<p>Remonstrances and entreaties were equally useless, and, with extreme +unwillingness, they committed him to Bedford Gaol to wait for the +sessions.</p> + +<p>It is not for us to say that Bunyan was too precise. He was himself +the best judge of what his conscience and his situation required. To +himself, at any rate, his trial was at the moment most severe. He had +been left a widower a year or two before, with four young children, +one of them blind. He had lately married a second time. His wife was +pregnant. The agitation at her husband's arrest brought on premature +labour, and she was lying in his house in great danger. He was an +affectionate man, and the separation at such a time was peculiarly +distressing. After some weeks the quarter sessions came on. Bunyan was +indicted under the usual form, that he 'being a person of such and +such condition had since such a time devilishly and perniciously +abstained from coming to church to hear Divine service, and was a +common upholder of unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great +disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of this kingdom, +contrary to the laws of our Sovereign Lord the King.'</p> + +<p>There seems to have been a wish to avoid giving him a formal trial. He +was not required to plead, and it may have been thought that he had +been punished sufficiently. He was asked why he did not go to church? +He said that the Prayer-book was made by man; he was ordered in the +Bible to pray with the spirit and the understanding, not with the +spirit and the Prayer-book. The magistrates,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> referring to another Act +of Parliament, cautioned Bunyan against finding fault with the +Prayer-book, or he would bring himself into further trouble. Justice +Keelin who presided said (so Bunyan declares, and it has been the +standing jest of his biographers ever since) that the Prayer-book had +been in use ever since the Apostles' time. Perhaps the words were that +parts of it had been then in use (the Apostles' Creed, for instance), +and thus they would have been strictly true. However this might be, +they told him kindly, as Mr. Wingate had done, that it would be better +for him if he would keep to his proper work. The law had prohibited +conventicles. He might teach, if he pleased, in his own family and +among his friends. He must not call large numbers of people together. +He was as impracticable as before, and the magistrates, being but +unregenerate mortals, may be pardoned if they found him provoking. If, +he said, it was lawful for him to do good to a few, it must be equally +lawful to do good to many. He had a gift, which he was bound to use. +If it was sinful for men to meet together to exhort one another to +follow Christ, he should sin still.</p> + +<p>He was compelling the Court to punish him, whether they wished it or +not. He describes the scene as if the choice had rested with the +magistrates to convict him or to let him go. If he was bound to do his +duty, they were equally bound to do theirs. They took his answers as a +plea of guilty to the indictment, and Justice Keelin, who was +chairman, pronounced his sentence in the terms of the Act. He was to +go to prison for three months; if, at the end of three months, he +still refused to conform, he was to be transported; and if he came +back without license he would be hanged. Bunyan merely answered, 'If +I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> were out of prison to-day, I would preach, the Gospel again +to-morrow.' More might have followed, but the gaoler led him away.</p> + +<p>There were three gaols in Bedford, and no evidence has been found to +show in which of the three Bunyan was confined. Two of them, the +county gaol and the town gaol, were large roomy buildings. Tradition +has chosen the third, a small lock-up, fourteen feet square, which +stood over the river between the central arches of the old bridge; and +as it appears from the story that he had at times fifty or sixty +fellow-prisoners, and as he admits himself that he was treated at +first with exceptional kindness, it may be inferred that tradition, in +selecting the prison on the bridge, was merely desiring to exhibit the +sufferings of the Nonconformist martyr in a sensational form, and that +he was never in this prison at all. When it was pulled down in 1811 a +gold ring was found in the rubbish, with the initials 'J. B.' upon it. +This is one of the 'trifles light as air' which carry conviction to +the 'jealous' only, and is too slight a foundation on which to assert +a fact so inherently improbable.</p> + +<p>When the three months were over, the course of law would have brought +him again to the bar, when he would have had to choose between +conformity and exile. There was still the same desire to avoid +extremities, and as the day approached, the clerk of the peace was +sent to persuade him into some kind of compliance. Various +insurrections had broken out since his arrest, and must have shown +him, if he could have reflected, that there was real reason for the +temporary enforcement of the Act. He was not asked to give up +preaching. He was asked only to give up public preaching. It was well +known that he had no disposition to rebellion. Even the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> going to +church was not insisted on. The clerk of the peace told him that he +might 'exhort his neighbours in private discourse,' if only he would +not bring the people together in numbers, which the magistrates would +be bound to notice. In this way he might continue his usefulness, and +would not be interfered with.</p> + +<p>Bunyan knew his own freedom from seditious intentions. He would not +see that the magistrates could not suspend the law and make an +exception in his favour. They were going already to the utmost limit +of indulgence. But the more he disapproved of rebellion, the more +punctilious he was in carrying out resistance of another kind which he +held to be legitimate. He was a representative person, and he thought +that in yielding he would hurt the cause of religious liberty. 'The +law,' he said, 'had provided two ways of obeying—one to obey +actively, and if he could not in conscience obey actively, then to +suffer whatever penalty was inflicted on him.'</p> + +<p>The clerk of the peace could produce no effect. Bunyan rather looked +on him as a false friend trying to entangle him. The three months +elapsed, and the magistrates had to determine what was to be done. If +Bunyan was brought before them, they must exile him. His case was +passed over and he was left in prison, where his wife and children +were allowed to visit him daily. He did not understand the law or +appreciate their forbearance. He exaggerated his danger. At the worst +he could only have been sent to America, where he might have remained +as long as he pleased. He feared that he might perhaps be hanged.</p> + +<p>'I saw what was coming,' he said, 'and had two considerations +especially on my heart, how to be able to endure, should my +imprisonment be long and tedious, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> how to be able to encounter +death should that be my portion. I was made to see that if I would +suffer rightly, I must pass sentence of death upon everything that can +properly be called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my +wife, my children, my health, my enjoyments all as dead to me, and +myself as dead to them. Yet I was a man compassed with infirmities. +The parting with my wife and poor children hath often been to me in +this place (the prison in which he was writing) as the pulling of my +flesh from my bones; and that not only because I am too, too, fond of +those great mercies, but also because I should have often brought to +my mind the hardships, miseries, and wants my poor family was like to +meet with should I be taken from them, especially my poor blind child, +who lay nearer my heart than all I had besides. Poor child, thought I, +what sorrow art thou like to have for thy portion in this world! Thou +must be beaten, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand +calamities, though I cannot now endure the wind should blow on thee. +But yet, thought I, I must venture all with God, though it goeth to +the quick to leave you. I was as a man who was pulling down his house +upon the head of his wife and children. Yet thought I, I must do it—I +must do it. I had this for consideration, that if I should now venture +all for God, I engaged God to take care of my concernments. Also I had +dread of the torments of hell, which I was sure they must partake of +that for fear of the cross do shrink from their profession. I had this +much upon my spirit, that my imprisonment might end in the gallows for +aught I could tell. In the condition I now was in I was not fit to +die, nor indeed did I think I could if I should be called to it. I +feared I might show a weak heart, and give occasion to the enemy. This +lay with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> great trouble on me, for methought I was ashamed to die with +a pale face and tottering knees for such a cause as this. The things +of God were kept out of my sight. The tempter followed me with, "But +whither must you go when you die? What will become of you? What +evidence have you for heaven and glory, and an inheritance among them +that are sanctified?" Thus was I tossed many weeks; but I felt it was +for the Word and way of God that I was in this condition. God might +give me comfort or not as He pleased. I was bound, but He was +free—yea, it was my duty to stand to His Word, whether He would ever +look upon me or no, or save me at the last. Wherefore, thought I, the +point being thus, I am for going on and venturing my eternal state +with Christ, whether I have comfort here or no. If God does not come +in, thought I, I will leap off the ladder even blindfold into +eternity, sink or swim, come heaven, come hell. Now was my heart full +of comfort.'</p> + +<p>The ladder was an imaginary ladder, but the resolution was a genuine +manly one, such as lies at the bottom of all brave and honourable +action. Others who have thought very differently from Bunyan about +such matters have felt the same as he felt. Be true to yourself +whatever comes, even if damnation come. Better hell with an honest +heart, than heaven with cowardice and insincerity. It was the more +creditable to Bunyan, too, because the spectres and hobgoblins had +begun occasionally to revisit him.</p> + +<p>'Of all temptations I ever met with in my life,' he says, 'to question +the being of God and the truth of His Gospel is the worst and worst to +be borne. When this temptation comes it takes my girdle from me and +removes the foundation from under me. Though God has visited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> my soul +with never so blessed a discovery of Himself, yet afterwards I have +been in my spirit so filled with darkness, that I could not so much as +once conceive what that God and that comfort was with which I had been +refreshed.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h2>THE BEDFORD GAOL.</h2> + + +<p>The irregularities in the proceedings against Bunyan had perhaps been +suggested by the anticipation of the general pardon which was expected +in the following spring. At the coronation of Charles, April 23, 1661, +an order was issued for the release of prisoners who were in gaol for +any offences short of felony. Those who were waiting their trials were +to be let go at once. Those convicted and under sentence might sue out +a pardon under the Great Seal at any time within a year from the +proclamation. Was Bunyan legally convicted or not? He had not pleaded +directly to the indictment. No evidence had been heard against him. +His trial had been a conversation between himself and the Court. The +point had been raised by his friends. His wife had been in London to +make interest for him, and a peer had presented a petition in Bunyan's +behalf in the House of Lords. The judges had been directed to look +again into the matter at the midsummer assizes. The high sheriff was +active in Bunyan's favour. The Judges Twisden, Chester, and no less a +person than Sir Matthew Hale, appear to have concluded that his +conviction was legal, that he could not be tried again, and that he +must apply for pardon in the regular way. His wife, however, at the +instance of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> sheriff, obtained a hearing, and they listened +courteously to what she had to say. When she had done, Mr. Justice +Twisden put the natural question, whether, if her husband was +released, he would refrain from preaching in public for the future. If +he intended to repeat his offence immediately that he was at liberty, +his liberty would only bring him into a worse position. The wife at +once said that he dared not leave off preaching as long as he could +speak. The judge asked if she thought her husband was to be allowed to +do as he pleased. She said that he was a peaceable person, and wished +only to be restored to a position in which he could maintain his +family. They had four small children who could not help themselves, +one of them being blind, and they had nothing to live upon as long as +her husband was in prison but the charity of their friends. Hale +remarked that she looked very young to have four children. 'I am but +mother-in-law to them,' she said, 'having not been married yet full +two years. I was with child when my husband was first apprehended, but +being young, I being dismayed at the news fell in labour, and so +continued for eight days. I was delivered, but my child died.'</p> + +<p>Hale was markedly kind. He told her that as the conviction had been +recorded they could not set it aside. She might sue out a pardon if +she pleased, or she might obtain 'a writ of error,' which would be +simpler and less expensive.</p> + +<p>She left the court in tears—tears, however, which were not altogether +tears of suffering innocence. 'It was not so much,' she said, 'because +they were so hardhearted against me and my husband, but to think what +a sad account such poor creatures would have to give at the coming of +the Lord.' No doubt both Bunyan and she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> thought themselves cruelly +injured, and they confounded the law with the administration of it. +Persons better informed than they often choose to forget that judges +are sworn to administer the law which they find, and rail at them as +if the sentences which they are obliged by their oaths to pass were +their own personal acts.</p> + +<p>A pardon, it cannot be too often said, would have been of no use to +Bunyan, because he was determined to persevere in disobeying a law +which he considered to be unjust. The most real kindness which could +be shown to him was to leave him where he was. His imprisonment was +intended to be little more than nominal. His gaoler, not certainly +without the sanction of the sheriff, let him go where he pleased; once +even so far as London. He used his liberty as he had declared that he +would. 'I followed my wonted course of preaching,' he says, 'taking +all occasions that were put in my hand to visit the people of God.' +This was deliberate defiance. The authorities saw that he must be +either punished in earnest or the law would fall into contempt. He +admitted that he expected to be 'roundly dealt with.' His indulgences +were withdrawn, and he was put into close confinement.</p> + +<p>Sessions now followed sessions, and assizes, assizes. His detention +was doubtless irregular, for by law he should have been sent beyond +the seas. He petitioned to be brought to trial again, and complained +loudly that his petition was not listened to; but no legislator, in +framing an Act of Parliament, ever contemplated an offender in so +singular a position. Bunyan was simply trying his strength against the +Crown and Parliament. The judges and magistrates respected his +character, and were unwilling to drive him out of the country; he had +himself no wish for liberty on that condition. The only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> resource, +therefore, was to prevent him forcibly from repeating an offence that +would compel them to adopt harsh measures which they were so earnestly +trying to avoid.</p> + +<p>Such was the world-famous imprisonment of John Bunyan, which has been +the subject of so much eloquent declamation. It lasted in all for more +than twelve years. It might have ended at any time if he would have +promised to confine his addresses to a private circle. It did end +after six years. He was released under the first declaration of +indulgence; but as he instantly recommenced his preaching, he was +arrested again. Another six years went by; he was again let go, and +was taken once more immediately after, preaching in a wood. This time +he was detained but a few months, and in form more than reality. The +policy of the government was then changed, and he was free for the +rest of his life.</p> + +<p>His condition during his long confinement has furnished a subject for +pictures which if correct would be extremely affecting. It is true +that, being unable to attend to his usual business, he spent his +unoccupied hours in making tags for bootlaces. With this one fact to +build on, and with the assumption that the scene of his sufferings was +the Bridge Lockhouse, Nonconformist imagination has drawn a 'den' for +us, 'where there was not a yard or a court to walk in for daily +exercise;' 'a damp and dreary cell;' 'a narrow chink which admits a +few scanty rays of light to render visible the abode of woe;' 'the +prisoner, pale and emaciated, seated on the humid earth, pursuing his +daily task, to earn the morsel which prolongs his existence and his +confinement together. Near him, reclining in pensive sadness, his +blind daughter, five other distressed children, and an affectionate +wife,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> whom pinching want and grief have worn down to the gate of +death. Ten summer suns have rolled over the mansion of his misery +whose reviving rays have never once penetrated his sad abode,' &c. &c.</p> + +<p>If this description resembles or approaches the truth, I can but say +that to have thus abandoned to want their most distinguished pastor +and his family was intensely discreditable to the Baptist community. +English prisons in the seventeenth century were not models of good +management. But prisoners, whose friends could pay for them, were not +consigned to damp and dreary cells; and in default of evidence of +which not a particle exists, I cannot charge so reputable a community +with a neglect so scandalous. The entire story is in itself +incredible. Bunyan was prosperous in his business. He was respected +and looked up to by a large and growing body of citizens, including +persons of wealth and position in London. He was a representative +sufferer fighting the battle of all the Nonconformists in England. He +had active supporters in the town of Bedford and among the gentlemen +of the county. The authorities, so far as can be inferred from their +actions, tried from the first to deal as gently with him as he would +allow them to do. Is it conceivable that the Baptists would have left +his family to starve; or that his own confinement would have been made +so absurdly and needlessly cruel? Is it not far more likely that he +found all the indulgences which money could buy and the rules of the +prison would allow? Bunyan is not himself responsible for these wild +legends. Their real character appears more clearly when we observe how +he was occupied during these years.</p> + +<p>Friends, in the first place, had free access to him, and strangers who +were drawn to him by reputation; while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> the gaol was considered a +private place, and he was allowed to preach there, at least +occasionally, to his fellow-prisoners. Charles Doe, a distinguished +Nonconformist, visited him in his confinement, and has left an account +of what he saw. 'When I was there,' he writes, 'there were about sixty +dissenters besides himself, taken but a little before at a religious +meeting at Kaistor, in the county of Bedford, besides two eminent +dissenting ministers, Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Dun, by which means the +prison was much crowded. Yet, in the midst of all that hurry, I heard +Mr. Bunyan both preach and pray with that mighty spirit of faith and +plerophory of Divine assistance, that he made me stand and wonder. +Here they could sing without fear of being overheard; no informers +prowling round, and the world shut out.'</p> + +<p>This was not all. A fresh and more severe Conventicle Act was passed +in 1670. Attempts were made to levy fines in the town of Bedford. +There was a riot there. The local officers refused to assist in +quelling it. The shops were shut. Bedford was occupied by soldiers. +Yet, at this very time, Bunyan was again allowed to go abroad through +general connivance. He spent his nights with his family. He even +preached now and then in the woods. Once when he had intended to be +out for the night, information was given to a clerical magistrate in +the neighbourhood, who disliked him, and a constable was sent to +ascertain if the prisoners were all within ward. Bunyan had received a +hint of what was coming. He was in his place when the constable came; +and the governor of the gaol is reported to have said to him, 'You may +go out when you please, for you know better when to return than I can +tell you.' Parliament might pass laws, but the execution of them +depended on the local<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> authorities. Before the Declaration of +Indulgence, the Baptist church in Bedford was reopened. Bunyan, while +still nominally in confinement, attended its meetings. In 1671 he +became an Elder; in December of that year he was chosen Pastor. The +question was raised whether, as a prisoner, he was eligible. The +objection would not have been set aside had he been unable to +undertake the duties of the office. These facts prove conclusively +that, for a part at least of the twelve years, the imprisonment was +little more than formal. He could not have been in the Bridge Gaol +when he had sixty fellow-prisoners, and was able to preach to them in +private. It is unlikely that at any time he was made to suffer any +greater hardships than were absolutely inevitable.</p> + +<p>But whether Bunyan's confinement was severe or easy, it was otherwise +of inestimable value to him. It gave him leisure to read and reflect. +Though he preached often, yet there must have been intervals, perhaps +long intervals, of compulsory silence. The excitement of perpetual +speech-making is fatal to the exercise of the higher qualities. The +periods of calm enabled him to discover powers in himself of which he +might otherwise have never known the existence. Of books he had but +few; for a time only the Bible and Foxe's 'Martyrs.' But the Bible +thoroughly known is a literature of itself—the rarest and the richest +in all departments of thought or imagination which exists. Foxe's +'Martyrs,' if he had a complete edition of it, would have given him a +very adequate knowledge of history. With those two books he had no +cause to complain of intellectual destitution. He must have read more, +however. He knew George Herbert—perhaps Spenser—perhaps 'Paradise +Lost.' But of books, except of the Bible, he was at no time a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> great +student. Happily for himself, he had no other book of Divinity, and he +needed none. His real study was human life as he had seen it, and the +human heart as he had experienced the workings of it. Though he never +mastered successfully the art of verse, he had other gifts which +belong to a true poet. He had imagination, if not of the highest, yet +of a very high order. He had infinite inventive humour, tenderness, +and, better than all, powerful masculine sense. To obtain the use of +these faculties he needed only composure, and this his imprisonment +secured for him. He had published several theological compositions +before his arrest, which have relatively little value. Those which he +wrote in prison—even on theological subjects—would alone have made +him a reputation as a Nonconformist divine. In no other writings are +the peculiar views of Evangelical Calvinism brought out more clearly, +or with a more heartfelt conviction of their truth. They have +furnished an arsenal from which English Protestant divines have ever +since equipped themselves. The most beautiful of them, 'Grace +Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,' is his own spiritual biography, +which contains the account of his early history. The first part of the +'Pilgrim's Progress' was composed there as an amusement. To this, and +to his other works which belong to literature, I shall return in a +future chapter.</p> + +<p>Visitors who saw him in the gaol found his manner and presence as +impressive as his writings. 'He was mild and affable in conversation,' +says one of them, 'not given to loquacity or to much discourse, unless +some urgent occasion required. It was observed he never spoke of +himself or of his talents, but seemed low in his own eyes. He was +never heard to reproach or revile any,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> whatever injury he received, +but rather rebuked those who did so. He managed all things with such +exactness as if he had made it his study not to give offence.'</p> + +<p>The final 'Declaration of Indulgence' came at last, bringing with it +the privilege for which Bunyan had fought and suffered. Charles II. +cared as little for liberty as his father or his brother, but he +wished to set free the Catholics, and as a step towards it he conceded +a general toleration to the Protestant Dissenters. Within two years of +the passing of the Conventicle Act of 1670, this and every other penal +law against Nonconformists was suspended. They were allowed to open +their 'meeting houses' for 'worship and devotion,' subject only to a +few easy conditions. The localities were to be specified in which +chapels were required, and the ministers were to receive their +licenses from the Crown. To prevent suspicions, the Roman Catholics +were for the present excluded from the benefit of the concession. Mass +could be said, as before, only in private houses. A year later the +Proclamation was confirmed by Act of Parliament.</p> + +<p>Thus Bunyan's long imprisonment was ended. The cause was won. He had +been its foremost representative and champion, and was one of the +first persons to receive the benefit of the change of policy. He was +now forty-four years old. The order for his release was signed on May +8, 1672. His license as pastor of the Baptist chapel at Bedford was +issued on the 9th. He established himself in a small house in the +town. 'When he came abroad,' says one, 'he found his temporal affairs +were gone to wreck, and he had as to them to begin again as if he had +newly come into the world. But yet he was not destitute of friends who +had all along supported him with necessaries, and had been very good +to his family: so that by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> their assistance, getting things a little +about him again, he resolved, as much as possible, to decline worldly +business, and give himself wholly up to the service of God.' As much +as possible; but not entirely. In 1685, being afraid of a return of +persecution, he made over, as a precaution, his whole estate to his +wife; 'All and singular his goods, chattels, debts, ready money, +plate, rings, household stuff, apparel, utensils, brass, pewter, +bedding, and all his other substance.' In this deed he still describes +himself as a brazier. The language is that of a man in easy, if not +ample circumstances. 'Though by reason of losses which he sustained by +imprisonment,' says another biographer, 'his treasures swelled not to +excess, he always had sufficient to live decently and creditably.' His +writings and his sufferings had made him famous throughout England. He +became the actual head of the Baptist community. Men called him, half +in irony, half in seriousness, Bishop Bunyan, and he passed the rest +of his life honourably and innocently, occupied in writing, preaching, +district visiting, and opening daughter churches. Happy in his work, +happy in the sense that his influence was daily extending—spreading +over his own country, and to the far-off settlements in America, he +spent his last years in his own land of Beulah, Doubting Castle out of +sight, and the towers and minarets of Emmanuel Land growing nearer and +clearer as the days went on.</p> + +<p>He had not detected, or at least, at first, he did not detect, the +sinister purpose which lay behind the Indulgence. The exception of the +Roman Catholics gave him perfect confidence in the Government, and +after his release he published a 'Discourse upon Antichrist,' with a +preface, in which he credited Charles with the most righteous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +intentions, and urged his countrymen to be loyal and faithful to him. +His object in writing it, he said, 'was to testify his loyalty to the +King, his love to the brethren, and his service to his country.' +Antichrist was of course the Pope, the deadliest of all enemies to +vital Christianity. To its kings and princes England owed its past +deliverance from him. To kings England must look for his final +overthrow.</p> + +<p>'As the noble King Henry VIII. did cast down the Antichristian +worship, so he cast down the laws that held it up; so also did the +good King Edward his son. The brave Queen Elizabeth, also, the sister +of King Edward, left of things of this nature to her lasting fame +behind her.' Cromwell he dared not mention—perhaps he did not wish to +mention him. But he evidently believed that there was better hope in +Charles Stuart than in conspiracy and revolution.</p> + +<p>'Kings,' he said, 'must be the men that shall down with Antichrist, +and they shall down with her in God's time. God hath begun to draw the +hearts of some of them from her already, and He will set them in time +against her round about. If, therefore, they do not that work so fast +as we would have them, let us exercise patience and hope in God. 'Tis +a wonder they go as fast as they do since the concerns of whole +kingdoms lie upon their shoulders, and there are so many Sanballats +and Tobias's to flatter them and misinform them. Let the King have +visibly a place in your hearts, and with heart and mouth give God +thanks for him. He is a better Saviour of us than we may be aware of, +and hath delivered us from more deaths than we can tell how to think. +We are bidden to give God thanks for all men, and in the first place +for kings, and all that are in autho<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>rity. Be not angry with them, no +not in thy thought. But consider if they go not in the work of +Reformation so fast as thou wouldest they should, the fault may be +thine. Know that thou also hast thy cold and chill frames of heart, +and sittest still when thou shouldest be up and doing. Pray for the +long life of the King. Pray that God would give wisdom and judgment to +the King. Pray that God would discern all plots and conspiracies +against his person and government. I do confess myself one of the +old-fashioned professors that wish to fear God and honour the King. I +am also for blessing them that curse me, for doing good to them that +hate me, and for praying for them that despitefully use me and +persecute me; and I have had more peace in the practice of these +things than all the world are aware of.'</p> + +<p>The Stuarts, both Charles and James, were grateful for Bunyan's +services. The Nonconformists generally went up and down in Royal +favour; lost their privileges and regained them as their help was +needed or could be dispensed with. But Bunyan was never more molested. +He did what he liked. He preached where he pleased, and no one +troubled him or called him to account. He was not insincere. His +constancy in enduring so long an imprisonment which a word from him +would have ended, lifts him beyond the reach of unworthy suspicions. +But he disapproved always of violent measures. His rule was to submit +to the law; and where, as he said, he could not obey actively, then to +bear with patience the punishment that might be inflicted on him. +Perhaps he really hoped, as long as hope was possible, that good might +come out of the Stuarts.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h2>LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMAN.</h2> + + +<p>To his contemporaries Bunyan was known as the Nonconformist Martyr, +and the greatest living Protestant preacher. To us he is mainly +interesting through his writings, and especially through the +'Pilgrim's Progress.' Although he possessed, in a remarkable degree, +the gift of expressing himself in written words, he had himself no +value for literature. He cared simply for spiritual truth, and +literature in his eyes was only useful as a means of teaching it. +Every thing with which a reasonable man could concern himself was +confined within the limits of Christian faith and practice. Ambition +was folly. Amusement was idle trifling in a life so short as man's, +and with issues so far-reaching depending upon it. To understand, and +to make others understand, what Christ had done, and what Christ +required men to do, was the occupation of his whole mind, and no +object ever held his attention except in connection with it. With a +purpose so strict, and a theory of religion so precise, there is +usually little play for imagination or feeling. Though we read +Protestant theology as a duty, we find it as dry in the mouth as +sawdust. The literature which would please must represent nature, and +nature refuses to be bound into our dogmatic systems. No object can be +pictured truly, except by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> a mind which has sympathy with it. +Shakespeare no more hates Iago than Iago hates himself. He allows Iago +to exhibit himself in his own way, as nature does. Every character, if +justice is to be done to it, must be painted at its best, as it +appears to itself; and a man impressed deeply with religious +convictions is generally incapable of the sympathy which would give +him an insight into what he disapproves and dislikes. And yet Bunyan, +intensely religious as he was, and narrow as his theology was, is +always human. His genius remains fresh and vigorous under the least +promising conditions. All mankind being under sin together, he has no +favourites to flatter, no opponents to misrepresent. There is a +kindliness in his descriptions, even of the Evil One's attacks upon +himself.</p> + +<p>The 'Pilgrim's Progress,' though professedly an allegoric story of the +Protestant plan of salvation, is conceived in the large, wide spirit +of humanity itself. Anglo-Catholic and Lutheran, Calvinist and Deist +can alike read it with delight, and find their own theories in it. +Even the Romanist has only to blot out a few paragraphs, and can +discover no purer model of a Christian life to place in the hands of +his children. The religion of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is the religion +which must be always and everywhere, as long as man believes that he +has a soul and is responsible for his actions; and thus it is that, +while theological folios once devoured as manna from Heaven now lie on +the bookshelves dead as Egyptian mummies, this book is wrought into +the mind and memory of every well-conditioned English or American +child; while the matured man, furnished with all the knowledge which +literature can teach him, still finds the adventures of Christian as +charming as the adventures of Ulysses or Æneas. He sees there the +reflexion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> himself, the familiar features of his own nature, which +remain the same from era to era. Time cannot impair its interest, or +intellectual progress make it cease to be true to experience.</p> + +<p>But the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' though the best known, is not the only +work of imagination which Bunyan produced; he wrote another religious +allegory, which Lord Macaulay thought would have been the best of its +kind in the world if the 'Pilgrim's Progress' had not existed. The +'Life of Mr. Badman,' though now scarcely read at all, contains a +vivid picture of rough English life in the days of Charles II. Bunyan +was a poet, too, in the technical sense of the word, and though he +disclaimed the name, and though rhyme and metre were to him as Saul's +armour to David, the fine quality of his mind still shows itself in +the uncongenial accoutrements.</p> + +<p>It has been the fashion to call Bunyan's verse doggerel; but no verse +is doggerel which has a sincere and rational meaning in it. Goethe, +who understood his own trade, says that the test of poetry is the +substance which remains when the poetry is reduced to prose. Bunyan +had infinite invention. His mind was full of objects which he had +gathered at first hand, from observation and reflection. He had +excellent command of the English language, and could express what he +wished with sharp, defined outlines, and without the waste of a word. +The rhythmical structure of his prose is carefully correct. Scarcely a +syllable is ever out of place. His ear for verse, though less true, is +seldom wholly at fault, and whether in prose or verse, he had the +superlative merit that he could never write nonsense. If one of the +motives of poetical form be to clothe thought and feeling in the dress +in which it can lie most easily remembered, Bunyan's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> lines are often +as successful as the best lines of Quarles or George Herbert. Who, for +instance, could forget these?—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sin is the worm of hell, the lasting fire:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hell would soon lose its heat should sin expire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Better sinless in hell than to be where<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaven is, and to be found a sinner there.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Or these, on persons whom the world calls men of spirit:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though you dare crack a coward's crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or quarrel for a pin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You dare not on the wicked frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or speak against their sin.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The 'Book of Ruth' and the 'History of Joseph' done into blank verse +are really beautiful idylls. The substance with which he worked, +indeed, is so good that there would be a difficulty in spoiling it +completely; but the prose of the translation in the English Bible, +faultless as it is, loses nothing in Bunyan's hands, and if we found +these poems in the collected works of a poet laureate, we should +consider that a difficult task had been accomplished successfully. +Bunyan felt, like the translators of the preceding century, that the +text was sacred, that his duty was to give the exact meaning of it, +without epithets or ornaments, and thus the original grace is +completely preserved.</p> + +<p>Of a wholly different kind, and more after Quarles's manner, is a +collection of thoughts in verse, which he calls a book for boys and +girls. All his observations ran naturally in one direction; to minds +possessed and governed by religion, nature, be their creed what it +may, is always a parable reflecting back their own views.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> + +<p>But how neatly expressed are these 'Meditations upon an Egg':—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The egg's no chick by falling from a hen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor man's a Christian till he's born again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The egg's at first contained in the shell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men afore grace in sin and darkness dwell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The egg, when laid, by warmth is made a chicken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Christ by grace the dead in sin doth quicken;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The egg when first a chick the shell's its prison,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So flesh to soul who yet with Christ is risen.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Or this, 'On a Swallow':—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This pretty bird! Oh, how she flies and sings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But could she do so if she had not wings?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her wings bespeak my faith, her songs my peace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I believe and sing, my doubtings cease.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Though the Globe Theatre was, in the opinion of Nonconformists, 'the +heart of Satan's empire,' Bunyan must yet have known something of +Shakespeare. In the second part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' we find:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who would true valour see,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let him come hither;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One here will constant be,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come wind, come weather.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The resemblance to the song in 'As You Like It' is too near to be +accidental:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who doth ambition shun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And loves to be in the sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeking the food he eats,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pleased with what he gets,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come hither, come hither, come hither.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here shall be no enemy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save winter and rough weather.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Bunyan may, perhaps, have heard the lines, and the rhymes may have +clung to him without his knowing whence they came. But he would never +have been heard of outside his own communion, if his imagination had +found no better form of expression for itself than verse. His especial +gift was for allegory, the single form of imaginative fiction which he +would not have considered trivial, and his especial instrument was +plain, unaffected Saxon prose. 'The Holy War' is a people's Paradise +Lost and Paradise Regained in one. The 'Life of Mr. Badman' is a +didactic tale, describing the career of a vulgar, middle-class, +unprincipled scoundrel.</p> + +<p>These are properly Bunyan's 'works,' the results of his life so far as +it affects the present generation of Englishmen; and as they are +little known, I shall give an account of each of them.</p> + +<p>The 'Life of Badman' is presented as a dialogue between Mr. Wiseman +and Mr. Attentive. Mr. Wiseman tells the story, Mr. Attentive comments +upon it. The names recall Bunyan's well-known manner. The figures +stand for typical characters; but as the <i>dramatis personæ</i> of many +writers of fiction, while professing to be beings of flesh and blood +are no more than shadows, so Bunyan's shadows are solid men whom we +can feel and handle.</p> + +<p>Mr. Badman is, of course, one of the 'reprobate.' Bunyan considered +theoretically that a reprobate may to outward appearance have the +graces of a saint, and that there may be little in his conduct to mark +his true character. A reprobate may be sorry for his sins, he may +repent and lead a good life. He may reverence good men and may try to +resemble them; he may pray, and his prayers may be answered; he may +have the spirit of God, and may receive another heart, and yet he may +be under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> the covenant of works, and may be eternally lost. This +Bunyan could say while he was writing theology; but art has its rules +as well as its more serious sister, and when he had to draw a living +specimen, he drew him as he had seen him in his own Bedford +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Badman showed from childhood a propensity for evil. He was so +'addicted to lying that his parents could not distinguish when he was +speaking the truth. He would invent, tell, and stand to the lies which +he invented, with such an audacious face, that one might read in his +very countenance the symptoms of a hard and desperate heart. It was +not the fault of his parents; they were much dejected at the +beginnings of their son, nor did he want counsel and correction, if +that would have made him better: but all availed nothing.'</p> + +<p>Lying was not Badman's only fault. He took to pilfering and stealing. +He robbed his neighbours' orchards. He picked up money if he found it +lying about. Especially, Mr. Wiseman notes that he hated Sundays. +'Reading Scriptures, godly conferences, repeating of sermons and +prayers, were things that he could not away with.' 'He was an enemy to +that day, because more restraint was laid upon him from his own ways +than was possible on any other.' Mr. Wiseman never doubts that the +Puritan Sunday ought to have been appreciated by little boys. If a +child disliked it, the cause could only be his own wickedness. Young +Badman 'was greatly given also to swearing and cursing.' 'He made no +more of it' than Mr. Wiseman made 'of telling his fingers.' 'He +counted it a glory to swear and curse, and it was as natural to him as +to eat, drink, or sleep.' Bunyan, in this description, is supposed to +have taken the picture from himself. But too much may be made of this. +He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> was thinking, perhaps, of what he might have been if God's grace +had not preserved him. He himself was saved. Badman is represented as +given over from the first. Anecdotes, however, are told of +contemporary providential judgments upon swearers, which had much +impressed Bunyan. One was of a certain Dorothy Mately, a woman whose +business was to wash rubbish at the Derby lead mines. Dorothy (it was +in the year when Bunyan was first imprisoned), had stolen twopence +from the coat of a boy who was working near her. When the boy taxed +her with having robbed him, she wished the ground might swallow her up +if she had ever touched his money. Presently after, some children who +were watching her, saw a movement in the bank on which she was +standing. They called to her to take care, but it was too late. The +bank fell in, and she was carried down along with it. A man ran to +help her, but the sides of the pit were crumbling round her: a large +stone fell on her head; the rubbish followed, and she was overwhelmed. +When she was dug out afterwards, the pence were found in her pocket. +Bunyan was perfectly satisfied that her death was supernatural. To +discover miracles is not peculiar to Catholics. They will be found +wherever there is an active belief in immediate providential +government.</p> + +<p>Those more cautious in forming their conclusions will think, perhaps, +that the woman was working above some shaft in the mine, that the +crust had suddenly broken, and that it would equally have fallen in +when gravitation required it to fall, if Dorothy Mately had been a +saint. They will remember the words about the Tower of Siloam. But to +return to Badman.</p> + +<p>His father, being unable to manage so unpromising a child, bound him +out as an apprentice. The master to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> whom he was assigned was as good +a man as the father could find: uptight, Godfearing, and especially +considerate of his servants. He never worked them too hard. He left +them time to read and pray. He admitted no light or mischievous books +within his doors. He was not one of those whose religion 'hung as a +cloke in his house, and was never seen on him when he went abroad.' +His household was as well fed and cared for as himself, and he +required nothing of others of which he did not set them an example in +his own person.</p> + +<p>This man did his best to reclaim young Badman, and was particularly +kind to him. But his exertions were thrown away. The good-for-nothing +youth read filthy romances on the sly. He fell asleep in church, or +made eyes at the pretty girls. He made acquaintance with low +companions. He became profligate, got drunk at alehouses, sold his +master's property to get money, or stole it out of the cashbox. Thrice +he ran away and was taken back again. The third time he was allowed to +go. 'The House of Correction would have been the most fit for him, but +thither his master was loath to send him, for the love he bore his +father.'</p> + +<p>He was again apprenticed; this time to a master like himself. Being +wicked he was given over to wickedness. The ways of it were not +altogether pleasant. He was fed worse and he was worked harder than he +had been before; when he stole, or neglected his business, he was +beaten. He liked his new place, however, better than the old. 'At +least, there was no godliness in the house, which he hated worst of +all.'</p> + +<p>So far, Bunyan's hero was travelling the usual road of the Idle +Apprentice, and the gallows would have been the commonplace ending of +it. But this would not have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> answered Bunyan's purpose. He wished to +represent the good-for-nothing character, under the more instructive +aspect of worldly success, which bad men may arrive at as well as +good, if they are prudent and cunning. Bunyan gives his hero every +chance. He submits him from the first to the best influences; he +creates opportunities for repentance at every stage of a long +career—opportunities which the reprobate nature cannot profit by, yet +increases its guilt by neglecting.</p> + +<p>Badman's term being out, his father gives him money and sets him up as +a tradesman on his own account. Mr. Attentive considers this to have +been a mistake. Mr. Wiseman answers that even in the most desperate +cases, kindness in parents is more likely to succeed than severity, +and if it fails they will have the less to reproach themselves with. +The kindness is, of course, thrown away. Badman continues a loose +blackguard, extravagant, idle and dissolute. He comes to the edge of +ruin. His situation obliges him to think; and now the interest of the +story begins. He must repair his fortune by some means or other. The +easiest way is by marriage. There was a young orphan lady in the +neighbourhood, who was well off and her own mistress. She was a +'professor' eagerly given to religion, and not so wise as she ought to +have been. Badman pretends to be converted. He reforms, or seems to +reform. He goes to meeting, sings hymns, adopts the most correct form +of doctrine, tells the lady that he does not want her money, but that +he wants a companion who will go with him along the road to Heaven. He +was plausible, good-looking, and, to all appearance, as absorbed as +herself in the one thing needful. The congregation warn her, but to no +purpose. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> marries him, and finds what she has done too late. In +her fortune he has all that he wanted. He swears at her, treats her +brutally, brings prostitutes into his house, laughs at her religion, +and at length orders her to give it up. When she refuses, Bunyan +introduces a special feature of the times, and makes Badman threaten +to turn informer, and bring her favourite minister to gaol. The +informers were the natural but most accursed products of the +Conventicle Acts. Popular abhorrence relieved itself by legends of the +dreadful judgments which had overtaken these wretches.</p> + +<p>In St. Neots an informer was bitten by a dog. The wound gangrened and +the flesh rotted off his bones. In Bedford 'there was one W. S.' +(Bunyan probably knew him too well), 'a man of very wicked life, and +he, when there seemed to be countenance given to it, would needs turn +informer. Well, so he did, and was as diligent in his business as most +of them could be. He would watch at nights, climb trees and range the +woods of days, if possible to find out the meeters, for then they were +forced to meet in the fields. Yea, he would curse them bitterly, and +swore most fearfully what he would do to them when he found them. +Well, after he had gone on like a Bedlam in his course awhile, and had +done some mischief to the people, he was stricken by the hand of God. +He was taken with a faltering in his speech, a weakness in the back +sinews of his neck, that ofttimes he held up his head by strength of +hand. After this his speech went quite away, and he could speak no +more than a swine or a bear. Like one of them he would gruntle and +make an ugly noise, according as he was offended or pleased, or would +have anything done. He walked about till God had made a sufficient +spectacle of his judgments<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> for his sin, and then, on a sudden, he was +stricken, and died miserably.'</p> + +<p>Badman, says Mr. Wiseman, 'had malice enough in his heart' to turn +informer, but he was growing prudent and had an eye to the future. As +a tradesman he had to live by his neighbours. He knew that they would +not forgive him, so 'he had that wit in his anger that he did it not.' +Nothing else was neglected to make the unfortunate wife miserable. She +bore him seven children, also typical figures. 'One was a very +gracious child, that loved its mother dearly. This child Mr. Badman +could not abide, and it oftenest felt the weight of its father's +fingers. Three were as bad as himself. The others that remained became +a kind of mongrel professors, not so bad as their father nor so good +as their mother, but betwixt them both. They had their mother's +notions and their father's actions. Their father did not like them +because they had their mother's tongue. Their mother did not like them +because they had their father's heart and life, nor were they fit +company for good or bad. They were forced with Esau to join in +affinity with Ishmael, to wit, to look out for a people that were +hypocrites like themselves, and with them they matched and lived and +died.'</p> + +<p>Badman meanwhile, with the help of his wife's fortune, grew into an +important person, and his character becomes a curious study. 'He +went,' we are told, 'to school with the Devil, from his childhood to +the end of his life.' He was shrewd in matters of business, began to +extend his operations, and 'drove a great trade.' He carried a double +face. He was evil with the evil. He pretended to be good with the +good. In religion he affected to be a freethinker, careless of death +and judgment, and ridiculing those who feared them 'as frighted with +unseen bugbears.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> But he wore a mask when it suited him, and admired +himself for the ease with which he could assume whatever aspect was +convenient. 'I can be religious and irreligious,' he said; 'I can be +anything or nothing. I can swear and speak against swearing. I can lie +and speak against lying. I can drink, wench, be unclean, and defraud, +and not be troubled for it. I can enjoy myself and am master of my own +ways, not they of me. This I have attained with much study, care, and +pains.' 'An Atheist Badman was, if such a thing as an Atheist could +be. He was not alone in that mystery. There was abundance of men of +the same mind and the same principle. He was only an arch or chief one +among them.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Badman now took to speculation, which Bunyan's knowledge of +business enabled him to describe with instructive minuteness. His +adventures were on a large scale, and by some mistakes and by personal +extravagance he had nearly ruined himself a second time. In this +condition he discovered a means, generally supposed to be a more +modern invention, of 'getting money by hatfuls.'</p> + +<p>'He gave a sudden and great rush into several men's debts to the value +of four or five thousand pounds, driving at the same time a very great +trade by selling many things for less than they cost him, to get him +custom and blind his creditors' eyes. When he had well feathered his +nest with other men's goods and money, after a little while he breaks; +while he had by craft and knavery made so sure of what he had, that +his creditors could not touch a penny. He sends mournful sugared +letters to them, desiring them not to be severe with him, for he bore +towards all men an honest mind, and would pay them as far as he was +able. He talked of the greatness of the taxes, the badness of the +times, his losses by bad debts, and he brought them to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> composition +to take five shillings in the pound. His release was signed and +sealed, and Mr. Badman could now put his head out of doors again, and +be a better man than when he shut up shop by several thousands of +pounds.'</p> + +<p>Twice or three times he repeated the same trick with equal success. It +is likely enough that Bunyan was drawing from life and perhaps from a +member of his own congregation; for he says that 'he had known a +professor do it.' He detested nothing so much as sham religion which +was put on as a pretence. 'A professor,' he exclaims, 'and practise +such villanies as these! Such an one is not worthy the name. Go +professors, go—leave off profession unless you will lead your lives +according to your profession. Better never profess than make +profession a stalking horse to sin, deceit, the devil, and hell.'</p> + +<p>Bankruptcy was not the only art by which Badman piled up his fortune. +The seventeenth century was not so far behind us as we sometimes +persuade ourselves. 'He dealt by deceitful weights and measures. He +kept weights to buy by and weights to sell by, measures to buy by and +measures to sell by. Those he bought by were too big, and those he +sold by were too little. If he had to do with other men's weights and +measures, he could use a thing called sleight of hand. He had the art +besides to misreckon men in their accounts, whether by weight or +measure or money; and if a question was made of his faithful dealing, +he had his servants ready that would vouch and swear to his look or +word. He would sell goods that cost him not the best price by far, for +as much as he sold his best of all for. He had also a trick to mingle +his commodity, that that which was bad might go off with the least +mistrust. If any of his customers paid him money, he would call for +payment a second<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> time, and if they could not produce good and +sufficient ground of the payment, a hundred to one but they paid it +again.'</p> + +<p>'To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest' was Mr. +Badman's common rule in business. According to modern political +economy, it is the cardinal principle of wholesome trade. In Bunyan's +opinion it was knavery in disguise, and certain to degrade and +demoralise everyone who acted upon it. Bunyan had evidently thought on +the subject. Mr. Attentive is made to object:—</p> + +<p>'But you know that there is no settled price set by God upon any +commodity that is bought or sold under the sun; but all things that we +buy and sell do ebb and flow as to price like the tide. How then shall +a man of tender conscience do, neither to wrong the seller, buyer, nor +himself in the buying and selling of commodities?'</p> + +<p>Mr. Wiseman answers in the spirit of our old Acts of Parliament, +before political economy was invented:—</p> + +<p>'Let a man have conscience towards God, charity to his neighbours, and +moderation in dealing. Let the tradesman consider that there is not +that in great gettings and in abundance which the most of men do +suppose; for all that a man has over and above what serves for his +present necessity and supply, serves only to feed the lusts of the +eye. Be thou confident that God's eyes are upon thy ways; that He +marks them, writes them down, and seals them up in a bag against the +time to come. Be sure that thou rememberest that thou knowest not the +day of thy death. Thou shalt have nothing that thou mayest so much as +carry away in thy hand. Guilt shall go with thee if thou hast gotten +thy substance dishonestly, and they to whom thou shalt leave it shall +receive it to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> hurt. These things duly considered, I will shew +thee how thou should'st live in the practical part of this art. Art +thou to buy or sell? If thou sellest do not commend. If thou buyest do +not dispraise, any otherwise but to give the thing that thou hast to +do with its just value and worth. Art thou a seller and do things grow +cheap? set not thy hand to help or hold them up higher. Art thou a +buyer and do things grow dear? use no cunning or deceitful language to +pull them down. Leave things to the Providence of God, and do thou +with moderation submit to his hand. Hurt not thy neighbour by crying +out Scarcity, scarcity! beyond the truth of things. Especially take +heed of doing this by way of a prognostic for time to come. This +wicked thing may be done by hoarding up (food) when the hunger and +necessity of the poor calls for it. If things rise do thou be grieved. +Be also moderate in all thy sellings, and be sure let the poor have a +pennyworth, and sell thy corn to those who are in necessity; which +thou wilt do when thou showest mercy to the poor in thy selling to +him, and when thou undersellest the market for his sake because he is +poor. This is to buy and sell with a good conscience. The buyer thou +wrongest not, thy conscience thou wrongest not, thyself thou wrongest +not, for God will surely recompense with thee.'</p> + +<p>These views of Bunyan's are at issue with modern science, but his +principles and ours are each adjusted to the objects of desire which +good men in those days and good men in ours have respectively set +before themselves. If wealth means money, as it is now assumed to do, +Bunyan is wrong and modern science right. If wealth means moral +welfare, then those who aim at it will do well to follow Bunyan's +advice. It is to be feared that this part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> of his doctrine is less +frequently dwelt upon by those who profess to admire and follow him, +than the theory of imputed righteousness or justification by faith.</p> + +<p>Mr. Badman by his various ingenuities became a wealthy man. His +character as a tradesman could not have been a secret from his +neighbours, but money and success coloured it over. The world spoke +well of him. He became 'proud and haughty,' took part in public +affairs, 'counted himself as wise as the wisest in the country, as +good as the best, and as beautiful as he that had the most of it.' 'He +took great delight in praising himself, and as much in the praises +that others gave him.' 'He could not abide that any should think +themselves above him, or that their wit and personage should be by +others set before his.' He had an objection, nevertheless, to being +called proud, and when Mr. Attentive asked why, his companion answered +with a touch which reminds us of De Foe, that 'Badman <i>did not tell +him the reason</i>. He supposed it to be that which was common to all +vile persons. They loved their vice, but cared not to bear its name.' +Badman said he was unwilling to seem singular and fantastical, and in +this way he justified his expensive and luxurious way of living. +Singularity of all kinds he affected to dislike, and for that reason +his special pleasure was to note the faults of professors. 'If he +could get anything by the end that had scandal in it, if it did but +touch professors, however falsely reported, oh, then he would glory, +laugh and be glad, and lay it upon the whole party. Hang these rogues, +he would say, there is not a barrel better herring in all the holy +brotherhood of them. Like to like, quoth the Devil to the collier. +This is your precise crew, and then he would send them all home with a +curse.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus Bunyan developed his specimen scoundrel, till he brought him to +the high altitudes of worldly prosperity; skilful in every villanous +art, skilful equally in keeping out of the law's hands, and feared, +admired and respected by all his neighbours. The reader who desires to +see Providence vindicated would now expect to find him detected in +some crimes by which justice could lay hold, and poetical retribution +fall upon him in the midst of his triumph. An inferior artist would +certainly have allowed his story to end in this way. But Bunyan, +satisfied though he was that dramatic judgments did overtake offenders +in this world with direct and startling appropriateness, was yet aware +that it was often otherwise, and that the worst fate which could be +inflicted on a completely worthless person was to allow him to work +out his career unvisited by any penalties which might have disturbed +his conscience and occasioned his amendment. He chose to make his +story natural, and to confine himself to natural machinery. The +judgment to come Mr. Badman laughed at 'as old woman's fable,' but his +courage lasted only as long as he was well and strong. One night as he +was riding home drunk, his horse fell and he broke his leg. 'You would +not think,' says Mr. Wiseman, 'how he swore at first. Then coming to +himself, and finding he was badly hurt, he cried out, after the manner +of such, Lord help me; Lord have mercy on me; good God deliver me, and +the like. He was picked up and taken home, where he lay some time. In +his pain he called on God, but whether it was that his sin might be +pardoned and his soul saved, or whether to be rid of his pain,' Mr. +Wiseman 'could not determine.' This leads to several stories of +drunkards which Bunyan clearly believed to be literally true. Such +facts or legends were the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> food on which his mind had been nourished. +They were in the air which contemporary England breathed.</p> + +<p>'I have read in Mr. Clarke's Looking-glass for Sinners,' Mr. Wiseman +said, 'that upon a time a certain drunken fellow boasted in his cups +that there was neither heaven nor hell. Also he said he believed that +man had no soul, and that for his own part he would sell his soul to +any that would buy it. Then did one of his companions buy it of him +for a cup of wine, and presently the devil, in man's shape, bought it +of that man again at the same price; and so in the presence of them +all laid hold of the soul-seller, and carried him away through the air +so that he was no more heard of.'</p> + +<p>Again:</p> + +<p>'There was one at Salisbury drinking and carousing at a tavern, and he +drank a health to the devil, saying that if the devil would not come +and pledge him, he could not believe that there was either God or +devil. Whereupon his companions, stricken with fear, hastened out of +the room, and presently after, hearing a hideous noise and smelling a +stinking savour, the vintner ran into the chamber, and coming in he +missed his guest, and found the window broken, the iron bars in it +bowed and all bloody, but the man was never heard of afterwards.'</p> + +<p>These visitations were answers to a direct challenge of the evil +spirit's existence, and were thus easy to be accounted for. But no +devil came for Mr. Badman. He clung to his unfortunate neglected wife. +'She became his dear wife, his godly wife, his honest wife, his duck, +his dear and all.' He thought he was dying, and hell and all its +horrors rose up before him. 'Fear was in his face, and in his tossings +to and fro he would often say I am undone, I am undone, my vile life +hath undone me.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> Atheism did not help him. It never helped anyone in +such extremities Mr. Wiseman said; as he had known in another +instance:—</p> + +<p>'There was a man dwelt about twelve miles off from us,' he said, 'that +had so trained up himself in his Atheistical notions, that at last he +attempted to write a book against Jesus Christ and the Divine +authority of the Scriptures. I think it was not printed. Well, after +many days God struck him with sickness whereof he died. So being sick, +and musing of his former doings, the book that he had written tore his +conscience as a lion would tear a kid. Some of my friends went to see +him, and as they were in his chamber one day he hastily called for pen +and ink and paper, which, when it was given to him, he took it and +writ to this purpose. "I such an one in such a town must go to hell +fire for writing a book against Jesus Christ." He would have leaped +out of the window to have killed himself, but was by them prevented of +that, so he died in his bed by such a death as it was.'</p> + +<p>Badman seemed equally miserable. But deathbed repentances, as Bunyan +sensibly said, were seldom of more value than 'the howling of a dog.' +The broken leg was set again. The pain of body went, and with it the +pain of mind. He was assisted out of his uneasiness, says Bunyan, with +a characteristic hit at the scientific views then coming into fashion, +'by his doctor,' who told him that his alarms had come 'from an +affection of the brain, caused by want of sleep;' 'they were nothing +but vapours and the effects of his distemper.' He gathered his spirits +together, and became the old man once more. His poor wife, who had +believed him penitent, broke her heart, and died of the +disappointment. The husband gave himself up to loose connections with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +abandoned women, one of whom persuaded him one day, when he was drunk, +to make her a promise of marriage, and she held him to his word. Then +retribution came upon him, with the coarse, commonplace, yet rigid +justice which fact really deals out. The second bad wife avenged the +wrongs of the first innocent wife. He was mated with a companion 'who +could fit him with cursing and swearing, give him oath for oath, and +curse for curse. They would fight and fly at each other like cat and +dog.' In this condition—for Bunyan, before sending his hero to his +account, gave him a protracted spell of earthly discomforts—they +lived sixteen years together. Fortune, who had so long favoured his +speculations, turned her back upon him. Between them they 'sinned all +his wealth away,' and at last parted 'as poor as howlets.'</p> + +<p>Then came the end. Badman was still in middle life, and had naturally +a powerful constitution; but his 'cups and his queans' had undermined +his strength. Dropsy came, and gout, with worse in his bowels, and 'on +the top of them all, as the captain of the men of death that came to +take him away,' consumption. Bunyan was a true artist, though he knew +nothing of the rules, and was not aware that he was an artist at all. +He was not to be tempted into spoiling a natural story with the +melodramatic horrors of a sinner's deathbed. He had let his victim +'howl' in the usual way, when he meant him to recover. He had now +simply to conduct him to the gate of the place where he was to receive +the reward of his iniquities. It was enough to bring him thither still +impenitent, with the grave solemnity with which a felon is taken to +execution.</p> + +<p>'As his life was full of sin,' says Mr. Wiseman, 'so his death was +without repentance. He had not, in all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> the time of his sickness, a +sight and a sense of his sins; but was as much at quiet as if he had +never sinned in his life: he was as secure as if he had been sinless +as an angel. When he drew near his end, there was no more alteration +in him than what was made by his disease upon his body. He was the +selfsame Mr. Badman still, not only in name, but in condition, and +that to the very day of his death and the moment in which he died. +There seemed not to be in it to the standers by so much as a strong +struggle of nature. He died like a lamb, or, as men call it, like a +chrisom child, quietly and without fear.'</p> + +<p>To which end of Mr. Badman Bunyan attaches the following remarks: 'If +a wicked man, if a man who has lived all his days in notorious sin, +dies quietly, his quiet dying is so far from being a sign of his being +saved that it is an incontestable proof of his damnation. No man can +be saved except he repents; nor can he repent that knows not that he +is a sinner: and he that knows himself to be a sinner will, I warrant +him, be molested for his knowledge before he can die quietly. I am no +admirer of sick-bed repentance; for I think verily it is seldom good +for anything. But I see that he that hath lived in sin and profaneness +all his days, as Badman did, and yet shall die quietly, that is, +without repentance steps in between his life and his death, is +assuredly gone to hell. When God would show the greatness of his anger +against sin and sinners in one word, He saith, Let them alone! Let +them, alone—that is, disturb them not. Let them go on without +control: Let the devil enjoy them peaceably. Let him carry them out of +the world unconverted quietly. This is the sorest of judgments. I do +not say that all wicked men that are molested at their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> death with a +sense of sin and fear of hell do therefore go to heaven; for some are +made to see and are left to despair. But I say there is no surer sign +of a man's damnation than to die quietly after a sinful life, than to +sin and die with a heart that cannot repent. The opinion, therefore, +of the common people of this kind of death is frivolous and vain.'</p> + +<p>So ends this very remarkable story. It is extremely interesting, +merely as a picture of vulgar English life in a provincial town such +as Bedford was when Bunyan lived there. The drawing is so good, the +details so minute, the conception so unexaggerated, that we are +disposed to believe that we must have a real history before us. But +such a supposition is only a compliment to the skill of the composer. +Bunyan's inventive faculty was a spring that never ran dry. He had a +manner, as I said, like De Foe's, of creating the illusion that we are +reading realities, by little touches such as 'I do not know,' 'He did +not tell me this,' or the needless introduction of particulars +irrelevant to the general plot such as we always stumble on in life, +and writers of fiction usually omit. Bunyan was never prosecuted for +libel by 'Badman's' relations, and the character is the corresponding +contrast to Christian in the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' the pilgrim's +journey being in the opposite direction to the other place. Throughout +we are on the solid earth, amidst real experiences. No demand is made +on our credulity by Providential interpositions, except in the +intercalated anecdotes which do not touch the story itself. The wicked +man's career is not brought to the abrupt or sensational issues so +much in favour with ordinary didactic tale-writers. Such issues are +the exception, not the rule, and the edifying story loses its effect +when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> reader turns from it to actual life, and perceives that the +majority are not punished in any such way. Bunyan conceals nothing, +assumes nothing, and exaggerates nothing. He makes his bad man sharp +and shrewd. He allows sharpness and shrewdness to bring him the +rewards which such qualities in fact command. Badman is successful, he +is powerful; he enjoys all the pleasures which money can buy; his bad +wife helps him to ruin, but otherwise he is not unhappy, and he dies +in peace. Bunyan has made him a brute, because such men do become +brutes. It is the real punishment of brutal and selfish habits. There +the figure stands; a picture of a man in the rank of English life with +which Bunyan was most familiar, travelling along the primrose path to +the everlasting bonfire, as the way to Emmanuel's Land was through the +Slough of Despond and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Pleasures are +to be found among the primroses, such pleasures as a brute can be +gratified by. Yet the reader feels that even if there was no bonfire, +he would still prefer to be with Christian.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h2>THE HOLY WAR.</h2> + + +<p>The supernatural has been successfully represented in poetry, +painting, or sculpture, only at particular periods of human history, +and under peculiar mental conditions. The artist must himself believe +in the supernatural, or his description of it will be a sham, without +dignity and without credibility. He must feel himself able at the same +time to treat the subject which he selects with freedom, throwing his +own mind boldly into it, or he will produce, at best, the hard and +stiff forms of literal tradition. When Benvenuto Cellini was preparing +to make an image of the Virgin, he declares gravely that Our Lady +appeared to him that he might know what she was like; and so real was +the apparition that for many months after, he says that his friends +when the room was dark could see a faint aureole about his head. Yet +Benvenuto worked as if his own brain was partly the author of what he +produced, and, like other contemporary artists, used his mistresses +for his models, and was no servile copyist of phantoms seen in +visions. There is a truth of the imagination, and there is a truth of +fact, religion hovering between them, translating one into the other, +turning natural phenomena into the activity of personal beings; or +giving earthly names and habitations to mere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> creatures of fancy. +Imagination creates a mythology. The priest takes it and fashions out +of it a theology, a ritual, or a sacred history. So long as the priest +can convince the world that he is dealing with literal facts, he holds +reason prisoner, and imagination is his servant. In the twilight when +dawn is coming near but has not yet come; when the uncertain nature of +the legend is felt, though not intelligently discerned; imagination is +the first to resume its liberty; it takes possession of its own +inheritance, it dreams of its gods and demigods, as Benvenuto dreamt +of the Virgin, and it re-shapes the priest's traditions in noble and +beautiful forms. Homer and the Greek dramatists would not have dared +to bring the gods upon the stage so freely, had they believed Zeus and +Apollo were living persons, like the man in the next street, who might +call the poet to account for what they were made to do and say; but +neither, on the other hand, could they have been actively conscious +that Zeus and Apollo were apparitions, which had no existence, except +in their own brains.</p> + +<p>The condition is extremely peculiar. It can exist only in certain +epochs, and in its nature is necessarily transitory. Where belief is +consciously gone the artist has no reverence for his work, and +therefore can inspire none. The greatest genius in the world could not +reproduce another Athene like that of Phidias. But neither must the +belief be too complete. The poet's tongue stammers when he would bring +beings before us who, though invisible, are awful personal existences, +in whose stupendous presence we one day expect to stand. As long as +the conviction survives that he is dealing with literal truths, he is +safe only while he follows with shoeless feet the letter of the +tradition. He dares not step beyond, lest he degrade the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> Infinite to +the human level, and if he is wise he prefers to content himself with +humbler subjects. A Christian artist can represent Jesus Christ as a +man because He was a man, and because the details of the Gospel +history leave room for the imagination to work. To represent Christ as +the Eternal Son in heaven, to bring before us the Persons of the +Trinity consulting, planning, and reasoning, to take us into their +everlasting Council Chamber, as Homer takes us into Olympus, will be +possible only when Christianity ceases to be regarded as a history of +true facts. Till then it is a trespass beyond the permitted limits, +and revolts us by the inadequacy of the result. Either the artist +fails altogether by attempting the impossible, or those whom he +addresses are themselves intellectually injured by an unreal treatment +of truths hitherto sacred. They confound the representation with its +object, and regard the whole of it as unreal together.</p> + +<p>These observations apply most immediately to Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' +and are meant to explain the unsatisfactoriness of it. Milton himself +was only partially emancipated from the bondage of the letter; half in +earth, half 'pawing to get free' like his own lion. The war in heaven, +the fall of the rebel angels, the horrid splendours of Pandemonium +seem legitimate subjects for Christian poetry. They stand for +something which we regard as real, yet we are not bound to any actual +opinions about them. Satan has no claim on reverential abstinence; and +Paradise and the Fall of Man are perhaps sufficiently mythic to permit +poets to take certain liberties with them. But even so far Milton has +not entirely succeeded. His wars of the angels are shadowy. They have +no substance like the battles of Greeks and Trojans, or Centaurs and +Lapithæ; and Satan could not be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> made interesting without touches of a +nobler nature, that is, without ceasing to be the Satan of the +Christian religion. But this is not his worst. When we are carried up +into heaven and hear the persons of the Trinity conversing on the +mischiefs which have crept into the universe, and planning remedies +and schemes of salvation like Puritan divines, we turn away +incredulous and resentful. Theologians may form such theories for +themselves, if not wisely, yet without offence. They may study the +world in which they are placed, with the light which can be thrown +upon it by the book which they call the Word of God. They may form +their conclusions, invent their schemes of doctrine, and commend to +their flocks the interpretation of the mystery at which they have +arrived. The cycles and epicycles of the Ptolemaic astronomers were +imperfect hypotheses, but they were stages on which the mind could +rest for a more complete examination of the celestial phenomena. But +the poet does not offer us phrases and formulas; he presents to us +personalities living and active, influenced by emotions and reasoning +from premises; and when the unlimited and incomprehensible Being whose +attributes are infinite, of whom from the inadequacy of our ideas we +can only speak in negatives, is brought on the stage to talk like an +ordinary man, we feel that Milton has mistaken the necessary limits of +his art.</p> + +<p>When Faust claims affinity with the Erdgeist, the spirit tells him to +seek affinities with beings which he can comprehend. The commandment +which forbade the representation of God in a bodily form, forbids the +poet equally to make God describe his feelings and his purposes. Where +the poet would create a character he must himself comprehend it first +to its inmost fibre. He can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>not comprehend his own Creator. Admire as +we may 'Paradise Lost;' try as we may to admire 'Paradise Regained;' +acknowledge as we must the splendour of the imagery and the stately +march of the verse; there comes upon us irresistibly a sense of the +unfitness of the subject for Milton's treatment of it. If the story +which he tells us is true, it is too momentous to be played with in +poetry. We prefer to hear it in plain prose, with a minimum of +ornament and the utmost possible precision of statement. Milton +himself had not arrived at thinking it to be a legend, a picture like +a Greek Mythology. His poem falls between two modes of treatment and +two conceptions of truth; we wonder, we recite, we applaud, but +something comes in between our minds and a full enjoyment, and it will +not satisfy us better as time goes on.</p> + +<p>The same objection applies to 'The Holy War' of Bunyan. It is as I +said, a people's version of the same series of subjects—the creation +of man, the fall of man, his redemption, his ingratitude, his lapse, +and again his restoration. The chief figures are the same, the action +is the same, though more varied and complicated, and the general +effect is unsatisfactory from the same cause. Prose is less ambitious +than poetry. There is an absence of attempts at grand effects. There +is no effort after sublimity, and there is consequently a lighter +sense of incongruity in the failure to reach it. On the other hand, +there is the greater fulness of detail so characteristic of Bunyan's +manner; and fulness of detail on a theme so far beyond our +understanding is as dangerous as vague grandiloquence. In 'The +Pilgrim's Progress' we are among genuine human beings. The reader +knows the road too well which Christian follows. He has struggled +with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> him in the Slough of Despond. He has shuddered with him in the +Valley of the Shadow of Death. He has groaned with him in the dungeons +of Doubting Castle. He has encountered on his journey the same +fellow-travellers. Who does not know Mr. Pliable, Mr. Obstinate, Mr. +Facing-both-ways, Mr. Feeble Mind, and all the rest? They are +representative realities, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. 'If +we prick them they bleed, if we tickle them they laugh,' or they make +us laugh. 'They are warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer' +as we are. The human actors in 'The Holy War' are parts of +men—special virtues, special vices: allegories in fact as well as in +name, which all Bunyan's genius can only occasionally substantiate +into persons. The plot of 'The Pilgrim's Progress' is simple. 'The +Holy War' is prolonged through endless vicissitudes, with a doubtful +issue after all, and the incomprehensibility of the Being who allows +Satan to defy him so long and so successfully is unpleasantly and +harshly brought home to us. True it is so in life. Evil remains after +all that has been done for us. But life is confessedly a mystery. 'The +Holy War' professes to interpret the mystery, and only restates the +problem in a more elaborate form. Man Friday on reading it would have +asked even more emphatically, 'Why God not kill the Devil?' and +Robinson Crusoe would have found no assistance in answering him. For +these reasons, I cannot agree with Macaulay in thinking that if there +had been no 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 'The Holy War' would have been the +first of religious allegories. We may admire the workmanship, but the +same undefined sense of unreality which pursues us through Milton's +epic would have interfered equally with the acceptance of this. The +question to us is if the facts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> are true. If true they require no +allegories to touch either our hearts or our intellects.</p> + +<p>'The Holy War' would have entitled Bunyan to a place among the masters +of English literature. It would never have made his name a household +word in every English-speaking family on the globe.</p> + +<p>The story which I shall try to tell in an abridged form is introduced +by a short prefatory poem. Works of fancy, Bunyan tells us, are of +many sorts, according to the author's humour. For himself he says to +his reader:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">I have something else to do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than write vain stories thus to trouble you.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What here I say some men do know too well;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They can with tears and joy the story tell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The town of Mansoul is well known to many,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor are her troubles doubted of by any<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That are acquainted with those histories<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Mansoul and her wars anatomize.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then lend thine ears to what I do relate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touching the town of Mansoul and her state,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How she was lost, took captive, made a slave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how against him set that should her save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, how by hostile ways she did oppose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her Lord and with his enemy did close,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For they are true; he that will them deny<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must needs the best of records vilify.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For my part, I myself was in the town<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both when 'twas set up and when pulling down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I saw Diabolus in his possession,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Mansoul also under his oppression:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea I was there when she him owned for Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to him did submit with one accord.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When Mansoul trampled upon things divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wallowed in filth as doth a swine,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">When she betook herself unto his arms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fought her Emmanuel, despised his charms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then was I there and did rejoice to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Diabolus and Mansoul so agree.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let no man count me then a fable maker,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor make my name or credit a partaker<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of their derision. What is here in view<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mine own knowledge I dare say is true.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At setting out we are introduced into the famous continent of +'Universe,' a large and spacious country lying between the two +poles—'the people of it not all of one complexion nor yet of one +language, mode or way of religion; but differing as much as the +planets themselves, some right, some wrong, even as it may happen to +be.'</p> + +<p>In this country of 'Universe' was a fair and delicate town and +corporation called 'Mansoul,' a town for its building so curious, for +its situation so commodious, for its privileges so advantageous, that +with reference to its original (state) there was not its equal under +heaven. The first founder was Shaddai, who built it for his own +delight. In the midst of the town was a famous and stately palace +which Shaddai intended for himself.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> He had no intention of allowing +strangers to intrude there. And the peculiarity of the place was that +the walls of Mansoul<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> could never be broken down or hurt unless the +townsmen consented. Mansoul had five gates which in like manner could +only be forced if those within allowed it. These gates were Eargate, +Eyegate, Mouthgate, Nosegate, and Feelgate. Thus provided, Mansoul +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>was at first all that its founder could desire. It had the most +excellent laws in the world. There was not a rogue or a rascal inside +its whole precincts. The inhabitants were all true men.</p> + +<p>Now there was a certain giant named Diabolus—king of the blacks or +negroes, as Bunyan noticeably calls them—the negroes standing for +sinners or fallen angels. Diabolus had once been a servant of Shaddai, +one of the chief in his territories. Pride and ambition had led him to +aspire to the crown which was settled on Shaddai's Son. He had formed +a conspiracy and planned a revolution. Shaddai and his Son, 'being all +eye,' easily detected the plot. Diabolus and his crew were bound in +chains, banished, and thrown into a pit, there to 'abide for ever.' +This was their sentence; but out of the pit, in spite of it, they in +some way contrived to escape. They ranged about full of malice against +Shaddai, and looking for means to injure him. They came at last on +Mansoul. They determined to take it, and called a council to consider +how it could best be done. Diabolus was aware of the condition that no +one could enter without the inhabitants' consent. Alecto, Apollyon, +Beelzebub, Lucifer (Pagan and Christian demons intermixed +indifferently) gave their several opinions. Diabolus at length at +Lucifer's suggestion decided to assume the shape of one of the +creatures over which Mansoul had dominion; and he selected as the +fittest that of a snake, which at that time was in great favour with +the people as both harmless and wise.</p> + +<p>The population of Mansoul were simple, innocent folks who believed +everything that was said to them. Force, however, might be necessary +as well as cunning, and the Tisiphone, a fury of the Lakes, was +required to assist.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> The attempt was to be made at Eargate. A certain +Captain Resistance was in charge of this gate, whom Diabolus feared +more than any one in the place. Tisiphone was to shoot him.</p> + +<p>The plans being all laid, Diabolus in his snake's dress approached the +wall, accompanied by one 'Ill Pause,' a famous orator, the Fury +following behind. He asked for a parley with the heads of the town. +Captain Resistance, two of the great nobles, Lord 'Innocent,' and Lord +'Will be Will,' with Mr. Conscience, the Recorder, and Lord +Understanding, the Lord Mayor, came to the gate to see what he wanted. +Lord 'Will be Will' plays a prominent part in the drama both for good +and evil. He is neither Free Will, nor Wilfulness, nor Inclination, +but the quality which metaphysicians and theologians agree in +describing as 'the Will.' 'The Will' simply—a subtle something of +great importance; but what it is they have never been able to explain.</p> + +<p>Lord Will be Will inquired Diabolus's business. Diabolus, 'meek as a +lamb,' said he was a neighbour of theirs. He had observed with +distress that they were living in a state of slavery, and he wished to +help them to be free. Shaddai was no doubt a great prince, but he was +an arbitrary despot. There was no liberty where the laws were +unreasonable, and Shaddai's laws were the reverse of reasonable. They +had a fruit growing among them, in Mansoul, which they had but to eat +to become wise. Knowledge was well known to be the best of +possessions. Knowledge was freedom; ignorance was bondage; and yet +Shaddai had forbidden them to touch this precious fruit.</p> + +<p>At that moment Captain Resistance fell dead, pierced by an arrow from +Tisiphone. Ill Pause made a flowing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> speech, in the midst of which +Lord Innocent fell also, either through a blow from Diabolus, or +'overpowered by the stinking breath of the old villain Ill Pause.' The +people flew upon the apple tree; Eargate and Eyegate were thrown open, +and Diabolus was invited to come in; when at once he became King of +Mansoul and established himself in the castle.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>The magistrates were immediately changed. Lord Understanding ceased to +be Lord Mayor. Mr. Conscience was no longer left as Recorder. Diabolus +built up a wall in front of Lord Understanding's palace, and shut off +the light, 'so that till Mansoul was delivered the old Lord Mayor was +rather an impediment than, an advantage to that famous town.' Diabolus +tried long to bring 'Conscience' over to his side, but never quite +succeeded. The Recorder became greatly corrupted, but he could not be +prevented from now and then remembering Shaddai; and when the fit was +on him he would shake the town with his exclamations. Diabolus +therefore had to try other methods with him. 'He had a way to make the +old gentleman when he was merry unsay and deny what in his fits he had +affirmed, and this was the next way to make him ridiculous and to +cause that no man should regard him.' To make all secure Diabolus +often said, 'Oh, Mansoul, consider that, notwithstanding the old +gentleman's rage and the rattle of his high thundering words, you hear +nothing of Shaddai himself.' The Recorder had pretended that the voice +of the Lord was speaking in him. Had this been so, Diabolus argued +that the Lord would have done more than speak. 'Shaddai,' he said, +'valued not the loss nor the rebellion of Mansoul, nor would he +trouble himself with calling his town to a reckoning.'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p><p>In this way the Recorder came to be generally hated, and more than +once the people would have destroyed him. Happily his house was a +castle near the waterworks. When the rabble pursued him, he would pull +up the sluices,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> let in the flood, and drown all about him.</p> + +<p>Lord Will be Will, on the other hand, 'as high born as any in +Mansoul,' became Diabolus's principal minister. He had been the first +to propose admitting Diabolus, and he was made Captain of the Castle, +Governor of the Wall, and Keeper of the Gates. Will be Will had a +clerk named Mr. Mind, a man every way like his master, and Mansoul was +thus brought 'under the lusts' of Will and Intellect. Mr. Mind had in +his house some old rent and torn parchments of the law of Shaddai. The +Recorder had some more in his study; but to these Will be Will paid no +attention, and surrounded himself with officials who were all in +Diabolus's interest. He had as deputy one Mr. Affection, 'much +debauched in his principles, so that he was called Vile Affection.' +Vile Affection married Mr. Mind's daughter, Carnal Lust, by whom he +had three sons—Impudent, Black Mouth, and Hate Reproof; and three +daughters—Scorn Truth, Slight Good, and Revenge. All traces of +Shaddai were now swept away. His image, which had stood in the +market-place, was taken down, and an artist called Mr. No Truth was +employed to set up the image of Diabolus in place of it. Lord +Lustings—'who never savoured good, but evil'—was chosen for the new +Lord Mayor. Mr. Forget Good was appointed Recorder. There were new +burgesses and aldermen, all with appropriate names, for which Bunyan +was never at a loss—Mr. Incredulity, Mr. Haughty, Mr. Swearing, Mr. +Hardheart, Mr. Pitiless, Mr. Fury, Mr. No Truth, Mr. Stand <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>to Lies, +Mr. Falsepeace, Mr. Drunkenness, Mr. Cheating, Mr. Atheism, and +another; thirteen of them in all. Mr. Incredulity was the eldest, Mr. +Atheism the youngest in the company—a shrewd and correct arrangement. +Diabolus, on his part, set to work to fortify Mansoul. He built three +fortresses—'The Hold of Defiance' at Eyegate, that the light might be +darkened there;' 'Midnight Hold' near the old Castle, to keep Mansoul +from knowledge of itself; and 'Sweet Sin Hold' in the market-place, +that there might be no desire of good there. These strongholds being +established and garrisoned, Diabolus thought that he had made his +conquest secure.</p> + +<p>So far the story runs on firmly and clearly. It is vivid, consistent +in itself, and held well within the limits of human nature and +experience. But, like Milton, Bunyan is now, by the exigencies of the +situation, forced upon more perilous ground. He carries us into the +presence of Shaddai himself, at the time when the loss of Mansoul was +reported in heaven.</p> + +<p>The king, his son, his high lords, his chief captains and nobles were +all assembled to hear. There was universal grief, in which the king +and his son shared or rather seemed to share—for at once the drama of +the Fall of mankind becomes no better than a Mystery Play. 'Shaddai +and his son had foreseen it all long before, and had provided for the +relief of Mansoul, though they told not everybody thereof—but because +they would have a share in condoling of the misery of Mansoul they +did, and that at the rate of the highest degree, bewail the losing of +Mansoul'—'thus to show their love and compassion.'</p> + +<p>'Paradise Lost' was published at the time that Bunyan wrote this +passage. If he had not seen it, the coincidences of treatment are +singularly curious. It is equally singular,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> if he had seen it, that +Milton should not here at least have taught him to avoid making the +Almighty into a stage actor. The Father and Son consult how 'to do +what they had designed before.' They decide that at a certain time, +which they preordain, the Son,'a sweet and comely person,' shall make +a journey into the Universe and lay a foundation there for Mansoul's +deliverance. Milton offends in the scene less than Bunyan; but Milton +cannot persuade us that it is one which should have been represented +by either of them. They should have left 'plans of salvation' to +eloquent orators in the pulpit.</p> + +<p>Though the day of deliverance by the method proposed was as yet far +off, the war against Diabolus was to be commenced immediately. The +Lord Chief Secretary was ordered to put in writing Shaddai's +intentions, and cause them to be published.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Mansoul, it was +announced, was to be put into a better condition than it was in before +Diabolus took it.</p> + +<p>The report of the Council in Heaven was brought to Diabolus, who took +his measures accordingly, Lord Will be Will standing by him and +executing all his directions Mansoul was forbidden to read Shaddai's +proclamation. Diabolus imposed a great oath on the townspeople never +to desert him; he believed that if they entered into a covenant of +this kind Shaddai could not absolve them from it. They 'swallowed the +engagement as if it had been a sprat in the mouth of a whale.' Being +now Diabolus's trusty children, he gave them leave 'to do whatever +their appetites prompted to do.' They would thus involve themselves in +all kinds of wickedness, and Shaddai's son 'being Holy' would be less +likely to interest himself for them. When they had in this way put +themselves, as Diabolus <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>hoped, beyond reach of mercy, he informed +them that Shaddai was raising an army to destroy the town. No quarter +would be given, and unless they defended themselves like men they +would all be made slaves. Their spirit being roused, he armed them +with the shield of unbelief, 'calling into question the truth of the +Word.' He gave them a helmet of hope—'hope of doing well at last, +whatever lives they might lead'; for a breastplate a heart as hard as +iron, 'most necessary for all that hated Shaddai;' and another piece +of most excellent armour, 'a drunken and prayerless spirit that +scorned to cry for mercy.' Shaddai on his side had also prepared his +forces. He will not as yet send his son. The first expedition was to +fail and was meant to fail. The object was to try whether Mansoul +would return to obedience. And yet Shaddai knew that it would not +return to obedience. Bunyan was too ambitious to explain the +inexplicable. Fifty thousand warriors were collected, all chosen by +Shaddai himself. There were four leaders—Captain Boanerges, Captain +Conviction, Captain Judgment, and Captain Execution—the martial +saints, with whom Macaulay thinks Bunyan made acquaintance when he +served, if serve he did, with Fairfax. The bearings on their banners +were three black thunderbolts—the Book of the Law, wide open, with a +flame of fire bursting from it; a burning, fiery furnace; and a +fruitless tree with an axe at its root. These emblems represent the +terrors of Mount Sinai, the covenant of works which was not to +prevail.</p> + +<p>The captains come to the walls of Mansoul, and summon the town to +surrender. Their words 'beat against Eargate, but without force to +break it open.' The new officials answer the challenge with defiance. +Lord Incredulity knows not by what right Shaddai invades<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> their +country. Lord Will be Will and Mr. Forget Good warn them to be off +before they rouse Diabolus. The townspeople ring the bells and dance +on the walls. Will be Will double-bars the gates. Bunyan's genius is +at its best in scenes of this kind. 'Old Mr. Prejudice, with sixty +deaf men,' is appointed to take charge of Eargate. At Eargate, too, +are planted two guns, called Highmind, and Heady, 'cast in the earth +by Diabolus's head founder, whose name was Mr. Puffup.'</p> + +<p>The fighting begins, but the covenant of works makes little progress. +Shaddai's captains, when advancing on Mansoul, had fallen in with +'three young fellows of promising appearance' who volunteered to go +with them—Mr. Tradition, Mr. Human Wisdom, and Mr. Man's Invention.' +They were allowed to join, and were placed in positions of trust, the +captains of the covenant being apparently wanting in discernment. They +were taken prisoners in the first skirmish, and immediately changed +sides and went over to Diabolus. More battles follow. The roof of the +Lord Mayor's house is beaten in. The law is not wholly ineffectual. +Six of the Aldermen, the grosser moral sins—Swearing, Stand to Lies, +Drunkenness, Cheating, and others—are overcome and killed. Diabolus +grows uneasy and loses his sleep. Old Conscience begins to talk again. +A party forms in the town in favour of surrender, and Mr. Parley is +sent to Eargate to treat for terms. The spiritual sins—False Peace, +Unbelief, Haughtiness, Atheism—are still unsubdued and vigorous. The +conditions offered are that Incredulity, Forget Good, and Will be Will +shall retain their offices; Mansoul shall be continued in all the +liberties which it enjoys under Diabolus; and a further touch is added +which shows how little Bunyan sympathised with modern notions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> of the +beauty of self-government. No new law or officer shall have any power +in Mansoul without the people's consent.</p> + +<p>Boanerges will agree to no conditions with rebels. Incredulity and +Will be Will advise the people to stand by their rights, and refuse to +submit to 'unlimited' power. The war goes on, and Incredulity is made +Diabolus's universal deputy. Conscience and Understanding, the old +Recorder and Mayor, raise a mutiny, and there is a fight in the +streets. Conscience is knocked down by a Diabolonian called 'Mr. +Benumming.' Understanding had a narrow escape from being shot. On the +other hand Mr. Mind, who had come over to the Conservative side, laid +about bravely, tumbled old Mr. Prejudice into the dirt, and kicked him +where he lay. Even Will be Will seemed to be wavering in his +allegiance to Diabolus. 'He smiled and did not seem to take one side +more than another.' The rising, however, is put down—Understanding +and Conscience are imprisoned, and Mansoul hardens its heart, chiefly +'being in dread of slavery,' and thinking liberty too fine a thing to +be surrendered.</p> + +<p>Shaddai's four captains find that they can do no more. The covenant of +works will not answer. They send home a petition,'by the hand of that good +man Mr. Love to Mansoul,' to beg that some new general may come to lead +them. The preordained time has now arrived, and Emmanuel himself is to take +the command. He, too, selects his captains—Credence and Good Hope, +Charity, and Innocence, and Patience; and the captains have their squires, +the counterparts of themselves—Promise and Expectation, Pitiful, Harmless, +and Suffer Long. Emmanuel's armour shines like the sun. He has forty-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>four +battering rams and twenty-two slings—the sixty-six books of the +Bible—each made of pure gold. He throws up mounds and trenches, and arms +them with his rams, five of the largest being planted on Mount Hearken, +over against Eargate. Bunyan was too reverent to imitate the Mystery Plays, +and introduce a Mount Calvary with the central sacrifice upon it. The +sacrifice is supposed to have been already offered elsewhere. Emmanuel +offers mercy to Mansoul, and when it is rejected he threatens judgment and +terror. Diabolus, being wiser than man, is made to know that his hour is +approaching. He goes in person to Mouthgate to protest and remonstrate. He +asks why Emmanuel is come to torment him. Mansoul has disowned Shaddai and +sworn allegiance to himself. He begs Emmanuel to leave him to rule his own +subjects in peace.</p> + +<p>Emmanuel tells him 'he is a thief and a liar.' 'When,' Emmanuel is +made to say, 'Mansoul sinned by hearkening to thy lie, I put in and +became a surety to my Father, body for body, soul for soul, that I +would make amends for Mansoul's transgressions, and my Father did +accept thereof. So when the time appointed was come, I gave body for +body, soul for soul, life for life, blood for blood, and so redeemed +my beloved Mansoul. My Father's law and justice, that were both +concerned in the threatening upon transgression, are both now +satisfied, and very well content that Mansoul should be delivered.'</p> + +<p>Even against its deliverers, Mansoul was defended by the original +condition of its constitution. There was no way into it but through +the gates. Diabolus, feeling that Emmanuel still had difficulties +before him, withdrew from the wall, and sent a messenger, Mr. Loth to +Stoop, to offer alternative terms, to one or other of which he +thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> Emmanuel might consent. Emmanuel might be titular sovereign +of all Mansoul, if Diabolus might keep the administration of part of +it. If this could not be, Diabolus requested to be allowed to reside +in Mansoul as a private person. If Emmanuel insisted on his own +personal exclusion, at least he expected that his friends and kindred +might continue to live there, and that he himself might now and then +write them letters, and send them presents and messages, 'in +remembrance of the merry times they had enjoyed together.' Finally, he +would like to be consulted occasionally when any difficulties arose in +Mansoul.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that in the end Mansoul was, in fact, left liable to +communications from Diabolus very much of this kind. Emmanuel's +answer, however, is a peremptory No. Diabolus must take himself away, +and no more must be heard of him. Seeing that there was no other +resource, Diabolus resolves to fight it out. There is a great battle +under the walls, with some losses on Emmanuel's side, even Captain +Conviction receiving three wounds in the mouth. The shots from the +gold slings mow down whole ranks of Diabolonians. Mr. Love no Good and +Mr. Ill Pause are wounded. Old Prejudice and Mr. Anything run away. +Lord Will be Will, who still fought for Diabolus, was never so daunted +in his life: 'he was hurt in the leg, and limped.'</p> + +<p>Diabolus, when the fight was over, came again to the gate with fresh +proposals to Emmanuel. 'I,' he said, 'will persuade Mansoul to receive +thee for their Lord, and I know that they will do it the sooner when +they understand that I am thy deputy. I will show them wherein they +have erred, and that transgression stands in the way to life. I will +show them the Holy law to which they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> must conform, even that which +they have broken. I will press upon them the necessity of a +reformation according to thy law. At my own cost I will set up and +maintain a sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul.' This +obviously means the Established Church. Unable to keep mankind +directly in his own service, the Devil offers to entangle them in the +covenant of works, of which the Church of England was the +representative. Emmanuel rebukes him for his guile and deceit. 'I will +govern Mansoul,' he says, 'by new laws, new officers, new motives, and +new ways. I will pull down the town and build it again, and it shall +be as though it had not been, and it shall be the glory of the whole +universe.'</p> + +<p>A second battle follows. Eargate is beaten in. The Prince's army +enters and advances as far as the old Recorder's house, where they +knock and demand entrance. 'The old gentleman, not fully knowing their +design, had kept his gates shut all the time of the fight. He as yet +knew nothing of the great designs of Emmanuel, and could not tell what +to think.' The door is violently broken open, and the house is made +Emmanuel's head-quarters. The townspeople, with Conscience and +Understanding at their head, petition that their lives may be spared; +but Emmanuel gives no answer, Captain Boanerges and Captain Conviction +carrying terror into all hearts. Diabolus, the cause of all the +mischief, had retreated into the castle.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> He came out at last, and +surrendered, and in dramatic fitness he clearly ought now to have been +made away with in a complete manner. Unfortunately, this could not be +done. He was stripped of his armour, bound to Emmanuel's chariot +wheels, and thus turned out of Mansoul 'into parched places in a salt +land, where <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>he might seek rest and find none.' The salt land proved +as insecure a prison, for this embarrassing being as the pit where he +was to have abode for ever.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Mansoul being brought upon its knees, the inhabitants were +summoned into the castle yard, when Conscience, Understanding, and +Will be Will were committed to ward. They and the rest again prayed +for mercy, but again without effect. Emmanuel was silent. They drew +another petition, and asked Captain Conviction to present it for them. +Captain Conviction declined to be an advocate for rebels, and advised +them to send it by one of themselves, with a rope about his neck. Mr. +Desires Awake went with it. The Prince took it from his hands, and +wept as Desires Awake gave it in. Emmanuel bade him go his way till +the request could be considered. The unhappy criminals knew not how to +take the answer. Mr. Understanding thought it promised well. +Conscience and Will be Will, borne down by shame for their sins, +looked for nothing but immediate death. They tried again. They threw +themselves on Emmanuel's mercy. They drew up a confession of their +horrible iniquities. This, at least, they wished to offer to him +whether he would pity them or not. For a messenger some of them +thought of choosing one Old Good Deed. Conscience, however, said that +would never do. Emmanuel would answer, 'Is Old Good Deed yet alive in +Mansoul? Then let Old Good Deed save it.' Desires Awake went again +with the rope on his neck, as Captain Conviction recommended. Mr. Wet +Eyes went with him, wringing his hands.</p> + +<p>Emmanuel still held out no comfort; he promised merely that in the +camp the next morning he would give such an answer as should be to his +glory. Nothing but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> the worst was now looked for. Mansoul passed the +night in sackcloth and ashes. When day broke, the prisoners dressed +themselves in mourning, and were carried to the camp in chains, with +ropes on their necks, beating their breasts. Prostrate before +Emmanuel's throne, they repeated their confession. They acknowledged +that death and the bottomless pit would be no more than a just +retribution for their crimes. As they excused nothing and promised +nothing, Emmanuel at once delivered them their pardons sealed with +seven seals. He took off their ropes and mourning, clothed them in +shining garments, and gave them chains and jewels.</p> + +<p>Lord Will be Will 'swooned outright.' When he recovered, 'the Prince' +embraced and kissed him. The bells in Mansoul were set ringing. +Bonfires blazed. Emmanuel reviewed his army; and Mansoul, ravished at +the sight, prayed him to remain and be their King for ever. He entered +the city again in triumph, the people strewing boughs and flowers +before him. The streets and squares were rebuilt on a new model. Lord +Will be Will, now regenerate, resumed the charge of the gates. The old +Lord Mayor was reinstated. Mr. Knowledge was made Recorder, 'not out +of contempt for old Conscience, who was by-and-bye to have another +employment.' Diabolus's image was taken down and broken to pieces, and +the inhabitants of Mansoul were so happy that they sang of Emmanuel in +their sleep.</p> + +<p>Justice, however, remained to be done on the hardened and impenitent.</p> + +<p>There were 'perhaps necessities in the nature of things,' as Bishop +Butler says, and an example could not be made of the principal +offender. But his servants and old officials were lurking in the lanes +and alleys. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> were apprehended, thrown into gaol, and brought to +formal trial. Here we have Bunyan at his best. The scene in the court +rises to the level of the famous trial of Faithful in Vanity Fair. The +prisoners were Diabolus's Aldermen, Mr. Atheism, Mr. Incredulity, Mr. +Lustings, Mr. Forget Good, Mr. Hardheart, Mr. Falsepeace, and the +rest. The proceedings were precisely what Bunyan must have witnessed +at a common English Assizes. The Judges were the new Recorder and the +new Mayor. Mr. Do-right was Town Clerk. A jury was empanelled in the +usual way. Mr. Knowall, Mr. Telltrue, and Mr. Hatelies were the +principal witnesses.</p> + +<p>Atheism was first brought to the bar, being charged 'with having +pertinaciously and doltingly taught that there was no God.' He pleaded +Not Guilty. Mr. Knowall was placed in the witness-box and sworn.</p> + +<p>'My Lord,' he said, 'I know the prisoner at the bar. I and he were +once in Villains Lane together, and he at that time did briskly talk +of diverse opinions. And then and there I heard him say that for his +part he did believe that there was no God. "But," said he, "I can +profess one and be religious too, if the company I am in and the +circumstances of other things," said he, "shall put me upon it.'"</p> + +<p>Telltrue and Hatelies were next called.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Telltrue.</i> My Lord, I was formerly a great companion of the +prisoner's, for the which I now repent me; and I have often +heard him say, and with very great stomach-fulness, that he +believed there was neither God, Angel, nor Spirit.</p> + +<p><i>Town Clerk.</i> Where did you hear him say so?</p> + +<p><i>Telltrue.</i> In Blackmouth Lane and in Blasphemers Row, and +in many other places besides.</p> + +<p><i>Town Clerk.</i> Have you much knowledge of him?</p> + +<p><i>Telltrue.</i> I know him to be a Diabolonian, the son of a +Diabolonian, and a horrible man to deny a Deity. His +father's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> name was Never be Good, and he had more children +than this Atheism.</p> + +<p><i>Town Clerk.</i> Mr. Hatelies. Look upon the prisoner at the +bar. Do you know him?</p> + +<p><i>Hatelies.</i> My Lord, this Atheism is one of the vilest +wretches that ever I came near or had to do with in my life. +I have heard him say that there is no God. I have heard him +say that there is no world to come, no sin, nor punishment +hereafter; and, moreover, I have heard him say that it was +as good to go to a bad-house as to go to hear a sermon.</p> + +<p><i>Town Clerk.</i> Where did you hear him say these things?</p> + +<p><i>Hatelies.</i> In Drunkards Row, just at Rascal Lane's End, at +a house in which Mr. Impiety lived.</p></div> + +<p>The next prisoner was Mr. Lustings, who said that he was of high birth +and 'used to pleasures and pastimes of greatness.' He had always been +allowed to follow his own inclinations, and it seemed strange to him +that he should be called in question for things which not only he but +every man secretly or openly approved.</p> + +<p>When the evidence had been heard against him he admitted frankly its +general correctness.</p> + +<p>'I,' he said, 'was ever of opinion that the happiest life that a man +could live on earth was to keep himself back from nothing that he +desired; nor have I been false at any time to this opinion of mine, +but have lived in the love of my notions all my days. Nor was I ever +so churlish, having found such sweetness in them myself, as to keep +the commendation of them from others.'</p> + +<p>Then came Mr. Incredulity. He was charged with having encouraged the +town of Mansoul to resist Shaddai. Incredulity too had the courage of +his opinions.</p> + +<p>'I know not Shaddai,' he said. 'I love my old Prince. I thought it my +duty to be true to my trust, and to do what I could to possess the +minds of the men of Mansoul to do their utmost to resist strangers and +foreigners, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> with might to fight against them. Nor have I nor +shall I change my opinion for fear of trouble, though you at present +are possessed of place and power.'</p> + +<p>Forget Good pleaded age and craziness. He was the son of a Diabolonian +called Love Naught. He had uttered blasphemous speeches in Allbase +Lane, next door to the sign of 'Conscience Seared with a Hot Iron;' +also in Flesh Lane, right opposite the Church; also in Nauseous +Street; also at the sign of the 'Reprobate,' next door to the 'Descent +into the Pit.'</p> + +<p>Falsepeace insisted that he was wrongly named in the indictment. His +real name was Peace, and he had always laboured for peace. When war +broke out between Shaddai and Diabolus, he had endeavoured to +reconcile them, &c. Evidence was given that Falsepeace was his right +designation. His father's name was Flatter. His mother, before she +married Flatter, was called Mrs. Sootheup. When her child was born she +always spoke of him as Falsepeace. She would call him twenty times a +day, my little Falsepeace, my pretty Falsepeace, my sweet rogue +Falsepeace! &c.</p> + +<p>The court rejected his plea. He was told 'that he had wickedly +maintained the town of Mansoul in rebellion against its king, in a +false, lying, and damnable peace, contrary to the law of Shaddai. +Peace that was not a companion of truth and holiness, was an accursed +and treacherous peace, and was grounded on a lie.'</p> + +<p>No Truth had assisted with his own hands in pulling down the image of +Shaddai. He had set up the horned image of the beast Diabolus at the +same place, and had torn and consumed all that remained of the laws of +the king.</p> + +<p>Pitiless said his name was not Pitiless, but Cheer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> Up. He disliked to +see Mansoul inclined to melancholy, and that was all his offence. +Pitiless, however, was proved to be the name of him. It was a habit of +the Diabolonians to assume counterfeit appellations. Covetousness +called himself Good Husbandry; Pride called himself Handsome; and so +on.</p> + +<p>Mr. Haughty's figure is admirably drawn in a few lines. Mr. Haughty, +when arraigned, declared 'that he had carried himself bravely, not +considering who was his foe, or what was the cause in which he was +engaged. It was enough for him if he fought like a man and came off +victorious.'</p> + +<p>The jury, it seems, made no distinctions between opinions and acts. +They did not hold that there was any divine right in man to think what +he pleased, and to say what he thought. Bunyan had suffered as a +martyr; but it was as a martyr for truth, not for general licence. The +genuine Protestants never denied that it was right to prohibit men +from teaching lies, and to punish them if they disobeyed. The +persecution of which they complained was the persecution of the honest +man by the knave.</p> + +<p>All the prisoners were found guilty by a unanimous verdict. Even Mr. +Moderate, who was one of the jury, thought a man must be wilfully +blind who wished to spare them. They were sentenced to be executed the +next day. Incredulity contrived to escape in the night. Search was +made for him, but he was not to be found in Mansoul. He had fled +beyond the walls, and had joined Diabolus near Hell Gate. The rest, we +are told, were crucified—crucified by the hands of the men of Mansoul +themselves. They fought and struggled at the place of execution so +violently that Shaddai's secretary was obliged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> to send assistance. +But justice was done at last, and all the Diabolonians, except +Incredulity, were thus made an end of.</p> + +<p>They were made an end of for a time only. Mansoul, by faith in Christ, +and by the help of the Holy Spirit, had crucified all manner of sin in +its members. It was faith that had now the victory. Unbelief had, +unfortunately, escaped. It had left Mansoul for the time, and had gone +to its master the Devil. But unbelief, being intellectual, had not +been crucified with the sins of the flesh, and thus could come back, +and undo the work which faith had accomplished. I do not know how far +this view approves itself to the more curious theologians. Unbelief +itself is said to be a product of the will; but an allegory must not +be cross-questioned too minutely.</p> + +<p>The cornucopia of spiritual blessings was now opened on Mansoul. All +offences were fully and completely forgiven. A Holy Law and Testament +was bestowed on the people for their comfort and consolation, with a +portion of the grace which dwelt in the hearts of Shaddai and Emmanuel +themselves. They were to be allowed free access to Emmanuel's palace +at all seasons, he himself undertaking to hear them and redress their +grievances, and they were empowered and enjoined to destroy all +Diabolonians who might be found at any time within their precincts.</p> + +<p>These grants were embodied in a charter which was set up in gold +letters on the castle door. Two ministers were appointed to carry on +the government—one from Shaddai's court; the other a native of +Mansoul. The first was Shaddai's chief secretary, the Holy Spirit. He, +if they were obedient and well-conducted, would be 'ten times better +to them than the whole world.' But they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> were cautioned to be careful +of their behaviour, for if they grieved him he would turn against +them, and the worst might then be looked for. The second minister was +the old Recorder, Mr. Conscience, for whom, as was said, a new office +had been provided. The address of Emmanuel to Conscience in handing +his commission to him contains the essence of Bunyan's creed.</p> + +<p>'Thou must confine thyself to the teaching of moral virtues, to civil +and natural duties. But thou must not attempt to presume to be a +revealer of those high and supernatural mysteries that are kept close +in the bosom of Shaddai, my father. For those things knows no man; nor +can any reveal them but my father's secretary only.... In all high and +supernatural things, thou must go to him for information and +knowledge. Wherefore keep low and be humble; and remember that the +Diabolonians that kept not their first charge, but left their own +standing, are now made prisoners in the pit. Be therefore content with +thy station. I have made thee my father's vicegerent on earth in the +things of which I have made mention before. Take thou power to teach +them to Mansoul; yea, to impose them with whips and chastisements if +they shall not willingly hearken to do thy commandments.... And one +thing more to my beloved Mr. Recorder, and to all the town of Mansoul. +You must not dwell in nor stay upon anything of that which he hath in +commission to teach you, as to your trust and expectation of the next +world. Of the next world, I say; for I purpose to give another to +Mansoul when this is worn out. But for that you must wholly and solely +have recourse to and make stay upon the doctrine of your teacher of +the first order. Yea, Mr. Recorder himself must not look for life from +that which he himself revealeth. His dependence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> for that must be +founded in the doctrine of the other preacher. Let Mr. Recorder also +take heed that he receive not any doctrine or points of doctrine that +are not communicated to him by his superior teacher, nor yet within +the precincts of his own formal knowledge.'</p> + +<p>Here, as a work of art, the 'Holy War' should have its natural end. +Mansoul had been created pure and happy. The Devil plotted against it, +took it, defiled it. The Lord of the town came to the rescue, drove +the Devil out, executed his officers and destroyed his works. Mansoul, +according to Emmanuel's promise, was put into a better condition than +that in which it was originally placed. New laws was drawn for it. New +ministers were appointed to execute them. Vice had been destroyed. +Unbelief had been driven away. The future lay serene and bright before +it; all trials and dangers being safely passed. Thus we have all the +parts of a complete drama—the fair beginning, the perils, the +struggles, and the final victory of good. At this point, for purposes +of art, the curtain ought to fall.</p> + +<p>For purposes of art—not, however, for purposes of truth. For the +drama of Mansoul was still incomplete, and will remain incomplete till +man puts on another nature or ceases altogether to be. Christianity +might place him in a new relation to his Maker, and, according to +Bunyan, might expel the Devil out of his heart. But for practical +purposes, as Mansoul too well knows, the Devil is still in possession. +At intervals—as in the first centuries of the Christian era, for a +period in the middle ages, and again in Protestant countries for +another period at the Reformation—mankind made noble efforts to drive +him out, and make the law of God into reality. But he comes back +again, and the world is again as it was. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> vices again flourish +which had been nailed to the Cross. The statesman finds it as little +possible as ever to take moral right and justice for his rule in +politics. The Evangelical preacher continues to confess and deplore +the desperate wickedness of the human heart. The Devil had been +deposed, but his faithful subjects have restored him to his throne. +The stone of Sisyphus has been brought to the brow of the hill only to +rebound again to the bottom. The old battle has to be fought a second +time, and, for all we can see, no closing victory will ever be in +'this country of Universe.' Bunyan knew this but too well. He tries to +conceal it from himself by treating Mansoul alternately as the soul of +a single individual from which the Devil may be so expelled as never +dangerously to come back, or as the collective souls of the Christian +world. But, let him mean which of the two he will, the overpowering +fact remains that, from the point of view of his own theology, the +great majority of mankind are the Devil's servants through life, and +are made over to him everlastingly when their lives are over; while +the human race itself continues to follow its idle amusements and its +sinful pleasures as if no Emmanuel had ever come from heaven to rescue +it. Thus the situation is incomplete, and the artistic treatment +necessarily unsatisfactory—nay in a sense even worse than +unsatisfactory, for the attention of the reader, being reawakened by +the fresh and lively treatment of the subject, refuses to be satisfied +with conventional explanatory commonplaces. His mind is puzzled; his +faith wavers in its dependence upon a Being who can permit His work to +be spoilt, His power defied, His victories even, when won, made +useless.</p> + +<p>Thus we take up the continuation of the 'Holy War' with a certain +weariness and expectation of disappoint<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>ment. The delivery of Mansoul +has not been finished after all, and, for all that we can see, the +struggle between Shaddai and Diabolus may go on to eternity. Emmanuel, +before he withdraws his presence, warns the inhabitants that many +Diabolonians are still lurking about the outside walls of the town.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +The names are those in St. Paul's list—Fornication, Adultery, Murder, +Anger, Lasciviousness, Deceit, Evil Eye, Drunkenness, Revelling, +Idolatry, Witchcraft, Variance, Emulation, Wrath, Strife, Sedition, +Heresy. If all these were still abroad, not much had been gained by +the crucifixion of the Aldermen. For the time, it was true, they did +not show themselves openly. Mansoul after the conquest was clothed in +white linen, and was in a state of peace and glory. But the linen was +speedily soiled again. Mr. Carnal Security became a great person in +Mansoul. The Chief Secretary's functions fell early into abeyance. He +discovered the Recorder and Lord Will be Will at dinner in Mr. Carnal +Security's parlour, and ceased to communicate with them. Mr. Godly +Fear sounded an alarm, and Mr. Carnal Security's house was burnt by +the mob; but Mansoul's backslidings grew worse. It had its fits of +repentance, and petitioned Emmanuel, but the messenger could have no +admittance. The Lusts of the Flesh came out of their dens. They held a +meeting in the room of Mr. Mischief, and wrote to invite Diabolus to +return. Mr. Profane carried their letter to Hell Gate. Cerberus opened +it, and a cry of joy ran through the prison. Beelzebub, Lucifer, +Apollyon, and the rest of the devils came crowding to hear the news. +Deadman's bell was rung. Diabolus addressed the assembly, putting them +in hopes of recovering their prize. 'Nor need you fear, he said, that +if ever we get Mansoul again, we after that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>shall be cast out any +more. It is the law of that Prince that now they own, that if we get +them a second time they shall be ours for ever.' He returned a warm +answer to his friend, 'which was subscribed as given at the Pit's +mouth, by the joint consent of all the Princes of Darkness, by me, +Diabolus.' The plan was to corrupt Mansoul's morals, and three devils +of rank set off disguised to take service in the town, and make their +way into the households of Mr. Mind, Mr. Godly Fear, and Lord Will be +Will. Godly Fear discovered his mistake and turned the devil out. The +other two established themselves successfully, and Mr. Profane was +soon at Hell Gate again to report progress. Cerberus welcomed him with +a 'St. Mary, I am glad to see thee.' Another council was held in +Pandemonium, and Diabolus was impatient to show himself again on the +scene. Apollyon advised him not to be in a hurry. 'Let our friends,' +he said, 'draw Mansoul more and more into sin—there is nothing like +sin to devour Mansoul;' but Diabolus would not wait for so slow a +process, and raised an army of Doubters 'from the land of Doubting on +the confines of Hell Gate Hill.' 'Doubt,' Bunyan always admitted, had +been his own most dangerous enemy.</p> + +<p>Happily the townspeople became aware of the peril which threatened +them. Mr. Prywell, a great lover of Mansoul, overheard some +Diabolonians talking about it at a place called Vile Hill. He carried +his information to the Lord Mayor; the Recorder rang the Alarm Bell; +Mansoul flew to penitence, held a day of fasting and humiliation, and +prayed to Shaddai. The Diabolonians were hunted out, and all that +could be found were killed. So far as haste and alarm would permit, +Mansoul mended its ways. But on came the Doubting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> army, led by +Incredulity, who had escaped crucifixion—'none was truer to Diabolus +than he'—on they came under their several captains, Vocation +Doubters, Grace Doubters, Salvation Doubters, &c.—figures now gone to +shadow; then the deadliest foes of every English Puritan soul. Mansoul +appealed passionately to the Chief Secretary; but the Chief Secretary +'had been grieved,' and would have nothing to say to it. The town +legions went out to meet the invaders with good words, Prayer, and +singing of Psalms. The Doubters replied with 'horrible objections,' +which were frightfully effective. Lord Reason was wounded in the head +and the Lord Mayor in the eye; Mr. Mind received a shot in the +stomach, and Conscience was hit near the heart; but the wounds were +not mortal. Mansoul had the best of it in the first engagement. Terror +was followed by boasting and self-confidence; a night sally was +attempted—night being the time when the Doubters were strongest. The +sally failed, and the men of Mansoul were turned to rout. Diabolus's +army attacked Eargate, stormed the walls, forced their way into the +town, and captured the whole of it except the castle. Then 'Mansoul +became a den of dragons, an emblem of Hell, a place of total +darkness.' 'Mr. Conscience's wounds so festered that he could have no +rest day or night.' 'Now a man might have walked for days together in +Mansoul, and scarce have seen one in the town that looked like a +religious man. Oh, the fearful state of Mansoul now!' 'Now every +corner swarmed with outlandish Doubters; Red Coats and Black Coats +walked the town by clusters, and filled the houses with hideous +noises, lying stories, and blasphemous language against Shaddai and +his Son.'</p> + +<p>This is evidently meant for fashionable London in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> time of Charles +II. Bunyan was loyal to the King. He was no believer in moral +regeneration through political revolution. But none the less he could +see what was under his eyes, and he knew what to think of it.</p> + +<p>All was not lost, for the castle still held out. The only hope was in +Emmanuel, and the garrison proposed to petition again in spite of the +ill reception of their first messengers. Godly Fear reminded them that +no petition would be received which was not signed by the Lord +Secretary, and that the Lord Secretary would sign nothing which he had +not himself drawn up. The Lord Secretary, when appealed to in the +proper manner, no longer refused his assistance. Captain Credence flew +up to Shaddai's court with the simple words that Mansoul renounced all +trust in its own strength and relied upon its Saviour. This time its +prayer would be heard.</p> + +<p>The devils meanwhile, triumphant though they were, discovered that +they could have no permanent victory unless they could reduce the +castle. 'Doubters at a distance,' Beelzebub said, 'are but like +objections repelled by arguments. Can we but get them into the hold, +and make them possessors of that, the day will be our own.' The object +was, therefore, to corrupt Mansoul at the heart.</p> + +<p>Then follows a very curious passage. Bunyan had still his eye on +England, and had discerned the quarter from which her real danger +would approach. Mansoul, the Devil perceived, 'was a market town, much +given to commerce.' 'It would be possible to dispose of some of the +Devil's wares there.' The people would be filled full, and made rich, +and would forget Emmanuel. 'Mansoul,' they said, 'shall be so cumbered +with abundance, that they shall be forced to make their castle a +warehouse.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> Wealth once made the first object of existence, +'Diabolus's gang will have easy entrance, and the castle will be our +own.'</p> + +<p>Political economy was still sleeping in the womb of futurity. Diabolus +was unable to hasten its birth, and an experiment which Bunyan thought +would certainly have succeeded was not to be tried. The <i>Deus ex +Machinâ</i> appeared with its flaming sword. The Doubting army was cut to +pieces, and Mansoul was saved. Again, however, the work was +imperfectly done. Diabolus, like the bad genius in the fairy tale, +survived for fresh mischief. Diabolus flew off again to Hell Gate, and +was soon at the head of a new host; part composed of fugitive Doubters +whom he rallied, and part of a new set of enemies called <i>Bloodmen</i>, +by whom we are to understand persecutors, 'a people from a land that +lay under the Dog Star.' 'Captain Pope' was chief of the Bloodmen. His +escutcheon 'was the stake, the flame, and good men in it.' The +Bloodmen had done Diabolus wonderful service in time past. 'Once they +had forced Emmanuel out of the Kingdom of the Universe, and why, +thought he, might they not do it again?'</p> + +<p>Emmanuel did not this time go in person to the encounter. It was +enough to send his captains. The Doubters fled at the first onset. +'The Bloodmen, when they saw that no Emmanuel was in the field, +concluded that no Emmanuel was in Mansoul. Wherefore, they, looking +upon what the captains did to be, as they called it, a fruit of the +extravagancy of their wild and foolish fancies, rather despised them +than feared them.' 'They proved, nevertheless, chicken-hearted, when +they saw themselves matched and equalled.' The chiefs were taken +prisoners, and brought to trial like Atheism and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> companions, and +so, with an address from the Prince, the story comes to a close.</p> + +<p>Thus at last the 'Holy War' ends or seems to end. It is as if Bunyan +had wished to show that though the converted Christian was still +liable to the assaults of Satan, and even to be beaten down and +overcome by him, his state was never afterwards so desperate as it had +been before the redemption, and that he had assistance ready at hand +to save him when near extremity. But the reader whose desire it is +that good shall triumph and evil be put to shame and overthrown +remains but partially satisfied; and the last conflict and its issues +leave Mansoul still subject to fresh attacks. Diabolus was still at +large. Carnal Sense broke prison and continued to lurk in the town. +Unbelief 'was a nimble Jack: him they could never lay hold of, though +they attempted to do it often.' Unbelief remained in Mansoul till the +time that Mansoul ceased to dwell in the country of the Universe; and +where Unbelief was Diabolus would not be without a friend to open the +gates to him. Bunyan says, indeed, that 'he was stoned as often as he +showed himself in the streets.' He shows himself in the streets much +at his ease in these days of ours after two more centuries.</p> + +<p>Here lies the real weakness of the 'Holy War.' It may be looked at +either as the war in the soul of each sinner that is saved, or as the +war for the deliverance of humanity. Under the first aspect it leaves +out of sight the large majority of mankind who are not supposed to be +saved, and out of whom, therefore, Diabolus is not driven at all. +Under the other aspect the struggle is still unfinished; the last act +of the drama has still to be played, and we know not what the +conclusion is to be.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p>To attempt to represent it, therefore, as a work of art, with a +beginning, a middle, and an end, is necessarily a failure. The +mysteries and contradictions which the Christian revelation leaves +unsolved are made tolerable to us by Hope. We are prepared to find in +religion many things which we cannot understand; and difficulties do +not perplex us so long as they remain in a form to which we are +accustomed. To emphasise the problem by offering it to us in an +allegory, of which we are presumed to possess a key, serves only to +revive Man Friday's question, or the old dilemma which neither +intellect nor imagination has ever dealt with successfully. 'Deus aut +non vult tollere mala, aut nequit. Si non vult non est bonus. Si +nequit non est omnipotens.' It is wiser to confess with Butler that +'there may be necessities in the nature of things which we are not +acquainted with.'</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + <h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Bunyan says in a marginal note, that by this palace he +means the heart.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The body.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The heart.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Fears.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The Scriptures.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The heart.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The Flesh.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h2>THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.</h2> + + +<p>If the 'Holy War' is an unfit subject for allegorical treatment, the +'Pilgrim's Progress' is no less perfectly adapted for it. The 'Holy +War' is a representation of the struggle of human nature with evil, +and the struggle is left undecided. The 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a +representation of the efforts of a single soul after holiness, which +has its natural termination when the soul quits its mortal home and +crosses the dark river. Each one of us has his own life battle to +fight out, his own sorrows and trials, his own failures or successes, +and his own end. He wins the game, or he loses it. The account is +wound up, and the curtain falls upon him. Here Bunyan had a material +as excellent in itself as it was exactly suited to his peculiar +genius; and his treatment of the subject from his own point of +view—that of English Protestant Christianity—is unequalled and never +will be equalled. I may say never, for in this world of change the +point of view alters fast, and never continues in one stay. As we are +swept along the stream of time, lights and shadows shift their places, +mountain plateaus turn to sharp peaks, mountain ranges dissolve into +vapour. The river which has been gliding deep and slow along the +plain, leaps suddenly over a precipice and plunges foaming down a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +sunless gorge. In the midst of changing circumstances the central +question remains the same—What am I? what is this world in which I +appear and disappear like a bubble? who made me? and what am I to do? +Some answer or other the mind of man demands and insists on receiving. +Theologian or poet offers at long intervals explanations which are +accepted as credible for a time. They wear out, and another follows, +and then another. Bunyan's answer has served average English men and +women for two hundred years, but no human being with Bunyan's +intellect and Bunyan's sincerity can again use similar language; and +the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is and will remain unique of its kind—an +imperishable monument of the form in which the problem presented +itself to a person of singular truthfulness, simplicity, and piety, +who after many struggles accepted the Puritan creed as the adequate +solution of it. It was composed exactly at the time when it was +possible for such a book to come into being; the close of the period +when the Puritan formula was a real belief, and was about to change +from a living principle into an intellectual opinion. So long as a +religion is fully alive, men do not talk about it or make allegories +about it. They assume its truth as out of reach of question, and they +simply obey its precepts as they obey the law of the land. It becomes +a subject of art and discourse only when men are unconsciously ceasing +to believe, and therefore the more vehemently think that they believe, +and repudiate with indignation the suggestion that doubt has found its +way into them. After this religion no longer governs their lives. It +governs only the language in which they express themselves, and they +preserve it eagerly, in the shape of elaborate observances or in the +agreeable forms of art and literature.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p>The 'Pilgrim's Progress' was written before the 'Holy War,' while +Bunyan was still in prison at Bedford, and was but half conscious of +the gifts which he possessed. It was written for his own +entertainment, and therefore without the thought—so fatal in its +effects and so hard to be resisted—of what the world would say about +it. It was written in compulsory quiet, when he was comparatively +unexcited by the effort of perpetual preaching, and the shapes of +things could present themselves to him as they really were, +undistorted by theological narrowness. It is the same story which he +has told of himself in 'Grace Abounding,' thrown out into an objective +form.</p> + +<p>He tells us himself, in a metrical introduction, the circumstances +under which it was composed:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When at the first I took my pen in hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus for to write, I did not understand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I at all should make a little book<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In such a mode. Nay, I had undertook<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make another, which when almost done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before I was aware I this begun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And thus it was.—I writing of the way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And race of saints in this our Gospel day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell suddenly into an Allegory<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the journey and the way to glory<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In more than twenty things which I set down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This done, I twenty more had in my crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And these again began to multiply,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay then, thought I, if that you breed so fast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll put you by yourselves, lest you at last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should prove <i>ad Infinitum</i>, and eat out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The book that I already am about.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Well, so I did; but yet I did not think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To show to all the world my pen and ink<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">In such a mode. I only thought to make,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I knew not what. Nor did I undertake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Merely to please my neighbours; no, not I.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I did it mine own self to gratify.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Neither did I but vacant seasons spend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In this my scribble; nor did I intend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But to divert myself in doing this<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From worser thoughts which make me do amiss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus I set pen to paper with delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And quickly had my thoughts in black and white;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For having now my method by the end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still as I pulled it came; and so I penned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It down: until at last it came to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For length and breadth the bigness which you see.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Well, when I had thus put my ends together,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I showed them others, that I might see whether<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They would condemn them or them justify.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some said, Let them live; some, Let them die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some said, John, print it; others said, Not so;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some said it might do good; others said, No.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now was I in a strait, and did not see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which was the best thing to be done by me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last I thought, since you are thus divided,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I print it will; and so the case decided.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The difference of opinion among Bunyan's friends is easily explicable. +The allegoric representation of religion to men profoundly convinced +of the truth of it might naturally seem light and fantastic, and the +breadth of the conception could not please the narrow sectarians who +knew no salvation beyond the lines of their peculiar formulas. The +Pilgrim though in a Puritan dress is a genuine man. His experience is +so truly human experience, that Christians of every persuasion can +identify themselves with him; and even those who regard Christianity +itself as but a natural outgrowth of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> conscience and intellect, +and yet desire to live nobly and make the best of themselves, can +recognise familiar foot-prints in every step of Christian's journey. +Thus the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a book, which, when once read, can +never be forgotten. We too, every one of us, are pilgrims on the same +road, and images and illustrations come back upon us from so faithful +an itinerary, as we encounter similar trials, and learn for ourselves +the accuracy with which Bunyan has described them. There is no +occasion to follow a story minutely which memory can so universally +supply. I need pause only at a few spots which are too charming to +pass by.</p> + +<p>How picturesque and vivid are the opening lines:</p> + +<p>'As I walked through the wilderness of this world I lighted on a +certain place where there was a den,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> and I laid me down in that +place to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and +behold I saw a man, a man clothed in rags, standing with his face from +his own home with a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his +back.'</p> + +<p>The man is Bunyan himself as we see him in 'Grace Abounding.' His sins +are the burden upon his back. He reads his book and weeps and +trembles. He speaks of his fears to his friends and kindred. They +think 'some frenzy distemper has got into his head.' He meets a man in +the fields whose name is Evangelist. Evangelist tells him to flee from +the City of Destruction. He shows him the way by which he must go, and +points to the far-off light which will guide him to the wicket-gate. +He sets off, and his neighbours of course think him mad. The world +always thinks men mad who turn their backs upon it. Obstinate and +Pliable (how well we know them <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>both!) follow to persuade him to +return. Obstinate talks practical common sense to him, and as it has +no effect, gives him up as a fantastical fellow. Pliable thinks that +there may be something in what he says, and offers to go with him.</p> + +<p>Before they can reach the wicket-gate, they fall into a 'miry slough.' +Who does not know the miry slough too? When a man begins for the first +time to think seriously about himself, the first thing that rises +before him is a consciousness of his miserable past life. Amendment +seems to be desperate. He thinks it is too late to change for any +useful purpose, and he sinks into despondency.</p> + +<p>Pliable finding the road disagreeable has soon had enough of it. He +scrambles out of the slough 'on the side which was nearest to his own +house' and goes home. Christian struggling manfully is lifted out 'by +a man whose name was Help,' and goes on upon his journey, but the +burden on his back weighs him down. He falls in with Mr. Worldly +Wiseman who lives in the town of Carnal Policy. Mr. Worldly Wiseman, +who looks like a gentleman, advises him not to think about his sins. +If he has done wrong he must alter his life and do better for the +future. He directs him to a village called Morality, where he will +find a gentleman well known in those parts, who will take his burden +off—Mr. Legality. Either Mr. Legality will do it himself, or it can +be done equally well by his pretty young son, Mr. Civility.</p> + +<p>The way to a better life does not lie in a change of outward action, +but in a changed heart. Legality soon passes into civility, according +to the saying that vice loses half its evil when it loses its +grossness. Bunyan would have said that the poison was the more deadly +from being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> concealed. Christian after a near escape is set straight +again. He is admitted into the wicket-gate and is directed how he is +to go forward. He asks if he may not lose his way. He is answered Yes, +'There are many ways (that) butt down on this and they are crooked and +wide. But thus thou mayest know the right from the wrong, that only +being straight and narrow.'</p> + +<p>Good people often suppose that when a man is once 'converted,' as they +call it, and has entered on a religious life, he will find everything +made easy. He has turned to Christ, and in Christ he will find rest +and pleasantness. The path of duty is unfortunately not strewed with +flowers at all. The primrose road leads to the other place. As on all +other journeys, to persevere is the difficulty. The pilgrim's feet +grow sorer the longer he walks. His lower nature follows him like a +shadow watching opportunities to trip him up, and ever appearing in +some new disguise. In the way of comfort he is allowed only certain +resting places, quiet intervals of peace when temptation is absent, +and the mind can gather strength and encouragement from a sense of the +progress which it has made.</p> + +<p>The first of these resting places at which Christian arrives is the +'Interpreter's House.' This means, I conceive, that he arrives at a +right understanding of the objects of human desire as they really are. +He learns to distinguish there between passion and patience, passion +which demands immediate gratification, and patience which can wait and +hope. He sees the action of grace on the heart, and sees the Devil +labouring to put it out. He sees the man in the iron cage who was once +a flourishing professor, but had been tempted away by pleasure and had +sinned against light. He hears a dream too—one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> Bunyan's own early +dreams, but related as by another person. The Pilgrim himself was +beyond the reach of such uneasy visions. But it shows how profoundly +the terrible side of Christianity had seized on Bunyan's imagination +and how little he was able to forget it.</p> + +<p>'This night as I was in my sleep I dreamed, and behold the heavens +grew exceeding black: also it thundered and lightened in most fearful +wise, that it put me into an agony; so I looked up in my dream and saw +the clouds rack at an unusual rate, upon which I heard a great sound +of a trumpet, and saw also a man sit upon a cloud attended with the +thousands of heaven. They were all in a flaming fire, and the heaven +also was in a burning flame. I heard then a voice, saying, Arise ye +dead and come to judgment; and with that the rocks rent, the graves +opened, and the dead that were therein came forth. Some of them were +exceeding glad and looked upward, some sought to hide themselves under +the mountains. Then I saw the man that sate upon the cloud open the +book and bid the world draw near. Yet there was, by reason of a fierce +flame that issued out and came from before him, a convenient distance +betwixt him and them, as betwixt the judge and the prisoners at the +bar. I heard it also proclaimed to them that attended on the man that +sate on the cloud, Gather together the tares, the chaff, and the +stubble, and cast them into the burning lake. And with that the +bottomless pit opened just whereabouts I stood, out of the mouth of +which there came in an abundant manner smoke and coals of fire with +hideous noises. It was also said to the same persons, Gather the wheat +into my garner. And with that I saw many catched up and carried away +into the clouds, but I was left behind. I also sought to hide<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> myself, +but I could not, for the man that sate upon the cloud still kept his +eye upon me. My sins also came into my mind, and my conscience did +accuse me on every side. I thought the day of judgment was come and I +was not ready for it.'</p> + +<p>The resting time comes to an end. The Pilgrim gathers himself +together, and proceeds upon his way. He is not to be burdened for ever +with the sense of his sins. It fell from off his back at the sight of +the cross. Three shining ones appear and tell him that his sins are +forgiven; they take off his rags and provide him with a new suit.</p> + +<p>He now encounters fellow-travellers; and the seriousness of the story is +relieved by adventures and humorous conversations. At the bottom of a hill +he finds three gentlemen asleep, 'a little out of the way.' These were +Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. He tries to rouse them, but does not +succeed. Presently two others are seen tumbling over the wall into the +Narrow Way. They are come from the land of Vain Glory, and are called +Formalist and Hypocrisy. Like the Pilgrim, they are bound for Mount Zion; +but the wicket-gate was 'too far about,' and they had come by a short cut. +'They had custom for it a thousand years and more; and custom being of so +long standing would be admitted legal by any impartial judge.' Whether +right or wrong they insist that they are in the way, and no more is to be +said. But they are soon out of it again. The hill is the hill Difficulty, +and the road parts into three. Two go round the bottom, as modern engineers +would make them. The other rises straight over the top. Formalist and +Hypocrisy choose the easy ways, and are heard of no more. Pilgrim climbs +up, and after various accidents comes to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> the second resting-place, the +Palace Beautiful, built by the Lord of the Hill to entertain strangers in. +The recollections of Sir Bevis of Southampton furnished Bunyan with his +framework. Lions guard the court. Fair ladies entertain him as if he had +been a knight-errant in quest of the Holy Grail. The ladies, of course, are +all that they ought to be: the Christian graces—Discretion, Prudence, +Piety, and Charity. He tells them his history. They ask him if he has +brought none of his old belongings with him. He answers yes; but greatly +against his will: his inward and carnal cogitations, with which his +countrymen, as well as himself, were so much delighted. Only in golden +hours they seemed to leave him. Who cannot recognise the truth of this? Who +has not groaned over the follies and idiocies that cling to us like the +doggerel verses that hang about our memories? The room in which he sleeps +is called Peace. In the morning he is shown the curiosities, chiefly +Scripture relics, in the palace. He is taken to the roof, from which he +sees far off the outlines of the Delectable Mountains. Next, the ladies +carry him to the armoury, and equip him for the dangers which lie next +before him. He is to go down into the Valley of Humiliation, and pass +thence through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.</p> + +<p>Bunyan here shows the finest insight. To some pilgrims the Valley of +Humiliation was the pleasantest part of the journey. Mr. Feeblemind, +in the second part of the story, was happier there than anywhere. But +Christian is Bunyan himself; and Bunyan had a stiff self-willed +nature, and had found his spirit the most stubborn part of him. Down +here he encounters Apollyon himself, 'straddling quite over the whole +breadth of the way'—a more effective devil than the Diabolus of the +'Holy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> War.' He fights him for half-a-day, is sorely wounded in head, +hand, and foot, and has a near escape of being pressed to death. +Apollyon spreads his bat wings at last, and flies away; but there +remains the Valley of the Shadow of Death, the dark scene of lonely +horrors. Two men meet him on the borders of it. They tell him the +valley is full of spectres; and they warn him, if he values his life, +to go back. Well Bunyan knew these spectres, those dreary misgivings +that he was toiling after an illusion; that 'good' and 'evil' had no +meaning except on earth, and for man's convenience; and that he +himself was but a creature of a day, allowed a brief season of what is +called existence, and then to pass away and be as if he had never +been. It speaks well for Bunyan's honesty that this state of mind +which religious people generally call wicked is placed directly in his +Pilgrim's path, and he is compelled to pass through it. In the valley, +close at the road-side, there is a pit, which is one of the mouths of +hell. A wicked spirit whispers to him as he goes by. He imagines that +the thought had proceeded out of his own heart.</p> + +<p>The sky clears when he is beyond the gorge. Outside it are the caves +where the two giants, Pope and Pagan, had lived in old times. Pagan +had been dead many a day. Pope was still living, 'but he had grown so +crazy and stiff in his joints that he could now do little more than +sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they went by, and +biting his nails because he could not come at them.'</p> + +<p>Here he overtakes 'Faithful,' a true pilgrim like himself. Faithful +had met with trials; but his trials have not resembled Christian's. +Christian's difficulties, like Bunyan's own, had been all spiritual. +'The lusts of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> flesh' seem to have had no attraction for him. +Faithful had been assailed by 'Wanton,' and had been obliged to fly +from her. He had not fallen into the slough; but he had been beguiled +by the Old Adam, who offered him one of his daughters for a wife. In +the Valley of the Shadow of Death he had found sunshine all the way. +Doubts about the truth of religion had never troubled the simpler +nature of the good Faithful.</p> + +<p>Mr. Talkative is the next character introduced, and is one of the best +figures which Bunyan has drawn; Mr. Talkative, with Scripture at his +fingers' ends, and perfect master of all doctrinal subtleties, ready +'to talk of things heavenly or things earthly, things moral or things +evangelical, things sacred or things profane, things past or things to +come, things foreign or things at home, things essential or things +circumstantial, provided that all be done to our profit.'</p> + +<p>This gentleman would have taken in Faithful, who was awed by such a +rush of volubility. Christian has seen him before, knows him well, and +can describe him. 'He is the son of one Saywell. He dwelt in Prating +Row. He is for any company and for any talk. As he talks now with you +so will he talk when on the ale-bench. The more drink he hath in his +crown, the more of these things he hath in his mouth. Religion hath no +place in his heart, or home, or conversation; all that he hath lieth +in his tongue, and his religion is to make a noise therewith.'</p> + +<p>The elect, though they have ceased to be of the world, are still in +the world. They are still part of the general community of mankind, +and share, whether they like it or not, in the ordinary activities of +life. Faithful and Christian have left the City of Destruction. They +have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> shaken off from themselves all liking for idle pleasures. They +nevertheless find themselves in their journey at Vanity Fair, 'a fair +set up by Beelzebub 5000 years ago.' Trade of all sorts went on at +Vanity Fair, and people of all sorts were collected there: cheats, +fools, asses, knaves, and rogues. Some were honest, many were +dishonest; some lived peaceably and uprightly, others robbed, +murdered, seduced their neighbours' wives, or lied and perjured +themselves. Vanity Fair was European society as it existed in the days +of Charles II. Each nation was represented. There was British Row, +French Row, and Spanish Row. 'The wares of Rome and her merchandise +were greatly promoted at the fair, only the English nation with some +others had taken a dislike to them.' The pilgrims appear on the scene +as the Apostles appeared at Antioch and Rome, to tell the people that +there were things in the world of more consequence than money and +pleasure. The better sort listen. Public opinion in general calls them +fools and Bedlamites. The fair becomes excited, disturbances are +feared, and the authorities send to make inquiries. Authorities +naturally disapprove of novelties; and Christian and Faithful are +arrested, beaten, and put in the cage. Their friends insist that they +have done no harm, that they are innocent strangers teaching only what +will make men better instead of worse. A riot follows. The authorities +determine to make an example of them, and the result is the +ever-memorable trial of the two pilgrims. They are brought in irons +before my Lord Hategood, charged with 'disturbing the trade of the +town, creating divisions, and making converts to their opinions in +contempt of the law of the Prince.'</p> + +<p>Faithful begins with an admission which would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> made it difficult +for Hategood to let him off, for he says that the Prince they talked +of, being Beelzebub, the enemy of the Lord, he defied him and all his +angels. Three witnesses were then called: Envy, Superstition, and +Pickthank.</p> + +<p>Envy says that Faithful regards neither prince nor people, but does +all he can to possess men with disloyal notions, which he call +principles of faith and holiness.</p> + +<p>Superstition says that he knows little of him, but has heard him say +that 'our religion is naught, and such by which no man can please God, +from which saying his Lordship well knows will follow that we are yet +in our sins, and finally shall be damned.'</p> + +<p>Pickthank deposes that he has heard Faithful rail on Beelzebub, and +speak contemptuously of his honourable friends my Lord Old Man, my +Lord Carnal Delight, my Lord Luxurious, my Lord Desire of Vain Glory, +my Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, and the rest of the nobility, +besides which he has railed against his lordship on the bench himself, +calling him an ungodly villain.</p> + +<p>The evidence was perfectly true, and the prisoner, when called on for +his defence, confirmed it. He says (avoiding the terms in which he was +said to rail and the like) that 'the Prince of the town, with all the +rabblement of his attendants by this gentleman named, are more fit for +a being in hell than in this town or country.'</p> + +<p>Lord Hategood has been supposed to have been drawn from one or other +of Charles II.'s judges, perhaps from either Twisden or Chester, who +had the conversation with Bunyan's wife. But it is difficult to see +how either one or the other could have acted otherwise than they did. +Faithful might be quite right. Hell might be and probably was the +proper place for Beelzebub, and for all persons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> holding authority +under him. But as a matter of fact, a form of society did for some +purpose or other exist, and had been permitted to exist for 5000 +years, owning Beelzebub's sovereignty. It must defend itself, or must +cease to be, and it could not be expected to make no effort at +self-preservation. Faithful had come to Vanity Fair to make a +revolution—a revolution extremely desirable, but one which it was +unreasonable to expect the constituted authorities to allow to go +forward. It was not a case of false witness. A prisoner who admits +that he has taught the people that their Prince ought to be in hell, +and has called the judge an ungodly villain, cannot complain if he is +accused of preaching rebellion.</p> + +<p>Lord Hategood charges the jury, and explains the law. 'There was an +Act made,' he says, 'in the days of Pharaoh the Great, servant to our +Prince, that lest those of a contrary religion should multiply and +grow too strong for him, their males should be thrown into the river. +There was also an Act made in the days of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, +that whoever would not fall down and worship his golden image should +be thrown into a fiery furnace. There was also an Act made in the days +of Darius that whoso for some time called upon any God but him should +be cast into the lion's den. Now the substance of these laws this +rebel hath broken, not only in thought (which is not to be borne), but +also in word and deed, which must, therefore, be intolerable. For that +of Pharaoh, his law was made upon a supposition to prevent mischief, +no crime being yet apparent. For the second and third you see his +disputations against our religion, and for the treason he hath +confessed he deserveth to die the death.'</p> + +<p>'Then went the jury out, whose names were Mr. Blindman, Mr. Nogood, +Mr. Malice, Mr. Lovelust, Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> Liveloose, Mr. Heady, Mr. Highmind, Mr. +Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hatelight, and Mr. Implacable, who +every one gave in his private verdict against him among themselves, +and afterwards unanimously concluded to bring him in guilty before the +judge. And first, Mr. Blindman, the foreman, said: I see clearly that +this man is a heretic. Then said Mr. No Good, Away with such a fellow +from the earth. Aye, said Mr. Malice, I hate the very looks of him. +Then said Mr. Lovelust, I could never endure him. Nor I, said Mr. +Liveloose, for he would always be condemning my way. Hang him, hang +him, said Mr. Heady. A sorry scrub, said Mr. Highmind. My heart riseth +against him, said Mr. Enmity. He is a rogue, said Mr. Liar. Hanging is +too good for him, said Mr. Cruelty. Let us despatch him out of the +way, said Mr. Hatelight. Then, said Mr. Implacable, might I have all +the world given me, I could not be reconciled to him; therefore, let +us forthwith bring him in guilty of death.'</p> + +<p>Abstract qualities of character were never clothed in more substantial +flesh and blood than these jurymen. Spenser's knights in the 'Fairy +Queen' are mere shadows to them. Faithful was, of course, condemned, +scourged, buffeted, lanced in his feet with knives, stoned, stabbed, +at last burned, and spared the pain of travelling further on the +narrow road. A chariot and horses were waiting to bear him through the +clouds, the nearest way to the Celestial Gate. Christian, who it seems +had been remanded, contrives to escape. He is joined by Hopeful, a +convert whom he has made in the town, and they pursue their journey in +company. A second person is useful dramatically, and Hopeful takes +Faithful's place. Leaving Vanity Fair, they are again on the Pilgrim's +road. There they encounter Mr. Bye-ends. Bye-ends comes from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> town +of Plain-Speech, where he has a large kindred, My Lord Turnabout, my +Lord Timeserver, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Two Tongues, the parson of +the parish. Bye-ends himself was married to a daughter of Lady +Feignings. Bunyan's invention in such things was inexhaustible.</p> + +<p>They have more trials of the old kind with which Bunyan himself was so +familiar. They cross the River of Life and even drink at it, yet for +all this and directly after, they stray into Bye Path Meadow. They +lose themselves in the grounds of Doubting Castle, and are seized upon +by Giant Despair—still a prey to doubt—still uncertain whether +religion be not a dream, even after they have fought with wild beasts +in Vanity Fair and have drunk of the water of life. Nowhere does +Bunyan show better how well he knew the heart of man. Christian even +thinks of killing himself in the dungeons of Doubting Castle. Hopeful +cheers him up, they break their prison, recover the road again, and +arrive at the Delectable Mountains in Emmanuel's own land. There it +might be thought the danger would be over, but it is not so. Even in +Emmanuel's Land there is a door in the side of a hill which is a +byeway to hell, and beyond Emmanuel's Land is the country of conceit, +a new and special temptation for those who think that they are near +salvation. Here they encounter 'a brisk lad of the neighbourhood,' +needed soon after for a particular purpose, who is a good liver, prays +devoutly, fasts regularly, pays tithes punctually, and hopes that +everyone will get to heaven by the religion which he professes, +provided he fears God and tries to do his duty. The name of this brisk +lad is Ignorance. Leaving him, they are caught in a net by Flatterer, +and are smartly whipped by 'a shining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> one,' who lets them out of it. +False ideas and vanity lay them open once more to their most dangerous +enemy. They meet a man coming towards them from the direction in which +they are going. They tell him that they are on the way to Mount Zion. +He laughs scornfully and answers:—</p> + +<p>'There is no such place as you dream of in all the world. When I was +at home in my own country, I heard as you now affirm, and from hearing +I went out to see; and have been seeking this city these twenty years, +but I find no more of it than I did the first day I went out. I am +going back again and will seek to refresh myself with things which I +then cast away for hopes of that which I now see is not.'</p> + +<p>Still uncertainty—even on the verge of eternity—strange, doubtless, +and reprehensible to Right Reverend persons, who never 'cast away' +anything; to whom a religious profession has been a highway to +pleasure and preferment, who live in the comfortable assurance that as +it has been in this life so it will be in the next. Only moral +obliquity of the worst kind could admit a doubt about so excellent a +religion as this. But Bunyan was not a Right Reverend. Christianity +had brought him no palaces and large revenues, and a place among the +great of the land. If Christianity was not true his whole life was +folly and illusion, and the dread that it might be so clung to his +belief like its shadow.</p> + +<p>The way was still long. The pilgrims reach the Enchanted Ground and +are drowsy and tired. Ignorance comes up with them again. He talks +much about himself. He tells them of the good motives that come into +his mind and comfort him as he walks. His heart tells him that he has +left all for God and Heaven. His belief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> and his life agree together, +and he is humbly confident that his hopes are well-founded. When they +speak to him of Salvation by Faith and Conviction by Sin, he cannot +understand what they mean. As he leaves them they are reminded of one +Temporary, 'once a forward man in religion.' Temporary dwelt in +Graceless, 'a town two miles from Honesty, next door to one Turnback.' +He 'was going on pilgrimage, but became acquainted with one Save Self, +and was never more heard of.'</p> + +<p>These figures all mean something. They correspond in part to Bunyan's +own recollection of his own trials. Partly he is indulging his humour +by describing others who were more astray than he was. It was over at +last: the pilgrims arrive at the land of Beulah, the beautiful sunset +after the storms were all past. Doubting Castle can be seen no more, +and between them and their last rest there remains only the deep river +over which there is no bridge, the river of Death. On the hill beyond +the waters glitter the towers and domes of the Celestial City; but +through the river they must first pass, and they find it deeper or +shallower according to the strength of their faith. They go through, +Hopeful feeling the bottom all along; Christian still in character, +not without some horror, and frightened by hobgoblins. On the other +side they are received by angels, and are carried to their final home, +to live for ever in the Prince's presence. Then follows the only +passage which the present writer reads with regret in this admirable +book. It is given to the self-righteous Ignorance who, doubtless, had +been provoking with 'his good motives that comforted him as he +walked;' but Bunyan's zeal might have been satisfied by inflicting a +lighter chastisement upon him. He comes up to the river. He crosses +without the difficulties which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> attended Christian and Hopeful. 'It +happened that there was then at the place one Vain Hope, a Ferryman, +that with his boat' (some viaticum or priestly absolution) 'helped him +over.' He ascends the hill, and approaches the city, but no angels are +in attendance, 'neither did any man meet him with the least +encouragement.' Above the gate there was the verse written—'Blessed +are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the Tree +of Life, and may enter in through the gate into the city.' Bunyan, who +believed that no man could keep the commandments, and had no right to +anything but damnation, must have introduced the words as if to mock +the unhappy wretch who, after all, had tried to keep the commandments +as well as most people, and was seeking admittance, with a conscience +moderately at ease. 'He was asked by the men that looked over the +gate—Whence come you and what would you have?' He answered, 'I have +eaten and drunk in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our +street.' Then they asked him for his certificate, that they might go +in and show it to the king. So he fumbled in his bosom for one and +found none. Then said they, 'Have you none?' But the man answered +never a word. So they told the king but he would not come down to see +him, but commanded the two shining ones that conducted Christian and +Hopeful to the city to go out and take Ignorance and bind him hand and +foot, and have him away. Then they took him up and carried him through +the air to the door in the side of the hill, and put him in there. +'Then,' so Bunyan ends, 'I saw that there was a way to Hell even from +the gates of Heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction; so I +awoke, and behold it was a dream!'</p> + +<p>Poor Ignorance! Hell—such a place as Bunyan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> imagined Hell to be—was +a hard fate for a miserable mortal who had failed to comprehend the +true conditions of justification. We are not told that he was a vain +boaster. He could not have advanced so near to the door of Heaven if +he had not been really a decent man, though vain and silly. Behold, it +was a dream! The dreams which come to us when sleep is deep on the +soul may be sent direct from some revealing power. When we are near +waking, the supernatural insight may be refracted through human +theory.</p> + +<p>Charity will hope that the vision of Ignorance cast bound into the +mouth of Hell, when he was knocking at the gate of Heaven, came +through Homer's ivory gate, and that Bunyan here was a mistaken +interpreter of the spiritual tradition. The fierce inferences of +Puritan theology are no longer credible to us; yet nobler men than the +Puritans are not to be found in all English history. It will be well +if the clearer sight which enables us to detect their errors, enables +us also to recognise their excellence.</p> + +<p>The second part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' like most second parts, +is but a feeble reverberation of the first. It is comforting, no +doubt, to know that Christian's wife and children were not left to +their fate in the City of Destruction. But Bunyan had given us all +that he had to tell about the journey, and we do not need a repetition +of it. Of course there, are touches of genius. No writing of Bunyan's +could be wholly without it. But the rough simplicity is gone, and +instead of it there is a tone of sentiment which is almost mawkish. +Giants, dragons, and angelic champions carry us into a spurious fairy +land, where the knight-errant is a preacher in disguise. Fair ladies +and love matches, however decorously chastened,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> suit ill with the +sternness of the mortal conflict between the soul and sin. Christiana +and her children are tolerated for the pilgrim's sake to whom they +belong. Had they appealed to our interest on their own merits, we +would have been contented to wish them well through their +difficulties, and to trouble ourselves no further about them.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The Bedford Prison.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h2>LAST DAYS AND DEATH.</h2> + + +<p>Little remains to be told of Bunyan's concluding years. No friends +preserved his letters. No diaries of his own survive to gratify +curiosity. Men truly eminent think too meanly of themselves or their +work to care much to be personally remembered. He lived for sixteen +years after his release from the gaol, and those years were spent in +the peaceful discharge of his congregational duties, in writing, in +visiting the scattered members of the Baptist communion, or in +preaching in the villages and woods. His outward circumstances were +easy. He had a small but well-provided house in Bedford, into which he +collected rare and valuable pieces of old furniture and plate, and +other articles—presents, probably, from those who admired him. He +visited London annually to preach in the Baptist churches. The +'Pilgrim's Progress' spread his fame over England, over Europe, and +over the American settlements. It was translated into many languages; +and so catholic was its spirit, that it was adapted with a few +alterations for the use even of the Catholics themselves. He +abstained, as he had done steadily throughout his life, from all +interference with politics, and the Government in turn never again +meddled with him. He even received offers of promotion to larger +spheres of action<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> which might have tempted a meaner nature. But he +could never be induced to leave Bedford, and there he quietly stayed +through changes of ministry, Popish plots, and Monmouth rebellions, +while the terror of a restoration of Popery was bringing on the +Revolution; careless of kings and cabinets, and confident that Giant +Pope had lost his power for harm, and thenceforward could only bite +his nails at the passing pilgrims. Once only, after the failure of the +Exclusion Bill, he seems to have feared that violent measures might +again be tried against him. It is even said that he was threatened +with arrest, and it was on this occasion that he made over his +property to his wife. The policy of James II., however, transparently +treacherous though it was, for the time gave security to the +Nonconformist congregations, and in the years which immediately +preceded the final expulsion of the Stuarts, liberty of conscience was +under fewer restrictions than it had been in the most rigorous days of +the Reformation, or under the Long Parliament itself. Thus the anxiety +passed away, and Bunyan was left undisturbed to finish his earthly +work.</p> + +<p>He was happy in his family. His blind child, for whom he had been so +touchingly anxious, had died while he was in prison. His other +children lived and did well; and his brave companion, who had spoken +so stoutly for him to the judges, continued at his side. His health, +it was said, had suffered from his confinement; but the only serious +illness which we hear of, was an attack of 'sweating sickness,' which +came upon him in 1687, and from which he never thoroughly recovered. +He was then fifty-nine, and in the next year he died.</p> + +<p>His end was characteristic. It was brought on by exposure when he was +engaged in an act of charity. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> quarrel had broken out in a family at +Reading with which Bunyan had some acquaintance. A father had taken +offence at his son, and threatened to disinherit him. Bunyan undertook +a journey on horseback from Bedford to Reading in the hope of +reconciling them. He succeeded, but at the cost of his life. Returning +by London he was overtaken on the road by a storm of rain, and was +wetted through before he could find shelter. The chill, falling on a +constitution already weakened by illness, brought on fever. He was +able to reach the house of Mr. Strudwick, one of his London friends; +but he never left his bed afterwards. In ten days he was dead. The +exact date is uncertain. It was towards the end of August 1688, +between two and three months before the landing of King William. He +was buried in Mr. Strudwick's vault in the Dissenters' burying-ground +at Bunhill Fields. His last words were 'Take me, for I come to Thee.'</p> + +<p>So ended, at the age of sixty, a man who, if his importance may be +measured by the influence which he has exerted over succeeding +generations, must be counted among the most extraordinary persons whom +England has produced. It has been the fashion to dwell on the +disadvantages of his education, and to regret the carelessness of +nature which brought into existence a man of genius in a tinker's hut +at Elstow. Nature is less partial than she appears, and all situations +in life have their compensations along with them.</p> + +<p>Circumstances, I should say, qualified Bunyan perfectly well for the +work which he had to do. If he had gone to school, as he said, with +Aristotle and Plato; if he had been broken in at a university and been +turned into a bishop; if he had been in any one of the learned +pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>fessions, he might easily have lost or might have never known the +secret of his powers. He was born to be the Poet-apostle of the +English middle classes, imperfectly educated like himself; and, being +one of themselves, he had the key of their thoughts and feelings in +his own heart. Like nine out of ten of his countrymen, he came into +the world with no fortune but his industry. He had to work with his +hands for his bread, and to advance by the side of his neighbours +along the road of common business. His knowledge was scanty, though of +rare quality. He knew his Bible probably by heart. He had studied +history in Foxe's 'Martyrs,' but nowhere else that we can trace. The +rest of his mental furniture was gathered at first hand from his +conscience, his life, and his occupations. Thus every idea which he +received falling into a soil naturally fertile, sprouted up fresh, +vigorous, and original. He confessed to have felt—(as a man of his +powers could hardly have failed to feel)—continued doubts about the +Bible and the reality of the Divine government. It has been well said +that when we look into the world to find the image of God, it is as if +we were to stand before a looking-glass expecting to see ourselves +reflected there, and to see nothing. Education scarcely improves our +perception in this respect; and wider information, wider acquaintance +with the thoughts of other men in other ages and countries, might as +easily have increased his difficulties as have assisted him in +overcoming them. He was not a man who could have contented himself +with compromises and half-convictions. No force could have subdued him +into a decent Anglican divine—a 'Mr. Two Tongues, parson of the +parish.' He was passionate and thorough-going. The authority of +conscience presented itself to him only in the shape of religious +obli<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>gation. Religion once shaken into a 'perhaps,' would have had no +existence to him; and it is easy to conceive a university-bred Bunyan, +an intellectual meteor, flaring uselessly across the sky and +disappearing in smoke and nothingness.</p> + +<p>Powerful temperaments are necessarily intense. Bunyan, born a tinker, +had heard right and wrong preached to him in the name of the Christian +creed. He concluded after a struggle that Christianity was true, and +on that conviction he built himself up into what he was. It might have +been the same perhaps with Burns had he been born a century before. +Given Christianity as an unquestionably true account of the situation +and future prospects of man, the feature of it most appalling to the +imagination is that hell-fire—a torment exceeding the most horrible +which fancy can conceive, and extending into eternity—awaits the +enormous majority of the human race. The dreadful probability seized +hold on the young Bunyan's mind. He shuddered at it when awake. In the +visions of the night it came before him in the tremendous details of +the dreadful reality. It became the governing thought in his nature.</p> + +<p>Such a belief, if it does not drive a man to madness, will at least +cure him of trifling. It will clear his mind of false sentiment, take +the nonsense out of him, and enable him to resist vulgar temptation as +nothing else will. The danger is that the mind may not bear the +strain, that the belief itself may crack and leave nothing. Bunyan was +hardly tried, but in him the belief did not crack. It spread over his +character. It filled him first with terror; then with a loathing of +sin, which entailed so awful a penalty; then, as his personal fears +were allayed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> by the recognition of Christ, it turned to tenderness +and pity.</p> + +<p>There was no fanaticism in Bunyan; nothing harsh or savage. His +natural humour perhaps saved him. His few recorded sayings all refer +to the one central question; but healthy seriousness often best +expresses itself in playful quaintness. He was once going somewhere +disguised as a waggoner. He was overtaken by a constable who had a +warrant to arrest him. The constable asked him if he knew that devil +of a fellow Bunyan. 'Know him!' Bunyan said. 'You might call him a +devil if you knew him as well as I once did.'</p> + +<p>A Cambridge student was trying to show him what a divine thing reason +was—'reason, the chief glory of man which distinguished him from a +beast,' &c., &c.</p> + +<p>Bunyan growled out: 'Sin distinguishes man from beast. Is sin divine?'</p> + +<p>He was extremely tolerant in his terms of Church membership. He +offended the stricter part of his congregation by refusing even to +make infant baptism a condition of exclusion. The only persons with +whom he declined to communicate were those whose lives were openly +immoral. His chief objection to the Church of England was the +admission of the ungodly to the Sacraments. He hated party titles and +quarrels upon trifles. He desired himself to be called a Christian or +a Believer, or 'any name which was approved by the Holy Ghost.' +Divisions, he said, were to Churches like wars to countries. Those who +talked most about religion cared least for it; and controversies about +doubtful things, and things of little moment, ate up all zeal for +things which were practicable and indisputable.</p> + +<p>'In countenance,' wrote a friend, 'he appeared to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> of a stern and +rough temper, but in his conversation mild and affable; not given to +loquacity or to much discourse in company unless some urgent occasion +required it; observing never to boast of himself or his parts, but +rather to seem low in his own eyes, and submit himself to the judgment +of others; abhorring lying and swearing, being just, in all that lay +in his power, to his word; not seeming to revenge injuries, loving to +reconcile differences and make friendships with all. He had a sharp +quick eye, with an excellent discerning of persons, being of good +judgment and quick wit.' 'He was tall of stature, strong boned, though +not corpulent, somewhat of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes, wearing +his hair on his upper lip; his hair reddish, but in his later days +time had sprinkled it with grey; his nose well set, but not declining +or bending; his mouth moderate large, his forehead something high, and +his habit always plain and modest.'</p> + +<p>He was himself indifferent to advancement, and he did not seek it for +his family. A London merchant offered to take his son into his house. +'God,' he said, 'did not send me to advance my family, but to preach +the Gospel.' He had no vanity—an exemption extremely rare in those +who are personally much before the public. The personal popularity was +in fact the part of his situation which he least liked. When he was to +preach in London, 'if there was but one day's notice the meeting house +was crowded to overflowing.' Twelve hundred people would be found +collected before seven o'clock on a dark winter's morning to hear a +lecture from him. In Zoar Street, Southwark, his church was sometimes +so crowded that he had to be lifted to the pulpit stairs over the +congregation's heads. It pleased him, but he was on the watch against +the pleasure of being himself admired. A friend compli<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>mented him once +after service, on 'the sweet sermon' which he had delivered. 'You need +not remind me of that,' he said. 'The Devil told me of it before I was +out of the pulpit.'</p> + +<p>'Conviction of sin' has become a conventional phrase, shallow and +ineffective even in those who use it most sincerely. Yet moral evil is +still the cause of nine-tenths of the misery in the world, and it is +not easy to measure the value of a man who could prolong the conscious +sense of the deadly nature of it, even under the forms of a +decomposing theology. Times are changing. The intellectual current is +bearing us we know not where, and the course of the stream is in a +direction which leads us far from the conclusions in which Bunyan and +the Puritans established themselves; but the truths which are most +essential for us to know cannot be discerned by speculative arguments. +Chemistry cannot tell us why some food is wholesome and other food is +poisonous. That food is best for us which best nourishes the body into +health and strength; and a belief in a Supernatural Power which has +given us a law to live by and to which we are responsible for our +conduct, has alone, of all the influences known to us, succeeded in +ennobling and elevating the character of man. The particular theories +which men have formed about it have often been wild and extravagant. +Imagination, agitated by fear or stimulated by pious enthusiasm, has +peopled heaven with demigods and saints—creations of fancy, human +forms projected upon a mist and magnified into celestial images. How +much is true of all that men have believed in past times and have now +ceased to believe, how much has been a too eager dream, no one now can +tell. It may be that other foundations may be laid hereafter for human +conduct on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> which an edifice can be raised no less fair and beautiful; +but no signs of it are as yet apparent.</p> + +<p>So far as we yet know, morality rests upon a sense of obligation; and +obligation has no meaning except as implying a Divine command, without +which it would cease to be. Until 'duty' can be presented to us in a +shape which will compel our recognition of it with equal or superior +force, the passing away of 'the conviction of sin' can operate only to +obscure our aspirations after a high ideal of life and character. The +scientific theory may be correct, and it is possible that we may be +standing on the verge of the most momentous intellectual revolution +which has been experienced in the history of our race. It may be so, +and also it may not be so. It may be that the most important factors +in the scientific equation are beyond the reach of human intellect. +However it be, the meat which gives strength to the man is poison to +the child; and as yet we are still children, and are likely to remain +children. 'Every relief from outward restraint,' says one who was not +given to superstition, 'if it be not attended with increased power of +self-command, is simply fatal.' Men of intelligence, therefore, to +whom life is not a theory, but a stern fact, conditioned round with +endless possibilities of wrong and suffering, though they may never +again adopt the letter of Bunyan's creed, will continue to see in +conscience an authority for which culture is no substitute; they will +conclude that in one form or other responsibility is not a fiction but +a truth; and, so long as this conviction lasts, the 'Pilgrim's +Progress' will still be dear to all men of all creeds who share in it, +even though it pleases the 'elect' modern philosophers to describe its +author as a 'Philistine of genius.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>Now publishing, in crown 8vo. price 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each,</h4> + +<h2>ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS.</h2> +<h3>Edited by JOHN MORLEY.</h3> +<p><b>JOHNSON.</b> By <span class="smcap">Leslie Stephen</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The new series opens well with Mr. Leslie Stephen's sketch +of Dr. Johnson. It could hardly have been done better, and +it will convey to the readers for whom it is intended a +juster estimate of Johnson than either of the two essays of +Lord Macaulay.'—<span class="smcap">Pall Mall Gazette</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>SCOTT.</b> By <span class="smcap">R. H. Hutton</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'We could not wish for a more suggestive introduction to +Scott and his poems and novels.'—<span class="smcap">Examiner</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>GIBBON.</b> By <span class="smcap">J.C. Morison</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of the life +and works of the greatest among the world's historians, it +deserves the highest praise.'—<span class="smcap">Examiner</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>SHELLEY.</b> By <span class="smcap">J.A. Symonds</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The lovers of this great poet are to be congratulated at +having at their command so fresh, clear, and intelligent a +presentment of the subject, written by a man of adequate and +wide culture.'—<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>HUME.</b> By Professor <span class="smcap">Huxley, F.R.S.</span> Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It may fairly be said that no one now living could have +expounded Hume with more sympathy or with equal +perspicuity.'—<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>GOLDSMITH.</b> By <span class="smcap">William Black</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Mr. Black brings a fine sympathy and taste to bear in his +criticism of Goldsmith's writings, as well as his sketch of +the incidents of his life.'—<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>DEFOE.</b> By <span class="smcap">W. Minto</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Mr. Minto's book is careful and accurate in all that is +stated, and faithful in all that it suggests. It will repay +reading more than once.'—<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>BURNS.</b> By Principal <span class="smcap">Shairp</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It is impossible to desire fairer criticism than Principal +Shairp's on Burns's poetry.... None of the series has given +a truer estimate either of character or of genius than this +volume.'—<span class="smcap">Spectator</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>SPENSER.</b> By the Very Rev. the DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Dr. Church is master of his subject, and writes always with +good taste.'—<span class="smcap">Academy</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>THACKERAY.</b> By <span class="smcap">Anthony Trollope</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Mr. Trollope's sketch is excellently adapted to fulfil the +purpose of the series in which it appears.'—<span class="smcap">Athenæum.</span></p></div> + + +<p><b>BURKE.</b> By <span class="smcap">John Morley</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It is no disparagement to the literary studies already +published in this admirable series, to say that none of them +have surpassed, while few have equalled, this volume on +Burke.'—<span class="smcap">British Quarterly Review</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>MILTON.</b> By <span class="smcap">Mark Pattison</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The writer knows the times and the man, and of both he has +written with singular force and discrimination.'—<span class="smcap">Spectator</span>.</p></div> + + +<p><b>HAWTHORNE.</b> By <span class="smcap">Henry James</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>SOUTHEY.</b> By Professor <span class="smcap">Dowden</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>BUNYAN.</b> By <span class="smcap">James A. Froude</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>CHAUCER.</b> By Professor <span class="smcap">A.W. Ward</span>. Crown 8vo. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>IN PREPARATION.</h3> +<p class="left"> +<b>WORDSWORTH.</b> By <span class="smcap">F.W.H. Myers</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<b>SWIFT.</b> By <span class="smcap">John Morley</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<b>BYRON.</b> By Professor <span class="smcap">Nichol</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="nowrap"><b>COWPER.</b> By <span class="smcap">Goldwin Smith</span>.</span><span class="f2">[<i>Shortly.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<b>ADAM SMITH.</b> By <span class="smcap">Leonard H. Courtney</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<b>BENTLEY.</b> By Professor <span class="smcap">R.C. Jebb</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<b>LANDOR.</b> By Professor <span class="smcap">Sidney Colvin</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="nowrap"><b>POPE.</b> By <span class="smcap">Leslie Stephen</span>.</span><span class="f3">[<i>Shortly.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Others will follow.</i></p> + +<h3>MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.</h3> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 29929-h.txt or 29929-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/9/2/29929">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/9/2/29929</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Bunyan + + +Author: James Anthony Froude + + + +Release Date: September 7, 2009 [eBook #29929] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN*** + + +E-text prepared by Sankar Viswanathan, Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier, and +the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +English Men of Letters + +Edited by John Morley + +BUNYAN + +by + +JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE + + + + + + + +London +Macmillan and Co. +1880 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. PAGE + + EARLY LIFE 1 + + CHAPTER II. + + CONVICTION OF SIN 16 + + CHAPTER III. + + GRACE ABOUNDING 35 + + CHAPTER IV. + + CALL TO THE MINISTRY 52 + + CHAPTER V. + + ARREST AND TRIAL 65 + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE BEDFORD GAOL 78 + + CHAPTER VII. + + LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMAN 90 + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE HOLY WAR 114 + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS 151 + + CHAPTER X. + + LAST DAYS AND DEATH 173 + + + + + +BUNYAN. + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY LIFE. + + +'I was of a low and inconsiderable generation, my father's house being +of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all families in the +land.' 'I never went to school, to Aristotle or Plato, but was brought +up in my father's house in a very mean condition, among a company of +poor countrymen.' 'Nevertheless, I bless God that by this door He +brought me into the world to partake of the grace and life that is by +Christ in His Gospel.' This is the account given of himself and his +origin by a man whose writings have for two centuries affected the +spiritual opinions of the English race in every part of the world more +powerfully than any book or books, except the Bible. + +John Bunyan was born at Elstow, a village near Bedford, in the year +1628. It was a memorable epoch in English history, for in that year +the House of Commons extorted the consent of Charles I. to the +Petition of Right. The stir of politics, however, did not reach the +humble household into which the little boy was introduced. His father +was hardly occupied in earning bread for his wife and children as a +mender of pots and kettles: a tinker,--working in neighbours' houses +or at home, at such business as might be brought to him. 'The +Bunyans,' says a friend, 'were of the national religion, as men of +that calling commonly were.' Bunyan himself, in a passage which has +been always understood to refer to his father, describes him 'as an +honest poor labouring man, who, like Adam unparadised, had all the +world to get his bread in, and was very careful to maintain his +family.' In those days there were no village schools in England; the +education of the poor was an apprenticeship to agriculture or +handicraft; their religion they learnt at home or in church. Young +Bunyan was more fortunate. In Bedford there was a grammar school, +which had been founded in Queen Mary's time by the Lord Mayor of +London, Sir William Harper. Hither, when he was old enough to walk to +and fro, over the mile of road between Elstow and Bedford, the child +was sent, if not to learn Aristotle and Plato, to learn at least 'to +read and write according to the rate of other poor men's children.' + +If religion was not taught at school, it was taught with some care in +the cottages and farmhouses by parents and masters. It was common in +many parts of England, as late as the end of the last century, for the +farmers to gather their apprentices about them on Sunday afternoons, +and to teach them the Catechism. Rude as was Bunyan's home, religious +notions of some kind had been early and vividly impressed upon him. He +caught, indeed, the ordinary habits of the boys among whom he was +thrown. He learnt to use bad language, and he often lied. When a +child's imagination is exceptionally active, the temptations to +untruth are correspondingly powerful. The inventive faculty has its +dangers, and Bunyan was eminently gifted in that way. He was a +violent, passionate boy besides, and thus he says of himself that for +lying and swearing he had no equal, and that his parents did not +sufficiently correct him. Wickedness, he declares in his own +remorseful story of his early years, became a second nature to him. +But the estimate which a man forms of himself in later life, if he has +arrived at any strong abhorrence of moral evil, is harsher than others +at the time would have been likely to have formed. Even then the poor +child's conscience must have been curiously sensitive, and it revenged +itself upon him in singular tortures. + +'My sins,' he says, 'did so offend the Lord that even in my childhood +He did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me +with dreadful visions. I have been in my bed greatly afflicted while +asleep, with apprehensions of devils and wicked spirits, who still, as +I then thought, laboured to draw me away with them, of which I could +never be rid. I was afflicted with thoughts of the Day of Judgment +night and day, trembling at the thoughts of the fearful torments of +hell fire.' When, at ten years old, he was running about with his +companions in 'his sports and childish vanities,' these terrors +continually recurred to him, yet 'he would not let go his sins.' + +Such a boy required rather to be encouraged than checked in seeking +innocent amusements. Swearing and lying were definite faults which +ought to have been corrected; but his parents, perhaps, saw that there +was something unusual in the child. To them he probably appeared not +worse than other boys, but considerably better. They may have thought +it more likely that he would conquer his own bad inclinations by his +own efforts, than that they could mend him by rough rebukes. + +When he left school he would naturally have been bound apprentice, +but his father brought him up at his own trade. Thus he lived at home, +and grew to manhood there, forming his ideas of men and things out of +such opportunities as the Elstow neighbourhood afforded. + +From the time when the Reformation brought them a translation of it, +the Bible was the book most read--it was often the only book which was +read--in humble English homes. Familiarity with the words had not yet +trampled the sacred writings into practical barrenness. No doubts or +questions had yet risen about the Bible's nature or origin. It was +received as the authentic word of God Himself. The Old and New +Testament alike represented the world as the scene of a struggle +between good and evil spirits; and thus every ordinary incident of +daily life was an instance or illustration of God's Providence. This +was the universal popular belief, not admitted only by the intellect, +but accepted and realised by the imagination. No one questioned it, +save a few speculative philosophers in their closets. The statesman in +the House of Commons, the judge on the Bench, the peasant in a midland +village, interpreted literally by this rule the phenomena which they +experienced or saw. They not only believed that God had miraculously +governed the Israelites, but they believed that as directly and +immediately He governed England in the seventeenth century. They not +only believed that there had been a witch at Endor, but they believed +that there were witches in their own villages, who had made compacts +with the devil himself. They believed that the devil still literally +walked the earth like a roaring lion: that he and the evil angels were +perpetually labouring to destroy the souls of men; and that God was +equally busy overthrowing the devil's work, and bringing sin and +crimes to eventual punishment. + +In this light the common events of life were actually looked at and +understood, and the air was filled with anecdotes so told as to +illustrate the belief. These stories and these experiences were +Bunyan's early mental food. One of them, which had deeply impressed +the imagination of the Midland counties, was the story of 'Old Tod.' +This man came one day into court, in the Summer Assizes at Bedford, +'all in a dung sweat,' to demand justice upon himself as a felon. No +one had accused him, but God's judgment was not to be escaped, and he +was forced to accuse himself. 'My Lord,' said Old Tod to the judge, 'I +have been a thief from my childhood. I have been a thief ever since. +There has not been a robbery committed these many years, within so +many miles of this town, but I have been privy to it.' The judge, +after a conference, agreed to indict him of certain felonies which he +had acknowledged. He pleaded guilty, implicating his wife along with +him, and they were both hanged. + +An intense belief in the moral government of the world creates what it +insists upon. Horror at sin forces the sinner to confess it, and makes +others eager to punish it. 'God's revenge against murder and adultery' +becomes thus an actual fact, and justifies the conviction in which it +rises. Bunyan was specially attentive to accounts of judgments upon +swearing, to which he was himself addicted. He tells a story of a man +at Wimbledon, who, after uttering some strange blasphemy, was struck +with sickness, and died cursing. Another such scene he probably +witnessed himself,[1] and never forgot. An alehouse-keeper in the +neighbourhood of Elstow had a son who was half-witted. The favourite +amusement, when a party was collected drinking, was for the father to +provoke the lad's temper, and for the lad to curse his father and wish +the devil had him. The devil at last did have the alehouse-keeper, and +rent and tore him till he died. 'I,' says Bunyan, 'was eye and ear +witness of what I here say. I have heard Ned in his roguery cursing +his father, and his father laughing thereat most heartily, still +provoking of Ned to curse that his mirth might be increased. I saw his +father also when he was possessed. I saw him in one of his fits, and +saw his flesh as it was thought gathered up in an heap about the +bigness of half an egg, to the unutterable torture and affliction of +the old man. There was also one Freeman, who was more than an ordinary +doctor, sent for to cast out the devil, and I was there when he +attempted to do it. The manner whereof was this. They had the +possessed in an outroom, and laid him upon his belly upon a form, with +his head hanging down over the form's end. Then they bound him down +thereto; which done, they set a pan of coals under his mouth, and put +something therein which made a great smoke--by this means, as it was +said, to fetch out the devil. There they kept the man till he was +almost smothered in the smoke, but no devil came out of him, at which +Freeman was somewhat abashed, the man greatly afflicted, and I made to +go away wondering and fearing. In a little time, therefore, that which +possessed the man carried him out of the world, according to the +cursed wishes of his son.' + +[Footnote 1: The story is told by Mr. Attentive in the 'Life of Mr. +Badman;' but it is almost certain that Bunyan was relating his own +experience.] + +The wretched alehouse-keeper's life was probably sacrificed in this +attempt to dispossess the devil. But the incident would naturally +leave its mark on the mind of an impressionable boy. Bunyan ceased to +frequent such places after he began to lead a religious life. The +story, therefore, most likely belongs to the experiences of his first +youth after he left school; and there may have been many more of a +similar kind, for, except that he was steady at his trade, he grew up +a wild lad, the ringleader of the village apprentices in all manner of +mischief. He had no books, except a life of Sir Bevis of Southampton, +which would not tend to sober him; indeed, he soon forgot all that he +had learnt at school, and took to amusements and doubtful adventures, +orchard-robbing, perhaps, or poaching, since he hints that he might +have brought himself within reach of the law. In the most passionate +language of self-abhorrence, he accuses himself of all manner of sins, +yet it is improbable that he appeared to others what in later life he +appeared to himself. He judged his own conduct as he believed that it +was regarded by his Maker, by whom he supposed eternal torment to have +been assigned as the just retribution for the lightest offence. Yet he +was never drunk. He who never forgot anything with which he could +charge himself, would not have passed over drunkenness, if he could +remember that he had been guilty of it; and he distinctly asserts, +also, that he was never in a single instance unchaste. In our days, a +rough tinker who could say as much for himself after he had grown to +manhood, would be regarded as a model of self-restraint. If, in +Bedford and the neighbourhood, there was no young man more vicious +than Bunyan, the moral standard of an English town in the seventeenth +century must have been higher than believers in Progress will be +pleased to allow. + +He declares that he was without God in the world, and in the sense +which he afterwards attached to the word this was probably true. But +serious thoughts seldom ceased to work in him. Dreams only reproduce +the forms and feelings with which the waking imagination is most +engaged. Bunyan's rest continued to be haunted with the phantoms which +had terrified him when a child. He started in his sleep, and +frightened the family with his cries. He saw evil spirits in monstrous +shapes and fiends blowing flames out of their nostrils. 'Once,' says a +biographer, who knew him well, and had heard the story of his visions +from his own lips, 'he dreamed that he saw the face of heaven as it +were on fire, the firmament crackling and shivering with the noise of +mighty thunder, and an archangel flew in the midst of heaven, sounding +a trumpet, and a glorious throne was seated in the east, whereon sat +One in brightness like the morning star. Upon which, he thinking it +was the end of the world, fell upon his knees and said, "Oh, Lord, +have mercy on me! What shall I do? The Day of Judgment is come and I +am not prepared."' + +At another time 'he dreamed that he was in a pleasant place jovial and +rioting, when an earthquake rent the earth, out of which came bloody +flames, and the figures of men tossed up in globes of fire, and +falling down again with horrible cries and shrieks and execrations, +while devils mingled among them, and laughed aloud at their torments. +As he stood trembling, the earth sank under him, and a circle of +flames embraced him. But when he fancied he was at the point to +perish, One in shining white raiment descended and plucked him out of +that dreadful place, while the devils cried after him to take him to +the punishment which his sins had deserved. Yet he escaped the danger, +and leapt for joy when he awoke and found it was a dream.' + +Mr. Southey, who thinks wisely that Bunyan's biographers have +exaggerated his early faults, considers that at worst he was a sort of +'blackguard.' This, too, is a wrong word. Young village blackguards do +not dream of archangels flying through the midst of heaven, nor were +these imaginations invented afterwards, or rhetorically exaggerated. +Bunyan was undoubtedly given to story-telling as a boy, and the +recollection of it made him peculiarly scrupulous in his statements in +later life. One trait he mentions of himself which no one would have +thought of who had not experienced the feeling, yet every person can +understand it and sympathise with it. These spectres and hobgoblins +drove him wild. He says, 'I was so overcome with despair of life and +heaven, that I should often wish either that there had been no hell, +or that I had been a devil; supposing that they were only tormentors, +and that, if it must needs be that I went thither, I might rather be a +tormentor than tormented myself.' + +The visions at last ceased. God left him to himself, as he puts it, +and gave him over to his own wicked inclinations. He fell, he says, +into all kinds of vice and ungodliness without further check. The +expression is very strong, yet when we look for particulars we can +find only that he was fond of games which Puritan preciseness +disapproved. He had high animal spirits, and engaged in lawless +enterprises. Once or twice he nearly lost his life. He is sparing of +details of his outward history, for he regarded it as nothing but +vanity; but his escapes from death were providences, and therefore he +mentions them. He must have gone to the coast somewhere, for he was +once almost drowned in a creek of the sea. He fell out of a boat into +the river at another time, and it seems that he could not swim. +Afterwards he seized hold of an adder, and was not bitten by it. These +mercies were sent as warnings, but he says that he was too careless +to profit by them. He thought that he had forgotten God altogether, +and yet it is plain that he had not forgotten. A bad young man, who +has shaken off religion because it is a restraint, observes with +malicious amusement the faults of persons who make a profession of +religion. He infers that they do not really believe it, and only +differ from their neighbours in being hypocrites. Bunyan notes this +disposition in his own history of Mr. Badman. Of himself, he says: +'Though I could sin with delight and ease, and take pleasure in the +villanies of my companions, even then, if I saw wicked things done by +them that professed goodness, it would make my spirit tremble. Once, +when I was in the height of my vanity, hearing one swear that was +reckoned a religious man, it made my heart to ache.' + +He was now seventeen, and we can form a tolerably accurate picture of +him--a tall, active lad, working as his father's apprentice, at his +pots and kettles, ignorant of books, and with no notion of the world +beyond what he could learn in his daily drudgery, and the talk of the +alehouse and the village green; inventing lies to amuse his +companions, and swearing that they were true; playing bowls and +tipcat, ready for any reckless action, and always a leader in it, yet +all the while singularly pure from the more brutal forms of vice, and +haunted with feverish thoughts, which he tried to forget in +amusements. It has been the fashion to take his account of himself +literally, and represent him as the worst of reprobates, in order to +magnify the effects of his conversion, and perhaps to make +intelligible to his admiring followers the reproaches which he heaps +upon himself. They may have felt that they could not be wrong in +explaining his own language in the only sense in which they could +attach a meaning to it. Yet, sinner though he may have been, like all +the rest of us, his sins were not the sins of coarseness and +vulgarity. They were the sins of a youth of sensitive nature and very +peculiar gifts: gifts which brought special temptations with them, and +inclined him to be careless and desperate, yet from causes singularly +unlike those which are usually operative in dissipated and uneducated +boys. + +It was now the year 1645. Naseby Field was near, and the first Civil +War was drawing to its close. At this crisis Bunyan was, as he says, +drawn to be a soldier; and it is extremely characteristic of him and +of the body to which he belonged, that he leaves us to guess on which +side he served. He does not tell us himself. His friends in after life +did not care to ask him, or he to inform them, or else they also +thought the matter of too small importance to be worth mentioning with +exactness. There were two traditions, and his biographers chose +between them as we do. Close as the connection was in that great +struggle between civil and religious liberty--flung as Bunyan was +flung into the very centre of the conflict between the English people +and the Crown and Church and aristocracy--victim as he was himself of +intolerance and persecution, he never but once took any political +part, and then only in signing an address to Cromwell. He never showed +any active interest in political questions; and if he spoke on such +questions at all after the Restoration, it was to advise submission to +the Stuart Government. By the side of the stupendous issues of human +life, such miserable _rights_ as men might pretend to in this world +were not worth contending for. The only _right_ of man that he thought +much about, was the right to be eternally damned if he did not lay +hold of grace. King and subject were alike creatures whose sole +significance lay in their individual immortal souls. Their relations +with one another upon earth were nothing in the presence of the awful +judgment which awaited them both. Thus whether Bunyan's brief career +in the army was under Charles or under Fairfax must remain doubtful. +Probability is on the side of his having been with the Royalists. His +father was of 'the national religion.' He himself had as yet no +special convictions of his own. John Gifford, the Baptist minister at +Bedford, had been a Royalist. The only incident which Bunyan speaks of +connected with his military experience points in the same direction. +'When I was a soldier,' he says, 'I was with others drawn out to go to +such a place to besiege it. But when I was just ready to go, one of +the company desired to go in my room. Coming to the siege as he stood +sentinel he was shot in the heart with a musket bullet and died.' +Tradition agrees that the place to which these words refer was +Leicester. Leicester was stormed by the King's troops a few days +before the battle of Naseby. It was recovered afterwards by the +Parliamentarians, but on the second occasion there was no fighting, as +it capitulated without a shot being fired. Mr. Carlyle supposes that +Bunyan was not with the attacking party, but was in the town as one of +the garrison, and was taken prisoner there. But this cannot be, for he +says expressly that he was one of the besiegers. Legend gathers freely +about eminent men, about men especially who are eminent in religion, +whether they are Catholic or Protestant. Lord Macaulay is not only +positive that the hero of the English Dissenters fought on the side of +the Commonwealth, but he says, without a word of caution on the +imperfection of the evidence, 'His Greatheart, his Captain Boanerges, +and his Captain Credence, are evidently portraits of which the +originals were among those martial saints who fought and expounded in +Fairfax's army.'[2] + +[Footnote 2: _Life of Bunyan_: Collected Works, vol. vii. p. 299.] + +If the martial saints had impressed Bunyan so deeply, it is +inconceivable that he should have made no more allusion to his +military service than in this brief passage. He refers to the siege +and all connected with it merely as another occasion of his own +providential escapes from death. + +Let the truth of this be what it may, the troop to which he belonged +was soon disbanded. He returned at the end of the year to his tinker's +work at Elstow, much as he had left it. The saints, if he had met with +saints, had not converted him. 'I sinned still,' he says, 'and grew +more and more rebellious against God and careless of my own +salvation.' An important change of another kind, however, lay before +him. Young as he was he married. His friends advised it, for they +thought that marriage would make him steady. The step was less +imprudent than it would have been had Bunyan been in a higher rank of +life, or had aimed at rising into it. The girl whom he chose was a +poor orphan, but she had been carefully and piously brought up, and +from her acceptance of him, something more may be inferred about his +character. Had he been a dissolute idle scamp, it is unlikely that a +respectable woman would have become his wife when he was a mere boy. +His sins, whatever these were, had not injured his outward +circumstances; it is clear that all along he worked skilfully and +industriously at his tinkering business. He had none of the habits +which bring men to beggary. From the beginning of his life to the end +of it he was a prudent, careful man, and, considering the station to +which he belonged, a very successful man. + +'I lighted on a wife,' he says, 'whose father was counted godly. We +came together as poor as poor might be, not having so much household +stuff as a dish or a spoon between us. But she had for her portion two +books, "The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven," and "The Practice of +Piety," which her father had left her when he died. In these two books +I sometimes read with her. I found some things pleasing to me, but all +this while I met with no conviction. She often told me what a godly +man her father was, how he would reprove and correct vice both in his +house and among his neighbours, what a strict and holy life he lived +in his day both in word and deed. These books, though they did not +reach my heart, did light in me some desire to religion.' + +There was still an Established Church in England, and the constitution +of it had not yet been altered. The Presbyterian platform threatened +to take the place of Episcopacy, and soon did take it; but the +clergyman was still a priest and was still regarded with pious +veneration in the country districts as a semi-supernatural being. The +altar yet stood in its place, the minister still appeared in his +surplice, and the Prayers of the Liturgy continued to be read or +intoned. The old familiar bells, Catholic as they were in all the +emotions which they suggested, called the congregation together with +their musical peal, though in the midst of triumphant Puritanism. The +'Book of Sports,' which, under an order from Charles I., had been read +regularly in Church, had in 1644 been laid under a ban; but the gloom +of a Presbyterian Sunday was, is, and for ever will be detestable to +the natural man; and the Elstow population gathered persistently after +service on the village green for their dancing, and their leaping, +and their archery. Long habit cannot be transformed in a day by an +Edict of Council, and amidst army manifestoes and battles of Marston +Moor, and a king dethroned and imprisoned, old English life in +Bedfordshire preserved its familiar features. These Sunday sports had +been a special delight to Bunyan, and it is to them which he refers in +the following passage, when speaking of his persistent wickedness. On +his marriage he became regular and respectable in his habits. He says, +'I fell in with the religion of the times to go to church twice a day, +very devoutly to say and sing as the others did, yet retaining my +wicked life. Withal I was so overrun with the spirit of superstition +that I adored with great devotion even all things, both the high +place, priest, clerk, vestment, service, and what else belonging to +the Church, counting all things holy therein contained, and especially +the priest and clerk most happy and without doubt greatly blessed. +This conceit grew so strong in my spirit, that had I but seen a +priest, though never so sordid and debauched in his life, I should +find my spirit fall under him, reverence, and be knit to him. Their +name, their garb, and work did so intoxicate and bewitch me.' + +Surely if there were no other evidence, these words would show that +the writer of them had never listened to the expositions of the +martial saints. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CONVICTION OF SIN. + + +The 'Pilgrim's Progress' is the history of the struggle of human +nature to overcome temptation and shake off the bondage of sin, under +the convictions which prevailed among serious men in England in the +seventeenth century. The allegory is the life of its author cast in an +imaginative form. Every step in Christian's journey had been first +trodden by Bunyan himself; every pang of fear and shame, every spasm +of despair, every breath of hope and consolation, which is there +described, is but a reflexion as on a mirror from personal experience. +It has spoken to the hearts of all later generations of Englishmen +because it came from the heart; because it is the true record of the +genuine emotions of a human soul; and to such a record the emotions of +other men will respond, as one stringed instrument vibrates +responsively to another. The poet's power lies in creating sympathy; +but he cannot, however richly gifted, stir feelings which he has not +himself known in all their intensity. + + Ut ridentibus arrident ita flentibus adflent + Humani vultus. Si vis me flere dolendum est + Primum ipsi tibi. + +The religious history of man is essentially the same in all ages. It +takes its rise in the duality of his nature. He is an animal, and as +an animal he desires bodily pleasure and shrinks from bodily pain. As +a being capable of morality, he is conscious that for him there exists +a right and wrong. Something, whatever that something may be, binds +him to choose one and avoid the other. This is his religion, his +religatio, his obligation, in the sense in which the Romans, from whom +we take it, used the word; and obligation implies some superior power +to which man owes obedience. The conflict between his two dispositions +agitates his heart, and perplexes his intellect. To do what the +superior power requires of him, he must thwart his inclinations. He +dreads punishment, if he neglects to do it. He invents methods by +which he can indulge his appetites, and finds a substitute by which he +can propitiate his invisible ruler or rulers. He offers sacrifices; he +institutes ceremonies and observances. This is the religion of the +body, the religion of fear. It is what we call superstition. In his +nobler moods he feels that this is but to evade the difficulty. He +perceives that the sacrifice required is the sacrifice of himself. It +is not the penalty for sin which he must fear, but the sin itself. He +must conquer his own lower nature. He must detach his heart from his +pleasures, and he must love good for its own sake, and because it is +his only real good; and this is spiritual religion or piety. Between +these two forms of worship of the unseen, the human race has swayed to +and fro from the first moment in which they learnt to discern between +good and evil. Superstition attracts, because it is indulgent to +immorality by providing means by which God can be pacified. But it +carries its antidote along with it, for it keeps alive the sense of +God's existence; and when it has produced its natural effects, when +the believer rests in his observances and lives practically as if +there was no God at all, the conscience again awakes. Sacrifices and +ceremonies become detested as idolatry, and religion becomes +conviction of sin, a fiery determination to fight with the whole soul +against appetite, vanity, self-seeking, and every mean propensity +which the most sensitive alarm can detect. The battle unhappily is +attended with many vicissitudes. The victory, though practically it +may be won, is never wholly won. The struggle brings with it every +variety of emotion, alternations of humility and confidence, +despondency and hope. The essence of it is always the same--the effort +of the higher nature to overcome the lower. The form of it varies from +period to period, according to the conditions of the time, the +temperament of different people, the conception of the character of +the Supreme Power, which the state of knowledge enables men to form. +It will be found even when the puzzled intellect can see no light in +Heaven at all, in the stern and silent fulfilment of moral duty. It +will appear as enthusiasm; it will appear as asceticism. It will +appear wherever there is courage to sacrifice personal enjoyment for a +cause believed to be holy. We must all live. We must all, as we +suppose, in one shape or other give account for our actions; and +accounts of the conflict are most individually interesting when it is +an open wrestle with the enemy; as we find in the penances and +austerities of the Catholic saints, or when the difficulties of belief +are confessed and detailed, as in David's Psalms, or in the Epistles +of St. Paul. St. Paul, like the rest of mankind, found a law in his +members warring against the law which was in his heart. The problem +presented to him was how one was to be brought into subjection to the +other, and the solution was by 'the putting on of Christ.' St. Paul's +mind was charged with the ideas of Oriental and Greek philosophy then +prevalent in the Roman Empire. His hearers understood him, because he +spoke in the language of the prevailing speculations. We who have not +the clue cannot, perhaps, perfectly understand him; but his words have +been variously interpreted as human intelligence has expanded, and +have formed the basis of the two great theologies which have been +developed out of Christianity. The Christian religion taught that evil +could not be overcome by natural human strength. The Son of God had +come miraculously upon earth, had lived a life of stainless purity, +and had been offered as a sacrifice to redeem men conditionally from +the power of sin. The conditions, as English Protestant theology +understands them, are nowhere more completely represented than in the +'Pilgrim's Progress.' The Catholic theology, rising as it did in the +two centuries immediately following St. Paul, approached probably +nearer to what he really intended to say. + +Catholic theology, as a system, is a development of Platonism. The +Platonists had discovered that the seat of moral evil was material +substance. In matter, and therefore in the human body, there was +either some inherent imperfection, or some ingrained perversity and +antagonism to good. The soul so long as it was attached to the body +was necessarily infected by it; and as human life on earth consisted +in the connection of soul and body, every single man was necessarily +subject to infirmity. Catholic theology accepted the position and +formulated an escape from it. The evil in matter was a fact. It was +explained by Adam's sin. But there it was. The taint was inherited by +all Adam's posterity. The flesh of man was incurably vitiated, and if +he was to be saved a new body must be prepared for him. This Christ +had done. That Christ's body was not as other men's bodies was proved +after his resurrection, when it showed itself independent of the +limitations of extended substance. In virtue of these mysterious +properties it became the body of the Corporate Church into which +believers were admitted by baptism. The natural body was not at once +destroyed, but a new element was introduced into it, by the power of +which, assisted by penance and mortification, and the spiritual food +of the Eucharist, the grosser qualities were gradually subdued, and +the corporeal system was changed. Then body and spirit became alike +pure together, and the saint became capable of obedience, so perfect +as not only to suffice for himself, but to supply the wants of others. +The corruptible put on incorruption. The bodies of the saints worked +miracles, and their flesh was found unaffected by decay after hundreds +of years. + +This belief so long as it was sincerely held issued naturally in +characters of extreme beauty; of beauty so great as almost to +demonstrate its truth. The purpose of it, so far as it affected +action, was self-conquest. Those who try with their whole souls to +conquer themselves find the effort lightened by a conviction that they +are receiving supernatural assistance; and the form in which the +Catholic theory supposed the assistance to be given was at least +perfectly innocent. But it is in the nature of human speculations, +though they may have been entertained at first in entire good faith, +to break down under trial, if they are not in conformity with fact. +Catholic theology furnished Europe with a rule of faith and action +which lasted 1500 years. For the last three centuries of that period +it was changing from a religion into a superstition, till, from being +the world's guide, it became its scandal. 'The body of Christ' had +become a kingdom of this world, insulting its subjects by the +effrontery of its ministers, the insolence of its pretensions, the +mountains of lies which it was teaching as sacred truths. Luther +spoke; and over half the Western world the Catholic Church collapsed, +and a new theory and Christianity had to be constructed out of the +fragments of it. + +There was left behind a fixed belief in God and in the Bible as His +revealed word, in a future judgment, in the fall of man, in the +atonement made for sin by the death of Christ, and in the new life +which was made possible by His resurrection. The change was in the +conception of the method by which the atonement was imagined to be +efficacious. The material or sacramental view of it, though it +lingered inconsistently in the mind even of Luther himself, was +substantially gone. New ideas adopted in enthusiasm are necessarily +extreme. The wrath of God was held to be inseparably and eternally +attached to every act of sin, however infirm the sinner. That his +nature could be changed, and that he could be mystically strengthened +by incorporation with Christ's body in the Church was contrary to +experience, and was no longer credible. The conscience of every man, +in the Church or out of it, told him that he was daily and hourly +offending. God's law demanded a life of perfect obedience, eternal +death being the penalty of the lightest breach of it. No human being +was capable of such perfect obedience. He could not do one single act +which would endure so strict a scrutiny. All mankind were thus +included under sin. The Catholic Purgatory was swept away. It had +degenerated into a contrivance for feeding the priests with money, and +it implied that human nature could in itself be renovated by its own +sufferings. Thus nothing lay before the whole race except everlasting +reprobation. But the door of hope had been opened on the cross of +Christ. Christ had done what man could never do. He had fulfilled the +law perfectly. God was ready to accept Christ's perfect righteousness +as a substitute for the righteousness which man was required to +present to him, but could not. The conditions of acceptance were no +longer sacraments or outward acts, or lame and impotent efforts after +a moral life, but faith in what Christ had done; a complete +self-abnegation, a resigned consciousness of utter unworthiness, and +an unreserved acceptance of the mercy held out through the Atonement. +It might have been thought that since man was born so weak that it was +impossible for him to do what the law required, consideration would be +had for his infirmity; that it was even dangerous to attribute to the +Almighty a character so arbitrary as that He would exact an account +from his creatures which the creature's necessary inadequacy rendered +him incapable of meeting. But the impetuosity of the new theology +would listen to no such excuses. God was infinitely pure, and nothing +impure could stand in his sight. Man, so long as he rested on merit of +his own, must be for ever excluded from his presence. He must accept +grace on the terms on which it was held out to him. Then and then only +God would extend his pity to him. He was no longer a child of wrath: +he was God's child. His infirmities remained, but they were constantly +obliterated by the merits of Christ. And he had strength given to him, +partially, at least, to overcome temptation, under which, but for that +strength, he would have fallen. Though nothing which he could do could +deserve reward, yet he received grace in proportion to the firmness of +his belief; and his efforts after obedience, imperfect though they +might be, were accepted for Christ's sake. A good life, or a constant +effort after a good life, was still the object which a man was bound +to labour after. Though giving no claim to pardon, still less for +reward, it was the necessary fruit of a sense of what Christ had done, +and of love and gratitude towards him. Good works were the test of +saving faith, and if there were no signs of them, the faith was +barren: it was not real faith at all. + +This was the Puritan belief in England in the seventeenth century. The +reason starts at it, but all religion is paradoxical to reason. God +hates sin, yet sin exists. He is omnipotent, yet evil is not overcome. +The will of man is free, or there can be no guilt, yet the action of +the will, so far as experience can throw light on its operation, is as +much determined by antecedent causes as every other natural force. +Prayer is addressed to a Being assumed to be omniscient, who knows +better what is good for us than we can know, who sees our thought +without requiring to hear them in words, whose will is fixed and +cannot be changed. Prayer, therefore, in the eye of reason is an +impertinence. The Puritan theology is not more open to objection on +the ground of unreasonableness than the Catholic theology or any other +which regards man as answerable to God for his conduct. We must judge +of a creed by its effects on character, as we judge of the +wholesomeness of food as it conduces to bodily health. And the creed +which swept like a wave through England at that time, and recommended +itself to the noblest and most powerful intellects, produced also in +those who accepted it a horror of sin, an enthusiasm for justice, +purity, and manliness, which can be paralleled only in the first age +of Christianity. Certainly there never was such a theory to take man's +conceit out of him. He was a miserable wretch, so worthless at his +best as to deserve everlasting perdition. If he was to be saved at +all, he could be saved only by the unmerited grace of God. In himself +he was a child of the devil; and hell, not in metaphor, but in hard +and palpable fact, inevitably waited for him. This belief, or the +affectation of this belief, continues to be professed, but without a +realisation of its tremendous meaning. The form of words is repeated +by multitudes who do not care to think what they are saying. Who can +measure the effect of such a conviction upon men who were in earnest +about their souls, who were assured that this account of their +situation was actually true, and on whom, therefore, it bore with +increasing weight in proportion to their sincerity? + +With these few prefatory words, I now return to Bunyan. He had begun +to go regularly to church, and by Church he meant the Church of +England. The change in the constitution of it, even when it came, did +not much alter its practical character in the country districts. At +Elstow, as we have seen, there was still a high place; there was still +a liturgy; there was still a surplice. The Church of England is a +compromise between the old theology and the new. The Bishops have the +apostolical succession, but many of them disbelieve that they derive +any virtue from it. The clergyman is either a priest who can absolve +men from sins, or he is a minister as in other Protestant communions. +The sacraments are either means of grace, or mere outward signs. A +Christian is either saved by baptism, or saved by faith, as he pleases +to believe. In either case he may be a member of the Church of +England. The effect of such uncertain utterances is to leave an +impression that in defining such points closely, theologians are +laying down lines of doctrines about subjects of which they know +nothing, that the real truth of religion lies in what is common to the +two theories, the obligation to lead a moral life; and to this +sensible view of their functions the bishops and clergy had in fact +gradually arrived in the last century, when the revival of what is +called earnestness, first in the form of Evangelicalism, and then of +Anglo-Catholicism, awoke again the old controversies. + +To a man of fervid temperament suddenly convinced of sin, incapable of +being satisfied with ambiguous answers to questions which mean life or +death to him, the Church of England has little to say. If he is quiet +and reasonable, he finds in it all that he desires. Enthusiastic ages +and enthusiastical temperaments demand something more complete and +consistent. The clergy under the Long Parliament caught partially the +tone of the prevailing spirit. The reading of the 'Book of Sports' had +been interdicted, and from their pulpits they lectured their +congregations on the ungodliness of the Sabbath amusements. But the +congregations were slow to listen, and the sports went on. + +One Sunday morning, when Bunyan was at church with his wife, a sermon +was delivered on this subject. It seemed to be especially addressed to +himself, and it much affected him. He shook off the impression, and +after dinner he went as usual to the green. He was on the point of +striking at a ball when the thought rushed across his mind, Wilt thou +leave thy sins and go to Heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell? He +looked up. The reflection of his own emotion was before him in visible +form. He imagined that he saw Christ himself looking down at him from +the sky. But he concluded that it was too late for him to repent. He +was past pardon. He was sure to be damned, and he might as well be +damned for many sins as for few. Sin at all events was pleasant, the +only pleasant thing that he knew, therefore he would take his fill of +it. The sin was the game, and nothing but the game. He continued to +play, but the Puritan sensitiveness had taken hold of him. An +artificial offence had become a real offence when his conscience was +wounded by it. He was reckless and desperate. + +'This temptation of the devil,' he says, 'is more usual among poor +creatures than many are aware of. It continued with me about a month +or more; but one day as I was standing at a neighbour's shop-window, +and there cursing and swearing after my wonted manner, there sate +within the woman of the house and heard me, who, though she was a +loose and ungodly wretch, protested that I swore and cursed at such a +rate that she trembled to hear me. I was able to spoil all the youths +in a whole town. At this reproof I was silenced and put to secret +shame, and that too, as I thought, before the God of Heaven. I stood +hanging down my head and wishing that I might be a little child that +my father might learn me to speak without this wicked sin of swearing, +for, thought I, I am so accustomed to it that it is vain to think of a +reformation.' + +These words have been sometimes taken as a reflection on Bunyan's own +father, as if he had not sufficiently checked the first symptoms of a +bad habit. If this was so, too much may be easily made of it. The +language in the homes of ignorant workmen is seldom select. They have +not a large vocabulary, and the words which they use do not mean what +they seem to mean. But so sharp and sudden remorse speaks remarkably +for Bunyan himself. At this time he could have been barely twenty +years old, and already he was quick to see when he was doing wrong, +to be sorry for it, and to wish that he could do better. Vain the +effort seemed to him, yet from that moment 'he did leave off swearing +to his own great wonder,' and he found 'that he could speak better and +more pleasantly than he did before.' + +It lies in the nature of human advance on the road of improvement, +that, whatever be a man's occupation, be it handicraft, or art, or +knowledge, or moral conquest of self, at each forward step which he +takes he grows more conscious of his shortcomings. It is thus with his +whole career, and those who rise highest are least satisfied with +themselves. Very simply Bunyan tells the story of his progress. On his +outward history, on his business and his fortunes with it, he is +totally silent. Worldly interests were not worth mentioning. He is +solely occupied with his rescue from spiritual perdition. Soon after +he had profited by the woman's rebuke, he fell in 'with a poor man +that made profession of religion and talked pleasantly of the +Scriptures.' Earnestness in such matters was growing common among +English labourers. Under his new friend's example, Bunyan 'betook him +to the Bible, and began to take great pleasure in reading it,' but +especially, as he admits frankly (and most people's experience will +have been the same), 'especially the historical part; for as for St. +Paul's Epistles and Scriptures of that nature, he could not away with +them, being as yet ignorant of the corruption of his nature, or of the +want and worth of Jesus Christ to save him.' + +Not as yet understanding these mysteries, he set himself to reform his +life. He became strict with himself in word and deed. 'He set the +Commandments before him for his way to Heaven.' 'He thought if he +could but keep them pretty well he should have comfort.' If now and +then he broke one of them, he suffered in conscience; he repented of +his fault, he made good resolutions for the future and struggled to +carry them out. 'His neighbours took him to be a new man, and +marvelled at the alteration.' Pleasure of any kind, even the most +innocent, he considered to be a snare to him, and he abandoned it; he +had been fond of dancing, but he gave it up. Music and singing he +parted with, though it distressed him to leave them. Of all +amusements, that in which he had most delighted had been in ringing +the bells in Elstow church tower. With his bells he could not part all +at once. He would no longer ring himself: but when his friends were +enjoying themselves with the ropes, he could not help going now and +then to the tower door to look on and listen; but he feared at last +that the steeple might fall upon him and kill him. We call such +scruples in these days exaggerated and fantastic. We are no longer in +danger ourselves of suffering from similar emotions. Whether we are +the better for having got rid of them, will be seen in the future +history of our race. + +Notwithstanding his struggles and his sacrifices, Bunyan found that +they did not bring him the peace which he expected. A man can change +his outward conduct, but if he is in earnest he comes in sight of +other features in himself which he cannot change so easily; the +meannesses, the paltrinesses, the selfishnesses which haunt him in +spite of himself, which start out upon him at moments the most +unlocked for, which taint the best of his actions and make him loathe +and hate himself. Bunyan's life was now for so young a person a model +of correctness; but he had no sooner brought his actions straight than +he discovered that he was admiring and approving of himself. No +situation is more humiliating, none brings with it a feeling of more +entire hopelessness. 'All this while,' he says, 'I knew not Christ, +nor grace, nor faith, nor hope, and had I then died my state had been +most fearful. I was but a poor painted hypocrite, going about to +establish my own righteousness.' + +Like his own Pilgrim, he had the burden on his back of his conscious +unworthiness. How was he to be rid of it? + +'One day in a street in Bedford, as he was at work in his calling, he +fell in with three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun +talking about the things of God.' He was himself at that time 'a brisk +talker' about the matters of religion, and he joined these women. +Their expressions were wholly unintelligible to him. 'They were +speaking of the wretchedness of their own hearts, of their unbelief, +of their miserable state. They did contemn, slight, and abhor their +own righteousness as filthy and insufficient to do them any good. They +spoke of a new birth and of the work of God in their hearts, which +comforted and strengthened them against the temptations of the Devil.' + +The language of the poor women has lost its old meaning. They +themselves, if they were alive, would not use it any longer. The +conventional phrases of Evangelical Christianity ring untrue in a +modern ear like a cracked bell. We have grown so accustomed to them as +a cant, that we can hardly believe that they ever stood for sincere +convictions. Yet these forms were once alive with the profoundest of +all moral truths; a truth not of a narrow theology, but which lies at +the very bottom of the well, at the fountain-head of human morality; +namely, that a man who would work out his salvation must cast out +self, though he rend his heart-strings in doing it; not love of +self-indulgence only, but self-applause, self-confidence, self-conceit +and vanity, desire or expectation of reward; self in all the subtle +ingenuities with which it winds about the soul. In one dialect or +another, he must recognise that he is himself a poor creature not +worth thinking of, or he will not take the first step towards +excellence in any single thing which he undertakes. + +Bunyan left the women and went about his work, but their talk went +with him. 'He was greatly affected.' 'He saw that he wanted the true +tokens of a godly man.' He sought them out and spoke with them again +and again. He could not stay away; and the more he went the more he +questioned his condition. + +'I found two things,' he says, 'at which I did sometimes marvel, +considering what a blind ungodly wretch but just before I was; one a +great softness and tenderness of heart, which caused me to fall under +the conviction of what, by Scripture, they asserted; the other a great +bending of my mind to a continual meditating on it. My mind was now +like a horse-leech at the vein, still crying Give, give; so fixed on +eternity and on the kingdom of heaven (though I knew but little), that +neither pleasure, nor profit, nor persuasion, nor threats could loosen +it or make it let go its hold. It is in very deed a certain truth; it +would have been then as difficult for me to have taken my mind from +heaven to earth, as I have found it often since to get it from earth +to heaven.' + +Ordinary persons who are conscious of trying to do right, who resist +temptations, are sorry when they slip, and determine to be more on +their guard for the future, are well contented with the condition +which they have reached. They are respectable, they are right-minded +in common things, they fulfil their every-day duties to their +families and to society with a sufficiency for which the world speaks +well of them, as indeed it ought to speak; and they themselves +acquiesce in the world's verdict. Any passionate agitation about the +state of their souls they consider unreal and affected. Such men may +be amiable in private life, good neighbours, and useful citizens; but +be their talents what they may, they could not write a 'Pilgrim's +Progress,' or ever reach the Delectable Mountains, or even be +conscious that such mountains exist. + +Bunyan was on the threshold of the higher life. He knew that he was a +very poor creature. He longed to rise to something better. He was a +mere ignorant, untaught mechanic. He had not been to school with +Aristotle and Plato. He could not help himself or lose himself in the +speculations of poets and philosophers. He had only the Bible, and +studying the Bible he found that the wonder-working power in man's +nature was Faith. Faith! What was it? What did it mean? Had he faith? +He was but 'a poor sot,' and yet he thought that he could not be +wholly without it. The Bible told him that if he had faith as a grain +of mustard seed, he could work miracles. He did not understand +Oriental metaphors; here was a simple test which could be at once +applied. + +'One day,' he writes, 'as I was between Elstow and Bedford, the +temptation was hot upon me to try if I had faith by doing some +miracle. I must say to the puddles that were in the horse-pads, "be +dry," and truly at one time I was agoing to say so indeed. But just as +I was about to speak, the thought came into my mind: Go under yonder +hedge first and pray that God would make you able. But when I had +concluded to pray, this came hot upon me, that if I prayed and came +again and tried to do it, and yet did nothing notwithstanding, then +be sure I had no faith but was a castaway and lost. Nay, thought I, if +it be so, I will never try it yet, but will stay a little longer. Thus +was I tossed between the Devil and my own ignorance, and so perplexed +at some times that I could not tell what to do.' + +Common sense will call this disease, and will think impatiently that +the young tinker would have done better to attend to his business. But +it must be observed that Bunyan was attending to his business, toiling +all the while with grimed hands over his pots and kettles. No one ever +complained that the pots and kettles were ill-mended. It was merely +that being simple-minded, he found in his Bible that besides earning +his bread he had to save or lose his soul. Having no other guide he +took its words literally, and the directions puzzled him. + +He grew more and more unhappy--more lowly in his own eyes-- + + 'Wishing him like to those more rich in hope'-- + +like the women who were so far beyond him on the heavenly road. He was +a poet without knowing it, and his gifts only served to perplex him +further. His speculations assumed bodily forms which he supposed to be +actual visions. He saw his poor friends sitting on the sunny side of a +high mountain refreshing themselves in the warmth, while he was +shivering in frost and snow and mist. The mountain was surrounded by a +wall, through which he tried to pass, and searched long in vain for an +opening through it. At last he found one, very straight and narrow, +through which he struggled after desperate efforts. 'It showed him,' +he said, 'that none could enter into life but those who were in +downright earnest, and unless they left the wicked world behind them, +for here was only room for body and soul, but not for body and soul +and sin.' The vision brought him no comfort, for it passed away and +left him still on the wrong side: a little comfortable self-conceit +would have set him at rest. But, like all real men, Bunyan had the +worst opinion of himself. He looked at his Bible again. He found that +he must be elected. Was he elected? He could as little tell as whether +he had faith. He knew that he longed to be elected, but 'the Scripture +trampled on his desire,' for it said, 'It is not of him that willeth, +or of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy;' therefore, +unless God had chosen him his labour was in vain. The Devil saw his +opportunity; the Devil among his other attributes must have possessed +that of omnipresence, for whenever any human soul was in straits, he +was personally at hand to take advantage of it. + +'It may be that you are not elected,' the tempter said to Bunyan. 'It +may be so indeed,' thought he. 'Why then,' said Satan, 'you had as +good leave off and strive no farther; for if indeed you should not be +elected and chosen of God, there is no talk of your being saved.' + +A comforting text suggested itself. 'Look at the generations of old; +did any ever trust in the Lord and was confounded?' But these exact +words, unfortunately, were only to be found in the Apocrypha. And +there was a further distressing possibility, which has occurred to +others besides Bunyan. Perhaps the day of grace was passed. It came on +him one day as he walked in the country that perhaps those good people +in Bedford were all that the Lord would save in those parts, and that +he came too late for the blessing. True, Christ had said, 'Compel them +to come in, for yet there is room.' It might be 'that when Christ +spoke those words,' He was thinking of him--him among the rest that +he had chosen, and had meant to encourage him. But Bunyan was too +simply modest to gather comfort from such aspiring thoughts. Be +desired to be converted, craved for it, longed for it with all his +heart and soul. 'Could it have been gotten for gold,' he said, 'what +would I not have given for it. Had I had a whole world it had all gone +ten thousand times over for this, that my soul might have been in a +converted state. But, oh! I was made sick by that saying of Christ: +"He called to Him whom He would, and they came to Him." I feared He +would not call me.' + +Election, conversion, day of grace, coming to Christ, have been pawed +and fingered by unctuous hands for now two hundred years. The bloom is +gone from the flower. The plumage, once shining with hues direct from +heaven, is soiled and bedraggled. The most solemn of all realities +have been degraded into the passwords of technical theology. In +Bunyan's day, in camp and council chamber, in High Courts of +Parliament, and among the poor drudges in English villages, they were +still radiant with spiritual meaning. The dialect may alter; but if +man is more than a brief floating bubble on the eternal river of time; +if there be really an immortal part of him which need not perish; and +if his business on earth is to save it from perishing, he will still +try to pierce the mountain barrier. He will still find the work as +hard as Bunyan found it. We live in days of progress and +enlightenment; nature on a hundred sides has unlocked her storehouses +of knowledge. But she has furnished no 'open sesame' to bid the +mountain gate fly wide which leads to conquest of self. There is still +no passage there for 'body and soul and sin.' + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GRACE ABOUNDING. + + +The women in Bedford, to whom Bunyan had opened his mind, had been +naturally interested in him. Young and rough as he was, he could not +have failed to impress anyone who conversed with him with a sense that +he was a remarkable person. They mentioned him to Mr. Gifford, the +minister of the Baptist Church at Bedford. John Gifford had, at the +beginning of the Civil War, been a loose young officer in the king's +army. He had been taken prisoner when engaged in some exploit which +was contrary to the usages of war. A court-martial had sentenced him +to death, and he was to have been shot in a few hours, when he broke +out of his prison with his sister's help, and, after various +adventures, settled at Bedford as a doctor. The near escape had not +sobered him. He led a disorderly life, drinking and gambling, till the +loss of a large sum of money startled him into seriousness. In the +language of the time he became convinced of sin, and joined the +Baptists, the most thorough-going and consistent of all the Protestant +sects. If the Sacrament of Baptism is not a magical form, but is a +personal act, in which the baptised person devotes himself to Christ's +service, to baptise children at an age when they cannot understand +what they are doing may well seem irrational and even impious. + +Gifford, who was now the head of the Baptist community in the town, +invited Bunyan to his house, and explained the causes of his distress +to him. He was a lost sinner. It was true that he had parted with his +old faults, and was leading a new life. But his heart was unchanged; +his past offences stood in record against him. He was still under the +wrath of God, miserable in his position, and therefore miserable in +mind. He must become sensible of his lost state, and lay hold of the +only remedy, or there was no hope for him. + +There was no difficulty in convincing Bunyan that he was in a bad way. +He was too well aware of it already. In a work of fiction, the +conviction would be followed immediately by consoling grace. In the +actual experience of a living human soul, the medicine operates less +pleasantly. + +'I began,' he says, 'to see something of the vanity and inward +wretchedness of my wicked heart, for as yet I knew no great matter +therein. But now it began to be discovered unto me, and to work for +wickedness as it never did before. Lusts and corruptions would +strongly put themselves forth within me in wicked thoughts and desires +which I did not regard before. Whereas, before, my soul was full of +longing after God; now my heart began to hanker after every foolish +vanity.' + +Constitutions differ. Mr. Gifford's treatment, if it was ever good for +any man, was too sharp for Bunyan. The fierce acid which had been +poured into his wounds set them all festering again. He frankly admits +that he was now farther from conversion than before. His heart, do +what he would, refused to leave off desiring forbidden pleasures, and +while this continued, he supposed that he was still under the law, and +must perish by it. He compared himself to the child who, as he was +being brought to Christ, was thrown down by the devil and wallowed +foaming. A less healthy nature might have been destroyed by these +artificially created and exaggerated miseries. He supposed he was +given over to unbelief and wickedness, and yet he relates with +touching simplicity:-- + +'As to the act of sinning I was never more tender than now. I durst +not take up a pin or a stick, though but so big as a straw, for my +conscience now was sore and would smart at every touch. I could not +tell how to speak my words for fear I should misplace them.' + +But the care with which he watched his conduct availed him nothing. He +was on a morass 'that shook if he did but stir,' and he was 'there +left both of God and Christ and the Spirit, and of all good things.' +'Behind him lay the faults of his childhood and youth, every one of +which he believed to be recorded against him. Within were his +disobedient inclinations, which he conceived to be the presence of the +Devil in his heart. If he was to be presented clean of stain before +God he must have a perfect righteousness which was to be found only in +Christ, and Christ had rejected him. 'My original and inward +pollution,' he writes, 'was my plague and my affliction. I was more +loathsome in my own eyes than was a toad, and I thought I was so in +God's eyes too. I thought every one had a better heart than I had. I +could have changed heart with anybody. I thought none but the Devil +himself could equal me for inward wickedness and pollution. Sure, +thought I, I am given up to the Devil and to a reprobate mind; and +thus I continued for a long while, even for some years together.' + +And all the while the world went on so quietly; these things over +which Bunyan was so miserable not seeming to trouble anyone except +himself; and, as if they had no existence except on Sundays and in +pious talk. Old people were hunting after the treasures of this life, +as if they were never to leave the earth. Professors of religion +complained when they lost fortune or health; what were fortune and +health to the awful possibilities which lay beyond the grave? To +Bunyan the future life of Christianity was a reality as certain as the +next day's sunrise; and he could have been happy on bread and water if +he could have felt himself prepared to enter it. Every created being +seemed better off than he was. He was sorry that God had made him a +man. He 'blessed the condition of the birds, beasts, and fishes, for +they had not a sinful nature. They were not obnoxious to the wrath of +God. They were not to go to hell-fire after death.' He recalled the +texts which spoke of Christ and forgiveness. He tried to persuade +himself that Christ cared for him. He could have talked of Christ's +love and mercy 'even to the very crows which sate on the ploughed land +before him.' But he was too sincere to satisfy himself with formulas +and phrases. He could not, he would not, profess to be convinced that +things would go well with him when he was not convinced. Cold spasms +of doubt laid hold of him--doubts, not so much of his own salvation, +as of the truth of all that he had been taught to believe; and the +problem had to be fought and grappled with, which lies in the +intellectual nature of every genuine man, whether he be an Aeschylus or +a Shakespeare, or a poor working Bedfordshire mechanic. No honest soul +can look out upon the world and see it as it really is, without the +question rising in him whether there be any God that governs it at +all. No one can accept the popular notion of heaven and hell as +actually true, without being as terrified as Bunyan was. We go on as +we do, and attend to our business and enjoy ourselves, because the +words have no real meaning to us. Providence in its kindness leaves +most of us unblessed or uncursed with natures of too fine a fibre. + +Bunyan was hardly dealt with. 'Whole floods of blasphemies,' he says, +'against God, Christ, and the Scriptures were poured upon my spirit; +questions against the very being of God and of his only beloved Son, +as whether there was in truth a God or Christ, or no, and whether the +Holy Scriptures were not rather a fable and cunning story than the +holy and pure Word of God.' + +'How can you tell,' the tempter whispered, 'but that the Turks have as +good a Scripture to prove their Mahomet the Saviour, as we have to +prove our Jesus is? Could I think that so many tens of thousands in so +many countries and kingdoms should be without the knowledge of the +right way to heaven, if there were indeed a heaven, and that we who +lie in a corner of the earth, should alone be blessed therewith. Every +one doth think his own religion the rightest, both Jews, Moors, and +Pagans; and how if all our faith, and Christ, and Scripture should be +but "a think so" too.' St. Paul spoke positively. Bunyan saw shrewdly +that on St. Paul the weight of the whole Christian theory really +rested. But 'how could he tell but that St. Paul, being a subtle and +cunning man, might give himself up to deceive with strong delusions?' +'He was carried away by such thoughts as by a whirlwind.' + +His belief in the active agency of the Devil in human affairs, of +which he supposed that he had witnessed instances, was no doubt a +great help to him. If he could have imagined that his doubts or +misgivings had been suggested by a desire for truth, they would have +been harder to bear. More than ever he was convinced that he was +possessed by the devil. He 'compared himself to a child carried off by +a gipsy.' 'Kick sometimes I did,' he says, 'and scream, and cry, but +yet I was as bound in the wings of temptation, and the wind would bear +me away.' 'I blessed the dog and toad, and counted the condition of +everything that God had made far better than this dreadful state of +mine. The dog or horse had no soul to perish under the everlasting +weight of hell for sin, as mine was like to do.' + +Doubts about revelation and the truth of Scripture were more easy to +encounter then than they are at present. Bunyan was protected by want +of learning, and by a powerful predisposition to find the objections +against the credibility of the Gospel history to be groundless. +Critical investigation had not as yet analysed the historical +construction of the sacred books, and scepticism, as he saw it in +people round him, did actually come from the devil, that is from a +desire to escape the moral restraints of religion. The wisest, +noblest, best instructed men in England, at that time regarded the +Bible as an authentic communication from God, and as the only +foundation for law and civil society. The masculine sense and strong +modest intellect of Bunyan ensured his acquiescence in an opinion so +powerfully supported. Fits of uncertainty recurred even to the end of +his life; it must be so with men who are honestly in earnest; but his +doubts were of course only intermittent, and his judgment was in the +main satisfied that the Bible was, as he had been taught, the Word of +God. This, however, helped him little; for in the Bible he read his +own condemnation. The weight which pressed him down was the sense of +his unworthiness. What was he that God should care for him? He fancied +that he heard God saying to the angels, 'This poor, simple wretch doth +hanker after me, as if I had nothing to do with my mercy but to bestow +it on such as he. Poor fool, how art thou deceived! It is not for such +as thee to have favour with the Highest.' + +Miserable as he was, he clung to his misery as the one link which +connected him with the object of his longings. If he had no hope of +heaven, he was at least distracted that he must lose it. He was afraid +of dying, yet he was still more afraid of continuing to live; lest the +impression should wear away through time, and occupation and other +interests should turn his heart away to the world, and thus his wounds +might cease to pain him. + +Readers of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' sometimes ask with wonder, why, +after Christian had been received into the narrow gate, and had been +set forward upon his way, so many trials and dangers still lay before +him. The answer is simply that Christian was a pilgrim, that the +journey of life still lay before him, and at every step temptations +would meet him in new, unexpected shapes. St. Anthony in his hermitage +was beset by as many fiends as had ever troubled him when in the +world. Man's spiritual existence is like the flight of a bird in the +air; he is sustained only by effort, and when he ceases to exert +himself he falls. There are intervals, however, of comparative calm, +and to one of these the storm-tossed Bunyan was now approaching. He +had passed through the Slough of Despond. He had gone astray after Mr. +Legality, and the rocks had almost overwhelmed him. Evangelist now +found him and put him right again, and he was to be allowed a +breathing space at the Interpreter's house. As he was at his ordinary +daily work his mind was restlessly busy. Verses of Scripture came into +his head, sweet while present, but like Peter's sheet caught up again +into heaven. We may have heard all our lives of Christ. Words and +ideas with which we have been familiar from childhood are trodden into +paths as barren as sand. Suddenly, we know not how, the meaning +flashes upon us. The seed has found its way into some corner of our +minds where it can germinate. The shell breaks, the cotyledons open, +and the plant of faith is alive. So it was now to be with Bunyan. + +'One day,' he says, 'as I was travelling into the country, musing on +the wickedness of my heart, and considering the enmity that was in me +to God, the Scripture came into my mind, "He hath made peace through +the blood of His cross." I saw that the justice of God and my sinful +soul could embrace and kiss each other. I was ready to swoon, not with +grief and trouble, but with solid joy and peace.' Everything became +clear: the Gospel history, the birth, the life, the death of the +Saviour; how gently he gave himself to be nailed on the cross for his +(Bunyan's) sins. 'I saw Him in the spirit,' he goes on, 'a Man on the +right hand of the Father, pleading for me, and have seen the manner of +His coming from Heaven to judge the world with glory.' + +The sense of guilt which had so oppressed him was now a key to the +mystery. 'God,' he says, 'suffered me to be afflicted with temptations +concerning these things, and then revealed them to me.' He was crushed +to the ground by the thought of his wickedness; 'the Lord showed him +the death of Christ, and lifted the weight away.' + +Now he thought he had a personal evidence from Heaven that he was +really saved. Before this, he had lain trembling at the mouth of hell; +now he was so far away from it that he could scarce tell where it was. +He fell in at this time with a copy of Luther's commentary on the +Epistle to the Galatians, 'so old that it was like to fall to pieces.' +Bunyan found in it the exact counterpart of his own experience: 'of +all the books that he had ever met with, it seemed to him the most fit +for a wounded conscience.' + +Everything was supernatural with him: when a bad thought came into his +mind, it was the devil that put it there. These breathings of peace he +regarded as the immediate voice of his Saviour. Alas! the respite was +but short. He had hoped that his troubles were over, when the tempter +came back upon him in the most extraordinary form which he had yet +assumed, Bunyan had himself left the door open; the evil spirits could +only enter 'Mansoul' through the owner's negligence, but once in, they +could work their own wicked will. How it happened will be told +afterwards. The temptation itself must be described first. Never was a +nature more perversely ingenious in torturing itself. + +He had gained Christ, as he called it. He was now tempted 'to sell and +part with this most blessed Christ, to exchange Him for the things of +this life--for anything.' If there had been any real prospect of +worldly advantage before Bunyan, which he could have gained by +abandoning his religious profession, the words would have had a +meaning; but there is no hint or trace of any prospect of the kind; +nor in Bunyan's position could there have been. The temptation, as he +called it, was a freak of fancy: fancy resenting the minuteness with +which he watched his own emotions. And yet he says, 'It lay upon me +for a year, and did follow me so continually that I was not rid of it +one day in a month, sometimes not an hour in many days together, +unless when I was asleep. I could neither eat my food, stoop for a +pin, chop a stick, or cast my eye to look on this or that, but still +the temptation would come, "Sell Christ for this, sell Him for that! +Sell Him! Sell Him!"' + +He had been haunted before with a notion that he was under a spell; +that he had been fated to commit the unpardonable sin; and he was now +thinking of Judas, who had been admitted to Christ's intimacy, and had +then betrayed him. Here it was before him--the very thing which he had +so long dreaded. If his heart did but consent for a moment, the deed +was done. His doom had overtaken him. He wrestled with the thought as +it rose, thrust it from him 'with his hands and elbows,' body and mind +convulsed together in a common agony. As fast as the destroyer said, +'Sell Him,' Bunyan said, 'I will not; I will not; I will not, not for +thousands, thousands, thousands of worlds!' One morning as he lay in +his bed, the voice came again, and would not be driven away. Bunyan +fought against it, till he was out of breath. He fell back exhausted, +and without conscious action of his will, the fatal sentence passed +through his brain, 'Let Him go if He will.' + +That the 'selling Christ' was a bargain in which he was to lose all +and receive nothing is evident from the form in which he was overcome. +Yet if he had gained a fortune by fraud or forgery, he could not have +been more certain that he had destroyed himself. + +Satan had won the battle, and he, 'as a bird shot from a tree, had +fallen into guilt and despair.' He got out of bed, 'and went moping +into the fields,' where he wandered for two hours, 'as a man bereft of +life, and now past recovering,' 'bound over to eternal punishment.' He +shrank under the hedges, 'in guilt and sorrow, bemoaning the hardness +of his fate.' In vain the words now came back that had so comforted +him, 'The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin.' They had no +application to him. He had acquired his birthright, but, like Esau, he +had sold it, and could not any more find place for repentance. True it +was said that 'all manner of sins and blasphemies should be forgiven +unto men,' but only such sins and blasphemies as had been committed in +the natural state. Bunyan had received grace, and after receiving it, +had sinned against the Holy Ghost. + +It was done, and nothing could undo it. David had received grace, and +had committed murder and adultery after it. But murder and adultery, +bad as they might be, were only transgressions of the law of Moses. +Bunyan had sinned against the Mediator himself, 'he had sold his +Saviour.' One sin, and only one there was which could not be pardoned, +and he had been guilty of it. Peter had sinned against grace, and even +after he had been warned. Peter, however, had but denied his Master. +Bunyan had sold him. He was no David or Peter, he was Judas. It was, +very hard. Others naturally as bad as he had been saved. Why had he +been picked out to be made a Son of Perdition? A Judas! Was there any +point in which he was better than Judas? Judas had sinned with +deliberate purpose: he 'in a fearful hurry,' and 'against prayer and +striving.' But there might be more ways than one of committing the +unpardonable sin, and there might be degrees of it. It was a dreadful +condition. The old doubts came back. + +'I was now ashamed,' he says, 'that I should be like such an ugly man +as Judas. I thought how loathsome I should be to all the saints at the +Day of Judgment. I was tempted to content myself by receiving some +false opinion, as that there should be no such thing as the Day of +Judgment, that we should not rise again, that sin was no such grievous +thing, the tempter suggesting that if these things should be indeed +true, yet to believe otherwise would yield me ease for the present. If +I must perish, I need not torment myself beforehand.' + +Judas! Judas! was now for ever before his eyes. So identified he was +with Judas that he felt at times as if his breastbone was bursting. A +mark like Cain's was on him. In vain he searched again through the +catalogue of pardoned sinners. Manasseh had consulted wizards and +familiar spirits. Manasseh had burnt his children in the fire to +devils. He had found mercy; but, alas! Manasseh's sins had nothing of +the nature of selling the Saviour. To have sold the Saviour 'was a sin +bigger than the sins of a country, of a kingdom, or of the whole +world--not all of them together could equal it.' + +His brain was overstrained, it will be said. Very likely. It is to be +remembered, however, who and what he was, and that he had overstrained +it in his eagerness to learn what he conceived his Maker to wish him +to be--a form of anxiety not common in this world. The cure was as +remarkable as the disorder. One day he was 'in a good man's shop,' +still 'afflicting himself with self-abhorrence,' when something seemed +to rush in through an open window, and he heard a voice saying, 'Didst +ever refuse to be justified by the blood of Christ?' Bunyan shared the +belief of his time. He took the system of things as the Bible +represented it; but his strong common sense put him on his guard +against being easily credulous. He thought at the time that the voice +was supernatural. After twenty years he said modestly that he 'could +not make a judgment of it.' The effect, any way, was as if an angel +had come to him and had told him that there was still hope. Hapless as +his condition was, he might still pray for mercy, and might possibly +find it. He tried to pray, and found it very hard. The devil whispered +again that God was tired of him; God wanted to be rid of him and his +importunities, and had, therefore, allowed him to commit this +particular sin that he might hear no more of him. He remembered Esau, +and thought that this might be too true: 'the saying about Esau was a +flaming sword barring the way of the tree of life to him.' Still he +would not give in. 'I can but die,' he said to himself, 'and if it +must be so, it shall be said that such an one died at the feet of +Christ in prayer.' + +He was torturing himself with illusions. Most of the saints in the +Catholic Calendar have done the same. The most remorseless philosopher +can hardly refuse a certain admiration for this poor uneducated +village lad struggling so bravely in the theological spider's web. The +'Professors' could not comfort him, having never experienced similar +distresses in their own persons. He consulted 'an Antient Christian,' +telling him that he feared that he had sinned against the Holy Ghost, +The Antient Christian answered gravely that he thought so too. The +devil having him at advantage, began to be witty with him. The devil +suggested that as he had offended the second or third Person of the +Trinity, he had better pray the Father to mediate for him with Christ +and the Holy Spirit. Then the devil took another turn. Christ, he +said, was really sorry for Bunyan, but his case was beyond remedy. +Bunyan's sin was so peculiar, that it was not of the nature of those +for which He had bled and died, and had not, therefore, been laid to +His charge. To justify Bunyan he must come down and die again, and +that was not to be thought of. 'Oh!' exclaimed the unfortunate victim, +'the unthought-of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors, that are +effected by a thorough application of guilt (to a spirit) that is +yielded to desperation. This is the man that hath his dwelling among +the tombs.' + +Sitting in this humour on a settle in the street at Bedford, he was +pondering over his fearful state. The sun in heaven seemed to grudge +its light to him. 'The stones in the street and the tiles on the +houses did bend themselves against him.' Each crisis in Bunyan's mind +is always framed in the picture of some spot where it occurred. He was +crying 'in the bitterness of his soul, How can God comfort such a +wretch as I am?' As before, in the shop, a voice came in answer, 'This +sin is not unto death.' The first voice had brought him hope which was +almost extinguished; the second was a message of life. The night was +gone, and it was daylight. He had come to the end of the Valley of the +Shadow of Death, and the spectres and the hobgoblins which had +jibbered at him suddenly all vanished. A moment before he had supposed +that he was out of reach of pardon, that he had no right to pray, no +right to repent, or, at least, that neither prayer nor repentance +could profit him. If his sin was not to death, then he was on the same +ground as other sinners. If they might pray, he might pray, and might +look to be forgiven on the same terms. He still saw that his 'selling +Christ' had been 'most barbarous,' but despair was followed by an +extravagance, no less unbounded, of gratitude, when he felt that +Christ would pardon even this. + +'Love and affection for Christ,' he says, 'did work at this time such +a strong and hot desire of revengement upon myself for the abuse I had +done to Him, that, to speak as then I thought, had I had a thousand +gallons of blood in my veins, I could freely have spilt it all at the +command of my Lord and Saviour. The tempter told me it was vain to +pray. Yet, thought I, I will pray. But, said the tempter, your sin is +unpardonable. Well, said I, I will pray. It is no boot, said he. Yet, +said I, I will pray: so I went to prayer, and I uttered words to this +effect: Lord, Satan tells me that neither Thy mercy nor Christ's blood +is sufficient to save my soul. Lord, shall I honour Thee most by +believing that Thou wilt and canst, or him, by believing that Thou +neither wilt nor canst? Lord, I would fain honour Thee by believing +that Thou wilt and canst. As I was there before the Lord, the +Scripture came, Oh! man, great is thy faith, even as if one had +clapped me on the back.' + +The waves had not wholly subsided; but we need not follow the +undulations any farther. It is enough that after a 'conviction of +sin,' considerably deeper than most people find necessary for +themselves, Bunyan had come to realise what was meant by salvation in +Christ, according to the received creed of the contemporary Protestant +world. The intensity of his emotions arose only from the completeness +with which he believed it. Man had sinned, and by sin was made a +servant of the devil. His redemption was a personal act of the Saviour +towards each individual sinner. In the Atonement Christ had before him +each separate person whom he designed to save, blotting out his +offences, however heinous they might be, and recording in place of +them his own perfect obedience. Each reconciled sinner in return +regarded Christ's sufferings as undergone immediately for himself, and +gratitude for that great deliverance enabled and obliged him to devote +his strength and soul thenceforward to God's service. In the +seventeenth century, all earnest English Protestants held this belief. +In the nineteenth century, most of us repeat the phrases of this +belief, and pretend to hold it. We think we hold it. We are growing +more cautious, perhaps, with our definitions. We suspect that there +may be mysteries in God's nature and methods which we cannot fully +explain. The outlines of 'the scheme of salvation' are growing +indistinct; and we see it through a gathering mist. Yet the essence of +it will remain true whether we recognise it or not. While man remains +man he will do things which he ought not to do. He will leave undone +things which he ought to do. To will, may be present with him; but how +to perform what he wills, he will never fully know, and he will still +hate 'the body of death' which he feels clinging to him. He will try +to do better. When he falls he will struggle to his feet again. He +will climb and climb on the hill side, though he never reaches the +top, and knows that he can never reach it. His life will be a failure, +which he will not dare to offer as a fit account of himself, or as +worth a serious regard. Yet he will still hope that he will not be +wholly cast away, when after his sleep in death he wakes again. + +Now, says Bunyan, there remained only the hinder part of the tempest. +Heavenly voices continued to encourage him. 'As I was passing in the +field,' he goes on, 'I heard the sentence, thy righteousness is in +heaven; and methought I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ +at God's right hand, there I say, as my righteousness, so that +wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me He +wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. Now did my +chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my affliction and +irons; my temptations also fled away, so that from that time those +dreadful Scriptures of God left off to trouble me. Now went I home +rejoicing for the grace and love of God. Christ of God is made unto us +wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. I now +lived very sweetly at peace with God through Christ. Oh! methought, +Christ, Christ! There was nothing but Christ before my eyes. I was not +now only looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as +of His blood, burial, and resurrection, but considered Him as a whole +Christ. All those graces that were now green in me were yet but like +those cracked groats and fourpence half-pennies which rich men carry +in their purses, while their gold is in their trunks at home. Oh! I +saw my gold was in my trunk at home in Christ my Lord and Saviour. The +Lord led me into the mystery of union with the Son of God, that I was +joined to Him, that I was flesh of His flesh. If He and I were one, +His righteousness was mine, His merits mine, His victory mine. Now I +could see myself in heaven and earth at once; in heaven by my Christ, +though on earth by my body and person. Christ was that common and +public person in whom the whole body of His elect are always to be +considered and reckoned. We fulfilled the law by Him, died by Him, +rose from the dead by Him, got the victory over sin and death, the +devil and hell by Him. I had cause to say, Praise ye the Lord. Praise +God in His sanctuary.' + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CALL TO THE MINISTRY. + + +The Pilgrim falls into the hands of Giant Despair because he has +himself first strayed into Byepath Meadow. Bunyan found an explanation +of his last convulsion in an act of unbelief, of which, on looking +back, he perceived that he had been guilty. He had been delivered out +of his first temptation. He had not been sufficiently on his guard +against temptations that might come in the future. Nay, he had himself +tempted God. His wife had been overtaken by a premature confinement, +and was suffering acutely. It was at the time when Bunyan was +exercised with questions about the truth of religion altogether. As +the poor woman lay crying at his side, he had said mentally, 'Lord, if +Thou wilt now remove this sad affliction from my wife, and cause that +she be troubled no more therewith this night, then I shall know that +Thou canst discern the more secret thoughts of the heart.' In a moment +the pain ceased and she fell into a sleep which lasted till morning. +Bunyan, though surprised at the time, forgot what had happened, till +it rushed back upon his memory, when he had committed himself by a +similar mental assent to selling Christ. He remembered the proof which +had been given to him that God could and did discern his thoughts. God +had discerned this second thought also, and in punishing him for it +had punished him at the same time for the doubt which he had allowed +himself to feel. 'I should have believed His word,' he said, 'and not +have put an "if" upon the all-seeingness of God.' + +The suffering was over now, and he felt that it had been infinitely +beneficial to him. He understood better the glory of God and of his +Son. The Scriptures had opened their secrets to him, and he had seen +them to be in very truth the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Never so +clearly as after this 'temptation' had he perceived 'the heights of +grace, and love, and mercy.' Two or three times 'he had such strange +apprehensions of the grace of God as had amazed him.' The impression +was so overpowering that if it had continued long 'it would have +rendered him incapable for business.' He joined his friend Mr. +Gifford's church. He was baptised in the Ouse, and became a professed +member of the Baptist congregation. Soon after, his mental conflict +was entirely over, and he had two quiet years of peace. Before a man +can use his powers to any purpose, he must arrive at some conviction +in which his intellect can acquiesce. 'Calm yourself,' says Jean Paul; +'it is your first necessity. Be a stoic if nothing else will serve.' +Bunyan had not been driven into stoicism. He was now restored to the +possession of his faculties, and his remarkable ability was not long +in showing itself. + +The first consequence of his mental troubles was an illness. He had a +cough which threatened to turn into consumption. He thought it was all +over with him, and he was fixing his eyes 'on the heavenly Jerusalem +and the innumerable company of angels;' but the danger passed off, and +he became well and strong in mind and body. Notwithstanding his +various miseries, he had not neglected his business, and had indeed +been specially successful. By the time that he was twenty-five years +old he was in a position considerably superior to that in which he was +born. 'God,' says a contemporary biographer, 'had increased his stores +so that he lived in great credit among his neighbours.' On May 13, +1653, Bedfordshire sent an address to Cromwell approving the dismissal +of the Long Parliament, recognising Oliver himself as the Lord's +instrument, and recommending the county magistrates as fit persons to +serve in the Assembly which was to take its place. Among thirty-six +names attached to this document, appear those of Gifford and Bunyan. +This speaks for itself: he must have been at least a householder and a +person of consideration. It was not, however, as a prosperous brazier +that Bunyan was to make his way. He had a gift of speech, which, in +the democratic congregation to which he belonged, could not long +remain hid. Young as he was, he had sounded the depths of spiritual +experience. Like Dante he had been in hell--the popular hell of +English Puritanism--and in 1655 he was called upon to take part in the +'ministry.' He was modest, humble, shrinking. The minister when he +preached was, according to the theory, an instrument uttering the +words not of himself but of the Holy Spirit. A man like Bunyan, who +really believed this, might well be alarmed. After earnest entreaty, +however, 'he made experiment of his powers' in private, and it was at +once evident that, with the thing which these people meant by +inspiration, he was abundantly supplied. No such preacher to the +uneducated English masses was to be found within the four seas. He +says that he had no desire of vain glory; no one who has studied his +character can suppose that he had. He was a man of natural genius, +who believed the Protestant form of Christianity to be completely +true. He knew nothing of philosophy, nothing of history, nothing of +literature. The doubts to which he acknowledged being without their +natural food, had never presented themselves in a form which would +have compelled him to submit to remain uncertain. Doubt, as he had +felt it, was a direct enemy of morality and purity, and as such he had +fought with it and conquered it. Protestant Christianity was true. All +mankind were perishing unless they saw it to be true. This was his +message; a message--supposing him to have been right--of an importance +so immeasurable that all else was nothing. He was still 'afflicted +with the fiery darts of the devil,' but he saw that he must not bury +his abilities. 'In fear and trembling,' therefore, he set himself to +the work, and 'did according to his power preach the Gospel that God +had shewn him.' + +'The Lord led him to begin where his Word began--with sinners. This +part of my work,' he says, 'I fulfilled with a great sense, for the +terrors of the law and guilt for my transgressions lay heavy on my +conscience. I preached what I felt. I had been sent to my hearers as +from the dead. I went myself in chains to preach to them in chains, +and carried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to +beware of. I have gone full of guilt and terror to the pulpit door; +God carried me on with a strong hand, for neither guilt nor hell could +take me off.' + +Many of Bunyan's addresses remain in the form of theological +treatises, and that I may not have to return to the subject, I shall +give some account of them. His doctrine was the doctrine of the best +and strongest minds in Europe. It had been believed by Luther, it had +been believed by Knox. It was believed at that moment by Oliver +Cromwell as completely as by Bunyan himself. It was believed, so far +as such a person could be said to believe anything, by the all +accomplished Leibnitz himself. Few educated people use the language of +it now. In them it was a fire from heaven shining like a sun in a dark +world. With us the fire has gone out; in the place of it we have but +smoke and ashes, and the Evangelical mind in search of 'something +deeper and truer than satisfied the last century,' is turning back to +Catholic verities. What Bunyan had to say may be less than the whole +truth: we shall scarcely find the still missing part of it in lines of +thought which we have outgrown. + +Bunyan preached wherever opportunity served--in woods, in barns, on +village greens, or in town chapels. The substance of his sermons he +revised and published. He began, as he said, with sinners, explaining +the condition of men in the world. They were under the law, or they +were under grace. Every person that came into the world was born under +the law, and as such was bound, under pain of eternal damnation, to +fulfil completely and continually every one of the Ten Commandments. +The Bible said plainly, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in +all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' 'The +soul that sinneth it shall die.' The Ten Commandments extended into +many more, and to fail in a single one was as fatal as to break them +all. A man might go on for a long time, for sixty years perhaps, +without falling. Bunyan does not mean that anyone really could do all +this, but he assumes the possibility; yet he says if the man slipped +once before he died, he would eternally perish. The law does not refer +to words and actions only, but to thoughts and feelings. It followed +a man in his prayers, and detected a wandering thought. It allowed no +repentance to those who lived and died under it. If it was asked +whether God could not pardon, as earthly judges pardon criminals, the +answer was, that it is not the law which is merciful to the earthly +offender but the magistrate. The law is an eternal principle. The +magistrate may forgive a man without exacting satisfaction. The law +knows no forgiveness. It can be as little changed as an axiom of +mathematics. Repentance cannot undo the past. Let a man leave his sins +and live as purely as an angel all the rest of his life, his old +faults remain in the account against him, and his state is as bad as +ever it was. God's justice once offended knows not pity or compassion, +but runs on the offender like a lion and throws him into prison, there +to lie to all eternity unless infinite satisfaction be given to it. +And that satisfaction no son of Adam could possibly make. + +This conception of Divine justice, not as a sentence of a judge, but +as the action of an eternal law, is identical with Spinoza's. That +every act involves consequences which cannot be separated from it, and +may continue operative to eternity, is a philosophical position which +is now generally admitted. Combined with the traditionary notions of a +future judgment and punishment in hell, the recognition that there was +a law in the case and that the law could not be broken, led to the +frightful inference that each individual was liable to be kept alive +and tortured through all eternity. And this, in fact, was the fate +really in store for every human creature unless some extraordinary +remedy could be found. Bunyan would allow no merit to anyone. He would +not have it supposed that only the profane or grossly wicked were in +danger from the law. 'A man,' he says, 'may be turned from a vain, +loose, open, profane conversation and sinning against the law, to a +holy, righteous, religious life, and yet be under the same state and +as sure to be damned as the others that are more profane and loose.' +The natural man might think it strange, but the language of the curse +was not to be mistaken. Cursed is every one who has failed to fulfil +the whole law. There was not a person in the whole world who had not +himself sinned in early life. All had sinned in Adam also, and St. +Paul had said in consequence, 'There is none that doeth good, no, not +one! The law was given not that we might be saved by obeying it, but +that we might know the holiness of God and our own vileness, and that +we might understand that we should not be damned for nothing. God +would have no quarrelling at His just condemning of us at that day.' + +This is Bunyan's notion of the position in which we all naturally +stand in this world, and from which the substitution of Christ's +perfect fulfilment of the law alone rescues us. It is calculated, no +doubt, to impress on us a profound horror of moral evil when the +penalty attached to it is so fearful. But it is dangerous to introduce +into religion metaphysical conceptions of 'law.' The cord cracks that +is strained too tightly; and it is only for brief periods of high +spiritual tension that a theology so merciless can sustain itself. No +one with a conscience in him will think of claiming any merit for +himself. But we know also that there are degrees of demerit, and, +theory or no theory, we fall back on the first verse of the English +Liturgy, as containing a more endurable account of things. + +For this reason, among others, Bunyan disliked the Liturgy. He thought +the doctrine of it false, and he objected to a Liturgy on principle. +He has a sermon on Prayer, in which he insists that to be worth +anything prayer must be the expression of an inward feeling; and that +people cannot feel in lines laid down for them. Forms of prayer he +thought especially mischievous to children, as accustoming them to use +words to which they attached no meaning. + +'My judgment,' he says, 'is that men go the wrong way to learn their +children to pray. It seems to me a better way for people to tell their +children betimes what cursed creatures they are, how they are under +the wrath of God by reason of original and actual sin; also to tell +them the nature of God's wrath and the duration of misery, which if +they would conscientiously do, they would sooner learn their children +to pray than they do. The way that men learn to pray is by conviction +of sin, and this is the way to make our "sweet babes" do so too.' + +'Sweet babes' is unworthy of Bunyan. There is little sweetness in a +state of things so stern as he conceives. He might have considered, +too, that there was a danger of making children unreal in another and +worse sense by teaching them doctrines which neither child nor man can +comprehend. It may be true that a single sin may consign me to +everlasting hell, but I cannot be made to acknowledge the justice of +it. 'Wrath of God' and such expressions are out of place when we are +brought into the presence of metaphysical laws. Wrath corresponds to +free-will misused. It is senseless and extravagant when pronounced +against actions which men cannot help, when the faulty action is the +necessary consequence of their nature, and the penalty the necessary +consequence of the action. + +The same confusion of thought lies in the treatment of the kindred +subjects of Free-will, Election, and Reprobation. The logic must be +maintained, and God's moral attributes simultaneously vindicated. +Bunyan argues about it as ingeniously as Leibnitz himself. Those who +suppose that specific guilt attaches to particular acts, that all men +are put into the world, free to keep the Commandments or to break +them, that they are equally able to do one as to do the other, and +are, therefore, proper objects of punishment, hold an opinion which is +consistent in itself, but is in entire contradiction with facts. +Children are not as able to control their inclinations as grown men, +and one man is not as able to control himself as another. Some have no +difficulty from the first, and are constitutionally good; some are +constitutionally weak, or have incurable propensities for evil. Some +are brought up with care and insight; others seem never to have any +chance at all. So evident is this, that impartial thinkers have +questioned the reality of human guilt in the sense in which it is +generally understood. Even Butler allows that if we look too curiously +we may have a difficulty in finding where it lies. And here, if +anywhere, there is a real natural truth in the doctrine of Election, +independent of the merit of those who are so happy as to find favour. +Bunyan, however, reverses the inference. He will have all guilty +together, those who do well and those who do ill. Even the elect are +in themselves as badly off as the reprobate, and are equally included +under sin. Those who are saved are saved for Christ's merits and not +for their own. + +Men of calmer temperament accept facts as they find them. They are too +conscious of their ignorance to insist on explaining problems which +are beyond their teach. Bunyan lived in an age of intense religious +excitement, when the strongest minds were exercising themselves on +those questions. It is noticeable that the most effective intellects +inclined to necessitarian conclusions: some in the shape of Calvinism, +some in the corresponding philosophic form of Spinozism. From both +alike there came an absolute submission to the decrees of God, and a +passionate devotion to his service; while the morality of Free-will is +cold and calculating. Appeals to a sense of duty do not reach beyond +the understanding. The enthusiasm which will stir men's hearts and +give them a real power of resisting temptation must be nourished on +more invigorating food. + +But I need dwell no more on a subject which is unsuited for these +pages. + +The object of Bunyan, like that of Luther, like that of all great +spiritual teachers, was to bring his wandering fellow-mortals into +obedience to the commandments, even while he insisted on the +worthlessness of it. He sounded the strings to others which had +sounded loudest in himself. When he passed from mysticism into matters +of ordinary life, he showed the same practical good sense which +distinguishes the chief of all this order of thinkers--St. Paul. There +is a sermon of Bunyan's on Christian behaviour, on the duties of +parents to children, and masters to servants, which might be studied +with as much advantage in English households as the 'Pilgrim's +Progress' itself. To fathers he says, 'Take heed that the misdeeds for +which thou correctest thy children be not learned them by thee. Many +children learn that wickedness of their parents, for which they beat +and chastise them. Take heed that thou smile not upon them to +encourage them in small faults, lest that thy carriage to them be an +encouragement to them to commit greater faults. Take heed that thou +use not unsavoury and unseemly words in thy chastising of them, as +railing, miscalling, and the like--this is devilish. Take heed that +thou do not use them to many chiding words and threatenings, mixed +with lightness and laughter. This will harden.' + +And again: 'I tell you that if parents carry it lovingly towards their +children, mixing their mercies with loving rebukes, and their loving +rebukes with fatherly and motherly compassions, they are more likely +to save their children than by being churlish and severe to them. Even +if these things do not save them, if their mercy do them no good, yet +it will greatly ease them at the day of death to consider, I have done +by love as much as I could to save and deliver my child from hell.' + +Whole volumes on education have said less, or less to the purpose, +than these simple words. Unfortunately, parents do not read Bunyan. He +is left to children. + +Similarly, he says to masters:-- + +'It is thy duty so to behave thyself to thy servant that thy service +may not only be for thy good, but for the good of thy servant, and +that in body and soul. Deal with him as to admonition as with thy +children. Take heed thou do not turn thy servants into slaves by +overcharging them in thy work with thy greediness. Take heed thou +carry not thyself to thy servant as he of whom it is said, "He is such +a man of Belial that his servants cannot speak to him." The Apostle +bids you forbear to threaten them, because you also have a Master in +Heaven. Masters, give your servants that which is just, just labour +and just wages. Servants that are truly godly care not how cheap they +serve their masters, provided they may get into godly families, or +where they may be convenient for the Word. But if a master or +mistress takes this opportunity to make a prey of their servants, it +is abominable. I have heard poor servants say that in some carnal +families they have had more liberty to God's things and more fairness +of dealing than among many professors. Such masters make religion to +stink before the inhabitants of the land.' + +Bunyan was generally charitable in his judgment upon others. If there +was any exception, it was of Professors who discredited their calling +by conceit and worldliness. + +'No sin,' he says, 'reigneth more in the world than pride among +Professors. The thing is too apparent for any man to deny. We may and +do see pride display itself in the apparel and carriage of Professors +almost as much as among any in the land. I have seen church members so +decked and bedaubed with their fangles and toys that when they have +been at worship I have wondered with what faces such painted persons +could sit in the place where they were without swooning. I once talked +with a maid, by way of reproof for her fond and gaudy garment; she +told me the tailor would make it so. Poor proud girl, she gave orders +to the tailor to make it so.' + +I will give one more extract from Bunyan's pastoral addresses. It +belongs to a later period in his ministry, when the law had, for a +time, remade Dissent into a crime; but it will throw light on the part +of his story which we are now approaching, and it is in every way very +characteristic of him. He is speaking to sufferers under persecution. +He says to them:-- + +'Take heed of being offended with magistrates, because by their +statutes they may cross thy inclinations. It is given to them to bear +the sword, and a command is to thee, if thy heart cannot acquiesce +with all things, with meekness and patience to suffer. Discontent in +the mind sometimes puts discontent into the mouth; and discontent in +the mouth doth sometimes also put a halter about thy neck. For as a +man speaking a word in jest may for that be hanged in earnest, so he +that speaks in discontent may die for it in sober sadness. Above all, +get thy conscience possessed more and more with this, that the +magistrate is God's ordinance, and is ordered of God as such; that he +is the minister of God to thee for good, and that it is thy duty to +fear him and to pray for him; to give thanks to God for him and be +subject to him; as both Paul and Peter admonish us; and that not only +for wrath, but for conscience sake. For all other arguments come short +of binding the soul when this argument is wanting, until we believe +that of God we are bound thereto. + +'I speak not these things as knowing any that are disaffected to the +government, for I love to be alone, if not with godly men, in things +that are convenient. I speak to show my loyalty to the king, and my +love to my fellow-subjects, and my desire that all Christians shall +walk in ways of peace and truth.' + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ARREST AND TRIAL. + + +Bunyan's preaching enterprise became an extraordinary success. All the +Midland Counties heard of his fame, and demanded to hear him. He had +been Deacon under Gifford at the Bedford Church; but he was in such +request as a preacher, that, in 1657, he was released from his duties +there as unable to attend to them. Sects were springing up all over +England as weeds in a hotbed. He was soon in controversy; Controversy +with Church of England people; Controversy with the Ranters, who +believed Christ to be a myth; Controversy with the Quakers who, at +their outset, disbelieved in his Divinity and in the inspiration of +the Scriptures. Envy at his rapidly acquired reputation brought him +baser enemies. He was called a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman. It was +reported that he had 'his misses,' that he had two wives, &c. 'My foes +have missed their mark in this,' he said with honest warmth: 'I am not +the man. If all the fornicators and adulterers in England were hanged +by the neck, John Bunyan, the object of their envy, would be still +alive and well. I know not whether there be such a thing as a woman +breathing under the cope of the whole heavens but by their apparel, +their children, or common fame, except my wife.' + +But a more serious trial was now before him. Cromwell passed away. The +Protectorate came to an end. England decided that it had had enough of +Puritans and republicans, and would give the Stuarts and the +Established Church another trial. A necessary consequence was the +revival of the Act of Uniformity. The Independents were not meek like +the Baptists, using no weapons to oppose what they disapproved but +passive resistance. The same motives which had determined the original +constitution of a Church combining the characters of Protestant and +Catholic, instead of leaving religion free, were even more powerful at +the Restoration than they had been at the accession of Elizabeth. +Before toleration is possible, men must have learnt to tolerate +toleration itself; and in times of violent convictions, toleration is +looked on as indifference, and indifference as Atheism in disguise. +Catholics and Protestants, Churchmen and Dissenters, regarded one +another as enemies of God and the State, with whom no peace was +possible. Toleration had been tried by the Valois princes in France. +Church and chapel had been the rendezvous of armed fanatics. The +preachers blew the war-trumpet, and every town and village had been +the scene of furious conflicts, which culminated in the Massacre of +St. Bartholomew. The same result would have followed in England if the +same experiment had been ventured. The different communities were +forbidden to have their separate places of worship, and services were +contrived which moderate men of all sorts could use and interpret +after their own convictions. The instrument required to be delicately +handled. It succeeded tolerably as long as Elizabeth lived. When +Elizabeth died, the balance was no longer fairly kept. The High Church +party obtained the ascendancy and abused their power. Tyranny brought +revolution, and the Catholic element in turn disappeared. The Bishops +were displaced by Presbyterian elders. The Presbyterian elders became +in turn 'hireling wolves,' 'old priest' written in new characters. +Cromwell had left conscience free to Protestants. But even he had +refused equal liberty to Catholics and Episcopalians. He was gone too, +and Church and King were back again. How were they to stand? The stern +resolute men, to whom the Commonwealth had been the establishment of +God's kingdom upon earth, were as little inclined to keep terms with +Antichrist as the Church people had been inclined to keep terms with +Cromwell. To have allowed them to meet openly in their conventicles +would have been to make over the whole of England to them as a +seed-bed in which to plant sedition. It was pardonable, it was even +necessary, for Charles II. and his advisers, to fall back upon +Elizabeth's principles, at least as long as the ashes were still +glowing. Indulgence had to be postponed till cooler times. With the +Fifth Monarchy men abroad, every chapel, except those of the Baptists, +would have been a magazine of explosives. + +Under the 35th of Elizabeth, Nonconformists refusing to attend worship +in the parish churches were to be imprisoned till they made their +submission. Three months were allowed them to consider. If at the end +of that time they were still obstinate, they were to be banished the +realm; and if they subsequently returned to England without permission +from the Crown, they were liable to execution as felons. This Act had +fallen with the Long Parliament, but at the Restoration it was held to +have revived and to be still in force. The parish churches were +cleared of their unordained ministers. The Dissenters' chapels were +closed. The people were required by proclamation to be present on +Sundays in their proper place. So the majority of the nation had +decided. If they had wished for religious liberty they would not have +restored the Stuarts, or they would have insisted on conditions, and +would have seen that they were observed. + +Venner's plot showed the reality of the danger and justified the +precaution. + +The Baptists and Quakers might have been trusted to discourage +violence, but it was impossible to distinguish among the various +sects, whose tenets were unknown and even unsettled. The great body of +Cromwell's spiritual supporters believed that armed resistance to a +government which they disapproved was not only lawful, but was +enjoined. + +Thus, no sooner was Charles II. on the throne than the Nonconformists +found themselves again under bondage. Their separate meetings were +prohibited, and they were not only forbidden to worship in their own +fashion, but they had to attend church, under penalties. The Bedford +Baptists refused to obey. Their meeting-house in the town was shut up, +but they continued to assemble in woods and outhouses; Bunyan +preaching to them as before, and going to the place in disguise. +Informers were soon upon his track. The magistrates had received +orders to be vigilant. Bunyan was the most prominent Dissenter in the +neighbourhood. He was too sensible to court martyrdom. He had intended +to leave the town till more quiet times, and had arranged to meet a +few of his people once more to give them a parting address. It was +November 12, 1660. The place agreed on was a house in the village of +Samsell near Harlington. Notice of his intention was privately +conveyed to Mr. Wingate, a magistrate in the adjoining district. The +constables were set to watch the house, and were directed to bring +Bunyan before him. Some member of the congregation heard of it. Bunyan +was warned, and was advised to stay at home that night, or else to +conceal himself. His departure had been already arranged; but when he +learnt that a warrant was actually out against him, he thought that he +was bound to stay and face the danger. He was the first Nonconformist +who had been marked for arrest. If he flinched after he had been +singled out by name, the whole body of his congregation would be +discouraged. Go to church he would not, or promise to go to church; +but he was willing to suffer whatever punishment the law might order. +Thus at the time and place which had been agreed on, he was in the +room, at Samsell, with his Bible in his hand, and was about to begin +his address, when the constables entered and arrested him. He made no +resistance. He desired only to be allowed to say a few words, which +the constables permitted. He then prepared to go with them. He was not +treated with any roughness. It was too late to take him that night +before the magistrate. His friends undertook for his appearance when +he should be required, and he went home with them. The constables came +for him again on the following afternoon. + +Mr. Wingate, when the information was first brought to him, supposed +that he had fallen on a nest of Fifth Monarchy men. He enquired, when +Bunyan was brought in, how many arms had been found at the meeting. +When he learnt that there were no arms, and that it had no political +character whatever, he evidently thought it was a matter of no +consequence. He told Bunyan that he had been breaking the law, and +asked him why he could not attend to his business. Bunyan said that +his object in teaching was merely to persuade people to give up their +sins. He could do that and attend to his business also. Wingate +answered that the law must be obeyed. He must commit Bunyan for trial +at the Quarter Sessions; but he would take bail for him, if his +securities would engage that he would not preach again meanwhile. +Bunyan refused to be bailed on any such terms. Preach he would and +must, and the recognizances would be forfeited. After such an answer, +Wingate could only send him to gaol: he could not help himself. The +committal was made out, and Bunyan was being taken away, when two of +his friends met him, who were acquainted with Wingate, and they begged +the constable to wait. They went in to the magistrate. They told him +who and what Bunyan was. The magistrate had not the least desire to be +hard, and it was agreed that if he would himself give some general +promise of a vague kind he might be let go altogether. Bunyan was +called back. Another magistrate who knew him had by this time joined +Wingate. They both said that they were reluctant to send him to +prison. If he would promise them that he would not call the people +together any more, he might go home. + +They had purposely chosen a form of words which would mean as little +as possible. But Bunyan would not accept an evasion. He said that he +would not force the people to come together, but if he was in a place +where the people were met, he should certainly speak to them. The +magistrate repeated that the meetings were unlawful. They would be +satisfied if Bunyan would simply promise that he would not call such +meetings. It was as plain as possible that they wished to dismiss the +case, and they were thrusting words into his mouth which he could use +without a mental reservation; but he persisted that there were many +ways in which a meeting might be called; if people came together to +hear him, knowing that he would speak, he might be said to have called +them together. + +Remonstrances and entreaties were equally useless, and, with extreme +unwillingness, they committed him to Bedford Gaol to wait for the +sessions. + +It is not for us to say that Bunyan was too precise. He was himself +the best judge of what his conscience and his situation required. To +himself, at any rate, his trial was at the moment most severe. He had +been left a widower a year or two before, with four young children, +one of them blind. He had lately married a second time. His wife was +pregnant. The agitation at her husband's arrest brought on premature +labour, and she was lying in his house in great danger. He was an +affectionate man, and the separation at such a time was peculiarly +distressing. After some weeks the quarter sessions came on. Bunyan was +indicted under the usual form, that he 'being a person of such and +such condition had since such a time devilishly and perniciously +abstained from coming to church to hear Divine service, and was a +common upholder of unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great +disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of this kingdom, +contrary to the laws of our Sovereign Lord the King.' + +There seems to have been a wish to avoid giving him a formal trial. He +was not required to plead, and it may have been thought that he had +been punished sufficiently. He was asked why he did not go to church? +He said that the Prayer-book was made by man; he was ordered in the +Bible to pray with the spirit and the understanding, not with the +spirit and the Prayer-book. The magistrates, referring to another Act +of Parliament, cautioned Bunyan against finding fault with the +Prayer-book, or he would bring himself into further trouble. Justice +Keelin who presided said (so Bunyan declares, and it has been the +standing jest of his biographers ever since) that the Prayer-book had +been in use ever since the Apostles' time. Perhaps the words were that +parts of it had been then in use (the Apostles' Creed, for instance), +and thus they would have been strictly true. However this might be, +they told him kindly, as Mr. Wingate had done, that it would be better +for him if he would keep to his proper work. The law had prohibited +conventicles. He might teach, if he pleased, in his own family and +among his friends. He must not call large numbers of people together. +He was as impracticable as before, and the magistrates, being but +unregenerate mortals, may be pardoned if they found him provoking. If, +he said, it was lawful for him to do good to a few, it must be equally +lawful to do good to many. He had a gift, which he was bound to use. +If it was sinful for men to meet together to exhort one another to +follow Christ, he should sin still. + +He was compelling the Court to punish him, whether they wished it or +not. He describes the scene as if the choice had rested with the +magistrates to convict him or to let him go. If he was bound to do his +duty, they were equally bound to do theirs. They took his answers as a +plea of guilty to the indictment, and Justice Keelin, who was +chairman, pronounced his sentence in the terms of the Act. He was to +go to prison for three months; if, at the end of three months, he +still refused to conform, he was to be transported; and if he came +back without license he would be hanged. Bunyan merely answered, 'If +I were out of prison to-day, I would preach, the Gospel again +to-morrow.' More might have followed, but the gaoler led him away. + +There were three gaols in Bedford, and no evidence has been found to +show in which of the three Bunyan was confined. Two of them, the +county gaol and the town gaol, were large roomy buildings. Tradition +has chosen the third, a small lock-up, fourteen feet square, which +stood over the river between the central arches of the old bridge; and +as it appears from the story that he had at times fifty or sixty +fellow-prisoners, and as he admits himself that he was treated at +first with exceptional kindness, it may be inferred that tradition, in +selecting the prison on the bridge, was merely desiring to exhibit the +sufferings of the Nonconformist martyr in a sensational form, and that +he was never in this prison at all. When it was pulled down in 1811 a +gold ring was found in the rubbish, with the initials 'J. B.' upon it. +This is one of the 'trifles light as air' which carry conviction to +the 'jealous' only, and is too slight a foundation on which to assert +a fact so inherently improbable. + +When the three months were over, the course of law would have brought +him again to the bar, when he would have had to choose between +conformity and exile. There was still the same desire to avoid +extremities, and as the day approached, the clerk of the peace was +sent to persuade him into some kind of compliance. Various +insurrections had broken out since his arrest, and must have shown +him, if he could have reflected, that there was real reason for the +temporary enforcement of the Act. He was not asked to give up +preaching. He was asked only to give up public preaching. It was well +known that he had no disposition to rebellion. Even the going to +church was not insisted on. The clerk of the peace told him that he +might 'exhort his neighbours in private discourse,' if only he would +not bring the people together in numbers, which the magistrates would +be bound to notice. In this way he might continue his usefulness, and +would not be interfered with. + +Bunyan knew his own freedom from seditious intentions. He would not +see that the magistrates could not suspend the law and make an +exception in his favour. They were going already to the utmost limit +of indulgence. But the more he disapproved of rebellion, the more +punctilious he was in carrying out resistance of another kind which he +held to be legitimate. He was a representative person, and he thought +that in yielding he would hurt the cause of religious liberty. 'The +law,' he said, 'had provided two ways of obeying--one to obey +actively, and if he could not in conscience obey actively, then to +suffer whatever penalty was inflicted on him.' + +The clerk of the peace could produce no effect. Bunyan rather looked +on him as a false friend trying to entangle him. The three months +elapsed, and the magistrates had to determine what was to be done. If +Bunyan was brought before them, they must exile him. His case was +passed over and he was left in prison, where his wife and children +were allowed to visit him daily. He did not understand the law or +appreciate their forbearance. He exaggerated his danger. At the worst +he could only have been sent to America, where he might have remained +as long as he pleased. He feared that he might perhaps be hanged. + +'I saw what was coming,' he said, 'and had two considerations +especially on my heart, how to be able to endure, should my +imprisonment be long and tedious, and how to be able to encounter +death should that be my portion. I was made to see that if I would +suffer rightly, I must pass sentence of death upon everything that can +properly be called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my +wife, my children, my health, my enjoyments all as dead to me, and +myself as dead to them. Yet I was a man compassed with infirmities. +The parting with my wife and poor children hath often been to me in +this place (the prison in which he was writing) as the pulling of my +flesh from my bones; and that not only because I am too, too, fond of +those great mercies, but also because I should have often brought to +my mind the hardships, miseries, and wants my poor family was like to +meet with should I be taken from them, especially my poor blind child, +who lay nearer my heart than all I had besides. Poor child, thought I, +what sorrow art thou like to have for thy portion in this world! Thou +must be beaten, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand +calamities, though I cannot now endure the wind should blow on thee. +But yet, thought I, I must venture all with God, though it goeth to +the quick to leave you. I was as a man who was pulling down his house +upon the head of his wife and children. Yet thought I, I must do it--I +must do it. I had this for consideration, that if I should now venture +all for God, I engaged God to take care of my concernments. Also I had +dread of the torments of hell, which I was sure they must partake of +that for fear of the cross do shrink from their profession. I had this +much upon my spirit, that my imprisonment might end in the gallows for +aught I could tell. In the condition I now was in I was not fit to +die, nor indeed did I think I could if I should be called to it. I +feared I might show a weak heart, and give occasion to the enemy. This +lay with great trouble on me, for methought I was ashamed to die with +a pale face and tottering knees for such a cause as this. The things +of God were kept out of my sight. The tempter followed me with, "But +whither must you go when you die? What will become of you? What +evidence have you for heaven and glory, and an inheritance among them +that are sanctified?" Thus was I tossed many weeks; but I felt it was +for the Word and way of God that I was in this condition. God might +give me comfort or not as He pleased. I was bound, but He was +free--yea, it was my duty to stand to His Word, whether He would ever +look upon me or no, or save me at the last. Wherefore, thought I, the +point being thus, I am for going on and venturing my eternal state +with Christ, whether I have comfort here or no. If God does not come +in, thought I, I will leap off the ladder even blindfold into +eternity, sink or swim, come heaven, come hell. Now was my heart full +of comfort.' + +The ladder was an imaginary ladder, but the resolution was a genuine +manly one, such as lies at the bottom of all brave and honourable +action. Others who have thought very differently from Bunyan about +such matters have felt the same as he felt. Be true to yourself +whatever comes, even if damnation come. Better hell with an honest +heart, than heaven with cowardice and insincerity. It was the more +creditable to Bunyan, too, because the spectres and hobgoblins had +begun occasionally to revisit him. + +'Of all temptations I ever met with in my life,' he says, 'to question +the being of God and the truth of His Gospel is the worst and worst to +be borne. When this temptation comes it takes my girdle from me and +removes the foundation from under me. Though God has visited my soul +with never so blessed a discovery of Himself, yet afterwards I have +been in my spirit so filled with darkness, that I could not so much as +once conceive what that God and that comfort was with which I had been +refreshed.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE BEDFORD GAOL. + + +The irregularities in the proceedings against Bunyan had perhaps been +suggested by the anticipation of the general pardon which was expected +in the following spring. At the coronation of Charles, April 23, 1661, +an order was issued for the release of prisoners who were in gaol for +any offences short of felony. Those who were waiting their trials were +to be let go at once. Those convicted and under sentence might sue out +a pardon under the Great Seal at any time within a year from the +proclamation. Was Bunyan legally convicted or not? He had not pleaded +directly to the indictment. No evidence had been heard against him. +His trial had been a conversation between himself and the Court. The +point had been raised by his friends. His wife had been in London to +make interest for him, and a peer had presented a petition in Bunyan's +behalf in the House of Lords. The judges had been directed to look +again into the matter at the midsummer assizes. The high sheriff was +active in Bunyan's favour. The Judges Twisden, Chester, and no less a +person than Sir Matthew Hale, appear to have concluded that his +conviction was legal, that he could not be tried again, and that he +must apply for pardon in the regular way. His wife, however, at the +instance of the sheriff, obtained a hearing, and they listened +courteously to what she had to say. When she had done, Mr. Justice +Twisden put the natural question, whether, if her husband was +released, he would refrain from preaching in public for the future. If +he intended to repeat his offence immediately that he was at liberty, +his liberty would only bring him into a worse position. The wife at +once said that he dared not leave off preaching as long as he could +speak. The judge asked if she thought her husband was to be allowed to +do as he pleased. She said that he was a peaceable person, and wished +only to be restored to a position in which he could maintain his +family. They had four small children who could not help themselves, +one of them being blind, and they had nothing to live upon as long as +her husband was in prison but the charity of their friends. Hale +remarked that she looked very young to have four children. 'I am but +mother-in-law to them,' she said, 'having not been married yet full +two years. I was with child when my husband was first apprehended, but +being young, I being dismayed at the news fell in labour, and so +continued for eight days. I was delivered, but my child died.' + +Hale was markedly kind. He told her that as the conviction had been +recorded they could not set it aside. She might sue out a pardon if +she pleased, or she might obtain 'a writ of error,' which would be +simpler and less expensive. + +She left the court in tears--tears, however, which were not altogether +tears of suffering innocence. 'It was not so much,' she said, 'because +they were so hardhearted against me and my husband, but to think what +a sad account such poor creatures would have to give at the coming of +the Lord.' No doubt both Bunyan and she thought themselves cruelly +injured, and they confounded the law with the administration of it. +Persons better informed than they often choose to forget that judges +are sworn to administer the law which they find, and rail at them as +if the sentences which they are obliged by their oaths to pass were +their own personal acts. + +A pardon, it cannot be too often said, would have been of no use to +Bunyan, because he was determined to persevere in disobeying a law +which he considered to be unjust. The most real kindness which could +be shown to him was to leave him where he was. His imprisonment was +intended to be little more than nominal. His gaoler, not certainly +without the sanction of the sheriff, let him go where he pleased; once +even so far as London. He used his liberty as he had declared that he +would. 'I followed my wonted course of preaching,' he says, 'taking +all occasions that were put in my hand to visit the people of God.' +This was deliberate defiance. The authorities saw that he must be +either punished in earnest or the law would fall into contempt. He +admitted that he expected to be 'roundly dealt with.' His indulgences +were withdrawn, and he was put into close confinement. + +Sessions now followed sessions, and assizes, assizes. His detention +was doubtless irregular, for by law he should have been sent beyond +the seas. He petitioned to be brought to trial again, and complained +loudly that his petition was not listened to; but no legislator, in +framing an Act of Parliament, ever contemplated an offender in so +singular a position. Bunyan was simply trying his strength against the +Crown and Parliament. The judges and magistrates respected his +character, and were unwilling to drive him out of the country; he had +himself no wish for liberty on that condition. The only resource, +therefore, was to prevent him forcibly from repeating an offence that +would compel them to adopt harsh measures which they were so earnestly +trying to avoid. + +Such was the world-famous imprisonment of John Bunyan, which has been +the subject of so much eloquent declamation. It lasted in all for more +than twelve years. It might have ended at any time if he would have +promised to confine his addresses to a private circle. It did end +after six years. He was released under the first declaration of +indulgence; but as he instantly recommenced his preaching, he was +arrested again. Another six years went by; he was again let go, and +was taken once more immediately after, preaching in a wood. This time +he was detained but a few months, and in form more than reality. The +policy of the government was then changed, and he was free for the +rest of his life. + +His condition during his long confinement has furnished a subject for +pictures which if correct would be extremely affecting. It is true +that, being unable to attend to his usual business, he spent his +unoccupied hours in making tags for bootlaces. With this one fact to +build on, and with the assumption that the scene of his sufferings was +the Bridge Lockhouse, Nonconformist imagination has drawn a 'den' for +us, 'where there was not a yard or a court to walk in for daily +exercise;' 'a damp and dreary cell;' 'a narrow chink which admits a +few scanty rays of light to render visible the abode of woe;' 'the +prisoner, pale and emaciated, seated on the humid earth, pursuing his +daily task, to earn the morsel which prolongs his existence and his +confinement together. Near him, reclining in pensive sadness, his +blind daughter, five other distressed children, and an affectionate +wife, whom pinching want and grief have worn down to the gate of +death. Ten summer suns have rolled over the mansion of his misery +whose reviving rays have never once penetrated his sad abode,' &c. &c. + +If this description resembles or approaches the truth, I can but say +that to have thus abandoned to want their most distinguished pastor +and his family was intensely discreditable to the Baptist community. +English prisons in the seventeenth century were not models of good +management. But prisoners, whose friends could pay for them, were not +consigned to damp and dreary cells; and in default of evidence of +which not a particle exists, I cannot charge so reputable a community +with a neglect so scandalous. The entire story is in itself +incredible. Bunyan was prosperous in his business. He was respected +and looked up to by a large and growing body of citizens, including +persons of wealth and position in London. He was a representative +sufferer fighting the battle of all the Nonconformists in England. He +had active supporters in the town of Bedford and among the gentlemen +of the county. The authorities, so far as can be inferred from their +actions, tried from the first to deal as gently with him as he would +allow them to do. Is it conceivable that the Baptists would have left +his family to starve; or that his own confinement would have been made +so absurdly and needlessly cruel? Is it not far more likely that he +found all the indulgences which money could buy and the rules of the +prison would allow? Bunyan is not himself responsible for these wild +legends. Their real character appears more clearly when we observe how +he was occupied during these years. + +Friends, in the first place, had free access to him, and strangers who +were drawn to him by reputation; while the gaol was considered a +private place, and he was allowed to preach there, at least +occasionally, to his fellow-prisoners. Charles Doe, a distinguished +Nonconformist, visited him in his confinement, and has left an account +of what he saw. 'When I was there,' he writes, 'there were about sixty +dissenters besides himself, taken but a little before at a religious +meeting at Kaistor, in the county of Bedford, besides two eminent +dissenting ministers, Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Dun, by which means the +prison was much crowded. Yet, in the midst of all that hurry, I heard +Mr. Bunyan both preach and pray with that mighty spirit of faith and +plerophory of Divine assistance, that he made me stand and wonder. +Here they could sing without fear of being overheard; no informers +prowling round, and the world shut out.' + +This was not all. A fresh and more severe Conventicle Act was passed +in 1670. Attempts were made to levy fines in the town of Bedford. +There was a riot there. The local officers refused to assist in +quelling it. The shops were shut. Bedford was occupied by soldiers. +Yet, at this very time, Bunyan was again allowed to go abroad through +general connivance. He spent his nights with his family. He even +preached now and then in the woods. Once when he had intended to be +out for the night, information was given to a clerical magistrate in +the neighbourhood, who disliked him, and a constable was sent to +ascertain if the prisoners were all within ward. Bunyan had received a +hint of what was coming. He was in his place when the constable came; +and the governor of the gaol is reported to have said to him, 'You may +go out when you please, for you know better when to return than I can +tell you.' Parliament might pass laws, but the execution of them +depended on the local authorities. Before the Declaration of +Indulgence, the Baptist church in Bedford was reopened. Bunyan, while +still nominally in confinement, attended its meetings. In 1671 he +became an Elder; in December of that year he was chosen Pastor. The +question was raised whether, as a prisoner, he was eligible. The +objection would not have been set aside had he been unable to +undertake the duties of the office. These facts prove conclusively +that, for a part at least of the twelve years, the imprisonment was +little more than formal. He could not have been in the Bridge Gaol +when he had sixty fellow-prisoners, and was able to preach to them in +private. It is unlikely that at any time he was made to suffer any +greater hardships than were absolutely inevitable. + +But whether Bunyan's confinement was severe or easy, it was otherwise +of inestimable value to him. It gave him leisure to read and reflect. +Though he preached often, yet there must have been intervals, perhaps +long intervals, of compulsory silence. The excitement of perpetual +speech-making is fatal to the exercise of the higher qualities. The +periods of calm enabled him to discover powers in himself of which he +might otherwise have never known the existence. Of books he had but +few; for a time only the Bible and Foxe's 'Martyrs.' But the Bible +thoroughly known is a literature of itself--the rarest and the richest +in all departments of thought or imagination which exists. Foxe's +'Martyrs,' if he had a complete edition of it, would have given him a +very adequate knowledge of history. With those two books he had no +cause to complain of intellectual destitution. He must have read more, +however. He knew George Herbert--perhaps Spenser--perhaps 'Paradise +Lost.' But of books, except of the Bible, he was at no time a great +student. Happily for himself, he had no other book of Divinity, and he +needed none. His real study was human life as he had seen it, and the +human heart as he had experienced the workings of it. Though he never +mastered successfully the art of verse, he had other gifts which +belong to a true poet. He had imagination, if not of the highest, yet +of a very high order. He had infinite inventive humour, tenderness, +and, better than all, powerful masculine sense. To obtain the use of +these faculties he needed only composure, and this his imprisonment +secured for him. He had published several theological compositions +before his arrest, which have relatively little value. Those which he +wrote in prison--even on theological subjects--would alone have made +him a reputation as a Nonconformist divine. In no other writings are +the peculiar views of Evangelical Calvinism brought out more clearly, +or with a more heartfelt conviction of their truth. They have +furnished an arsenal from which English Protestant divines have ever +since equipped themselves. The most beautiful of them, 'Grace +Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,' is his own spiritual biography, +which contains the account of his early history. The first part of the +'Pilgrim's Progress' was composed there as an amusement. To this, and +to his other works which belong to literature, I shall return in a +future chapter. + +Visitors who saw him in the gaol found his manner and presence as +impressive as his writings. 'He was mild and affable in conversation,' +says one of them, 'not given to loquacity or to much discourse, unless +some urgent occasion required. It was observed he never spoke of +himself or of his talents, but seemed low in his own eyes. He was +never heard to reproach or revile any, whatever injury he received, +but rather rebuked those who did so. He managed all things with such +exactness as if he had made it his study not to give offence.' + +The final 'Declaration of Indulgence' came at last, bringing with it +the privilege for which Bunyan had fought and suffered. Charles II. +cared as little for liberty as his father or his brother, but he +wished to set free the Catholics, and as a step towards it he conceded +a general toleration to the Protestant Dissenters. Within two years of +the passing of the Conventicle Act of 1670, this and every other penal +law against Nonconformists was suspended. They were allowed to open +their 'meeting houses' for 'worship and devotion,' subject only to a +few easy conditions. The localities were to be specified in which +chapels were required, and the ministers were to receive their +licenses from the Crown. To prevent suspicions, the Roman Catholics +were for the present excluded from the benefit of the concession. Mass +could be said, as before, only in private houses. A year later the +Proclamation was confirmed by Act of Parliament. + +Thus Bunyan's long imprisonment was ended. The cause was won. He had +been its foremost representative and champion, and was one of the +first persons to receive the benefit of the change of policy. He was +now forty-four years old. The order for his release was signed on May +8, 1672. His license as pastor of the Baptist chapel at Bedford was +issued on the 9th. He established himself in a small house in the +town. 'When he came abroad,' says one, 'he found his temporal affairs +were gone to wreck, and he had as to them to begin again as if he had +newly come into the world. But yet he was not destitute of friends who +had all along supported him with necessaries, and had been very good +to his family: so that by their assistance, getting things a little +about him again, he resolved, as much as possible, to decline worldly +business, and give himself wholly up to the service of God.' As much +as possible; but not entirely. In 1685, being afraid of a return of +persecution, he made over, as a precaution, his whole estate to his +wife; 'All and singular his goods, chattels, debts, ready money, +plate, rings, household stuff, apparel, utensils, brass, pewter, +bedding, and all his other substance.' In this deed he still describes +himself as a brazier. The language is that of a man in easy, if not +ample circumstances. 'Though by reason of losses which he sustained by +imprisonment,' says another biographer, 'his treasures swelled not to +excess, he always had sufficient to live decently and creditably.' His +writings and his sufferings had made him famous throughout England. He +became the actual head of the Baptist community. Men called him, half +in irony, half in seriousness, Bishop Bunyan, and he passed the rest +of his life honourably and innocently, occupied in writing, preaching, +district visiting, and opening daughter churches. Happy in his work, +happy in the sense that his influence was daily extending--spreading +over his own country, and to the far-off settlements in America, he +spent his last years in his own land of Beulah, Doubting Castle out of +sight, and the towers and minarets of Emmanuel Land growing nearer and +clearer as the days went on. + +He had not detected, or at least, at first, he did not detect, the +sinister purpose which lay behind the Indulgence. The exception of the +Roman Catholics gave him perfect confidence in the Government, and +after his release he published a 'Discourse upon Antichrist,' with a +preface, in which he credited Charles with the most righteous +intentions, and urged his countrymen to be loyal and faithful to him. +His object in writing it, he said, 'was to testify his loyalty to the +King, his love to the brethren, and his service to his country.' +Antichrist was of course the Pope, the deadliest of all enemies to +vital Christianity. To its kings and princes England owed its past +deliverance from him. To kings England must look for his final +overthrow. + +'As the noble King Henry VIII. did cast down the Antichristian +worship, so he cast down the laws that held it up; so also did the +good King Edward his son. The brave Queen Elizabeth, also, the sister +of King Edward, left of things of this nature to her lasting fame +behind her.' Cromwell he dared not mention--perhaps he did not wish to +mention him. But he evidently believed that there was better hope in +Charles Stuart than in conspiracy and revolution. + +'Kings,' he said, 'must be the men that shall down with Antichrist, +and they shall down with her in God's time. God hath begun to draw the +hearts of some of them from her already, and He will set them in time +against her round about. If, therefore, they do not that work so fast +as we would have them, let us exercise patience and hope in God. 'Tis +a wonder they go as fast as they do since the concerns of whole +kingdoms lie upon their shoulders, and there are so many Sanballats +and Tobias's to flatter them and misinform them. Let the King have +visibly a place in your hearts, and with heart and mouth give God +thanks for him. He is a better Saviour of us than we may be aware of, +and hath delivered us from more deaths than we can tell how to think. +We are bidden to give God thanks for all men, and in the first place +for kings, and all that are in authority. Be not angry with them, no +not in thy thought. But consider if they go not in the work of +Reformation so fast as thou wouldest they should, the fault may be +thine. Know that thou also hast thy cold and chill frames of heart, +and sittest still when thou shouldest be up and doing. Pray for the +long life of the King. Pray that God would give wisdom and judgment to +the King. Pray that God would discern all plots and conspiracies +against his person and government. I do confess myself one of the +old-fashioned professors that wish to fear God and honour the King. I +am also for blessing them that curse me, for doing good to them that +hate me, and for praying for them that despitefully use me and +persecute me; and I have had more peace in the practice of these +things than all the world are aware of.' + +The Stuarts, both Charles and James, were grateful for Bunyan's +services. The Nonconformists generally went up and down in Royal +favour; lost their privileges and regained them as their help was +needed or could be dispensed with. But Bunyan was never more molested. +He did what he liked. He preached where he pleased, and no one +troubled him or called him to account. He was not insincere. His +constancy in enduring so long an imprisonment which a word from him +would have ended, lifts him beyond the reach of unworthy suspicions. +But he disapproved always of violent measures. His rule was to submit +to the law; and where, as he said, he could not obey actively, then to +bear with patience the punishment that might be inflicted on him. +Perhaps he really hoped, as long as hope was possible, that good might +come out of the Stuarts. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMAN. + + +To his contemporaries Bunyan was known as the Nonconformist Martyr, +and the greatest living Protestant preacher. To us he is mainly +interesting through his writings, and especially through the +'Pilgrim's Progress.' Although he possessed, in a remarkable degree, +the gift of expressing himself in written words, he had himself no +value for literature. He cared simply for spiritual truth, and +literature in his eyes was only useful as a means of teaching it. +Every thing with which a reasonable man could concern himself was +confined within the limits of Christian faith and practice. Ambition +was folly. Amusement was idle trifling in a life so short as man's, +and with issues so far-reaching depending upon it. To understand, and +to make others understand, what Christ had done, and what Christ +required men to do, was the occupation of his whole mind, and no +object ever held his attention except in connection with it. With a +purpose so strict, and a theory of religion so precise, there is +usually little play for imagination or feeling. Though we read +Protestant theology as a duty, we find it as dry in the mouth as +sawdust. The literature which would please must represent nature, and +nature refuses to be bound into our dogmatic systems. No object can be +pictured truly, except by a mind which has sympathy with it. +Shakespeare no more hates Iago than Iago hates himself. He allows Iago +to exhibit himself in his own way, as nature does. Every character, if +justice is to be done to it, must be painted at its best, as it +appears to itself; and a man impressed deeply with religious +convictions is generally incapable of the sympathy which would give +him an insight into what he disapproves and dislikes. And yet Bunyan, +intensely religious as he was, and narrow as his theology was, is +always human. His genius remains fresh and vigorous under the least +promising conditions. All mankind being under sin together, he has no +favourites to flatter, no opponents to misrepresent. There is a +kindliness in his descriptions, even of the Evil One's attacks upon +himself. + +The 'Pilgrim's Progress,' though professedly an allegoric story of the +Protestant plan of salvation, is conceived in the large, wide spirit +of humanity itself. Anglo-Catholic and Lutheran, Calvinist and Deist +can alike read it with delight, and find their own theories in it. +Even the Romanist has only to blot out a few paragraphs, and can +discover no purer model of a Christian life to place in the hands of +his children. The religion of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is the religion +which must be always and everywhere, as long as man believes that he +has a soul and is responsible for his actions; and thus it is that, +while theological folios once devoured as manna from Heaven now lie on +the bookshelves dead as Egyptian mummies, this book is wrought into +the mind and memory of every well-conditioned English or American +child; while the matured man, furnished with all the knowledge which +literature can teach him, still finds the adventures of Christian as +charming as the adventures of Ulysses or Aeneas. He sees there the +reflexion of himself, the familiar features of his own nature, which +remain the same from era to era. Time cannot impair its interest, or +intellectual progress make it cease to be true to experience. + +But the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' though the best known, is not the only +work of imagination which Bunyan produced; he wrote another religious +allegory, which Lord Macaulay thought would have been the best of its +kind in the world if the 'Pilgrim's Progress' had not existed. The +'Life of Mr. Badman,' though now scarcely read at all, contains a +vivid picture of rough English life in the days of Charles II. Bunyan +was a poet, too, in the technical sense of the word, and though he +disclaimed the name, and though rhyme and metre were to him as Saul's +armour to David, the fine quality of his mind still shows itself in +the uncongenial accoutrements. + +It has been the fashion to call Bunyan's verse doggerel; but no verse +is doggerel which has a sincere and rational meaning in it. Goethe, +who understood his own trade, says that the test of poetry is the +substance which remains when the poetry is reduced to prose. Bunyan +had infinite invention. His mind was full of objects which he had +gathered at first hand, from observation and reflection. He had +excellent command of the English language, and could express what he +wished with sharp, defined outlines, and without the waste of a word. +The rhythmical structure of his prose is carefully correct. Scarcely a +syllable is ever out of place. His ear for verse, though less true, is +seldom wholly at fault, and whether in prose or verse, he had the +superlative merit that he could never write nonsense. If one of the +motives of poetical form be to clothe thought and feeling in the dress +in which it can lie most easily remembered, Bunyan's lines are often +as successful as the best lines of Quarles or George Herbert. Who, for +instance, could forget these?-- + + Sin is the worm of hell, the lasting fire: + Hell would soon lose its heat should sin expire; + Better sinless in hell than to be where + Heaven is, and to be found a sinner there. + +Or these, on persons whom the world calls men of spirit:-- + + Though you dare crack a coward's crown, + Or quarrel for a pin, + You dare not on the wicked frown, + Or speak against their sin. + +The 'Book of Ruth' and the 'History of Joseph' done into blank verse +are really beautiful idylls. The substance with which he worked, +indeed, is so good that there would be a difficulty in spoiling it +completely; but the prose of the translation in the English Bible, +faultless as it is, loses nothing in Bunyan's hands, and if we found +these poems in the collected works of a poet laureate, we should +consider that a difficult task had been accomplished successfully. +Bunyan felt, like the translators of the preceding century, that the +text was sacred, that his duty was to give the exact meaning of it, +without epithets or ornaments, and thus the original grace is +completely preserved. + +Of a wholly different kind, and more after Quarles's manner, is a +collection of thoughts in verse, which he calls a book for boys and +girls. All his observations ran naturally in one direction; to minds +possessed and governed by religion, nature, be their creed what it +may, is always a parable reflecting back their own views. + +But how neatly expressed are these 'Meditations upon an Egg':-- + + The egg's no chick by falling from a hen, + Nor man's a Christian till he's born again; + The egg's at first contained in the shell, + Men afore grace in sin and darkness dwell; + The egg, when laid, by warmth is made a chicken, + And Christ by grace the dead in sin doth quicken; + The egg when first a chick the shell's its prison, + So flesh to soul who yet with Christ is risen. + +Or this, 'On a Swallow':-- + + This pretty bird! Oh, how she flies and sings; + But could she do so if she had not wings? + Her wings bespeak my faith, her songs my peace; + When I believe and sing, my doubtings cease. + +Though the Globe Theatre was, in the opinion of Nonconformists, 'the +heart of Satan's empire,' Bunyan must yet have known something of +Shakespeare. In the second part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' we find:-- + + Who would true valour see, + Let him come hither; + One here will constant be, + Come wind, come weather. + +The resemblance to the song in 'As You Like It' is too near to be +accidental:-- + + Who doth ambition shun, + And loves to be in the sun; + Seeking the food he eats, + And pleased with what he gets, + Come hither, come hither, come hither. + Here shall be no enemy, + Save winter and rough weather. + +Bunyan may, perhaps, have heard the lines, and the rhymes may have +clung to him without his knowing whence they came. But he would never +have been heard of outside his own communion, if his imagination had +found no better form of expression for itself than verse. His especial +gift was for allegory, the single form of imaginative fiction which he +would not have considered trivial, and his especial instrument was +plain, unaffected Saxon prose. 'The Holy War' is a people's Paradise +Lost and Paradise Regained in one. The 'Life of Mr. Badman' is a +didactic tale, describing the career of a vulgar, middle-class, +unprincipled scoundrel. + +These are properly Bunyan's 'works,' the results of his life so far as +it affects the present generation of Englishmen; and as they are +little known, I shall give an account of each of them. + +The 'Life of Badman' is presented as a dialogue between Mr. Wiseman +and Mr. Attentive. Mr. Wiseman tells the story, Mr. Attentive comments +upon it. The names recall Bunyan's well-known manner. The figures +stand for typical characters; but as the _dramatis personae_ of many +writers of fiction, while professing to be beings of flesh and blood +are no more than shadows, so Bunyan's shadows are solid men whom we +can feel and handle. + +Mr. Badman is, of course, one of the 'reprobate.' Bunyan considered +theoretically that a reprobate may to outward appearance have the +graces of a saint, and that there may be little in his conduct to mark +his true character. A reprobate may be sorry for his sins, he may +repent and lead a good life. He may reverence good men and may try to +resemble them; he may pray, and his prayers may be answered; he may +have the spirit of God, and may receive another heart, and yet he may +be under the covenant of works, and may be eternally lost. This +Bunyan could say while he was writing theology; but art has its rules +as well as its more serious sister, and when he had to draw a living +specimen, he drew him as he had seen him in his own Bedford +neighbourhood. + +Badman showed from childhood a propensity for evil. He was so +'addicted to lying that his parents could not distinguish when he was +speaking the truth. He would invent, tell, and stand to the lies which +he invented, with such an audacious face, that one might read in his +very countenance the symptoms of a hard and desperate heart. It was +not the fault of his parents; they were much dejected at the +beginnings of their son, nor did he want counsel and correction, if +that would have made him better: but all availed nothing.' + +Lying was not Badman's only fault. He took to pilfering and stealing. +He robbed his neighbours' orchards. He picked up money if he found it +lying about. Especially, Mr. Wiseman notes that he hated Sundays. +'Reading Scriptures, godly conferences, repeating of sermons and +prayers, were things that he could not away with.' 'He was an enemy to +that day, because more restraint was laid upon him from his own ways +than was possible on any other.' Mr. Wiseman never doubts that the +Puritan Sunday ought to have been appreciated by little boys. If a +child disliked it, the cause could only be his own wickedness. Young +Badman 'was greatly given also to swearing and cursing.' 'He made no +more of it' than Mr. Wiseman made 'of telling his fingers.' 'He +counted it a glory to swear and curse, and it was as natural to him as +to eat, drink, or sleep.' Bunyan, in this description, is supposed to +have taken the picture from himself. But too much may be made of this. +He was thinking, perhaps, of what he might have been if God's grace +had not preserved him. He himself was saved. Badman is represented as +given over from the first. Anecdotes, however, are told of +contemporary providential judgments upon swearers, which had much +impressed Bunyan. One was of a certain Dorothy Mately, a woman whose +business was to wash rubbish at the Derby lead mines. Dorothy (it was +in the year when Bunyan was first imprisoned), had stolen twopence +from the coat of a boy who was working near her. When the boy taxed +her with having robbed him, she wished the ground might swallow her up +if she had ever touched his money. Presently after, some children who +were watching her, saw a movement in the bank on which she was +standing. They called to her to take care, but it was too late. The +bank fell in, and she was carried down along with it. A man ran to +help her, but the sides of the pit were crumbling round her: a large +stone fell on her head; the rubbish followed, and she was overwhelmed. +When she was dug out afterwards, the pence were found in her pocket. +Bunyan was perfectly satisfied that her death was supernatural. To +discover miracles is not peculiar to Catholics. They will be found +wherever there is an active belief in immediate providential +government. + +Those more cautious in forming their conclusions will think, perhaps, +that the woman was working above some shaft in the mine, that the +crust had suddenly broken, and that it would equally have fallen in +when gravitation required it to fall, if Dorothy Mately had been a +saint. They will remember the words about the Tower of Siloam. But to +return to Badman. + +His father, being unable to manage so unpromising a child, bound him +out as an apprentice. The master to whom he was assigned was as good +a man as the father could find: uptight, Godfearing, and especially +considerate of his servants. He never worked them too hard. He left +them time to read and pray. He admitted no light or mischievous books +within his doors. He was not one of those whose religion 'hung as a +cloke in his house, and was never seen on him when he went abroad.' +His household was as well fed and cared for as himself, and he +required nothing of others of which he did not set them an example in +his own person. + +This man did his best to reclaim young Badman, and was particularly +kind to him. But his exertions were thrown away. The good-for-nothing +youth read filthy romances on the sly. He fell asleep in church, or +made eyes at the pretty girls. He made acquaintance with low +companions. He became profligate, got drunk at alehouses, sold his +master's property to get money, or stole it out of the cashbox. Thrice +he ran away and was taken back again. The third time he was allowed to +go. 'The House of Correction would have been the most fit for him, but +thither his master was loath to send him, for the love he bore his +father.' + +He was again apprenticed; this time to a master like himself. Being +wicked he was given over to wickedness. The ways of it were not +altogether pleasant. He was fed worse and he was worked harder than he +had been before; when he stole, or neglected his business, he was +beaten. He liked his new place, however, better than the old. 'At +least, there was no godliness in the house, which he hated worst of +all.' + +So far, Bunyan's hero was travelling the usual road of the Idle +Apprentice, and the gallows would have been the commonplace ending of +it. But this would not have answered Bunyan's purpose. He wished to +represent the good-for-nothing character, under the more instructive +aspect of worldly success, which bad men may arrive at as well as +good, if they are prudent and cunning. Bunyan gives his hero every +chance. He submits him from the first to the best influences; he +creates opportunities for repentance at every stage of a long +career--opportunities which the reprobate nature cannot profit by, yet +increases its guilt by neglecting. + +Badman's term being out, his father gives him money and sets him up as +a tradesman on his own account. Mr. Attentive considers this to have +been a mistake. Mr. Wiseman answers that even in the most desperate +cases, kindness in parents is more likely to succeed than severity, +and if it fails they will have the less to reproach themselves with. +The kindness is, of course, thrown away. Badman continues a loose +blackguard, extravagant, idle and dissolute. He comes to the edge of +ruin. His situation obliges him to think; and now the interest of the +story begins. He must repair his fortune by some means or other. The +easiest way is by marriage. There was a young orphan lady in the +neighbourhood, who was well off and her own mistress. She was a +'professor' eagerly given to religion, and not so wise as she ought to +have been. Badman pretends to be converted. He reforms, or seems to +reform. He goes to meeting, sings hymns, adopts the most correct form +of doctrine, tells the lady that he does not want her money, but that +he wants a companion who will go with him along the road to Heaven. He +was plausible, good-looking, and, to all appearance, as absorbed as +herself in the one thing needful. The congregation warn her, but to no +purpose. She marries him, and finds what she has done too late. In +her fortune he has all that he wanted. He swears at her, treats her +brutally, brings prostitutes into his house, laughs at her religion, +and at length orders her to give it up. When she refuses, Bunyan +introduces a special feature of the times, and makes Badman threaten +to turn informer, and bring her favourite minister to gaol. The +informers were the natural but most accursed products of the +Conventicle Acts. Popular abhorrence relieved itself by legends of the +dreadful judgments which had overtaken these wretches. + +In St. Neots an informer was bitten by a dog. The wound gangrened and +the flesh rotted off his bones. In Bedford 'there was one W. S.' +(Bunyan probably knew him too well), 'a man of very wicked life, and +he, when there seemed to be countenance given to it, would needs turn +informer. Well, so he did, and was as diligent in his business as most +of them could be. He would watch at nights, climb trees and range the +woods of days, if possible to find out the meeters, for then they were +forced to meet in the fields. Yea, he would curse them bitterly, and +swore most fearfully what he would do to them when he found them. +Well, after he had gone on like a Bedlam in his course awhile, and had +done some mischief to the people, he was stricken by the hand of God. +He was taken with a faltering in his speech, a weakness in the back +sinews of his neck, that ofttimes he held up his head by strength of +hand. After this his speech went quite away, and he could speak no +more than a swine or a bear. Like one of them he would gruntle and +make an ugly noise, according as he was offended or pleased, or would +have anything done. He walked about till God had made a sufficient +spectacle of his judgments for his sin, and then, on a sudden, he was +stricken, and died miserably.' + +Badman, says Mr. Wiseman, 'had malice enough in his heart' to turn +informer, but he was growing prudent and had an eye to the future. As +a tradesman he had to live by his neighbours. He knew that they would +not forgive him, so 'he had that wit in his anger that he did it not.' +Nothing else was neglected to make the unfortunate wife miserable. She +bore him seven children, also typical figures. 'One was a very +gracious child, that loved its mother dearly. This child Mr. Badman +could not abide, and it oftenest felt the weight of its father's +fingers. Three were as bad as himself. The others that remained became +a kind of mongrel professors, not so bad as their father nor so good +as their mother, but betwixt them both. They had their mother's +notions and their father's actions. Their father did not like them +because they had their mother's tongue. Their mother did not like them +because they had their father's heart and life, nor were they fit +company for good or bad. They were forced with Esau to join in +affinity with Ishmael, to wit, to look out for a people that were +hypocrites like themselves, and with them they matched and lived and +died.' + +Badman meanwhile, with the help of his wife's fortune, grew into an +important person, and his character becomes a curious study. 'He +went,' we are told, 'to school with the Devil, from his childhood to +the end of his life.' He was shrewd in matters of business, began to +extend his operations, and 'drove a great trade.' He carried a double +face. He was evil with the evil. He pretended to be good with the +good. In religion he affected to be a freethinker, careless of death +and judgment, and ridiculing those who feared them 'as frighted with +unseen bugbears.' But he wore a mask when it suited him, and admired +himself for the ease with which he could assume whatever aspect was +convenient. 'I can be religious and irreligious,' he said; 'I can be +anything or nothing. I can swear and speak against swearing. I can lie +and speak against lying. I can drink, wench, be unclean, and defraud, +and not be troubled for it. I can enjoy myself and am master of my own +ways, not they of me. This I have attained with much study, care, and +pains.' 'An Atheist Badman was, if such a thing as an Atheist could +be. He was not alone in that mystery. There was abundance of men of +the same mind and the same principle. He was only an arch or chief one +among them.' + +Mr. Badman now took to speculation, which Bunyan's knowledge of +business enabled him to describe with instructive minuteness. His +adventures were on a large scale, and by some mistakes and by personal +extravagance he had nearly ruined himself a second time. In this +condition he discovered a means, generally supposed to be a more +modern invention, of 'getting money by hatfuls.' + +'He gave a sudden and great rush into several men's debts to the value +of four or five thousand pounds, driving at the same time a very great +trade by selling many things for less than they cost him, to get him +custom and blind his creditors' eyes. When he had well feathered his +nest with other men's goods and money, after a little while he breaks; +while he had by craft and knavery made so sure of what he had, that +his creditors could not touch a penny. He sends mournful sugared +letters to them, desiring them not to be severe with him, for he bore +towards all men an honest mind, and would pay them as far as he was +able. He talked of the greatness of the taxes, the badness of the +times, his losses by bad debts, and he brought them to a composition +to take five shillings in the pound. His release was signed and +sealed, and Mr. Badman could now put his head out of doors again, and +be a better man than when he shut up shop by several thousands of +pounds.' + +Twice or three times he repeated the same trick with equal success. It +is likely enough that Bunyan was drawing from life and perhaps from a +member of his own congregation; for he says that 'he had known a +professor do it.' He detested nothing so much as sham religion which +was put on as a pretence. 'A professor,' he exclaims, 'and practise +such villanies as these! Such an one is not worthy the name. Go +professors, go--leave off profession unless you will lead your lives +according to your profession. Better never profess than make +profession a stalking horse to sin, deceit, the devil, and hell.' + +Bankruptcy was not the only art by which Badman piled up his fortune. +The seventeenth century was not so far behind us as we sometimes +persuade ourselves. 'He dealt by deceitful weights and measures. He +kept weights to buy by and weights to sell by, measures to buy by and +measures to sell by. Those he bought by were too big, and those he +sold by were too little. If he had to do with other men's weights and +measures, he could use a thing called sleight of hand. He had the art +besides to misreckon men in their accounts, whether by weight or +measure or money; and if a question was made of his faithful dealing, +he had his servants ready that would vouch and swear to his look or +word. He would sell goods that cost him not the best price by far, for +as much as he sold his best of all for. He had also a trick to mingle +his commodity, that that which was bad might go off with the least +mistrust. If any of his customers paid him money, he would call for +payment a second time, and if they could not produce good and +sufficient ground of the payment, a hundred to one but they paid it +again.' + +'To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest' was Mr. +Badman's common rule in business. According to modern political +economy, it is the cardinal principle of wholesome trade. In Bunyan's +opinion it was knavery in disguise, and certain to degrade and +demoralise everyone who acted upon it. Bunyan had evidently thought on +the subject. Mr. Attentive is made to object:-- + +'But you know that there is no settled price set by God upon any +commodity that is bought or sold under the sun; but all things that we +buy and sell do ebb and flow as to price like the tide. How then shall +a man of tender conscience do, neither to wrong the seller, buyer, nor +himself in the buying and selling of commodities?' + +Mr. Wiseman answers in the spirit of our old Acts of Parliament, +before political economy was invented:-- + +'Let a man have conscience towards God, charity to his neighbours, and +moderation in dealing. Let the tradesman consider that there is not +that in great gettings and in abundance which the most of men do +suppose; for all that a man has over and above what serves for his +present necessity and supply, serves only to feed the lusts of the +eye. Be thou confident that God's eyes are upon thy ways; that He +marks them, writes them down, and seals them up in a bag against the +time to come. Be sure that thou rememberest that thou knowest not the +day of thy death. Thou shalt have nothing that thou mayest so much as +carry away in thy hand. Guilt shall go with thee if thou hast gotten +thy substance dishonestly, and they to whom thou shalt leave it shall +receive it to their hurt. These things duly considered, I will shew +thee how thou should'st live in the practical part of this art. Art +thou to buy or sell? If thou sellest do not commend. If thou buyest do +not dispraise, any otherwise but to give the thing that thou hast to +do with its just value and worth. Art thou a seller and do things grow +cheap? set not thy hand to help or hold them up higher. Art thou a +buyer and do things grow dear? use no cunning or deceitful language to +pull them down. Leave things to the Providence of God, and do thou +with moderation submit to his hand. Hurt not thy neighbour by crying +out Scarcity, scarcity! beyond the truth of things. Especially take +heed of doing this by way of a prognostic for time to come. This +wicked thing may be done by hoarding up (food) when the hunger and +necessity of the poor calls for it. If things rise do thou be grieved. +Be also moderate in all thy sellings, and be sure let the poor have a +pennyworth, and sell thy corn to those who are in necessity; which +thou wilt do when thou showest mercy to the poor in thy selling to +him, and when thou undersellest the market for his sake because he is +poor. This is to buy and sell with a good conscience. The buyer thou +wrongest not, thy conscience thou wrongest not, thyself thou wrongest +not, for God will surely recompense with thee.' + +These views of Bunyan's are at issue with modern science, but his +principles and ours are each adjusted to the objects of desire which +good men in those days and good men in ours have respectively set +before themselves. If wealth means money, as it is now assumed to do, +Bunyan is wrong and modern science right. If wealth means moral +welfare, then those who aim at it will do well to follow Bunyan's +advice. It is to be feared that this part of his doctrine is less +frequently dwelt upon by those who profess to admire and follow him, +than the theory of imputed righteousness or justification by faith. + +Mr. Badman by his various ingenuities became a wealthy man. His +character as a tradesman could not have been a secret from his +neighbours, but money and success coloured it over. The world spoke +well of him. He became 'proud and haughty,' took part in public +affairs, 'counted himself as wise as the wisest in the country, as +good as the best, and as beautiful as he that had the most of it.' 'He +took great delight in praising himself, and as much in the praises +that others gave him.' 'He could not abide that any should think +themselves above him, or that their wit and personage should be by +others set before his.' He had an objection, nevertheless, to being +called proud, and when Mr. Attentive asked why, his companion answered +with a touch which reminds us of De Foe, that 'Badman _did not tell +him the reason_. He supposed it to be that which was common to all +vile persons. They loved their vice, but cared not to bear its name.' +Badman said he was unwilling to seem singular and fantastical, and in +this way he justified his expensive and luxurious way of living. +Singularity of all kinds he affected to dislike, and for that reason +his special pleasure was to note the faults of professors. 'If he +could get anything by the end that had scandal in it, if it did but +touch professors, however falsely reported, oh, then he would glory, +laugh and be glad, and lay it upon the whole party. Hang these rogues, +he would say, there is not a barrel better herring in all the holy +brotherhood of them. Like to like, quoth the Devil to the collier. +This is your precise crew, and then he would send them all home with a +curse.' + +Thus Bunyan developed his specimen scoundrel, till he brought him to +the high altitudes of worldly prosperity; skilful in every villanous +art, skilful equally in keeping out of the law's hands, and feared, +admired and respected by all his neighbours. The reader who desires to +see Providence vindicated would now expect to find him detected in +some crimes by which justice could lay hold, and poetical retribution +fall upon him in the midst of his triumph. An inferior artist would +certainly have allowed his story to end in this way. But Bunyan, +satisfied though he was that dramatic judgments did overtake offenders +in this world with direct and startling appropriateness, was yet aware +that it was often otherwise, and that the worst fate which could be +inflicted on a completely worthless person was to allow him to work +out his career unvisited by any penalties which might have disturbed +his conscience and occasioned his amendment. He chose to make his +story natural, and to confine himself to natural machinery. The +judgment to come Mr. Badman laughed at 'as old woman's fable,' but his +courage lasted only as long as he was well and strong. One night as he +was riding home drunk, his horse fell and he broke his leg. 'You would +not think,' says Mr. Wiseman, 'how he swore at first. Then coming to +himself, and finding he was badly hurt, he cried out, after the manner +of such, Lord help me; Lord have mercy on me; good God deliver me, and +the like. He was picked up and taken home, where he lay some time. In +his pain he called on God, but whether it was that his sin might be +pardoned and his soul saved, or whether to be rid of his pain,' Mr. +Wiseman 'could not determine.' This leads to several stories of +drunkards which Bunyan clearly believed to be literally true. Such +facts or legends were the food on which his mind had been nourished. +They were in the air which contemporary England breathed. + +'I have read in Mr. Clarke's Looking-glass for Sinners,' Mr. Wiseman +said, 'that upon a time a certain drunken fellow boasted in his cups +that there was neither heaven nor hell. Also he said he believed that +man had no soul, and that for his own part he would sell his soul to +any that would buy it. Then did one of his companions buy it of him +for a cup of wine, and presently the devil, in man's shape, bought it +of that man again at the same price; and so in the presence of them +all laid hold of the soul-seller, and carried him away through the air +so that he was no more heard of.' + +Again: + +'There was one at Salisbury drinking and carousing at a tavern, and he +drank a health to the devil, saying that if the devil would not come +and pledge him, he could not believe that there was either God or +devil. Whereupon his companions, stricken with fear, hastened out of +the room, and presently after, hearing a hideous noise and smelling a +stinking savour, the vintner ran into the chamber, and coming in he +missed his guest, and found the window broken, the iron bars in it +bowed and all bloody, but the man was never heard of afterwards.' + +These visitations were answers to a direct challenge of the evil +spirit's existence, and were thus easy to be accounted for. But no +devil came for Mr. Badman. He clung to his unfortunate neglected wife. +'She became his dear wife, his godly wife, his honest wife, his duck, +his dear and all.' He thought he was dying, and hell and all its +horrors rose up before him. 'Fear was in his face, and in his tossings +to and fro he would often say I am undone, I am undone, my vile life +hath undone me.' Atheism did not help him. It never helped anyone in +such extremities Mr. Wiseman said; as he had known in another +instance:-- + +'There was a man dwelt about twelve miles off from us,' he said, 'that +had so trained up himself in his Atheistical notions, that at last he +attempted to write a book against Jesus Christ and the Divine +authority of the Scriptures. I think it was not printed. Well, after +many days God struck him with sickness whereof he died. So being sick, +and musing of his former doings, the book that he had written tore his +conscience as a lion would tear a kid. Some of my friends went to see +him, and as they were in his chamber one day he hastily called for pen +and ink and paper, which, when it was given to him, he took it and +writ to this purpose. "I such an one in such a town must go to hell +fire for writing a book against Jesus Christ." He would have leaped +out of the window to have killed himself, but was by them prevented of +that, so he died in his bed by such a death as it was.' + +Badman seemed equally miserable. But deathbed repentances, as Bunyan +sensibly said, were seldom of more value than 'the howling of a dog.' +The broken leg was set again. The pain of body went, and with it the +pain of mind. He was assisted out of his uneasiness, says Bunyan, with +a characteristic hit at the scientific views then coming into fashion, +'by his doctor,' who told him that his alarms had come 'from an +affection of the brain, caused by want of sleep;' 'they were nothing +but vapours and the effects of his distemper.' He gathered his spirits +together, and became the old man once more. His poor wife, who had +believed him penitent, broke her heart, and died of the +disappointment. The husband gave himself up to loose connections with +abandoned women, one of whom persuaded him one day, when he was drunk, +to make her a promise of marriage, and she held him to his word. Then +retribution came upon him, with the coarse, commonplace, yet rigid +justice which fact really deals out. The second bad wife avenged the +wrongs of the first innocent wife. He was mated with a companion 'who +could fit him with cursing and swearing, give him oath for oath, and +curse for curse. They would fight and fly at each other like cat and +dog.' In this condition--for Bunyan, before sending his hero to his +account, gave him a protracted spell of earthly discomforts--they +lived sixteen years together. Fortune, who had so long favoured his +speculations, turned her back upon him. Between them they 'sinned all +his wealth away,' and at last parted 'as poor as howlets.' + +Then came the end. Badman was still in middle life, and had naturally +a powerful constitution; but his 'cups and his queans' had undermined +his strength. Dropsy came, and gout, with worse in his bowels, and 'on +the top of them all, as the captain of the men of death that came to +take him away,' consumption. Bunyan was a true artist, though he knew +nothing of the rules, and was not aware that he was an artist at all. +He was not to be tempted into spoiling a natural story with the +melodramatic horrors of a sinner's deathbed. He had let his victim +'howl' in the usual way, when he meant him to recover. He had now +simply to conduct him to the gate of the place where he was to receive +the reward of his iniquities. It was enough to bring him thither still +impenitent, with the grave solemnity with which a felon is taken to +execution. + +'As his life was full of sin,' says Mr. Wiseman, 'so his death was +without repentance. He had not, in all the time of his sickness, a +sight and a sense of his sins; but was as much at quiet as if he had +never sinned in his life: he was as secure as if he had been sinless +as an angel. When he drew near his end, there was no more alteration +in him than what was made by his disease upon his body. He was the +selfsame Mr. Badman still, not only in name, but in condition, and +that to the very day of his death and the moment in which he died. +There seemed not to be in it to the standers by so much as a strong +struggle of nature. He died like a lamb, or, as men call it, like a +chrisom child, quietly and without fear.' + +To which end of Mr. Badman Bunyan attaches the following remarks: 'If +a wicked man, if a man who has lived all his days in notorious sin, +dies quietly, his quiet dying is so far from being a sign of his being +saved that it is an incontestable proof of his damnation. No man can +be saved except he repents; nor can he repent that knows not that he +is a sinner: and he that knows himself to be a sinner will, I warrant +him, be molested for his knowledge before he can die quietly. I am no +admirer of sick-bed repentance; for I think verily it is seldom good +for anything. But I see that he that hath lived in sin and profaneness +all his days, as Badman did, and yet shall die quietly, that is, +without repentance steps in between his life and his death, is +assuredly gone to hell. When God would show the greatness of his anger +against sin and sinners in one word, He saith, Let them alone! Let +them, alone--that is, disturb them not. Let them go on without +control: Let the devil enjoy them peaceably. Let him carry them out of +the world unconverted quietly. This is the sorest of judgments. I do +not say that all wicked men that are molested at their death with a +sense of sin and fear of hell do therefore go to heaven; for some are +made to see and are left to despair. But I say there is no surer sign +of a man's damnation than to die quietly after a sinful life, than to +sin and die with a heart that cannot repent. The opinion, therefore, +of the common people of this kind of death is frivolous and vain.' + +So ends this very remarkable story. It is extremely interesting, +merely as a picture of vulgar English life in a provincial town such +as Bedford was when Bunyan lived there. The drawing is so good, the +details so minute, the conception so unexaggerated, that we are +disposed to believe that we must have a real history before us. But +such a supposition is only a compliment to the skill of the composer. +Bunyan's inventive faculty was a spring that never ran dry. He had a +manner, as I said, like De Foe's, of creating the illusion that we are +reading realities, by little touches such as 'I do not know,' 'He did +not tell me this,' or the needless introduction of particulars +irrelevant to the general plot such as we always stumble on in life, +and writers of fiction usually omit. Bunyan was never prosecuted for +libel by 'Badman's' relations, and the character is the corresponding +contrast to Christian in the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' the pilgrim's +journey being in the opposite direction to the other place. Throughout +we are on the solid earth, amidst real experiences. No demand is made +on our credulity by Providential interpositions, except in the +intercalated anecdotes which do not touch the story itself. The wicked +man's career is not brought to the abrupt or sensational issues so +much in favour with ordinary didactic tale-writers. Such issues are +the exception, not the rule, and the edifying story loses its effect +when the reader turns from it to actual life, and perceives that the +majority are not punished in any such way. Bunyan conceals nothing, +assumes nothing, and exaggerates nothing. He makes his bad man sharp +and shrewd. He allows sharpness and shrewdness to bring him the +rewards which such qualities in fact command. Badman is successful, he +is powerful; he enjoys all the pleasures which money can buy; his bad +wife helps him to ruin, but otherwise he is not unhappy, and he dies +in peace. Bunyan has made him a brute, because such men do become +brutes. It is the real punishment of brutal and selfish habits. There +the figure stands; a picture of a man in the rank of English life with +which Bunyan was most familiar, travelling along the primrose path to +the everlasting bonfire, as the way to Emmanuel's Land was through the +Slough of Despond and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Pleasures are +to be found among the primroses, such pleasures as a brute can be +gratified by. Yet the reader feels that even if there was no bonfire, +he would still prefer to be with Christian. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE HOLY WAR. + + +The supernatural has been successfully represented in poetry, +painting, or sculpture, only at particular periods of human history, +and under peculiar mental conditions. The artist must himself believe +in the supernatural, or his description of it will be a sham, without +dignity and without credibility. He must feel himself able at the same +time to treat the subject which he selects with freedom, throwing his +own mind boldly into it, or he will produce, at best, the hard and +stiff forms of literal tradition. When Benvenuto Cellini was preparing +to make an image of the Virgin, he declares gravely that Our Lady +appeared to him that he might know what she was like; and so real was +the apparition that for many months after, he says that his friends +when the room was dark could see a faint aureole about his head. Yet +Benvenuto worked as if his own brain was partly the author of what he +produced, and, like other contemporary artists, used his mistresses +for his models, and was no servile copyist of phantoms seen in +visions. There is a truth of the imagination, and there is a truth of +fact, religion hovering between them, translating one into the other, +turning natural phenomena into the activity of personal beings; or +giving earthly names and habitations to mere creatures of fancy. +Imagination creates a mythology. The priest takes it and fashions out +of it a theology, a ritual, or a sacred history. So long as the priest +can convince the world that he is dealing with literal facts, he holds +reason prisoner, and imagination is his servant. In the twilight when +dawn is coming near but has not yet come; when the uncertain nature of +the legend is felt, though not intelligently discerned; imagination is +the first to resume its liberty; it takes possession of its own +inheritance, it dreams of its gods and demigods, as Benvenuto dreamt +of the Virgin, and it re-shapes the priest's traditions in noble and +beautiful forms. Homer and the Greek dramatists would not have dared +to bring the gods upon the stage so freely, had they believed Zeus and +Apollo were living persons, like the man in the next street, who might +call the poet to account for what they were made to do and say; but +neither, on the other hand, could they have been actively conscious +that Zeus and Apollo were apparitions, which had no existence, except +in their own brains. + +The condition is extremely peculiar. It can exist only in certain +epochs, and in its nature is necessarily transitory. Where belief is +consciously gone the artist has no reverence for his work, and +therefore can inspire none. The greatest genius in the world could not +reproduce another Athene like that of Phidias. But neither must the +belief be too complete. The poet's tongue stammers when he would bring +beings before us who, though invisible, are awful personal existences, +in whose stupendous presence we one day expect to stand. As long as +the conviction survives that he is dealing with literal truths, he is +safe only while he follows with shoeless feet the letter of the +tradition. He dares not step beyond, lest he degrade the Infinite to +the human level, and if he is wise he prefers to content himself with +humbler subjects. A Christian artist can represent Jesus Christ as a +man because He was a man, and because the details of the Gospel +history leave room for the imagination to work. To represent Christ as +the Eternal Son in heaven, to bring before us the Persons of the +Trinity consulting, planning, and reasoning, to take us into their +everlasting Council Chamber, as Homer takes us into Olympus, will be +possible only when Christianity ceases to be regarded as a history of +true facts. Till then it is a trespass beyond the permitted limits, +and revolts us by the inadequacy of the result. Either the artist +fails altogether by attempting the impossible, or those whom he +addresses are themselves intellectually injured by an unreal treatment +of truths hitherto sacred. They confound the representation with its +object, and regard the whole of it as unreal together. + +These observations apply most immediately to Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' +and are meant to explain the unsatisfactoriness of it. Milton himself +was only partially emancipated from the bondage of the letter; half in +earth, half 'pawing to get free' like his own lion. The war in heaven, +the fall of the rebel angels, the horrid splendours of Pandemonium +seem legitimate subjects for Christian poetry. They stand for +something which we regard as real, yet we are not bound to any actual +opinions about them. Satan has no claim on reverential abstinence; and +Paradise and the Fall of Man are perhaps sufficiently mythic to permit +poets to take certain liberties with them. But even so far Milton has +not entirely succeeded. His wars of the angels are shadowy. They have +no substance like the battles of Greeks and Trojans, or Centaurs and +Lapithae; and Satan could not be made interesting without touches of a +nobler nature, that is, without ceasing to be the Satan of the +Christian religion. But this is not his worst. When we are carried up +into heaven and hear the persons of the Trinity conversing on the +mischiefs which have crept into the universe, and planning remedies +and schemes of salvation like Puritan divines, we turn away +incredulous and resentful. Theologians may form such theories for +themselves, if not wisely, yet without offence. They may study the +world in which they are placed, with the light which can be thrown +upon it by the book which they call the Word of God. They may form +their conclusions, invent their schemes of doctrine, and commend to +their flocks the interpretation of the mystery at which they have +arrived. The cycles and epicycles of the Ptolemaic astronomers were +imperfect hypotheses, but they were stages on which the mind could +rest for a more complete examination of the celestial phenomena. But +the poet does not offer us phrases and formulas; he presents to us +personalities living and active, influenced by emotions and reasoning +from premises; and when the unlimited and incomprehensible Being whose +attributes are infinite, of whom from the inadequacy of our ideas we +can only speak in negatives, is brought on the stage to talk like an +ordinary man, we feel that Milton has mistaken the necessary limits of +his art. + +When Faust claims affinity with the Erdgeist, the spirit tells him to +seek affinities with beings which he can comprehend. The commandment +which forbade the representation of God in a bodily form, forbids the +poet equally to make God describe his feelings and his purposes. Where +the poet would create a character he must himself comprehend it first +to its inmost fibre. He cannot comprehend his own Creator. Admire as +we may 'Paradise Lost;' try as we may to admire 'Paradise Regained;' +acknowledge as we must the splendour of the imagery and the stately +march of the verse; there comes upon us irresistibly a sense of the +unfitness of the subject for Milton's treatment of it. If the story +which he tells us is true, it is too momentous to be played with in +poetry. We prefer to hear it in plain prose, with a minimum of +ornament and the utmost possible precision of statement. Milton +himself had not arrived at thinking it to be a legend, a picture like +a Greek Mythology. His poem falls between two modes of treatment and +two conceptions of truth; we wonder, we recite, we applaud, but +something comes in between our minds and a full enjoyment, and it will +not satisfy us better as time goes on. + +The same objection applies to 'The Holy War' of Bunyan. It is as I +said, a people's version of the same series of subjects--the creation +of man, the fall of man, his redemption, his ingratitude, his lapse, +and again his restoration. The chief figures are the same, the action +is the same, though more varied and complicated, and the general +effect is unsatisfactory from the same cause. Prose is less ambitious +than poetry. There is an absence of attempts at grand effects. There +is no effort after sublimity, and there is consequently a lighter +sense of incongruity in the failure to reach it. On the other hand, +there is the greater fulness of detail so characteristic of Bunyan's +manner; and fulness of detail on a theme so far beyond our +understanding is as dangerous as vague grandiloquence. In 'The +Pilgrim's Progress' we are among genuine human beings. The reader +knows the road too well which Christian follows. He has struggled +with him in the Slough of Despond. He has shuddered with him in the +Valley of the Shadow of Death. He has groaned with him in the dungeons +of Doubting Castle. He has encountered on his journey the same +fellow-travellers. Who does not know Mr. Pliable, Mr. Obstinate, Mr. +Facing-both-ways, Mr. Feeble Mind, and all the rest? They are +representative realities, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. 'If +we prick them they bleed, if we tickle them they laugh,' or they make +us laugh. 'They are warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer' +as we are. The human actors in 'The Holy War' are parts of +men--special virtues, special vices: allegories in fact as well as in +name, which all Bunyan's genius can only occasionally substantiate +into persons. The plot of 'The Pilgrim's Progress' is simple. 'The +Holy War' is prolonged through endless vicissitudes, with a doubtful +issue after all, and the incomprehensibility of the Being who allows +Satan to defy him so long and so successfully is unpleasantly and +harshly brought home to us. True it is so in life. Evil remains after +all that has been done for us. But life is confessedly a mystery. 'The +Holy War' professes to interpret the mystery, and only restates the +problem in a more elaborate form. Man Friday on reading it would have +asked even more emphatically, 'Why God not kill the Devil?' and +Robinson Crusoe would have found no assistance in answering him. For +these reasons, I cannot agree with Macaulay in thinking that if there +had been no 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 'The Holy War' would have been the +first of religious allegories. We may admire the workmanship, but the +same undefined sense of unreality which pursues us through Milton's +epic would have interfered equally with the acceptance of this. The +question to us is if the facts are true. If true they require no +allegories to touch either our hearts or our intellects. + +'The Holy War' would have entitled Bunyan to a place among the masters +of English literature. It would never have made his name a household +word in every English-speaking family on the globe. + +The story which I shall try to tell in an abridged form is introduced +by a short prefatory poem. Works of fancy, Bunyan tells us, are of +many sorts, according to the author's humour. For himself he says to +his reader: + + I have something else to do + Than write vain stories thus to trouble you. + What here I say some men do know too well; + They can with tears and joy the story tell. + The town of Mansoul is well known to many, + Nor are her troubles doubted of by any + That are acquainted with those histories + That Mansoul and her wars anatomize. + + Then lend thine ears to what I do relate + Touching the town of Mansoul and her state, + How she was lost, took captive, made a slave, + And how against him set that should her save, + Yea, how by hostile ways she did oppose + Her Lord and with his enemy did close, + For they are true; he that will them deny + Must needs the best of records vilify. + + For my part, I myself was in the town + Both when 'twas set up and when pulling down. + I saw Diabolus in his possession, + And Mansoul also under his oppression: + Yea I was there when she him owned for Lord, + And to him did submit with one accord. + + When Mansoul trampled upon things divine, + And wallowed in filth as doth a swine, + When she betook herself unto his arms, + Fought her Emmanuel, despised his charms; + Then was I there and did rejoice to see + Diabolus and Mansoul so agree. + + Let no man count me then a fable maker, + Nor make my name or credit a partaker + Of their derision. What is here in view + Of mine own knowledge I dare say is true. + +At setting out we are introduced into the famous continent of +'Universe,' a large and spacious country lying between the two +poles--'the people of it not all of one complexion nor yet of one +language, mode or way of religion; but differing as much as the +planets themselves, some right, some wrong, even as it may happen to +be.' + +In this country of 'Universe' was a fair and delicate town and +corporation called 'Mansoul,' a town for its building so curious, for +its situation so commodious, for its privileges so advantageous, that +with reference to its original (state) there was not its equal under +heaven. The first founder was Shaddai, who built it for his own +delight. In the midst of the town was a famous and stately palace +which Shaddai intended for himself.[3] He had no intention of allowing +strangers to intrude there. And the peculiarity of the place was that +the walls of Mansoul[4] could never be broken down or hurt unless the +townsmen consented. Mansoul had five gates which in like manner could +only be forced if those within allowed it. These gates were Eargate, +Eyegate, Mouthgate, Nosegate, and Feelgate. Thus provided, Mansoul +was at first all that its founder could desire. It had the most +excellent laws in the world. There was not a rogue or a rascal inside +its whole precincts. The inhabitants were all true men. + +[Footnote 3: Bunyan says in a marginal note, that by this palace he +means the heart.] + +[Footnote 4: The body.] + +Now there was a certain giant named Diabolus--king of the blacks or +negroes, as Bunyan noticeably calls them--the negroes standing for +sinners or fallen angels. Diabolus had once been a servant of Shaddai, +one of the chief in his territories. Pride and ambition had led him to +aspire to the crown which was settled on Shaddai's Son. He had formed +a conspiracy and planned a revolution. Shaddai and his Son, 'being all +eye,' easily detected the plot. Diabolus and his crew were bound in +chains, banished, and thrown into a pit, there to 'abide for ever.' +This was their sentence; but out of the pit, in spite of it, they in +some way contrived to escape. They ranged about full of malice against +Shaddai, and looking for means to injure him. They came at last on +Mansoul. They determined to take it, and called a council to consider +how it could best be done. Diabolus was aware of the condition that no +one could enter without the inhabitants' consent. Alecto, Apollyon, +Beelzebub, Lucifer (Pagan and Christian demons intermixed +indifferently) gave their several opinions. Diabolus at length at +Lucifer's suggestion decided to assume the shape of one of the +creatures over which Mansoul had dominion; and he selected as the +fittest that of a snake, which at that time was in great favour with +the people as both harmless and wise. + +The population of Mansoul were simple, innocent folks who believed +everything that was said to them. Force, however, might be necessary +as well as cunning, and the Tisiphone, a fury of the Lakes, was +required to assist. The attempt was to be made at Eargate. A certain +Captain Resistance was in charge of this gate, whom Diabolus feared +more than any one in the place. Tisiphone was to shoot him. + +The plans being all laid, Diabolus in his snake's dress approached the +wall, accompanied by one 'Ill Pause,' a famous orator, the Fury +following behind. He asked for a parley with the heads of the town. +Captain Resistance, two of the great nobles, Lord 'Innocent,' and Lord +'Will be Will,' with Mr. Conscience, the Recorder, and Lord +Understanding, the Lord Mayor, came to the gate to see what he wanted. +Lord 'Will be Will' plays a prominent part in the drama both for good +and evil. He is neither Free Will, nor Wilfulness, nor Inclination, +but the quality which metaphysicians and theologians agree in +describing as 'the Will.' 'The Will' simply--a subtle something of +great importance; but what it is they have never been able to explain. + +Lord Will be Will inquired Diabolus's business. Diabolus, 'meek as a +lamb,' said he was a neighbour of theirs. He had observed with +distress that they were living in a state of slavery, and he wished to +help them to be free. Shaddai was no doubt a great prince, but he was +an arbitrary despot. There was no liberty where the laws were +unreasonable, and Shaddai's laws were the reverse of reasonable. They +had a fruit growing among them, in Mansoul, which they had but to eat +to become wise. Knowledge was well known to be the best of +possessions. Knowledge was freedom; ignorance was bondage; and yet +Shaddai had forbidden them to touch this precious fruit. + +At that moment Captain Resistance fell dead, pierced by an arrow from +Tisiphone. Ill Pause made a flowing speech, in the midst of which +Lord Innocent fell also, either through a blow from Diabolus, or +'overpowered by the stinking breath of the old villain Ill Pause.' The +people flew upon the apple tree; Eargate and Eyegate were thrown open, +and Diabolus was invited to come in; when at once he became King of +Mansoul and established himself in the castle.[5] + +[Footnote 5: The heart.] + +The magistrates were immediately changed. Lord Understanding ceased to +be Lord Mayor. Mr. Conscience was no longer left as Recorder. Diabolus +built up a wall in front of Lord Understanding's palace, and shut off +the light, 'so that till Mansoul was delivered the old Lord Mayor was +rather an impediment than, an advantage to that famous town.' Diabolus +tried long to bring 'Conscience' over to his side, but never quite +succeeded. The Recorder became greatly corrupted, but he could not be +prevented from now and then remembering Shaddai; and when the fit was +on him he would shake the town with his exclamations. Diabolus +therefore had to try other methods with him. 'He had a way to make the +old gentleman when he was merry unsay and deny what in his fits he had +affirmed, and this was the next way to make him ridiculous and to +cause that no man should regard him.' To make all secure Diabolus +often said, 'Oh, Mansoul, consider that, notwithstanding the old +gentleman's rage and the rattle of his high thundering words, you hear +nothing of Shaddai himself.' The Recorder had pretended that the voice +of the Lord was speaking in him. Had this been so, Diabolus argued +that the Lord would have done more than speak. 'Shaddai,' he said, +'valued not the loss nor the rebellion of Mansoul, nor would he +trouble himself with calling his town to a reckoning.' + +In this way the Recorder came to be generally hated, and more than +once the people would have destroyed him. Happily his house was a +castle near the waterworks. When the rabble pursued him, he would pull +up the sluices,[6] let in the flood, and drown all about him. + +[Footnote 6: Fears.] + +Lord Will be Will, on the other hand, 'as high born as any in +Mansoul,' became Diabolus's principal minister. He had been the first +to propose admitting Diabolus, and he was made Captain of the Castle, +Governor of the Wall, and Keeper of the Gates. Will be Will had a +clerk named Mr. Mind, a man every way like his master, and Mansoul was +thus brought 'under the lusts' of Will and Intellect. Mr. Mind had in +his house some old rent and torn parchments of the law of Shaddai. The +Recorder had some more in his study; but to these Will be Will paid no +attention, and surrounded himself with officials who were all in +Diabolus's interest. He had as deputy one Mr. Affection, 'much +debauched in his principles, so that he was called Vile Affection.' +Vile Affection married Mr. Mind's daughter, Carnal Lust, by whom he +had three sons--Impudent, Black Mouth, and Hate Reproof; and three +daughters--Scorn Truth, Slight Good, and Revenge. All traces of +Shaddai were now swept away. His image, which had stood in the +market-place, was taken down, and an artist called Mr. No Truth was +employed to set up the image of Diabolus in place of it. Lord +Lustings--'who never savoured good, but evil'--was chosen for the new +Lord Mayor. Mr. Forget Good was appointed Recorder. There were new +burgesses and aldermen, all with appropriate names, for which Bunyan +was never at a loss--Mr. Incredulity, Mr. Haughty, Mr. Swearing, Mr. +Hardheart, Mr. Pitiless, Mr. Fury, Mr. No Truth, Mr. Stand to Lies, +Mr. Falsepeace, Mr. Drunkenness, Mr. Cheating, Mr. Atheism, and +another; thirteen of them in all. Mr. Incredulity was the eldest, Mr. +Atheism the youngest in the company--a shrewd and correct arrangement. +Diabolus, on his part, set to work to fortify Mansoul. He built three +fortresses--'The Hold of Defiance' at Eyegate, that the light might be +darkened there;' 'Midnight Hold' near the old Castle, to keep Mansoul +from knowledge of itself; and 'Sweet Sin Hold' in the market-place, +that there might be no desire of good there. These strongholds being +established and garrisoned, Diabolus thought that he had made his +conquest secure. + +So far the story runs on firmly and clearly. It is vivid, consistent +in itself, and held well within the limits of human nature and +experience. But, like Milton, Bunyan is now, by the exigencies of the +situation, forced upon more perilous ground. He carries us into the +presence of Shaddai himself, at the time when the loss of Mansoul was +reported in heaven. + +The king, his son, his high lords, his chief captains and nobles were +all assembled to hear. There was universal grief, in which the king +and his son shared or rather seemed to share--for at once the drama of +the Fall of mankind becomes no better than a Mystery Play. 'Shaddai +and his son had foreseen it all long before, and had provided for the +relief of Mansoul, though they told not everybody thereof--but because +they would have a share in condoling of the misery of Mansoul they +did, and that at the rate of the highest degree, bewail the losing of +Mansoul'--'thus to show their love and compassion.' + +'Paradise Lost' was published at the time that Bunyan wrote this +passage. If he had not seen it, the coincidences of treatment are +singularly curious. It is equally singular, if he had seen it, that +Milton should not here at least have taught him to avoid making the +Almighty into a stage actor. The Father and Son consult how 'to do +what they had designed before.' They decide that at a certain time, +which they preordain, the Son,'a sweet and comely person,' shall make +a journey into the Universe and lay a foundation there for Mansoul's +deliverance. Milton offends in the scene less than Bunyan; but Milton +cannot persuade us that it is one which should have been represented +by either of them. They should have left 'plans of salvation' to +eloquent orators in the pulpit. + +Though the day of deliverance by the method proposed was as yet far +off, the war against Diabolus was to be commenced immediately. The +Lord Chief Secretary was ordered to put in writing Shaddai's +intentions, and cause them to be published.[7] Mansoul, it was +announced, was to be put into a better condition than it was in before +Diabolus took it. + +[Footnote 7: The Scriptures.] + +The report of the Council in Heaven was brought to Diabolus, who took +his measures accordingly, Lord Will be Will standing by him and +executing all his directions Mansoul was forbidden to read Shaddai's +proclamation. Diabolus imposed a great oath on the townspeople never +to desert him; he believed that if they entered into a covenant of +this kind Shaddai could not absolve them from it. They 'swallowed the +engagement as if it had been a sprat in the mouth of a whale.' Being +now Diabolus's trusty children, he gave them leave 'to do whatever +their appetites prompted to do.' They would thus involve themselves in +all kinds of wickedness, and Shaddai's son 'being Holy' would be less +likely to interest himself for them. When they had in this way put +themselves, as Diabolus hoped, beyond reach of mercy, he informed +them that Shaddai was raising an army to destroy the town. No quarter +would be given, and unless they defended themselves like men they +would all be made slaves. Their spirit being roused, he armed them +with the shield of unbelief, 'calling into question the truth of the +Word.' He gave them a helmet of hope--'hope of doing well at last, +whatever lives they might lead'; for a breastplate a heart as hard as +iron, 'most necessary for all that hated Shaddai;' and another piece +of most excellent armour, 'a drunken and prayerless spirit that +scorned to cry for mercy.' Shaddai on his side had also prepared his +forces. He will not as yet send his son. The first expedition was to +fail and was meant to fail. The object was to try whether Mansoul +would return to obedience. And yet Shaddai knew that it would not +return to obedience. Bunyan was too ambitious to explain the +inexplicable. Fifty thousand warriors were collected, all chosen by +Shaddai himself. There were four leaders--Captain Boanerges, Captain +Conviction, Captain Judgment, and Captain Execution--the martial +saints, with whom Macaulay thinks Bunyan made acquaintance when he +served, if serve he did, with Fairfax. The bearings on their banners +were three black thunderbolts--the Book of the Law, wide open, with a +flame of fire bursting from it; a burning, fiery furnace; and a +fruitless tree with an axe at its root. These emblems represent the +terrors of Mount Sinai, the covenant of works which was not to +prevail. + +The captains come to the walls of Mansoul, and summon the town to +surrender. Their words 'beat against Eargate, but without force to +break it open.' The new officials answer the challenge with defiance. +Lord Incredulity knows not by what right Shaddai invades their +country. Lord Will be Will and Mr. Forget Good warn them to be off +before they rouse Diabolus. The townspeople ring the bells and dance +on the walls. Will be Will double-bars the gates. Bunyan's genius is +at its best in scenes of this kind. 'Old Mr. Prejudice, with sixty +deaf men,' is appointed to take charge of Eargate. At Eargate, too, +are planted two guns, called Highmind, and Heady, 'cast in the earth +by Diabolus's head founder, whose name was Mr. Puffup.' + +The fighting begins, but the covenant of works makes little progress. +Shaddai's captains, when advancing on Mansoul, had fallen in with +'three young fellows of promising appearance' who volunteered to go +with them--Mr. Tradition, Mr. Human Wisdom, and Mr. Man's Invention.' +They were allowed to join, and were placed in positions of trust, the +captains of the covenant being apparently wanting in discernment. They +were taken prisoners in the first skirmish, and immediately changed +sides and went over to Diabolus. More battles follow. The roof of the +Lord Mayor's house is beaten in. The law is not wholly ineffectual. +Six of the Aldermen, the grosser moral sins--Swearing, Stand to Lies, +Drunkenness, Cheating, and others--are overcome and killed. Diabolus +grows uneasy and loses his sleep. Old Conscience begins to talk again. +A party forms in the town in favour of surrender, and Mr. Parley is +sent to Eargate to treat for terms. The spiritual sins--False Peace, +Unbelief, Haughtiness, Atheism--are still unsubdued and vigorous. The +conditions offered are that Incredulity, Forget Good, and Will be Will +shall retain their offices; Mansoul shall be continued in all the +liberties which it enjoys under Diabolus; and a further touch is added +which shows how little Bunyan sympathised with modern notions of the +beauty of self-government. No new law or officer shall have any power +in Mansoul without the people's consent. + +Boanerges will agree to no conditions with rebels. Incredulity and +Will be Will advise the people to stand by their rights, and refuse to +submit to 'unlimited' power. The war goes on, and Incredulity is made +Diabolus's universal deputy. Conscience and Understanding, the old +Recorder and Mayor, raise a mutiny, and there is a fight in the +streets. Conscience is knocked down by a Diabolonian called 'Mr. +Benumming.' Understanding had a narrow escape from being shot. On the +other hand Mr. Mind, who had come over to the Conservative side, laid +about bravely, tumbled old Mr. Prejudice into the dirt, and kicked him +where he lay. Even Will be Will seemed to be wavering in his +allegiance to Diabolus. 'He smiled and did not seem to take one side +more than another.' The rising, however, is put down--Understanding +and Conscience are imprisoned, and Mansoul hardens its heart, chiefly +'being in dread of slavery,' and thinking liberty too fine a thing to +be surrendered. + +Shaddai's four captains find that they can do no more. The covenant of +works will not answer. They send home a petition,'by the hand of that good +man Mr. Love to Mansoul,' to beg that some new general may come to lead +them. The preordained time has now arrived, and Emmanuel himself is to take +the command. He, too, selects his captains--Credence and Good Hope, +Charity, and Innocence, and Patience; and the captains have their squires, +the counterparts of themselves--Promise and Expectation, Pitiful, Harmless, +and Suffer Long. Emmanuel's armour shines like the sun. He has forty-four +battering rams and twenty-two slings--the sixty-six books of the +Bible--each made of pure gold. He throws up mounds and trenches, and arms +them with his rams, five of the largest being planted on Mount Hearken, +over against Eargate. Bunyan was too reverent to imitate the Mystery Plays, +and introduce a Mount Calvary with the central sacrifice upon it. The +sacrifice is supposed to have been already offered elsewhere. Emmanuel +offers mercy to Mansoul, and when it is rejected he threatens judgment and +terror. Diabolus, being wiser than man, is made to know that his hour is +approaching. He goes in person to Mouthgate to protest and remonstrate. He +asks why Emmanuel is come to torment him. Mansoul has disowned Shaddai and +sworn allegiance to himself. He begs Emmanuel to leave him to rule his own +subjects in peace. + +Emmanuel tells him 'he is a thief and a liar.' 'When,' Emmanuel is +made to say, 'Mansoul sinned by hearkening to thy lie, I put in and +became a surety to my Father, body for body, soul for soul, that I +would make amends for Mansoul's transgressions, and my Father did +accept thereof. So when the time appointed was come, I gave body for +body, soul for soul, life for life, blood for blood, and so redeemed +my beloved Mansoul. My Father's law and justice, that were both +concerned in the threatening upon transgression, are both now +satisfied, and very well content that Mansoul should be delivered.' + +Even against its deliverers, Mansoul was defended by the original +condition of its constitution. There was no way into it but through +the gates. Diabolus, feeling that Emmanuel still had difficulties +before him, withdrew from the wall, and sent a messenger, Mr. Loth to +Stoop, to offer alternative terms, to one or other of which he +thought Emmanuel might consent. Emmanuel might be titular sovereign +of all Mansoul, if Diabolus might keep the administration of part of +it. If this could not be, Diabolus requested to be allowed to reside +in Mansoul as a private person. If Emmanuel insisted on his own +personal exclusion, at least he expected that his friends and kindred +might continue to live there, and that he himself might now and then +write them letters, and send them presents and messages, 'in +remembrance of the merry times they had enjoyed together.' Finally, he +would like to be consulted occasionally when any difficulties arose in +Mansoul. + +It will be seen that in the end Mansoul was, in fact, left liable to +communications from Diabolus very much of this kind. Emmanuel's +answer, however, is a peremptory No. Diabolus must take himself away, +and no more must be heard of him. Seeing that there was no other +resource, Diabolus resolves to fight it out. There is a great battle +under the walls, with some losses on Emmanuel's side, even Captain +Conviction receiving three wounds in the mouth. The shots from the +gold slings mow down whole ranks of Diabolonians. Mr. Love no Good and +Mr. Ill Pause are wounded. Old Prejudice and Mr. Anything run away. +Lord Will be Will, who still fought for Diabolus, was never so daunted +in his life: 'he was hurt in the leg, and limped.' + +Diabolus, when the fight was over, came again to the gate with fresh +proposals to Emmanuel. 'I,' he said, 'will persuade Mansoul to receive +thee for their Lord, and I know that they will do it the sooner when +they understand that I am thy deputy. I will show them wherein they +have erred, and that transgression stands in the way to life. I will +show them the Holy law to which they must conform, even that which +they have broken. I will press upon them the necessity of a +reformation according to thy law. At my own cost I will set up and +maintain a sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul.' This +obviously means the Established Church. Unable to keep mankind +directly in his own service, the Devil offers to entangle them in the +covenant of works, of which the Church of England was the +representative. Emmanuel rebukes him for his guile and deceit. 'I will +govern Mansoul,' he says, 'by new laws, new officers, new motives, and +new ways. I will pull down the town and build it again, and it shall +be as though it had not been, and it shall be the glory of the whole +universe.' + +A second battle follows. Eargate is beaten in. The Prince's army +enters and advances as far as the old Recorder's house, where they +knock and demand entrance. 'The old gentleman, not fully knowing their +design, had kept his gates shut all the time of the fight. He as yet +knew nothing of the great designs of Emmanuel, and could not tell what +to think.' The door is violently broken open, and the house is made +Emmanuel's head-quarters. The townspeople, with Conscience and +Understanding at their head, petition that their lives may be spared; +but Emmanuel gives no answer, Captain Boanerges and Captain Conviction +carrying terror into all hearts. Diabolus, the cause of all the +mischief, had retreated into the castle.[8] He came out at last, and +surrendered, and in dramatic fitness he clearly ought now to have been +made away with in a complete manner. Unfortunately, this could not be +done. He was stripped of his armour, bound to Emmanuel's chariot +wheels, and thus turned out of Mansoul 'into parched places in a salt +land, where he might seek rest and find none.' The salt land proved +as insecure a prison, for this embarrassing being as the pit where he +was to have abode for ever. + +[Footnote 8: The heart.] + +Meanwhile, Mansoul being brought upon its knees, the inhabitants were +summoned into the castle yard, when Conscience, Understanding, and +Will be Will were committed to ward. They and the rest again prayed +for mercy, but again without effect. Emmanuel was silent. They drew +another petition, and asked Captain Conviction to present it for them. +Captain Conviction declined to be an advocate for rebels, and advised +them to send it by one of themselves, with a rope about his neck. Mr. +Desires Awake went with it. The Prince took it from his hands, and +wept as Desires Awake gave it in. Emmanuel bade him go his way till +the request could be considered. The unhappy criminals knew not how to +take the answer. Mr. Understanding thought it promised well. +Conscience and Will be Will, borne down by shame for their sins, +looked for nothing but immediate death. They tried again. They threw +themselves on Emmanuel's mercy. They drew up a confession of their +horrible iniquities. This, at least, they wished to offer to him +whether he would pity them or not. For a messenger some of them +thought of choosing one Old Good Deed. Conscience, however, said that +would never do. Emmanuel would answer, 'Is Old Good Deed yet alive in +Mansoul? Then let Old Good Deed save it.' Desires Awake went again +with the rope on his neck, as Captain Conviction recommended. Mr. Wet +Eyes went with him, wringing his hands. + +Emmanuel still held out no comfort; he promised merely that in the +camp the next morning he would give such an answer as should be to his +glory. Nothing but the worst was now looked for. Mansoul passed the +night in sackcloth and ashes. When day broke, the prisoners dressed +themselves in mourning, and were carried to the camp in chains, with +ropes on their necks, beating their breasts. Prostrate before +Emmanuel's throne, they repeated their confession. They acknowledged +that death and the bottomless pit would be no more than a just +retribution for their crimes. As they excused nothing and promised +nothing, Emmanuel at once delivered them their pardons sealed with +seven seals. He took off their ropes and mourning, clothed them in +shining garments, and gave them chains and jewels. + +Lord Will be Will 'swooned outright.' When he recovered, 'the Prince' +embraced and kissed him. The bells in Mansoul were set ringing. +Bonfires blazed. Emmanuel reviewed his army; and Mansoul, ravished at +the sight, prayed him to remain and be their King for ever. He entered +the city again in triumph, the people strewing boughs and flowers +before him. The streets and squares were rebuilt on a new model. Lord +Will be Will, now regenerate, resumed the charge of the gates. The old +Lord Mayor was reinstated. Mr. Knowledge was made Recorder, 'not out +of contempt for old Conscience, who was by-and-bye to have another +employment.' Diabolus's image was taken down and broken to pieces, and +the inhabitants of Mansoul were so happy that they sang of Emmanuel in +their sleep. + +Justice, however, remained to be done on the hardened and impenitent. + +There were 'perhaps necessities in the nature of things,' as Bishop +Butler says, and an example could not be made of the principal +offender. But his servants and old officials were lurking in the lanes +and alleys. They were apprehended, thrown into gaol, and brought to +formal trial. Here we have Bunyan at his best. The scene in the court +rises to the level of the famous trial of Faithful in Vanity Fair. The +prisoners were Diabolus's Aldermen, Mr. Atheism, Mr. Incredulity, Mr. +Lustings, Mr. Forget Good, Mr. Hardheart, Mr. Falsepeace, and the +rest. The proceedings were precisely what Bunyan must have witnessed +at a common English Assizes. The Judges were the new Recorder and the +new Mayor. Mr. Do-right was Town Clerk. A jury was empanelled in the +usual way. Mr. Knowall, Mr. Telltrue, and Mr. Hatelies were the +principal witnesses. + +Atheism was first brought to the bar, being charged 'with having +pertinaciously and doltingly taught that there was no God.' He pleaded +Not Guilty. Mr. Knowall was placed in the witness-box and sworn. + +'My Lord,' he said, 'I know the prisoner at the bar. I and he were +once in Villains Lane together, and he at that time did briskly talk +of diverse opinions. And then and there I heard him say that for his +part he did believe that there was no God. "But," said he, "I can +profess one and be religious too, if the company I am in and the +circumstances of other things," said he, "shall put me upon it.'" + +Telltrue and Hatelies were next called. + + _Telltrue._ My Lord, I was formerly a great companion of the + prisoner's, for the which I now repent me; and I have often + heard him say, and with very great stomach-fulness, that he + believed there was neither God, Angel, nor Spirit. + + _Town Clerk._ Where did you hear him say so? + + _Telltrue._ In Blackmouth Lane and in Blasphemers Row, and + in many other places besides. + + _Town Clerk._ Have you much knowledge of him? + + _Telltrue._ I know him to be a Diabolonian, the son of a + Diabolonian, and a horrible man to deny a Deity. His + father's name was Never be Good, and he had more children + than this Atheism. + + _Town Clerk._ Mr. Hatelies. Look upon the prisoner at the + bar. Do you know him? + + _Hatelies._ My Lord, this Atheism is one of the vilest + wretches that ever I came near or had to do with in my life. + I have heard him say that there is no God. I have heard him + say that there is no world to come, no sin, nor punishment + hereafter; and, moreover, I have heard him say that it was + as good to go to a bad-house as to go to hear a sermon. + + _Town Clerk._ Where did you hear him say these things? + + _Hatelies._ In Drunkards Row, just at Rascal Lane's End, at + a house in which Mr. Impiety lived. + +The next prisoner was Mr. Lustings, who said that he was of high birth +and 'used to pleasures and pastimes of greatness.' He had always been +allowed to follow his own inclinations, and it seemed strange to him +that he should be called in question for things which not only he but +every man secretly or openly approved. + +When the evidence had been heard against him he admitted frankly its +general correctness. + +'I,' he said, 'was ever of opinion that the happiest life that a man +could live on earth was to keep himself back from nothing that he +desired; nor have I been false at any time to this opinion of mine, +but have lived in the love of my notions all my days. Nor was I ever +so churlish, having found such sweetness in them myself, as to keep +the commendation of them from others.' + +Then came Mr. Incredulity. He was charged with having encouraged the +town of Mansoul to resist Shaddai. Incredulity too had the courage of +his opinions. + +'I know not Shaddai,' he said. 'I love my old Prince. I thought it my +duty to be true to my trust, and to do what I could to possess the +minds of the men of Mansoul to do their utmost to resist strangers and +foreigners, and with might to fight against them. Nor have I nor +shall I change my opinion for fear of trouble, though you at present +are possessed of place and power.' + +Forget Good pleaded age and craziness. He was the son of a Diabolonian +called Love Naught. He had uttered blasphemous speeches in Allbase +Lane, next door to the sign of 'Conscience Seared with a Hot Iron;' +also in Flesh Lane, right opposite the Church; also in Nauseous +Street; also at the sign of the 'Reprobate,' next door to the 'Descent +into the Pit.' + +Falsepeace insisted that he was wrongly named in the indictment. His +real name was Peace, and he had always laboured for peace. When war +broke out between Shaddai and Diabolus, he had endeavoured to +reconcile them, &c. Evidence was given that Falsepeace was his right +designation. His father's name was Flatter. His mother, before she +married Flatter, was called Mrs. Sootheup. When her child was born she +always spoke of him as Falsepeace. She would call him twenty times a +day, my little Falsepeace, my pretty Falsepeace, my sweet rogue +Falsepeace! &c. + +The court rejected his plea. He was told 'that he had wickedly +maintained the town of Mansoul in rebellion against its king, in a +false, lying, and damnable peace, contrary to the law of Shaddai. +Peace that was not a companion of truth and holiness, was an accursed +and treacherous peace, and was grounded on a lie.' + +No Truth had assisted with his own hands in pulling down the image of +Shaddai. He had set up the horned image of the beast Diabolus at the +same place, and had torn and consumed all that remained of the laws of +the king. + +Pitiless said his name was not Pitiless, but Cheer Up. He disliked to +see Mansoul inclined to melancholy, and that was all his offence. +Pitiless, however, was proved to be the name of him. It was a habit of +the Diabolonians to assume counterfeit appellations. Covetousness +called himself Good Husbandry; Pride called himself Handsome; and so +on. + +Mr. Haughty's figure is admirably drawn in a few lines. Mr. Haughty, +when arraigned, declared 'that he had carried himself bravely, not +considering who was his foe, or what was the cause in which he was +engaged. It was enough for him if he fought like a man and came off +victorious.' + +The jury, it seems, made no distinctions between opinions and acts. +They did not hold that there was any divine right in man to think what +he pleased, and to say what he thought. Bunyan had suffered as a +martyr; but it was as a martyr for truth, not for general licence. The +genuine Protestants never denied that it was right to prohibit men +from teaching lies, and to punish them if they disobeyed. The +persecution of which they complained was the persecution of the honest +man by the knave. + +All the prisoners were found guilty by a unanimous verdict. Even Mr. +Moderate, who was one of the jury, thought a man must be wilfully +blind who wished to spare them. They were sentenced to be executed the +next day. Incredulity contrived to escape in the night. Search was +made for him, but he was not to be found in Mansoul. He had fled +beyond the walls, and had joined Diabolus near Hell Gate. The rest, we +are told, were crucified--crucified by the hands of the men of Mansoul +themselves. They fought and struggled at the place of execution so +violently that Shaddai's secretary was obliged to send assistance. +But justice was done at last, and all the Diabolonians, except +Incredulity, were thus made an end of. + +They were made an end of for a time only. Mansoul, by faith in Christ, +and by the help of the Holy Spirit, had crucified all manner of sin in +its members. It was faith that had now the victory. Unbelief had, +unfortunately, escaped. It had left Mansoul for the time, and had gone +to its master the Devil. But unbelief, being intellectual, had not +been crucified with the sins of the flesh, and thus could come back, +and undo the work which faith had accomplished. I do not know how far +this view approves itself to the more curious theologians. Unbelief +itself is said to be a product of the will; but an allegory must not +be cross-questioned too minutely. + +The cornucopia of spiritual blessings was now opened on Mansoul. All +offences were fully and completely forgiven. A Holy Law and Testament +was bestowed on the people for their comfort and consolation, with a +portion of the grace which dwelt in the hearts of Shaddai and Emmanuel +themselves. They were to be allowed free access to Emmanuel's palace +at all seasons, he himself undertaking to hear them and redress their +grievances, and they were empowered and enjoined to destroy all +Diabolonians who might be found at any time within their precincts. + +These grants were embodied in a charter which was set up in gold +letters on the castle door. Two ministers were appointed to carry on +the government--one from Shaddai's court; the other a native of +Mansoul. The first was Shaddai's chief secretary, the Holy Spirit. He, +if they were obedient and well-conducted, would be 'ten times better +to them than the whole world.' But they were cautioned to be careful +of their behaviour, for if they grieved him he would turn against +them, and the worst might then be looked for. The second minister was +the old Recorder, Mr. Conscience, for whom, as was said, a new office +had been provided. The address of Emmanuel to Conscience in handing +his commission to him contains the essence of Bunyan's creed. + +'Thou must confine thyself to the teaching of moral virtues, to civil +and natural duties. But thou must not attempt to presume to be a +revealer of those high and supernatural mysteries that are kept close +in the bosom of Shaddai, my father. For those things knows no man; nor +can any reveal them but my father's secretary only.... In all high and +supernatural things, thou must go to him for information and +knowledge. Wherefore keep low and be humble; and remember that the +Diabolonians that kept not their first charge, but left their own +standing, are now made prisoners in the pit. Be therefore content with +thy station. I have made thee my father's vicegerent on earth in the +things of which I have made mention before. Take thou power to teach +them to Mansoul; yea, to impose them with whips and chastisements if +they shall not willingly hearken to do thy commandments.... And one +thing more to my beloved Mr. Recorder, and to all the town of Mansoul. +You must not dwell in nor stay upon anything of that which he hath in +commission to teach you, as to your trust and expectation of the next +world. Of the next world, I say; for I purpose to give another to +Mansoul when this is worn out. But for that you must wholly and solely +have recourse to and make stay upon the doctrine of your teacher of +the first order. Yea, Mr. Recorder himself must not look for life from +that which he himself revealeth. His dependence for that must be +founded in the doctrine of the other preacher. Let Mr. Recorder also +take heed that he receive not any doctrine or points of doctrine that +are not communicated to him by his superior teacher, nor yet within +the precincts of his own formal knowledge.' + +Here, as a work of art, the 'Holy War' should have its natural end. +Mansoul had been created pure and happy. The Devil plotted against it, +took it, defiled it. The Lord of the town came to the rescue, drove +the Devil out, executed his officers and destroyed his works. Mansoul, +according to Emmanuel's promise, was put into a better condition than +that in which it was originally placed. New laws was drawn for it. New +ministers were appointed to execute them. Vice had been destroyed. +Unbelief had been driven away. The future lay serene and bright before +it; all trials and dangers being safely passed. Thus we have all the +parts of a complete drama--the fair beginning, the perils, the +struggles, and the final victory of good. At this point, for purposes +of art, the curtain ought to fall. + +For purposes of art--not, however, for purposes of truth. For the +drama of Mansoul was still incomplete, and will remain incomplete till +man puts on another nature or ceases altogether to be. Christianity +might place him in a new relation to his Maker, and, according to +Bunyan, might expel the Devil out of his heart. But for practical +purposes, as Mansoul too well knows, the Devil is still in possession. +At intervals--as in the first centuries of the Christian era, for a +period in the middle ages, and again in Protestant countries for +another period at the Reformation--mankind made noble efforts to drive +him out, and make the law of God into reality. But he comes back +again, and the world is again as it was. The vices again flourish +which had been nailed to the Cross. The statesman finds it as little +possible as ever to take moral right and justice for his rule in +politics. The Evangelical preacher continues to confess and deplore +the desperate wickedness of the human heart. The Devil had been +deposed, but his faithful subjects have restored him to his throne. +The stone of Sisyphus has been brought to the brow of the hill only to +rebound again to the bottom. The old battle has to be fought a second +time, and, for all we can see, no closing victory will ever be in +'this country of Universe.' Bunyan knew this but too well. He tries to +conceal it from himself by treating Mansoul alternately as the soul of +a single individual from which the Devil may be so expelled as never +dangerously to come back, or as the collective souls of the Christian +world. But, let him mean which of the two he will, the overpowering +fact remains that, from the point of view of his own theology, the +great majority of mankind are the Devil's servants through life, and +are made over to him everlastingly when their lives are over; while +the human race itself continues to follow its idle amusements and its +sinful pleasures as if no Emmanuel had ever come from heaven to rescue +it. Thus the situation is incomplete, and the artistic treatment +necessarily unsatisfactory--nay in a sense even worse than +unsatisfactory, for the attention of the reader, being reawakened by +the fresh and lively treatment of the subject, refuses to be satisfied +with conventional explanatory commonplaces. His mind is puzzled; his +faith wavers in its dependence upon a Being who can permit His work to +be spoilt, His power defied, His victories even, when won, made +useless. + +Thus we take up the continuation of the 'Holy War' with a certain +weariness and expectation of disappointment. The delivery of Mansoul +has not been finished after all, and, for all that we can see, the +struggle between Shaddai and Diabolus may go on to eternity. Emmanuel, +before he withdraws his presence, warns the inhabitants that many +Diabolonians are still lurking about the outside walls of the town.[9] +The names are those in St. Paul's list--Fornication, Adultery, Murder, +Anger, Lasciviousness, Deceit, Evil Eye, Drunkenness, Revelling, +Idolatry, Witchcraft, Variance, Emulation, Wrath, Strife, Sedition, +Heresy. If all these were still abroad, not much had been gained by +the crucifixion of the Aldermen. For the time, it was true, they did +not show themselves openly. Mansoul after the conquest was clothed in +white linen, and was in a state of peace and glory. But the linen was +speedily soiled again. Mr. Carnal Security became a great person in +Mansoul. The Chief Secretary's functions fell early into abeyance. He +discovered the Recorder and Lord Will be Will at dinner in Mr. Carnal +Security's parlour, and ceased to communicate with them. Mr. Godly +Fear sounded an alarm, and Mr. Carnal Security's house was burnt by +the mob; but Mansoul's backslidings grew worse. It had its fits of +repentance, and petitioned Emmanuel, but the messenger could have no +admittance. The Lusts of the Flesh came out of their dens. They held a +meeting in the room of Mr. Mischief, and wrote to invite Diabolus to +return. Mr. Profane carried their letter to Hell Gate. Cerberus opened +it, and a cry of joy ran through the prison. Beelzebub, Lucifer, +Apollyon, and the rest of the devils came crowding to hear the news. +Deadman's bell was rung. Diabolus addressed the assembly, putting them +in hopes of recovering their prize. 'Nor need you fear, he said, that +if ever we get Mansoul again, we after that shall be cast out any +more. It is the law of that Prince that now they own, that if we get +them a second time they shall be ours for ever.' He returned a warm +answer to his friend, 'which was subscribed as given at the Pit's +mouth, by the joint consent of all the Princes of Darkness, by me, +Diabolus.' The plan was to corrupt Mansoul's morals, and three devils +of rank set off disguised to take service in the town, and make their +way into the households of Mr. Mind, Mr. Godly Fear, and Lord Will be +Will. Godly Fear discovered his mistake and turned the devil out. The +other two established themselves successfully, and Mr. Profane was +soon at Hell Gate again to report progress. Cerberus welcomed him with +a 'St. Mary, I am glad to see thee.' Another council was held in +Pandemonium, and Diabolus was impatient to show himself again on the +scene. Apollyon advised him not to be in a hurry. 'Let our friends,' +he said, 'draw Mansoul more and more into sin--there is nothing like +sin to devour Mansoul;' but Diabolus would not wait for so slow a +process, and raised an army of Doubters 'from the land of Doubting on +the confines of Hell Gate Hill.' 'Doubt,' Bunyan always admitted, had +been his own most dangerous enemy. + +[Footnote 9: The Flesh.] + +Happily the townspeople became aware of the peril which threatened +them. Mr. Prywell, a great lover of Mansoul, overheard some +Diabolonians talking about it at a place called Vile Hill. He carried +his information to the Lord Mayor; the Recorder rang the Alarm Bell; +Mansoul flew to penitence, held a day of fasting and humiliation, and +prayed to Shaddai. The Diabolonians were hunted out, and all that +could be found were killed. So far as haste and alarm would permit, +Mansoul mended its ways. But on came the Doubting army, led by +Incredulity, who had escaped crucifixion--'none was truer to Diabolus +than he'--on they came under their several captains, Vocation +Doubters, Grace Doubters, Salvation Doubters, &c.--figures now gone to +shadow; then the deadliest foes of every English Puritan soul. Mansoul +appealed passionately to the Chief Secretary; but the Chief Secretary +'had been grieved,' and would have nothing to say to it. The town +legions went out to meet the invaders with good words, Prayer, and +singing of Psalms. The Doubters replied with 'horrible objections,' +which were frightfully effective. Lord Reason was wounded in the head +and the Lord Mayor in the eye; Mr. Mind received a shot in the +stomach, and Conscience was hit near the heart; but the wounds were +not mortal. Mansoul had the best of it in the first engagement. Terror +was followed by boasting and self-confidence; a night sally was +attempted--night being the time when the Doubters were strongest. The +sally failed, and the men of Mansoul were turned to rout. Diabolus's +army attacked Eargate, stormed the walls, forced their way into the +town, and captured the whole of it except the castle. Then 'Mansoul +became a den of dragons, an emblem of Hell, a place of total +darkness.' 'Mr. Conscience's wounds so festered that he could have no +rest day or night.' 'Now a man might have walked for days together in +Mansoul, and scarce have seen one in the town that looked like a +religious man. Oh, the fearful state of Mansoul now!' 'Now every +corner swarmed with outlandish Doubters; Red Coats and Black Coats +walked the town by clusters, and filled the houses with hideous +noises, lying stories, and blasphemous language against Shaddai and +his Son.' + +This is evidently meant for fashionable London in the time of Charles +II. Bunyan was loyal to the King. He was no believer in moral +regeneration through political revolution. But none the less he could +see what was under his eyes, and he knew what to think of it. + +All was not lost, for the castle still held out. The only hope was in +Emmanuel, and the garrison proposed to petition again in spite of the +ill reception of their first messengers. Godly Fear reminded them that +no petition would be received which was not signed by the Lord +Secretary, and that the Lord Secretary would sign nothing which he had +not himself drawn up. The Lord Secretary, when appealed to in the +proper manner, no longer refused his assistance. Captain Credence flew +up to Shaddai's court with the simple words that Mansoul renounced all +trust in its own strength and relied upon its Saviour. This time its +prayer would be heard. + +The devils meanwhile, triumphant though they were, discovered that +they could have no permanent victory unless they could reduce the +castle. 'Doubters at a distance,' Beelzebub said, 'are but like +objections repelled by arguments. Can we but get them into the hold, +and make them possessors of that, the day will be our own.' The object +was, therefore, to corrupt Mansoul at the heart. + +Then follows a very curious passage. Bunyan had still his eye on +England, and had discerned the quarter from which her real danger +would approach. Mansoul, the Devil perceived, 'was a market town, much +given to commerce.' 'It would be possible to dispose of some of the +Devil's wares there.' The people would be filled full, and made rich, +and would forget Emmanuel. 'Mansoul,' they said, 'shall be so cumbered +with abundance, that they shall be forced to make their castle a +warehouse.' Wealth once made the first object of existence, +'Diabolus's gang will have easy entrance, and the castle will be our +own.' + +Political economy was still sleeping in the womb of futurity. Diabolus +was unable to hasten its birth, and an experiment which Bunyan thought +would certainly have succeeded was not to be tried. The _Deus ex +Machina_ appeared with its flaming sword. The Doubting army was cut to +pieces, and Mansoul was saved. Again, however, the work was +imperfectly done. Diabolus, like the bad genius in the fairy tale, +survived for fresh mischief. Diabolus flew off again to Hell Gate, and +was soon at the head of a new host; part composed of fugitive Doubters +whom he rallied, and part of a new set of enemies called _Bloodmen_, +by whom we are to understand persecutors, 'a people from a land that +lay under the Dog Star.' 'Captain Pope' was chief of the Bloodmen. His +escutcheon 'was the stake, the flame, and good men in it.' The +Bloodmen had done Diabolus wonderful service in time past. 'Once they +had forced Emmanuel out of the Kingdom of the Universe, and why, +thought he, might they not do it again?' + +Emmanuel did not this time go in person to the encounter. It was +enough to send his captains. The Doubters fled at the first onset. +'The Bloodmen, when they saw that no Emmanuel was in the field, +concluded that no Emmanuel was in Mansoul. Wherefore, they, looking +upon what the captains did to be, as they called it, a fruit of the +extravagancy of their wild and foolish fancies, rather despised them +than feared them.' 'They proved, nevertheless, chicken-hearted, when +they saw themselves matched and equalled.' The chiefs were taken +prisoners, and brought to trial like Atheism and his companions, and +so, with an address from the Prince, the story comes to a close. + +Thus at last the 'Holy War' ends or seems to end. It is as if Bunyan +had wished to show that though the converted Christian was still +liable to the assaults of Satan, and even to be beaten down and +overcome by him, his state was never afterwards so desperate as it had +been before the redemption, and that he had assistance ready at hand +to save him when near extremity. But the reader whose desire it is +that good shall triumph and evil be put to shame and overthrown +remains but partially satisfied; and the last conflict and its issues +leave Mansoul still subject to fresh attacks. Diabolus was still at +large. Carnal Sense broke prison and continued to lurk in the town. +Unbelief 'was a nimble Jack: him they could never lay hold of, though +they attempted to do it often.' Unbelief remained in Mansoul till the +time that Mansoul ceased to dwell in the country of the Universe; and +where Unbelief was Diabolus would not be without a friend to open the +gates to him. Bunyan says, indeed, that 'he was stoned as often as he +showed himself in the streets.' He shows himself in the streets much +at his ease in these days of ours after two more centuries. + +Here lies the real weakness of the 'Holy War.' It may be looked at +either as the war in the soul of each sinner that is saved, or as the +war for the deliverance of humanity. Under the first aspect it leaves +out of sight the large majority of mankind who are not supposed to be +saved, and out of whom, therefore, Diabolus is not driven at all. +Under the other aspect the struggle is still unfinished; the last act +of the drama has still to be played, and we know not what the +conclusion is to be. + +To attempt to represent it, therefore, as a work of art, with a +beginning, a middle, and an end, is necessarily a failure. The +mysteries and contradictions which the Christian revelation leaves +unsolved are made tolerable to us by Hope. We are prepared to find in +religion many things which we cannot understand; and difficulties do +not perplex us so long as they remain in a form to which we are +accustomed. To emphasise the problem by offering it to us in an +allegory, of which we are presumed to possess a key, serves only to +revive Man Friday's question, or the old dilemma which neither +intellect nor imagination has ever dealt with successfully. 'Deus aut +non vult tollere mala, aut nequit. Si non vult non est bonus. Si +nequit non est omnipotens.' It is wiser to confess with Butler that +'there may be necessities in the nature of things which we are not +acquainted with.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. + + +If the 'Holy War' is an unfit subject for allegorical treatment, the +'Pilgrim's Progress' is no less perfectly adapted for it. The 'Holy +War' is a representation of the struggle of human nature with evil, +and the struggle is left undecided. The 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a +representation of the efforts of a single soul after holiness, which +has its natural termination when the soul quits its mortal home and +crosses the dark river. Each one of us has his own life battle to +fight out, his own sorrows and trials, his own failures or successes, +and his own end. He wins the game, or he loses it. The account is +wound up, and the curtain falls upon him. Here Bunyan had a material +as excellent in itself as it was exactly suited to his peculiar +genius; and his treatment of the subject from his own point of +view--that of English Protestant Christianity--is unequalled and never +will be equalled. I may say never, for in this world of change the +point of view alters fast, and never continues in one stay. As we are +swept along the stream of time, lights and shadows shift their places, +mountain plateaus turn to sharp peaks, mountain ranges dissolve into +vapour. The river which has been gliding deep and slow along the +plain, leaps suddenly over a precipice and plunges foaming down a +sunless gorge. In the midst of changing circumstances the central +question remains the same--What am I? what is this world in which I +appear and disappear like a bubble? who made me? and what am I to do? +Some answer or other the mind of man demands and insists on receiving. +Theologian or poet offers at long intervals explanations which are +accepted as credible for a time. They wear out, and another follows, +and then another. Bunyan's answer has served average English men and +women for two hundred years, but no human being with Bunyan's +intellect and Bunyan's sincerity can again use similar language; and +the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is and will remain unique of its kind--an +imperishable monument of the form in which the problem presented +itself to a person of singular truthfulness, simplicity, and piety, +who after many struggles accepted the Puritan creed as the adequate +solution of it. It was composed exactly at the time when it was +possible for such a book to come into being; the close of the period +when the Puritan formula was a real belief, and was about to change +from a living principle into an intellectual opinion. So long as a +religion is fully alive, men do not talk about it or make allegories +about it. They assume its truth as out of reach of question, and they +simply obey its precepts as they obey the law of the land. It becomes +a subject of art and discourse only when men are unconsciously ceasing +to believe, and therefore the more vehemently think that they believe, +and repudiate with indignation the suggestion that doubt has found its +way into them. After this religion no longer governs their lives. It +governs only the language in which they express themselves, and they +preserve it eagerly, in the shape of elaborate observances or in the +agreeable forms of art and literature. + +The 'Pilgrim's Progress' was written before the 'Holy War,' while +Bunyan was still in prison at Bedford, and was but half conscious of +the gifts which he possessed. It was written for his own +entertainment, and therefore without the thought--so fatal in its +effects and so hard to be resisted--of what the world would say about +it. It was written in compulsory quiet, when he was comparatively +unexcited by the effort of perpetual preaching, and the shapes of +things could present themselves to him as they really were, +undistorted by theological narrowness. It is the same story which he +has told of himself in 'Grace Abounding,' thrown out into an objective +form. + +He tells us himself, in a metrical introduction, the circumstances +under which it was composed:-- + + When at the first I took my pen in hand, + Thus for to write, I did not understand + That I at all should make a little book + In such a mode. Nay, I had undertook + To make another, which when almost done, + Before I was aware I this begun. + + And thus it was.--I writing of the way + And race of saints in this our Gospel day, + Fell suddenly into an Allegory + About the 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 these 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. + + Well, so I did; but yet I did not think + To show to all the world my pen and ink + In such a mode. I only thought to make, + I knew not what. Nor did I undertake + Merely to please my neighbours; no, not I. + I did it mine own self to gratify. + + Neither did I but vacant seasons spend + In this my scribble; nor did I intend + But to divert myself in doing this + From worser thoughts which make me do amiss. + Thus I set pen to paper with delight, + And quickly had my thoughts in black and white; + For having now my method by the end, + Still as I pulled it came; and so I penned + It down: until at last it came to be + For length and breadth the bigness which you see. + + Well, when I had thus put my ends together, + I showed 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. + + Now was I in a strait, and did not see + Which was the best thing to be done by me. + At last I thought, since you are thus divided, + I print it will; and so the case decided. + +The difference of opinion among Bunyan's friends is easily explicable. +The allegoric representation of religion to men profoundly convinced +of the truth of it might naturally seem light and fantastic, and the +breadth of the conception could not please the narrow sectarians who +knew no salvation beyond the lines of their peculiar formulas. The +Pilgrim though in a Puritan dress is a genuine man. His experience is +so truly human experience, that Christians of every persuasion can +identify themselves with him; and even those who regard Christianity +itself as but a natural outgrowth of the conscience and intellect, +and yet desire to live nobly and make the best of themselves, can +recognise familiar foot-prints in every step of Christian's journey. +Thus the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a book, which, when once read, can +never be forgotten. We too, every one of us, are pilgrims on the same +road, and images and illustrations come back upon us from so faithful +an itinerary, as we encounter similar trials, and learn for ourselves +the accuracy with which Bunyan has described them. There is no +occasion to follow a story minutely which memory can so universally +supply. I need pause only at a few spots which are too charming to +pass by. + +How picturesque and vivid are the opening lines: + +'As I walked through the wilderness of this world I lighted on a +certain place where there was a den,[10] and I laid me down in that +place to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and +behold I saw a man, a man clothed in rags, standing with his face from +his own home with a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his +back.' + +[Footnote 10: The Bedford Prison.] + +The man is Bunyan himself as we see him in 'Grace Abounding.' His sins +are the burden upon his back. He reads his book and weeps and +trembles. He speaks of his fears to his friends and kindred. They +think 'some frenzy distemper has got into his head.' He meets a man in +the fields whose name is Evangelist. Evangelist tells him to flee from +the City of Destruction. He shows him the way by which he must go, and +points to the far-off light which will guide him to the wicket-gate. +He sets off, and his neighbours of course think him mad. The world +always thinks men mad who turn their backs upon it. Obstinate and +Pliable (how well we know them both!) follow to persuade him to +return. Obstinate talks practical common sense to him, and as it has +no effect, gives him up as a fantastical fellow. Pliable thinks that +there may be something in what he says, and offers to go with him. + +Before they can reach the wicket-gate, they fall into a 'miry slough.' +Who does not know the miry slough too? When a man begins for the first +time to think seriously about himself, the first thing that rises +before him is a consciousness of his miserable past life. Amendment +seems to be desperate. He thinks it is too late to change for any +useful purpose, and he sinks into despondency. + +Pliable finding the road disagreeable has soon had enough of it. He +scrambles out of the slough 'on the side which was nearest to his own +house' and goes home. Christian struggling manfully is lifted out 'by +a man whose name was Help,' and goes on upon his journey, but the +burden on his back weighs him down. He falls in with Mr. Worldly +Wiseman who lives in the town of Carnal Policy. Mr. Worldly Wiseman, +who looks like a gentleman, advises him not to think about his sins. +If he has done wrong he must alter his life and do better for the +future. He directs him to a village called Morality, where he will +find a gentleman well known in those parts, who will take his burden +off--Mr. Legality. Either Mr. Legality will do it himself, or it can +be done equally well by his pretty young son, Mr. Civility. + +The way to a better life does not lie in a change of outward action, +but in a changed heart. Legality soon passes into civility, according +to the saying that vice loses half its evil when it loses its +grossness. Bunyan would have said that the poison was the more deadly +from being concealed. Christian after a near escape is set straight +again. He is admitted into the wicket-gate and is directed how he is +to go forward. He asks if he may not lose his way. He is answered Yes, +'There are many ways (that) butt down on this and they are crooked and +wide. But thus thou mayest know the right from the wrong, that only +being straight and narrow.' + +Good people often suppose that when a man is once 'converted,' as they +call it, and has entered on a religious life, he will find everything +made easy. He has turned to Christ, and in Christ he will find rest +and pleasantness. The path of duty is unfortunately not strewed with +flowers at all. The primrose road leads to the other place. As on all +other journeys, to persevere is the difficulty. The pilgrim's feet +grow sorer the longer he walks. His lower nature follows him like a +shadow watching opportunities to trip him up, and ever appearing in +some new disguise. In the way of comfort he is allowed only certain +resting places, quiet intervals of peace when temptation is absent, +and the mind can gather strength and encouragement from a sense of the +progress which it has made. + +The first of these resting places at which Christian arrives is the +'Interpreter's House.' This means, I conceive, that he arrives at a +right understanding of the objects of human desire as they really are. +He learns to distinguish there between passion and patience, passion +which demands immediate gratification, and patience which can wait and +hope. He sees the action of grace on the heart, and sees the Devil +labouring to put it out. He sees the man in the iron cage who was once +a flourishing professor, but had been tempted away by pleasure and had +sinned against light. He hears a dream too--one of Bunyan's own early +dreams, but related as by another person. The Pilgrim himself was +beyond the reach of such uneasy visions. But it shows how profoundly +the terrible side of Christianity had seized on Bunyan's imagination +and how little he was able to forget it. + +'This night as I was in my sleep I dreamed, and behold the heavens +grew exceeding black: also it thundered and lightened in most fearful +wise, that it put me into an agony; so I looked up in my dream and saw +the clouds rack at an unusual rate, upon which I heard a great sound +of a trumpet, and saw also a man sit upon a cloud attended with the +thousands of heaven. They were all in a flaming fire, and the heaven +also was in a burning flame. I heard then a voice, saying, Arise ye +dead and come to judgment; and with that the rocks rent, the graves +opened, and the dead that were therein came forth. Some of them were +exceeding glad and looked upward, some sought to hide themselves under +the mountains. Then I saw the man that sate upon the cloud open the +book and bid the world draw near. Yet there was, by reason of a fierce +flame that issued out and came from before him, a convenient distance +betwixt him and them, as betwixt the judge and the prisoners at the +bar. I heard it also proclaimed to them that attended on the man that +sate on the cloud, Gather together the tares, the chaff, and the +stubble, and cast them into the burning lake. And with that the +bottomless pit opened just whereabouts I stood, out of the mouth of +which there came in an abundant manner smoke and coals of fire with +hideous noises. It was also said to the same persons, Gather the wheat +into my garner. And with that I saw many catched up and carried away +into the clouds, but I was left behind. I also sought to hide myself, +but I could not, for the man that sate upon the cloud still kept his +eye upon me. My sins also came into my mind, and my conscience did +accuse me on every side. I thought the day of judgment was come and I +was not ready for it.' + +The resting time comes to an end. The Pilgrim gathers himself +together, and proceeds upon his way. He is not to be burdened for ever +with the sense of his sins. It fell from off his back at the sight of +the cross. Three shining ones appear and tell him that his sins are +forgiven; they take off his rags and provide him with a new suit. + +He now encounters fellow-travellers; and the seriousness of the story is +relieved by adventures and humorous conversations. At the bottom of a hill +he finds three gentlemen asleep, 'a little out of the way.' These were +Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. He tries to rouse them, but does not +succeed. Presently two others are seen tumbling over the wall into the +Narrow Way. They are come from the land of Vain Glory, and are called +Formalist and Hypocrisy. Like the Pilgrim, they are bound for Mount Zion; +but the wicket-gate was 'too far about,' and they had come by a short cut. +'They had custom for it a thousand years and more; and custom being of so +long standing would be admitted legal by any impartial judge.' Whether +right or wrong they insist that they are in the way, and no more is to be +said. But they are soon out of it again. The hill is the hill Difficulty, +and the road parts into three. Two go round the bottom, as modern engineers +would make them. The other rises straight over the top. Formalist and +Hypocrisy choose the easy ways, and are heard of no more. Pilgrim climbs +up, and after various accidents comes to the second resting-place, the +Palace Beautiful, built by the Lord of the Hill to entertain strangers in. +The recollections of Sir Bevis of Southampton furnished Bunyan with his +framework. Lions guard the court. Fair ladies entertain him as if he had +been a knight-errant in quest of the Holy Grail. The ladies, of course, are +all that they ought to be: the Christian graces--Discretion, Prudence, +Piety, and Charity. He tells them his history. They ask him if he has +brought none of his old belongings with him. He answers yes; but greatly +against his will: his inward and carnal cogitations, with which his +countrymen, as well as himself, were so much delighted. Only in golden +hours they seemed to leave him. Who cannot recognise the truth of this? Who +has not groaned over the follies and idiocies that cling to us like the +doggerel verses that hang about our memories? The room in which he sleeps +is called Peace. In the morning he is shown the curiosities, chiefly +Scripture relics, in the palace. He is taken to the roof, from which he +sees far off the outlines of the Delectable Mountains. Next, the ladies +carry him to the armoury, and equip him for the dangers which lie next +before him. He is to go down into the Valley of Humiliation, and pass +thence through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. + +Bunyan here shows the finest insight. To some pilgrims the Valley of +Humiliation was the pleasantest part of the journey. Mr. Feeblemind, +in the second part of the story, was happier there than anywhere. But +Christian is Bunyan himself; and Bunyan had a stiff self-willed +nature, and had found his spirit the most stubborn part of him. Down +here he encounters Apollyon himself, 'straddling quite over the whole +breadth of the way'--a more effective devil than the Diabolus of the +'Holy War.' He fights him for half-a-day, is sorely wounded in head, +hand, and foot, and has a near escape of being pressed to death. +Apollyon spreads his bat wings at last, and flies away; but there +remains the Valley of the Shadow of Death, the dark scene of lonely +horrors. Two men meet him on the borders of it. They tell him the +valley is full of spectres; and they warn him, if he values his life, +to go back. Well Bunyan knew these spectres, those dreary misgivings +that he was toiling after an illusion; that 'good' and 'evil' had no +meaning except on earth, and for man's convenience; and that he +himself was but a creature of a day, allowed a brief season of what is +called existence, and then to pass away and be as if he had never +been. It speaks well for Bunyan's honesty that this state of mind +which religious people generally call wicked is placed directly in his +Pilgrim's path, and he is compelled to pass through it. In the valley, +close at the road-side, there is a pit, which is one of the mouths of +hell. A wicked spirit whispers to him as he goes by. He imagines that +the thought had proceeded out of his own heart. + +The sky clears when he is beyond the gorge. Outside it are the caves +where the two giants, Pope and Pagan, had lived in old times. Pagan +had been dead many a day. Pope was still living, 'but he had grown so +crazy and stiff in his joints that he could now do little more than +sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they went by, and +biting his nails because he could not come at them.' + +Here he overtakes 'Faithful,' a true pilgrim like himself. Faithful +had met with trials; but his trials have not resembled Christian's. +Christian's difficulties, like Bunyan's own, had been all spiritual. +'The lusts of the flesh' seem to have had no attraction for him. +Faithful had been assailed by 'Wanton,' and had been obliged to fly +from her. He had not fallen into the slough; but he had been beguiled +by the Old Adam, who offered him one of his daughters for a wife. In +the Valley of the Shadow of Death he had found sunshine all the way. +Doubts about the truth of religion had never troubled the simpler +nature of the good Faithful. + +Mr. Talkative is the next character introduced, and is one of the best +figures which Bunyan has drawn; Mr. Talkative, with Scripture at his +fingers' ends, and perfect master of all doctrinal subtleties, ready +'to talk of things heavenly or things earthly, things moral or things +evangelical, things sacred or things profane, things past or things to +come, things foreign or things at home, things essential or things +circumstantial, provided that all be done to our profit.' + +This gentleman would have taken in Faithful, who was awed by such a +rush of volubility. Christian has seen him before, knows him well, and +can describe him. 'He is the son of one Saywell. He dwelt in Prating +Row. He is for any company and for any talk. As he talks now with you +so will he talk when on the ale-bench. The more drink he hath in his +crown, the more of these things he hath in his mouth. Religion hath no +place in his heart, or home, or conversation; all that he hath lieth +in his tongue, and his religion is to make a noise therewith.' + +The elect, though they have ceased to be of the world, are still in +the world. They are still part of the general community of mankind, +and share, whether they like it or not, in the ordinary activities of +life. Faithful and Christian have left the City of Destruction. They +have shaken off from themselves all liking for idle pleasures. They +nevertheless find themselves in their journey at Vanity Fair, 'a fair +set up by Beelzebub 5000 years ago.' Trade of all sorts went on at +Vanity Fair, and people of all sorts were collected there: cheats, +fools, asses, knaves, and rogues. Some were honest, many were +dishonest; some lived peaceably and uprightly, others robbed, +murdered, seduced their neighbours' wives, or lied and perjured +themselves. Vanity Fair was European society as it existed in the days +of Charles II. Each nation was represented. There was British Row, +French Row, and Spanish Row. 'The wares of Rome and her merchandise +were greatly promoted at the fair, only the English nation with some +others had taken a dislike to them.' The pilgrims appear on the scene +as the Apostles appeared at Antioch and Rome, to tell the people that +there were things in the world of more consequence than money and +pleasure. The better sort listen. Public opinion in general calls them +fools and Bedlamites. The fair becomes excited, disturbances are +feared, and the authorities send to make inquiries. Authorities +naturally disapprove of novelties; and Christian and Faithful are +arrested, beaten, and put in the cage. Their friends insist that they +have done no harm, that they are innocent strangers teaching only what +will make men better instead of worse. A riot follows. The authorities +determine to make an example of them, and the result is the +ever-memorable trial of the two pilgrims. They are brought in irons +before my Lord Hategood, charged with 'disturbing the trade of the +town, creating divisions, and making converts to their opinions in +contempt of the law of the Prince.' + +Faithful begins with an admission which would have made it difficult +for Hategood to let him off, for he says that the Prince they talked +of, being Beelzebub, the enemy of the Lord, he defied him and all his +angels. Three witnesses were then called: Envy, Superstition, and +Pickthank. + +Envy says that Faithful regards neither prince nor people, but does +all he can to possess men with disloyal notions, which he call +principles of faith and holiness. + +Superstition says that he knows little of him, but has heard him say +that 'our religion is naught, and such by which no man can please God, +from which saying his Lordship well knows will follow that we are yet +in our sins, and finally shall be damned.' + +Pickthank deposes that he has heard Faithful rail on Beelzebub, and +speak contemptuously of his honourable friends my Lord Old Man, my +Lord Carnal Delight, my Lord Luxurious, my Lord Desire of Vain Glory, +my Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, and the rest of the nobility, +besides which he has railed against his lordship on the bench himself, +calling him an ungodly villain. + +The evidence was perfectly true, and the prisoner, when called on for +his defence, confirmed it. He says (avoiding the terms in which he was +said to rail and the like) that 'the Prince of the town, with all the +rabblement of his attendants by this gentleman named, are more fit for +a being in hell than in this town or country.' + +Lord Hategood has been supposed to have been drawn from one or other +of Charles II.'s judges, perhaps from either Twisden or Chester, who +had the conversation with Bunyan's wife. But it is difficult to see +how either one or the other could have acted otherwise than they did. +Faithful might be quite right. Hell might be and probably was the +proper place for Beelzebub, and for all persons holding authority +under him. But as a matter of fact, a form of society did for some +purpose or other exist, and had been permitted to exist for 5000 +years, owning Beelzebub's sovereignty. It must defend itself, or must +cease to be, and it could not be expected to make no effort at +self-preservation. Faithful had come to Vanity Fair to make a +revolution--a revolution extremely desirable, but one which it was +unreasonable to expect the constituted authorities to allow to go +forward. It was not a case of false witness. A prisoner who admits +that he has taught the people that their Prince ought to be in hell, +and has called the judge an ungodly villain, cannot complain if he is +accused of preaching rebellion. + +Lord Hategood charges the jury, and explains the law. 'There was an +Act made,' he says, 'in the days of Pharaoh the Great, servant to our +Prince, that lest those of a contrary religion should multiply and +grow too strong for him, their males should be thrown into the river. +There was also an Act made in the days of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, +that whoever would not fall down and worship his golden image should +be thrown into a fiery furnace. There was also an Act made in the days +of Darius that whoso for some time called upon any God but him should +be cast into the lion's den. Now the substance of these laws this +rebel hath broken, not only in thought (which is not to be borne), but +also in word and deed, which must, therefore, be intolerable. For that +of Pharaoh, his law was made upon a supposition to prevent mischief, +no crime being yet apparent. For the second and third you see his +disputations against our religion, and for the treason he hath +confessed he deserveth to die the death.' + +'Then went the jury out, whose names were Mr. Blindman, Mr. Nogood, +Mr. Malice, Mr. Lovelust, Mr. Liveloose, Mr. Heady, Mr. Highmind, Mr. +Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hatelight, and Mr. Implacable, who +every one gave in his private verdict against him among themselves, +and afterwards unanimously concluded to bring him in guilty before the +judge. And first, Mr. Blindman, the foreman, said: I see clearly that +this man is a heretic. Then said Mr. No Good, Away with such a fellow +from the earth. Aye, said Mr. Malice, I hate the very looks of him. +Then said Mr. Lovelust, I could never endure him. Nor I, said Mr. +Liveloose, for he would always be condemning my way. Hang him, hang +him, said Mr. Heady. A sorry scrub, said Mr. Highmind. My heart riseth +against him, said Mr. Enmity. He is a rogue, said Mr. Liar. Hanging is +too good for him, said Mr. Cruelty. Let us despatch him out of the +way, said Mr. Hatelight. Then, said Mr. Implacable, might I have all +the world given me, I could not be reconciled to him; therefore, let +us forthwith bring him in guilty of death.' + +Abstract qualities of character were never clothed in more substantial +flesh and blood than these jurymen. Spenser's knights in the 'Fairy +Queen' are mere shadows to them. Faithful was, of course, condemned, +scourged, buffeted, lanced in his feet with knives, stoned, stabbed, +at last burned, and spared the pain of travelling further on the +narrow road. A chariot and horses were waiting to bear him through the +clouds, the nearest way to the Celestial Gate. Christian, who it seems +had been remanded, contrives to escape. He is joined by Hopeful, a +convert whom he has made in the town, and they pursue their journey in +company. A second person is useful dramatically, and Hopeful takes +Faithful's place. Leaving Vanity Fair, they are again on the Pilgrim's +road. There they encounter Mr. Bye-ends. Bye-ends comes from the town +of Plain-Speech, where he has a large kindred, My Lord Turnabout, my +Lord Timeserver, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Two Tongues, the parson of +the parish. Bye-ends himself was married to a daughter of Lady +Feignings. Bunyan's invention in such things was inexhaustible. + +They have more trials of the old kind with which Bunyan himself was so +familiar. They cross the River of Life and even drink at it, yet for +all this and directly after, they stray into Bye Path Meadow. They +lose themselves in the grounds of Doubting Castle, and are seized upon +by Giant Despair--still a prey to doubt--still uncertain whether +religion be not a dream, even after they have fought with wild beasts +in Vanity Fair and have drunk of the water of life. Nowhere does +Bunyan show better how well he knew the heart of man. Christian even +thinks of killing himself in the dungeons of Doubting Castle. Hopeful +cheers him up, they break their prison, recover the road again, and +arrive at the Delectable Mountains in Emmanuel's own land. There it +might be thought the danger would be over, but it is not so. Even in +Emmanuel's Land there is a door in the side of a hill which is a +byeway to hell, and beyond Emmanuel's Land is the country of conceit, +a new and special temptation for those who think that they are near +salvation. Here they encounter 'a brisk lad of the neighbourhood,' +needed soon after for a particular purpose, who is a good liver, prays +devoutly, fasts regularly, pays tithes punctually, and hopes that +everyone will get to heaven by the religion which he professes, +provided he fears God and tries to do his duty. The name of this brisk +lad is Ignorance. Leaving him, they are caught in a net by Flatterer, +and are smartly whipped by 'a shining one,' who lets them out of it. +False ideas and vanity lay them open once more to their most dangerous +enemy. They meet a man coming towards them from the direction in which +they are going. They tell him that they are on the way to Mount Zion. +He laughs scornfully and answers:-- + +'There is no such place as you dream of in all the world. When I was +at home in my own country, I heard as you now affirm, and from hearing +I went out to see; and have been seeking this city these twenty years, +but I find no more of it than I did the first day I went out. I am +going back again and will seek to refresh myself with things which I +then cast away for hopes of that which I now see is not.' + +Still uncertainty--even on the verge of eternity--strange, doubtless, +and reprehensible to Right Reverend persons, who never 'cast away' +anything; to whom a religious profession has been a highway to +pleasure and preferment, who live in the comfortable assurance that as +it has been in this life so it will be in the next. Only moral +obliquity of the worst kind could admit a doubt about so excellent a +religion as this. But Bunyan was not a Right Reverend. Christianity +had brought him no palaces and large revenues, and a place among the +great of the land. If Christianity was not true his whole life was +folly and illusion, and the dread that it might be so clung to his +belief like its shadow. + +The way was still long. The pilgrims reach the Enchanted Ground and +are drowsy and tired. Ignorance comes up with them again. He talks +much about himself. He tells them of the good motives that come into +his mind and comfort him as he walks. His heart tells him that he has +left all for God and Heaven. His belief and his life agree together, +and he is humbly confident that his hopes are well-founded. When they +speak to him of Salvation by Faith and Conviction by Sin, he cannot +understand what they mean. As he leaves them they are reminded of one +Temporary, 'once a forward man in religion.' Temporary dwelt in +Graceless, 'a town two miles from Honesty, next door to one Turnback.' +He 'was going on pilgrimage, but became acquainted with one Save Self, +and was never more heard of.' + +These figures all mean something. They correspond in part to Bunyan's +own recollection of his own trials. Partly he is indulging his humour +by describing others who were more astray than he was. It was over at +last: the pilgrims arrive at the land of Beulah, the beautiful sunset +after the storms were all past. Doubting Castle can be seen no more, +and between them and their last rest there remains only the deep river +over which there is no bridge, the river of Death. On the hill beyond +the waters glitter the towers and domes of the Celestial City; but +through the river they must first pass, and they find it deeper or +shallower according to the strength of their faith. They go through, +Hopeful feeling the bottom all along; Christian still in character, +not without some horror, and frightened by hobgoblins. On the other +side they are received by angels, and are carried to their final home, +to live for ever in the Prince's presence. Then follows the only +passage which the present writer reads with regret in this admirable +book. It is given to the self-righteous Ignorance who, doubtless, had +been provoking with 'his good motives that comforted him as he +walked;' but Bunyan's zeal might have been satisfied by inflicting a +lighter chastisement upon him. He comes up to the river. He crosses +without the difficulties which attended Christian and Hopeful. 'It +happened that there was then at the place one Vain Hope, a Ferryman, +that with his boat' (some viaticum or priestly absolution) 'helped him +over.' He ascends the hill, and approaches the city, but no angels are +in attendance, 'neither did any man meet him with the least +encouragement.' Above the gate there was the verse written--'Blessed +are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the Tree +of Life, and may enter in through the gate into the city.' Bunyan, who +believed that no man could keep the commandments, and had no right to +anything but damnation, must have introduced the words as if to mock +the unhappy wretch who, after all, had tried to keep the commandments +as well as most people, and was seeking admittance, with a conscience +moderately at ease. 'He was asked by the men that looked over the +gate--Whence come you and what would you have?' He answered, 'I have +eaten and drunk in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our +street.' Then they asked him for his certificate, that they might go +in and show it to the king. So he fumbled in his bosom for one and +found none. Then said they, 'Have you none?' But the man answered +never a word. So they told the king but he would not come down to see +him, but commanded the two shining ones that conducted Christian and +Hopeful to the city to go out and take Ignorance and bind him hand and +foot, and have him away. Then they took him up and carried him through +the air to the door in the side of the hill, and put him in there. +'Then,' so Bunyan ends, 'I saw that there was a way to Hell even from +the gates of Heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction; so I +awoke, and behold it was a dream!' + +Poor Ignorance! Hell--such a place as Bunyan imagined Hell to be--was +a hard fate for a miserable mortal who had failed to comprehend the +true conditions of justification. We are not told that he was a vain +boaster. He could not have advanced so near to the door of Heaven if +he had not been really a decent man, though vain and silly. Behold, it +was a dream! The dreams which come to us when sleep is deep on the +soul may be sent direct from some revealing power. When we are near +waking, the supernatural insight may be refracted through human +theory. + +Charity will hope that the vision of Ignorance cast bound into the +mouth of Hell, when he was knocking at the gate of Heaven, came +through Homer's ivory gate, and that Bunyan here was a mistaken +interpreter of the spiritual tradition. The fierce inferences of +Puritan theology are no longer credible to us; yet nobler men than the +Puritans are not to be found in all English history. It will be well +if the clearer sight which enables us to detect their errors, enables +us also to recognise their excellence. + +The second part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' like most second parts, +is but a feeble reverberation of the first. It is comforting, no +doubt, to know that Christian's wife and children were not left to +their fate in the City of Destruction. But Bunyan had given us all +that he had to tell about the journey, and we do not need a repetition +of it. Of course there, are touches of genius. No writing of Bunyan's +could be wholly without it. But the rough simplicity is gone, and +instead of it there is a tone of sentiment which is almost mawkish. +Giants, dragons, and angelic champions carry us into a spurious fairy +land, where the knight-errant is a preacher in disguise. Fair ladies +and love matches, however decorously chastened, suit ill with the +sternness of the mortal conflict between the soul and sin. Christiana +and her children are tolerated for the pilgrim's sake to whom they +belong. Had they appealed to our interest on their own merits, we +would have been contented to wish them well through their +difficulties, and to trouble ourselves no further about them. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LAST DAYS AND DEATH. + + +Little remains to be told of Bunyan's concluding years. No friends +preserved his letters. No diaries of his own survive to gratify +curiosity. Men truly eminent think too meanly of themselves or their +work to care much to be personally remembered. He lived for sixteen +years after his release from the gaol, and those years were spent in +the peaceful discharge of his congregational duties, in writing, in +visiting the scattered members of the Baptist communion, or in +preaching in the villages and woods. His outward circumstances were +easy. He had a small but well-provided house in Bedford, into which he +collected rare and valuable pieces of old furniture and plate, and +other articles--presents, probably, from those who admired him. He +visited London annually to preach in the Baptist churches. The +'Pilgrim's Progress' spread his fame over England, over Europe, and +over the American settlements. It was translated into many languages; +and so catholic was its spirit, that it was adapted with a few +alterations for the use even of the Catholics themselves. He +abstained, as he had done steadily throughout his life, from all +interference with politics, and the Government in turn never again +meddled with him. He even received offers of promotion to larger +spheres of action which might have tempted a meaner nature. But he +could never be induced to leave Bedford, and there he quietly stayed +through changes of ministry, Popish plots, and Monmouth rebellions, +while the terror of a restoration of Popery was bringing on the +Revolution; careless of kings and cabinets, and confident that Giant +Pope had lost his power for harm, and thenceforward could only bite +his nails at the passing pilgrims. Once only, after the failure of the +Exclusion Bill, he seems to have feared that violent measures might +again be tried against him. It is even said that he was threatened +with arrest, and it was on this occasion that he made over his +property to his wife. The policy of James II., however, transparently +treacherous though it was, for the time gave security to the +Nonconformist congregations, and in the years which immediately +preceded the final expulsion of the Stuarts, liberty of conscience was +under fewer restrictions than it had been in the most rigorous days of +the Reformation, or under the Long Parliament itself. Thus the anxiety +passed away, and Bunyan was left undisturbed to finish his earthly +work. + +He was happy in his family. His blind child, for whom he had been so +touchingly anxious, had died while he was in prison. His other +children lived and did well; and his brave companion, who had spoken +so stoutly for him to the judges, continued at his side. His health, +it was said, had suffered from his confinement; but the only serious +illness which we hear of, was an attack of 'sweating sickness,' which +came upon him in 1687, and from which he never thoroughly recovered. +He was then fifty-nine, and in the next year he died. + +His end was characteristic. It was brought on by exposure when he was +engaged in an act of charity. A quarrel had broken out in a family at +Reading with which Bunyan had some acquaintance. A father had taken +offence at his son, and threatened to disinherit him. Bunyan undertook +a journey on horseback from Bedford to Reading in the hope of +reconciling them. He succeeded, but at the cost of his life. Returning +by London he was overtaken on the road by a storm of rain, and was +wetted through before he could find shelter. The chill, falling on a +constitution already weakened by illness, brought on fever. He was +able to reach the house of Mr. Strudwick, one of his London friends; +but he never left his bed afterwards. In ten days he was dead. The +exact date is uncertain. It was towards the end of August 1688, +between two and three months before the landing of King William. He +was buried in Mr. Strudwick's vault in the Dissenters' burying-ground +at Bunhill Fields. His last words were 'Take me, for I come to Thee.' + +So ended, at the age of sixty, a man who, if his importance may be +measured by the influence which he has exerted over succeeding +generations, must be counted among the most extraordinary persons whom +England has produced. It has been the fashion to dwell on the +disadvantages of his education, and to regret the carelessness of +nature which brought into existence a man of genius in a tinker's hut +at Elstow. Nature is less partial than she appears, and all situations +in life have their compensations along with them. + +Circumstances, I should say, qualified Bunyan perfectly well for the +work which he had to do. If he had gone to school, as he said, with +Aristotle and Plato; if he had been broken in at a university and been +turned into a bishop; if he had been in any one of the learned +professions, he might easily have lost or might have never known the +secret of his powers. He was born to be the Poet-apostle of the +English middle classes, imperfectly educated like himself; and, being +one of themselves, he had the key of their thoughts and feelings in +his own heart. Like nine out of ten of his countrymen, he came into +the world with no fortune but his industry. He had to work with his +hands for his bread, and to advance by the side of his neighbours +along the road of common business. His knowledge was scanty, though of +rare quality. He knew his Bible probably by heart. He had studied +history in Foxe's 'Martyrs,' but nowhere else that we can trace. The +rest of his mental furniture was gathered at first hand from his +conscience, his life, and his occupations. Thus every idea which he +received falling into a soil naturally fertile, sprouted up fresh, +vigorous, and original. He confessed to have felt--(as a man of his +powers could hardly have failed to feel)--continued doubts about the +Bible and the reality of the Divine government. It has been well said +that when we look into the world to find the image of God, it is as if +we were to stand before a looking-glass expecting to see ourselves +reflected there, and to see nothing. Education scarcely improves our +perception in this respect; and wider information, wider acquaintance +with the thoughts of other men in other ages and countries, might as +easily have increased his difficulties as have assisted him in +overcoming them. He was not a man who could have contented himself +with compromises and half-convictions. No force could have subdued him +into a decent Anglican divine--a 'Mr. Two Tongues, parson of the +parish.' He was passionate and thorough-going. The authority of +conscience presented itself to him only in the shape of religious +obligation. Religion once shaken into a 'perhaps,' would have had no +existence to him; and it is easy to conceive a university-bred Bunyan, +an intellectual meteor, flaring uselessly across the sky and +disappearing in smoke and nothingness. + +Powerful temperaments are necessarily intense. Bunyan, born a tinker, +had heard right and wrong preached to him in the name of the Christian +creed. He concluded after a struggle that Christianity was true, and +on that conviction he built himself up into what he was. It might have +been the same perhaps with Burns had he been born a century before. +Given Christianity as an unquestionably true account of the situation +and future prospects of man, the feature of it most appalling to the +imagination is that hell-fire--a torment exceeding the most horrible +which fancy can conceive, and extending into eternity--awaits the +enormous majority of the human race. The dreadful probability seized +hold on the young Bunyan's mind. He shuddered at it when awake. In the +visions of the night it came before him in the tremendous details of +the dreadful reality. It became the governing thought in his nature. + +Such a belief, if it does not drive a man to madness, will at least +cure him of trifling. It will clear his mind of false sentiment, take +the nonsense out of him, and enable him to resist vulgar temptation as +nothing else will. The danger is that the mind may not bear the +strain, that the belief itself may crack and leave nothing. Bunyan was +hardly tried, but in him the belief did not crack. It spread over his +character. It filled him first with terror; then with a loathing of +sin, which entailed so awful a penalty; then, as his personal fears +were allayed by the recognition of Christ, it turned to tenderness +and pity. + +There was no fanaticism in Bunyan; nothing harsh or savage. His +natural humour perhaps saved him. His few recorded sayings all refer +to the one central question; but healthy seriousness often best +expresses itself in playful quaintness. He was once going somewhere +disguised as a waggoner. He was overtaken by a constable who had a +warrant to arrest him. The constable asked him if he knew that devil +of a fellow Bunyan. 'Know him!' Bunyan said. 'You might call him a +devil if you knew him as well as I once did.' + +A Cambridge student was trying to show him what a divine thing reason +was--'reason, the chief glory of man which distinguished him from a +beast,' &c., &c. + +Bunyan growled out: 'Sin distinguishes man from beast. Is sin divine?' + +He was extremely tolerant in his terms of Church membership. He +offended the stricter part of his congregation by refusing even to +make infant baptism a condition of exclusion. The only persons with +whom he declined to communicate were those whose lives were openly +immoral. His chief objection to the Church of England was the +admission of the ungodly to the Sacraments. He hated party titles and +quarrels upon trifles. He desired himself to be called a Christian or +a Believer, or 'any name which was approved by the Holy Ghost.' +Divisions, he said, were to Churches like wars to countries. Those who +talked most about religion cared least for it; and controversies about +doubtful things, and things of little moment, ate up all zeal for +things which were practicable and indisputable. + +'In countenance,' wrote a friend, 'he appeared to be of a stern and +rough temper, but in his conversation mild and affable; not given to +loquacity or to much discourse in company unless some urgent occasion +required it; observing never to boast of himself or his parts, but +rather to seem low in his own eyes, and submit himself to the judgment +of others; abhorring lying and swearing, being just, in all that lay +in his power, to his word; not seeming to revenge injuries, loving to +reconcile differences and make friendships with all. He had a sharp +quick eye, with an excellent discerning of persons, being of good +judgment and quick wit.' 'He was tall of stature, strong boned, though +not corpulent, somewhat of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes, wearing +his hair on his upper lip; his hair reddish, but in his later days +time had sprinkled it with grey; his nose well set, but not declining +or bending; his mouth moderate large, his forehead something high, and +his habit always plain and modest.' + +He was himself indifferent to advancement, and he did not seek it for +his family. A London merchant offered to take his son into his house. +'God,' he said, 'did not send me to advance my family, but to preach +the Gospel.' He had no vanity--an exemption extremely rare in those +who are personally much before the public. The personal popularity was +in fact the part of his situation which he least liked. When he was to +preach in London, 'if there was but one day's notice the meeting house +was crowded to overflowing.' Twelve hundred people would be found +collected before seven o'clock on a dark winter's morning to hear a +lecture from him. In Zoar Street, Southwark, his church was sometimes +so crowded that he had to be lifted to the pulpit stairs over the +congregation's heads. It pleased him, but he was on the watch against +the pleasure of being himself admired. A friend complimented him once +after service, on 'the sweet sermon' which he had delivered. 'You need +not remind me of that,' he said. 'The Devil told me of it before I was +out of the pulpit.' + +'Conviction of sin' has become a conventional phrase, shallow and +ineffective even in those who use it most sincerely. Yet moral evil is +still the cause of nine-tenths of the misery in the world, and it is +not easy to measure the value of a man who could prolong the conscious +sense of the deadly nature of it, even under the forms of a +decomposing theology. Times are changing. The intellectual current is +bearing us we know not where, and the course of the stream is in a +direction which leads us far from the conclusions in which Bunyan and +the Puritans established themselves; but the truths which are most +essential for us to know cannot be discerned by speculative arguments. +Chemistry cannot tell us why some food is wholesome and other food is +poisonous. That food is best for us which best nourishes the body into +health and strength; and a belief in a Supernatural Power which has +given us a law to live by and to which we are responsible for our +conduct, has alone, of all the influences known to us, succeeded in +ennobling and elevating the character of man. The particular theories +which men have formed about it have often been wild and extravagant. +Imagination, agitated by fear or stimulated by pious enthusiasm, has +peopled heaven with demigods and saints--creations of fancy, human +forms projected upon a mist and magnified into celestial images. How +much is true of all that men have believed in past times and have now +ceased to believe, how much has been a too eager dream, no one now can +tell. It may be that other foundations may be laid hereafter for human +conduct on which an edifice can be raised no less fair and beautiful; +but no signs of it are as yet apparent. + +So far as we yet know, morality rests upon a sense of obligation; and +obligation has no meaning except as implying a Divine command, without +which it would cease to be. Until 'duty' can be presented to us in a +shape which will compel our recognition of it with equal or superior +force, the passing away of 'the conviction of sin' can operate only to +obscure our aspirations after a high ideal of life and character. The +scientific theory may be correct, and it is possible that we may be +standing on the verge of the most momentous intellectual revolution +which has been experienced in the history of our race. It may be so, +and also it may not be so. It may be that the most important factors +in the scientific equation are beyond the reach of human intellect. +However it be, the meat which gives strength to the man is poison to +the child; and as yet we are still children, and are likely to remain +children. 'Every relief from outward restraint,' says one who was not +given to superstition, 'if it be not attended with increased power of +self-command, is simply fatal.' Men of intelligence, therefore, to +whom life is not a theory, but a stern fact, conditioned round with +endless possibilities of wrong and suffering, though they may never +again adopt the letter of Bunyan's creed, will continue to see in +conscience an authority for which culture is no substitute; they will +conclude that in one form or other responsibility is not a fiction but +a truth; and, so long as this conviction lasts, the 'Pilgrim's +Progress' will still be dear to all men of all creeds who share in it, +even though it pleases the 'elect' modern philosophers to describe its +author as a 'Philistine of genius.' + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Now publishing, in crown 8vo. price 2_s._ 6_d._ each, + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. + +Edited by JOHN MORLEY. + + +JOHNSON. By LESLIE STEPHEN. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'The new series opens well with Mr. Leslie Stephen's sketch + of Dr. Johnson. It could hardly have been done better, and + it will convey to the readers for whom it is intended a + juster estimate of Johnson than either of the two essays of + Lord Macaulay.'--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + +SCOTT. By R. H. HUTTON. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'We could not wish for a more suggestive introduction to + Scott and his poems and novels.'--EXAMINER. + +GIBBON. By J.C. MORISON. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of the life + and works of the greatest among the world's historians, it + deserves the highest praise.'--EXAMINER. + +SHELLEY. By J.A. SYMONDS. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'The lovers of this great poet are to be congratulated at + having at their command so fresh, clear, and intelligent a + presentment of the subject, written by a man of adequate and + wide culture.'--ATHENAEUM. + +HUME. By Professor HUXLEY, F.R.S. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'It may fairly be said that no one now living could have + expounded Hume with more sympathy or with equal + perspicuity.'--ATHENAEUM. + +GOLDSMITH. By WILLIAM BLACK. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'Mr. Black brings a fine sympathy and taste to bear in his + criticism of Goldsmith's writings, as well as his sketch of + the incidents of his life.'--ATHENAEUM. + +DEFOE. By W. MINTO. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'Mr. Minto's book is careful and accurate in all that is + stated, and faithful in all that it suggests. It will repay + reading more than once.'--ATHENAEUM. + +BURNS. By Principal SHAIRP. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + 'It is impossible to desire fairer criticism than Principal + Shairp's on Burns's poetry.... None of the series has given + a truer estimate either of character or of genius than this + volume.'--SPECTATOR. + +SPENSER. By the Very Rev. the DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S. 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