Part 205

No one can charge Bunyan with a superstitious notion of dreams, whether asleep or as if asleep. Such a mode of interpretation as he recommends is both rational and scriptural. To dream awake is thus explained—“They dream on in a course of reading without digesting.”—Locke.—Ed.

Whoever thou art, beseech the Lord to weigh thee in the balances of the sanctuary. No fear of God—no grace in the soul. Of this class is the proud, the covetous, the glutton, the liar, the apostate, the perverter of God’s people from the right way; obstinate and incorrigible backsliders; those who neither mourn nor sigh for the wickedness of the land; they that prefer their own fancies, dreams, frames, and feelings, to the Word of God; swearers, adulterers, perjured persons, and oppressors of the poor; they that insult the godly, and rejoice at their sufferings; they that have no love, gratitude, nor sense of duty to God, as the fountain of their unmerited mercies. O reader, give God no rest until, by his Word and Spirit, he imparts to thee this holy fear as the earnest of glory hereafter; without it you are perishing.—Mason.—Ed.

“Snaffle”; a loose bridle with a curb. “To snaffle”; to be easily led.

“The third o’ the’ world is yours, which with a snaffle, You may pace easy, but not such a wise.” Antony and Cleopatra.—Ed.

How familiar but striking an illustration. Reader, look well to the mainspring, and see also that the wheels are not clogged. We ought to be living epistles, known and read of all men.—Ed.

“A royster”; a violent, riotous, blustering, turbulent, fellow—a species of men now much out of date, as are jails and gibbets, sword and burning stake. How great and true that courage which could look at, and expect, such trials, without shrinking, when they were threatened as a reward for love to Christ and holy obedience to his gospel!—Ed.

This is a very strong and striking expression. “To soak,” means to imbibe as much as we can contain; and as to the influence of godly fear, happy shall we be in proportion as we are enabled to follow Bunyan’s advice.—Ed.

The words, “he made them houses,” we humbly suggest, may not only mean that these God-fearing women had safe dwelling-places, but, in a more extensive sense, God made them the heads of honourable families, see 1 Samuel 2:35; 2 Samuel 7:11, 13, 27, 29; 1 Kings 2:24, 11:28. So David’s prayer was, “Let my house be established before thee; thou, O my God, wilt build me an house” (1 Chron 17:24,25).—Ed.

Royal patents, in Bunyan’s time, were lucrative but most oppressive, conferring upon favourites, or their nominees, an exclusive right to deal in any article of manufacture. But the patent to God’s fearers, to trust in him when involved in darkness and distress, is a blessed privilege, injurious to none.—Ed.

“Grabbling”; sprawling along, drawing the body, by the hands, through a small aperture in a mine.—Ed.

“Tines”; from the Saxon; the teeth or spikes in the rowel of a spur.—Ed.

“Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.” Blessedness shall attend him all the way to heaven, in proportion as that fear abounds. It is a heaven on earth to live in the constant fear of God—to have a reverential awe and fear of his majesty immovably fixed and implanted in the soul. The grace of fear has an eminent influence in a Christian’s sanctification; it is a powerful restraint from sin. A holy fear of God, and a humble fear of ourselves, which are alike of Divine operation, will preserve us from sin and engage us to obedience. God will be our protector and instructor, our guide and our everlasting deliverer from all evil. Let us not rest satisfied with the greatest attainments short of “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”—Mason.

By the goats we are to understand the hypocrites and the finally impenitent, who will depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; see Matthew 25:32, 33-41.—Ed.

THE DOCTRINE

THE LAW AND GRACE UNFOLDED;

OR,

A DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE LAW AND GRACE; THE NATURE OF THE ONE, AND THE NATURE OF THE OTHER; SHOWING WHAT THEY ARE, AS THEY ARE THE TWO COVENANTS; AND LIKEWISE, WHO THEY BE, AND WHAT THEIR CONDITIONS ARE, THAT BE UNDER EITHER OF THESE TWO COVENANTS:

Wherein, for the better understanding of the reader, there are several questions answered touching the law and grace, very easy to be read, and as easy to be understood, by those that are the sons of wisdom, the children of the second covenant.

“For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Heb 7:19).

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:28).

“To him [therefore] that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom 4:5).

ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.

It is difficult to understand those peculiar trials which called forth the mighty energies of Bunyan’s mind, unless we are acquainted with the times in which he lived. The trammels of statecraft and priestcraft had been suddenly removed from religion, and men were left to form their own opinions as to rites and ceremonies. In this state of abrupt liberty, some wild enthusiasts ran into singular errors; and Bunyan’s first work on “Gospel Truths” was published to correct them. Then followed that alarm to thoughtless souls—“A Few Sighs from Hell”; and, in 1659, as a further declaration of the most important truths of revelation, this work on the two covenants was sent forth to chastise error, and comfort the saints of God. It was published many times during the author’s life; and since then, to a late period, very large impressions have been circulated. Upon a subject of such vast importance—upon which hangs all our eternal interests—all our indescribable joys or sorrows in a future and never-ending state—the requirements of our Creator—and His gracious provision of pardoning mercy, upon our failing to keep His Law—these are subjects of intense interest. How important is it that all our researches into these solemn realities should be guided simply by the revealed will of God! That was the fountain at which Bunyan drunk in all his knowledge; and with simplicity, and most earnest desire to promote the glory of God in the salvation of sinners, he here gives the result of his patient, prayerful, painful investigation. The humble dependence upon Divine mercy which the author felt is very striking. He was sensible of his want of education; “no vain, whimsical, scholar-like terms”—no philosophy from Plato or Aristotle. He felt, as to human teaching, his weakness, but proved that, “when he was weak, then was he strong.” He claimed an interest in the fervent prayers of his fellow saints—“My heart is vile, the devil lieth at watch, trust myself I dare not; if God do not help me, my heart will deceive me.” This was the proper spirit in which to enter upon so solemn a subject; and the aid he sought was vouchsafed to him, and appears throughout this important work. His first object is to define what is the Law, a strict obedience to which is exacted upon all mankind. It was given to Adam, and was afterwards more fully developed upon Mount Sinai. It commands implicit, universal, perfect obedience, upon pain of eternal ruin. He shows us that man, under the influence of that law, and while a stranger to the Law of Grace, may repent and reform his conduct, become a member of a Christian church, be a virgin waiting for his Lord, “but not step even upon the lowest round of the ladder that reacheth to heaven.” While man is a stranger to the new birth, “his destiny is the lion’s den; yea, worse than that, to be thrown into Hell to the very devils.” Bunyan in this, as well as all other of his works, is awfully severe upon those who say, “Let us sin that grace may abound,” perverting the consolatory doctrine of Divine grace to their souls’ destruction. “What! because Christ is a Saviour, wilt thou be a sinner! because His grace abounds, therefore thou wilt abound in sin! O wicked wretch! rake Hell all over, and surely I think thy fellow will scarce be found. If Christ will not serve their turn, but they must have their sins too, take them, Devil; if Heaven will not satisfy them, take them, Hell; devour them, burn them, Hell!” “Tell the hogs of this world what a hog-sty is prepared for them, even such an one as a God hath prepared to put the devil and his angels into.”

To the distressed, sin-beaten Christian, this book abounds with consolation, and instructions how to overcome the devices of Satan, who will plant the Ten Commandments, like ten great guns, to destroy thy hopes. “Learn to outshoot the devil in his own bow, and to cut off his head with his own sword. Doth Satan tell thee thou prayest but faintly and with cold devotions? Answer him, I am glad you told me, I will trust the more to Christ’s prayers, and groan, sigh, and cry more earnestly at the Throne of Grace.” To such readers as have been driven to the verge of despair by a fear of having committed the unpardonable sin, here is strong consolation, and a very explicit scriptural definition of that awful crime. Want of space prevents me adding more than my earnest desire that the reading of this treatise may be productive of solid peace and comfort.—ED.

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER

READER,

If at any time there be held forth by the preacher the freeness and fullness of the Gospel, together with the readiness of the Lord of Peace to receive those that have any desire thereto, presently it is the spirit of the world to cry out, Sure this man disdains the law, slights the law, and counts that of none effect; and all because there is not, together with the Gospel, mingled the doctrine of the law, which is not a right dispensing of the Word according to truth and knowledge. Again; if there be the terror, horror, and severity of the law discovered to a people by the servants of Jesus Christ, though they do not speak of it to the end people should trust to it, by relying on it as it is a covenant of works; but rather that they should be driven further from that covenant, even to embrace the tenders and privileges of the second, yet, poor souls, because they are unacquainted with the natures of these two covenants, or either of them, therefore, “they say,” “Here is nothing but preaching of the law, thundering of the law”; when, alas, if these two be not held forth—to wit, the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace, together with the nature of the one and the nature of the other—souls will never be able either to know what they are by nature or what they lie under. Also, neither can they understand what grace is, nor how to come from under the law to meet God in and through that other most glorious covenant, through which and only through which, God can communicate of Himself grace, glory, yea, even all the good things of another world.

I, having considered these things, together with others, have made bold to present yet once more to thy view, my friend, something of the mind of God, to the end, if it shall be but blessed to thee, thou mayest be benefited thereby; for verily these things are not such as are ordinary and of small concernment, but do absolutely concern thee to know, and that experimentally too, if ever thou do partake of the glory of God through Jesus Christ, and so escape the terror and insupportable vengeance that will otherwise come upon thee through His justice, because of thy living and dying in thy transgressions against the Law of God. And therefore, while thou livest here below, it is thy duty, if thou wish thyself happy for the time to come, to give up thyself to the studying of these two covenants treated of in the ensuing discourse; and so to study them until thou, through grace, do not only get the notion of the one and of the other in thy head, but until thou do feel the very power, life, and glory of the one and of the other: for take this for granted, he that is dark as touching the scope, intent, and nature of the law, is also dark as to the scope, nature, and glory of the Gospel; and also he that hath but a notion of the one, will barely have any more than a notion of the other.