PAUL’S DEPARTURE AND CROWN; (continued 2)

Answer. This objection is built partly upon a bashful modesty, partly upon ignorance, and partly upon unbelief. My answer to it is as followeth.

You must remind and look back to what but now hath been proved, namely, That both Christ and his apostles do all agree in this, that there is a reward for the righteous, and that their good deeds are laid up as treasures for them in heaven, and are certainly to be bestowed upon them in the last day with abundance of eternal glory. 2. Now then, to speak to thy case, and to remove the bottom of thy objection, that the unworthiness of thy person, and thy sinful infirmities, that attend thee in every duty, do make thee think thy works shall not be either regarded or rewarded in another world. But consider, first, as to the unworthiness of thy person. They that are in Christ Jesus are always complete before God, in the righteousness that Christ hath obtained, how infirm, and weak, and wicked soever they appear to themselves. Before God, therefore, in this righteousness thou standest all the day long, and that upon a double account; first, by the act of faith, because thou hast believed in him that thou mightest be justified by the righteousness of Christ; but if this fail, I mean the act of believing, still thou standest justified by God’s imputing this righteousness to thee, which imputation standing purely upon the grace and good pleasure of God to thee, that holds thee still as just before God, though thou wantest at present the comfort thereof. Thus, therefore, thy person stands always acccepted; and, indeed, no man’s works can at all be regarded, if his person, in the first place, be not respected. The Lord had respect first to Abel, and after to his offering (Gen 4:4; Heb 11:4). But he can have respect to no man before works done, unless he find them in the righteousness of Christ; for they must be accepted through a righteousness, which, because they have none of their own, therefore they have one of God’s imputing, even that of his Son, which he wrought for us when he was born of the Virgin, &c. As to thy sinful infirmities that attend thee in every work, they cannot hinder thee from laying up treasure in heaven, thy heart being upright in the way with God; nor will he be unrighteous at all to forget thy good deeds in the day when Christ shall come from heaven.

1. Because by the same reason then he must disown all the good works of all his prophets and apostles; for they have all been attended with weaknesses and sinful infirmities; from the beginning hitherto there is not a man, ‘not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not’ (Eccl 7:20). The best of our works are accompanied with sin: ‘When I would do good,’ saith Paul, ‘evil is present with me’ (Rom 7:21). This, therefore, must not hinder. And for thy further satisfaction in this, consider, as Christ presents thy person before God, acceptable without thy works, freely and alone by his righteousness, so his office is to take away the iniquity of thy holy things, that they also by him may be accepted of God (Exo 28:36-38; 1 Peter 2:5). Wherefore, it is further said, for the encouragement of the weak and feeble, He shall not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, but shall bring forth judgment unto victory (Matt 12:20). The bruised reed, you know, is weak; and by bruises we should understand sinful infirmities. And so also concerning the smoking flax; by smoking you must understand sinful weakness; but none of these shall either hinder the justification of thy person, or the acceptation of thy performance, they being done in faith and love, let thy temptations be never so many, because of Jesus Christ his priestly office now at the right hand of God. By him, therefore, let us offer spiritual sacrifices; for they shall be acceptable to God and our Father.

2. Because otherwise God and Christ would prove false to their own word, which is horrible blasphemy once to imagine; who hath promised that when the Son of God shall come to judgment, he shall render to ‘every man according to his work’ (Rev 22:12); and doth upon this very account encourage his servants to a patient enduring of the hottest persecutions: ‘for great is your reward in heaven’ (Matt 5:12; Luke 6:23,35; Matt 6:1, 10:41,42). From this also he bindeth his saints and servants to be sincerely liberal, and good, and kind to all; first, because otherwise, they have no reward of their Father which is in heaven, that is, for what they do not; but if they do it, then, though it be but a cup of cold water given to a prophet or righteous man, they shall receive a prophet’s reward, a righteous man’s reward; yea, they shall receive it in any wise, ‘they shall in no wise lose their reward.’

3. It must be so, otherwise he should deny a reward to the works and operations of his own good grace he hath freely bestowed upon us; but that he will not do. He is not unfaithful to forget your work of faith and labour of love (Heb 6:10). And so of all other graces, ‘our work shall not be in vain in the Lord’ (1 Cor 4:58). And, as I said before, temptations, weaknesses, and sins, shall not hinder the truly gracious of this their blessed reward. Nay, they shall further it, ‘if need be, ye are in heaviness, through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 1:6,7). And the reason is, because the truth and sincerity of God’s grace in us doth so much the more discover itself, by how much it is opposed and resisted by weakness and sin. It is recorded to the everlasting renown of three of David’s mighties, that they would break through a host of giant-like enemies, to fetch water for their longing king; for it bespake their valour, their love, and good-will to him; the same also is true concerning thy graces, and every act of them when assaulted with an host of weaknesses (1 Chron 11:12,15-18).

The Second Objection. And now I come to the second objection, and that ariseth from our being completely justified freely by the grace of God through Christ; and by the same means alone brought to glory; and may be framed thus:—but seeing we are freely justified, and brought to glory by free grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ; and seeing the glory that we shall be possessed of upon the account of the Lord Jesus, is both full and complete, both for happiness and continuing therein, what need will there be that our work should be rewarded? Nay, may not the doctrine of reward for good works be here not only needless, but indeed an impairing and lessening the completeness of that glory to which we are brought, and in which we shall live inconceivably happy for ever, by free grace?

Answer. That we are justified in the sight of the Divine Majesty, from the whole lump of our sins, both past, present, and to come, by free grace, through that one offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all, I bless God I believe it, and that we shall be brought to glory by the same grace, through the same most blessed Jesus, I thank God by his grace I believe that also. Again, that the glory to which we shall be brought by free grace, through the only merits of Jesus, is unspeakably glorious and complete, I question no more than I question the blessed truths but now confessed. But yet, notwithstanding all this, there is a reward for the righteous, a reward for their works of faith and love, whether in a doing or a suffering way, and that not principally to be enjoyed here, but hereafter; ‘great is your reward in heaven,’ as I proved in the answer to the first objection. And now I shall answer further:—

1. If this reward had been an impairing or derogation to the free grace of God that saveth us, he would never have mentioned it for our encouragement unto good works, nor have added a promise of reward for them that do them, nor have counted himself unfaithful if he should not do it.

2. The same may be said concerning Jesus Christ, who doubtless loveth and tendereth the honour of his own merits, as much as any who are saved by him can do, whether they be in heaven or earth; yet he hath promised a reward to a cup of cold water, or giving of any other alms; and hath further told us, they that do these things, they do lay up treasure in heaven, namely, a reward when their Lord doth come, then to be received by them to their eternal comfort.

3. Paul was as great a maintainer of the doctrine of God’s free grace, and of justification from sin, by the righteousness of Christ imputed by grace, as any he that ever lived in Christ’s service, from the world’s beginning till now: and yet he was for this doctrine; he expected himself, and encouraged others also to look for such a reward, for doing and suffering for Christ, which he calls ‘a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory’ (2 Cor 4:17). Surely, as Christ saith, in a case not far distant from this in hand, ‘if it were not so, he would have told us’ (John 14:1-3). Now could I tell what those rewards are that Christ hath prepared, and will one day bestow upon those that do for him in faith and love in this world, I should therein also say more than now I dare or ought; yet this let me say in general, they are such as should make us leap to think on, and that we should remember with exceeding joy, and never think that it is contrary to the Christian faith, to rejoice and be glad for that which yet we understand not (Matt 5:11,12; Luke 6:23). ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be,’ &c. But ‘every man that hath this hope in him,’ namely, that he shall be more than here he can imagine, ‘purifieth himself even as he is pure’ (1 John 3:2,3). Things promised when not revealed to be known by us while here, are therefore not made known, because too big and wonderful. When Paul was up in paradise, he heard unspeakable words not possible for man to utter (2 Cor 12:3,4). Wherefore, a reward I find, and that laid up in heaven, but what it is I know not, neither is it possible for any here to know it any further, than by certain general words of God, such as these, praise, honour, glory, a crown of righteousness, a crown of glory, thrones, judging of angels, a kingdom, with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, &c. (1 Cor 4:5; 1 Peter 1:7; 2 Tim 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4; Matt 25:34-36). Wherefore, to both these objections, let me yet answer thus a few words. Though thy modesty or thy opinion will not suffer thee to look for a reward for what thou dost here for thy Lord, by the faith and love of the gospel; yea, though in the day of judgment thou shouldst there slight all thou didst on earth for thy Lord, saying, When, Lord, when did we do it? he will answer, Then, even then when ye did it to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me (Matt 25:37-40).

The Third Objection. But is not the reward that God hath promised to his saints, for their good works to be enjoyed only here?

Answer. 1. For concerning holy walking, according to God’s command, yieldeth even here abundance of blessed fruits, as he saith, ‘in keeping of them there is great reward,’ and again, ‘this man shall be blessed in his deed,’ that is, now, even in this time, as he saith in another place; for indeed there is so much goodness and blessedness to be found in a holy and godly life, that were a man to have nothing hereafter, the present comfort and glory that lieth as the juice in the grape, in all things rightly done for God, it were sufficient to answer all our travail and self-denial in our work of faith and labour of love, to do the will of God.[25]

2. Dost thou love thy friends, dost thou love thine enemies, dost thou love thy family or relations, or the church of God? then cry for strength from heaven, and for wisdom, and a heart from heaven to walk wisely before them. For if a man be remiss, negligent, and careless in his conversation, not much mattering whom he offends, displeases, or discourages, by doing this or that, so he may save himself, please his foolish heart, and get this world, or the like, this man hath lost a good report of them that are without, and is fallen into reproach and the snare of the devil (1 Tim 3:7). He is fallen into reproach, and is slighted, disdained, both he, his profession, and all he says, either by way of reproof, rebuke, or exhortation: physician, cure thyself, say all to such a one; this man is a sayer, but not a doer, say they; he believeth not what he says; yea, religion itself is made to stink by this man’s ungodly life. This is he that hardens his children, that stumbleth the world, that grieveth the tender and godly Christian; but I say, he that walketh uprightly, that tenders[26] the name of God, the credit of the gospel, and the welfare of others, seeking with Paul, not his own profit, but the profit of others, that they may be saved; this man holds forth the Word of life, this man is a good savour of Christ amongst them that are saved; yea, may prove, by so doing, the instrument in God’s hand of the salvation of many souls.

3. This is the way to be clear from the blood of all men, the way not to be charged with the ruin and everlasting misery of poor immortal souls. Great is the danger that attends an ungodly life, or an ungodly action, by them that profess the gospel (Jer 2:33). When wicked men learn to be wicked of professors, when professors cause the enemies of God to blaspheme, doubtless sad and woeful effects must needs be the fruit of so doing (2 Sam 12:14). How many in Israel were destroyed for that which Aaron, Gideon, and Manasseh, unworthily did in their day? (Exo 32:25; Judg 8:24-27). A godly man, if he take not heed to himself, may do that in his life that may send many to everlasting burnings, when he himself is in everlasting bliss. But on the contrary, let men walk with God, and there they shall be excused; the blood of them that perish shall lie at their own door, and thou shalt be clear. ‘I am pure from the blood of all men,’ saith Paul (Acts 20:26). And again, ‘your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean’ (Acts 18:6). Yea, he that doth thus, shall leave in them that perish an accusing conscience, even begotten by his good conversation, and by that they shall be forced to justify God, his people, and way, in the day of their visitation; in the day when they are descending into the pit to the damned (1 Peter 2:12).

4. This is the way to maintain always the answer, the echoing answer of a good conscience in thy own soul. Godliness is of great use in this way; for the man that hath a good conscience to Godward, hath a continual feast in his own soul: while others say there is casting down, he shall say there is lifting up; for he shall save the humble person (Job 22:23-30). Some indeed, in the midst of their profession, are reproached, smitten, and condemned of their own heart, their conscience still biting and stinging of them, because of the uncleanness of their hands, and they cannot lift up their face unto God; they have not the answer of a good conscience toward him, but must walk as persons false to their God, and as traitors to their own eternal welfare; but the godly upright man shall have the light shine upon his ways, and he shall take his steps in butter and honey. ‘The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever’ (Isa 32:17). ‘If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things; beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God’ (1 John 3:20-22).

5. The godly man that walketh with God, that chiefly careth to do the work that God hath allotted him to do for his name in this world, he hath not only these advantages, but further, he hath as it were a privilege of power with God, he can sway much with him; as it is said of Jacob, as a prince he had power with God to prevail in times of difficulty (Gen 32:28). And so again, it is said of Judah, being faithful with the saints, he ruled with God (Hosea 11:12). How many times did that good man Moses turn away the wrath of God from the many thousands of Israel; yea, as it were, he held the hands of God, and staved off the judgments not once nor twice; the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (2 Sam 5:10). One man that walketh much with God, may work wonders in this very thing; he may be a means of saving whole countries and kingdoms from those judgments their sins deserve. How many times, when Israel provoked the Lord to anger, did he yet defer to destroy them? and the reason of that forbearance, he tells them it was for David’s sake; for my servant David’s sake I will not do it. As the Lord said also concerning Paul, ‘Lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee’; that is, to save their lives from the rage of the sea (Acts 27:24). Yea, when a judgment is not only threatened, but the decree gone forth for its execution, then godly upright men may sometimes cause the very decree itself to cease without bringing forth (Zech 2:1-3). Or else may so time the judgment that is decreed, that the church shall best be able to bear it (Matt 24:20).

6. The man that is tender of God’s glory in this world, still ruling and governing his affairs by the Word, and desirous to be faithful to the work and employment that God hath appointed him to do for his name; that man shall still be let into the secrets of God; he shall know that which God will reserve and hide from many; ‘Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do,’ saith the Lord?—‘For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord,’ &c. (Gen 18:17,19). So again, ‘The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant’ (Psa 25:14). ‘And to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I shew the salvation of God’ (Psa 50:23). Such a man shall have things new as well as old. His converse with the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, shall be turned into a kind of familiarity; he shall be led into the Word, and shall still increase in knowledge: when others shall be stinted and look with old faces, being black and dry as a stick, he shall be like a fatted calf, like the tree that is planted by the rivers of water, his flesh shall be fresh as the flesh of a child, and God will renew the face of his soul.

7. If any escape public calamities, usually they are such as are very tender of the name of God, and that make it their business to walk before him. They either escape by being mercifully taken away before it, or by being safely preserved in the midst of the judgment, until the indignation be overpast. Therefore God saith in one place, the ‘righteous are taken away from the evil to come’ (Isa 57:1). But if not so, as all be not, then they shall have their life for a prey (Jer 39:15-18). Caleb and Joshua escaped all the plagues that befel to Israel in the wilderness, for they followed God (Num 14:24). Somewhat of this you have also in that scripture, ‘Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness, it may be, ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger’ (Zeph 2:3). According to this is that in Luke, ‘Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man’ (Luke 21:36). When a man’s ways please the Lord, he will make his enemies to be at peace with him. Marvellous is the work of God in the preservation of his saints that are faithful with him, when dangers and calamities come; as Joseph, David, Jeremiah, and Paul, with many others, may appear. ‘He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death; and in war from the power of the sword. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue; neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh’ (Job 5:19-21).

8. If afflictions do overtake thee, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, yet those afflictions shall not befal thee for those causes for which they befal the slothful and backsliding Christian; neither shall they have that pinching and galling operation upon thee, as on those who have left their first love and tenderness for God’s glory in the world.

(1.) Upon the faithful upright man, though he also may be corrected and chastised for sin, yet, I say, he abiding close with God, afflictions come rather for trial and for the exercise of grace received, than as rebukes for this or that wickedness; when upon the backsliding heartless Christian these things shall come from fatherly anger and displeasure, and that for their sins against him. Job did acknowledge himself a sinner, and that God therefore might chastise him: but yet he rather believed it was chiefly for the trial of his grace, as indeed, and in truth, it was (Job 7:20, 23:10). ‘He is a perfect man,’ saith God to Satan, ‘and one that feareth God, and escheweth evil, and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause’ (Job 2:3). God will not say thus of every one when affliction is laid upon them, though they yet may be his children; but rather declareth and pronounceth that it is for their transgressions, because they have wickedly departed from him (Psa 39:11, 38:1-4).

(2.) Now, affliction arising from these two causes, their effects in the manner of their working, though grace turns them both for good, is very different one from the other; he who hath been helped to walk with God, is not assaulted with those turnings and returnings of guilt when he is afflicted, as he who hath basely departed from God; the one can plead his integrity, when the other blusheth for shame. See both these cases in one person, even that goodly beloved David. When the Lord did rebuke him for sin, then he cries, O blood guiltiness, O ‘cast me not away from thy presence’ (Psa 51:11). But when he at another time knew himself guiltless, though then also sorely afflicted, behold with what boldness he turns his face unto God; ‘O Lord, my God,’ saith he, ‘if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; [yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy] let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah,’ &c. (Psa 7:3-5).

This, therefore, must needs be a blessed help in distress, for a man to have a good conscience when affliction hath taken hold on him; for a man then, in his looking behind and before, to return with peace to his own soul, that man must needs find honey in this lion, that can plead his innocency and uprightness. All the people curse me, saith Jeremiah, but that without a cause, for I have neither lent nor taken on usury; which it seems was a sin at that day (Jer 15:10).

9. When men are faithful with God in this world, to do the work he hath appointed for them, by this means a dying bed is made easier, and that upon a double account. (1.) By reason of that present peace such shall have, even in their time of languishing. (2.) By reason of the good company such shall have at their departure.

(1.) Such souls usually abound in present peace; they look not back upon the years they have spent with that shame as the idle and slothful Christian does. ‘Remember now, Lord,—how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart’ (Isa 38:3). Blessed is the man that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness (Psa 41:1-3).

Ah! when God makes the bed,[27] he must needs lie easy that weakness hath cast thereon; a blessed pillow hath that man for his head, though to all beholders it is hard as a stone. Jacob, on his deathbed, had two things that made it easy:—(a) The faith of his going to rest, ‘I am to be gathered unto my people’; that is, to the blessed that have yielded up the ghost before me (Gen 49:29). (b) The remembrance of the sealings of the countenance of God upon him, when he walked before him in the days of his pilgrimage: when Joseph came to see him, before he left this world, Israel, saith the Word, ‘strengthened himself and sat upon his bed’; and the first word that dropt out of this good man’s mouth, O how full of glory was it! ‘God Almighty appeared unto me,’ saith he, ‘at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,’ &c. (Gen 48:1-3). O blessed discourse for a sick bed, when those can talk thus that lie thereon, from as true a ground as Jacob; but thus will God make the bed of those who walk close with him in this world.

(2.) The dying bed of such a man is made easy by reason also of the good company such shall have at their departure; and that is, (1) The angels; (b) Their good works they have done for God in the world.

(a) The angels of heaven shall wait upon them, as they did upon blessed Lazarus, to carry them into Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22). I know all that go to paradise are by these holy ones conducted thither; but yet, for all that, such as die under the clouds for unchristian walking with God, may meet with darkness in that day—may go heavily hence, notwithstanding that (Job 5:14). Yea, their bed may be as uncomfortable to them as if they lay upon nothing but the cords, and their departing from it, as to appearance, more uncomfortable by far. But as for those who have been faithful to their God, they shall see before them, shall know their tabernacles, ‘shall be in peace’ (Job 5:24), ‘the everlasting gates shall be opened unto them,’ in all which, from earth, they shall see the glory (Acts 7:55,56).[28] I once was told a story of what happened at a good man’s death, the which I have often remembered, with wonderment and gladness. After he had lain for some time sick, his hour came that he must depart, and behold, while he lay, as we call it, drawing on, to the amazement of the mourners, there was heard about his bed such blessed and ravishing music as they never heard before; which also continued till his soul departed, and then began to cease, and grow, as to its sound, as if it was departing the house, and so still seemed to go further and further off, till at last they could hear it not longer. ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him’: behold, then, how God can make thy sick bed easy! (1 Cor 2:9).

(b) A dying bed is made easy by those good works that men have done in their life for the name of God: ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them’; yea, and go before them too (Rev 14:13). No man need be afraid to be accompanied by good deeds to heaven. Be afraid of sins, they are like bloodhounds at the heels; and be sure thy sins will find thee out, even thee who hast not been pardoned in the precious blood of Christ; but as for those who have submitted themselves to the righteousness of God for their justification, and who have, through faith and love to his name, been frequent in deeds of righteousness, they shall not appear empty before their God, ‘their works,’ their good works, ‘follow them.’ These shall enter into rest, and walk with Christ in white. I observe, when Israel had passed over Jordan, they were to go to possess between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, from whence was to be pronounced the blessing and the cursing (Deut 27). The gospel meaning of which I take to be as followeth: I take Jordan to be a type of death: and these two mountains, with the cursing and blessing, to be a type of the judgment that comes on every man, so soon as he goes from hence—‘and after death the judgment’—so that he that escapes the cursing, he alone goes into blessedness; but he that Mount Ebal smiteth, he falls short of heaven! O! none knows the noise that doth sound in sinners’ souls from Ebal and Gerizim when they are departed hence; yet it may be they know not what will become of them till they hear these echoings from these two mountains: but here the good man is sure Mount Gerizim doth pronounce him blessed. Blessed, then, are the dead that die in the Lord, for their works will follow them till they are past all danger. These are the Christian’s train that follow him to rest; these are a good man’s company that follow him to heaven.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Solemn indeed is the responsibility of a Christian minister, and every follower of the Lamb bears that office privately, and should be earnest in prayer that public ministers may do the work of evangelists, not only by insisting upon the necessity of the new birth and its solemn reality, the happiness of a close walk with God, and the glorious rest that remaineth, but to visit the poor and rich at their own habitations, in sickness and health, and watch over their people as those that must give an account.—Ed.

[2] ‘With a curse,’ is from the Puritan version.—Ed.

[3] Wretched are the persecutors, like a troubled sea, casting up mire and filth, vainly opposing the sinner’s duty of personal inquiry for salvation, and harassing him if he refuses to submit to human dogmas, creeds, catechisms, and liturgies—the inventions of men. Although the power is curtailed, the disposition remains the same; restless and unwearied, they stick at nothing to glut their revenge upon the disciples of Christ. But all in vain; the gospel spreads although the persecutor kicks; it is against the sharp goads; he rushes upon Jehovah’s buckler and crushes himself; is wretched in this life and lost to all eternity; unless, as in the case of Saul, unspeakable mercy arrests him—Ed.

[4] The lions growled and roared upon the pilgrims in Bunyan’s days, to prevent their making a public profession of Christ by uniting with one of his churches; represented in the Pilgrim’s Progress by the palace justly called Beautiful. Many were then kept back, to their serious injury or ruin, by fear of enormous penalties or imprisonment, but NOW, what keeps you back, O Christian. Fears for the loss of property, liberty, or life, would have been a wretched plea for the loss of the soul, how much less the fear of ridicule from ungodly friends or relatives.—Ed.

[5] A familiar expression; ‘rub up,’ prepare for action. ‘Put on thy harness,’ an obsolete term for armour, weapons, and habiliments of war; the spiritual warfare, ‘put on the whole armour of God.’—Ed.

[6] Would you be ready to die in peace? then seek a close walk and communion with God in time of health. A life of faith ensures a life of glory. Live and walk in the Spirit; as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts. To live thus is Christ; to die is gain, the more sudden the more joyful and glorious.—Ed.

[7] This meaning of the word ‘touch’ is now obsolete. It refers to touching the seal on a deed, called sealing it; a solemn, deliberate pledge to keep close to your covenants. ‘I keep touch with my promise.’ Sir Thomas More.—Ed.

[8] ‘To make both ends meet,’ is a proverbial expression, meaning that our expenses should not exceed our income; but, in this more solemn sense we should fulfil our daily duties as they approach, as all our moments have duties assigned to them. Omissions can never be recovered; hence the necessity of forgiveness for Christ’s sake, who fulfilled every duty, and hence the necessity of perpetual watchfulness.—Ed.

[9] How delightfully does this exclamation flow from the lips of the pious patriarch, overcome by his exertion in this solemn death-bed scene. He pauses, and then, with his recovering breath, appeals to heaven—‘I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.’ Poor old man, the cold sweat of death is on thy brow, the angels stand ready to open the gate of the celestial city; finish thy solemn instructions to thy children, and then thou shalt enter upon the fruition of all thy patient waiting, thy fearing, fighting, trembling, doubting, shall be absorbed in immeasurable, eternal bliss.—Ed.

[10] This is a very illustrative allusion. When a spinner has wound up all his material, the technical term is, ‘The bottom is wound.’ When a poor spinner by age or infirmity, is incapable of work, it would be said, ‘Ah! his bottom is wound.’ In this text, Jacob had finally made an end of all his earthly duties, and had now only to close his eyes for the last time upon the world.—Ed.

[11] These are solemn and most weighty arguments to press upon us the fulfilment of our daily duties. How incomprehensible are the ways of God. His love is proved by bitterly convicting us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Like Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle, sometimes so overwhelming as to drive us to the verge of despair and self-destruction. We fall not down the precipice, for still there is hope and pardon in his bosom, and at the proper time it will be revealed.—Ed.

[12] That preventeth; ‘letteth’ is from the old verb to let or hinder, as used Romans 1:13.—Ed.

[13] This language is probably founded on Revelation 22:14, ‘Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.’ Until the work that is assigned to us is done, we cannot cross the river and ascend to the New Jerusalem. ‘He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.’ He who is diligent to finish his work may reply with truth, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’—Ed.

[14] Bunyan was in his politics a thorough loyalist. When a young man he even fought at the siege of Leicester, when it was besieged by the royal army. Probably the horrible cruelties practised upon the peaceful inhabitants, by the cavaliers, at the taking of that city, induced him to leave the service. His pastor, J. Gifford, had also served in the royal army as an officer; both of them narrowly escaped. This may account for Bunyan’s high monarchial principles, they appear very prominently in many of his works.—Ed.

[15] Many extraordinary tales are told of the nightingale, as to their great memory, and facility in imitating the human voice. Sitting in thorns is more for protection than penance. See Goldsmith’s Animated Nature. It was a generally received opinion that the nightingale, to keep himself awake in the night, sat on a tree of thorn, so that if he nodded he would be pricked in the breast. The learned and witty Dr. Thomas Fuller thus alludes to it:—‘I am sure the nightingale which would wake will not be angry with the thorn which pricketh her breast when she noddeth.’ How useful would it be if a thorn could be so placed as to prick those who nod at church!—Ed.

[16] A painted figure of a horse, behind which the sportsman stealthily approaches the game.

‘One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk Another over dykes upon his stilts doth walk.’ —Drayton’s Polyolbion, vol. iii. p. 25.—Ed.

[17] So dress as to pass without being noticed; neither precise nor formal, slovenly nor dandyish; dress like a man or woman. Conduct yourself as one that fears God.—Ed.

[18] The head having been crowned with thorns, it is unsuitable that the feet should tread on rose leaves.—Mason.

[19] How very striking is this expression. O! that it may assist in riveting upon our souls a vivid remembrance of the Saviour’s sufferings.—Ed.

[20] Some Pharisees, falsely called by the Romish churches ‘saints,’ have claimed merit from associating with dirt and filth, and vermin, beggars, and vagabonds, upon dunghills, to show their contempt of the world! All this was to gain the applause of the world. God’s saints will associate with the salt of the earth, with God’s fearers, who whether rich or poor, are equally despised by the world.—Ed.

[21] Reader, do not mistake this to mean a piece of wood shaped as a cross. It means cherish, love, be conformed to the conduct or image of Christ, follow him in reproaches and revilings, and count it your honour to suffer for his sake. ‘Kiss it,’ has the same meaning as the words of the Psalmist, ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish.’ It is the soul mentally kissing the Saviour, and not a bit of wood, which would then be an idol, inflicting the deep guilt of idolatry.—Ed.

[22] Upon the opening of the sixth seal in the book of Revelation, there was ‘a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon as blood.’ A preternatural and awful darkness broods over nature, preparatory to its final dissolution. Thus Satan darkens the things above to the natural man, so that he cannot discern spiritual things, while those of time and sense are magnified and multiplied in his estimation.—Ed.

[23] This refers to the phylacteries worn by every Jew while in his daily prayers. These are long strips of leather, having small boxes containing the law minutely written in Hebrew, worn upon the forehead and wrist, and bound round the fingers. A custom founded on Exodus 13:9, 16; Proverbs 7:3. That the Divine law should direct the head and fingers, as representing the mind and conduct, so would Bunyan have all Christians carry, at all times, in the mind and conduct, the riches and righteousness of Christ.—Ed.

[24] There are no idlers in God’s Israel, every one has his appointed work to fulfil against his appointed day. Christian, watch against idleness.

‘For Satan has some mischief still For idle hands to do.’—Ed.

[25] Godliness, saith Paul, has the ‘promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’ This should be more dwelt upon by our ministers, as Bunyan sets the example. The mind of a Christian has the richest enjoyments, however his body may be persecuted, for over that only the enemy has power. A prison may be the gate of heaven. With God as our Father, a wall of fire round about, and the glory in our midst, ‘what can we want beside?’—Ed.

[26] To tender; to care for, to guard. ‘He had provoked others to tender and seek the glory of God.’—Udal. Not frequently used in this sense.—Ed.

[27] How tenderly does the Psalmist exhibit the love of God to his chosen under this figure, ‘Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.’ He will never leave nor forsake them; and, when heart and flesh shall fail, he will guide them and receive them to his glory. ‘Wonders of grace to God belong.’ Christian women! with such an example, can you hesitate to go and make the bed of a poor sick and afflicted neighbour?—Ed.

[28]

‘Jesus can make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are, While on his breast I lean my head, And breath my life out sweetly there.’—Dr. Watts.