MEMOIRS of the LIFE

OF

Mr. John Bunyan.

MR. JOHN BUNYAN was born at Elstow, a village near Bed

ford, in the year 1628. His parents being in a low sphere of life, he was precluded from the advantages arising from a liberal education. His father was a tinker, and in that low capacity he was unable to procure any other learning for his son John, than that of reading and writing;---what astonishing talents he was endowed with, his works have evinced; and it must ever excite surprize, that so simple, uneducated a man, as Mr. Bunyan was, should have composed so masterly a production as the Pilgrim's Progress. But, from the mouths of" babes and sucklings" God has sometimes been wonderfully pleased to manifest his glory. At an early period of his life he evidenced great depravity of heart, and associating with evil company, he became notorious for wickedness. Swearing was a vice to which he was greatly addicted, and in this and other practices equally sinful, he ran to such an excess of riot, as to become almost proverbial for iniquity. Various atrocious instances of this, he has himself recorded in that work which he entitled "Grace abounding to the chief of sinners." Divine mercy was wonderfully lengthened out to him, and when in the midst of his sins he experienced many interferences of providential goodness in his behalf. Once he fell. into the river Ouse, and narrowly escaped being drowned: at another a similar accident befel him by his falling into an arm of the sea. In the year 1645, when the nation was unhappily involved in all the horrors of a civil war, we find Mr. Bunyan, at the age of seventeen, bearing arms for the parliament, at the siege of Leicester. Here the goodness of God was again eminently displayed in his behalf, for having changed his ranks with another soldier, the man who supplied his place was killed, Yet all these miraculous displays of sovereign mercy neither "led him to repentance, or taught him the plague of his own heart." In vain were mercies heaped upon him; they tended only to harden him more, till by a very singular circumstance he was at once converted by sovereign grace, and, from the vilest of sinners, became a bright ornament of the Christian world and church

Having accidentally heard an old woman describing him "as the most ungodly fellow for swearing she ever knew, and that he was enough to corrupt the whole town," it pleased Almighty God to cause these words to operate so upon him, as progressively to lead him to Christ, as the only refuge for guilty sinners. His conduct now became more circumspect; his favorite amusements of dancing, and ringing the church bells, were relinquished for reading and meditating on the word of God. To accelerate his progress in religion, he married a young woman of a pious and religious disposition; and, though upon this establishment they were destitute of those comforts which are generally expected at such a period, not having (as he himself tells us) a dish or spoon, yet this union was a source of real happiness. Mr. Bunyan had derived much religious instruction from that excellent book, "The practice of piety," and having attended the preaching of Mr. Gifford, a dissenting minister at Bedford, he was at length admitted as a communicant into that church in 1655.

Though illiterate, Bunyan possessed those talents which marked him as one whom God had destined for the service of his church.His gifts were such as to render him highly acceptable to the congregation, and after repeated entreaties he accepted of what, among the dissenters, is termed a call to the ministry. His public services were at first itinerant, and he preached with great acceptance to large congregations.

Upon the restoration of king Charles II. various penal laws were made in support of the established church, and against the dissenters, the effects of which Mr. Bunyan cruelly experienced. In 1660 he was indicted at the quarter-sessions for preaching at conventicles, and was committed to Bedford gaol, where he lay for the long term of Twelve Years. In the indictment he is stiled John Bunyan, labourer. In the former lives of Mr. Bunyan it has not been noticed, that probably the severity of Mr. Bunyan's punishment arose from its having been known that he had borne arms in the parliament army. It has been imputed to the severity of the bishops, but falsely, as it was a distinguished prelate of the church who at length procured Mr. Bunyan's enlargement---Dr. Barlow, bishop of Lincoln.* The imprisonment of Mr. Bunyan, though unfortunate for himself, proved of the highest benefit to the christian world; for, had it not been for the long imprisonment of this good man, the Pilgrim's Progress would most probably never have been written! Thus does the Supreme Being, in all the dispensations of his wise and righteous providence, bring good out of apparent evil!

It was in the gaol of Bedford, that Mr. Bunyan formed the idea, and executed the design, of writing that inimitable allegory "The Pilgrim's Progress," a work which has immortalised his name. The only books he had to assist him in this singular composition, were the Holy Scriptures, and the Martyrology of Mr. John Fox; of the peculiar merits of this work we shall speak hereafter. Mr. Bunyan was equally industrious while in confinement as to manual labour, for his

This eminent and learned prelate, like Mr. Bunyan, rose from the lowest situ ation in life, being originally a helper or stable boy at an inn. When promoted to the mitre, he never lost sight of what he originally was.

hands administered to his necessities, he being employed in making Laces for his support.

After twelve years' confinement, Mr. Bunyan was released from prison, through the kind offices of the Bishop of Lincoln. Mr. Gifford, the pastor of the dissenting church at Bedford, being dead, Mr. Bunyan was solicited to supply his place, and he readily accepted the invitation. The invincible attachment of the weak and perfidious James II. to the Roman Catholic religion, induced that monarch to grant liberal indulgence and unlimited toleration to the protestant dissenters. Mr. Bunyan profited by this indulgence, and made frequent visits to the metropolis, where his preaching was highly popular, and attracted crowded auditories.

Dr. Owen, who was at this period advanced in years, frequently was his hearer. As Dr. Owen was a man of considerable learning, it may be presumed, that Mr. Bunyan's sermons possessed great merit. It redounds much to the honour of this good man, that he possessed a catholic spirit, that he endeavoured to promote peace in the Christian church, and among the families of professors. It was upon his return from a journey which he had solely undertaken to reconcile some family differences, that he was attacked with a violent cold, which terminated in his death. This event, so afflicting to his church and to his friends at large, took place August 31st, 1688, the year of the glorious Revolution by king William III. He died at the house of a friend, Mr. Shaddock, a grocer, residing on Snow-hill, London, and was interred in the dissenters' burial ground, in Bunhill Fields, Finsbury.

Of Mr. Bunyan's writings, the best known and most celebrated is the Pilgrim's Progress. The numerous editions of this work (near forty) sufficiently demonstrate what a favorite it has ever been with the public; and it is a circumstance not a little remarkable, that persons of all descriptions, and men of the most opposite sentiments in religion, and even those who have politely discarded every idea of religion, have been unanimous in their approbation of this work. The Catholic, the Protestant, the Calvinist, the Arminian, have each joined in acknowledging the genius and fancy which is displayed in this work. The editors of the last edition of the Biographica Britannica, (Dr. Kippis and Dr. Towers) have passed a high encomium on it.*

Dr. Radcliffe, the celebrated physician, and founder of the magnificent library at Oxford, (the Radcliffean) who was a profound judge of literary merit, used to speak, in terms of unqualified applause, of Bunyan's Pilgrim. The simplicity of the diction---the beauty of the narration---the variety of characters introduced---but above all, the vein of piety and spirituality which abounds in every page, renders it one of the most useful, as well as entertaining books. It has been translated into most of the European languages, and it has been asserted that there was a copy of it in the Vatican, at Rome. A very elegant edition of this work (being the thirtieth), was published in the year

1760.

Dr. Patrick, bishop of Ely, well known as an excellent commentator on scripture, published a voluminous work, called The Pilgrim," in

See Biographica Britannica, 2d edit, vol. I, article, Bunyan.

imitation of Bunyan's, but so vastly inferior, that it was perused with contempt, and consigned to oblivion. To use the energetic language of Dr. Radcliffe, "Bunyan's Pilgrim was a Christian, and Patrick's Pilgrim a wretched Pedlar, who sold damaged commodities,” alluding to the legendary tales inserted in that work.

Mr. Bunyan published various other works, which met with a very favorable reception. "The Holy War," written in an allegorical style, has passed through several editions, and though not equal in composition to the Pilgrim's Progress, has been much admired."Grace abounding to the chief of Sinners," is an abstract of the author's life at an early period. It is a catalogue of his sins---a memorial of his conviction---and a splendid monument of the divine mercy.. Besides these, he published "The Heavenly Footman".. "--"The Life and Death of Mr. Badman,"---and numerous other tracts which have been published with his works in 2 vols. folio.

When we consider the variety and extent of Mr. Bunyan's works, and reflect on the disadvantages under which he laboured---without learning, a stranger to the science of the schools, and for twelve years secluded from society, and shut up in the gloomy recess of a prison--it must excite wonder that he wrote so much and so well, good sense. and piety pervading every page of his writings. If occasionally, vulgarisms are to be found, we should remember they disgraced the style of that age, and were to be found in the writings of the most celebrated authors. Where shall we find a larger collection of vulgar terms and epithets than in Butler's Hudibras? and even the Tale of a Tub, by Swift, written after the English style had been refined and polished by Sir William Temple, displays language, equally ridiculous. and absurd!

London, January 1st, 1806.

THE

Pilgrim's Progress, Ec.

PART THE FIRST.

CHAP. I.

The author's imprisonment-His dream-Christian, convinced of sin, flies from the wrath to come, and is directed by the gospel, to Christ.

A

S I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a den,* and laid me down in that place to sleep and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.† I looked, and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out into a lamentable cry, saying. What shall I do?

In this plight, therefore, he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased: wherefore at length he brake his mind to his wife and chidren; and thus he began to talk to them : O my dear wife, "(said he), and you the children of my bowels, I your "dear friend am in myself undone, by reason of a bur "den that lieth hard upon me: moreover, I am certainly

* Where was a den,] The prison where the author was confined. + A great burden upon his back.] The burden of Sin. Every man has this burden; but it is only the Christian who feels the weight of it, and wishes to be delivered from it.

B