SEASONABLE COUNSEL: OR, ADVICE TO SUFFERERS. BY JOHN BUNYAN. London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, MDCLXXXIV. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. THIS valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield's edition of Bunyan's works, 2 vols. folio, 1767. | deans, prebends, canons, and the splendid tribe of mere hireling ministers? A system by which all their services are dispensed with, and priestly and prelatic pride is levelled with the dust. Can we wonder that those who preached the holy, humbling, self-denying doctrines of the cross, were persecuted to the death? Bunyan's opinion is, that Satan is the author of persecution, by which he intended to root out Christianity. The whirlwind and the tempest drives away those who are not rooted and grounded in the faith, some of whom may have stood like stately cedars until the trying time of trial came. But the humble Christian in such a season takes deeper root-a stronger grasp. Faith, his anchor, is sure and steadfast; it enters eternity and heaven, where Satan can find no entrance to disturb its hold. In persecution, men are but the devil's tools, and little think that they are doing his drudgery. p. 696. 6 No man could have been better qualified to give advice to sufferers for righteousness' sake, than John Bunyan: and this work is exclusively devoted to that object. Shut up in a noisome jail, under the iron hand of persecution, for nearly thirteen years, in the constant fear of being hanged as a malefactor, for refusing conformity to the national liturgy, he well knew what sufferings were, and equally well did he know the sources of consolation. It was wisely ordered by Divine Providence, that before the king pardoned him, he had a legal return under the hand and seal of the sheriff of Bedfordshire, certifying the reasons of this frightful imprisonment. This is entered in the minutes of the Privy Council on the 8th and 15th of May, 1672; and it proves that he was The man of God declares the truth in plain thus cruelly punished for being at conventicles terms, No one is a Christian except he is born of for nonconformity' and for no other cause. In God by the anointing of the Holy One.' Carnal this Advice' we find his opinion on the origin men cannot endure this; and then the game of persecution-the instruments-the motives-its begins,' how such troublesome fellows may be put cruelty-with cautions, counsels, and support to out of the way, and their families be robbed of the persecuted. He considers persecution a strange their possessions to enrich the persecutors. p. 712. anomaly,The reason is that Christianity is a 'The holy places, vestures, gestures—the shows harmless thing that be it never so openly pro- and outward greatness of false religion, are in fessed it hurts no man.' Simple-hearted, honest danger.' Their sumptuous ceremonies, glorious ' will fall John, thou dreamest. What wouldst thou have ornaments, new-fashioned carriages,* thought of a system by which all would have been before the simplicity and majesty of truth.' p. 713. taught to tag their laces and mend their own pots The Christian falls out with sin at home, and then and kettles? What would have become of thy with sinful ceremonies in divine worship. With trade as a brazier? Christianity teaches all man-him all that is not prescribed in the word of God kind not to trust in those empirics who profess to cure souls for Peter's pence, tithes, mortuaries, and profits; but to go by themselves to the Great Physician, and he will pour in his wine and oil, his infallible remedies for a sin-sick soul, without money and without price. To Bunyan this was not only harmless to others, but the most boundless mercy that God could bestow upon man. What could be more destructive to the blessed hierarchy of popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, is forbidden. Sentiments like these are a blow at the root of superstition with all its fraudful emoluments. Hence the storms of persecution which fall on the faithful followers of Christ. Antichrist declares the excellency of human inventions to supply what he considers defects in God's system. Such is the mad folly of the human heart! Dust and ashes find fault with a system which is *Not equipages to ride in, but dainty formalities.-ED. the perfection of wisdom, mercy, and love. And his discovering the uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath, and of the whirlwind and storm.' p. 694. 'Alas! we have need of these bitter pills at which we so much winch and shuck. The physician has us in hand. May God by these try and judge us as he judges his saints, that we may not be condemned with the world.' Such were the feelings of John Bunyan after his long sufferings; they are the fruits of a sanctified mind. Reader, great are our mercies-the arm of the persecutor is paralysed by the extension of the knowledge of Christ. Still we have to pass through taunts and revilings, and sometimes the loss of goods; but we are saved from those awful trials through which our pilgrim forefathers passed. May our mercies be sanctified, and may grace be bestowed upon us in rich abundance, to enable us to pity and forgive those sects who, in a bye-gone age, were the tools of Satan, and whose habitations were full of cruelty.-GEO. OFFOR. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. ་ by him; and to seek the good of all about him, according as his place, state and capacity in this world will admit, not meddling with other men's matters, but ever following that which is good. BELOVED, I thought it convenient, since many at | is to believe in Jesus Christ, and in God the Father this day are exposed to sufferings, to give my advice touching that to thee. Namely, that thou wouldest take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, and not suffer thyself to be entangled in those snares that God hath suffered to be laid in the world for some. Beware of men' in the counsel of Christ for they will deliver you up.' Mat. x. 17. Keep thou therefore within the bounds of uprightness and integrity towards both God and man for that will fortify, that will preserve thee, if not from, yet under the rage of men, in a comfortable and quiet frame of heart. Wherefore do that, and that only, that will justify thy innocency, and that will help thee, not with forced speech, but with good conscience, when oppressed, to make thy appeals to God, and to the consciences of all men. This is the advice that, I thank God, I have taken myself: for I find that there is nothing, next to God and his grace by Christ, that can stand one in such stead, as will a good and harmless conscience.* I hope I can say that God has made me a Christian: and a Christian must be a harmless man, and to that end, must embrace nothing but harmless principles. A Christian's business, as a Christian, **A good and harmless conscience;' not as the procuring cause of confidence in God's tender care of us, but as the strong evidence of our election and regeneration.-ED. A Christian is a child of the kingdom of God, and that kingdom, take it as it begins in grace, or as it is perfected in glory, is not of this world but of that which is to come: and though men of old, as some may now, be afraid of that kingdom: yet that kingdom will hurt no man, neither with its principles, nor by itself. To instance somewhat. Faith in Christ: what harm can that do? A life regulated by a moral law, what hurt is in that? Rejoicing in spirit for the hope of the life to come by Christ, who will that harm? Nor is the instituted worship of our Lord of any evil tendency. Christianity teaches us also to do our enemies good, to Bless them that hate us, and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us,' and what evil can be in that? This is the sum of the christian religion, as by the word may be plainly made appear: wherefore I counsel thee to keep close to these things, and touch with nothing that jostleth therewith. Nor do thou marvel, thou living thus, if some should be so foolish as to seek thy hurt, and to afflict thee, because thy works are good. 1 John iii. 12, 13. For there is need that thou shouldest at sometimes be in manifold temptations, thy good and innocent life notwithstanding. 1 Pe. i. 6. For, to omit other things, there are some of the graces of God that are in thee, that as to some of their acts, cannot shew themselves, nor their excellency, nor their power, nor what they can do: but as thou art in a suffering state. Faith and patience, in persecution, has that to do, that to shew, and that to perform, that cannot be done, shewed, nor performed any where else but there. There is also a patience of hope; a rejoicing in hope, when we are in tribulation, that is, over and above that which we have when we are at ease and quiet. That also that all graces can endure, and triumph over, shall not be known, but when, and as we are in a state of affliction. Now these acts of our graces are of that worth and esteem with God, also he so much delighteth in them that occasion through his righteous judgment, must be ministered for them to shew their beauty, and what bravery* there is in them. It is also to be considered that those acts of our graces, that cannot be put forth, or shew themselves in their splendour, but when we christianly suffer, will yield such fruit to those whose trials call them to exercise, that will, in the day of God, abound to their comfort, and tend to their perfection in glory. 1 Pe. i. 7. 2 Cor. iv. 17. Why then should we think that our innocent lives will exempt us from sufferings, or that troubles shall do us such harm? For verily it is for our present and future good that our God doth send them upon us. I count therefore, that such things are necessary for the health of our souls, as bodily† pains and labour are for [the health of] the body. People that live high, and in idleness, bring diseases upon the body: and they that live in all fulness of gospel-ordinances, and are not exercised with trials, grow gross, are diseased and full of bad humours in their souls. And though this may to some seem strange: yet our day has given us such an experimental proof of the truth thereof, as has not been known for some ages past. Alas! we have need of those bitter pills, at which we so winch and shuck:‡ and it will be well if at last we bo purged as we should thereby. I am sure we are but little the better as yet, though the physician has had us so long in hand. Some bad humours may possibly ere long be driven out: but at present the disease is so high, that it makes some professors fear more a consumption will be made in their purses by these doses, than they 'Bravery;' magnificence or excellence. 'Like a stately ship, with all her bravery on, and tackle trim, sails filled,' &c. -Samson Agonistes.-ED. Bodily pains;' bodily industry or painstaking.-ED. Winch;' to wince or kick with impatience. 'Shuck;' to shrug up the shoulders, expressive of dislike or aversion. -ED. desire to be made better in their souls thereby. I see that I still have need of these trials; and if God will by these judge me as he judges his saints, that I may not be condemned with the world, I will cry, Grace, grace for ever. The consideration also that we have deserved these things, much? silences me as to what may yet happen unto me. I say, to think that we have deserved them of God, though against men we have done nothing, makes me lay my hand upon my mouth, and causes me to hold my tongue. Shall we deserve correction? And be angry because we have it! Or shall it come to save us? and shall we be offended with the hand that brings it! Our sickness is so great that our enemies take notice of it; let them know too that we also take our purges patiently. We are willing to pay for those potions that are given us for the health of our body, how sick soever they make us: and if God will have us pay too for that which is to better our souls, why should we grudge thereat? Those that bring us these medicines have little enough for their pains: for my part, I profess, I would not for a great deal, be bound, for their wages, to do their work. True, physicians are for the most part chargeable, and the niggards are too loth to part with their money to them: but when necessity says they must either take physic, or die of two evils they desire to choose the least. Why, affliction is better than sin, and if God sends the one to cleanse us from the other, let us thank him, and be also content to pay the messenger. And thou that art so loth to pay for thy sinning, and for the means that puts thee upon that exercise of thy graces, as will be for thy good hereafter: take heed of tempting of God lest he doubleth this potion unto thee. The child, by eating of raw fruit, stands in need of physic, but the child of a childish humour refuseth to take the potion, what follows but a doubling of the affliction, to wit, frowns, chides, and further threatenings and a forcing of the bitter pills upon him. But let me, to persuade thee to lie down and take thy potion, tell thee, it is of absolute necessity, to wit, for thy spiritual and internal health. For, First, Is it better that thou receive judgment in this world, or that thou stay for it to be condemned with the ungodly in the next? Second, Is it better that thou shouldest, as to some acts of thy graces, be foreign, and a stranger, and consequently that thou shouldest lose that far more exceeding, and eternal weight of glory that is prepared as the reward thereof? or that thou shouldest receive it at the hand of God, when the day shall come that every man shall have praise of him for their doings? Third, And I say again, since chastisements are a sign of sonship, a 'Much;' in a great degree. token of love: and the contrary a sign of bastardy, | his wisdom and power and goodness to be seen in and a token of hatred. He. xii. 6-8. Hos. iv. 14. Is it not better that we bear those tokens and marks in our flesh that bespeak us to belong to Christ, than those that declare us to be none of his? For my part, God help me to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: and God of his mercy prepare me for his will. I am not for running | myself into sufferings, but if godliness will expose me to them, the Lord God make me more godly still for I believe there is a world to come. * But, christian reader, I would not detain thee from a sight of those sheets in thy hand: only let me beg of thee, that thou wilt not be offended either with God, or men, if the cross is laid heavy upon thee. Not with God, for he doth nothing without a cause, nor with men, for they are the hand of God: and will they, nill they; they are the servants of God to thee for good. Ps. xvii. 14. Jer. xxiv. 5. Take therefore what comes to thee from God by them, thankfully. If the messenger that brings it is glad that it is in his power to do thee hurt, and to afflict thee; if he skips for joy at thy calamity: be sorry for him; pity him, and pray to thy Father for him: he is ignorant and understandeth not the judgment of thy God, yea he sheweth by this his behaviour, that though he, as God's ordinance, serveth thee by afflicting of thee: yet means he nothing less than to destroy thee: by the which also he prognosticates before thee that he is working out his own damnation by doing of thee good. Lay therefore the woful state of such to heart, and render him that which is good for his evil; and love for his hatred to thee; then shalt thou shew that thou art acted by a spirit of holiness, and art like thy heavenly Father. And be it so, that thy pity and prayers can do such an one no good, yet they must light some where, or return again, as ships come loaden from the Indies, full of blessings into thine own bosom. And besides all this, is there nothing in dark providences, for the sake of the sight and observation of which, such a day may be rendered lovely, when it is upon us. Is there nothing of God, of * Will they, nill they;' nillan, a Saxon word, meaning 'not will' or contrary to the will-whether with or against their will. Neede hath no law; will I, or nill I, it must be done.' Damon and Pathias, 1571. "If now to man and wife to will and nill I know no couple better can agree.'-Ben Jonson.-ED. thunder, and lightning, in hailstones? in storms? and darkness and tempests? Why then is it said, he hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.' Na. i. 3. And why have God's servants of old made such notes, and observed from them such excellent and wonderful things. There is that of God to be seen in such a day as cannot be seen in another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving of others; his making of shrubs to stand, and his suffering of cedars to fall; his infatuating of the counsels of men, and his making of the devil to outwit himself; his giving of his presence to his people, and his leaving of his foes in the dark; his discovering the uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath, and of the whirlwind and storm. These days! these days are the days that do most aptly give an occasion to Christians, of any, to take the exactest measures and scantlings of ourselves. We are apt to overshoot, in days that are calm, and to think ourselves far higher, and more strong than we find we be, when the trying day is upon us. The mouth of Gaal and the boasts of Peter were great and high before the trial came, but when that came, they found themselves to fall far short of the courage they thought they had. Jud. ix. 38. We also, before the temptation comes, think we can walk upon the sea, but when the winds blow, we feel ourselves begin to sink. Hence such a time is rightly said to be a time to try us, or to find out what we are, and is there no good in this? Is it not this that rightly rectifies our judgment about ourselves, that makes us to know ourselves, that tends to cut off those superfluous sprigs of pride and self-conceitedness, wherewith we are subject to be overcome? Is not such a day, the day that bends us, humbleth us, and that makes us bow before God, for our faults committed in our prosperity and yet doth it yield no good unto us? we could not live without such turnings of the hand of God upon us. We should be overgrown with flesh, if we had not our seasonable winters. It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there. The Lord bless all seasons to his people, and help them rightly to behave themselves, under all the times that go over them. Farewell. I am thine to serve thee in the gospel, JOHN BUNYAN. ADVICE TO SUFFERERS. ♦WHEREFORE LET THEM THAT SUFFER ACCORDING This epistle was written to saints in affliction, course. The text is a conclusion, drawn from the counsel and comfort which the apostle had afore given them in their suffering state. As who should say, my brethren, as you are now afflicted, so sufferings are needful for you, and therefore profitable and advantageous: wherefore be content to bear them. And that you may indeed bear them with such christian contentedness, and patience as becomes you; commit the keeping of your souls to your God as unto a faithful Creator. Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him [in well doing,] as unto a faithful Creator.' In this conclusion, therefore, we have three things very fit for sufferers to concern themselves with. FIRST, A direction to a duty of absolute necessity. SECOND, A description of the persons, who are unto this, so necessary a duty, directed. THIRD, An insinuation of the good effect that will certainly follow to those that after a due manner shall take this blessed advice. The duty so absolutely necessary is, that sufferers commit the keeping of their souls to God.' The sufferers here intended, are those that suffer according to the will of God.' The good insinuated, that will be the effect of our true doing of this, is, we shall find God a faithful Creator.' [FIRST-THE DUTY TO WHICH SUFFERERS ARE DIRECTED.] We will first begin with the duty, that sufferers are here directed to, namely, the committing of their souls to God. 'Let them commit the keeping of their souls to him, in well doing.' And I find two things in it that first call for explaining before I proceed. 1. What we must here understand by 'the soul.' 2. What by 'committing' the soul to God. 1. For the first: The soul,' here, is to be taken for that most excellent part of man, that dwelleth in the body; that immortal, spiritual substance, that is, and will be capable of life, and motion, of sense and reason; yea, that will abido a rational being, when the body is returned to the dust as it was. This is that great thing, that our Lord Jesus intends, when he bids his disciples in and soul in hell. Lu. xii. 5. a day of trial, fear him that can destroy both body That great thing, I say, that he there cautions them to take care of. Ac cording to Peter here, Let them commit the 2. Now to 'commit' this soul to God, is to carry it to him, to lift it to him, upon my bended knees, and to pray him for the Lord Jesus Christ's deliver it from all those snares that are laid for it, Ps. xl. 13, 14. Thus, I have shewed you what the soul is, and what it is to commit the soul to God. This then is the duty that the apostle here exhorteth the sufferers to, namely, to carry their soul to God, and leave it with him while they engage for his name in the world. Now from the apostle's exhortation to this great duty, I will draw these following conclusions. Conclusion First, That when persecution is raised against a people, there is a design laid for the ruin of those people's souls. This, I say, doth naturally follow from the exhortation. Why else, need they to commit the keeping of their souls to God. For by this word, 'Unto God to keep them,' is suggested; there is that would destroy them, and that therefore persecution is raised against them. I am not so uncharitable, as to think, that persecuting men design this.* But I verily believe * How little do persecutors imagine that they are mere |