Part 3
go out of the body it dares not. Life is going, the blood settles in the
flesh, and the lungs being no more able to draw breath through the
nostrils, at last out goes the weary trembling soul, which is
immediately seized by devils, who lay lurking in every hole in the
chamber for that very purpose. His friends take care of the body,
wrap it up in the sheet or coffin, but the soul is out of their thought
and reach, going down to the chambers of death.
I had thought to have enlarged, but I forbear. God, who teaches man
to profit, bless this brief and plain discourse to thy soul, who yet
standest a professor in the land of the living, among the trees of his
garden. Amen.
ENDNOTES
[1]General Doctrine of Toleration, 8vo, 1781.
[2] This awful destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans is narrated by
Josephus in his sixth book of the Jewish Wars, in language that
makes nature shudder. Multitudes had assembled to celebrate the
passover when the invading army beleaguered the city; a frightful
famine soon filled it with desolation: this, with fire and sword,
miserably destroyed one million, three hundred and thirty-seven
thousand, four hundred and ninety Jews, while the Christians fled
before the siege, and escaped to the mountains. Well might the sun
vail his face at that atrocious deed, which was so quickly followed by
such awful punishment.–Ed.
[3] Reader, do not imagine that this was peculiar to Bunyan's days;
look not upon your neighbours to find an example, but search your
own heart–'Lord, is it I?' and strive and pray that you may bring
forth more fruit.–Ed.
[4] The mode of admitting a member to church-fellowship, among
the Baptists, was and now is by introducing the trembling convert to
a private meeting of the whole church, that they may hear why the
union is sought, how the soul became alarmed, and fled for refuge to
Christ, with the grounds of hope; inquiries having been previously
made into Christian character and godliness. If, with all these
precautions, a barren professor gains admittance, the punishment is
not upon the garden, but upon the barren tree.–Ed.
[5] 'Humour,' the temper or disposition of mind. Not out of love to
humility, but these creeping things pretend to be humble, to gain
some sinister end.–Ed.
[6] However strange it may appear, it is true that the Ranters, in
Bunyan's time, used these arguments, and those so graphically put
into the mouth of Bye-ends, in the Pilgrim, to justify their
nonconformity to Christ. The tomfooleries and extravagancies of
dress introduced by Charles II, are here justly and contemptuously
described. The ladies' head-dresses, called 'frizzled fore-tops,'
became so extravagant, that a barber used high steps to enable him
to dress a lady's head!–Ed.
[7] A word not to be found in our dictionaries, being local and almost
obsolete. It means a division, end, or border of a town or village.–Ed.
[8] See the character of Talkative, in the Pilgrim's Progress. 'His
house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of savour.
There is in his house neither prayer, nor sign of repentance for sin.
He is the very stain, reproach, and shame of religion. Thus say the
common people that know him, A saint abroad and a devil at
home.'–Ed.
[9] How great is the mercy that those horrid barbarities, perpetrated
upon peaceful Christians, are now only heard of in those distance
parts of Satan's empire, China and Madagascar! Has the enmity of
the human heart by nature changed? No; but the number of
Christians has so vastly increased with a civilizing influence, as to
change the face of society. What a paradise will this earth become
when Christ shall reign in every heart!–Ed.
[10] In the midst of these faithful admonitions, we venture to remark
that, according to Lightfoot, so valuable was the fig-tree that it was
never destroyed until means were carefully used to restore its
fruitfulness, and that the use of these means occupied a period of
three years. This illustrates the wisdom of our Lord in selecting the
fig-tree as the principal object presented to view in his parable. It is a
most valuable tree–capable of bearing much fruit; still, after every
trial, if it remains barren, it must be cut down as a cumber-ground,
and sent to the fire.–Ed.
[11] A 'hit,' in some parts of the country, is used to express a good
crop. A 'hitting season' means a fruitful season.– Ed.
[12] This mode of infusing new vigour into plants and trees is thus
described in the Gemara–'They lay dung in their gardens, to soften
the earth. They dig about the roots of their trees, and sprinkle ashes,
and pluck up suckers, and make a smoke beneath to kill vermin.'–
Ed.
[13] Among the superstitions of the ancients, Michaelis states that
both the Greeks and Asiatics had a superstition that a tree might be
rendered fruitful by striking it, at the intercession of a friend, three
times with the back of an axe.–Ed.
[14] However painfully unpleasant these terms may appear to eyes or
ears polite, it is a homely but just representation, and calculated to
make a lasting impression on every reader. Afflictions, trials, crosses,
are used as a means of creating or reviving spiritual life, as manure is
applied to vegetation.–Ed.
[15] Mahomet professed descent from Ishmael, and that he came to
revive the religion which God had revealed to Abraham, who taught
it to Ishmael. Mahometanism is the religion of the outcast of God.–
Ed.
[16] Bunyan had been haunted with the temptation 'to sell and part
with Christ,' and, under a fear that he had fallen under that
temptation, the case of Esau made a dreadful impression upon his
soul; extreme horror and anguish seized upon his spirit; 'he was like
a man bereft of life and bound over to eternal punishment,' for two
years. At length, after an awful storm, he found peace in the promise,
'his blood cleanseth from ALL sins,' and a proof that he had not sold
Christ.–See Grace Abounding, No. 139-160.
[17] How solemn a thought! What an appeal to perpetual
watchfulness. Why have I not made shipwreck of faith? Most
emphatically may we reply, Because God has sustained my soul.–Ed.
[18] Bunyan's tongue and pen are here fired by his vivid imagination
of eternal realities. With such burning words, we need no messenger
from the invisible world to alarm the consciences of sinners. What
angel could arouse more powerfully, alarmingly, convincingly, the
poor sinner, than the whole of this chain of reasoning.–Ed.
[19] This picture is drawn by a master hand: the master is laid by for
a season; or, as Bunyan quaintly expresses it, 'a little a to side': when
raised from affliction earthly affairs absorb his attention, and he
forgets his good resolves. According to the old rhyme:–
'The devil was sick, the devil a saint would be
The devil to well, the devil a saint was he.'–Ed.
[20] This is referred to in the Pilgrim, at the Interpreter's house, by
the representation of a man in an iron cage, who says, 'I cannot get
out, O now I cannot!' The awful account of Spira's despair must have
made a strong impression upon Bunyan's mind. It commences with a
poem.
'Here see a soul that's all despair;
a man All hell; a spirit all wounds; who can
A wounded spirit bear?
Reader, would'st see, what may you never feel
Despair, racks, torments, whips of burning steel!
Behold, the man's the furnace, in whose heart
Sin hath created hell; O in each part
What flames appear:
His thoughts all stings; words, swords;
Brimstone his breath;
His eyes flames; wishes curses, life a death;
A thousand deaths live in him, he not dead;
A breathing corpse in living, scalding lead.' –Fearful Estate of
Francis Spira.–Ed.
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