A RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE TO THE WORKS OF Mr. JOHN BUNYAN.
A RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE to the Works of Mr. JOHN BUNYAN.
_Christian Reader_,
IF such thou art in reality, or if only a bare outward professor, thou needest not be informed, that the all-gracious _Emmanuel_, in the days of his flesh, after he had given us a glorious display of the divine sovereignty in dispensing the everlasting gospel, broke forth into these emphatic words, “I thank thee, Holy Father, LORD of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Agreeable to this, says the great Apostle of the _Gentiles_, “GOD hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise: and GOD hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath GOD chosen, yea, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are.” And why? That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Perhaps, next to the first publishers of the gospel of the blessed GOD, these sayings were never more strongly exemplified in any single individual (at least in this, or the last century) than in the conversion, ministry and writings of that eminent servant of JESUS CHRIST, Mr. _John Bunyan_, who was of the meanest occupation, and a notorious sabbath-breaker, drunkard, swearer, blasphemer, &c. by habitual practice: And yet, through rich, free, sovereign, distinguishing grace, he was chosen, called, and afterwards formed, by the all-powerful operations of the Holy Ghost, to be a scribe ready instructed to the kingdom of GOD. The two volumes of his works formerly published; with the great success that attended them in pulling down Satan’s strong-holds in sinners hearts, when sent forth in small detached parties, are pregnant proofs of this. Some of them have gone through a great variety of editions. His _Pilgrims Progress_ in particular, hath been translated into various languages, and to this day is read with the greatest pleasure, not only by the truly serious, of divers religious persuasions, but likewise by those, to whom pleasure is the end of reading. Surely it is an original, and we may say of it, to use the words of the great Doctor _Goodwin_ in his preface to the epistle to the _Ephesians_, that it smells of the prison. It was written when the author was confined in _Bedford-goal_. And ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross: the spirit of CHRIST and of glory then rests upon them.
It was this, no doubt, that made the _Puritans_ of the last century such burning and shining lights. When cast out by the black _Bartholomew-act_, and driven from their respective charges to preach in barns and fields, in the highways and hedges, they in an especial manner wrote and preached as men having authority. Though dead, by their writings they yet speak: a peculiar unction attends them to this very hour; and for these thirty years past I have remarked, that the more, true and vital religion hath revived either at home or abroad, the more the good old puritanical writings, or the authors of a like stamp who lived and died in communion of the church of _England_, have been called for. Among these may be justly reckoned those great luminaries, Bishop _Jewel_, _Usher_, _Andrews_, _Hall_, _Reynolds_, _Hopkins_, _Wilkins_, _Edwards_, who, notwithstanding a difference of judgment in respect to outward church-government, all agreed (as their printed works manifestly evince) in asserting and defending the grand essential truths for which the Puritans, though matters of an inferior nature were urged as a pretext, chiefly suffered, and were ejected. The impartial Doctor _Hodges_ therefore (late provost of _Oriel College_ in _Oxford_) in his elaborate treatise intitled _Elihu_, hath done himself honour in saying, that “the old Puritans and Presbyterians in general, till a division happened lately among them, deserve praise for their steady and firm adherence to the principal and fundamental doctrines of christianity.” Their works still praise them in the gates; and without pretending to a spirit of prophecy, we may venture to affirm, that they will live and flourish, when more modern performances, of a contrary cast, notwithstanding their gaudy and tinselled trappings, will languish and die in the esteem of those, whose understandings are opened to discern what comes nearest to the scripture standard.