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Christian Behavior With a word of direction to all backsliders. By J O H N.B U N Y A N. 1674. Written in 1663, while imprisoned in Bedford Prison. This was John Bunyan's third book during his first incarceration. |
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.
his valuable practical treatise, was first published
as a pocket volume about the year 1674, soon after the author's final release from
his long and dangerous imprisonment. It is evident from the concluding paragraph
that he considered his liberty and even his life to be still in a very uncertain
state; not from the infirmities of age, for he was then in the prime of life; but
from the tyranny of the government, and probably from the effects of his long incarceration
in a damp, unhealthy jail. It is the best and most scriptural guide that has ever
appeared to aid us in the performance of relative duties: written with originality
of thought and that peculiar and pious earnestness which so distinguishes all his
works.
No one can read this book, without finding in it his own portrait truly and correctly
drawn to the life. Many have been the hearers of the word in its public ministration,
who have been astonished that a faithful minister has not only opened their outward
conduct, but the inward recesses of their hearts and have inquired with wonder, 'Where
could he get such a knowledge of my heart?' The usages and feelings of every part
of the human family the rich and poor outward professors or openly profane God fearers
or God defiers are displayed in the following pages as accurately as if the author
had been present in every family upon earth, and had not only witnessed the conduct
of the happy and of the miserable in every grade; but he goes within and unvails
that mystery of iniquity the human heart, its secret springs, feelings, and machinations.
What mysterious power could this uneducated man have possessed, thus to dive into
the most subtle of all secret repositories, the human heart! Could he have left his
body at times and his invisible spirit have entered all chambers, as was said of
an ancient philosopher, [1] still time would have been too short even to have transiently surveyed
outward conduct; and then he could not have entered into the thoughts of others.
Reader, the fountain of all hidden things was open to him. Shut up for many years
in prison, with the key in his possession which unlocks all the mysteries of earth,
and heaven, and hell he diligently used his time and all was revealed to him. He
makes the source of his knowledge no secret, but invites you to search, as he did,
this storehouse of things new and old. It was the Bible which unfolded to him all
the great events of time and of eternity all the secret springs of states, and families,
and individuals wonderous book! It made an uneducated artizan wiser than all the
philosophers who have been contented with Plato, Aristotle, Pliny, Plutarch, and
the most renowned of human writers. Not only is the real state of human nature revealed
with unerring truth, as suffering under a cruel malady, strangely diverse in its
operations, but all tending to the downward, dark, dreary road to misery temporal
and eternal: but it also displays the antidote; an infallible remedy against all
the subtilties of this tortuous disease. Reader, this treasure is in our hands. How
great is the responsibility.
How blessed are those who with earnest prayer for divine illumination, read, ponder,
and relying upon the aid of the Holy Spirit, understand and instantly obey the sacred
precepts which its pages unfold. Weigh well their nature and tendency, as Bunyan
opens them in this invaluable treatise. They lead step by step from darkness to light.
It may be a tempestuous passage in the dim twilight, as it was with him, but it is
safe and leads to the fountain of happiness the source of blessedness the presence
and smiles of God and the being conformed to his image. In proportion as we are thus
transformed in our minds, we shall be able to fulfil all our duties and behavior
as becometh Christians. We dare not seek to avoid these duties because they are full
of anxieties. Blessed are those who know and feel the ties of church fellowship or
the nearer union of husband and wife, that type of the mystical union of Christ and
his church. Happy are those who piously discharge parental and filial duties, that
figure of the relationship which the Almighty, in infinite condescension, owns between
him and his fallen but renewed creatures.
...we are bound, in the expectation of the divine approbation, not to shrink from
duties, but to seek wisdom to fulfil them; and in this little work we have a scriptural
guide to which we shall do well to take heed. It is a peculiarly solemn legacy the
author's ardent desire is thus expressed; 'Before I die [as the greatest of all the
duties he had to perform] let me provoke you to faith and holiness.' Be it our duty
and privilege to examine our conduct faithfully by those portions of holy writ, with
which this treatise is beautifully adorned. It was written in the prospect of sufferings
and death, and yet how serene was his soul. No cloud, no doubts or fears are seen;
his legacy to us as well as to those who survived him is, 'Love one another when
I am deceased.' My labours of love to you are limited to this world. 'Though there
I shall rest from my labours, and be in paradise, as through grace, I comfortably
believe; yet it is not there but here I must do you good.' Consider what he has advanced,
and the scriptures by which every sentence is confirmed, and may his concluding and
fervent prayer be answered to our souls: 'The Lord give us understanding in all things.
Farewell.'
GEO. OFFOR.
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