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A Wherein is also shewed, the equally deplorable condition of the Pharisee, or hypocritical and self-righteous man; and of the Publican, or sinner that lives in sin, and in open violation of the Divine laws. Together with the way and method of God's F R E E - G R A C E in pardoning penitent sinners; proving that He justifies them by imputing Christ's righteousness to them. By J O H N.B U N Y A N, Author of "THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS." |
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.
his important treatise unvails, in few but telling
words, the nature of prayer, about which mankind has made most awful mistakes. Multitudes
conceive that the heart-searching God can be influenced and propitiated by eloquent
words and forms of prayer; whilst the few, who are taught by the Holy Spirit, feel
and know that the ardent desire, the aspirations, the fervent wishes of the mind,
can alone be accepted by the Eternal; and even then only through the merits of the
Redeemer.
The first edition appeared in 1635, and it soon became a very popular book. The use
and application announced at the end do not appear to have been published, unless
the author meant one of his later productions to answer that purpose. The twelfth
edition has no date on the title page; to it is added Bunyan's last Sermon, and his
dying sayings,–"Licensed, Sept. 10th, 1688"; but this announcement had
been probably continued from some earlier edition. The number of cheap reprints of
this little volume may account, in some measure, for the amazing errors which crept
in and deformed the book; for with the exception of "Grace Abounding,"
"The Pilgrim," and "The Holy War," few books have been so carelessly
and disgracefully printed. For more than a century Bunyan has been represented as
saying, "How did God deal with sinners before his righteousness was actually
in being." In fact, no reader can conceive the mutilated state in which this
valuable treatise has been published, unless by actual comparison with those printed
before the author's decease. Some considerable omissions, doubtless, arose from political
causes. Bunyan died very shortly before the glorious revolution in 1688,–and in drawing
a faithful portrait of a publican or tax gatherer, he supposed the country to be
conquered by a foreign power. "Would it not be an insufferable thing? yea, did
not that man deserve hanging ten times over, that should, being a Dutchman, fall
in with a French invader, and farm at his hands, those cruel and grievous taxations,
which he, in barbarous wise, should at his conquest lay upon them; and exact and
force them to be paid with an over, and above of what is appointed." He goes
on to argue, that if this would be a severe trial at the hand of a foreigner, how
much more oppressive would it appear if exercised by a fellow countryman.
"If these things are intolerable, what shall we think of such men as shall join
to all this compliance with a foreign prince, to rob the church of God? yea, that
shall become a man in power under them, to wring out of the hand of a brother, his
estate; yea, his bread and livelihood." These paragraphs, and much more, were
omitted, probably, from a fear of giving offence to the new government, and, until
the present edition, they had not been restored. In Bunyan's time, severe and awful
persecutions fell upon the church of God in England, and he must have felt the utmost
compassion, mingled with deep abhorrence, for those emissaries of Satan, the Informers,
who plundered mercilessly all who refused obedience to the order of common prayer.
These men, aided by fanatic justices and clergymen, reduced many pious families to
the severest sufferings, while thousands fled to the wilds of America for that refuge
among men called savages, which was denied them by their much more savage countrymen.
It is distressing to read the narrative, published in 1670, of those proceedings
in Bedford, while Bunyan was an inmate in its jail. The porters, charged to assist
in carrying off the people's goods, ran away, saying, that "they would be hanged,
drawn, and quartered, before they would assist in that work"; two of them were
sent to gaol for thus refusing to aid in this severe enforcement of impious laws.
This populous town "was so thin of people that it looked more like a country
village than a corporation; and the shops being generally shut down, it seemed like
a place visited with the pest, where usually is written upon the door–Lord, have
mercy upon us." When in the presence of the justice the officers took all his
goods from Thomas Arthur, he appealed to the humane feelings of the magistrate on
behalf of his children,–"Sir, shall my children starve," to which he replied,
"yes, your children shall starve." All these bitter sufferings were inflicted
for worshipping God according to the directions of his holy word. Can we wonder then
that Bunyan uses hard words. He felt that state hierarchies were anti-christian;
their fruit declared that those who supported them by such cruelties were aliens
and enemies to the church of Christ.
As a theological treatise, this of the Pharisee and Publican is invaluable. It is
clear and perfectly intelligible to every candid and prayerful inquirer. When our
author is proving the impossibility of a sinner's recommending himself to the divine
favour by any imperfect good works of his own, he draws a vivid picture. A lord invites
his friends to a sumptuous banquet, the provision is bountiful and in rich abundance,
when some of the guests take a few mouldy crusts out of their pockets and lay them
on their plates, lest the prince had not provided a sufficient repast for his friends;
"would it not be a high affront to, a great contempt of, and a distrust in,
the goodness of the Lord." We are bound to produce good works as a fruit of
faith–a proof of love to him that hath redeemed us, but not to recommend us to his
favour. The picture of such a feast drawn by John Bunyan must make upon every reader
a deep, a lasting, an indelible impression.
How bitter and how true is the irony, when the Pharisee is represented as saying,
"I came to thy feast out of civility, but for thy dainties I need them not,
I have enough of my own; I thank thee for thy kindness, but I am not as those that
stand in need of thy provisions, nor yet as this Publican." And how excellent
is the reasoning and the Christian philosophy of that paragraph which was suppressed
after Bunyan's death. The language is bold and striking, but it exhibits the unvarnished
truth; an inward change of nature is the only cause of good and acceptable works–good
or evil actions are but the evidences of our state by grace or by nature–they do
not work that change or produce that state. It is a soul-humbling view of our state
of death by sin, or of life by the righteousness and obedience of Christ. Bunyan's
train of reasoning on Romans 5 is worthy of our profound consideration,–"When
we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." What is
a sinful man in himself, or in his approach to God, but as stubble fully dry in the
presence of a consuming fire, unless he is washed and cleansed by the atoning sacrifice
of Jesus.
May the glorified spirit of Bunyan rejoice among the angels of heaven, over souls
converted by the instrumentality of this solemn and searching treatise.
GEORGE OFFOR.
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