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A By J O H N.B U N Y A N. Published by Charles Doe, 1692. Published four years after John Bunyan's death. |
CHAPTER VI.
OF THE DOORS AND POSTS, AND THEIR SQUARE, WITH THE WINDOWS OF THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST
OF LEBANON.
nd all the doors and posts were square, with the windows."
The doors, they were for entrance, the posts were the support of the doors, and the
windows were, as was hinted before, for light. Now here they are said to be all square;
square is a note of perfection; but this word square may be taken two ways. 1. Either
as to the fashion of the things themselves; or, 2. With reference to the uniform
order of the whole.
In the first sense was the altar of burnt-offering, the altar of incense, and the
breastplate of judgment, square (Exo 27:1, 28:16; 30:2). And so also it is said of
our New Testament New Jerusalem (Rev 21:16). But the square in the text is not thus
to be understood, but if I mistake not, as is signified under the second head, that
is for an uniform order. The whole fabric, as the doors, posts, and windows, presented
themselves to beholders in an exact uniform order, and so right delectable to behold.
Hence we may gather that this house of the forest of Lebanon was so exactly built,
and consequently so complete to view, that it was alluring to the beholders; and
that the more, for that so pretty a fabric should be found in a forest or wood. A
lily among thorns, a pearl on a dunghill, and beauty under a veil, will make one
turn aside to look on it.
Answerable to this, the church, even in the wilderness, or under persecution, is
compared not only to a woman, but to a comely and delicate woman. And who, that shall
meet such a creature in a wood, unless he feared God, but would seek to ravish and
defile her.
Therefore I say, that which is here said to be square, must be understood to be so,
as to prospect and view, or right taking to the eye.
Thus therefore they are allured, and think to defile her in the bed of love; but
coming to her, and finding of her chaste, and filled with nothing but armour, and
men at arms, to maintain her chastity, nolens volens—their fleshly love is turned
into cruel rage, and so they go to variance.
"I have likened," says God, "The daughter of Zion to a comely and
delicate woman" (Jer 6:2). But where is she? O! she is in the field, in the
forest among the shepherds. But what will they do with her? Why, because she complies
not with their desires, they "prepare war against her," saying, "Arise,
let us go up at noon. Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces"
(Jer 6:4,5). Wherefore the beauty of the house of the forest of Lebanon, as well
as the fortitude thereof, was a temptation to the enemy to come to take it into their
possession; especially since it stood, as it were, on the borders of Israel, and
so faced the enemy's country.
Thus the church, though in her weeds of widowhood, is become the desire of the eyes
of the nations; for indeed her features are such, considering who is her head, where
mostly to the eye beauty lies, that whoso sees but the utmost glimpse of her, is
easily ravished with her beauties. See how the prophet words it—"Many nations
are gathered together against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye
look upon Zion" (Micah 4:11).
The church, the very name of the church of God, is beautiful in the world; and, as
among women, she that has beauty has her head desired, if it might be, to stand upon
another woman's shoulders; so this, and that, and every nation that beholds the beauty
of the church, would fain be called by that name. The church, one would think, was
but in a homely dress when she was coming out of captivity; and yet then the people
of the countries desired to be one with her. "Let us [said they to Zerubbabel,
and to the fathers of the church] build with you, for we seek your God as ye do"
(Ezra 4:2).
The very name of the church, as I said, is striven for of the world, but that is
the church which Christ has made so; her features also remain with herself, as this
comely prospect of the house of the forest of Lebanon abode with it, whoever beheld
or wished for it. The beauty therefore of this house, though it stood in the forest,
was admirable; even as is the beauty of the church in the wilderness, though in a
bewildered state.
Hear the relation that the Holy Ghost gives of the intrinsic beauty of the church,
when she was to go to be in a persecuted state; she was "clothed with the sun,
and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev
12:1). And yet now the dragon stood by her (Rev 12:4). But I say, Here is a woman!
let who will attempt it, show such another in the world, if he can.[10]
They therefore that have any regard to morality, civility, or to ceremonial comeliness,
covet to be of the church of God, or to appropriate that glorious title to themselves.
And here, indeed, Antichrist came in; she took this name to herself; and though she
could not come at the sun, nor moon, nor stars, to adorn herself with them, yet she
has found something that makes her comely in her followers' eyes. See how the Holy
Ghost sets her forth. She "was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked
with gold and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand,"
&c. (Rev 17:4). Hence she is called, "The well- favoured harlot," "the
lady of kingdoms," &c. (Nahum 3:4; Isa 47:5,7).
But because the chaste matron, the spouse of Christ, would not allow this slut to
run away with this name, therefore she gets upon the back of her beast, and by him
pushes this woman into the dirt; but because her faith and love to her husband remains,
she turns again, and pleads by her titles, her features, and ornaments, that she,
and she only, is she whose square answereth to the square of her figure, and to the
character which her Lord hath given of his own, and so the game began. For so soon
as this mistress became a dame in the world, and found that she had her stout abettors,
she attempts to turn all things topsy-turvy, and to set them and to make of them
what she lists. And now she will have an altar like that which was Tiglath-pileser's.
Now must the Lord's brazen altar be removed from its place, the borders of the basis
must be cut off, and the laver removed from off them; the molten sea must also now
be taken off the backs of the brazen oxen, where Solomon set it, and be set on a
pavement of stone (2 Kings 16:10-17).
Solomon! alas, Solomon's nobody now; this woman is wiser in her own conceit than
seven men that can render a reason. Now also the covert for the Sabbath must be turned
to the use of the king of Assyria, &c. (2 Kings 16:18). Thus has the beauty of
God's church betrayed her into the hands of her lovers, who loved her for themselves,
for the devil, and for the making of her a seat, a throne for the man of sin. And
poor woman, all her struggling and striving, and crying out under the hands of these
ravishers, has not, as yet, delivered her, though it has saved her life (Deut 22:25-
27).
But though thus it has been with Christ's true church, and will be as long as his
enemy Antichrist reigns, yet the days will come when her God will give her her ornaments,
and her bracelets, and her liberty, and her joy, that she had in the day of her espousals.
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