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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 VII.
OF THE REPETITION OF LIGHT AGAINST LIGHT IN THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON.
o be sure it was not superfluously done of the Holy Ghost to make
repetition of these words, "And light was against light in three ranks,"
therefore something is intended in the adding of them again that was not intended
by the first mentioning of them (1 Kings 7:4,5).
I have told you what I thought was intended by the first rehearsal of them, namely,
to show how Antichrist got in with his sensuality, and opposed it to the true light
of the Word of God, exalting himself above God, and also above all Divine revelation;
this was his light against light. But, I say, why is it repeated? For he saith, "Light
was against light in three ranks" again. Truly, I think it is repeated to show
the evil effects the first antichristian opposition would have in the church of God,
towards the end of her wilderness state. For, "light against light" now,
for that it is here repeated, is to show us some new thing, or, as far as wood and
windows can speak, to let us understand what would be the consequence of those antichristian
figments[11] that were brought into the church at first by him.
For can it be imagined but that, since so much confusion was brought into the church,
some of the truly godly themselves would be much damnified thereby? The apostle says,
"Evil communication corrupts good manners" (1 Cor 15:33). And that "their
word will eat as doth a canker" (1 Tim 2:17). Mischief therefore must needs
follow this ugly deed of the man of sin. If a house be on fire, though it is not
burnt down, the smell of the flame may long remain there; also we count it no wonder
to see some of the effects upon the rafters, beams, and some of the principal posts
thereof. The calf that was set up at Dan defiled that people until the captivity
of the land (Judg 18:30).
And I say again, since light against light was so early in the church in the wilderness,
and has also been there so long, and again, since many in this church were both born
and bred there under these oppositions of light, it is easy to conclude that something
of the enemy's darkness might be also called light by the sincere that followed after.
For by antichristian darkness, though they might call it light, the true light was
darkened, and so the eye made dim, even the eye of the truly godly. Also the Holy
Ghost did much withdraw itself from the church, so the doctrines, traditions, and
rudiments of the world took more hold there, and spread themselves more formidably
over the face of that whole church. For after the first angel had sounded, and the
star was fallen from heaven to the earth, and had received the key of the bottomless
pit, and had opened the mouth thereof, the smoke came out amain. This angel was one
of the first dads of antichristianism, and this smoke was that which they call light,
but it was "light against light." "And he opened the bottomless pit,
and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the
sun and the air were darkened, by reason of the smoke of the pit" (Rev 9:1,2).
The sun I take to be the gospel of God, and the air a type of the breathings of the
Holy Ghost. The smoke I take to be the doctrines and traditions of Antichrist; that
which was, as I said before, put for light against the true light of the Word. Now,
since the sun and the air were darkened by this smoke, yea, and so darkened as that
the sun, nor moon, nor stars, nor day, nor night, could shine for a third part of
them; no marvel though the true worshippers here were benighted, or, at least, had
but little light to walk by; yea, I have known some that have been born and bred
up in smokey holes, that have been made, both in smell and sight, to carry the tokens
of their so being bred about them.
And I say again, as to what is now under our consideration, no marvel if they that
breathed in this church in the wilderness, after the smoke came out of this pit,
sucked in the smoke with the air until it became natural to them. A house annoyed
with smoke is a great offence to the eyes, whose light being thereby impaired, the
judgment also, since that, as to visibles, is guided by the eye, must needs be in
danger of being in part misled. And this being the effect of light against light
at first, is the cause of what to this day we see in the church among the true brotherhood.
For as a cause produceth an effect, so oftentimes an effect sets on foot another
cause.
Now, therefore, we have light against light among the godly, as afore there was antichristian
against the Christian light. Not that light against light is now godly in the all
of it. It is antichristian that opposes the Christian light still. But, as before,
the darkness that opposed the light was in the antichristians, now that darkness
is got into the Christians, and has set them against one another. Light therefore
against light now is in the Christians, truly prefigured by that which was in the
house of the forest of Lebanon. Witness the jars, the oppositions, the contentions,
emulations, strifes, debates, whisperings, tumults, and condemnations that, like
cannon-shot, have so frequently on all sides been let fly against one another.
Shall I need to mention particularly contests many years past, and presented to us
in print? Words and papers now in print, as also the many petty divisions and names
amongst us, sufficiently make this manifest. Wherefore light against light in this
last place, or where it is thus repeated, cannot, I think, be more fitly applied
than to that now under our consideration; that is to say, than to the opposite persuasions,
different apprehensions, and thwart conclusions, that are constantly drawn from the
same texts to maintain a diverse practice. Though we are to acknowledge with thankfulness
that this opposition lies not so much in fundamentals as in things of a lesser import.
The godly all hold the head, for there Antichrist could never divide them; their
divisions therefore are, as I said, only about smaller things. I do not say that
the antichristian darkness has done nothing in the church as to the hurting it in
the great things of God. But, I say, it has not been able to do that which could
sever their Head from them, otherwise there appears even too much of the effect of
his doings there. For even, as to the offices of our Lord, some will have his authority
more large, some more strait. Some confine his rules to themselves and to their more
outward qualification, and some believe they are extended further. Some will have
his power in his church purely spiritual, others again would have it mixed. Some
count his Word perfect and sufficient to guide in all religious matters, others again
hold that an addition of something human is necessary. Some are for confining of
his benefits, in the saving effects of them, only to the elect, others are for a
stretching of them further. I might here multiply things, but that light against
light is now among the godly as light against light was in the house of the forest
of Lebanon, is not at all to be questioned.
This therefore may stand for another argument to prove that the house of the forest
of Lebanon was a type of the church in the wilderness. As to the number here, that
is to say, in three ranks, it is also, as I think, to show that, though, as was said
afore, this darkness could not sever the true church from her Head, yet it has eclipsed
the glory of things. By two lights a man cannot see this or that thing so exactly
as by one single light; no, they both make all confused though they make not all
invisible (Matt 6:22,23).
As, for instance, sun-light and moon-light together, fire- light and sun-light together,
candle-light and moon-light together, make things more obscure than to look on them
by a single light. The Word reflecting upon the understanding, without the interposing
of man's traditions, makes the mind of God to a man more clear than when attended
with the other. How much more then when light shall be against light in three ranks?
Christ in his offices, blessed be God, is to this day known in his church, notwithstanding
there is yet with us light against light in three ranks. But in these things he is
not so distinctly, fully, and completely known, as he was before the church went
into the wilderness. No, that knowledge is lost to a "third part" of it,
as was also showed before (Rev 8:12).
Things therefore will never be well in the church of God so long as there is thus
light against light therein. When there is but one Lord among us and his name One,
and when divisions, by the consent of the whole, are banished, I mean, not persecuted,
but abandoned in all by a joint consent, and when every man shall submit his own
single opinion to those truths, that by their being retained are for the health of
all, then look for good days, and not until then. For this house of the forest of
Lebanon, in which, as you see, there is "light against light in three ranks,"
was not built to prefigure the church in her primitive state, but to show us how
we should be while standing before the face of the dragon, and while shifting for
ourselves in the wilderness.
And although by her pillars, and beauty, and tower, aye, and by her facing the very
metropolitan of her enemies, she showeth that the true grace of God is in her, and
a strength and courage that is invincible, yet for that she has also affixed to her
station "Light against light in three ranks." It is evident her eye is
not so single, and consequently that her body is not so full of light, as she will
be when her sackcloth is put off, and as when she has put on her beautiful garments.
For then it is that her moon is to shine as the sun, and that the light of her sun
is to be sevenfold, even as the light of seven days, then, I say, "When the
Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound"
(Isa 30:26).
You know that a kingdom flourishes not so long as it is the seat of war, but when
that is over peace and prosperity flourishes. This house, as has been hinted, was
a type of the church in a wood, a forest, a wilderness.
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