Ye do not furnish them with what they need,
What boots it? Thus faith without works is dead.
Yea may a man say, thou dost faith profess,
And I good works, to me thy faith express
Without thy works, and I will plainly show
My faith unto thee by the works I do.
Thou dost believe there is one God, 'tis true,
The devils do believe and tremble too.

But wilt thou know, vain man, that faith is dead,
Which with good works is not accompany'd.
Was not our father Abraham justify'd

By works, and by the same his faith was try'd;
When he his Isaac to the altar brought;

Seest thou how with his works his faith then wrought?
And with his works he perfected his faith?
And so the scripture was fulfill'd, which saith,
Abraham believed God, and 'twas imputed
For righteousness, and he God's friend reputed.
Thus may you see, that by works ev'ry one
Is justify'd, and not by faith alone.
Thus was the harlot Rahab justify'd

By works, when she the messengers did hide,
And by another way their feet did guide.
For as the body's dead without the spirit,
So faith without works never can inherit.

CHAP. III.

Affect not, brethren, superiority,
As knowing that we shall receive thereby
The greater condemnation in the end:
For we in many things do all offend.

Who doth not with his tongue offend, he can
Guide his whole body, he's a perfect man.
Behold, in horses' mouths we bridles put,
To rule and turn their bodies quite about.
Behold likewise the ships, which tho' they be
Of mighty bulk, and thro' the raging sca
Are driv'n by the strength of winds, yet they
By a small helm the pilot's will obey.
Ev'n so the tongue of man, which tho' it be
But a small member, in a high degree
It boasts of things. Behold, we may remark
How great a matter's kindled by a spark.
The tongue's a fire, a world of ill, which plac'd
Among the members, often has disgrac'd
All the whole body, firing the whole frame
Of nature, and is kindl'd by hell flame.

All kind of beasts and birds that can be nam'd,
Serpents and fishes, are and have been tam'd
By mankind; but the tongue can no man tame,
A stubborn evil full of deadly bane.

We therewith God the Father bless, and we
Therewith curse men made like the Deity:
Blessing and cursing from the same mouth flow,
These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.
Is
any fountain of so strange a nature,

At once to send forth sweet and bitter water ?
Can olives, brethren, on a fig-tree grow,
Or figs on vines? no more can water flow
From the same fountain sweet and bitter too.
He that's endu'd with wisdom and discretion
Amongst you, let that man by the profession
Of meekness, wisely give a demonstration,
Of all his works, from a good conversation.

But if your hearts are full of bitterness
And strife, boast not, nor do the truth profess.
This wisdom is not from above descending,

But earthly, sensual, and to evil tending:

For where there's strife and envying there's confusion

And ev'ry evil work in the conclusion.

But the true wisdom that is from above,

Is, in the first place, pure, then full of love,
Then gentle and entreated easily,

Next merciful, without partiality,

Full of good fruits, without hypocrisy.

And what is more, the fruits of righteousness

Is sown in peace, of them that do make peace.

CHAP. IV.

From whence come wars and fights, come they not hence,
Ev'n from th' inordinate concupiscence

That in your members prompts to variance?
You lust and have not, kill and desire to have;
But ne'ertheless obtain not what you crave.
With war and fighting ye contend, yet have not
The things which you desire, because you crave not;
Ye crave but don't receive, the reason's just,
Ye crave amiss to spend it on your lust.
You that live in adultery, know not ye
The friendship of the world is enmity
With God? He is God's enemy therefore
That doth the friendship of the world adore.
Do ye think that th' scripture saith in vain,
The spirit that lusts to hate, doth in you reign?
But he bestows more grace, wherefore he says,
God scorns the proud, but doth the humble raise.
Unto the Lord therefore submissive be,
Resist the devil and he'll from you flee.
Draw nigh to God, and he'll to you draw nigh.
Make clean your hands you sinners, purify
Your hearts you double-minded, weep and mourn,
And be afflicted, let your laughter turn
To sorrow, and your joy to sadness: stoop
Before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
My brethren, speak not evil of each other;
He that doth judge and speak ill of his brother,
Doth judge and speak ill of the law; therefore
If thou dost judge the law, thou art no more
A doer of the same, but dost assume
The judgment-seat, and art thyself become
A judge thereof. There is but one law-giver,
That's able to destroy and to deliver;

Who then art thou that dost condemn thy neighbour?
Go to now, you that say, to such a place
To-morrow will we go, and for the space
Of one whole year, or so, will there remain,
And buy and sell, and get great store of gain:
Whereas ye know not what a day may do.
For what's the life of man? Ev'n like unto
A vapour, which, tho' for a while it may
Appear, it quickly vanisheth away.
So that ye ought to say, If God permit
Us life and health, we will accomplish it.
But now ye glory in your confidence,
Such glorying is of evil consequence.

He therefore that doth know, and doth not act
The thing that's good, doth guilt thereby contract.

CHAP. V.*

howl and cry,

Go to now,
ye rich men,
Because of your approaching misery:
Your riches are corrupted, and the moths
Have ent'red, and have eaten up your clothes.
Your gold and silver's canker'd, and the rust
Thereof, shall be an evidence that's just
Against you, and like fire your flesh devour:
Against the last days ye have heap'd up store.
The hire of them that reaped down your field,
The which by you is wrongfully withheld,
Cries, and the voice thereof hath reach'd the ears
Ev'n of the God of sabbath, and he hears.

Your lives in pleasure ye on earth have led,
And as in days of slaughter nourished

Your wanton hearts, and have condemn'd and slain

The just, and he doth not resist again.
Be patient therefore, brethren, ev'n unto
The coming of the Lord: behold, ev'n so
The husbandman expecteth patiently
The precious increase of the earth to see,
With patience waiting till he doth obtain
The showers of early and of latter rain.
So be ye patient, fixing stedfastly

Your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draws nigh.
Grieve not each other, brethren, lest ye bear
The condemnation; † lo! the judge stands near.
The prophets, brethren, who all heretofore
In the name of the Lord their witness bore,

By a typographical error, in the original edition, it is misprinted CHAP. XLVI.

+ How admirably does Bunyan enlarge upon this in his 'Peaceable principles yet true.'

Take for examples in their sufferings

And patience: they that endure such things,
Ye know are counted blest. Have ye not read
Of Job, how patiently he suffered?

Have ye not seen in him what was God's end;
How he doth pity and great love extend?
My brethren, but above all things forbear,
By heav'n or earth, or otherwise to swear;
But let your yea be yea, your nay be nay,
Lest ye become reproveable I say.

Let him sing psalms that's merry; he that's griev'd,

Let him by prayer seek to be reliev'd.

If any of you by sickness be distress'd,

Let him the elders of the church request

That they would come and pray for him a while;
Anointing him in the Lord's name with oil;
So shall the pray'r that is of faith restore
The sick, and God shall raise him as before.
And all th' offences which he hath committed
Shall be forgiv'n, and he shall be acquitted.
Confess your faults each one unto his brother,
And put up supplications for each other,
That so you may be heal'd; the fervency
Of just men's prayers prevails effectually.
Elias was a man as frail as we are,

And he was earnest with the Lord in pray'r,
That there might be no rain, and for the space
Of three years and six months no rain there was:
And afterward, when he again made suit,

The heav'n gave rain, the earth brought forth her fruit.

If any one shall from the truth desert,

And one, my brethren, shall that man convert;
Let him be sure, that he that doth recall
The poor backsliding sinner from his fall,
Shall save a soul from death, and certainly
Shall hide a multitude of sins thereby.

BEING in company with an enlightened society of Protestant dissenters of the Baptist denomination, I observed to a doctor of divinity, who was advancing towards his seventieth year, that my time had been delightfully engaged with John Bunyan's commentary on Genesis. What,' said the D.D., with some appearance of incredulity, Bunyan a commentator-upon Genesis!! Impossible! Well, I never heard of that work of the good Bunyan before. Why, where is it to be found?' Yes, it is true that he has commented on that portion of sacred scripture, containing the cosmogony of creation-the fall of man-the first murder-the deluge and other facts which have puzzled the most learned men of every age; and he has proved to be more learned than all others in his spiritual perceptions. He graduated at a higher university -a university unshackled by human laws, conventional feelings, and preconceived opinions. His intense study of the Bible, guided by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, enabled him to throw a new and beautiful light upon objects which are otherwise obscure. Oh! that young ministers, while attaining valuable book learning, may see the necessity of taking a high degree in, and of never forgetting this Bible university! Reader, is it not surprizing, that such a treatise should have remained comparatively hidden for more than one hundred and fifty years. It has been reprinted in many editions of Bunyan's works: but in all, except the first, with the omission of the scripture references; and with errors of so serious a character as if it was not intended to be read. Even in printing the text of Ge. vii. 7. Noah's three sons do not enter the ark! although in viii. 16. they are commanded to go forth out of the ark. It is now presented to the public exactly as the author left it, with the addition of notes, which it is hoped will illustrate and not encumber the text.

lished in that form and under a proper title, it would most probably have become a very popular work. The author's qualifications for writing this commentary were exclusively limited to his knowledge of holy writ. To book learning he makes no pretensions. He tells us that in his youth 'God put it into my parents' hearts to put me to school, to learn to read and write as other poor men's children; though, to my shame, I confess, I did soon lose that little I learnt even almost utterly.'* In after life, his time was occupied in obtaining a livelihood by labour. When enduring severe mental conflicts, and while he maintained his family by the work of his hands, he was an acceptable pastor, and extensively useful in itinerant labours of love in the villages round Bedford. His humility, when he had used three common Latin words, prompted him to say in the margin, The Latine I borrow.'t And this unlettered mechanic, when he might have improved himself in book wisdom, was shut up within the walls of a prison for nearly thirteen years, for obeying God, only solaced with his Bible and Fox's Book of Martyrs. Yet he made discoveries relative to the creation, which have been very recently again published by a learned philosopher, who surprised and puzzled the world with his vestiges of creation. Omitting the fanciful theories of the vestige philosopher, his two great facts, proved by geological discoveries, are-I. That when the world was created and set in motion, it was upon principles by which it is impelled on to perfection—a state of irresistible progress in improvement. This is the theory of Moses: and Bunyan's exposition is, that all was finished, even to the creation of all the souls which were to animate the human race, and then God rested from his work. II. The second geological discovery is that the world was far advanced towards perfection, producing all that was needful for human life, before man was created. Upon this subject, Bunyan's words are- God

shews his respect to this excellent creature, in that he first provideth for him before he giveth him his being. He bringeth him not to an empty house, but to one well furnished with all kind of necessaries, having beautified the heaven and the earth with glory, and all sorts of nourishment for his pleasure and sustenance.'* But the most pious penetration is exhibited in the spiritualizing of the creation and of the flood-every step produces some type of that new creation, or regeneration, without which no soul can be fitted for heaven. The dim twilight before the natural sun was made, is typical of the state of those who believed before Christ, the Sun of righteousness, arose and was manifested. The fixed stars are emblems of the church, whose members all shine, but with different degrees of lustre - sometimes eclipsed, and at others mistaken for transient meteors. The whales and lions are figures of great persecutors. But the most singular idea of all is, that the moral degradation of human nature before the flood, was occasioned by hypocrisy and persecution for conscience sake, arising from governors interfering with matters of faith and worship; in fact, that a STATE CHURCH occasioned the deluge-and since that time has been the fruitful source of the miseries and wretchedness that has afflicted mankind. His prediction of the outpouring of the Spirit in the conversion of sinners, when the church shall be no longer enthralled and persecuted by the state, is remarkable. O thou church of God in England, which art now upon the waves of affliction and temptation, when thou comest out of the furnace, if thou come out at the bidding of God, there

* C. i. v. 26.

shall come out with thee, the fowl, the beast, and abundance of creeping things. O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.'t May this prediction soon be verified, and the temporal government no longer vex and torment the church by interfering with spiritual things.

It is remarkable that of the vast number of pious and enlightened mechanics who adorn this country and feed its prosperity, so few read the extraordinary writings of John Bunyan, a brother mechanic; for with the exception of the Pilgrim's Progress and Holy War, they are comparatively little known. His simple but illustrative commentary-his book of Antichrist-his solemn and striking treatise on the resurrection and final judg ment-in fact, all his works, are peculiarly calculated to inform the minds of the millions-to reform bad habits, and, under the divine blessing, to purify the soul with that heavenly wisdom which has in it the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come. It is also a fact which ought to be generally known, that those preachers who have edited Bunyan's works and have drunk into his spirit, have been most eminently blessed in their ministry; Wilson, Whitefield, and Ryland, can never be forgotten. If the thousands of godly preachers who are scattered over our comparatively happy island were to take Bunyan's mode of expounding scripture as their pattern, it would increase their usefulness, and consequently their happiness, in the great work of proclaiming and enforcing the doctrines of the gospel.-GEO. OFfor.

† C. viii. 16.

CHAP. I.

I. Of God.

GOD is a Spirit, Jn. iv. 24. eternal, De. xxxiii. 27. infinite, Ro. i. 17-20. incomprehensible, Job xi. 7. perfect, and unspeakably glorious in his being, attributes, and works. Ge. xvii. li. Is. vi. 3. Ex. xxxiii. 20. 'The eternal God.'

'Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.' Je. xxiii. 24. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight.' He. iv. 13. Pr. xv. 11. In his attributes of wisdom, power, justice, holiness, mercy, &c., he is also inconceivably perfect

and infinite, not to be comprehended by things in earth, or things in heaven; known in the perfection of his being only to himself. The seraphims cannot behold him, but through a veil; no man can see him in his perfection and live.

His attributes, though apart laid down in the word of God, that we, being weak, might the better conceive of his eternal power and godhead; yet in him they are without division; one glorious and eternal being. Again, though sometimes this, as of wisdom, or that, as of justice and mercy, is most manifest in his works and wonders before

Besides, no man must conceive of God, as if he consisted of these attributes, as our body doth of its members, one standing here, another there, for the completing personal subsistence. For though by the word we may distinguish, yet may we not divide them, or presume to appoint them their places in the Godhead. Wisdom is in his justice, holiness is in his power, justice is in his mercy, holiness is in his love, power is in his good

The Godhead is but one, yet in the Godhead there are three. There are three that can bear record in heaven.' 1 Jn. v. 7—9. These three are called the Father, the Son [Word], and the Holy Spirit;' each of which is really, naturally and eternally God: yet there is but one God. But again, because the Father is of himself, the Son by the Father, and the Spirit from them both, therefore to each, the scripture not only applieth, and that truly, the whole nature of the Deity, but again distinguisheth the Father from the Son, and the Spirit from them both; calling the Father HE, by himself; the Son HE, by himself; the Spirit HE, by himself. Yea, the Three of themselves, in their manifesting to the church what she should believe concerning this matter, hath thus expressed the thing: Let us make man in our image, after OUR likeness.' Ge. i. 26. Again, 'The man is become as one of us.' Ge. iii. 22. Again, 'Let us go down, and there confound their language:' Ge. xi. 6, 7. And again, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?' Is. vi. 8. To these general expressions might be added, That Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the midst of the garden: Ge. iii. 8. Which voice John will have, to be one of the Three, calling that which Moses here saith is the voice, the word of God: In the beginning,' saith he, 'was the word:' the voice which Adam heard walking in the midst of the garden. This word, saith John, was with God,' this word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.' Jn. i. 1, 2.

*Although no mortal mind can by searching find out the Almighty to perfection, yet Bunyan's views of the Divine Being is an approach to perfection. It is worthy the pen of the most profound christian philosopher.-ED.

Now the godly in former ages have called these three, thus in the Godhead, Persons or Subsistances; the which, though I condemn not, yet choose rather to abide by scripture phrase, knowing, though the other may be good and sound, yet the adversary must needs more shamelessly spurn and reject, when he doth it against the evident text.

To proceed then, First, There are Three. Second, These three are distinct.

First, By this word Three, is intimated the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and they are said to be three, 1. Because those appellations that are given them in scripture, demonstrate them so to be, to wit, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 2. Because their acts one towards another discover them so to be.

Secondly, These three are distinct. 1. So distinct as to be more than one, only: There are three. 2. So distinct as to subsist without depending. The Father is true God, the Son is true God, the Spirit is true God. Yet the Father is one, the Son is one, the Spirit is one: The Father is one of himself, the Son is one by the Father, the Spirit is one from them both. Yet the Father is not above the Son, nor the Spirit inferior to either: The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God.

Among the three then there is not superiority. 1. Not as to time; the Father is from everlasting, so is the Son, so is the Spirit. 2. Not as to nature, the Son being of the substance of the Father, and the Spirit of the substance of them both. 3. The fulness of the Godhead is in the Father, is in the Son, and is in the Holy Ghost.

The Godhead then, though it can admit of a Trinity, yet it admitteth not of inferiority in that Trinity: if otherwise, then less or more must be there, and so either plurality of gods, or something that is not God: so then, Father, Son and Spirit are in the Godhead, yet but one God; each of these is God over all, yet no Trinity of Gods, but one God in the Trinity.

Explication. The Godhead then is common to the three, but the three themselves abide distinct in that Godhead: Distinct, I say, as Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. This is manifest further by these several positions.

First, Father and Son are relatives, and must needs therefore have their relation as such: A Father begetteth, a Son is begotten.

Proof. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in