gaged (some few only excepted, who might adhere | were safe and secure, so long as they kept entire by themselves; but when once they admitted of a mixture, great Babel, as a judgment of God, was admitted to come into their mind. Ver. 2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the cast, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.' By these words, we gather, that the first rest of Noah, and so the inhabiting of his posterity, was still eastward from Babylon, towards the sun rising. But to gospelise: They journeyed from the east: and so consequently they turned their backs upon the rising of the sun. So did also the primitive church, in the day when she began to decline from her first and purest state. Indeed, so long as she kept close to the doctrine and discipline of the Ver. 1. And the whole earth was of one lan- gospel, according to the word and commandment guage, and of one speech.' Moses having thus briefly passed through the genealogies of Japheth, Ham, and Joktan; in the next place he cometh to shew us their works which they had by this time engaged to do; and that was, to build a Babel, whose tower might reach to heaven. Now, in order to this their work, or rather to his relation thereof, he maketh a short fore-speech, which consisteth of two branches. The first is, That now they had all one language or lip. The other was, That they yet had kept themselves together, either resting or walking, as an army compact. An excellent resemblance of the state of the church, before she imagined to build her a Babel. For till then, however one might outstrip another in knowledge and love; yet so far as they obtained, their language or lip was but one. Having but one heart, and one soul, they with one mouth did glorify God, even the Father. And the whole earth was of one language.' By these words therefore, we may conceive the reason why so great a judgment as that great wickedness, Babel, should be contrived, and endeavoured to be accomplished. The multitude was one. Not but that it is a blessed thing for the church to be one as Christ saith, My beloved is but one.' Jn. xvii. 11. But here was an oneness, not only in the church, but in her mixing with the world. The whole earth, among which, as I suppose, is included Noah, Shem, and others; who being overtopt by Nimrod, the mighty hunter, might company with him until he began to build Babel. Therefore it is said in the next verse, that they companied together from the east, to the land of Shinar. Hence note, That the first and primitive churches + Language or lip.', a lip, is also used for speech. In the figurative language, of one lip,' means that they all spoke one language; so in Job xi. 2, N, literally, a man of lips,' is translated ‘a man full of talk.'-ED. of the Lord Jesus, then she kept her face still towards the sun rising: According to the type in Ezekiel, who saith of the second and mystical temple, Her fore front, or face, did stand towards the east.. xlvii. 1. Also he saith, when he saw the glory of God, how it came unto this temple, it came from the way of the east. xliii. 2. Their journeying therefore from the east, was, their turning their backs upon the sun. And to us, in gospel times, it holdeth forth such a mystery as this: That their journey was thus recorded, to show they were now apostatized; for assuredly they had turned their back upon the glorious Sun of Righteousness, as upon that which shineth in the firmament of heaven. 'They found a plain in the land of Shinar.' Shinar is the land of Babylon, Da. i. 2. Zec. v. 11. as those scriptures in the margin declare. "They found a plain.' Or, place of fatness and plenty, as usually the plains are; and are, upon that account, great content to our flesh: This made Lot separate from Abraham, and choose to dwell with the sinners of Sodom; why, the country was a plain, and therefore fat and plentiful, even like the garden of the Lord, and the land of Egypt. Here therefore they made a stop; here they dwelt and continued together. A right resemblance of the degenerators' course in the days of general apostacy, from the true apostolical doctrine, to the church of our Romish Babel. So long as the church endured hardship, and affliction, she was greatly preserved from revolts and backslidings; but after she had turned her face from the sun, and had found the plain of Shinar; that is, the fleshly contents that the pleasures, and profits, and honours of this world afford; she forgetting the word and order of God, was content, with Lot, to pitch towards Sodom; or, with the travellers in the text, to dwell in the land of Babel. Ver. 3. And they said one to another, Go | had cast off the fear of God, and, like Israel in the days of the prophet Jeremiah, they resolved to follow their own imagination, let God or his judg ments speak never so loud to the contrary. And so indeed he says of them at verse the sixth: And this they begin to do: (saith God) and now nothing will be restrained from them.' to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly, (and burn them to a burning). And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.' Now they being filled with ease and plenty, they begin to lift up the horn, and to consult one with another what they were best to do: Whereupon, after some time of debate, they came to this conclusion, That they would go build a Babel. And they said one to another, Go to.' This manner of phrase is often used in scripture; and is some times, as also here, used to show, That the thing intended, must come to pass, what opinion or contradiction to the contrary soever there be. It argueth that a judgment is made in the case, and proceedings shall be accordingly. Thus it is also to be taken in Ju. vii. 3. Ec. ii. 1. Is. v. 5. Ja.v. 1. &c. Wherefore it shows, that these men This is all Mr. Bunyan hath writ of this EXPOSITION, as we perceive by the blank paper following the manuscript.* *That Bunyan intended to have continued this commentary there can be no doubt, not only from the abrupt termination of his labours, and the blank paper following the manuscript, but from an observation he makes on the sabbath-the sabbath of years, the jubilee, &c., of all which, more in their place, IF GOD PERMIT.' Sce Gen. ii. 3.-ED. A HOLY LIFE THE BEAUTY OF CHRISTIANITY; OR, AN EXHORTATION TO CHRISTIANS TO BE HOLY. 'Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.'-Psal. xciii. 5. THE EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. THIS is the most searching treatise that has ever The evident object of this treatise was to aid fallen under our notice. It is an invaluable guide christian efforts, under the Divine blessing, in to those sincere Christians, who, under a sense of stemming the torrent of iniquity, which, like an the infinite importance of the salvation of an im- awful flood, was overspreading this country. The mortal soul, and of the deceitfulness of their moral and religious restraints, which the governhearts, sigh and cry, O Lord of hosts, that ment under the Commonwealth had imposed, were judgest righteously, that triest the reins [most dissolved by the accession of a debauched prince secret thoughts] and the heart.' Try MY reins to the throne of England; a prince who was bribed, and My heart,' for it is deceitful above all things, to injure or destroy the best interests of the counand desperately wicked: who can know it? I try, by the voluptuous court of France. He had the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to taken refuge there from the storm; and had been give every man according to his ways, and accord- defiled and corrupted beyond ordinary conception. ing to the fruit of his doings.' He, in whose heart The king and his court were surrounded by pimps, the Holy Spirit has raised the solemn inquiry, panders, courtesans, and flatterers. The example 'What must I do to be saved?' flies from his own of the court spread throughout the country—reliestimate of himself, with distrust and fear, and gion became a jest and laughing-stock; and those appeals to an infallible and unerring scrutiny. who were not to be cajoled out of their soul's eternal Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, happiness-whose vital godliness preserved them and know my thoughts: And see if there be any in the midst of such evil examples and allurements, wicked way in me, and lead me in the way ever- were persecuted with unrelenting rigour. The lasting.' Reader, are you desirous of having your virtuous Lord William Russel, and the illustrious hopes of pardon, and of heaven, weighed in the Sydney, fell by the hands of the executioner : unerring balances of the sanctuary; while you are John Hampden was fined forty thousand pounds. yet in a state of probation? Meditate and ponder The hand of God was stretched out. An awful over this faithful little work. If accompanied by pestilence carried off nearly seventy thousand of the Divine blessing, it will test your faith and the inhabitants of London. In the following year, practice in the crucible and by the fire of God's that rich and glorious city, with the cathedral word. It is intended to turn your spirit inside the churches-public buildings-and warehouses, out to lay bare every insidious enemy that may replenished with merchandize-were reduced to have crept in and lie lurking in the walls of Man- ashes. The Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames and soul. It exhibits sin in all its hideous deformity, threatened destruction to our navy, and even to stript of its masquerade and disguises; so that it the government,-filling the court and country appears, what it really is, the great enemy to with terror. Still profligacy reigned in the court human happiness. It is calculated to stir up our and country-a fearful persecution raged against pure minds to incessant vigilance, lest we should all who refused to attend the church service. wander upon tempting, but forbidden paths; and Thousands perished in prison, and multitudes were De caught by Giant Despair, to become the objects condemned to expatriate themselves. The timid of his cruelty in Doubting Castle. and irresolute abandoned the faith,-desolation spread over the church of God. At this time, at imminent risk, John Bunyan not only fearlessly preached, but published his faithful Advice to Sufferers;' which was immediately followed by this important work, calling upon every one 'who named the name of Christ,' at all hazards, to depart from iniquity.' They were words in sea This work was first published in 1684, in a pocket volume, comprising nine sheets duodecimo; but became so rare, as to have escaped the researches of Wilson, Whitefield, and other editors of the collected works of Mr. Bunyan,-until about the year 1780, when it was first re-published in an edition of his works, with notes, by Mason and Ryland. son,' and were 'good,' 'like apples of gold in | lying—to stealing—to sabbath-breaking-to pride pictures of silver.' Pr. xxv. 11. -to covetousness-to deceit to hypocrisy, that in every corner of the country present themselves to men.' 517. p. O the fruits of repentance thick sown by preachers, come up but thinly! Where are they found? Confession of sin, shame for sin, amendment of life, restitution for cozening, cheating, defrauding, beguiling thy neighbour, where shall these fruits of repentance be found? Repentance is the bitter pill, without the sound working of which, base and sinful humours rest unstirred, unpurged, undriven out of the soul.' p. 519. The contrast in public manners must have been painfully felt by one, who had seen and enjoyed the general appearances, and doubtless many real proofs of piety, which prevailed under the protectorate of Cromwell. He was now called to witness the effects of open and avowed wickedness among governors and nobles, by which the fountains of iniquity were opened up, and a flood of immorality let loose upon all classes; demoralizing the nation, and distressing the church. It must have been difficult to form any thing like an accurate estimate of the number of those who abandoned their 'I would not be austere,' said Bunyan, 'but were christian profession. The immoral conduct of one wearing of gold, putting on of apparel, dressing up bad man is more conspicuous than the unobtrusive houses, decking of children, learning of compliments, holiness of ninety-nine good men; more especially, boldness in women, lechery in men, wanton behaviwhen a professor becomes profane. Thus Bunyan our, lascivious words, and tempting carriages, signs argues, One black sheep is quickly espied among of repentance; then I must say, the fruits of repentfive hundred white ones, and one mangey one will ance swarm in our land.' The tables of God's soon infect many. One also, among the saints, book are turned upside down. Love, to their docthat is not clean, is a blemish to the rest, and trine, is gone out of the country.' 'Love is gone, as Solomon says, "One sinner destroyeth much and now coveting, pinching, griping, and such good."' p. 527. It is more congenial to our fallen things, are in fashion; now iniquity abounds instead nature to notice, and be grieved with, evil con- of grace, in many that name the name of Christ.' duct, than it is to rejoice over that excellence p. 519, 520. Alas! alas! there is a company of halfwhich may cast the observer into the shade; priests in the world; they dare not teach the peobesides the jaundiced fear that good works may ple the whole counsel of God, because they would arise from improper motives. These principles condemn themselves, and their manner of living in equally applied to the state of society under the the world: where is that minister now to be found, Presbyterian government: but when the restora- that dare say to his people, walk as you have me tion to the old system took place, so vast a change for an example, or that dare say, what you see passed over society, like a pestilence, that sin, and hear to be in me, do, and the God of peace through custom, became no sin. The superfluity shall be with you.' p. 520. Such was the general of naughtiness,' says Bunyan, is at this day character of the parish priests, after the black Barbecome no sin with many.' p. 509. There are a tholomew Act had driven the pious and godly good many professors now in England that have ministers from the parish churches. It is almost nothing to distinguish them from the worst of men, a miracle that Bunyan escaped persecution for his but their praying, reading, hearing of sermons, plain dealing. We cannot wonder, that under such baptism, church fellowship, and breaking of bread. teachers, 'Christians learned to be proud one of Separate them but from these, and every where another, to be covetous, to be treacherous, and else they are as black as others, even in their false, to be cowardly in God's matters, to be remiss whole life and conversation.' p. 508. It is marvel- and negligent in christian duties, one of another.' lous to me to see sin so high amidst the swarms p. 525. A scandal was thus brought upon religion. of professors that are found in every corner of thisUpon this I write with a sigh; for never more land.' If the conduct of many professors were than now. There is no place where the professors so vile, as there can be no doubt but that it was, of religion are, that is free from offence and scanhow gross must have been that of the openly pro-dal. Iniquity is so entailed to religion, and basefane? ness of life to the naming the name of Christ, that All places are full of vomit and filthiness.' 'Ah! Lord God, this is a lamentation, that a sore disease is got into the church of God.' p. 529. It was a period when a more awful plague raged as to morals and religion, than that which, about the same time, had ravaged London with temporal death-the plague of hypocrisy—of naming the name of Christ, and still living in sin. Hypocrisics are of that nature, that they spread themselves It accounts for the wicked wit and raillery of Hudibras, when so many professors threw off the mask and gloried in their hypocrisy-Butler shut his eyes to the cruel sufferings of thousands who perished in jails, the martyrs to the sincerity of their faith and conduct. The falling away was indeed great; and Bunyan, with all earnestness, warns his readers that, To depart from iniquity is to shun those examples, those beastly examples to drunkenness to whoredom-to swearing-to 6 p. 532. over the mind as the leprosy does over the body. It gets in the pulpit, in conference, in closets, in communion of saints, in faith, in love, in repentance, in zeal, in humility, in alms, in the prison, and in all duties, and makes the whole a loathsome stink in the nostrils of God.' p. 538. "These licentious times, in which we live, are full of iniquity.' p. 539. "They change one bad way for another, hopping, as the squirrel, from bough to bough, but not willing to forsake the tree,-from drunkards to be covetous, and from that to pride and lasciviousness-this is a grand deceit, common, and almost a disease epidemical among professors.' The sins of our day are conspicuous and open as Sodom's were; pride and covetousness, loathing of the gospel, and contemning holiness, have covered the face of the nation.' p. 534. The infection had spread into the households of professors. Bless me, saith a servant, are these the religious people! Are these the servants of God, where iniquity is made so much of, and is so highly entertained! And now is his heart filled with prejudice against all religion, or else he turns hypocrite like his master and his mistress, wearing, as they, a cloak of religion to cover all abroad, while all naked and shameful at home.' p. 536. He looked for a house full of virtue, and behold nothing but spider-webs; fair and plausible abroad, but like the sow in the mire at home.' The immoral taint infected the young. O! it is horrible to behold how irreverently, how saucily, and malapertly, children, yea, professing children, at this day, carry it to their parents; snapping and checking, curbing and rebuking of them, as if they had received a dispensation from God to dishonour and disobey parents.' p. 535. This day, a sea and deluge of iniquity has drowned those that have a form of godliness. Now immorality shall, with professors, be in fashion, be pleaded for, be loved and more esteemed than holiness; even those that have a form of godliness, hate the life and power thereof, yea, they despise them that are good.' p. 543. Inities of observation had become extended far beyond most of his fellow-ministers. The tale is as true as it is full of painful interest. The causes of all this vice are perfectly apparent. Whenever a government abuses its powers by interfering with divine worship-by preferring one sect above all others; whether it be Presbyterian, Independent, or Episcopalian-such a requiring the things that are God's to be rendered unto Cæsar, must be the prolific source of persecution, hypocrisy, and consequent immorality and profaneness. The impure process of immorality is checked by the rival labours of all the sects to promote vital godliness. Can we wonder that such a state of society was not long permitted to exist? In three troublous years from the publication of this book, the licentious monarch was swept away by death, not without suspicion of violence, and his besotted popish successor fled to die in exile. An enlightened monarch was placed upon the vacant throne, and persecution was deprived of its tiger claws and teeth by the act of toleration. However interesting to the christian historian, and humbling to human pride, the facts may be which are here disclosed; it was not the author's intention thus to entertain his readers. No; this invaluable tract has an object in view of far greater importance. It is an earnest, affectionate, but pungent appeal to all professors of every age, and nation, and sect, to the end of time. The admonition of the text is to you, my reader, and to me; whether we be rich or poor, ministers or ministered unto, it comes home equally to every heart, from the mightiest potentate through every grade of society to the poorest peasant. May the sound ever reverberate in our ears and be engraven upon our hearts, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' The analysis of this book exhibits-How solemn a thing it is to name the name of Christ, as the author and finisher of our faith-God manifest in the flesh, to bear the curse for us, and to work out our everlasting salvation. The hosts of heaven rejoice over the penitent sinner ransomed from the pit of wrath. Is it possible for the soul that has escaped eternal burnings-that has experienced the bitterness and exceeding sinfulness of sinthat has felt the misery of transgression—that has been brought up out of that deep and horrible pit This melancholy picture of vice and profligacy was drawn by one whose love of truth rendered him incapable of deceit or of exaggeration. It was published at the time, and was unanswered, because unanswerable. It was not painted from imagination by an ascetic; but from life by an enlightened observer-not by the poor preaching mechanic-to backslide and plunge again into misery, with when incarcerated in a jail for his godliness; but when his painful sufferings were past-when his Pilgrim, produced by the folly of persecutors, had rendered him famous through Europe-when his extraordinary pulpit talents were matured and extensively known, so that thousands crowded to hear him preach-when his labours were sought in London and in the country-when his opportu VOL. II. his eyes open to see the smoke of their torments ascending up before him? Is it possible that he should heedlessly enter the vortex, and be again drawn into wretchedness? Yes; it is alas too true. Well may the Lord, by his prophet, use these striking words, Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed 3 s |