THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH (OR BAPTIST) MAGAZINE. No. CCXCVI.-AUGUST 1, 1868. Essays, Expositions, &c. THREE BAPTIST WORTHIES. NO. II.-WILLIAM KIFFIN AND JOHN BUNYAN. BY THE REV. SAMUEL COULING. ONE of the friends and companions in labour of Hansard Knollys was William Kiffin, the "Puritan Merchant," whose life, commencing with the reign of Charles I. and ending several years after the Revolution of 1688, embraced the events occuring during the successive governments of Charles I., Oliver Cromwell, Charles II., James II., and William III. William Kiffin was born in the city of London about the year 1616. The dreadful plague which visited the metropolis in 1625 appears to have deprived him of both his parents, leaving him an orphan at the early age of nine years. Four years later we find him apprenticed to the celebrated John Lilburn, who, at that time, was a brewer and cooper in the city of London, but who afterwards became a colonel in the Parliamentary army. Lilburn was evidently not one of the best masters; indeed so quarrelsome was his disposition that it was said of him that "if the world was emptied of all but John Lilburn, Lilburn would quarrel with John, and John with Lilburn." Anthony Wood also describes him as a great "hodgepodge of religion." This being the case, and Kiffin having at this time no sense of religion whatever, it is not to be wondered at that in 1631 we find him running away from his master. It was during his flight that, passing by St. Antholin's church, and finding service going on, he was led to enter. Mr. Foxley was then preaching upon the fifth commandment, and the sermon had the effect of at once causing Kiffin to return to his master; and as he himself states, "This sermon dwelt very much upon my thoughts, and provoked in me a desire to hear some of them they called Puritan ministers." He accordingly availed himself of frequent opportunities of hearing Davenport, Hooker, Du Moulin and others. Upon an occasion of hearing Mr. Norton preach from "There is no peace saith my God to the wicked," he became greatly troubled about his condition in the sight of God. Pray I could not," he says, "believe in Jesus Christ I could not; and I thought myself shut up in unbelief." Soon afterwards he heard a sermon by Mr. Davenport, in Coleman-street, from "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Under this sermon VOL, XXV.-NO. CCXCVI. 66 he obtained peace. "I found," says he, "my fears to vanish, and my heart filled with love to Jesus Christ." It would be very interesting to follow him through the variations of his religious experience and mental conflicts, but this cannot be done here. He was, however, soon able to say, "My faith was exceedingly strengthened in the fulness of that satisfaction which Jesus Christ had given to the Father for sinners, and I was enabled to believe my interest therein." 66 In 1634, when about twenty-two years of age, he became a member of an Independent church at that time under the pastoral care of Mr. John Lathorp, who soon after went to America; and the church being then without a pastor, Mr. Kiffin was unanimously called up to exercise his gifts for preaching. At this time the church met in much secrecy as it was then in the heat of the Bishop's severities." The people came together very early in the morning and remained together till late at night, yet they were frequently disturbed and sometimes stoned upon leaving. At one time Mr. Kiffin was arrested and committed to the White Lion prison, where he remained for a considerable length of time. Pecuniary troubles and sickness also now fell upon him, but he was enabled to bear all with a degree of patience and resignation to the Divine will truly surprising. It was in 1638 that a change took place in his religious convictions and he became a Baptist. He united himself with the Baptist church at Wapping, then under the pastorate of John Spilsbury. From this church he, with others, removed in consequence of differences of opinion on certain matters, and eventually formed the church in Devonshire Square, Bishopsgate-street, in 1653, according to Ivimey, although Crosby says about 1640. This latter date will probably be the correct one, as in 1644 a "confession of faith" was published by the seven Baptist churches in London, and the names of Mr. Kiffin and Mr. Thomas Patient are appended as joint pastors at Devonshire Square. In 1642 Mr. Kiffin had held a meeting in Southwark for the purpose of discussing the subject of Baptism with the redoutable Daniel Featley, who afterwards published his extraordinary work (1645) entitled "The Dippers Dipt; or the Anabaptists Ducked and Plunged over Head and Ears." Up to this time it would appear that Mr. Kiffin had been greatly straitened in circumstances; but in 1643 he turned his attention to commerce and went over to Holland" with some small commodities," with which he did such good trade that from scores of pounds God brought it to many hundreds and thousands of pounds." He was now therefore a prosperous merchant, yet it is pleasing to find that notwithstanding his wealth and business, he did not give up preaching the gospel. It was during the time of his prosperity that Charles II. condescended to ask from him the loan of £40,000. Mr. Kiffin, however, knew His Majesty too well to trust him, and therefore replied that he could not possibly lend His Majesty so large a sum; but if His Majesty would honour him by accepting as a gift £10,000, it was very much at His Majesty's service." It need scarcely be added that the king was perfectly willing to confer that honour upon Mr. Kiffin, who used afterwards to say that by this act of liberality he saved £30,000. Mr. Kiffin lived in "troublous times," and persecution constantly attended him. In 1665 he was charged before the Lord Mayor, at Guildhall, with preaching that the baptism of infants is unlawful." Shortly after this he was apprehended on a Lord's Day, in Shoreditch, and taken before Sir Thomas Bide, who committed him to the new prison for preaching. At another time he was seized at midnight by one of the messengers of the Privy council, and taken to York-house where he was confined under a guard of soldiers upon a false charge of intending to hire two men to kill the King. And subsequently to this he was fined £300 penalty for holding fifteen meetings. He died December 29th, 1701, in the 86th year of his age, having been pastor of the church in Devonshire Square upwards of sixty years. He was buried in Bunhill Fields but the precise spot cannot now be ascertained. He was not unknown as an author although his works were all small, and are now scarcely ever to be met with. 64 John Bunyan is named last, not because he was least of the three, but because he happened to be born a few years later than either of the others. Bunyan was intimately acquainted with both Knollys and Kiffin, and was accustomed to hold frequent and pleasant communion with them upon occasion of his annual visit to London. John Bunyan was born at Elston, near Bedford, in the year 1628, of poor but honest parents, who took care that John should have sufficient schooling to enable him to learn to read and write. From the strong expressions he uses concerning himself in his "Grace Abounding," it has been generally supposed that he was a most abandoned and profligate youth. Mr. Ivimey calls him the depraved Bunyan, and the wicked tinker of Elston." That he was of a wild and unsettled disposition, and that he early learned to swear, must be evident from his own testimony, and even Southey, who thought that Bunyan never was a vicious man, cannot help confessing that he had been a blackguard." No doubt the prevailing characteristic was earnestness; hence he would be thorough in whatever he might be engaged. This, too, would open his way into many temptations which others might perhaps escape. Hence he would become a marked character in the quiet village of Elston with its fifty or sixty quaint old houses; and the simple inhabitants would certainly consider him to be the pest of the village when on Sunday evenings he would assemble with others upon the green to play at "toss," and cat," making the air ring again with his oaths and noisy vociferations. 66 Very early in life he enlisted in the Parliamentary army; and many and extraordinary were the hair-breadth escapes which he had during the time that he was a soldier. Yet these mercies appear to have made no impression upon his mind. While very young however, he married, and although himself and his wife were so poor that they had not "so much household stuff as a dish or spoon betwixt" them, yet he expressed his thankfulness that "she had for her portion The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven,' and 'The Practice of Piety,' which her father had left her when he died." These two books he read at intervals to his wife, and the reading of them led him for a time to go to church twice a day, and "very devoutly both say and sing as others did." The time at length came however, when he was truly to be brought to a knowledge of the Saviour, and some pious females sitting in a door-way and holding spiritual conversation, were the chosen instruments in God's hand in effecting Bunyan's conversion. After passing through many doubts and fears he was, at the age of twenty-six baptised and admitted a member of the church at Bedford, then under the pastoral care of Andrew Gifford. It was not long after this before Mr. Gifford was called to his rest, and the church, seeing that Bunyan had gifts for edification, at once called him to the work of the ministry. At this time the only books he had ever read, besides the Bible and the two volumes previously mentioned were, "Foxe's Book of Martyrs," and "Luther on the Galatians." He therefore set himself in earnest to acquire such an amount of information as would enable him to become an acceptable preacher. And as a preacher he soon became exceedingly popular. Everywhere the people heard him gladly, and much good was accomplished. On the 12th November, 1660, he was arrested at a small meeting in a private house at Samsell, in Bedfordshire, and committed to take his trial at the ensuing sessions. On a bitter cold morning in January, 1661, the Quarter Sessions were held; and Bunyan was put upon his trial. The indictment stated that "John Bunyan, of the town of Bedford, labourer, doth devilishly and perniciously abstain from coming to church to hear divine service, and is a common upholder of several unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of this kingdom, contrary to the laws of our Sovereign Lord the King." The trial does not occupy much time, and Justice Keeling quickly proceeds to pass sentence. "Hear your judgment. You must be had back again to prison, and there lie for three months following; and at three months' end if you do not submit to go to church to hear divine service, and leave your preaching, you must be banished the realm; and if, after such a day as shall be appointed you to be gone, you shall be found in this realm, or be found to come over again without special license from the king, you must stretch by the neck for it, I tell you plainly." "As to this matter," replies Bunyan, "I am at a point with you, for if I were out of prison to day, by the help of God I would preach the gospel again to-morrow!" He was taken back to gaol and there he remained for the next twelve years. Bunyan was now in his 34th year, with a wife, a blind daughter, and three other children to provide for. They were all in want. Bunyan felt that something must be done to meet the wants of his family, and with commendable industry he began, in that narrow prison cell, to tag laces, which it was the business of his blind daughter to sell, and so the family was fed. In the early part of his imprisonment he was permitted occasionally to leave the prison in order to visit his family, and it was during his absence upon one of these occasions that he became so strongly impressed with the necessity of immediately returning to gaol that nothing could prevent him from at once doing so. He had scarcely got back to prison when messengers arrived to enquire whether he was in safe custody. For the last ten years, however, he was never suffered to go out of prison, although it appears that the gaoler did not prevent friends from going in to see him. From a record in the old church book at Bedford, we find that "on the 29th August, 1671, the church was directed to seek God about the choice of brother Bunyan to the office of elder, to which office he was called on the 24th of the tenth month in the same year, when he received of the elders the right hand of fellowship." Release however came at last, in 1673, the prison doors once more opened, and he was free. He immediately entered upon his pastoral duties, and soon became so popular that three thousand persons would assemble before breakfast on a winter's morning to hear him preach, and Dr. John Owen is said to have remarked, "could I possess the tinker's abilities for preaching, I would most gladly relinquish all my learning." 66 Mr. Bunyan was evidently a hard working man, for in addition to constantly preaching, he wrote sixty books, the "Pilgrim's Progress" and "The Holy War" being the best known and most admired of them all. Lord Macaulay says that, Bunyan is indeed as decidedly the first of all allegorists as Demosthenes is the first of orators, or Shakespeare the first of dramatists." His labours however, were now drawing to a close. Returning on one occasion from London to Reading on horseback he got thoroughly drenched with rain. This brought on a most violent fever, and after ten days illness, the Pilgrim's Progress was ended, and “he went in by the gate into the city." He was buried in Bunhill Fields, and a stone was erected over his grave with the following simple inscription:-" Mr. John Bunyan, author of the "Pilgrim's Progress," ob. 31st August, 1688, Et. 60." This stone having been long in a very delapidated condition, a new tomb was recently erected, when the Earl of Shaftesbury and others took an active part in the public inauguration. "Life's duty done, as sinks the clay, These three Baptist worthies laboured not merely for themselves and the times in which they lived, but they also lived and laboured for us. They fought and suffered for liberty of conscience and perfect equality in religious matters, and we are reaping the advantages of their long and arduous struggles. There is much for us yet to do, and perhaps to suffer, in the same direction, and hence the necessity of sometimes "considering them who through faith and patience now inherit the promise." We owe much as Baptists to Knollys, Kiffin, and Bunyan; as Nonconformists we owe them still more. Let us see to it, in these testing days, that we are true to our principles and not unworthy of being the followers of these men as far as they followed Christ. Scarborough. JOTTINGS OF THOUGHTS ON THE "PILGRIM'S PROGRESS." SCENE XI. JOHN BUNYAN, parts of whose allegory have been before us for successive months, possessed an intimate and enlarged acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures, and this talent, with his analogical and fertile mind, made him a master of mental painting. The scenes which his genius produced, are not only Biblical, but natural, original, and striking. Thus it is with the one before us. Christian, the pilgrim, is from henceforth to appear in a new character—as a soldier of the cross. Accordingly, before he leaves the beautiful Palace on the Hill he is taken into the Armoury, where he not only beholds the panoply which heaven has provided for the Church militant, but becomes himself "harnassed from head to foot with what was of proof, lest perhaps he should meet with assaults in the way." It is thus intimated, what is found to be a frequent fact, that as soon as a believer joins a Christian church, he may expect to meet with enemies and to engage in conflicts. If, then, he would stand in the evil day, he must have on the whole armour of God. But to be properly furnished in this way, he is assisted by the damsels who belonged to the establishment. Each has her part to perform. One, therefore, adjusts the helmet for the head; a second fastens the girdle by which the breast-plate is secured; a third holds in her hand the shield-the portable defence against fiery darts; and the fourth has ready the sword-" the right Jerusalem blade," which cuts asunder soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It may seem strange, and perhaps scarcely consistent, for unmarried females to be arming a man. But we must remember, these damsels, whom Bunyan speaks of, are merely symbols of principles and virtues which defend and adorn the Christian's character. If we go into one of our law courts, we shall often see a picture of a female who is blind, and holding in her hand a pair of scales. This figure is an emblem of Justice. So the other virtues are often personified, as wisdom, purity, truth, and love. It is in connection with the associations, services, responsibilities, and temptations of life, that a Christian needs armour for his many and severe conflicts. His righteousness he requires as a breast-plate, that he may be proof against all the fiery darts of "the Wicked One;" his hope he requires as a helmet to cover his profession in the day of battle; his faith he requires as a broad massive shield to defend his other graces; whilst his knowledge and use of the sacred Scriptures should be to him as a sharp and heavy sword, which even infernal spirits resist with fear. How expressive are the words of the apostle:"Take unto you the whole armour of God." As Mr. Jay remarks:-" God forbids nothing in vain ; enjoins nothing in vain; provides nothing in vain. Therefore every part of this defensive and offensive armour is necessary. A Christian may be considered in regard to his principles, in regard to his experience, in regard to his comforts, and in regard to his profession. Oh! how imperfect is he in each of these; but in neither of these is he to be left exposed and undefended. He is to stand complete in all the will of God; he is to be perfect, and entire, lacking nothing." SCENE XII. The picture which Bunyan now brings before us is one of the most vivid and spirited of any that we meet with in the extended panorama of the Pilgrim's Progress. He had now left the House on the Hill, and accompanied by Prudence, Piety, Discretion, and Charity, descended warily into the valley below. |