stones," here a pearl, and their a diamond; here a jasper, and there a sapphire; here a sardius, and there a Jacinth; here a sardonyx, and there an amethyst," was an emblem of both the diversity and the distribution of the gifts of the Spirit in the church. "I verily think," he says, "that the ten lavers" also, in which the burnt sacrifice was washed, "were a figure of the Ten Commandments, by perfect obedience to which, Christ became capable of being an acceptable burnt offering to God, for the sins of the people.' When Bunyan is not thus quite sure that he has "hit right," and yet cannot agree with current interpretation, nor improve his own, he grows somewhat snappish as well as humble. The thousand charges of silver, and the thirty of gold, in which the passover was served, are too numerous and different to be easily paralleled in the Christian Church. He finds them, however, in the sacred writers and the sacrament. Still, he felt that the numbers did not tally. But he could not mend the matter. He, therefore, breaks off, not a little hot as well as humble :-saying, "He that will scoff at this, let him scoff! The charges are a type of something: and he that can show a fitter antitype than is here proposed, let him do it, and I will be thankful to him." Bunyan does not, however, get into this humour often. His conjectures were so often inge. nious and so uniformly pure, that they seldom awoke a suspicion of their truth, in his own mind. The " open flowers," carved upon the doors of the Temple, he regarded as certainly "carved there, to show that Christ, who is the door of glory, as well as the door of grace, will be as precious to us when we enter the mansion-house of Heaven, as when we took the first step" into the Church on earth. "The Palm Trees" also, being carved in the Holy Place, as well as upon the doors of the Temple were proofs that glory would follow grace: for, he argues, as sure as we receive the palm-branch by faith, we shall wear it in our hands in the heaven of heavens for ever." In like manner "he had no doubt," that the "gold upon gold," which "overlaid” all the chief types, proved the same point. "Gold spread upon gold!" he exclaims; "Grace is gold in the leaf, and Glory is gold in plates. Grace is thin gold: Glory thick gold." 66 Thus there was some sarcasm as well as much compliment in Addison's remark, when he called Bunyan as great a Father as any of the Fathers, in the art of spiritualizing. He did not, however, say the same of either Wordon's Types Un veiled, or Keache's Metaphors. Addison felt that Bunyan was chaste, even when most fanciful. Bunyan was, however, fondest of the finery. Accordingly, whilst he makes a great deal of the golden Nails in the Temple, he says, “I shall not concern myself with those Nails made with iron." Iron nails were associated in his mind with his own craft; and thus not very inspiring to him: but he weighed, and almost counted, the golden ones. 66 The His finest guess is, I think, at the reason why the height of the Mercy-seat was not to be measured. The length and breadth are given, he says, "but the height was without measure, to show that, would God extend mercy, it could reach anywhere." He is hardly less happy, when he says, that the golden chains which divided the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, were real chains, to show us that even in Heaven there will be a distinction, or, an infinite disproportion, between the creature and the Creator for ever. partition made in this House by these glorious chains, was not so much to divide the holy place from the most holy, as to show that there is in the Holiest House, that which is still more worthy than it. True, they are in chains of gold; but even these will keep creatures in their place, that the Creator may have all the glory." Thus, whilst he revelled amidst the golden splendours of the Temple, as types of heavenly glory, he maintained what one of the old Covenanters (Andrew Grey) well calls, "that solid apprehension of the HIGHNESS of God, which keeps the Christian from trespassing on these ways and coverings that are fixed between the Infinite Majesty, and those who are but the dust of his feet." This holy awe, however, had nothing of the spirit of bondage in it. Like the High Priest, Bunyan felt himself quite at home in the Temple. He found its shadows realized in the Gospel, and said with triumph, "We have a golden door to go to God by, and golden angels to conduct us through the world, and golden palm trees as tokens of our victory, and golden open flowers' to smell all the way to heaven!" 66 6 66 up the A strait He was very fond of the "Winding stairs" of the Temple. He liked to go up them, and up them, and up them, till he I came to a view of Heaven." "I went," he says, turning stairs, till I came to the highest chambers. pair of stairs are like the ladder by which men ascend to the Gallows: they are turning stairs that lead us to the heavenly mansion-houses. They are, therefore, types of a two-fold Repentance that, by which we turn from nature to Grace; and that, by which we turn from grace to grace, or from imperfection to glory. This turning, and turning still," (from good to better,) he says, "displeases some much. They say, it makes them giddy: but I say,—there is no way like this, to make a man stand steady in the Faith, or at the day of judgment. Many in Churches, who seemed to be turned from nature to grace, have not the grace to go up turning still; but rest in a show of things, and so die below." There is so much fact, as well as fancy, in these Interpretations, that we can hardly wonder that Bunyan sits down, now and then, amidst the mystic arcana of the Temple, exclaiming, "O, what speaking things are types, shadows, and parables, if we had but eyes to see, and ears to hear!" He saw, be it remembered, with his own eyes only, "I have not fished," he says, "in other men's waters for these things. My Bible and Concordance are my only Library, in my writings. Much of the glory of our gospel-matters lies wrapt up in a mantle, by Solomon; and therefore I have made this book as well as I could, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual."Works, p. 1971. The Molten Sea, as may be supposed, was not left under Solomon's mantle. Bunyan uncovers it from brim to brim ; and finding that it was just "ten Cubits" wide, he concludes that the Ten Commandments had not more power to condemn, than the Gospel has to save. Even the brim of the Laver must preach. It was like a cup, and therefore "intended to invite us to drink of its grace, as well as to wash in its water." And as its brim was wreathed with Lilies, or "like a lily. flower, it was to show how those who were washed in, and did drink of this Holy Water, should grow and flourish; and with what beautiful robes they should be adorned; and that God would take care of them as he did of Lilies.' We have seen already, that all the lily-work about the Temple was enchanting to Bunyan. Even Solomon would have said of him, "he feedeth amongst the lilies." It deserves notice that he did not seek for Baptism in the Molten Sea; tempting as the great Laver, with its "three thousand baths" of water, was. But although it was quite an Enon, he was silent. Not so, however, when he saw the Ten smaller Lavers in which the Sacrifices were washed. Their wheels, he says, " signify walking feet. Obedience is typified by the Lavers walking on their wheels." His views of holy Obedience were, he knew, common to all Christians; and 66 therefore he grafted them upon any type: but he respected both his own views of Baptism, and the consciences of those who differed from him, too much, to graft the mode of that ordinance upon even the Laver "to wash the worshippers.' Works, p. 1996. The frankincense scattered upon the Shew Bread even when the cakes were laid fresh upon the Golden Table, suggested to him the necessity of the "perfumes and sanctifications of the Holy Spirit," to purify the best works of a Christian; and the removal of the cakes when they became at all "musty or stale," taught him to bring new and warm service to the House of God. The incense being compounded of "three sweet spices, called Stacte, Onycha, and Galbanum, it answers," he says, "to the three parts of Devotion; prayer, supplication, and intercession. The spices were gummy, and so apt to burn with a smoke; to show that not cold and flat, but hot and fervent, is the prayer that flows from the Holy Spirit. Even this Incense was to be offered upon the Golden Altar, to show that no prayer is accepted but through Christ."-Works, p. 2004. Bunyan rises to the sublime in the Holy of Holies. "The most holy place was dark. It had no windows. Things were only seen by the light of the fire of the altar: to show that God is altogether invisible but to faith. The Holiest was built to show us how different our state in heaven will be from our state on earth. We walk here by one light, the Word: but that place will shine more bright than if all the lights of the world were put together. Even on the vail of the temple were figures of cherubim, to show that as the angels wait on us here, so they will wait for us at the door of their heavens.”—P. 2012. It was thus Bunyan cheered many of his lonely hours in jail, and learnt to build and beautify his own Interpreter's House. That house is not, indeed, very magnificent. As a house for pilgrims, it ought to be plain. Still, I cannot help suspecting that the prison, by reflecting none of the bright visions of the temple, and by disturbing them all as they shone, made the Interpreter's house plainer than keeping required. But however this may be, these specimens of Bunyan's spiritualizing will explain a little his cheerfulness in prison, and account for many of his "witty inventions." He could not pursue such thoughts, without both forgetting and improving himself at the same time. It is, however, hardly less pleasing to remember that many did both, without Bunyan's talents. Thus it would be difficult to say, which is the more instructive fact; whether a Bunyan possessing his mighty "soul in patience," or an ordinary man "rejoicing in tribulation." Both Paul and Silas sang in the same prison. So did Bunyan and Kelsey. Kelsey, one of the Lincolnshire Baptists, seems to have been seventeen years in prison. Little else is known of him, except that he was a good man, and "sang this song :" "I hope the more they punish me, that I shall grow more bold; When Bunyan lifted his eyes from his Bible in prison, he saw little, of course, to sharpen his wits, or to give play to his fancy. He could, however, make much of a little. His cell overhung the river, and thus he could look down upon the gliding stream, and forth upon the aspects of the sky. Α leaping fish, or a skimming swallow, was both an event and a sermon to him, when he could spare a few moments at the grated window, from the labours of his pen and pincers. But it was not often he could do so. He had to work hard with his pincers, in order to tag the stay-laces which his wife and his poor blind daughter made and sold for the support of the family. He had also to study hard; in order to bring his writings up to something like the scheme and scale of other theologians. His pen was thus heavier to him than his pincers; for he had nothing to lighten its labour but his Concordance. When he did escape, however, from his chair to the window, he was all eye and ear to whatever was stirring in the heavens above, or in the waters beneath. And if nothing presented itself outside the window, he could learn much from the spiders and flies inside. It was whilst watching them one day, that he drew the striking picture of an entangled and struggling Christian. "The fly in the spider's web," he says, "is an emblem of a soul which Satan is trying to poison and kill. The fly is entangled in the web. At this, the spider shows himself. If the |