have gifts and abilities should bury them in the earth, but rather did command and stir up such to the exercise of their gift, and also, did command those that were apt and ready, so to do." Those gifts he had, and could not but be conscious of them; he had also the reputation of possessing them, so that people came by hundreds to hear him from all parts round about, though "upon divers accounts;" some to marvel, and some perhaps to mock: but some also to listen, and to be "touched with a conviction that they needed a Saviour." "But I first," he says, "could not believe that God should speak by me to the heart of any man, still counting myself unworthy: yet those who were thus touched would love me and have a particular respect for me: and though I did put it from me that they should be awakened by me, still they would confess it, and affirm it before the saints of God. They would also bless God for me, (unworthy wretch that I am!) and count me God's instrument that showed to them the way of salvation. Wherefore, seeing them in both their words and deeds to be so constant, and also in their hearts so earnestly pressing after the knowledge of Jesus Christ, rejoicing that ever God did send me where they were, then I began to conclude it might be so that God had owned in his work such a foolish one as I, and then came that word of God to my heart with much sweet refreshment, "the blessing of them that were ready to perish is come upon me; yea I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy."*

When he first began to preach, Bunyan endeavoured to work upon his hearers by alarming them; he dealt chiefly in communications, and dwelt upon the dreadful doctrine that the curse of God "lays hold on all men as they come into the world, because of sin." "This part of my work," says he, "I fulfilled with great sense for the terrors of the law, and guilt for my transgressions, lay heavy upon my conscience. I preached what I felt-what I smartingly did feel-even that under which my poor soul did groan and tremble to astonishment. Indeed, I have been as one sent to them from the dead. I went myself in chains, to preach to them in chains; and carried that fire in my own conscience, that I persuaded them to be aware of. I can truly saythat when I have been to preach, I have gone full of guilt and terror even to the pulpit-door; and there it hath been taken off and I have been at liberty in my mind until I had done my work; and then immediately, even before I could get down the pulpit-stairs, I have been as bad as I was before. Yet God carried me on; but surely with a strong hand, for neither guilt nor hell could take me off my work." This is a case like that of the fiery old soldier John Haime, who was one of Wesley's first lay-preachers.

When he was in a happier state of mind, he took a different and better course, "still preaching what he saw and felt ;" he then laboured "to hold forth our Lord and Saviour" in all his offices, relations and benefits unto the world ;and "to remove those false supports and props on which the world doth lean, and by them fall and perish." Preaching, however, was not his only employment, and though still working at his business for a maintenance, he found time to compose a treatise against some of those heresies which the first

Job xxix, 13.

Quakers poured forth so profusely in their overflowing enthusiasm. In that age of theological warfare, no other sectaries acted so eagerly upon the offensive. It seems that they came into some of the meetings which Bunyan attended to bear testimony against the doctrines which were taught there; and this induced him to write his first work, entitled "Some Gospel Truths opened according to the Scriptures: or the Divine and Human Nature in Christ Jesus; His coming into the world; His Righteousness, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Intercession, and Second Coming to Judgment, plainly demonstrated and proved." Burton prefixed to this treatise a commendatory epistle, bidding the reader not to be offended because the treasure of the Gospel was held forth to him in a poor earthen vessel by one who had neither the greatness nor the wisdom of this world to commend him. Having had experience," he says, "with many other saints of this man's soundness in the faith, of his godly conversation, and his ability to preach the Gospel, not by human art, but by the Spirit of Christ, and that with much success in the conversion of sinners-I say having had experience of this, and judging this book may be profitable to many others, as well as to myself, I thought it my duty upon this account to bear witness with my brother to the plain and simple, and yet glorious truths of our Lord Jesus Christ."

It may be asked, how is it possible that the man who wrote such illiterate and senseless verses in the margin of his Book of Martyrs, could have composed a treatise like this, about the same time, or shortly afterward? To this it may be replied that if the treatise were seen in its original spelling it might have at first-sight as tinkerly an appearance as the verses: but in those days, persons of much higher station spelt quite as loosely-perhaps all who were not professionally scholars-for it was before the age of spelling-books; and it may be believed that in most cases the care of orthography was left to the printers. And it is not to be concluded from Bunyan's wretched verses that he would write as wretchedly in prose; in versifying he was attempting an art which he had never learned, and for which he had no aptitude; but in prose he wrote as he conversed and as he preached, using the plain straightforward language of common life. Burton may have corrected some vulgarisms, but other correction would not be needed; for frequent perusal of the Scriptures had made Bunyan fully competent to state what those doctrines were which the Quakers impugned: he was ready with the scriptural proofs; and in a vigorous mind like his right reasoning naturally results from right premises.

An ill judgment might be formed of Bunyan's treatise from that part of its title which promises "profitable directions to stand fast in the doctrine of Jesus the Son of Mary, against those blustering storms of the Devil's temptations, which do at this day, like so many Scorpions, break loose from the bottomless Pit, to bite and torment those that have not tasted the virtue of • Jesus, by the Revelation of the Spirit of God." Little wisdom and less moderation might be expected in a polemical discourse so introduced! It is however a calm, well-arranged and well-supported statement of the scriptura! doctrines on some momentous points which the primitive Quakers were understood by others to deny; and which in fact, though they did not so

understand themselves, they frequently did deny, both virtually and explicity, when in the heat and acerbity of oral disputation they said, they knew not what; and also, when under the same belief of immediate inspiration, they committed to writing whatever words came uppermost, as fast as the pen could put them down, and subjected to no after-revision what had been produced with no forethought. "I would not have thee think," says Bunyan, "that I speak at random in this thing; know for certain that I myself have heard them blaspheme-yea, with a grinning countenance, at the doctrine of that Man's second coming from heaven, above the stars, who was born of the Virgin Mary. Yea, they have told me to my face, that I have used conjuration and witchcraft, because what I preached was according to the Scriptures. I was also told to my face, that I preached up an idol, because I said that the Son of Mary was in heaven, with the same body that was crucified on the cross; and many other things have they blasphemously vented against the Lord of Life and Glory and his precious Gospel. The Lord reward them according as their work shall be!"

A reply to this (published originally like the treatise which provoked it, as a pamphlet) is inserted among "the Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation, namely that True Prophet and Faithful Servant of God and Sufferer for the Testimony of Jesus, Edward Burroughs-Published and Printed for the good and benefit of Generations to come, in the year 1672." This answer is entitled, "The True Faith of the Gospel of Peace contended for in the Spirit of Meekness; and the Mystery of Salvation, (Christ within, the Hope of Glory,) Vindicated in the Spirit of Love, against the Secret Opposition. of John Bunyan, a Professed Minister in Bedfordshire." Words soft as dew, or as the droppings of a summer-cloud; but they were the forerunners of a storm, and the Son of Thunder breaks out at once:-"How long ye crafty Fowlers will ye prey upon the innocent, and shoot at him secretly? How long shall the righteous be a prey to your teeth, ye subtle Foxes who seek to devour? The just One against whom your bow is bent, cries for vengeance against you in the ears of the Lord. Yet you strengthen your hands in iniquity, and gird yourselves with the zeal of madness and fury; you think to swallow up the harmless and to blot out the name of the righteous, that his generation may not be found on earth. You shoot your arrows of cruelty, even bitter words, and make the innocent your mark to prey upon. You despise the way of uprightness and simplicity, and the path of craft and subtlety you tread: your dens are in darkness, and your mischief is hatched upon your beds of secret whoredom. Yet, you are found out with the searching eye of the Lord; and as with a whirlwind will he scatter you, and your name shall rot, and your memorial shall not be found, and the deeper you have digged the pit for another the greater will be your own fall. And John Bunyan and his fellow, who have joined themselves to the broken army of Magog, now in the heat of the day of great striving, are not the least of all guilty among their brethren, of secret smiting the innocent, with secret lies and slanders, who have showed themselves in defence of the Dragon against the Lamb, in this day of war betwixt them." In this strain the Son of Thunder

roars and blazes away, like a Zɛvs úpɩßpeμerns in prose. "Your spirit is tried, and your generation is read at large, and your stature and countenance is clearly described to me, to be of the stock of Ishmael, and of the seed of Cain, whose line reacheth unto the murdering Priests, Scribes and Pharisees. Oh thou blind Priest, whom God hath confounded in thy language-the design of the devil in deceiving souls is thy own, and I turn it back to thee. Thou directest altogether to a thing without, despising the light within, and worshipping the name of Mary in thy imagination, and knowest not Him who was before the world was, in whom alone is salvation and in no other.-If we should diligently search, we should find thee, through feigned words, through covetousness, making merchandise of souls, loving the wages of unrighteousness: and such were the scoffers whom Peter speaks of, among whom thou art found in thy practice, among them who are preaching for hire, and love the error of Balaam, who took gifts and rewards.-The Lord rebuke thee, thou unclean spirit, who hast falsely accused the innocent to clear thyself from guilt; but at thy door guilt lodges, and I leave it with thee; clear thyself if thou art able. And thy wicked reproaches we patiently bear, till the Lord appear for us and we are not greater than our Lord, who was said to have a devil by thy generation: and their measure of wickedness thou fulfils, and art one of the Dragon's army against the Lamb and his followers; and thy weapons are slanders; and thy refuge is lies; and thy work is confused, and hath hardly gained a name in Babylon's record; and by us (so much of it at least is against us) is cast by as our spoiled prey, and trampled upon in all thy reproachful speeches, who art unclean."

Mixed with these railings were affirmations as honestly made that the Quakers owned all the Scriptures which Bunyan had alleged against them, concerning the life, and death and resurrection of our Lord, yet withal bearing witness" that without the revelation of Christ within, there is no salvation." There were many and wide differences between Bunyan and the Quakers, but none upon these points when they understood each other, and when the Quakers understood themselves. He replied in a vindication of his treatise, complaining that his opponent had uttered a very great number of heresies, and falsely reported many things; and wishing him to be sober, if he could, and to keep under his unruly spirit, and not to appear so much, at least not so grossly, a railing Rabshakeh. He maintained, which was in fact the point at issue, that the opinions held at that day by the Quakers were the same that the Ranters had held long ago, "only the Ranters had made them threadbare at an alehouse, and the Quakers had set a new gloss upon them again by an outward legal holiness, or righteousness." He dwelt upon the error of the Quakers in confounding conscience with the Spirit of Christ, thereby "idolizing and making a God" of what "is but a creature, and a faculty of the soul of man, which God hath made," which "is that in which is the law of Nature, which is able to teach the Gentiles, that sin against the law is sin against God, and which is called by the Apostle* but even Nature itself.”— "O wonderful that men should make a God and a Christ of their con

• 1 Corinth. xi. 14.

sciences because they can convince of sin!" To the reproach of making merchandise of souls and loving the wages of unrighteousness he answered thus: "Friend, dost thou speak this as from thy own knowledge, or did any other tell thee so? However, that spirit that led thee out of this way is a lying Spirit. For though I be poor and of no repute in the world, as to outward things, yet this grace I have learned, by the example of the Apostle, to preach the truth; and also to work with my hands, both for mine own living, and for those that are with me, when I have opportunity. And I trust that the Lord Jesus who hath helped me to reject the wages of unrighteousness hitherto, will also help me still, so that I shall distribute that which God hath given me freely, and not for filthy lucre's sake. Other things I might speak in vindication of my practice in this thing. But ask of others, and they will tell thee that the things I say are truth: and hereafter have a care of receiving any thing by hearsay only, lest you be found a publisher of those lies which are brought to you by others, and so render yourself the less credible."

This reproof was so far lost upon his antagonist that he returned thus to the charge: "Thou seemest to be grieved, and calls this a false accusation. But let's try; the cause admits dispute. Art not thou in their steps, and among them that do these things? Ask John Burton, with whom thou art joined close to vindicate him and call him brother, hath he not so much yearly, £150, or more, (except thou hast some of it,) which is unrighteous wages, and hire, and gifts, and rewards? What sayest thou? Art thou not in his steps, and among, and with, him and them that do these things? If he be thy brother, and thou so own him, what is evil in him whom thou vindicatest I lay upon thee. Though thou bid me have a care of receiving by hearsay, what I have said and received in this is truth, though thou evade it never so much." Burroughs must have examined very little into the truth or probability of what he heard when he could believe and repeat that a poor Baptist-meeting at Bedford raised £150 a year for its minister!" Your words," says he, "describe your nature; for by your voice I know you to be none of Christ's sheep; and accordingly I judge in just judgment and in true knowledge. Envy is of Cain's nature and seed, and that you are; and liars are of Ishmael's stock, and you are guilty of that; and you are among the murdering Priests' party, and close joined to them, in doctrine and practice, especially in writing against us. Thy portion shall be howling and gnashing of teeth, for the liar's portion is the lake. I reprove thee by the spirit of the Lord, and so leave thee to receive thy reward from the just God of righteous judgment, who upon thy head will render vengeance in flames of fire, in his dreadful day. A liar and slanderer thou art, a perverter and wrester of the right way of God and of the Scriptures, a hypocrite and dissembler, a holder-forth of damnable doctrines, an envious man and false accuser-and all thy lies, deceits, confusions, hypocrisies, contradictions, and damnable doctrines of devils, with impudence held forth by thee, shall be consumed in the pit of vengeance.Alas, alas for thee, John Bunyan! thy several months' travail in grief and pain is a fruitless birth, and perishes as an untimely fig, and its praise is blotted out among men, and it's passed away as smoke. Truth is a-top of thee, and