was then in rivers. He felt the sublimity of the whole scene at the OUSE, as well as its solemnity. Gifford's eye may have realized nothing on the occasion, but the meaning of the ordinance; but Bunyan saw Jordan in the lilied Ouse, and John the Baptist in the holy Minister, and almost the Dove in the passing birds; whilst the sun-struck waters flashed around and over him, as if the Shechinah had descended upon them. For let it not be thought, that he was indifferent about his baptism, because he was indignant against strict Baptists, and laid more stress upon the doctrine it taught than upon its symbolic significancy. He loved Immersion, although he hated the close communion of the Baptist Churches. The fact is, and I mention it with more than complacency, he always looked back upon this voluntary act of obedience to Christ, just as those do upon parental dedication, who, like myself, have the high and hallowed consciousness, that we could not, by any personal submission to baptism now, exceed, in faith or devotion, the intense solicitude of a holy mother, or the solemn faith of a godly father, who with united hands and hearts baptized us into the "one body" of the Church of their "God and our God." Bunyan could not look back upon his baptism in infancy (if he was baptized then?) with either our emotions or convictions. We think, therefore, that he did wisely in being re-baptized. I think he did right in preferring Immersion to sprinkling; not, however, that I believe Immersion to be right, or Sprinkling wrong, according to any scriptural rule; for there is none; but because the former suited his temperament best, inasmuch as it gave him most to do, and thus most to think of and feel. For that is the best mode of Baptism to any man, which most absorbs his own mind with its meaning and design; now that no man can tell another (for God has not told us) what was done by John and the Apostles, in the interval between going down to the water, and coming up from the water. Neither the going down, nor the coming up, was Baptism. That was something intermediate, and performed by the Minister. What, I know not. I respect, therefore, equally, the man who thinks it was Immersion, and the man who thinks it was Sprinkling; because as they are equally ignorant of the form, they may be equally sincere. Let it not be said, that this is either levity or laxness. I revere Baptism, just as I do the Lord's Supper, in any form. It is not in levity nor in laxness, that some Churches sit and others kneel at the Sacrament; and yet both postures are a departure from the original position; but neither a departure from the spirit of commemoration. This subject will come up again in the Chapter on Bunyan and the Baptists. It was not chiefly because Gifford's Church had been friendly to Bunyan, nor because their communion was open, that Bunyan preferred their fellowship; but because they were a holy Church. He hated "mixed communion," in the sense of promiscuous, even more than strict communion. "I dare not," he says, "hold communion with them that profess not faith and holiness, or that are not visible saints by calling. He that is visibly or openly profane, cannot be a saint. He that is a visible saint must profess faith and repentance, and consequently (show) holiness of life: and with none else dare I communicate." -Works, p. 277. He adds, "Church-communion with the openly profane and ungodly, polluteth God's ordinances, it violateth His law, it defileth His people, and provoketh the Lord to severe and terrible judgments." Having proved this at large from both the Old and New Testament, he flings to the winds, with withering scorn, the pretense, that "the openly profane have always been in the Church of God." "They were not such when they were received into communion," he says; "and they were only retained in order to their admonition; and if that failed, they were to be cut off from the Church," or the Church punished for harboring them.-Works, p. 281. Such were Bunyan's convictions of the supreme importance of open and pure communion with the Church, that he said, after enduring eleven years' imprisonment for Nonconformity,— "I dare not now revolt, nor deny them, on the pain of eternal damnation! My principles lead me to a denial to communicate with the ungodly in the things of the kingdom of Christ. Neither can I consent that my soul should be governed in any of my approaches to God. But if nothing will do (for my judges) unless I make my conscience a continual butchery and slaughter-shop; unless, putting out my own eyes, I commit me to the blind to lead me,-I have determined, the Almighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer until even the moss shall grow on mine eye-brows, if frail life continue so long, rather than violate my faith and principles."-Preface to Bunyan's Confession of Faith. These winged words will keep upon the wing for ever. The Tinker's protest against human authority and worldly associations in the Church of Christ, will maintain in that Church a "sacramental host," whom power can neither crush nor coerce, nor policy deceive. How true it is, that such "a word spoken in season," is a word upon wheels! Its wheels will go rolling down the track of Time, without oiling, or wearing out. Nothing can stop them, nor turn them out of their course long. The Oxford Tracts may exalt the Sacrament into a Sacrifice, and Canon Law keep open the Altar to the clean and the unclean, for a time; but Bunyan's protest will outlive and outlaw both. Bishop Pearson's personal declaration, "I mean that Church alone which is both catholic and holy, when I say, 'I believe in the Holy Catholic Church,'" will become public opinion eventually; and his definition of the "Communion of Saints,"" that to communicate with a sinner in that which is not sin (the Sacrament), can be no sin," will not pass long for an exposition of the Creed.-Pearson on the Creed. Fol. pp. 334, 356. The Protestants of Britain will soon think with Jeremy Taylor, that "a fly can boast of as much privilege as a wicked person can receive from this Holy Feast" (by tasting it) although we may never say of it, in his words, that "it is more healthful than rhubarb, more pleasant than cassia: the botele and lareca of the Indians, the moly or nepenthe of Pliny, the lirinon of the Persians, the balsam of Judea, the manna of Israel, the honey of Johnathan, are but weak expressions to tell us, that it is excellent above art and nature."-We may not speak in this style; but we shall think in this spirit; and reëcho him to the letter, when he says, "All these must needs fall very short of those plain words of Christ, 'THIS IS MY BODY.' Here we must sit down and rest ourselves; for this is the Mountain of the Lord,' and we can go no further." "This Holy Sacrament is a nourishment of spiritual life; and therefore cannot with effect be ministered to them who are in a state of spiritual death. It is giving a cordial to a dead man: and, therefore, it were well they abstained from the rite itself.". Taylor's Life of Christ. Dis. 19. Bunyan summed up his own opinion of the Sacraments thus : "Two Sacraments, I do believe, there be; By God's appointment, benefit afford. Of them so foul and impious a thought, To think that from the Curse they can me save? Bunyan's Poems. CHAPTER XVI. BUNYAN'S SICK BED. 1654. THE Title of this Chapter can hardly surprise the reader. The only wonder is, that the facts of it did not occur sooner. For as Bunyan was highly nervous, as well as sensitive, his health was as much endangered as his spirits, by both the hot and cold paroxysms of his despair. Even his happy moments were perilous to health; and will remind Scotchmen of the emphatic lines of one of their own poets, "O, hold my head! "This gush o' pleasure's like to be my dead." He had, indeed, an iron-frame; and he needed it; for he had a soul of fire. The latter, however, overheated the former at last, and for a time seemed consuming it. The case was this. The burning sensation at the pit of his stomach, which seemed to him calcining, or breaking, his breast-bone, during the crisis of his anguish, was followed by a sinking which almost incapacitated him for business, when the joy of deliverance had expended its force. Another thing which hastened on his illness was, the sudden revolution of his sacramental feelings. They had been, at first, pure and pleasing; but they soon assumed an opposite character. Indeed, the transition was tremendous. He says, "I had not long been a partaker of that Ordinance, but fierce and sad temptations did at all times attend me therein, both to blaspheme the Ordi |