matter did not begin, as Dr. Southey says, "because Blakey was not a Baptist." He adds, that they "excluded a Brother (Robert Nelson) because in a great assembly of the Church of England he was profanely bishopt, after the antichristian order of that generation, to the great profanation of God's order, and the heart-breaking of Christian brethren." This case, like the former, is quoted as an exception to the tolerant spirit of Bunyan: and, at first sight, it seems an exception. Indeed, it could not appear otherwise to Dr. Southey, as he found it in Ivimey's History of the Baptists. There it stands as a bare fact, and without any definition of the word bishopt. That word means neither-made a Bishop, nor ordained by a Bishop. Robert Nelson had no such honor, and he deserved none at all. He was merely confirmed "in the great assembly of the Church of England;" but confirmed in what,—I cannot tell: for, seven years afterwards, the Church at Bedford warned the Churches at Steventon, Keysoe, and Newport Pagnel, not to countenance him. This would not have been necessary if he had become a churchman. It can only be explained by supposing that, in some way, he hung on between Church and Dissent. No great fault, I grant, if his purpose had been good. But this is doubtful. It is certain, however, that Bunyan's Church admonished him for seven years, before they excluded him for being bishopt: and even then, it was as much for contemning all admonition, as for "trampling upon their order and fellowship." Their Letter to the Churches is now before me; and it declares that he was borne with "for the space of eight or nine years." Had Dr. Southey been aware of these facts of the case, he would not have adduced Nelson's exclusion as an exception to the tolerance of Bunyan's Church. I state the facts, that there may remain no drawback upon the honorable testimony of Dr. Southey, where he says of Bunyan, that he was "beyond the general spirit of his

age in tolerance, and far beyond that of his fellow Sectaries." -Life, p. 77.

"TO OUR BELOVED SISTER KATHERINE HUSTWHAT.

"Our dearly beloved sister,

"The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, and the God of all comfort, bless thee with abundance of grace and peace through the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory evermore. Amen.

"It is a comfort to us thy brothers and sisters (with whom grace hath made thee a member of the Lord Jesus) when we remember thy first faith and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ; being persuaded that those beginnings shall not end but in that kingdom and glory which God hath prepared for those that love him. In which persuasion we are the more confirmed, since we hear (to our increase of joy) how our God supporteth thee in all thy temptations and spiritual desertions thou meetest with in the world. The poor and afflicted people God will save; to be distressed and tempted while here is a manifestation of our predestination to the ease and peace of another world. Predestinated to be conformable, or (as in the old translation) predestinated that we should be like-fashioned even to the shape of his Son. A great part of which lieth, in our being distressed, tempted, afflicted as he. And therefore it was when he was departing hence to the Father, that he as it were looked back, as over his shoulder, to such, saying, 'You are they that have continued with me in my temptations, unto you I appoint a Kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.'

"Sister, thy keeping low and being emptied from vessel to vessel, is that thou mightest be kept sweet and more clean in thy soul than thou wouldst, or couldst otherwise be. The first ways of David were his best; and yet those ways were most

accompanied with affliction. They that are naked and lodge without clothing, that have no covering in the cold, and that are wet with the showers of the mountains; these embrace the rock for want of a shelter. As outward distresses make us prize outward blessings; so temptations and afflictions of soul make us prize Jesus Christ. He suffereth us to hunger, and to wander in a bewildered condition, that we may taste and relish the words of God, and not live by bread alone. Temptations always provoke to spiritual appetite; and are therefore very necessary for us, yea, as needful as work and labor to the body, without which it would be overrun with diseases, and unfit for any employment. Therefore, our beloved Sister, stir up the grace of God that is in thee, and lay hold by faith on eternal life, to the which thou art also called; and count when thou art tempted much, yet the end of that temptation will come; the end, and then effect. And remember that even our dearest Lord could not break off the temptation in the middle; but 'when Satan had ended all the temptation, then he departed from him for a season.'

"The gospel which thou hast received is no cunninglydevised fable, but the very truth and verity of God, and will undoubtedly bring to those that believe, grace and glory, honor and immortality; eternal life, and a world to come. This is the true grace of God wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Wherefore be not shaken in mind, or troubled with unbelief or atheism; look to the promise, look to Jesus, look to his blood, and what worth it hath with the justice of God for sinners. The Lord direct thy heart into the love of God, and the patient waiting for Jesus Christ, who at his coming will gather the saints together unto him, even those who have made a covenant with him by sacrifice.

66

Lastly, Sister, farewell, watch and be sober; have patience to the coming of the Lord; and in the mean while look to thy

lamp. The Lord pour of his golden oil into it, and also into the vessel of thy soul; keep thy work before thee, and be renewed in the spirit of thy mind. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find so doing. We commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance, among them that are sanctified by faith which is in Christ Jesus, to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, one God, be glory and dominion now and for ever.

"Written by the appointment of this congregation, and subscribed by their consent, by your dear brethren, who pray for you, and entreat your prayers for this despised handful of the Lord's heritage.

"JOHN BUNYAN," etc., etc.

EXTRACT.

"I marvel not that yourself and others do think my long imprisonment strange;—or rather strangely of me for the sake of that:-for verily I should have done so myself, had not the Holy Ghost long since forbidden me. 1 Pet. iv., 12; John, iii., 13. Nay, verily, notwithstanding that, had the Adversary fastened the supposition of guilt upon me, my long trials might by this time have put it beyond dispute. For I have not been so sordid as to stand to a doctrine, right or wrong, when so weighty an argument as above an eleven years' imprisonment is continually dogging me to pause, and pause again, to weigh the grounds of the principles for which I have thus suffered: but having, not only at my Trial asserted them, but all this tedious tract of time, examined them in cool blood a thousand times by the Word of God, I cannot, dare not now revolt or deny, on pain of eternal damnation.

(No date.)

"Thine in Bonds of the Gospel,
"JOHN BUNYAN."

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

BUNYAN'S CALVINISM.

DR. SOUTHEY says, that "Calvinism would never have become a term of reproach, nor have driven so many pious minds, in horror of it, to an opposite extreme, if it had never worn a blacker appearance than in Bunyan's Works." He was less courteous to Calvinism, as Whitefield preached it, although the Methodist was as "mild and charitable" as the Baptist. The Calvinism of both was, indeed, the same, when they became men. It is highly creditable, however, to Dr. Southey, to have made this concession even in the case of Bunyan. It places him, where he deserves to stand, with Bishop Horsley: for it is not so much the compliment of a poet to Bunyan, as the homage of a scholar to Truth. I have had to animadvert often and severely upon his Life of Bunyan; but I have never forgotten for a moment his vast and varied erudition, or the loveliness of his private character, or the deep interest he takes in theology as well as in literature. Little did I imagine, whilst honored by a seat at his fireside, and enraptured by his playful wit and profound wisdom in his Library, of which he is the impersonation, that it would ever be my duty to write a line. concerning him, except from gratitude and admiration! It was, indeed, the sight (in early life) of his beautiful character as a student and a father, that led me to combine literature with both my domestic habits and professional duties; and as I have reaped much enjoyment from this combination, I feel at times, as if I had been ungrateful or unjust to him. And I