The Life of John Bunyan [24]
destroy
their "objectivity." If the Son of God was not actually born of
the Virgin Mary, if He did not live in a real human body, and in
that body die, lie in the grave, rise again, and ascend up into
heaven, whence He would return - and that Bunyan believed shortly -
in the same Body He took of His mortal mother, His preaching was
vain; their faith was vain; they were yet in their sins. Those who
"cried up a Christ within, IN OPPOSITION to a Christ without," who
asserted that Christ had no other Body but the Church, that the
only Crucifixion, rising again, and ascension of Christ was that
WITHIN the believer, and that every man had, as an inner light, a
measure of Christ's Spirit within him sufficient to guide him to
salvation, he asserted were "possessed with a spirit of delusion;"
deceived themselves, they were deceiving others to their eternal
ruin. To the refutation of such fundamental errors, substituting a
mystical for an historical faith, Bunyan's little treatise is
addressed; and it may be truly said the work is done effectually.
To adopt Coleridge's expression concerning Bunyan's greater and
world-famous work, it is an admirable "SUMMA THEOLOIAE
EVANGELICAE," which, notwithstanding its obsolete style and old-
fashioned arrangement, may be read even now with advantage.
Bunyan's denunciation of the tenets of the Quakers speedily
elicited a reply. This was written by a certain Edward Burrough, a
young man of three and twenty, fearless, devoted, and ardent in the
propagation of the tenets of his sect. Being subsequently thrown
into Newgate with hundreds of his co-religionists, at the same time
that his former antagonist was imprisoned in Bedford Gaol, Burrough
met the fate Bunyan's stronger constitution enabled him to escape;
and in the language of the times, "rotted in prison," a victim to
the loathsome foulness of his place of incarceration, in the year
of the "Bartholomew Act," 1662.
Burrough entitled his reply, "The Gospel of Peace, contended for in
the Spirit of Meekness and Love against the secret opposition of
John Bunyan, a professed minister in Bedfordshire." His opening
words, too characteristic of the entire treatise, display but
little of the meekness professed. "How long, ye crafty fowlers,
will ye prey upon the innocent? How long shall the righteous be a
prey to your teeth, ye subtle foxes! Your dens are in darkness,
and your mischief is hatched upon your beds of secret whoredoms?"
Of John Burton and the others who recommended Bunyan's treatise, he
says, "They have joined themselves with the broken army of Magog,
and have showed themselves in the defence of the dragon against the
Lamb in the day of war betwixt them." We may well echo Dr. Brown's
wish that "these two good men could have had a little free and
friendly talk face to face. There would probably have been better
understanding, and fewer hard words, for they were really not so
far apart as they thought. Bunyan believed in the inward light,
and Burrough surely accepted an objective Christ. But failing to
see each other's exact point of view, Burrough thunders at Bunyan,
and Bunyan swiftly returns the shot."
The rapidity of Bunyan's literary work is amazing, especially when
we take his antecedents into account. Within a few weeks he
published his rejoinder to Friend Burrough, under the title of "A
Vindication of Gospel Truths Opened." In this work, which appeared
in 1667, Bunyan repays Burrough in his own coin, styling him "a
proved enemy to the truth," a "grossly railing Rabshakeh, who
breaks out with a taunt and a jeer," is very "censorious and utters
many words without knowledge." In vigorous, nervous language,
which does not spare his opponent, he defends himself from
Burrough's charges, and proves that the Quakers are "deceivers."
"As for you thinking that to drink water, and wear no hatbands is
not walking after your own lusts, I say
their "objectivity." If the Son of God was not actually born of
the Virgin Mary, if He did not live in a real human body, and in
that body die, lie in the grave, rise again, and ascend up into
heaven, whence He would return - and that Bunyan believed shortly -
in the same Body He took of His mortal mother, His preaching was
vain; their faith was vain; they were yet in their sins. Those who
"cried up a Christ within, IN OPPOSITION to a Christ without," who
asserted that Christ had no other Body but the Church, that the
only Crucifixion, rising again, and ascension of Christ was that
WITHIN the believer, and that every man had, as an inner light, a
measure of Christ's Spirit within him sufficient to guide him to
salvation, he asserted were "possessed with a spirit of delusion;"
deceived themselves, they were deceiving others to their eternal
ruin. To the refutation of such fundamental errors, substituting a
mystical for an historical faith, Bunyan's little treatise is
addressed; and it may be truly said the work is done effectually.
To adopt Coleridge's expression concerning Bunyan's greater and
world-famous work, it is an admirable "SUMMA THEOLOIAE
EVANGELICAE," which, notwithstanding its obsolete style and old-
fashioned arrangement, may be read even now with advantage.
Bunyan's denunciation of the tenets of the Quakers speedily
elicited a reply. This was written by a certain Edward Burrough, a
young man of three and twenty, fearless, devoted, and ardent in the
propagation of the tenets of his sect. Being subsequently thrown
into Newgate with hundreds of his co-religionists, at the same time
that his former antagonist was imprisoned in Bedford Gaol, Burrough
met the fate Bunyan's stronger constitution enabled him to escape;
and in the language of the times, "rotted in prison," a victim to
the loathsome foulness of his place of incarceration, in the year
of the "Bartholomew Act," 1662.
Burrough entitled his reply, "The Gospel of Peace, contended for in
the Spirit of Meekness and Love against the secret opposition of
John Bunyan, a professed minister in Bedfordshire." His opening
words, too characteristic of the entire treatise, display but
little of the meekness professed. "How long, ye crafty fowlers,
will ye prey upon the innocent? How long shall the righteous be a
prey to your teeth, ye subtle foxes! Your dens are in darkness,
and your mischief is hatched upon your beds of secret whoredoms?"
Of John Burton and the others who recommended Bunyan's treatise, he
says, "They have joined themselves with the broken army of Magog,
and have showed themselves in the defence of the dragon against the
Lamb in the day of war betwixt them." We may well echo Dr. Brown's
wish that "these two good men could have had a little free and
friendly talk face to face. There would probably have been better
understanding, and fewer hard words, for they were really not so
far apart as they thought. Bunyan believed in the inward light,
and Burrough surely accepted an objective Christ. But failing to
see each other's exact point of view, Burrough thunders at Bunyan,
and Bunyan swiftly returns the shot."
The rapidity of Bunyan's literary work is amazing, especially when
we take his antecedents into account. Within a few weeks he
published his rejoinder to Friend Burrough, under the title of "A
Vindication of Gospel Truths Opened." In this work, which appeared
in 1667, Bunyan repays Burrough in his own coin, styling him "a
proved enemy to the truth," a "grossly railing Rabshakeh, who
breaks out with a taunt and a jeer," is very "censorious and utters
many words without knowledge." In vigorous, nervous language,
which does not spare his opponent, he defends himself from
Burrough's charges, and proves that the Quakers are "deceivers."
"As for you thinking that to drink water, and wear no hatbands is
not walking after your own lusts, I say