Pilgrim’s
Progress was written by John Bunyan while in a jail cell and was first
published in 1678. Bunyan was born in
1628 in the village of Elstow, England. His father was a tinker, a lowly
occupation that referred to “a mender of pots and pans, a metal worker and plumber, a user of
hammer and forge.” Bunyan learned this
trade from his father. His father also sent him to school to learn to read and
write.
John Bunyan
was a nonconformist, Baptist preacher and writer who ministered mostly in the
regions of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, England. During that time there was
an intense conflict between the established religion of the Church of England
and zealous Puritanism. His boundless zeal and leadership in traveling
throughout this area, and occasionally to London, eventually earned for him the
nickname of “Bishop Bunyan.”
Bunyan was
married in 1647 to a “praying Christian” and she pointed her husband to the
Lord and they read good Christian literature together. His conversion occurred during the 11 year
period of parliamentary rule under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He was
baptized in the River Ouse, Bedford, and received into membership with the
local Baptist congregation.
In Pilgrim’s
Progress Bunyan might be said to give an account of his own conversion and
Christian journey. However, most
Christians who read the book find their own conversion therein.
Bunyan relates
his conversion and post-conversion struggles in a book titled Grace
Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners. Before his
conversion Bunyan had learned a profane lifestyle from a tutor named
Harry. Bunyan described Harry as, “a
young man in our town, to whom my heart before was knit more than to any other,
but he being a most wicked creature for cursing, and swearing, and
whoring.” On one occasion, when belching
forth oaths like a madman, an overhearing loose and ungodly women was led to
declare Bunyan to be, “the ungodliest fellow for swearing that ever she heard
in all her life,” and thus “[he was] able to spoil all the youth in a whole
town.” Following this humiliation, John began to read his Bible. Some outward
reformation did result for about a year and many were impressed. However, one
day on overhearing a group of godly women earnestly conversing about the joy of
their new birth and their sinful state by nature, Bunyan was deeply convicted
and shaken in his heart. Their godly testimony, though unsolicited, continued
to haunt and challenge him so that he began to seek the company of “these poor
people,” as he describes them.
Now Bunyan
searched his Bible as never before, even as represented by Christian earnestly
reading his book in the City of Destruction. With intensifying enquiry he
wrestled with countless questions that arose from his investigation, though now
his interest moved from an earlier study of the Gospels to the Epistles of
Paul. Did he have saving faith? Could he perform a miracle? Was he one of God’s
elect? He relates in Grace Abounding how, at this
time, a memorable dream convinced him of his lost condition and the hope of his
deliverance. He was on the dark side of a valley separated by a wall, with a
narrow gap, from the opposite sunny side of a mountain. By striving, Bunyan
squeezed through to the comfort of the sunny side of the valley. Thus he
interprets: “The mountain signified the church of the living God; the sun that
shone thereon, the comfortable shining of his merciful face on them that were
therein; the wall, I thought, was the Word, that did make separation between
the Christians and the world; and the gap which was in this wall, I thought,
was Jesus Christ, who is the way to God the Father.”
Breaking off
friendship with a depraved acquaintance, yet he wondered if he was too late to
receive mercy and grace from God. Nevertheless, he adds, “I continued for a
time, all on a flame to be converted to Jesus Christ.” Then did godly friends
introduce Bunyan to John Gifford, the pastor of a baptistic Bedford meeting,
who took time to give personal counsel and encouragement. Other Christians
offered pity and advice, yet sensitivity to personal corruption only increased.
“I was never more tender now; I dare not take a pin or a stick, though but so
big as a straw, for my conscience now was sore, and would smart at every touch.
. . . I found myself as on a miry bog [like the slough of despond?] that shook
if I did but stir.”
Again he
feared that he was a reprobate. Then blasphemous thoughts and inward
uncleanness plagued him. Satan attempted to “sift him as wheat” (Luke 22:31).
Scriptural comfort was but fleeting, that is, until the conversion he sought
became a reality. He describes this experience as follows:
But afterwards the Lord did more fully and graciously discover
himself unto me; and, indeed, did quite, not only deliver me from the guilt
that, by these things, was laid upon my conscience, but also from the very
filth thereof; for the temptation was removed, and I was put into my right mind
again, as other Christians were. I remember that one day, as I was traveling into
the country and musing on the wickedness and blasphemy of my heart, and
considering the enmity that was in me to God, that Scripture came in my mind.
He hath ‘made peace through the blood of his cross’ (Col. 1:20). By which I was
made to see, both again, and again, and again, that day, that God and my soul
were friends by this blood; yea, I saw that the justice of God and my sinful
soul could embrace and kiss each other through this blood. This was a good day
for me; I hope I shall never forget it.
Did this mean
that Bunyan had reached a plateau of stability? By no means, for Grace
Abounding indicates that a degree of instability remained for approximately
two years hence. Then came a further revelation of the substitutionary,
imputed, perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ that did result in a more
settled state.
Now Christ was my all; all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my
sanctification, and all my redemption. Further, the Lord did also lead me into
the mystery of union with the Son of God, that I was joined to him, that I was
flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, and now was that a sweet word to me
in Ephesians 5:30. By this also was my faith in him, as my righteousness, the
more confirmed to me; for if he and I were one, then his righteousness was
mine, his merits mine, his victory also mine. Now could I see myself in heaven
and earth at once; in heaven by my Christ, by my head, by my righteousness and
life, though on earth by my body or person.”
Only after
this post-conversion experience was Bunyan received into the Bedford church as
a member.
As far as
essential doctrinal convictions are concerned, Bunyan was a classic Puritan
insofar as that title is more comprehensively used, an experiential Calvinist,
and a zealous pastor and preacher of separatist persuasion. Though lacking even
an adequate secondary education, let alone formal theological and pastoral
training, yet his quest for truth was so intense that, chiefly with his English
Bible, he attained a breadth and depth of biblical and theological knowledge
that is impressive by any standard.
Over the
years, Bunyan developed a close friendship with the former Vice-Chancellor of
Oxford University, Puritan scholar and pastor, Dr. John Owen. This led to his
preaching annually in Owen’s church in Moorfields, London, before an
aristocratic congregation that included relatives of Oliver Cromwell. It is
recorded that the learned Dr. Owen was once asked by King Charles II, “how a
courtly man such as he could sit and listen to an illiterate tinker?” To this
Owen humbly replied: “Had I the tinker’s abilities, please your Majesty, I
would most gladly relinquish my learning.”
Fifty-nine books, tracts, and manuscripts were attributed to Bunyan,
twelve of which were written while he was in prison. Richard Greaves writes that “Bunyan’s thought
as a whole was based on the doctrine of the grace of God revealed in Christ—a
concept which permeated the whole of his writings and which was the focal point
of his preaching and thinking.”
He began
preaching in 1655. Charles II came to
the throne in 1660 and a few months later Bunyan was arrested and imprisoned
for his independency and field preaching.
The Uniformity Act required people to exclusively attend the
Anglican Church or go to prison. The Conventicle Act declared that
religious assemblies of five or more persons were only lawful within the Church
of England. The Five Mile Act ordered that Protestant preachers must live at
least five miles from a town. It was during this repressive reign, ending in
1688, that Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress. In 1688 Bunyan preached his last sermon on
John 1:13,
and died in London of a fever following an errand of mercy. Under the reign of
William and Mary the Toleration Act was passed in 1689
that guaranteed religious freedom for the Protestant dissenters.
Pilgrim’s
Progress was written in two parts. Part
One, published in 1678, describes the adventure-filled journey of Christian as
he flees from the City of Destruction and determines, in the face of fearful
trials and encouraging blessings, to go on pilgrimage so that he might obtain
release from his burden of sin and ultimately be received as a citizen of the
Celestial City. Part Two of The Pilgrim’s Progress was not published
until 1684. It reverts back to Christian’s family, his wife Christiana and four
sons still endangered in the City of Destruction, as they awaken to their peril
and thus press on as pilgrims toward the Celestial City. Bunyan’s motive in
composing Part Two was, as his introductory poem makes clear, to counter several
spurious attempts at writing a sequel.
So
then, Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory of the Christian life, beginning with
conviction of sin and conversion to Christ.
The main character is Christian, who sets out on a journey which describes
in a colorful way the journey of the Christian life. The gospel is clearly portrayed and true
conversion is rightly explained. In this
book we find much about the sanctification of the believer and the battle of
the Christian with the world, the flesh and the devil. We discover the many temptations and trials
that every Christian faces at one time or another. This book is full of Scripture and is
thoroughly based on the Bible in all that it teaches.
Read
it prayerfully, look up the Scripture verses, write down your thoughts as you
read or make notes in your copy of the book.
For next week, read the author’s apology, if you haven’t already, and
read the book up to the second encounter with Evangelist, just after his
encounter with Mr. Worldly-Wiseman.
