Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Life of John Bunyan by Edmund Venables
page 100 of 149 (67%)
only find rest by doing violence to the dogma, then universally accepted
and not quite extinct even in our own days, that the authority of the
Bible--that "Divine Library"--collectively taken, belongs to each and
every sentence of the Bible taken for and by itself, and that, in
Coleridge's words, "detached sentences from books composed at the
distance of centuries, nay, sometimes at a millenium from each other,
under different dispensations and for different objects," are to be
brought together "into logical dependency." But "where the Spirit of the
Lord is there is liberty." The divinely given life in the soul of man
snaps the bonds of humanly-constructed logical systems. Only those,
however, who have known by experience the force of Bunyan's spiritual
combat, can fully appreciate and profit by Bunyan's narrative. He tells
us on the title-page that it was written "for the support of the weak and
tempted people of God." For such the "Grace Abounding to the chief of
sinners" will ever prove most valuable. Those for whom it was intended
will find in it a message--of comfort and strength.

As has been said, Bunyan's pen was almost idle during the last six years
of his imprisonment. Only two of his works were produced in this period:
his "Confession of Faith," and his "Defence of the Doctrine of
Justification by Faith." Both were written very near the end of his
prison life, and published in the same year, 1672, only a week or two
before his release. The object of the former work was, as Dr. Brown
tells us, "to vindicate his teaching, and if possible, to secure his
liberty." Writing as one "in bonds for the Gospel," his professed
principles, he asserts, are "faith, and holiness springing therefrom,
with an endeavour so far as in him lies to be at peace with all men." He
is ready to hold communion with all whose principles are the same; with
all whom he can reckon as children of God. With these he will not
quarrel about "things that are circumstantial," such as water baptism,
DigitalOcean Referral Badge