FOOTNOTES – John Bunyan
JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED FT1 Having preached many times, and from various texts, upon this subject, the whole substance of many sermons is here published. — Ed.
FT2 The Jews, and their sacred city, are standing monuments of God’s dreadful vengeance against unbelief in rejecting the Lord Christ, in whom alone is salvation. The Lord give us grace to prize and improve gospel privileges, lest we also be cut off, through unbelief. — Mason .
FT3 The higher a people rise under the means, the lower will be their fall if they slight them. O highly-favored England! Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, will have a milder hell than thy carnal, hypocritical, Christless children. — Mason .
FT4 All the objections are on the sinner’s side, through unbelief. Christ answers them all in one word, ‘Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely’; and, ‘Whosoever cometh, I will in no wise cast out.’ Lord, put forth thy power, and give the will. — Mason .
FT5 In this quotation, Bunyan has followed the reading in the Genevan or Puritan version. — Ed.
FT6 An arrow, dipped in the blood of Jesus, will subdue the most obdurate heart it reaches, even those bitter enemies to Christ, the priests. — Mason .
FT7 This quotation is from the Genevan or Puritan version — Ed.
FT8 ‘Death was swallowing of them down.’ How very striking and full of truth is this expression! For, in proportion as the sinner violates the Divine law, so he rushes into the jaws of death and destruction.
Obedience to the Divine law preserves health, bestows happiness, and prolongs life. — Ed.
FT9 ‘Rowl in his bowels’; intense affection: see Philemon 12. — Ed.
FT10 ‘Wheals’; pimples, or small swellings filled with matter. — Ed.
FT11 ‘As physicians do’ can now hardly be understood. In Bunyan’s days, all physicians put forth their bills of ‘wonderful cures.’ — Ed.
FT12 ‘Hedge-creepers’; footpads. — Ed.
FT13 O sinner, beseech the Lord to enable you to welcome the grace that is welcoming you; then you shall find it, in the Lord’s time, that you shall be made as kindly welcome as ever a sinner was that is now a glorified saint. — Mason .
FT14 This idea is most ingeniously and admirably displayed in Bunyan’s beautiful allegory, ‘The Holy War.’ — Ed.
FT15 ‘A muse’; deep thought. Vulgo vocatum , ‘a brown study.‘ Bunyan used this word in the same sense in the first edition of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress,’ at the Interpreter’s house: ‘Now was Christian somewhat in a muse.’ It was afterwards altered, but not improved, by substituting the words, ‘in a maze.’ — Ed.
FT16 Among all the wondrous sights that angels witness, one gives them peculiar joy — it is the poor penitent prodigal returning to God, Luke 15:10. — Ed.
FT17 This was printed in the first edition, ‘the biggest sin.‘ — Ed.
FT18 How strongly does this dialogue bring to our recollection that between Christian and Apollyon in the ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress?’ — Ed.
FT19 ‘I stunck,’ in the original edition, probably meant, ‘I stuck’; but all the later editions have, ‘I stunk.’ — Ed.
FT20 ‘Clouts’; patches, Joshua 9:5 FT21 I cannot discover in what book Bunyan read this legend; it is not in the “Golden Legend ,” or any of my monkish authors. It was a generally received opinion, among the ancients, that Mary Magdalene was sister to Lazarus; but the means of her conversion is not known. The story here related is possible, and even probable; but it has no foundation in the inspired writings, nor in ancient authors. — Ed.
FT22 Thus Zaccheus said: ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man, by false accusation, I restore fourfold.’ The law of God requires us, dim- sighted as we are, to see our sins in their real magnitude, but the perversity of man turns the telescope to diminish them. — Ed.
FT23 ‘The friends thereof in their reason‘ were the words used in the first three editions by Bunyan. After his decease, they were altered, in 1697, in a second third edition, and this correction has been continued in every subsequent impression. — Ed.
FT24 Bunyan has some striking observations upon this word Go, in his work on the day of judgment. Those who refused the invitation to ‘come’ and receive life, when in the world, now irresistibly obey the awful mandate, ‘Go,’ and rush into eternal woe. — Ed.
FT25 How pointed and faithful are these words? How natural it is for a poor sinner to compare himself with his fellow-worm, and say, ‘Lord, I thank thee that I am not as this publican,’ or as that murderer — instead of viewing himself in the gospel glass, in the presence of infinite holiness, and feeling that in his flesh there is no good thing, but putrefying sores, that he is vile and hell- deserving, and must fall into the arms of Divine mercy, crying, Lord, save, or I perish. — Ed.
FT26 ‘Swoop’; to seize as a hawk does his prey. — Ed.
FT27 The convinced sinner is not content with the cry, ‘Deliver me from the wrath to come,’ but, feeling sin to be his greatest enemy, he earnestly cries for deliverance from its dominion in this world ( <19E301> Psalm 143). — Ed.
FT28 ‘At the catch.’ See the dialogue between Faithful and Talkative in ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress.’ — Ed.
FT29 Printed, ‘far,’ in the first and second editions; altered to ‘fast,’ in third and subsequent editions. — Ed.
FT30 The blind men, who implored the mercy of Jesus, would not be checked even by the multitude, but cried so much the more. When a true sense of misery urges, neither men nor devils can stop the cry for mercy, till Jesus has compassion and heals their spiritual maladies. — Mason .
FT31 Quoted from the Puritan or Genevan version of the Bible; our translation has, ‘He that covereth.’ — Ed.
FT32 ‘Long of Jesus Christ’; a provincial expression, meaning ‘all this belongs to us by Jesus Christ.’ — Ed.
FT33 How admirable an illustration is this of the Slough of Despond, into which Christian and Pliable fell in ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress.’ — Ed.
FT34 This illustrates Bunyan’s meaning of the Giant of Sophistry, named Maul, whose head was cut off by Great-heart, in the Second Part of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress.‘ — Ed.
FT35 The treasures of this bank are inexhaustible and unsearchable. Oh for faith, that we may draw largely upon its infinite riches! — Ed.
FT36 ‘Incidence’; the direction with which one body strikes another; now obsolete. — Ed.
FT37 A sour, crabbed Christian, is a contradiction in terms. The precept is, ‘Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven you’ ( Ephesians 4:31). — Mason FT38 The true branches in Christ, the heavenly vine, are made fruitful in love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. By these it will appear that Christ is formed within us. Mere ‘lick of the tongue‘ love, without these, is an unsubstantial shadow. — Ed.
FT39 ‘Be so taunted’; in editions previous to 1697. — Ed.
FT40 ‘At least wise’; to say the least. — Ed.
FT41 This is the proper test for a perplexed soul, when troubled about his election. If I love Christ, and am desirous to obey him, it is because he first loved me; and this is the surest proof of election. Hear the voice of God, ‘Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish, but have eternal life‘; and so Paul, ‘As many as were ordained to eternal life believed’ ( Acts 13:48). — Ed.
FT42 How very forcible is this appeal to those who profess to believe the inspiration of the Bible, but yet reject the atonement of Christ. It is to make the typical sacrifice of the clean beasts, under the law, of greater value than that of the great antitype — the Son of God. — Ed.
FT43 The reason why those who are guilty of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost are never forgiven, is not for want of any sufficiency in the blood of Christ, or in the pardoning mercy of God, but because they never repent of that sin, and never seek to God for mercy through Christ, but continue obstinate till death. — Mason .
COME AND WELCOME FT51 “My grace is sufficient for thee,” and the language of the church, conscious of its own weakness and the Lord’s all-sufficiency, is, “Draw me, we will run after thee” ( Song of Solomon 1:4). — Mason.
FT52 No outward profession is accepted, except it springs from inward love to Christ. — Ed.
FT53 How clearly is every seeming difficulty explained by Bunyan. The Father entered into covenant with the Son, in eternity, to save his elect; and, in time, as they appear upon earth, the Father giveth them to Christ by effectual calling, and he brings them to eternal glory. — Ed.
FT54 To come unto Christ, in its proper sense, is to receive him as he is offered to us in the Word; to believe in him, as a suitable and allsufficient Savior; to submit to his government, in both suffering and doing his will, with all lowly-mindedness and humility; and this by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit upon the soul. — Mason.
FT55 “Salve;” relief, aid, or help. He done undo, yet for to salve his name And purchase honor to his friend’s behalf, This goodly countenance he did frame.” — Spenser’s Faery Queen.
FT56 We cannot remember all God’s benefits, but how prone we are to forget them all! — Ed.
FT57 Christian, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, was thus exercised: — ”I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded that he did not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it: — Just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stepped up softly to him, and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind.” See also Grace Abounding, No. 100-102. — Ed.
FT58 “Warm gleads;” from Saxon glow, anything heated or hot. “My destiny to behold her doth me lead, And yet I know I run into the gleade.”, Wyatt. — Ed.
FT59 Many misspend their time in poring upon their own hearts, to find out some evidence of their interest in Christ, when they should rather be employed in receiving Christ, and walking in him, by a confident faith grounded on the Divine testimony. — Mason.
FT60 How striking are Bunyan’s illustrations! The devil, as a roaring lion, is in pursuit of the flying sinner; he would flee faster than his infirmities will let him. We cannot wonder that modern preachers borrowed so vivid and truthful a figure. — Ed.
FT61 A Christian is “never safe but when watchful;” he should keep a jealous eye on his own weakness, and a believing eye on the promise and power of Christ, and he shall be preserved from falling. — Mason.
FT62 “Let him;” hinder him. See 2 Thessalonians 2:7. Obsolete. — Imperial Dictionary. — Ed.
FT63 “The Scripture contains many gracious promises in behalf of the children of believing parents; but grace is not hereditary. It is the parent’s part to pray with and for, admonish, and piously train up his children; but, after all, must recommend them to the tender mercies of God, which the children of many prayers often happily experience.” — Mason. O that all persons may solemnly consider this searching truth! especially the children of believers. The coming of your father or mother to Christ cannot be imputed to you; come for yourself, or you must perish. As you love your souls, believe not that awful delusion, that any ceremony could make you a child of God. — Ed.
FT64 “While of late;” until of late. — Ed.
FT65 “Lie at Jesus Christ;” to lay down, lie at the feet of Jesus Christ, to persevere like the Syrophenician woman, Mark 7:25. — Ed.
FT66 “Ply;” to solicit importunately. — Ed.
FT67 “A flam;” a fable, an imposition.
FT68 “Most an end;” continually, perpetually.
FT69 How awful is the confidence of the self-righteous pharisee; he considers himself more righteous than the poor penitent, who is clothed in Christ’s righteousness, the garments of salvation.
The self-righteous says: — “Stand by, I am holier than thou. Thank God, I am not like this publican.” While in God’s sight, poor wretched boaster, thou art clothed in filthy rags. — Ed.
Ft70 This nation now pays some eight or ten millions sterling a year. Had God sanctioned this diabolical trade in souls, all Christendom would have been divided into two classes-priests and slaves. — Ed.
Ft71 “Twitting;” taunting, or rebuking. — Ed.
Ft72 “A gload;” a warm, eager, passionate gazing: now obsolete. — Ed.
CHRIST A COMPLETE SAVIOR Ft75 The Author refers here to 1 Corinthians 11:30-32, where the doctrine and method of God’s fatherly corrective discipline in his own family, is laid down briefly but clearly. The subject deserves our deepest study, and supplies important topics of self-examination to the conscience of every careless Christian.
Yet it is the very mistake of Job’s friends to suppose that all the afflictions of God’s children are sent as correctives for sin. There is another class, that belong purely to our conformity to Christ, in which we share his cup and his baptism, by suffering for righteousness’ sake, for the glory of his name, and the advancement of his cause. See Matthew 5:2-12. Such are all the sufferings which are either, 1. the productions of piety, in a world of sin; or, 2. the proof of it against slanderous imputations; or, 3. the preventives of particular sins, to which we are tempted; or, 4. the preparatives for more tender and effectual sympathy, more extensive usefulness on earth, and higher glory in heaven.
Examples of all these different forms of suffering, will readily occur to every reader of the Scriptures.
It is often of great moment to the suffering Christian, that he should know to which of these classes his own afflictions belong. See Peter 2:20, 21. ¾ J. N. B. The “land of Sinim” is now generally understood to be China. It contains one third of the population of the globe, and is now just opened to the gospel of Christ. How would Bunyan have rejoiced to see our day, and take part in the Missionary Enterprise! But his published works shall help the good cause on. ¾ J. N. B.