34. THE HEAVENLY FOOTMAN;
OR,
A DESCRIPTION OF THE MAN THAT GETS TO HEAVEN:
TOGETHER WITH THE WAY HE RUNS IN, THE MARKS HE GOES BY, ALSO, SOME DIRECTIONS HOW TO RUN SO AS TO OBTAIN.
*And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for the life, but not behind the weather they then in all the places: escape to the mountain, but then be consumed.*—Gen. xix. 17.
London: Printed for John Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street, 1625.
About forty years ago a gentleman, in whose company I had commenced my pilgrimage, and who had joined me in communion with a Baptist church, about four years previously, came to my house one Monday morning, greatly delighted with the sermon which our pastor had preached on the previous day, while I was engaged in superintending the Sunday school. It had caused a very remarkable sensation, which, if properly followed up, bid fair to occasion an extraordinary revival of religion in the neighbourhood. He, with the deacons, had begged of our minister to fill up his outline, and prepare the sermon for publication, to which he had consented. He wished to ascertain from me, as a publisher, the expense of printing five thousand copies, being sure that the sale of it would be unprecedented, not only throughout the kingdom, but as far as the English language was spoken. In about a week, the copy fairly written was left with me. The text was Hek. xii. 1, 'Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.' After the introduction that all men desire heaven, but all do not run for it—the word run was explained as a flying, pressing, persevering. Then seven reasons, and nine directions, were followed by nine motives and nine uses. This, and the striking ideas and language of the sermon, brought Bunyan to my recollection, and, on comparison, it proved to be the Heavenly Footman, with very slight alterations. Having then very recently purchased a neat edition of the book, at a very low price, my inquiry was, whether they would not prefer having the book in its genuine state, especially as it was ready for delivery. I need not add, that all thoughts of circulating the sermon was at once abandoned. In conversation with my excellent pastor, who afterwards for many years bore the honour of a D.D., he acknowledged his obligation to me for detecting the plagiarism before the sermon was published, and explained to me that, when very young, he had read Bunyan's Heavenly Footman with intense interest, and made a full analysis of it, in the shape of notes, which, having committed to memory, he preached to a very delighted and deeply impressed congregation; that after a lapse of many years, looking over the outlines of his early sermons, he was struck with it, and believing it to be his own composition, had again used it with such extraordinary success, as led his deacons and members to request him to print it. Doubtless Bunyan being dead has often similarly spoken—may his voice never be lost in silence or be forgotten.
The title of 'Heavenly Footman' was probably suggested by the words of the prophet Jeremiah, 'If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? And in the land of peace thou trustedst, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?' xix. 2, and 'Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.' Hek. xii. 1. The word footman does not refer to that class of servants who are badged and dressed in livery to gratify the pride of their masters, nor to that description of foot-soldiers or infantry, whose business is designated by the blood-stained colour of their clothes. But it refers to those who are travelling on foot to a distant country, engaged on a pilgrimage from earth to heaven. It is worthy of remark, that the whole of the children of God, of every age and class, class and kindred, the richest and the poorest, all are upon terms of perfect equality in running the race set before them. No wealth, nor grade, can procure a horse to carry them, or a carriage to ride in; all must run on foot. The only carriage for the foot-sore, weary pilgrim, is the bosom of Christ; he carries the lambs in his bosom, and there is room enough for all; the poorest labourer and the noblest aristocrat meet there upon a level with each other; there is no first class for the rich, and parliamentary train for the poor. It is all first class. In the varied adventures of Christian and his associates, and of Christians, her children, and her lovely friend Mercy, they never ride. The little one is led by the hand up the steep and rough hill Difficulty, but his own feet carry him throughout the wearisome road. The only carriage was the fiery chariot which carried the soul of the martyred Faithful to the Celestial City; there is no riding to heaven while in the body. Wealth may procure many pleasures to clog the soul in its journey. It may purchase indulgencies; it may incline some disciples to look at sinful imperfections through the wrong end of the telescope; it may purchase prayers—but devotional exercises, bought by gold, will freeze the soul. It is the poor disciple that receives the faithful admonitions of his equally poor fellow-saints. The rich have more ceremony, while the labourer enjoys more richly, more free from restraint, the warm outpourings of a devotional spirit. Still there is nothing to prevent the greatest nobleman or monarch from running to heaven in company with the disciples of our lowly Master. If he refuses this road and this company, he must pursue his downward course to destruction.
The order in which the allegorical works of Bunyan were written, very naturally suggest itself from his own narratives, and from the dates of their publication. It was thus, while suffering his tedious and dangerous imprisonment for Christ's sake, he was led to write an account of the dealings of God with his soul, which work he published in 1666, under the title of Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. While engaged in writing this remarkable narrative, the almost unbounded allegorical powers of his mind were brought into exercise—
'And thus it was: I writing of the way
And race of saints, in this our gospel-day,
Fell suddenly into an allegory
About their journey, and the way to glory.'
Having finished his Grace Abounding, he allowed his fertile imagination its full scope, and again wrote the result of his experience in the form of an allegorical narrative, called the Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is to Come. At first the thoughts pressed upon him as fast as he could write them, yet he says—
'— I did not think
To show to all the world my pen and ink
In such a mode.'
And it was several years before he ventured to publish his beautiful allegory. He was released from prison in 1672, having been chosen in the previous year to be the pastor, or ministering elder of the church at Bedford. His time was then much occupied in re-organizing the church, after years of tempest and fiery persecution. At length, having overcome his own and his friends' reluctance to publish so solemn a work on the conversion of a sinner and his way to heaven, in the form of an allegory, the Pilgrim's Progress was printed in 1678. The wonderful popularity of this book, and the great good it produced, led him again to turn his Grace Abounding into a different form of narrative, in the more profound allegory of the Holy War; this was published in 1682, and in two years afterwards he completed the Pilgrim by a delightful second part. His long incarceration, followed by sudden and great activity, probably brought down his robust constitution; and as the end of his course drew nigh, he was doubly diligent, for in 1688, before his death-day, which was in August, he published six important treatises, and had prepared fourteen or fifteen others for the press. Among these were his final and almost dying instructions to the pilgrim, under the title of The Heavenly Footman, the man whom he describes in the poetical apology to the Pilgrim's Progress, as he that
'Runs and runs,
Till be unto the gate of glory comes.'
This treatise sheds a lustre over the latter days of our immortal allegorist. It is evidently the production of a mind expanded and chastened with the rich experience of sanctified age. In it we are reminded of those important directions to heavenly footmen, contained in his most admired books. Is there a Slough of Despond to be passed, and a hill Difficulty to be overcome? Here the footman is reminded of 'many a dirty step, many a high hill, a long and tedious journey through a vast howling wilderness;' but he is encouraged, 'the land of promise is at the end of the way.' p. 382. Must the man that would win eternal glory draw his sword, put on his helmet, and fight his way into the temple—the heavenly footman must press, crowd, and thrust through all that stand between heaven and his soul. p. 381. Did Ignorance, who perished from the way, say to the pilgrims, 'You go so fast, I must stay awhile behind?' He who runs to heaven is told that the heavy-heeled, lazy, wanton, and foolish professor will not attain the prize. p. 382. The wicket-gate, at the head of the way, is all-important; none can get to heaven unless they enter by Christ, the door and way, so the footman is reminded that it matters not how fast he runs, he can never attain the prize, if he is in the wrong road. p. 382. Did the pilgrims so severely suffer from entering upon Byopath-meadow, and even after that bitter experience were they again misled into a bye path, by a black man clothed in white raiment? Our footman is warned—Beware them of bye and crooked paths that lead to death and damnation; the way to heaven is one, still there are many well-beaten bye-paths that butt or shoot down upon it, and which lead to destruction. p. 251. To prevent vain and foolish company from calling you out of the path, or from loitering in it, say, I am in haste, I am running for a prize; if I win I am made, I win ALL; if I lose I lose all, and am undone. p. 252. So it was with Faithful when even Christian, who saw him before, cried Ho ho, so ho. Faithful answered, 'No, I am upon my life, the avenger of blood is behind me.' In the same way the pilgrims refused the invitations of Demas with his silver mine. No, says the heavenly footman, I am running for heaven, for my soul, for God, for Christ, from hell and everlasting damnation. p. 253. Did the poor pilgrims go grunting, puffing, and sighing, one tumbleth over a bush, another sticks fast in the dirt, one cries out, I am down, and another, Ho! where are you? Pilgrim's Progress. p. 254. So the footman is told that he will 'meet with cross, pain, and wearisomeness to the flesh, with briars and quagmires, and other encumbrances,' through all which he must persevere. p. 255. Did Formalist and Hypocrite turn off into bye-ways at the foot of the hill Difficulty, and miserably perish? Did Mistrust and Timorous run back for fear of the persecuting lions, Church and State? So the man that runs for heaven is cautioned—'Some when they come at the cross can go no further, but back again to their sins they go, stumble and break their necks, or turn aside to the left or to the right, and perish.' p. 256. Be not ready to halt, nor run hobbling and halting, but, like my Lord Will-be-will in the Holy War, when fighting against Diabolus, get thy will tipt with heavenly grace, and go full speed for heaven. These quotations tend to prove that this invaluable treatise is a summary of the guide books which Bunyan had before written. It was doubtless one of the last productions of his prolific pen.
Two passages in the Heavenly Footman appear to favour the idea, that a period in life is, in some cases, fixed, beyond which there is no repentance; thus in p. 257, in a solemn warning against procrastination he says, 'Dost thou know whether the day of grace will last a week longer or no? For the day of grace is past with some before their life is ended;' and p. 258, 'sometimes sinners have not heaven gates open to them so long as they suppose; and if they be once shut against a man, they are so heavy that all the men in the world, nor all the angels in heaven, can open them. Francis Spira can tell thee what it is to stay till the gate of mercy be quite shut.' It becomes an interesting inquiry as to who Bunyan means by the 'some' of whom he says, 'that the day of grace is past before their life is ended.' This cannot refer to those who, neglecting the Saviour, are in a perishing condition. No minister felt a more ardent desire to rouse them to a sense of their danger and to guard them against despair than John Bunyan. In his Jerusalem Sinner Saved he thus argues 'Why despair? thou art yet in the land of the living.' 'It is a sin to begin to despair before one sets his foot over the threshold of hell gates.' 'What, despair of bread in a land that is full of corn? Despair of mercy when our God is full of mercy, thou scrupulous fool; despair when we have a redeeming Christ alive. Let them despair that dwell where there is no God, and that are confined to those chambers of death which can be reached by no redemption. In Bunyan's Come and Welcome, he proves that it would be 'high blasphemy and daunable wickedness' to imagine that Christ would cast out any that come to God by him. He cannot mean the backslider, for Bunyan was such. David also, to an awful extent, and Peter to the denial of his Lord. No, he may mean those who, while neglecting the Saviour, are overtaken by madness, or more probably to such as Judas, Spira, and others who sell their Master, or renounce him. If a man abandons the Saviour, there is no other name under heaven whereby he can be saved; 'there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin;' he is a despiser of God's way of salvation, and tramples under foot the Son of God. While such a career continues, fiery indignation must be his wretched destiny. They who contemn the heavenly gift—the Holy Ghost—the word of God—the powers of the world to come—if they persevere unto death in such sentiments, the day of grace is past. There have been some who, like Esau, having sold their birthright, sought repentance even with tears, but found it not—they sought it not in God's appointed way. All hope depends upon such sinners coming unto Christ, humbled and broken-hearted. He is willing, He is able to save even then to the uttermost, but they will not.' He has promised, and will perform his word, 'him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out.' The volume of inspiration is crowned at its close with the same cheering encouragement, 'And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And WHOSEYER WILL, let him take the water of life freely.' I cannot imagine that any man would have sung with greater pleasure than Bunyan that hymn of Dr. Watts—
'Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time to insure the great reward;
And while the lamp loses out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.'
They only who reject the counsel and mercy of God, shut heaven's gates against their own souls, and rush upon Jehovah's buckler like Judas, or Spira, or like one of Bunyan's early friends, John Childs, who apostatized for fear of persecution, and perished by his own hand. To such only the day of grace
EPISTLE TO SLOTHFUL AND CARELESS PEOPLE.
is past; they have set themselves in the sooner's seat, from which they will be hurled into unutterable wretchedness.
Bunyan well knew that idleness engenders poverty and crime, and is the parent of every evil; and he exhorts his runner to the greatest diligence, not to 'fool away his soul' in slothfulness, which induces carelessness, until the sinner is remedyless. Our first care is to get into the right way, and then so to run that 'the devil, who is light of foot,' may not overtake and trip us up. Running to heaven does not prevent the true, the real enjoyment of earthly blessings, but sanctifies and heightens them. The great impetus in our course is love to the prize—to Christ, to heaven; 'having our affections set upon things above.' Looking unto Jesus. His righteousness imputed unto us by the shedding of his blood, marks all the road, and while we keep that in sight we cannot err. In all earthly things we anticipate too much—but in the glories of heaven, our anticipations are feeble indeed, compared with eternal realities. Could the saints in glory impart to us a sense of their indescribable happiness, with what activity and perseverance we should run. The case of Lot, when flying from destruction, is put by Bunyan with peculiar force—he dared not to look back even to see what had become of his wife, lest death should overtake his own soul. p. 284. O, my reader, may we be stimulated so to run as to obtain that crown of glory which is imperishable, immortal, and eternal.
Charles Doe, one of Bunyan's personal friends, having purchased the copyright of this work, kept it for some years, in hope of publishing it with other treatises, as a second folio volume, to complete his works; but failing in this object, he printed it separately in 1698, and appended an interesting list of Bunyan's works, with thirty cogent reasons why these invaluable labours should be preserved and handed down, to bless succeeding ages.
An earnest desire to preserve, in their perfect integrity, all the treatises as they were originally published, will induce me, at the end of the works, to reprint those interesting additions.
GEO. OPFORD.
AN EPISTLE TO ALL THE SLOTHFUL AND CARELESS PEOPLE.
FRIENDS,
SOLOMON saith, that 'The desire of the slothful killeth him;' and if so, what will slothfulness itself do to those that entertain it? Pr. xii. 23. The proverb is, 'He that sleepeth in harvest is a son that canseth shame. Pr. x. 8. And this I dare be bold to say, no greater shame can befall a man, than to see that he hath fooled away his soul, and sinned away eternal life. And I am sure this is the next way to do it; namely, to be slothful; slothful, I say, in the work of salvation. The vineyard of the slothful man, in reference to the things of this life, is not fuller of briars, nettles, and stinking weeds, than he that is slothful for heaven, hath his heart full of heart-chooking and soul-damning sin.
Slothfulness hath these two evils: First, To neglect the time in which it should be getting of heaven; and by that means doth, in the Second place, bring in untimely repentance. I will warrant you, that he who shall lose his soul in this world through slothfulness, will have no cause to be glad thereat when he comes to hell.
Slothfulness is usually accompanied with carelessness, and carelessness is for the most part begotten by senselessness; and senselessness doth again put fresh strength into slothfulness, and by this means the soul is left remediless.
Slothfulness shutteth out Christ; slothfulness shameth the soul. Ca. v. 2—4. Pr. xiii. 6.
Slothfulness, it is condemned even by the feeblest of all the creatures. 'Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Pr. vi. 8. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold;' xv. 4; that is, he will not break up the fallow ground of his heart, because there must be some pains taken by him that will do it; 'therefore shall he beg in harvest,' that is, when the saints of God shall have their glorious heaven and happiness given to them; but the sluggard shall 'have nothing,' that is, be never the better for his crying for mercy, according to that in Mat. xiv. 10-17.
If you would know a sluggard in the things of heaven, compare him with one that is slothful in the things of this world. As, 1. He that is slothful is loth to set about the work he should follow: so is he that is slothful for heaven. 2. He that is slothful is one that is willing to make delays: so is he that is slothful for heaven. 3. He that is a sluggard, any small matter that cometh in between, he will make it a sufficient excuse to keep him off from plying his work: so it is also with him that is slothful for heaven. 4. He that is slothful doth his work by the halves; and so it is with him that is slothful for heaven. He may almost, but he shall never altogether obtain perfection of deliverance from hell; he may almost, but he shall never, without he mend, be altogether a saint. 5. They that are slothful, do usually lose the season in which things are to be done: and thus it is also with them that are slothful for heaven, they miss the season of grace. And therefore, 6. They that are sloth-
EPISTLE TO SLOTHFUL AND CARELESS PEOPLE.
ful have seldom or never good fruit: so also it will be with the soul-sluggard. 7. They that are slothful they are child for the same: so also will Christ deal with those that are not active for him. Thou wicked or slothful servant, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee; thou saidest I was thus, and thus, wherefore then gavest not thou my money to the bank? &c. Lx. 22. Take the unprofitable servant, and cast him into utter darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Mal. xv. 28-29.
WHAT SHALL I SAY? Time runs; and will you be slothful? Much of your lives are past; and will you be slothful? Your souls are worth a thousand worlds; and will you be slothful? The day of death and judgment is at the door; and will you be slothful? The curse of God hangs over your heads; and will you be slothful? Besides, the devils are earnest, laborious, and seek by all means every day, by every sin, to keep you out of heaven, and hinder you of salvation; and will you be slothful? Also your neighbours are diligent for things that will perish; and will you be slothful for things that will endure for ever? Would you be willing to be damned for slothfulness? Would you be willing the angels of God should neglect to fetch your souls away to heaven when you lie a dying, and the devils stand by ready to scramble for them? * Was Christ slothful in the work of your redemption? Are his ministers slothful in tendering this unto you? And, lastly, If all this will not move, I tell you God will not be slothful or negligent to damn you—whose damnation now of a long time slumbereth not—nor the devils will not neglect to fetch thee, nor hell neglect to shut its mouth upon thee.
Sluggard, art thou asleep still? art thou resolved to sleep the sleep of death? Wilt neither tidings from heaven or hell awake thee? Wilt thou say still, 'Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,' and 'a little folding of the hands to sleep?' Pr. vi. 10. Wilt thou yet turn thyself in thy sloth, as the door is turned upon the hinges? O that I was one that was skilful in lamentation, and had but a yearning heart towards thee, how would I pity thee! How would I bemoan thee! O that I could with Jeremiah let my eyes run down with rivers of water for thee! Poor soul, lost soul, dying soul, what a hard heart have I that I cannot mourn for thee!
If thou shouldst lose but a limb, a child, or a friend, it would not be so much, but poor man it is thy soul; if it was to lie in hell but for a day, but for a year, nay, ten thousand years, it would (in comparison) be nothing. But O it is for ever! O this cutting even! What a soul amazing was! will that be, which saith, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into EVERLASTING fire'! &c.†
Object. But if I should set in, and run as you would have me, then I must run from all my friends; for none of them are running that way.
Ansue. And if thou dost, thou wilt run into the bosom of Christ and of God, and thou what harm will that do thee?
Object. But if I run this way, then I must run from all my sins.
Ansue. That is true indeed; yet if thou dost not, thou wilt run into hell-fire.
Object. But if I run this way, then I shall be hated, and lose the love of my friends and relations, and of those that I expect benefit from, or have reliance on, and I shall be mocked of all my neighbours.
Ansue. And if thou dost not, thou art sure to lose the love and favour of God and Christ, the benefit of heaven and glory, and be mocked of God for thy folly, 'I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;' and if thou wouldst not be hated and mocked, then take heed thou by thy folly dost not procure the displeasure and mockings of the great God; for his mocks and hatred will be terrible, because they will fall upon thee in terrible times, even when tribulation and anguish taketh hold on thee; which will be which death and judgment comes, when all the men in the earth, and all the angels in heaven, cannot help thee. Pr. L. 25-26.
Object. But surely I may begin this time enough, a year or two hence, may I not?
Ansue. 1. Hast thou any lease of thy life? Did ever God tell thee thou shalt live half a year, or two months longer? nay, it may be thou mayst not live so long. And therefore, 2. Wilt thou be so sottish and unwise, as to venture thy soul upon a little uncertain time? 3. Dost thou know whether the day of grace will last a week longer or no? For the day of grace is past with some before their life is ended: and if it should be so with thee,
* It was the commonly received opinion that at the moment of death, the angels and devils strove to carry away the soul. If the dying man had received the consecrated wafer, the devils were scared at it, and lost their victim. Hence the prayer—'From lightning, battle, murder, and sudden death, good Lord, deliver us,' a curious contrast to, 'Thy will be done!' Were they sinners above all men upon whom the tower in S. Laim (3) and slew them? Lx. xiii. 4. O that men would rely upon the righteousness of Christ stimulating them to run for glory, as heavenly footmen, and not upon the nostrums of Antichrist!—En.
† In a very beautifully commented, liturgy of the Church of England, prior to the Reformation, after the Salisbury use, printed in 1526 on the Editor's library, is that division—'These in prayers be written in the choir of the holy cross in Rome, who that demand say them to be shot, the one hundred thousand years of pardon for death was granted to cure holy father than evil hope of Rome.' The three prayers only occupy twenty-six short lines, and may be greatly repeated in two minutes. Such was and is it? But in the end of all this promised pardon for a nation of years—what then? Will eternal turmads come to see?—En.
THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK.
wouldst thou not say, O that I had begun to run before the day of grace had been past, and the gates of heaven shut against me. But, 4. If thou shouldst see any of thy neighbours neglect the making sure of either house or land to themselves, if they had it proffered to them, saying, Time enough hereafter, when the time is uncertain; and besides, they do not know whether ever it will be proffered to them again, or no: I say, Wouldst thou not then call them fools? And if so, then dost thou think that thou art a wise man to let thy immortal soul hang over hell by a thread of uncertain time, which may soon be cut asunder by death?
But to speak plainly, all these are the words of a slothful spirit. Arise man, be slothful no longer; set foot, and heart, and all into the way of God, and run, the crown is at the end of the race; there also standeth the loving fore-runner, even Jesus, who hath prepared heavenly provision to make thy soul welcome, and he will give it thee with a willinger heart than ever thou canst desire it of him. O therefore do not delay the time any longer, but put into practice the words of the men of Dan to their brethren, after they had seen the goodness of the land of Canaan: 'Arise,' say they, &c., 'for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good; and are ye still,' or do you forbear running? 'Be not slothful to go, and to cater to possess the land.' J. A. 2. Farewell.
I wish our souls may meet with comfort at the journey's end.
JOHN BUNYAN.