The Riches of Bunyan Part 43

"Well, in short, her time drew on, and the day that she must die. So she died with a soul full of grace, a heart full of comfort, and by her death ended a life of trouble."

DEATH OF STANDFAST.

When Mr. Standfast had thus set things in order, and the time being come for him to haste him away, he went down to the river. Now there was a great calm at that time in the river; wherefore Mr. Standfast, when he was about half way in, stood a while and talked to his companions that had waited upon him thither: and he said, "This river has been a terror to many; yea, the thoughts of it also have often frightened me: now, methinks, I stand easy; my foot is fixed upon that on which the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the covenant stood, while Israel went over this Jordan.

"The waters indeed are to the palate bitter and to the stomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I am going to, and of the convoy that waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal at my heart. I see myself now at the end of my journey; my toilsome days are ended.

I am going to see that head that was crowned with thorns, and that face that was spit upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with him in whose company I delight myself. I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and whenever I have seen the print of his shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot too. His name has been to me as a civet-box, yea, sweeter than all perfumes. His voice to me has been most sweet, and his countenance I have more desired than they that have most desired the light of the sun. His words I did use to gather for my food, and for antidotes against my faintings.

He has held me, and hath kept me from mine iniquities, yea, my steps have been strengthened in his way."

Now while he was thus in discourse, his countenance changed; his "strong man bowed under him;" and after he had said, "Take me, for I am come unto thee," he ceased to be seen of them.

But glorious it was to see how the open region was filled with horses and chariots, with trumpeters and pipers, with singers and players on stringed instruments, to welcome the pilgrims as they went up, and followed one another in at the beautiful gate of the city.

DEATH OF CHRISTIAN AND HOPEFUL.

They then addressed themselves to the water, and entering, Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, "I sink in deep waters; billows go over my head, all his waves go over me."

Then said the other, "Be of good cheer, my brother; I feel the bottom, and it is good."

Then said Christian, "Ah, my friend, the sorrow of death hath compa.s.sed me about. I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey." And with that a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian, so that he could not see before him; also he in a great measure lost his senses, so that he could neither remember nor orderly talk of any of those sweet refreshments that he had met wilh in the way of his pilgrimage. But all the words that he spake still tended to discover that he had horror of mind, and heart-fears that he should die in that river and never obtain entrance in at the gate.

Here also, as they that stood by perceived, he was much in troublesome thoughts of the sins that he had committed both since and before he began to be a pilgrim. It was also observed that he was troubled with apparitions of hobgoblins and evil spirits; for ever and anon he would intimate so much by words.

Hopeful therefore here had much ado to keep his brother's head above water; yea, sometimes he would be quite gone down, and then, ere a while, he would rise up again half dead. Hopeful did also endeavor to comfort him, saying, "Brother, I see the gate, and men standing by to receive us; but Christian would answer, "It is you, it is you they wait for; you have been hopeful ever since I knew you."

"And so have you," said he to Christian.

"Ah, brother," said he, "surely if I was right, he would now arise to help me; but for my sins he hath brought me into the snare, and hath left me."

Then said Hopeful, "My brother, you have quite forgot the text, where it is said of the wicked, 'There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm: they are not troubled as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.' These troubles and distresses that you go through in these waters, are no sign that G.o.d hath forsaken you, but are sent to try you whether you will call to mind that which heretofore you have received of his goodness, and live upon him in your distresses."

Then I saw in my dream that Christian was in a muse a while. To whom also Hopeful added these words: "Be of good cheer; Jesus Christ maketh thee whole."

And with that Christian broke out with a loud voice, "Oh, I see him again, and he tells me, 'When thou pa.s.sest through the waters, I will he with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.'"

Then they both took courage, and the enemy was after that as still as a stone until they were gone over. Christian therefore presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow; thus they got over.

Now upon the bank of the river, on the other side, they saw the two shining men again, who there waited for them. Wherefore, being come out of the river, they saluted them, saying, "We are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those that shall be heirs of salvation." Thus they went along towards the gate.

BUNYAN'S DEATH.

FROM THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF BUNYAN.

"He comforted those that wept about him, exhorting them to trust in G.o.d, and pray to him for mercy and forgiveness of their sins; telling them what a glorious exchange it would be, to leave the troubles and cares of a wretched mortality to live with Christ for ever, with peace and joy inexpressible; expounding to them the comfortable scriptures by which they were to hope and a.s.suredly come unto a blessed resurrection in the last day. He desired some to pray with him, and he joined with them in prayer; and his last words, after he had struggled with a languishing disease, were these: 'Weep not for me, but for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will, through the mediation of his blessed Son, receive me, though a sinner; where I hope we ere long shall meet to sing the new song, and remain everlastingly happy, world without end.'"

XXV. THE RESURRECTION.

The doctrine of the resurrection, however questioned by heretics and erroneous persons, yet is such a truth, that almost all the holy scriptures of G.o.d point at and centre in it.

There is a poor dry and wrinkled kernel cast into the ground; and there it lieth, swelleth, breaketh, and, one would think, perisheth.

But behold, it receiveth life, it chippeth, it putteth forth a blade, and groweth into a stalk. There also appeareth an ear; it also sweetly blossoms, with a full kernel in the ear. It is the same wheat; yet behold how the fashion doth differ from what was sown.

And our BRAN will be left behind, when we rise again. The body ariseth, as to the nature of it, the self-same nature; but as to the manner of it, how far transcendent! The glory of the terrestrial is one, and the glory of the celestial is another.

"It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power." At our first appearance, the world will tremble. Behold, the gates of death and the bars of the grave are now carried away on our shoulders, as Sampson carried away the gates of the city. Death quaketh, and destruction falleth down dead at our feet. What then can stand before us? We shall then carry such grace, majesty, terror, and commanding power in our souls, that our countenances shall be as lightning. Then shall death be swallowed up of victory.

Glory is the sweetness, comeliness, purity, and perfection of a thing. The light is the glory of the sun, strength is the glory of youth, and gray hairs are the glory of old age. That is, it is the excellency of these things and that which makes them shine.

Therefore to arise in glory, it is to arise in all the beauty and utmost completeness that is possible for a human creature to possess, in all its features and members inconceivably beautiful.

Sin and corruption have made mad work in our bodies as well as in our souls; 'tis sin commonly that is the cause of all that deformity and ill-favoredness that now cleaveth to us, and that rendereth us so dishonorable at our death. But now at our rising, we shall be raised incorruptible; we shall appear in such perfection that all the beauty and comeliness, sweetness and amiableness that hath at any time been in this world, it shall be swallowed up a thousand times told with this glory.

The body when it ariseth will be so swallowed up of life and immortality, that it will be as if it had lost its own human nature.

You know that things which are candied by the art of the apothecary, are so swallowed up with the sweetness and virtue of that in which they are candied, that they are now as though they had no other nature than that in which they are boiled. Just thus, at the last day, it will be with our bodies. We shall be so candied by being swallowed up of life, that we shall be as if we were all spirit; when in truth, it is but this body that is swallowed up of life.

The body is also gathered up into glory, but not simply for its own sake, or because it is capable of itself to know and understand the glories of its Maker, but that it has been a companion with the soul in this world, and has also been its house, its mantle, its cabinet, and tabernacle here: it has also been that by which the soul hath acted, in which it hath wrought, and by which its excellent appearances have been manifested; and it shall also there be its copartner and sharer in its glory.

In this world the soul of the regenerate is a gracious soul; and in that world it shall be a glorious one. In this world the body was conformable to the soul as it was gracious, and in that world it shall be conformable to it as it is glorious. Yea, it shall have an additional glory to adorn and make it yet the more capable of being serviceable to and with the soul in its great acts before G.o.d in eternal glory.

If a man receive the mercy of the resurrection of the body, what a bundle of mercies will be received as wrapt up in that. He will receive perfection, immortality, heaven, and glory. And what is folded up in these things, who can tell?

As to the manner of the change of the body in its rising, this similitude also doth fitly suit: as, 1. It is sown a dead corn, it is raised a living one. 2. It is sown dry, and without comeliness; it riseth green and beautiful. 3. It is sown a single corn, it riseth a full ear. 4. It is sown in the husk, but in its rising it leaveth that husk behind it.

Further, though the kernel thus die, be buried, and meet with all this change in these things, yet none of them can cause the nature of the kernel to cease; it is wheat still. Wheat was sown, and wheat arises; only it was sown dead, dry, and barren wheat, and riseth living, beautiful, and fruitful wheat. "G.o.d giveth it a body as it pleaseth him; but to every seed his own body."

All the glory that a glorified soul can help this body to, it at this day shall enjoy. That soul that has been these hundreds or thousands of years in the heavens, in the bosom of Christ, it shall in a moment come spangling into the body again, and inhabit every member and vein of the body, as it did before its departure. That Spirit of G.o.d also, that took its leave of the body when it went to the grave, shall now in all perfection dwell in the body again. I tell you, the body at this day will shine brighter than the face of Moses or Stephen, even as bright as the sun, the stars and angels.

"When Christ who is our life shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory."

Christ has showed us what our body at the resurrection shall be, by showing us in his word what his body was at and after his resurrection. We read that his body after he was risen from the dead, though it yet retained the very same flesh and bones that did hang upon the cross, yet how angelical was it at all times, upon all occasions! He could come in to his disciples with that very body, when the doors were shut upon them. He could at pleasure, to their amazement, appear in the twinkling of an eye in the midst of them.

He could be visible and invisible, as he pleased, when he sat at meat with them. In a word, he could pa.s.s and repa.s.s, ascend and descend in that body with far more pleasure and ease than the bird by the art of her wing.

Now I say, as we have in this world borne the image of our first father; so at that day we shall have the image of Jesus Christ, and be as he is. 1 Cor. 15:49.

To mount up to heaven, and to descend again with pleasure, shall with us in that day be ordinary. If there were ten thousand bars of iron, or walls of bra.s.s, to separate between us and our pleasure and desire at that day, they should as easily be pierced by us as is the cobweb, or as air by the beams of the sun. And the reason is, because to the Spirit, wherewith we shall be inconceivably filled at that day, nothing is impossible; and the working of it at that day shall be in such nature and measure as to swallow up all impossibilities. "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body"--now mark--"according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

Nay further, we do not only see what operation the Spirit will have in our body by the carriage of Christ after his resurrection, but even by many a saint before his death. The Spirit used to catch Elijah away, no man could tell whither. It carried Ezekiel hither and thither. It carried Christ from the top of the pinnacle of the temple into Galilee; through it he walked on the sea. The Spirit caught away Philip from the eunuch, and carried him as far as Azotus.

Thus the great G.o.d has given us a taste of the power and glory that are in himself, and how easily they will help us, by possessing us at the resurrection, to act and to do like angels; as Christ saith, "They that shall be counted worthy of that world and of the resurrection from the dead, they shall not die, but be equal to the angels."

SALVATION COMPLETE AT THE RESURRECTION.

"Now we shall see him," to wit, Christ in his glory. Not by revelation only, as we do now, but then face to face; and he will have us with him to this very end. Though John was in the Spirit when he had the vision of Christ, yet it made him fall at his feet as dead; and also turned Daniel's beauty into corruption, it was so glorious and so overweighing a glory that he appeared in. But we shall at the day of our resurrection be so furnished, that we shall with the eagle be able to look upon the sun in his strength. We shall then "see Him as he is," who now is in the light that no eye hath seen, nor any man can see till that day.