footnotes

[1]. By ‘idol’ is here meant human wisdom and school learning, which the men of this world adore, and laugh in conceit at the attempt of one who did not possess it to expound the mysteries of the Revelations—forgetting that they can only be spiritually discerned.—Ed.

[2]. Where the Bible and uninspired authors agree, believe the truth simply for the Bible’s sake. How properly jealous was Bunyan as to the supremacy of God’s authority.—Ed.

[3]. See Isaiah 36:16. The fountain of living waters, and not the broken cisterns alluded to in Jeremiah 2:13.—Ed.

[4]. Commentators differ as to the meaning of ‘put the branch to the nose,’ Ezekiel 8:17, but all agree it was some well known mode of expressing contempt for God and his worship.—Ed.

Main text

[1]. The note upon this passage in the Genevan or Puritan version, with which Bunyan was familiar, is, ‘God will raise up in his church such as shall rule and govern for the defence of the same, and instruction of his enemies, under Messiah, whom the prophet calleth here the Lord and Head of this kingdom.’—Ed.

[2]. From the Genevan or Puritan version.

[3]. ‘Set out’ render prominent, plain, or conspicuous.—Ed.

[4]. In Bunyan’s days, a few fanatics from among the Fifth Monarchy men conceived that the millennium had arrived, and that it was their duty to take possession of the kingdom for Jesus. They were mad enough, like the late Mr. Courtnay, to imagine that their bodies were invulnerable, and they marched out to seize London. A few of the trained bands soon encountered them, some were shot and the rest were punished, and this absurd attempt was at an end in a few hours. This gave the enemies of true religion a pretext, which they eagerly seized, of charging these absurd notions upon all who feared God, and a severe persecution followed. To deprecate and counteract these reports, Bunyan is very explicit in noting the difference between a spiritual and a temporal kingdom.—Ed.

[5]. ‘Spices’ is from the Genevan version; our authorized text has ‘powders.’—Ed.

[6]. Referring to the attempts made in Bunyan’s days to introduce Popery. It is admirably shown in the Pilgrim’s Progress, p. 193—’This is the spring that Christian drank of; then it was clear and good, but now it is dirty with the feet of some that are not desirous that pilgrims here should quench their thirst.’—Ed. This same harsh disposition we find in the writings of St. Teresa of Avila against Protestants, see Way of Perfection, chapter 1. Her attitude was based on rumors of the behavior of Lutherans, but not on facts.

[7]. I refer here to the Great Harlot.

[8]. Once more the Great Harlot at work.

[9]. All authority in the church is strictly limited to the written Word. Throw away then to the owls and the bats all tradition, and the power of the church to decree rites and ceremonies. It is treason against God to suppose that he omitted anything from his Bible that his church ought to do, or commanded that which may be neglected, although human laws may authorize such deviation.—Ed.

[10]. The walls do not go from or leave the foundations, but, resting upon them, they gradually ascend to perfection.—Ed.

[11]. Anabaptist was the name given to those who submitted to be baptized upon a profession of faith, because, having been christened when infants, it was called re-baptizing.—Ed.

[12]. ‘Hub’; an obstruction, a thick square sod, the mark or stop at the game of quoits.—Ed.

[13]. These observations apply to such churches as admit to the Lord’s table unconverted persons, because they have passed through certain outward ceremonies; and to those who refused to admit the most godly sayings, because they had not submitted to an outward ceremony.—Ed.

[14]. See Isaiah 8:19. ‘To peep and mutter,’ as pretended sorcerers or magicians attempting their incantations against the truth.—Ed.

[15]. This is an allusion to the ancient English pastime of combat, called quarterstaff.—Ed.

[16]. Bunyan most accurately traces the pedigree of God’s fearers, who, at the expense of life, maintained the spirituality of divine worship. He commences with our early Reformers, Wickliff and Huss, to the later ones who suffered under Mary; continues the line of descent through the Puritans to Bunyan’s brethren, the Nonconformists. All these were bitterly persecuted by the two lions—Church and Sate. The carnal gospellers, that confused heap of rubbish that crawled up and down the nation like locusts and maggots, refers to the members of a hierarchy which were ready to go from Popery to Protestantism, and back again to Popery, or to any other system, at the bidding of an Act of Parliament.—Ed.

[17]. ‘Virtue’; strength, efficacy, power.—Ed.

[18]. ‘To travel and trade,’ means to pursue or labour in an habitual course, exercise, or custom, as, ‘Thy sin’s not accidental but a trade.’—Shakespeare. Or, trade wind.—Ed.

[19]. The perfect unity of the Christian world is not likely to take place before the glorious meeting in the holy city, under the personal reign of Christ. The divisions among Christians arise, as Bunyan justly says, from antichristian rubbish, darkness, and trumpery; the great evil arising from difference of opinion, is that lust of domination over the faith of others which naturally leads to bitterness and persecution. In the earliest days one was of Paul, another of Apollos, and another of Cephas. The exercise of Christian forbearance was not an act of uniformity, but a declaration of the Holy Ghost. ‘Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?’ ‘Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind’ (Rom 14:4,5).—Ed.

[20]. As the leaven goes on imperceptibly until the whole is leavened, so the kingdom of our Lord must increase. How extraordinary has been the progress of Divine truth since Bunyan’s days! and who can predict what it will be in another century?—Ed.

[21]. There being no night there but perpetual day.—Ed.

[22]. A ‘gold angel’ was an early English coin, valued at one-third of a pound, afterwards increased to ten shillings. The ‘twenty-shilling piece’ was the old sovereign. The comparison between them and the silver pence and halfpennies was made by Bunyan in respect to their rarity and not their purity.—Ed.

[23]. ‘To stoop or lower the top-gallant’ is a mode of salutation and respect shown by ships at sea to each other.—Ed.

[24]. This quotation is taken from that excellent translation of the Bible made by the reformers at Geneva, and which was much used in Bunyan’s time. He preferred the word pour to that of sprinkle, used in the present version.—Ed.

[25]. How beautifully is the Christian’s growth in grace here pictured by Bunyan from Ezekiel 47:3-12. So imperceptibly by Divine power, without the aid of man, that the partaker often doubts his own growth. The water rises higher and higher, until at length there is no standing for his feet—the earth and time recedes, and he is plunged into the ocean of eternal grace and glory.—Ed.

[26]. ‘To the one, the savour of death unto death; and to the other, the savour of life unto life’ (2 Cor 2:16).—Ed.