[166] O how reviving and refreshing are those love-tokens from our Lord! Great-heart never comes empty-handed. He always inspires with courage and confidence. Let us look more into, and heartily believe the Word of truth and grace; and cry more to our precious Immanuel, and we shall have more of Great-heart's company. It is but sad travelling without him—(Mason).
[167] What this great robbery was, whether spiritual or temporal, is left to the reader to imagine. The sufferings of the Dissenters were awfully severe at this time. Had it been a year later, we might have guessed it to have referred to the sufferings of that pious, excellent woman, Elizabeth Gaunt, who was burnt, October 23, 1685. She was a Baptist, and cruelly martyred. Penn, the Quaker, saw her die. 'She laid the straw about her for burning her speedily, and behaved herself in such a manner that all the spectators melted in tears.'—(ED).
[168] Mr. Ivimey is of opinion that by this Bunyan sanctioned a hireling ministry, but it appears more to refer to the common custom of rewarding servants to whom you have given trouble. He adduces Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 5:18; and 1 Corinthians 9:11-14. It is a subject of considerable difficulty; but how is it that no minister ever thinks of referring to the plainest passage upon this subject in the New Testament? It is Acts 20:17-38, especially verses 33-35. The angel was a gold coin, in value half a sovereign—(ED).
[169] Such mountains round about this house do stand
As one from thence may see the Holy Land (Psa. 125:2).
Her fields are fertile, do abound with corn;
The lilies fair her valleys do adorn (Song. 2:1).
The birds that do come hither every spring,
For birds, they are the very best that sing (Song. 2:11, 12).
Her friends, her neighbours too, do call her blest (Psa. 48:2);
Angels do here go by, turn in, and rest (Heb. 13:2).
The road to paradise lies by her gate (Gen. 28:17),
Here pilgrims do themselves accommodate
With bed and board; and do such stories tell,
As do for truth and profit all excel.
Nor doth the porter here say any nay,
That hither would turn in, that here would stay.
This house is rent free; here the man may dwell
That loves his landlord, rules his passions well.
—(Bunyan's House of God, vol. 2 p. 579).
[170] It is sweet melody when we can sing with grace in the heart. The joy arising from God's free grace and pardoning love, is greater than the joy of harvest, or of one who rejoices when he divides the spoil—(J. B.). Those joyful notes spring from a sense of nearness to the Lord, and a firm confidence in His Divine truth and everlasting mercy. O when the Sun of Righteousness shines warmly on the soul, it makes the pilgrims sing most sweetly! These songs approach very nearly to the heavenly music in the realm of glory—(Mason).
[171] Forgetfulness makes things nothings. It makes us as if things had never been; and so takes away from the soul one great means of stay, support, and encouragement. When David was dejected, the remembrance of the hill Hermon was his stay. When he was to go out against Goliath, the remembrance of the lion and the bear was his support. The recovery of a backslider usually begins at the remembrance of former things—(Bunyan's Holy Life, vol. 2, p. 507).
[172] After being thus highly favoured with sensible comforts, in the views of faith, the comforts of hope, and the joy of love, the next step these pilgrims are to take is down the Hill Difficulty, into the Valley of Humiliation. What doth this place signify? A deep and abiding sight and sense of our ruined state, lost condition, and desperate circumstances, as fallen sinners. This is absolutely necessary, lest we should think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. For the Lord oft favours us with manifestations of His love, and the comforts of His Spirit; but, through the corruption of our nature, we are prone to be exalted in ourselves, and, as it were, intoxicated by them. Hence we are exhorted 'to think soberly' (Rom. 12:3). This the Valley of Humiliation causes us to do—(Mason).
[173] Thus beautifully does our author describe the grace of humility. O that every reader may know its excellence by happy experience!—(Burder).
[174] These are the rare times; above all, when I can go to God as the Publican, sensible of His glorius majesty, sensible of my misery, and bear up and affectionately cry, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' For my part, I find it one of the hardest things I can put my soul upon, when warmly sesnsible that I am a sinner, to come to God for a share in mercy and grace; I cannot but with a thousand tears say, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.'—(Bunyan's Pharisee and Publican, vol. 2, p. 261).
[175] Though this Valley of Humiliation, or a clear sight and abiding sense of the sinfulness of our nature, and the wickedness of our hearts, may be very terrifying to pilgrims, after they have been favoured with peace and joy, and comforted by the views of faith and hope, yet it is a very safe place; and though, at first entering into it, and seeing more of themselves than was ever before showed them, they may fear and tremble, yet, after some continuing here, they are more reconciled and contented; for here they find the visits of their Lord, and in the depths of their humility, they behold the heights of His love and the depths of His mercy, and cry out in joy, Where sin aboundeth, grace superabounds. Though sin abounds in me, the grace of Jesus superabounds towards me. Though I am emptied of all, yet I have an inexhaustible fullness in Jesus, to supply me with all I want and all I hope—(Mason).