In this treatise we find many very admirable illustrations of two important subjects. One is, that temporal governors have nothing to fear from the spread of vital godliness: the other is upon the nature of the strife and antipathy felt by the world against Christ and his spiritual seed. They are sweet-scented; the fragrant smell of their graces excites the enmity of Satan and his followers, who would burn these cedars, because they are pillars of, and angels for, the truth. 'Reason, history, and experience all confirm this truth; that a people, whose profession is directly in opposition to the devil, and antichrist, and to all debauchery, inhumanity, profaneness, superstition, and idolatry,' will be hated, persecuted, and, if possible destroyed by Satan and his adherents. The secret is, that the world cannot bear such 'living epistles, known and read of all men,' which reflect so severely by their conduct upon the vice and profligacy of the worldling. This was a stinging censure upon the profligate court of Charles II, and therefore the Nonconformists were hated and persecuted; while conformity to soul-benumbing rites and ceremonies was cherished and rewarded. To render persecution perfectly unjustifiable, Bunyan scripturally and plainly exhibits the harmlessness of the Christian character bearing with meekness the injuries heaped upon it; followers of him who, when reviled, reviled not again, but suffered patiently. It is a grievous mistake to suppose that vital godliness caused the great rebellion, and consequent beheading of King Charles I. It was frightful and most insupportable tyranny that drove a nation, headed by their parliament, to arms. The King levied severe taxes without the consent of the people's representatives; he perverted justice by the abominable decisions of the King's judges in the court of Star Chamber; and attempted to introduce Popery through the medium of the Queen and her licentious court, composed principally of the worst class of foreign Papists. And when Leighton, Prynne, Bastwick, and some of the most virtuous and enlightened citizens, justly but firmly remonstrated, they were seized and tortured in a way that the heart sickens with the narrative. It was an attempt to reduce the whole nation to the most abject slavery of both body and soul, that roused the spirit of the people to resistance. The solemn league and covenant was taken, Cromwell appeared, and the country was, by Divine aid, saved from utter desolation. It was not a war of religious sects; the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and others, could never have coalesced; it was a war for liberty or despotism, and the principal of the warriors on both sides were attached to the religion that was by law established. It is true that many Episcopalians, in the reign of Charles II, charged the Puritans, not only as being the mainspring, but as possessing the overwhelming force in that awful struggle, forgetting that the Nonconformists were then but a handful of men, neither possessed of wealth nor influence. To attribute victory to so small a band, must refer it to the immediate interposition of the Most High, as in the case of Gideon in his victory over the Assyrians. But it was no sectarian fight, except those two great sects of freemen against despots. Bunyan fully proves that no state has anything to fear from religion: 'She moveth no sedition, she abideth in her place; let her temple-worshippers but alone, and she will be as if she were not in the world'; 'neither she nor her Jesus are for doing them any hurt.' 'God's armour is no burthen to the body, nor clog to the mind, and it being only spiritual, the slaughter must needs be spiritual also.' 'All her privileges are soul concerns, they make no infringement upon any man's liberties. Let but faith and holiness walk the streets without control, and you may be as happy as the world can make you.' 'Let not kings, and princes, and potentates be afraid; the saints that are such indeed, know their places, and are of a peaceable deportment; the earth God hath given to the children of men, and his kingdom to the sons of God.' The Christian is a pilgrim bound to a far more glorious inheritance: with so bright and glorious a prospect, he may well apply the encouraging language of Bunyan to his own soul; 'I have a bad master, but I have only a year to serve under him, and that makes me serve him with patience. I have but a mile to go in this dirty way, and then I shall have my path pleasant and green, and this makes me tread the dirty way with patience.'
This treatise is one of the ten 'excellent manuscripts' which Bunyan had prepared for the press, when his unexpected decease prevented his publishing them. It first appeared in the folio volume of his works, printed under the care of Charles Doe, in 1692. It has since been re-published in every edition of Bunyan's work, but with the omission of the Scripture references, and many errors. It is now accurately corrected by the first edition.
GEO. OFFOR.
THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON.
CHAPTER I.
As Solomon built a house for Pharaoh's daughter, and that called the temple of the Lord; so he built a house in Lebanon, called 'the house of the forest of Lebanon' (1 Kings 7:2).
Some, I perceive, have thought that this house, called 'the house of the forest of Lebanon,' was none other than that called the temple at Jerusalem, and that that was called 'The house of the forest of Lebanon,' because built of the wood that grew there. But that Solomon built another than that, even one in Lebanon, called 'the house of the forest of Lebanon,' is evident, and that from these reasons:—
First, That in the forest of Lebanon is mentioned as another, besides that called the temple of the Lord; and that too when the temple and its finishing is spoken of; yea, it is mentioned with an 'also,' as an additional house, besides the temple of the Lord.
'In the fourth year,' saith the text, 'was the foundation of the house of the Lord laid in the month Zif;[1] and in the eleventh year in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it; so he was seven years in building it.' 'But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon,' &c. (1 Kings 6:37,38; 7:1,2).
Can there now be any thing more plain? Is not here the house of the forest of Lebanon mentioned as another besides the temple? he built the temple, he built his own house, he built also the house of the forest of Lebanon.