By this time he had
recovered the art of reading, and its use a little perplexed him, for he became
much puzzled with the opinions of the Renters, as set forth in their books. It
is extremely difficult to delineate their sentiments; they were despised by all
the sects which had been connected with the government, because, with the
Quakers and Baptists, they denied any magisterial or state authority over
conscience, and refused maintenance to ministers; but from the testimony of
Bunyan, and that of the early Quakers, they appear to have been practical
Antinomians, or at least very nearly allied to the new sect called Mormonites.
Ross, who copied from Pagitt, describes them with much bitterness—'The Renters are unclean beasts—their maxim is that there is nothing sin but what a man
thinks to be so—they reject the Bible—they are the merriest of all devils—they
deny all obedience to magistrates.'
This temptation must have been severe. The Renters were like the black man with the white robe, named Flatterer, who led the pilgrims into a net, under the pretense of showing them the way to the celestial city; or like Adam the first, who offered Faithful his three daughters to wife—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—if he would dwell with him in the town of Deceit. 'These temptations,' he says, 'were suitable to my flesh,' I being but a young man, and my nature in its prime; and, with his characteristic humility, he adds, 'God, who had, as I hope, designed me for better things, kept me in the fear of his name, and did not suffer me to accept such cursed principles.' Prayer opened the door of escape; it led him to the fountain of truth. 'I began to look into the Bible with new eyes. Prayer preserved me from Ranting errors.
The Bible was precious to me in those days.' His study of the Holy Oracles now became a daily habit, and that with intense earnestness and prayer. In the midst of the multitude of sects with which he was on all sides surrounded, he felt the need of a standard for the opinions which were each of them eagerly followed by votaries, who proclaimed them to be THE TRUTH, the way, and the life. He was like a man, feeling that if he erred in the way, it would be attended with misery, and, but for Divine interference, with unutterable ruin—possessed of a correct map, but surrounded with those who, by flattery, or threats, or deceit, and armed with all human eloquence, strove to mislead him.
With an enemy within to urge him to accept their wily guidance, that they might
lead him to perdition—inspired by Divine grace, like Christian in his Pilgrim,
he 'put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying Life, life, eternal life.'
He felt utter dependence upon Divine guidance, leading him to most earnest prayer,
and implicit obedience to Holy Writ, which followed him all through the
remainder of his pilgrimage. 'The Bible' he calls 'the scaffold, or stage, that
God has built for hope to play his part upon in this world.' Hence the
Word was precious in his eyes; and with so immense a loss, or so magnificent a
gain, the throne of grace was all his hope, that he might be guided by that
counsel that cannot err, and that should eventually insure his reception to
eternal glory.
While in this inquiring state, he experienced much doubt and uncertainty arising from the apparent confidence of many professors. In his own esteem he appeared to be thoroughly humbled; and when he lighted on that passage—'To one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom, to another, knowledge, and to another, faith' (1 Cor 12:8,9), his solemn inquiry was, how it happened that he possessed so little of any of these gifts of wisdom, knowledge, or faith—more especially of faith, that being essential to the pleasing of God. He had read (Matt 21:21),
'If ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done'; and (Luke 17:6), 'If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say to this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it shall obey you'; and (1 Cor 13:2), 'Though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains.' The poor tinker, considering these passages in their literal import, imagined they were meant as tests to try whether the believer possessed faith or not. He was a stranger to the rules of Hebrew rhetoric; nor did he consider that they were addressed to the apostles, who had the power to work miracles.
He had no idea
that removing a mountain or planting a sycamore tree in the sea, were
figures of speech conveying to us the fact that, aided by faith, mountainous
difficulties might and would be overcome. Anxious for some ocular demonstration
that he had faith, he almost determined to attempt to work a miracle—not to
convert or confirm the faith of others, but to satisfy his own mind as to his
possessing faith. He had no such magnificent idea as the removal of a mountain,
for there were none in his neighbourhood, nor to plant a tree in the sea, for
Bedfordshire is an inland county; but it was of the humblest kind—that some
puddles on the road between Elstow and Bedford should change places with the
dry ground. When he had thought of praying for ability, his natural good sense
led him to abandon the experiment.
