Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God

John Bunyan’s The Strait Gate: Rightly Handling the Master’s Metaphor

A Short Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for INDS/SPIR 595: Wayfarers & Warfarers John Bunyan’s Vision of the Christian Experience 3 Credit Hours Professor Maxine Hancock

Regent College Vancouver, British Columbia

by Rob Barrett February 8, 2000 2

ABSTRACT

Although better known as a creator of his own figures, Bunyan was also a reader and interpreter of the metaphors of others. In this paper, we briefly examine his sermonic book The Strait Gate to see how he handles biblical metaphor. We find that his vivid imagination brings life to even the simplest words. His powerful imagination is then restrained and guided by his sensitivity to the biblical text and his thorough biblical theology. Finally, his resulting understanding resonates with his personal experience, enflaming his thoughts into passion. 3

I. Introduction Bunyan commentators often concentrate on his use of metaphor in his writings, and rightly so because of his brilliance in this area. However, metaphor was more than a tool in the brazier’s hand. It also wielded him, shaping his thoughts and passions. Bunyan was a student of biblical metaphor and he had an unusual skill and sensitivity for its interpretation. He even commented on the connection between the Bible’s figurative language and his own in his

Apology for The Pilgrim’s Progress and when he wrote, “I choose to follow the similitude… because the Scripture seems to smile upon such a way of discourse.”1 But beyond Scripture, metaphor was a regular part of his own inner experience, whether he was seeing a vision,2 fearing a bell tower’s collapse,3 or casting aside Biblical truth while throwing down his Bible.4 In this paper, we briefly examine his sermonic book The Strait Gate and observe his interpretation of biblical metaphor as it travels through his imagination, theology, and personal experience. We first introduce The Strait Gate, its setting, form, content, and purpose. We then examine his handling of the sermon’s text, particularly the metaphor of the ‘strait gate.’

II. Introducing The Strait Gate

George Offor’s introduction to The Strait Gate identifies the writer as a “son of thunder” who sounds an “awful alarm” in the face of the rampant patronizing of vice and contempt for religion during the restored monarchy.5 Published in 1676 (ten years after Grace Awakening and two years before The Pilgrim’s Progress), this sermon falls squarely into the Puritan category of

1 John Bunyan, “The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate,” in The Works of John Bunyan, ed. George Offor (3 vols., Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, 1860-2), vol. i, p. 171; as quoted in The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan, ed. Graham Midgley (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1986), vol. v, p. xxxviii. 2 John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), ed. Roger Sharrock (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1962), para. 53-55. 3 ibid, para. 33-34. 4 ibid, para. 204. 5 The Works of John Bunyan, ed. George Offor (3 vols., Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, 1860-2), quoted from an on-line version located at: 4

“treatises on hypocrisy and nominal Christianity.”6 Its form is also characteristically Puritan, following the outline recommended by William Perkins: (1) text, (2) explication of its meaning,

(3) resulting doctrine, and (4) application of the doctrine.7

Bunyan clearly states the contents in his note to the reader: “this discourse is about the fewness of them that shall be saved, and it proves, that many an high professor [i.e., one claiming the benefits of Christian faith] will come short of eternal life.”8 Bunyan goes on to explain that he writes not simply to prove this point but to produce an “awakening work.” His goal is to bring the unsaved professor to faith by means of irrefutable biblical accuracy, a “sharp” style, and prayer: “…the Lord give thee an heart to judge right of thy self, right of this book; and so to prepare for eternity” (TSG p. 69).

His text is from Jesus’ reply to the very question at hand: “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” (Luke 13:23, NASB). Jesus answers not with a theological response but a personal command to the questioner, which is Bunyan’s text: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24, KJV). Jesus continues with a terrifying parable of shut door, leaving many outside looking in at the kingdom of God, weeping, knocking and pleading for entry but being cast out. Bunyan likewise concludes with pleas and warnings for those not taking Jesus’ admonition to heart.

III. Examining Jesus’ Metaphor

The figurative object that stands at the center of the Jesus’ parable, Bunyan’s sermon, and this paper is the ‘strait (i.e., narrow or constricted) gate.’ In the metaphor, it also stands between

6 J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1990), p. 166. 7 Graham Midgley, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1986), vol. v, p. xxviii. 8 John Bunyan, “The Strait Gate,” in The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan, ed. Graham Midgley (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1986), vol. v, p. 69. (Subsequent quotations from this work will be cited parenthetically using TSG followed by a page number). 5

earth and heaven. Bunyan dedicates a substantial fraction of his explication of the text to examining this metaphor. Though one reviewer ridicules some of it as a “solemn presentation of the obvious,”9 we find that Bunyan shares an imaginative, theological, and personal understanding of this all-important gate with his audience.

A. Imagination

First, Bunyan develops the meaning of the strait gate imaginatively. Many readers are content to run past such figurative language, but Bunyan must have paused with the image of the gate in his mind, allowing the simple scene to establish a life of its own. He first observes that gates exist in time as well as space. When seen that way, the gate “is of double use, it is to open and shut, …to let in, or to keep out; and to do both these at the season” (TSG, p. 74). This gate not only welcomes some into paradise, but bars many others. Bunyan’s imagination sees the story that a gate tells and moves from one gate to two states, two purposes, and two times.

He then reflects on the ‘straitness’ of the gate and learns that this gate has more to it than simply two dispositions. Even when open, it will not allow everything to pass through. His imagination travels to the gates of the Jerusalem temple, which “were six cubits wide, yet they were so strait, that none that were unclean in any thing might enter in” (TSG, p. 77). He deftly joins the gates’ physical expanse and spiritual constriction. His mind’s eye sees sin as physically immense. As he describes the armed porters at the temple gates, the reader cannot help but see them thrusting out the unclean who attempt entrance. We see that Bunyan takes two simple syllables, ‘strait’ and ‘gate,’ plants them into the fertile ground of his imagination and reaps the vivid, compelling story that Jesus intended as He spoke.

9 Midgley, The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan, vol. v, p. xliii. 6

B. Theology

Second, Bunyan reads and interprets according to a thorough biblical theology. A reader seeking to dismiss his interpretation of Jesus’ metaphor must contend with confirmations that run from Genesis to Revelation. His understanding is first shaped by the immediate biblical context and then by doctrinally parallel Scriptures.

Though his text is only a single verse (Luke 13:24), he is preaching the entire parable, making explicit reference to verses 25, 26, and 28 (TSG, pp. 75, 77, 90). He will not allow his interpretation of the gate to be guided solely by his imagination. It is Jesus’ figure and His entire discourse must be allowed to speak. For example, Bunyan observes that Jesus shifts the image,

“for that which is called in the text, a gate, is twice in the next verse, called, a door” (TSG, p. 74).

Therefore his explication does not draw upon any attributes of a gate that differ from those of a door. More importantly, he shapes his message to the entire parable without necessarily drawing attention to the fact. Many commentators carelessly find their own personal doctrines by bending metaphors however they fancy, but Bunyan dares not.

Beyond the surrounding context, he interprets the metaphor in harmony with other biblical texts. For example, to justify his understanding of the extreme straitness of the gate, he quotes a seemingly unrelated passage:

When the apostle had told the Corinthians that “the unrighteous should not inherit the kingdom of God,” and that such were some of them, he adds, “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor 6:9-11) Closely concluding, that had they not been washed, and sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, the law, for their transgressions, would have kept them out; it would have made the gate too strait for them to enter in (TSG, p. 79).

His theological mind compares this gate to every mention of entrance into heaven that he knows.

He continues by demonstrating that this gate’s straitness is not strange, for God has appointed 7

highly selective gates throughout all of biblical history, including the days of Noah, Abraham,

Lot, David, Ezekiel, Micah, and Christ Himself (TSG, p. 103ff).

Having discovered a spiritual truth, Bunyan is not content until it is confirmed throughout

Scripture. Bunyan challenges his readers to “read me and compare me with the Bible” (TSG, p.

69).10 For Bunyan, the metaphor carries literary power; the rest of Scripture provides confirmation and clarity.

C. Personal Experience

Third, his understanding of the strait gate comes from his own personal experience. He does not refer directly to this in his sermon, yet his passionate words come from his own encounter with a strait gate years before. Early in his faith-journey, he had a vision of being in a

“cold, afflicted” land, separated by an impassable wall from the “pleasant beams of the sun.”

Finding a “narrow gap, like a little doorway in the wall,” he “made many offers to get in.”

Writing of this vision ten years before this sermon, he explains that

…the passage was wonderful narrow, even so narrow, that I could not but with great difficulty, enter in thereat; it shewed me, that none could enter into life but those that were in down-right earnest, and unless also they left this wicked world behind them; for here was only roome for Body and Soul, but not for Body and Soul, and Sin.11

Bunyan’s message of the strait gate is not less than biblical; it is more because it is also alive in his passionate memory. He has not only exposited the abstract truth of the ‘strait gate,’ but has also dwelt in its story, experiencing its promise and its terror, for years.

10 Bunyan takes an opportunity when expositing the simple word ‘in’ to teach his reader to consider Scripture with sensitivity: “This should teach us, not only to read, but to attend in reading; not only to read, but to lift up our hearts to God in reading; for if we be not heedful, if he gives us not light and understanding, we may easily pass over, without any great regard, such a word as may have a glorious kingdom and eternal salvation in the bowels of it; yea, sometimes, as here, a whole heaven is intimated, where it is not at all expressed. The apostles of old did use to fetch great things out of the Scriptures, even out of the very order and timing of the several things contained therein. See Romans 4:9-11, Galatians 3:16,17, Hebrews 8:13.” (TSG, p. 73f) 11 Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, para. 53-55. 8

IV. Conclusion

Although we have focused on the metaphor of the strait gate, the same pattern of imagination, theology and experience is present as Bunyan handles ‘strive’ and even such innocuous words as ‘in’ and ‘many.’ Striving is enriched with running, fighting, laboring, and wrestling (TSG, p. 81). The little word ‘in’ is mined for the “whole heaven, and eternal life”

(TSG, p. 73). And the ‘many’ become our friends and neighbors (and maybe ourselves!), who are found pitifully “crying at the gate of heaven” (TSG, p. 90).

In this examination of The Strait Gate, we find that Bunyan builds his understanding of biblical metaphor on three pillars: imagination that brings vivid life to plain words, biblical and theological reflection that guides and restrains his imagination, and personal experience that adds inner witness and passion. Bunyan, of course, created many of his own metaphors. It may well be that he expects his readers to treat them with a similar depth and purpose.12

12 The Strait Gate and The Pilgrim’s Progress provide a rich arena for examining the ideas behind Bunyan’s allegorical characters. There is an obvious connection between the list of professors at the end of The Strait Gate and characters in The Pilgrim’s Progress. He provides a more direct theological treatment in the former and an illustrative, engaging treatment in the latter, but the root ideas are very similar. It is reasonable to think that he intends for the reader to discover much of the sermon’s theology from the allegory. See Henri Talon, John Bunyan: the Man and His Works, tr. Barbara Wall (Bungay, Suffolk, Great Britain: Rockliff P, 1951), pp. 167-168 for an analysis of the correspondence. See Charles W. Baird, John Bunyan: A Study in Narrative Technique (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat P, 1977), pp. 43-45 for a comparison of Ignorance and the wilfully-ignorant professor. 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baird, Charles W. John Bunyan: A Study in Narrative Technique (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat P, 1977).

Bunyan, John. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), ed. Roger Sharrock (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1962).

——. The Strait Gate, in Midgley, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan.

Offor, George, ed. “The Strait Gate,” in The Works of John Bunyan, Glasgow (1860-2), on-line at .

Midgley, Graham, ed. The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan, vol. v, Gen. Ed. Roger Sharrock (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1986).

Packer, J. I. A Quest for Godliness (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1990).

Talon, Henri. John Bunyan: the Man and His Works, tr. Barbara Wall (Bungay, Suffolk, Great Britain: Rockliff P, 1951).