John Bunyan's 1688 commentary on Solomon's temple in seventy short sections, reading its foundation, pillars, doors, altar, veil, and mercy seat as figures of Christ, the church, and heaven.
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70 short sections, one for each feature of the temple
Length
About 43,500 words · a 3-hour read
Solomon’s Temple Spiritualized is a devotional study by John Bunyan, published in 1688 AD, that reads Solomon’s temple as a picture of the gospel. Moving part by part from the foundation stones to the Most Holy Place, Bunyan argues that each stone, door, vessel, and ornament foreshadowed Christ, his church, and heaven.
How the argument unfolds
01
A pattern given in writing. God handed the temple’s design to David in writing rather than trusting Solomon’s wisdom, so worship must be learned from Scripture alone. Bunyan applies the rule to himself: “My Bible and concordance are the only library I use in my writings.”
02
Stones cut before they arrive. Mount Moriah stands for Christ the foundation and Solomon for Christ the builder. The timber and stones were shaped in the forest and quarry, because “none are placed in this building just as they come from the forest or quarry.”
03
The two bronze pillars. Jachin and Boaz picture the apostles to the Jews and to the Gentiles, and the lily work on their capitals teaches contentment: “Covetousness makes a minister smell foul and look more like a greedy dog than an apostle of Jesus Christ.”
04
A house wider at the top. The side chambers grew wider with each story, so the building itself preaches heavenly-mindedness: “The church alone is widest upward and has her greatest enlargements toward heaven.”
05
Folding doors. The temple doors opened by degrees on golden hinges, and Bunyan turns this to the fearful newcomer who feels too great a sinner to fit: “The doors are folding doors. They may be opened wider and then wider still.”
06
Turning stairs. The winding staircase to the upper chambers stands for repentance that keeps turning from nature to grace and from grace to glory. “A straight flight of stairs is like the ladder by which people climb to the gallows.”
07
Ark and mercy seat. In the Most Holy Place the law rests inside the ark with the mercy seat above it, the heart of the book’s argument: “The law outside Christ is terrible as a lion; the law in him is gentle as a lamb.”
08
Palm trees between cherubim. The carvings on the inner walls close the book with the saints set among the angels: “when the smallest saint reaches heaven, that saint will have an angel’s dignity and an angel’s place.”
Key themes
Every detail signifies. Bunyan treats no measurement or utensil as ornament only, reasoning that a God who fixed the pattern also fixed its meaning: “It is God’s wisdom to speak to us often through trees, gold, silver, stones, beasts, birds, fish, spiders, ants, frogs, flies, lice, dust, and other things.”
The minister’s office and conduct. Porters, oxen, and golden snuffers all become lessons for preachers, who must rebuke to heal and not to wound: “strike at the charred wick, not at the light.”
Grace beyond measure. The doors to the porch and courts were measured, but the temple door was not, showing that Christ, “as the entrance to saving grace, is beyond all measure and unsearchable.” The mercy seat’s height is likewise given without measure.
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As you can see from this little book, I have ventured at this time to show you something of the gospel glory of Solomon’s temple: what it and its utensils represented, and how, as types, they instructed our fathers and still instruct us, their children. To do this more distinctly, I have handled the particulars one by one, seventy in all. These are all that I could call to mind, for I believe there was not one among them that lacked its significance and, therefore, something profitable for us to know.
Although we are no longer to worship God by the methods or ordinances once used by the ancient church, knowing their methods and understanding the nature and significance of their ordinances in comparison with the gospel may still give us light. Those ordinances are dead with respect to what they once required of others, yet the New Testament ministers, such as the apostles, made much use of Old Testament language and ceremonial institutions, according to their significance, to help the faith of the godly as they preached the gospel of Christ.
I may say that God, in a manner, confined the Jewish church within types, figures, and likenesses in every outward part of worship. Indeed, not only the Levitical law and the temple, but, as it seems to me, the whole land of Canaan, the place allotted for them to inhabit, was ceremonial or figurative to them. Their land was a type of heaven, and their passage over the Jordan into it was a likeness of our going to heaven through death (Heb 3:5-10). The fruit of their land was said to be uncircumcised (Lev 19:23), as though unclean when they first entered there (Exod 12:15). In this their land was also a figure of another thing, just as heaven was a type of sin and grace (Lev 6:17; Lev 23:17).
Again, the land itself was said to keep Sabbath and enjoy a holy rest even while it lay desolate, unoccupied by those to whom it had been given as a dwelling place (Lev 26:34-35).
Many features of the church of God at that time were represented not only by figures and shadows, but also by places and things in that land. First, in general, she is said to be beautiful as Tirzah and lovely as Jerusalem (Song 6:4). Second, in particular, her neck is compared to the tower of David, built as an armory (Song 4:4). Her eyes are compared to the fish pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bethrabbim, and her nose to the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus (Song 7:4). The hair of her head is compared to a flock of goats coming up from Mount Gilead, and the fragrance of her garments to the fragrance of Lebanon (Song 4:1, 11).
Nor was this land entirely without shadows even of her Lord and Savior. Thus he says of himself, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys” (Song 2:1). She, his beloved, also says of him, “His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars” (Song 5:15). What more shall I say? The two cities, Zion and Jerusalem, sometimes represented the two churches, the true and the false, and their offspring, Isaac and Ishmael (Gal 4).
I might also show you that even the gifts and graces of the true church were represented by the spices, nuts, grapes, and pomegranates produced in the land of Canaan. Hell itself was represented by the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom and by Tophet, places in that country. Indeed, nearly the whole land was typical and figurative.
But in the discourse that follows, I have confined myself to the temple, that immediate place of God’s worship. As I have said, I have spoken particularly about its utensils, though as briefly as I could, because none of them is without a spiritual and therefore profitable significance for us. Here we may see much of the richness of God’s wisdom and grace. Even in the ancient place of worship, he ordained visible forms and representations from which the worshipers could learn to worship him. In this respect, the temple itself was good instruction for them.
By saying this, however, I give no encouragement to anyone now to devise figures or likenesses from his own imagination as means of worshiping God. What God provided to help the weakness of his people in former times was one thing; what they invented without his command was another. They had his blessing when they worshiped him with the types, shadows, and figures he had appointed for that purpose. But when they added inventions of their own, he severely punished and afflicted them (Exod 32:35; 2 Kgs 17:16-18; Acts 7:38-43).
Indeed, in the very act of establishing their way of worship, God forbade them to yield in anything to their own inclinations or imaginations, and he bound them strictly to the orders of heaven. “Look,” God said to Moses, their first great lawgiver, “that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount” (Exod 25:40; Heb 8:5). Our apostle follows the same rule when he says, “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor 14:37).
When Solomon was to build this temple for the worship of God, he was wiser than all other men. Yet God did not entrust its design to Solomon’s wisdom or memory, or even to any immediate directions from heaven given to him. No, Solomon was to receive the entire plan in writing through the inspiration of God. Nor would God give the plan of the temple and its utensils directly to this wise man. Otherwise, perhaps, people might idolize Solomon’s wisdom, or some might object that the whole design came only from his imagination and that he used a claim of divine revelation to cover his actions.
Therefore, the whole pattern was given from heaven not to Solomon, but to his father David, who then gave it to his son in writing. “Then David,” says the text, “gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat, and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things: also for the courses of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord” (1 Chr 28:11-13).
Moreover, David received from heaven, by divine revelation, what materials the candlesticks must be made from and how much material should be used for each. He gave the same order and command for making the tables, flesh hooks, cups, basins, and altar of incense, together with the pattern for the chariot of the cherubim, etc. (1 Chr 28:14-19). “All this,” David said, “the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the work of this pattern” (1 Chr 28:19). Thus God gave David the pattern of the temple, David gave Solomon the pattern, and Solomon built the temple according to that pattern and no other.
It is true that all these things were only figures, patterns, and shadows of things in heaven, not the very image of those things. But, as I said before, if God was so careful and exact about these that he left nothing to the judgment of even the godliest and wisest men, can we suppose that he will now permit human ingenuity and invention in matters that, by comparison, are the heavenly things themselves? (Heb 8:5; Heb 9:8-10, 23; Heb 10:1).
We must also conclude that God has already committed those shadows of heavenly things to sacred history. Since that sacred history is said to be able to make the man of God perfect in all things (2 Tim 3:15-17), it is our duty to stop relying on ordinary human understanding. We must inquire and search in that very Holy Scripture, and nowhere else, to learn by what means and in what manner we should worship God. David desired to inquire in God’s temple (Ps 27:4).
Although the ancient church’s way of worship has been set aside for us in New Testament times, those very ordinances were figures of present spiritual things and methods of worship. We may, and indeed ought to, search out their spiritual meaning, because they help confirm and illustrate these matters to our understanding. They show us more precisely how the Old and New Testaments are one and the same in the spirituality of their worship. The old worship was veiled in shadows, while ours is seen with a more open face.
A lifelike picture, as we say, displays the artist’s skill excellently. The Old Testament had the shadow, while we have only the image itself; both are emblems of what still lies ahead. We may find our gospel veiled in their ceremonies, and our spiritual worship represented to some degree by their outward ordinances.
Because, as I have said, much of the glory of our gospel truths lies wrapped as in a mantle within the temple Solomon built, I have done my best, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, to write this book on the subject.
I dare not presume to say that I know I have understood everything correctly, but I can say that I have tried to do so. I have not fished for these things in other men’s waters. My Bible and concordance are the only library I use in my writings. Therefore, courteous reader, if you find anything in word or substance that you judge to differ from God’s truth, count it as no one’s fault but mine. Pray also that God will pardon my error. Lovingly pass it by, and receive whatever you find that will do you good.
To make each particular in this book easier to find, I have set out the chief headings one by one in the contents that follow.
Your servant in the gospel,
John Bunyan
Where the Temple Was Built
“Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, … shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof” (Ezek 43:10-11).
The temple was built at Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, at the threshing floor of Arnon the Jebusite. Near there Abraham offered up Isaac. There also David met the angel of the Lord when he came with a drawn sword in his hand to destroy the people at Jerusalem because of David’s sin in improperly numbering them (Gen 22:3-5; 1 Chr 21:15; 1 Chr 22:1; 2 Chr 3:1).
There Abraham received his Isaac back from the dead. There David entreated the Lord to take away the plague and return to Israel in mercy. From this, David also concluded that God’s temple must be built there. “This,” he says, “is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel” (1 Chr 21:28; 1 Chr 22:1; 1 Chr 3:1).
Mount Moriah, therefore, was a type of the Son of God, the mountain of the Lord’s house and the rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.
Who Built the Temple
The temple was built by Solomon, a peaceful and quiet man in name, nature, and government. God had previously told David that such a man would build the temple. “Behold,” he says, “a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build an house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father” (1 Chr 22:9-10; Ps 72:1-4).
Therefore, as Mount Moriah was a type of Christ as the foundation, Solomon was a type of Christ as the builder of his church. The mountain was notable because upon it the Lord God displayed his mercy in the days of Abraham and David. As Solomon built this temple, so Christ builds his house. Indeed, he shall build the everlasting temple, “and he shall bear the glory” (Zech 6:12-13; Heb 3:3-4).
Solomon’s being called peaceful showed the peaceful doctrine and ways by which Christ’s house and church would be built (Isa 9:6; Mic 4:2-4).
How the Temple Was Built
The temple was not built merely according to Solomon’s judgment, though he was wiser than Ethan, Heman, Chalcol, Darda, and all other men (1 Kgs 4:31). It was built according to prescribed rules recorded in writing and delivered to him by his father David.
When David charged his son Solomon to build the temple of God, he also gave him a written pattern for everything: the porch, house, chambers, treasuries, parlors, and the place for the mercy seat. David had received this pattern from God, who would not entrust it merely to his memory. “The Lord made me,” David said, “understand in writing, by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.” In this way David gave his son Solomon the pattern for everything, and in this way Solomon built the house of God (1 Chr 28:9-20).
In agreement with this, Christ Jesus, the builder of his own house, “whose house are we,” builds his holy dwelling place so that he may live in it. He does so according to the command of God the Father. For he says, “I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment what I should speak” (John 12:49-50). Thus it is said that God gave him the revelation, and again that he took the book from the hand of the one who sat upon the throne. In this way he acted in building up his church (Rev 1:1; Rev 5:5).
What the Temple Was Built From
The materials used to build the temple were by nature no different from those left behind. Without craftsmanship, they were naturally unfit to be placed in so holy a house. This shows that those from whom Christ Jesus intends to build his church are by nature no better than others. But the trees and stones used in the temple were first hewn and squared before they were fit to be placed in that house. In the same way, the sinners from whom the church is to be built must first be prepared by the Word and its teaching, and then properly placed in the church.
By nature, there is no difference between those used to build God’s house and others. By grace, however, they are different, just as craftsmanship makes the trees and stones that have been hewn and squared for building different from those that remain in the forest or quarry.
Therefore, when the Lord Jesus seeks materials with which to build his house, he finds them in the same lump of clay as those he rejects and leaves behind. “Are we better than they? No, in no wise” (Rom 3:9). No, I think that if any are naturally better, they are those left behind. “He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). In this Christ displays both the greatness of his grace and the greatness of his workmanship: his grace in taking such people, and his workmanship in making them fit for his holy dwelling place.
The whole course of Scripture makes this clear, so there is no need now to cite individual passages. We need only remember that none are placed in this building just as they come from the forest or quarry. They must first pass under the hand and rule of this great builder of the temple of God.
Who Felled the Trees and Dug the Stones
Since the trees had to be felled and the stones dug out, selected workers were appointed for that task.
These workers were not sons of Jacob or members of the house of Israel. They were the servants of Hiram, king of Tyre, and the Gibeonites, the descendants of those who made a covenant with Joshua when God gave the land of Canaan to his people (Josh 9:22-27; 1 Kgs 5; 1 Chr 28; 1 Chr 29).
These were types of our gospel ministers, the men appointed by Jesus Christ to prepare sinners through their preaching for the house of God. In ancient times, a man was renowned if he was strong enough to raise his ax against the thick branches and square timber for building the temple. In the same way, a gospel minister is renowned now if Christ uses him greatly to convert sinners to himself so that he may build a temple from them (Ps 7:4-6; Rom 16).
But someone may ask, “Why do you make such a humble comparison?”
[Answer:] Because I believe it is true. Grace, not gifts, makes us sons and beloved by God. Gifts make a minister, and as a minister a person is only a servant who hews wood and draws water for the house of my God. Even Paul, though a son, regarded himself not as a son but as a servant when considering himself strictly as a minister: a servant of God, a servant of Christ, a servant of the church, and your servants for Jesus’ sake (Titus 1:1; Rom 1:1; 2 Cor 4:5).
A man, then, is a son because he has been begotten and born of God for himself, and he is a servant because he has been gifted to work in his Father’s house. Although a servant may truly be a son, he is not a son because he is a servant. Nor does it follow from the fact that all sons may be servants that all servants are sons.
No, not all God’s servants are sons. Therefore, when the time comes, anyone who is only a servant here will certainly be put out of the house, even the very house he helped to build. “The servant abideth not in the house for ever,” meaning the servant who is only a servant (Ezek 46:16-17; John 8:35).
Thus, as a son, you are an Israelite; as a servant, a Gibeonite. Thinking about this made Paul tremble, for he knew that gifts did not make him a son (1 Cor 12:28-31; 1 Cor 13:1-2).
The sum of the matter is this: a man may be both a servant and a son. He is a servant insofar as Christ employs him in his house for the good of others, and a son insofar as he shares in the grace of adoption. But not all servants are sons. Let this warn and summon ministers to perform every act of service for God and in his house with reverence and godly fear. With all humility, let us desire to share in the grace that we preach to others (1 Cor 9:25).
This is a striking saying, perhaps written to keep ministers humble: “And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen, and your vine-dressers” (Isa 61:5). To be a plowman here is to be a preacher, and to be a vine dresser here is to be a preacher (Luke 9:59-62; 1 Cor 9:27; Matt 20:1-4, 8; Matt 21:28; 1 Cor 9:7). If he does this work willingly, he has a reward. If he does not, a commission to preach the gospel was entrusted to him, and that is all (1 Cor 9:17).
The Timber and Stones Prepared
The timber and stones used to build the temple were squared and hewn at the forest or quarry. They were made fit in every way for the work before being brought to the place where the house would be erected, “so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building” (1 Kgs 6:7).
This shows, as I said before, that before the craftsman’s hand touched them, the materials used in the house were just as unfit for the building as those left behind. Consequently, they were made fit for this building only through the skill of others.
Our New Testament temple corresponds to this. Those descendants of Adam who are counted worthy to be placed in this building are made fit for it not by nature but by grace, and not by their own wisdom but by the Word of God. Thus he says, “I have hewed them by the prophets.” Ministers are also called God’s builders and laborers in this work (Hos 6:5; 1 Cor 3:10; 2 Cor 6:1; Col 1:28).
No one will use trees just as they come from the forest for the beams and rafters of his house, or stones just as they are dug from the quarry for its walls. No, the stones must be hewn and squared, and the trees must be sawn and made fit before they are placed in the house. Indeed, they must be so carefully sawn and squared that they join together exactly. Otherwise, the building will not be sound, nor will the craftsman receive credit for his work.
Therefore, our gospel church, of which the temple was a type, is said to be properly framed together, with every joint supplying what is needed to secure the whole (1 Pet 2:5; Eph 2:20-21; Eph 4:16; Col 2:19). Children build with timber just as it comes from the forest and stones just as they come from the quarry. Those who claim to build God a house from unconverted sinners do the same, using people who are unhewn, unsquared, and unpolished. Therefore, following God’s counsel, God’s workers prepare their work outside and make it ready for themselves in the field; afterward, they build the house (Prov 24:27).
Let ministers pay attention to this and take care that, instead of making their ideas submit to the Word, they do not make the Scriptures submit to their ideas.
The Foundation of the Temple
The foundation of the temple was what it stood upon, and it was twofold: first, Mount Moriah, and then the great stones upon which the temple was erected. As stated before, Mount Moriah more properly represented Christ. Thus Moriah is called “The Mountain of the house,” since it was the rock on which the temple was built. The great stones, called foundation stones, represented the prophets and apostles (Matt 16:18; Eph 2:20-21; Heb 11:10). Therefore, these stones were of the largest size, some eight cubits and some ten cubits long (1 Kgs 7:10).
Now, because the temple had this double foundation, we must consider each part separately and distinctly. Christ is the foundation in one way, while the prophets and apostles are a foundation in another. Christ is the foundation personally and by his merit, but the prophets and apostles are a foundation ministerially, through their doctrine.
The church, which is God’s New Testament temple, is said to be built on Christ as its foundation, and in this sense no one but he is the foundation (1 Cor 3:11-12). But when the church is said to be built upon the apostles, it is said to have twelve foundations, and it must have none but them (Rev 21:14).
What does this mean? We must be built upon Christ as our priest, sacrifice, prophet, king, and advocate. We must be built upon the apostles as the infallible instructors who preached him. This does not mean that anyone may become an apostle merely by considering himself one, or that any doctrine may be taught except the doctrine of the twelve, for they are presented as the chief and final apostles.
Like Moses, they are to oversee the whole building and see that everything in this house is done according to the pattern shown to them on the mountain (Exod 39:43; John 20:21-23; 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Cor 4:9).
Let us keep these distinctions clear. We must not put an apostle in the place of Christ, nor Christ in the place of one of the apostles. Let none but Christ be the high priest and sacrifice for your souls before God. And let nothing but apostolic doctrine serve as the mouth of Christ to instruct you, prepare you, prepare materials for this temple of God, and build them upon this foundation.
The Costly Foundation Stones
These foundation stones were not only great but costly. Yet, as I said, they were naturally no more valuable in themselves than the stones left behind. Their costliness, therefore, lay in the additions they received at the king’s expense.
First, much labor was spent on sawing, squaring, and carving them. The servants were skillful in this work and devoted much of their craft and labor to the stones. In this way they gave them an excellent form and added greatness, glory, and beauty to them, making them fit to support so magnificent a structure.
Second, these stones were worked both within and without and, as it seems to me, were inlaid with other stones more precious than themselves. They were inlaid, I say, with stones of various colors. As it is written, “I will lay thy foundations with sapphires” (Isa 54:11). This does not mean that the foundations themselves were sapphires, but that they were laid and inlaid with them. Or, as Scripture says elsewhere, “They were adorned with goodly stones and gifts” (Luke 21:5).
This is explained still further in what is written about the New Jerusalem, which is also the New Testament church on earth and is therefore substantially the same as the temple described here. “The foundations of the wall of the city,” he says, “were garnished with all manner of precious stones” (Rev 21:19).
It is true that these are called “The foundations of the wall of the city,” but this relates to the matter before us. What was previously called a temple because of its comparatively small size is here called a city because of its great increase. Both the foundations of the city wall and those of the temple are “the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev 21:14).
These carvings, inlays, and all the other adornments represented the extraordinary gifts and graces of the apostles. Thus the apostle calls such gifts signs of apostleship (Rom 15:19; 2 Cor 12:12; Heb 2:4). For just as the temple’s foundation stones were adorned in this way, the apostles were beautified with a calling, gifts, and graces peculiar to themselves. Therefore, Scripture says, “First apostles,” because they were first and chief in the church of Christ (1 Cor 12:28).
Nor were these stones laid only as the temple’s foundation. The great court, the inner court, and the temple porch were also surrounded by three rows of these stones as their foundation (1 Kgs 7:12). This seems to signify that both the more outward and external part of worship and the more inward worship offered to God must be grounded upon apostolic doctrine and ordinances (1 Cor 3:10-12; 2 Thess 2:15; 2 Thess 3:6; Heb 6:1-4).
Questions
What is Solomon’s Temple Spiritualized about?+
It follows a worshiper’s path through the temple, from the courts to the inner sanctuary. The outer house stands for the church on earth and the Most Holy Place for heaven, one building on one foundation: “They are in their holiday clothes, while we are in our work clothes.”
How long is Solomon’s Temple Spiritualized?+
It runs about three hours in total. Most of its seventy sections take only a few minutes, so it can be read one feature of the temple at a time.
Is Solomon’s Temple Spiritualized hard to read?+
The prose in this edition is modern English, but the pages are dense with Scripture references, and Bunyan often argues in numbered points. Readers who know the temple chapters of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles will follow it most easily.
Does Bunyan think Christians should copy the temple’s ceremonies?+
No. He holds that the ceremonies are fulfilled and set aside, and he warns against inventing new symbols for worship: “I give no encouragement to anyone now to devise figures or likenesses from his own imagination as means of worshiping God.”
How is it different from The Pilgrim’s Progress?+
The Pilgrim’s Progress is an invented allegory. Here Bunyan invents no story; he reads a real building described in the Bible, drawing each figure from Scripture’s own account.
John Bunyan was born in 1628 at Elstow, near Bedford, the son of a tinker, and received only a basic village education before taking up his father's trade. He served in the Parliamentary army during the Civil War and afterward joined the Independent congregation in Bedford led by John Gifford, which licensed him to preach around 1657. After the Restoration he refused to stop preaching without a license and was held in Bedford jail from 1660 to 1672, when the Declaration of Indulgence released him and he became pastor of the Bedford Meeting. He was imprisoned again in 1676 and 1677. His published works include Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), and The Holy War (1682), among more than sixty titles issued in his lifetime. He died in London in 1688 after riding through heavy rain to reconcile a father and son.
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