Christian Books
Introduction to three books that were in most English homes in the 18th Century
Robinson Crusoe.
A Novel of the Reformation
Robinson Crusoe. Video
Daniel Defoe. Unknown , style of Sir Godfrey Kneller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Crusoes's vision of a man with a spear.
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Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe published in 1719. It is very much a novel of its time but it also a book with a Christian theme. Robinson Crusoe left his home in York against his father’s wishes and took to a life of seafaring. He had no knowledge of God at this time and simply lives his life by his own lights. He takes a ship from England in 1651 and after a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his desire for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster, as the ship is taken over by pirates and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is en route to Brazil. Crusoe sells Xury to the captain. With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation in Brazil.
Years later his headstrong nature overcomes him again and he sets off again to purchase slaves from Africa. The ship runs aground on an island off the the coast of Venezuela. All the crew are lost apart from Crusoe who is the only survivor. The story then continues with his attempts to survive on the island. For many people Robinson Crusoe is just an old adventure story. However the story is really about sin, repentance and forgiveness. The book was written at a time when people in England had had access to bibles for a hundred years. Nearly every home would have had the Holy Bible on its bookshelf. The issues which were fought over during the Reformation were well understood. I have a Penguin Classics copy of the novel which contains the complete text. This includes the heart of the book which is a story of sin, repentance and new life in Jesus. I also had a copy of Robinson Crusoe that omitted all the spiritual passages in the book and simply presented the book as an adventure story.
It is the Christian message of the book that I want to focus on. When Crusoe finds himself alone and shipwrecked on the island he thinks himself the most unfortunate of all men. However there are signs of God’s providence all around him. He is able to scavenge all the basic things he needs for survival from the shipwreck; tools, guns, gunpowder and other supplies. He finds goats and birds on the island for food. He even finds some corn that he spilled starting to sprout and grow. Despite all these good things his heart does not turn to God. I think this is why I like the book because this is exactly how I was before I was saved. There were signs of God’s goodness all around me but I failed to recognise that they were from Him.
Eventually Crusoe has a terrifying dream where he sees a man descend to earth from a dark cloud who was “all over bright as flame”. The man walks towards Crusoe, with a spear in his hand, and speaks with a terrible voice: “Seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die”. Crusoe woke up but the terror of the dream stayed with him. He starts to think about his situation and how he has been delivered from many perils. He rediscovers a bible that he rescued from the wreck and starts to read it. He realises that although God had delivered him he had not “owned” and been thankful for that deliverance. He is troubled that he has never been brought to repentance and then he reads:
[Act 5:31 KJV] 31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand [to be] a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
He realises with joy that it is Jesus that gives repentance. He looks back on his past life with horror at the sinful life he has led and from this point on determines to follow the Lord. Once he finds peace with God the island changes from being a prison to being his own, relatively happy, domain. This is one of the main lessons of the book. It is not our outward circumstance that bring us sorrow but the inward state of our soul.
Later in the book Crusoe comes across some cannibals who have landed on the island in their canoes. They have a captive with them who Crusoe rescues. He names this man “Friday” and teaches him the basics of the Christian faith. Here is another theme of the book. Crusoe is a product of the Reformation and does not believe in “priestcraft”. Friday comes from a tribe that has a God called Benamuckee. This God lived at the top of a mountain and could only be approached by old men who were the religious order of the tribe. Then Crusoe makes a very pertinent observation:
“By this I observed that there is priestcraft even amongst the most blinded ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy, is not only to be found in the Roman (Catholic), but perhaps among all religions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.”
The horrible hand of dead religion seeks to control people everywhere. The Reformation went some way to freeing us from this although the Refomers themselves tended to fall back into the same patterns of behaviour as the Catholics. We haven’t actually needed priests for 2,000 years. If you’d like to know more about this I have done a video called “Why We Don’t Need Priests Anymore”.
Robinson Crusoe teaches us basic lessons that are in danger of being forgotten. Salvation comes through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. This salvation is open to anybody anywhere in the world. No church buildings, priests or religious organisations are required. Just a repentant heart. Also a bible is needed for us to read, study and learn from.
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Foxe's Book of Martyrs Video
Frontispiece to the 1563 edition of The Book of Martyrs.
John Foxe 1516 - 1587 Unidentified painter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Illustration from the Book of Martyrs. The death of Lady Jane Grey
Illustration from the Book of Martyrs. The death of John Wickliffe.
Foxe's Book of Martyrs was a book that became ubiquitous in English homes in the 17th and 18th centuries. It went through many updates and revisions over the years. The first edition was published in 1563 during the reign of Elizabeth 1st. The memory of the awful religious strife that had occurred under Henry VIII and Mary Tudor was still alive in the mind of English people. The terrible fate of such people as The Church of England bishops Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been burnt at the stake, was clearly remembered. The actual full title of this first edition was: -
ACTES and Monumentes touching things DONE AND PRACTISED BY THE Prelats of the Romishe Churche, specially in this Realme of England and Scotland, from the yeare of our Lord a thousand vnto the tyme nowe present. Wherin is liuely declared þe whole state of the Christian Church: with such persecutions, and horrible troubles, as haue haypened in these last and pearilous dayes. Faithfully gathered and collected according to the true copies and wrytings certificatory, as well of them that suffered: as also of the others that were the doers and workers therof.
Over time the book became popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Not a title that Foxe himself wanted for it. He said that he never wrote a book bearing the title Book of Martyrs . He wrote a book called “Actes and Monuments” which contained many other matters besides the martyrs of Christ. Despite this the name Foxe’s Book of Martyrs has become the title by which the book is known.
John Foxe was born in Lincolnshire in 1517. He studied at Oxford university and was at this time a Catholic. However, after reading church history he became convinced of the errors of the Roman church and as a result of this he was expelled from the University. After many struggles he eventually moved to London where he was soon reduced to near destitution. Sitting one day in St Paul’s Cathedral, half starved, a stranger who he had never met before sat next to him and put a large sum of money into his hand and also encouraged him to be of good cheer because he would soon attain a regular means of subsistence. Sure enough, within three days, he was appointed by the Duchess of Richmond to tutor her nephew’s family. Unfortunately for Foxe, Mary Tudor (Mary I) was now on the throne and carried out a bitter persecution against the Protestants. Foxe fled abroad and eventually came to Basle in Switzerland. It was here that he began his work on Martyrology which became Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. When Elizabeth I came to the throne he returned to England and settled in Salisbury where he completed his Book of Martyrs.
During the reign of Elizabeth the English church enacted that every parish church should have a copy of Fox’s book chained but unclasped so that it would not be lost but was available to be read by all. In this way the memory was kept alive among the people of the tyranny of the Catholic church from which they had been delivered by the Reformation. Rome was clearly identified as the whore of Babylon in the Book of Revelation.
[Rev 17:6 KJV] 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
The book was still being widely published in the 19th Century. During the reign of Queen Victoria the Bishop of Carlisle, Samuel Waldgrave, wrote that he wished that a copy of the book could be placed in every house in the land. He felt that Britain was still under attack by Rome.
“And the people have forgotten that she (Rome) is a siren who enchants but to destroy. It is time that the mask should be torn from her face, and that she should be recognised once more as “Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth” (Rev 17:5).
So, the importance of this book is that it kept alive the story of those who had been martyred for their faith, from Stephen in the Book of Acts, onwards. It focused mostly on the persecutions of Protestants, by the Catholic church, throughout the world. It also attempted to explain the history of the Reformation in England starting with the efforts of John Wickliffe, in the 14th Century, to oppose the errors in the Catholic religion and to produce a bible in English. This is important in that there is a popular idea that the English Reformation was something cooked up by Henry VIII so that he could get a divorce. In fact there was a long history of opposition to the false teachings of Catholicism and of the struggle to get the bible translated into English.
Opposition to true faith in Christ has always come from religious people. Strangely enough the Reformers themselves opposed anyone with simple faith who didn’t accept their particular doctrine.
The first martyr, Stephen understood that it was the religious people of his time who were the ones who were resisting the Holy Ghost and things haven’t changed since. He said this to the Sanhedrin, the supreme council of the Jewish people.
[Act 7:51-52 KJV] 51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye. 52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Religion and true faith in Jesus don’t mix. They never have done.
The Pilgrim's Progress
John Bunyan by Thomas Sadler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Christian with his burden in Pilgrim's Progress
Christian begging his family to come with him
Christian and Hopeful reach the Celestial City
Pilgrim's Progress Video
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It could be said that it is based on the biblical idea that we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
[1Pe 2:11 KJV] 11 Dearly beloved, I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
The book is the story of a dream about a man called Christian who allegorically is making his way through this life. He is is beset by various trials but eventually gets to his desired destination, the Celestial City. In a sense it is the story of John Bunyan’s pilgrimage. John Bunyan was born in 1628 at Bunyan's End in the parish of Elstow, Bedfordshire. He was an ordinary man, a mender of pots and kettles. He himself says that as a boy he was idle and wayward and never spoke without an oath. Around the time of his sixteenth birthday he enlisted in the Parliamentary army when an edict demanded 225 recruits from the town of Bedford.There are few details available about his military service, which took place during the first stage of the English Civil War. He came out of the army a changed man and soon married despite having very little in the way of material goods. He read his bible, joined the parish church and became truly sorrowful for the errors of his youth. Eventually he joined the Baptist people in Bedford, was baptised in the river Ouse and began to preach. At this point in English history it was a crime not to attend the established church and to preach the gospel outside of it. In November 1660 he was arrested and thrown into the Bedford County Gaol. He remained there for twelve years, was released , started preaching again and briefly imprisoned again.
It was while in prison that he started writing The Pilgrim’s Progress. In May 1672 he was released and he became the pastor of the Baptists in Bedford. By all accounts he was extremely popular with his congregation who nicknamed him “Bishop Bunyan”. So, from this we can see that the book was written out of profound personal experience. The language is that of a plain man, uncomplicated but also eloquent. John Bunyan shows us in his book what to avoid and how to keep on the right path. The main protagonist, Christian, is a typical Mr Everyman who often gets into trouble but comes through all right in the end.
I’ve come across the book several times throughout my christian life and there are several things in it that have stayed with me. Firstly, the most obvious is that life is a journey. Christian has a book that he reads (the bible) that convicts him of his sins and leaves him feeling a heavy burden. The weight is unbearable but an evangelist he meets directs him to the “wicket gate” for deliverance. The story unfolds as Christian begins his journey. One point is that Christian begins the journey feeling the heavy weight of his sins and longing to be free from them. This is something that is often lost nowadays as people are invited to become Christians who have no sense of their own burden of sin. It is only later in his journey that Christian finds the Cross of Redemption and is released from the heavy burden he carries.
Another important point is that he has to leave his home and family and everything he loves in order to follow the path to the Celestial City (Heaven). He begs his wife and children to follow him but initially they refuse. In the second part of the book they realise their error and take the same path he has taken. This is another important theme. We have to put our faith in Jesus above all else. If we do then God will take care of everything else. If we don’t then we are in danger of losing everything.
While on the journey Christian is tempted off the path on several occasions. Some of the imagery in the book has passed into our common cultural language. Terms such as “The Slough of Despond” and “Vanity Fair” have become familiar to people even if they don’t know where they come from. One deception that tempted Christian off the right path was a place called “The Village of Morality”. When I first read this I was surprised that “morality” was something that could divert us from the straight and narrow way. Christian is directed there by “Mr Worldly Wiseman” who tells him to find “Mr. Legality” and his son “Civility”. The deception here is that good deeds and good appearances are a substitute for simple faith in Christ. I think now that this is one of the most subtle deceptions of all.
All through his journey Christian faces pitfalls and diversions although he has help from companions such as “Faithful” and “Hopeful”. At the end of the journey Christian and Hopeful ascend the hill to the Celestial City and are welcomed in. Another character “Ignorance” attempts to follow them in but is not allowed in. He is bound hand and foot and put through a door in the side of the hill. The commentary on this is:
“Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven as well as from the city of Destruction.”
The message is that our journey through life is a pilgrimage which isn’t over until we reach heaven. People can fail at any point. The only security is in knowing Jesus Christ.