John Bunyan died in August 1688, in London, at the age of sixty. In the last six months of his life he published five minor works one of which was The Water of Life, his last allegorical piece. Its theme is the nature of God’s grace or, as Bunyan states in his title page, "a Discourse shewing The Richness and Glory of the Grace and Spirit of the Gospel, as set forth in Scripture by this Term, The Water of Life." The work is didactic and evangelistic in tone, a combination of traditional sermonic form and glorious allegory. Through it we can see a mature Bunyan able to write within accepted forms of exegesis and yet allow his text to take on a life of its own through which we can glimpse both something of God’s glory and something of Bunyan himself.

It would seem that Bunyan was expecting a readership that included those already saved and in need of encouragement, those who were struggling with belief, and those who were in need of salvation. He talks to all throughout the piece, telling the "soul-sick sinner, sin-sick sinner" to "Come to the Waters, cast thy self into them and fear not drowning, let God alone to cause them to carry thee into his Paradise, that thou mayest see his Throne", while reminding the "company of saints" that to drink the water of life "also revives us, when tempted, when sick, when persecuted, when in the dark, and when we faint for thirst." In this paper I will look at what we can see of John Bunyan within the pages of this small book. Bunyan utilised recognised literary forms and used fictive narrators throughout his works but I believe that despite these personas and even through them he reveals different aspects of his character and it is this which intrigues me.

At this time in the seventeenth century sermonic treatises were common and had a very well defined, accepted format. Bunyan had published many such sermons and had proved that he could work within the confines of the traditional form, but in The Water of Life we see the juxtaposition of Bunyan the preacher and Bunyan the creative genius. In the study of the verse "And he shewed me a pure River of Water of Life, clear as a crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God, and of the Lamb" Bunyan uses etymology and semantics to allow entrance not only into the meaning of words but also into their pictoral beauty. In this piece "we have a fusion of two expository methods, textual dissection and emblematic demonstration, the first giving an orderly struture to the treatise, the latter adding visual imagery and imaginative life to what could have been dry bones of textual analysis." He divides the verse into sections and looks at them individually, breaking each section down into words, then further defining the words, interpreting the definitions and finally doing magic tricks with the words and transforming them from mere letters on a page to dancing, swirling pictures pulsating with life and saturated with meaning. Not only is the water of life clear as a crystal it is also "clear as the Sun" because clear is defined as being "set in opposition to dark". Therefore we can understand how "This river casteth Beams where it goes, like the Beams of the Sun; it shines, it casts out Rays of Glory unto those that drink there of."

The River of Water of Life is looked at whole and as the sum of its parts; river, water, and water of life. The qualities of a real river, its size, depth, source, commonality, abundance, purity, clarity, and even the fish which live in it are explored in order to illuminate the nature of God’s grace. At one point Bunyan writes:

In the same way that this blessed inherent quality of the water of life cannot be seen at its full potential until it is administered and becomes life-giving water, so Bunyan brings life to the words of scripture. They too have a God-given inherent quality which is only revealed to us in part when Bunyan breaks them down semantically, defines them and draws theological comparisons to the various componants of the definition. But then he works his creative magic as a created being made in God, the creator’s, image. He brings the words alive by putting them into the visual context he has used throughout so that the words themselves dance and leap and sparkle and can be seen through- they guide us, stimulate our imagination and leave us with a clearer understanding of the text, not just intellectually but in the imaginative parts of our mind too, so that our senses can feel what the words mean. In this way the River of the Water of Life becomes a living thing flowing down mountainsides and through valleys. It is free water, free-flowing, gushing, nourishing, replenishing itself from its source, carrying away all things foul and bringing life and fruit wherever it flows. As the river "overflows its Banks in an infinite and unspeakable manner" so the grace of God is abundant, free and renewing and for all who thirst. "The Grace, and Spirit of Grace of God, is called or compared to a River, to answer those insatiable desires, and to wash away those mountainous doubts, that attend those that indeed do thirst for that drink."

Bunyan also discusses the source of the river ie. the Throne of God and of the Lamb and reveals to us attributes of God’s character, namely majesty, authority, glory, wisdom, faithfulness, justice, grace and mercy. In this section legal and judical language and metaphors abound but Bunyan seems most at home when using imagery associated with pastoralism, when describing the natural world and using it to deepen our understanding of the supernatural: "...as the Herb that is planted, or Seed sown, needs watering with continual Showers of the Mountains; so our Graces implanted in us by the Spirit of Grace, must also be watered by the Rain of Heaven." He scatters references to nature throughout, giving us glimpses into the world in which he lived, as when he describes the second birth that comes with salvation: "For the Spirit, as I may so say, sitteth and broodeth upon the Powers of the Soul, as the Hen doth on cold Eggs, till they wax warm and receive life." And it is in moments such as these that we see Bunyan mesh these two modes of literary narration, sermon and allegory, and two aspects of his person so tightly together.

The intertwining of another persona, that of a parodist adds an element of humour to the piece and also places it into an historical context. In the Epistle to the Reader Bunyan parodies the false medicine men, the quacks who were rife in England at that time, flogging their tonics and medicines and elixirs on the streets, selling dreams and unfulfillable promises: " there are many now-a-days, that are for inventing of Waters, to drink for the health of the Body; and to allure those that are ill, to buy, they will praise their waters beyond their worth." Bunyan tries to show these people up for the rip-off merchants they were using the language and terms familiar to them and the people who bought their products, to advertise " the water of life, or God’s aqua vitae." In this way he is able to place some of the great theological truths contained in the treatise into a form that ordinary people could swallow and to show the futility of other advertised so-called elixirs and hence, other paths to eternal life: "...here you have the great Physician himself with his Water, and he calls it the Water of Life, Water of Life for the Soul; this Water is Probatum est. It has been proved times without number: it never fails, but where ‘tis not taken...This is the RIGHT Holy Water (all other is counterfeit)."

But the real treasure in this work is to see Bunyan come full circle, to meet him near the end of his journey. And what a journey. What a transformation. Rather than the young man who struggled and doubted and fought with demons in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, here we see Bunyan as a mature Christian, a man who can look back at how he once thought and use those rememberances to help others afflicted as he once was: "...despairing Soul...forbear thy mistrusts, cast off thy slavish fears, hang thy misgivings as to this upon the Hedge: and believe, thou hast an invitation sufficient thereto, a River is before thy face." We see Bunyan, a man so passionate about his God that he seems to lose himself in his own visions, get carried away in his own allegories and reveal his longing to see God’s glory outside of his own imagination: "Here’s a Throne! God let us see it. John had the honour to see it, and to see the Streams proceeding from it. O sweet sight! O heart ravishing sight!" In this, the final allegorical piece that John Bunyan wrote we see maturity, passion, celebration, humour, intelligence and we see Bunyan as preacher, pastor, parodist, salesman, creative genius, and perhaps most poignantly, we see the man, the human being, at times as naked as in Grace Abounding but this time clothed in grace and a total reassurance of God’s love.

Primary Text

The Water of Life published in Midgley, G. ed. The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan Volume VII ( Clarendon Press. Oxford,1989)

Midgley, G. ed. The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan Volume VII ( Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1989)

Brown, John.John Bunyan: His Life, Times & Work, rev.ed. (London: Hurlburt,1928)