John Bunyan, Federalist: Of Parchment Rolls and Covenants

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 14; p. 85
• Main Author: McGiffert, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2010
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Bunyan, John (1628-88); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

Bunyan made clear beyond doubt that those rolls, especially the second one, were the Pilgrim's successive passports to heaven and that his reading of them sustained his hope and enhanced his assurance of God's saving grace. [...]God's pledge of grace to the Pilgrim, covenantally inscribed, has been hiding in plain sight. The only scriptural tag he gives it, Ephesians 1:13, affirms the saving 'word of truth' and also the Spirit's seal but does not speak to the nature of the word. [...]Bunyan left it to his readers to figure out the content of the roll. Exegetes have tended, like Sharrock, to emphasize the pilgrim's hope of election, which the roll is said to evidence. [...]Bunyan' s most recent biographer, the late Richard L. Greaves, has God giving the roll to Christian by an act of divine sovereignty in token of election.7 But there's a hitch.