Talkative

The next stage of the pilgrimage took Christian and Faithful towards Vanity Fair. Before reaching the Fair, they had two significant meetings.

The first was with a man called Talkative. He first strikes up a conversation with Faithful, who is delighted with this new companion, and looks forward to a lively discussion en route. This is especially so when Talkative assures him that 'to talk of things that are good, to me is very acceptable, with you, or with any other' (71). However there are some warning signs in the text that things might not be altogether good with Talkative. For example, when he says to Faithful, 'if a man doth delight to talk of the history or the mystery of things; or if a man doth love to talk of miracles, wonders, or signs, where shall he find things recorded so delightful and so sweetly penned, as in the Holy Scripture?' (72), there is nothing, it seems, objectionable there. However, Faithful's response is guarded and cautious: "That is true, but to be profited by such things in our talk should be that which we design" (72).

In other words, Bunyan is adding a corrective here to what he has just been teaching in the conversation between Christian and Faithful. That episode has highlighted the importance of Christian fellowship, and the importance of discussing and talking about the best things. But it is altogether possible for us simply to be talkers. To enjoy discussing the things of God is not the same as enjoying the things of God. Our talk can be perfectly pious and theologically sound; but it can also be the talk of those who are outside the kingdom. It is not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' who will enter into the kingdom, after all. Talkative knows the Bible, can spin out much of its teaching; but he has no relationship with Jesus Christ.

Christian confirms this when he tells Faithful that he knows Talkative of old, as a native of the City of Destruction. He describes Talkative as 'the son of one Say-well; he dwelt in Prating Row; and he is known of all that are acquainted with him by the name of Talkative in Prating Row; and notwithstanding his fine tongue, he is but a sorry fellow' (73). The reason for this, in Christian's analysis, is:

This man is for any company, and for any talk; as he talketh now with you, so will he talk when he is on the ale-bench; and the more drink he hath in his crown, the more of these things he hath in his mouth; religion hath no place in his heart, or house, or conversation; all he hath, lieth in his tongue, and his religion is to make a noise therewith ...

He talketh of prayer, of repentance, of faith, and of the new birth, but he knows but only to talk of them. I have been in his family, and have observed him both at home and abroad; and I know what I say of him is the truth. His house is as empty of religion, as the white of an egg is of savour. There is there, neither prayer, nor sign of repentance for sin ... (74)

On hearing this, Faithful realises how much he has been deceived by Talkative, and he resolves as follows: 'I see that saying and doing are two things, and hereafter I shall better observe this distinction' (75). Christian confirms this: 'They are two things indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul and the body; as the body without the soul is but a dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also. The soul of religion is the practick part: pure religion and undefiled, before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world' (75).

This latter quotation is from James 1:21, and Bunyan's whole point in this section is to bring to our attention the warning of that epistle that faith without works is dead. We may talk much about faith and all the attendant elements of religion; but if our faith only lies on our tongue, it is a sham. It has to be worn on the sleeve, manifest to all, clear, conspicuous and uncompromising. The evidence of genuine spirituality is not just to enjoy speaking of heavenly things, but to show in our lives that we are citizens of that heavenly country. Faithful further illustrates this with a quotation from the Old Testament:

This brings to my mind that of Moses, by which he describeth the beast that is clean. He is such a one that parteth the hoof and cheweth the cud; not that parteth the hoof only, or that cheweth the cud only. The hare cheweth the cud, but yet is unclean because he parteth not the hoof. And this truly resembleth Talkative, he cheweth the cud, he seeketh knowledge, he cheweth upon the word; but he divideth not the hoof, he parteth not with the way of sinners; but, as the hare, he retaineth the foot of a dog or bear, and therefore he is unclean (76).

Christian commends him for extracting 'the true gospel sense of those texts' (76) - a very interesting comment on Puritan exegesis. The passage to which Bunyan is referring us is Leviticus 11, which makes clear that there are animals which the people of God must not eat. And lest any of us imagine that this is a trifle, here are the reasons attached to the levitical legislation:

I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming things that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean... (Leviticus 11:44-47).

And for that reason, Bunyan wishes to remind us that in the matter of religion there is much that is unclean. His concern is that we shall be holy and consecrated to the Lord, not hearers (or talkers) of the word, but doers of the word also.

So it is very interesting that the strategy Faithful and Christian adopt to be rid of Talkative is to speak about things that Talkative cannot speak about: the power of religion and whether that has been set up in his heart, house and conversation. Faithful asks Talkative an interesting question: 'how doth the saving grace of God discover itself when it is in the heart of man?' (76). It is, of course, an all-important question, and one which is often asked in the Puritan theology.

Talkative begins discoursing on the evidences of saving grace. First, he says, it causes an outcry against sin. Second - but Faithful interrupts him and reminds him that it is possible to be very loud in our outcries against sin while we tolerate sin inwardly. 'I have heard,' says Faithful, ' many cry out against sin in the pulpit, who yet can abide it well enough in the heart, house and conversation' (77). Talkative fumbles out of that, and gives his second mark of grace, 'great knowledge of gospel mysteries'. Again, however, Faithful corrects him: 'a man may know like an angel, and yet be no Christian' (77). So Talkative leaves Faithful to answer the question.

Faithful says that the work of grace in the soul manifests itself both to the person who has it, and to those who see and know the person. Bunyan is worth quoting at length as he describes the regenerate man:

It gives him conviction of sin, especially of the defilement of his nature and the sin of unbelief (for the sake of which he is sure to be damned if he findeth not mercy at God's hand, by faith in Jesus Christ). This sight and sense of things worketh in him sorrow and shame for sin; he findeth, moreover, revealed in him the Saviour of the world, and the absolute necessity of closing with him for life, at the which he findeth hungerings and thirstings after him; to which hungerings, the promise is made. Now, according to the strength or weakness of his faith in his Saviour, so is his joy and peace, so is his love to holiness, so are his desires to know him more, and also to serve him in this world. But though I say it discovereth itself thus unto him, yet it is but seldom that he is able to conclude that this is a work of grace; because his corruptions now, and his abused reason, make his mind to misjudge in this matter; therefore, in him that hath this work, there is a required a very sound judgement before he can, with steadiness, conclude that this is a work of grace. (78).

To those who observe this person, Faithful says, the reality of grace in the heart is seen by a confession of faith and by a life which corresponds to that confession, that is, 'a life of holiness: heart-holiness, family-holiness (if he hath a family) and by conversation-holiness in the world; which, in the general, teacheth him, inwardly, to abhor his sin, and himself for that, in secret; to suppress it in his family, and to promote holiness in the world; not by talk only, as a hypocrite or talkative person may do, but by a practical subjection, in faith and love, to the power of the Word' (79).

Not surprisingly, all this becomes too much for Talkative, who soon takes his leave of Christian and Faithful. The whole conversation, however, is a salutary reminder to us that it is possible to be skilled in discussing the things of God and still remain a stranger to his grace. Bunyan's poem says it all:

How Talkative at first lifts up his plumes!
How bravely doth he speak! How he presumes
To drive down all before him! But so soon
As Faithful talks of heart-work, like the moon
That's past the full, into the wane he goes.
And so will all, but he that heart-work knows. (80)

ŠIain D. Campbell 2004