Will any fober man be to find fault
With them, left he be found for to affault
The highest wisdom: No, he rather stoops.
And feeks to find out by what pins and loops,
By calves and fheep, by heifers and rams,
By birds and herbs, and by the blood of lambs,
God fpeaketh to him; and full happy he
That finds the light and grace that in them be!
Be not too forward therefore to conclude
That I want folidne fs; that I am rude:
All things folid in fhew, not folid be;
All things in parables despise not we,
Left most things hurtful lightly ve receive;
And things that good are, of our fouls bereave.
My dark and cloudy words they do but hold
The truth, as cabinets inclofe the gold.

The prophets used much by metaphors
To fet forth truth; yea, whofo confiders
Chrift, his apostles too, fhall plainly fee
That truths to this day in fuch mantles be.
Am I afraid to fay that holy writ,
Which or its stile and phrafe puts down all wit,
Is every where fo full of all these things,
(Dark figures, allegories) yet there fprings
From that fame book, that lustre, add that rays
Of light, that turn our darkest nights to days.
Come, let my carper to his life now look,
And find there darker lines than in my book
He findeth any; yea, and let him know,
That in his best things there are worse lines too.
May we but fland before impartial men,
To his poor one I dare adventure ten,
That they will take my meaning in thefe lines,
Far better than his lyes in filver thrine.
Come, truth, altho' in fwadling clouts, I find,
Informs the judgment, rectifies the mind;
Picafes the understanding, makes the will
Submit, the memory too it doth fill
With what doth our imagination pleafe;
Likewife it tends our troubles to appeafe.

Sound words, I know, Timothy is to use,
And old wives fables he is to refufe;

10

But

But yet grave Paul him no where did forbid
The ufe of parables, in which lay hid

That gold, thofe pearls, and precious ftones that were:
Worth digging for, and that with greatest care.

Let me add one word more. O man of God,
Art thou offended? Doft thou wish I had
Put forth my matter in another drefs?
Or that I had in things been more express?
To thofe that are my betters, as is fit,
Three things let me propound, then I fubmit..
1. I find not that I am deny'd the use
Of this my method, fo I no abuse

Put on the words, things, readers, or be rude
In handling figure or fimilitude,
In application; but that all I may,
Seek the advance of truth this or that way.
Denied, did I fay? Nay, I have leave,
(Examples too, and that from them that have
God better pleafed by their words or ways,
That any man that breatheth now a-days)
Thus to exprefs my mind, thus to declare
Things unto thee that excellenteft are.

2. I find that men (as high as trees) will write
Dialogue-ways; yet no man doth them flight
For writing fo; Indeed if they abufe
Truth, curfed be they, and the craft they use
To that intent; but yet let truth be free...
To make her fallies upon thee and me,
Which way it pleafes God: For who knows how,
Better than he that taught us firft to plow,
To guide our minds and pens for his defign Pr
And he makes base things usher in divine.

3. I find that holy writ, in many places,
Hath femblance with this method, where the cafes →
Do call for one thing to fet forth another;
Ufe it I may then, and yet nothing fmother
Truth's golden beams; nay, by this method may
Make it caft forth its rays as light as day.

And now, before I do put up my pen,
I'll fhew the profit of my book, and then
Commit both thee and it unto that hand

That pulls the ftrong down, and makes weak ones ftand.

This book it chalketh out before thine eyes
The man that feeks the everlafting prize :
It fhews you whence he comes, whither he goes,
What he leaves undone, alfo what he does;
It alfo fhews you how he runs, and runs
Till he unto the gate of glory comes.

蠢

It fhews too who fet out for life amain,
As if the lafting crown they would obtain:
Here also you may fee the reafon why
They lose their labour, and like fools to die.
This book will make a traveller of thee,
If by its counfel thou wilt ruled be;
It will direct thee to the holy land,
If thou wilt its directions understand;
Yea, it will make the flothful, active be,
The blind alfo delightful things to fee.

Art thou for fomething rare and profitable?
Or wouldst thou fee a truth within a fable?
Art thou forgetful? Or wouldst thou remember
From New-year's-day to the laft of December?
Then read my fancies, they will fick like burs,
And may be to the helpless comforters.

This book is wrote in fuch a dialect,
As may the minds of liftlefs men affect;
It feems a novelty, and yet contains
Nothing but found and gospel-ftrains.

Would'it thou divert thyfelf from melancholy? Would't thou be pleasant, yet be far from folly? Would't thou read riddles and their explanation ; Or else be drowned in thy contemplation? Doft thou love picking-meat? or wou'dit thou fee A man i'th' clouds, and hear him fpeak to thee? Wou'dft thou be in a dream, and yet not fleep? Or wou'dit thou in a moment laugh and weep? Or wou'dit thou lofe thy felf and catch no harm, And find thyfelf again without a charm? Wou'dit read thy felf, and read thou know'it not what, And yet know whether thou art blest or not, By reading the fame lines? O then come hither, And lay my book, thy head and heart together.

JOHN BUNYAN

THE

PILGRIM's PROGRESS;

IN THE

SIMILITUDE

OF A

DRE

A M.

•

A

SI walked through the wilderness of this world, I alighted on a certain place where was a laid me down in that place to fleep: And as I fept I dreamed a dream :-I dreamed, and behold, I faw a man cloathed with rags, ftanding in a certain place, with his face from his own houfe, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back, I looked and faw him open the book, and read therein, and as he read he wept and trembled, and not being able longer to contain, he broke out with a lamentable cry, faying, What hall His Outery. I do? A&s 2.27.

den, and * The gaol.

If. 64. 6.
L. 14.13.
PS. 38. 4.
Heb. 2. 2.
Ass 16.

In this plight therefore he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children fhould not perceive his diftrefs, but he could not be filent long, becaufe that his trouble increased; wherefore at length he broke his mind to his wife and children and thus he began to talk to them: “O my dear ་་ wife, faid he, and you the children of my bowels, I your "dear friend am in myfelf undone, by reason of a burden “that lieth hard upon me:-Moreover, I am

46

certainly

220

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This world" certainly informed, that this our if city will § He knows "be burn'd with fire from heaven, in which way of "fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee, efcape as yet. my wife, and you, my fweet babes, shall "miferably come to ruin, except (the which § *S yet, I fee not) fome way of escape may be found whereby we may be delivered." At this his relations. were fore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had faid to them was true, but becaufe they thought fome phrenzy distemper had got into his head; therefore it. drawing towards night, and they hoping that deep might. fettle his brains, with all hafte they got him to hed: But the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, inftead of fleeping, he spent it in fighs and tears. So when the morning was come, they would know how he did; he told them worfe and worfe; he alfo fet to talking to them again, but they began to be hardened. They alfo thought to drive away his diflemper by harth and furly carriages to him; Sometimes they would deride, fometimes they would chide, and fometimes they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber, to pray for and pity them; and alfo to condole his own mifery: He would alfo walk folitary in the fields, fometimes reading and fometimes praying; and thus for fome days he fpeat his time.

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Carnal phyfic for a fick foul.

4

Now I faw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he was wont) reading in his book; and greatly diftreffed in his mind; and as he read, he burst out as he had done before, crying, What shal Licts 16, 30. I do to be faved?

31.

I faw alfo that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he flood fill, becaufe (as I. perceived) he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and faw a man named Evangelift coming to him, and afked, Wherefore doft thou cry?

He anfwered, Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to

1

judgment,