All things solid in show, not solid be; The prophets used much by metaphors Which for its style and phrase puts down all wit, To his poor one I dare adventure ten, That they will take my meaning in these lines Come, Truth, although in swaddling-clouts I find, That gold, those pearls, and precious stones, that were Let me add one word more: O man of God! Art thou offended? Dost thou wish I had Put forth my matter in another dress? In application; but all that I may Scek the advance of truth, this or that way. 2. I find that men (as high as trees) will write Dialogue-wise; yet no man doth them slight For writing so indeed, if they abuse Truth, cursed be they, and the craft they use Which way it pleases God; for who knows how, 3. I find that holy writ, in many places, That pulls the strong down, and makes weak ones stand The Man that seeks the everlasting prize : It shows too who set out for life amain, Art thou for something rare and profitable? Art thou forgetful? Wouldest thou remember This book is writ in such a dialect As may the minds of listless men affect. Wouldst thou divert thyself from melancholy? By reading the same lines? O then come hither! JOHN BUNYAN. S I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on The Jail. a certain place where saw him open the book, and read therein, and as he read he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to con tain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, "What shall I do!"† His outcry Isa. lxiv. 6. Luke xiv. 33. Psalm xxxviii. 4. Heb. ii. 2. Acts xvi 31. † Acts ii. 37 This world. In this plight, therefore, he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased; wherefore, at length, he brake his mind to his wife and children, and thus he began to talk to them: "O! my dear wife,” said he, "and you the children of my bowels, I, your dear friend, am in myself undone, by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me: moreover, I am for certain informed, that this our city will be burnt with fire from heaven; in which fearful overthrow both myself, with thee my wife, and you He knows no way my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruin, of escape as yet. except (the which yet I see not) some way of escape may be found, whereby we may be delivered. At this his relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some phrensydistemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed; but the night was as troublesome to him as the day: wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So, when the morning was come, they would know how he did; he told them, Worse and worse. He also set to talking to them again; but they began to be hardened. They also thought Carnal physic for a to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriage to him: sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him; wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber to pray for and pity them, and also to condole his own misery: he would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes praying; and thus for some days he spent his time. sick soul. Now I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he was wont) reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out as he had done before, crying, "What shall I do to be saved ?"* I saw also, that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because (as I perceived) he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him, and asked, Wherefore dost thou cry ? He answered, Sir, I perceive, by the book in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment; and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.† Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life Acts xvi. 20, 31. t Heb. ix. 27. Job x. 21, 22. Ezek. xxii. 14. |