Let me add one word more. O man of God, 1. I find not that I am denied the use Of this my method, so I no abuse Put on the words, things, readers; or be rude In application; but, all that I may, 2. I find that men (as high as trees) will write To make her sallies upon thee and me, Which way it pleases God; for who knows how, 3. I find that holy writ in many places Hath semblance with this method, where the cases Truth's golden beams: nay, by this method may Commit both thee and it unto that Hand That pulls the strong down, and makes weak ones stand. This book it chalketh out before thine eyes The man that seeks the everlasting prize; It shows you whence he comes, whither he goes; What he leaves undone, also what he does; It also shows you how he runs and runs, Till he unto the gate of glory comes. It shows, too, who set out for life amain, Art thou for something rare and profitable? As This book is writ in such a dialect may the minds of listless men affect: It seems a novelty, and yet contains Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains. Wouldst thou divert thyself from melancholy? Wouldst read thyself, and read thou knowest not what, By reading the same lines? Oh, then come hither, JOHN BUNYAN. f How richly did Milton enjoy spiritual visions of God and of eternal bliss, while his blindness shrouded to him the world in impenetrable darkness. The Jail. S I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. Isa. lxiv. 6; Luke xiv. 33; Psa. xxxviii. 4; Hab. ii. 2. I looked, and saw him open the book, and read therein; and, as he read, he wept, and trembled; and, not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable. cry, saying, "What shall I do?" Acts. ii. 37; xvi. 30, 31. His outcry. 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 "In prison he wrote the Pilgrim's Progress," C. Doe. Antichrist imprisoned Bunyan, to prevent his preaching to a few poor labourers, and from that prison, by this book, he has shed a sacred lustre not only over all Britain, but to the uttermost ends of the earth. "For though men keep my outward man Within their locks and bars, Yet, by the faith of Christ, I can Mount higher than the stars." [9+] The world. He knows no way of escape as yet. 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 burned with fire from heaven; in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee my wife, and you my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way of escape can 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 frenzy distemper 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 to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages to a sick soul, Carnal physic for 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. 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? "Sometimes I have been so loaden with my sins, that I could not tell where to rest, nor what to do; yea, at such times, I thought it would have taken away my senses.' [4] " "Their The picture of a true penitent when the heart is being broken. sighs, their tears, their day and night groans, their cries and prayers, and solitary carriages, put all the carnal family out of order." [39] |