Page images
PDF
EPUB

Which way it pleases God; for who knows how,
Better than he that taught us first to plough,
To guide our minds and pens for his design?
And he makes base things usher in divine.

3. I find that holy writ, in many places,
Hath semblance with this method, where the cases
Do call for one thing to set forth another:
Use it I may then, and yet nothing smother
Truth's golden beams: nay, by this method may
Make it cast forth its rays as light as day.
And now, before I do put up my pen,
I'll show the profit of my book; and then
Commit both me 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,
As if the lasting crown they would obtain.
Here also you may see the reason why
They lose their labour, and like fools do die.
This book will make a traveller of thee,

If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be;
It will direct thee to the Holy Land,
If thou wilt its direction understand;
Yea, it will make the slothful active be;
The blind also delightful things to see.

Art thou for something rare and profitable?
Or wouldst thou see a truth within a fable?

C

Art thou forgetful? Wouldest thou remember
From New-year's day to the last of December?
Then read my fancies; they will stick like burs,
And may be to the helpless, comforters.

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 thou be pleasant, yet be far from folly? Wouldst thou read riddles and their explanation? Or else be drowned in thy contemplation?

Dost thou love picking meat? Or wouldst thou see
A man i' the clouds, and hear him speak to thee?
Wouldst thou be in a dream, and yet not sleep?
Or wouldst thou in a moment laugh and weep?
Wouldest thou lose thyself and catch no harm,
And find thyself again without a charm?
Wouldst read thyself, and read thou know'st not what,
And yet know whether thou art blest or not,
By reading the same lines? O then come hither!
And lay my book, thy head, and heart together.

JOHN BUNYAN.

THE

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

PART I.

[graphic]

SI walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den,* and THE JAIL.

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

* Mr. Bunyan wrote this precious book in Bedford jail, where he was confined on account of his religion. The following anecdote is related of him. A Quaker came to the jail; and thus addressed him— "Friend Bunyan, the Lord sent me to seek for thee, and I have been through several counties in search of thee; and now I am glad I have found thee." To which Mr. Bunyan replied, " Friend, thou dost not speak truth, in saying the Lord sent thee to seek me; for the Lord well knows that I have been in this jail some years; and if he had sent thee, he would have sent thee here directly."

a

his hand, and a great burden upon his back. 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!"b

*

In this plight, therefore, he went home, and restrained 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 certainly

a Isaiah lxiv. 5. Luke xiv. 33. Psalm xxxviii. 4. Hab. ii. 2.

b Acts ii. 37.

*The cry of an awakened sinner, who sees his own righteousness to be as filthy rags, his soul in a state of wrath and wretchedness, exposed to everlasting destruction: feeling the burden of his sins upon his back, he turns his face from his own house, from himself, from all his false hopes and vain confidences, for refuge, and takes his Bible in his hand, to direct him where he shall flee for refuge and salvation. The more a sinner reads therein, the more he is convinced of the wretched state and ruined condition of his precious immortal soul, and of the necessity of fleeing to Christ for eternal life and salvation. As he reads, he weeps and trembles to think what will become of him. Reader, was this ever your case? Did you ever see your sins, and feel the burden of them, so as to cry out, in the anguish of your soul, What must I do to be saved? If not, you will look on this precious book as a romance or history which no way concerns you; you can no more understand the meaning of it, than if it were written in an unknown tongue: for you are yet carnal, dead in your sins, lying in the arms of the wicked one, in false security. But this book is spiritual; it can only be understood by spiritually-quickened souls, who have experienced that salvation in the heart which begins with a sight of sin, a sense of sin, a fear of destruction, and dread of damnation. Such, and only such, commence Pilgrims from the city of Destruction to the heavenly kingdom.

informed that this our city will be burnt with

THIS WORLD.

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

HE KNOWS NO WAY OF ESCAPE

yet I see not) some way of AS YET. 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. thought 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.

They also

CARNAL PHYSIC FOR A 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

*Conviction of sin in the heart will discover itself to those about us, by the outward conduct and behaviour of the life.

+ When we begin to be wise unto salvation, carnal friends pronounce us mad unto destruction, and administer carnal physic for our sin-sick souls.

« PreviousContinue »