The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan [most popular novels .txt] 📗

let thy immortal soul hang over hell by a thread of uncertain time, which may soon be cut asunder by death? —⁠Bunyan’s Preface to The Heavenly Footman ↩

2 Corinthians 4:18. ↩

Luke 15:17. ↩

1 Peter 1:4. ↩

Hebrews 11:16. ↩

Luke 9:62. ↩

Proverbs 26:16. ↩

Hebrews 13:20, 21; 9:17⁠–⁠21. ↩

Titus 1:2. ↩

Isaiah 45:17; John 10:27⁠–⁠29. ↩

2 Timothy 4:8; Revelation 3:4; Matthew 13:43. ↩

Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 7:17, 17; 21:4. ↩

Isaiah 6:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17; Revelation 7:17; 4:4; 14:1⁠–⁠5; John 12:25; 2 Corinthians 5:2⁠–⁠5.

It is interesting to compare this account of Heaven with that which Bunyan gave in the Preface to his Sighs from Hell, published 20 years before⁠—“O sinner, sinner, there are better things than hell to be had, and at a cheaper rate by the thousandth part than that. O there is no comparison; there is Heaven, there is God, there is Christ, there is communion with an innumerable company of saints and angels.” —⁠Editor ↩

Isaiah 55:1, 2, 12; John 7:37; 6:37; Psalms 21:6; 22:17. ↩

Here you have another volume of meaning in a single touch of the pencil. Pliable is one of those who is willing, or think they are willing, to have Heaven, but without any sense of sin, or of the labour and self-denial necessary to enter Heaven. But now his heart is momentarily fired with Christian’s ravishing descriptions, and as he seems to have nothing to trouble his conscience, and no difficulties to overcome, the pace of an honest, thorough inquirer, the movement of a soul sensible of its distresses and its sins, and desiring comfort only in the way of healing and of holiness, seems much too slow for him. He is for entering Heaven at once, going much faster than poor Christian can keep up with him. Then, said Christian, I cannot go so fast as I would, by reason of this burden that is on my back. —⁠Cheever ↩

Satan casts the professor into the mire, to the reproach of religion, the shame of their brethren, the derision of the world, and the dishonour of God. He holds our hands while the world buffets us. He puts bears’ skins upon us, and then sets the dogs at us. He bedaubeth us with his own foam, and then tempts us to believe that that bedaubing comes from ourselves. —⁠Good News to the Vilest of Men, vol. 1, p. 69 ↩

Guilt is not so much a wind and a tempest, as a load and burden. The devil, and sin, and the curse of the law, and death, are gotten upon the shoulders of this poor man, and are treading of him down, that he may sink into, and be swallowed up of, his miry place (Job 41:30). —⁠Bunyan’s Saint’s Knowledge of Christ’s Love, vol. 2, p. 6 ↩

In this Slough of Despond there were good and firm steps, sound promises to stand upon, a causeway, indeed, better than adamant, clear across the treacherous quagmires; but mark you, fear followed Christian so hard, that he fled the nearest way, and fell in, not stopping to look for the steps, or not thinking of them. Now this is often just the operation of fear; it sets the threatenings against the promises, when it ought simply to direct the soul from the threatenings to the promises. It is the object of the threatenings to make the promises shine, and to make the soul lay hold upon them, and that is the purpose and the tendency of a salutary fear of the Divine wrath on account of sin, to make the believer flee directly to the promises, and advance on them to Christ. —⁠Cheever ↩

Psalms 40:2. ↩

Isaiah 35:3, 4. ↩

Signifying that there is nothing but despondency and despair in the fallen nature of sinful man: the best that we can do, leaves us in the Slough of Despond, as to any hope in ourselves. —⁠Mason ↩

1 Samuel 12:23.

That is, the Lord Jesus Christ. We never find good ground, nor safe sounding, nor comfortable walking, till we enter into possession of Christ by faith, and till our feet are set upon Christ, who is the Rock of ages. —⁠Mason ↩

And now you may think, perhaps, that Christian having got out of the Slough of Despond, and fairly on his way, it is all well with him; but not so, for now he comes into a peril that is far greater than the last⁠—a peril through which we suppose that every soul that ever goes on pilgrimage passes, and a peril in which multitudes that get safely across the Slough of Despond, perish forever. —⁠Cheever ↩

“Some inkling;” some intimation, hint, or slight knowledge: obsolete. —⁠Editor ↩

1 Corinthians 7:29. ↩

There is great beauty in this dialogue, arising from the exact regard to character preserved throughout. Indeed, this forms one of our author’s peculiar excellencies; as it is a very difficult attainment, and always manifests a superiority of genius. —⁠Scott ↩

Mr. Worldly-wiseman prefers morality to Christ the strait gate. This is the exact reasoning of the flesh. Carnal reason ever opposes spiritual truth. The notion of justification by our own obedience to God’s Law ever works in us, contrary to the way of justification by the obedience of Christ. Self-righteousness is as contrary to the faith of Christ as indulging the lusts of the flesh. The former is the white devil of pride, the latter the black devil of rebellion and disobedience. See the awful