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

they did not hesitate one moment, but dealt faithfully with him, and conscientiously withdrew from him. —⁠Mason In a letter written in 1661, from Exeter jail, by Mr. Abraham Chear, a Baptist minister of Plymouth, who suffered greatly for nonconformity, and at length died in a state of banishment, there is this remark, “We have many brought in here daily, who go out again almost as soon, for a week in a prison tries a professor more than a month in a church.” —⁠Ivimey ↩

It might have been supposed that the persons here introduced were settled inhabitants of the town of Vanity, or the City of Destruction; but, indeed, they professed themselves pilgrims, and desired, during the “sunshine,” to associate with pilgrims, provided they would allow them to hold the world, love money, and save all, whatever became of faith and holiness, of honesty, piety, truth, and charity? —⁠Scott ↩

Pretended friends come with such expostulations as these: Why, dear Sir, will you give such offence? How much would it be for your comfort and interest in the world if you would but be a little more complying, and give way in some particular points and phrases. O what a syren’s song! May the Lord enable every faithful servant to reply, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” —⁠J. B. ↩

These words of Solomon are thus wickedly misapplied by many to the present day. Ecclesiastes 7:16, 17 probably refers to the administration of justice which should be tempered with mercy, but not with laxity; or it may refer to the foolish opinions expressed upon the characters of pharisee and publican, exalting the one or decrying the other overmuch. It cannot be meant to censure the utmost efforts after true righteousness, nor to sanction the slightest degree of wickedness. —⁠Editor ↩

Woe unto them who wander from the way.
Art bound for hell, against all wind and weather?
Or art thou one agoing backward thither?
Or dost thou wink, because thou would’st not see?
Or dost thou sideling go, and would’st not be
Suspected? Yet these prophets can thee tell,
Which way thou art agoing down to hell.

—⁠Acts 7:20⁠–⁠22) Bunyan’s House of God, vol. 2, p. 582

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Notwithstanding By-ends could be reserved with faithful pilgrims, yet he can speak out boldly to those of his own spirit sad character. O the treacherous deceivings of the desperate wickedness of the human heart! Who can know it? No one but the heart-searching God. —⁠Mason ↩

Some men’s hearts are narrow upwards, and wide downwards: narrow as for God, but wide for the world. They gape for the one, but shut themselves up against the other. The heart of a wicked man is widest downward; but it is not so with the righteous man. His desires, like the temple Ezekiel saw in the vision, are still widest upwards, and spread towards Heaven. A full purse, with a lean soul, is a great curse. Many, while lean in their estates, had fat souls; but the fattening of their estates has made their souls as lean as a rake as to good. —⁠Bunyan’s Righteous Man’s Desires, vol. 1, p. 745 ↩

This dialogue is not in the least more absurd and selfish than the discourse of many who now attend on the preaching of the Gospel. If worldly lucre be the honey, they imitate the bee, and only attend to religion when they can gain by it; they determine to keep what they have at any rate, and to get more, if it can be done without open scandal. —⁠Scott ↩

There is a fund of satirical humour in the supposed case here very gravely stated; and if the author, in his accurate observations on mankind, selected his example from among the mercenaries that are the scandal of the Established Church, her most faithful friends will not greatly resent this conduct of a dissenter. —⁠Scott Dr. Paley would have done well to have read this chapter in Bunyan before composing some of the chapters in his Moral Philosophy, and his Sermon on the Utility of Distinctions in the Ministry. —⁠Cheever ↩

Here is worldly wisdom, infernal logic, and the sophistry of Satan. We hear this language daily, from money-loving professors, who are destitute of the power of faith. But in opposition to all this, the Holy Ghost testifies, “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10), and a covetous man is an idolater (Colossians 3:5). Hear this, and tremble, ye avaricious professors. Remember, ye followers of the Lamb, ye are called to “let your conversation be without covetousness” (Hebrews, 13:5); your Lord testifies, “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon” (Luke 16:13). —⁠Mason ↩

How doth this commend itself to those who make merchandise of souls. What swarms of such locusts are there in this day! —⁠J. B. ↩

If thou art one who tradeth in both ways:
God’s now, the devil’s then; or if delays
Thou mak’st of coming to thy God for life;
Or if thy light and lusts are at a strife
About who should be master of thy soul,
And lovest one, the other dost control;
These prophets tell thee can which way thou bendest,
On which thou frown’st, to which a hand thou lendest.

—⁠Titus 1:16. See vol. 2, p. 582

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Genesis 34:20⁠–⁠23. ↩

Luke 20:46, 47. ↩

Acts 8:19⁠–⁠20. ↩

Bunyan, in his Holy Life the Beauty of Christianity, thus addresses such characters: “This is the man that hath the breath of a dragon; he poisons the air round about him. This is the man that slays his children, his kinsmen, his friend, and himself⁠—he that offends God’s little ones. O the millstone that God will shortly hang about your neck, when the time is come that you