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

very expert, however disgusting their discourse may prove to others. —⁠Scott ↩

Matthew 12:45; Proverbs 5:22.

An awful scene was beheld by the pilgrims. A professor, named Turn-away, bound with seven cords, was led by devils to the byway to hell. Let everyone inquire, Who is this wanton professor?⁠—He who discovers a trifling, worldly, wanton spirit, dreads not the appearance of evil, complies with the fashions of the carnal world, and associates with the enemies of our Lord; and, in time, becomes a damnable apostate. Lord, keep us from such a beginning and such an end! —⁠Burder ↩

The “very dark lane” in which “Turn-away” was met by the pilgrims, represents the total darkness of the minds of such wicked professors; for “if the light that is in them be darkness, how great is that darkness!” When their characters are made manifest, they are ashamed to look their former pious friends in the face. “The wicked shall be holden with the cords of his sins” (Proverbs 5:22). —⁠Ivimey ↩

O beware of a light trifling spirit and a wanton behaviour. It is often the forerunner of apostasy from God. It makes one tremble to hear those who profess to follow Christ in the regeneration, crying, What harm is there in this game and the other diversion? The warmth of love is gone, and they are become cold, dead, and carnal. O how many instances of these abound! —⁠Mason ↩

In times of persecution, loose professors are driven down Dead Man’s Lane to Broad-way Gate; thus Satan murders the souls of men, by threatening to kill their bodies. Believers that are weak in faith are betrayed into sinful compliances; they sleep when they ought to watch, they conceal or deny their profession, and thus contract guilt; Faint-heart assaults them, Mistrust plunders them, and Guilt beats them down. —⁠Scott ↩

The fly in the spider’s net is the emblem of the soul in such a condition. If the soul struggleth, Satan laboureth to hold it down. If it make a noise, he bites it with blasphemous mouth; insomuch that it must needs die at last in the net, if the Lord Jesus help not. Believing is sure sweating work. Only strong faith can make Satan flee. O the toil of a gracious heart in this combat, if faith be weak! The man can get no higher than his knees, till an arm from Heaven help him up. —⁠Bunyan’s Holy City ↩

When Bunyan was imprisoned, his sentence was⁠—To be transported, if he did not conform in three months; and then, if found as a Nonconformist, in this country, he should be hung. Determined at all hazards not to be a traitor to his God, he anticipated being hung; and was anxious, in such a cause, to meet death with firmness. When his fears prevailed, he dreaded lest he should make but a scrabbling shift to clamber up the ladder. —⁠See Grace Abounding, No. 334 ↩

Where there is a faint heart in God’s cause, and mistrust of God’s truths, there will be guilt in the conscience, and but little faith. These rogues will prevail over, and rob such souls of the comforts of God’s love and of Christ’s salvation. By his jewels, we may understand those radical graces of the Spirit⁠—faith, hope, and love. By his spending-money, the sealing and earnest of the Spirit in his heart (2 Corinthians 1:22). Of this Divine assurance, and the sense of the peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, he was robbed; so that, though he still went on in the ways of the Lord, yet he dragged on but heavily and uncomfortably. —⁠Mason ↩

1 Peter 4:18. ↩

Bunyan throws great light upon this subject in his Christ a Complete Saviour, (vol. 1, p. 215)⁠—“We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherwise made acceptable to God, but by the person and excellencies of Christ. Therefore, whatever the jewels are, and the bracelets and the pearls that thou shalt be adorned with, as a reward of service done to God in this world, for them thou must thank Christ, and, before all, confess that He was the meritorious cause thereof.” ↩

What was this good thing? His precious faith, whose author, finisher, and object is precious Jesus. And where he gives this precious gift of faith, though it be but little, even as a grain of mustard-seed, not all the powers of earth and hell can rob the heart of it. Christ prayed for His disciple that his faith should not fail, or be totally lost; therefore, though Peter lost his comforts for a season, yet not his faith totally, not his soul eternally; for, says Jesus, of all his dear flock, yea, of those of little faith too, None shall pluck them out of My hand. There is one blessed security, not in ourselves, but in our Lord. —⁠Mason ↩

Hope, love, humility, meekness, patience, longsuffering, compassion, and mercy, are gracious dispositions wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost. These are the believer’s jewels; and it is his duty to keep them clean, that their beauty and lustre may be apparent. —⁠Andronicus ↩

1 Peter 1:9. ↩

Little-faith cannot come all the way without crying. So long as its holy boldness lasts, so long it can come with peace, but it will go the rest of the way with crying. —⁠Bunyan’s Come and Welcome, vol. 1, p. 288 ↩

Bunyan shows the difference between “his spending-money,” or that treasure which the Christian carries in his earthen vessel, and his jewels, in Grace Abounding (No. 232)⁠—“It was glorious to me to see His [Christ’s] exaltation. Now I could look from myself to