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 Seek the advance of truth this or that way. 2. I find that men as high as trees will write Dialogue-wise; yet no man doth them slight For writing so: indeed if they abuse Truth, cursed be they, and the craft they use 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 And now, before I do put up my pen, 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 also shews you how he runs and runs Till he unto the gate of glory comes. It shows, too, who set out for life amain. This book will make a traveller of thee, Art thou for something rare and profitable? This book is wrote in such a dialect, Wouldst thou divert thyself from melancholy? JOHN BUNYAN THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, UNDER THE Similitude of a Dream. PART I. As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place were was a Den, and 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. Ixiv. 6. Luke xiv. 33. Ps. xxxviii. 4.) I looked, and saw him open Bedford jail, in which the author was a prisoner for the sake of Christ and the gospel. The figure is borrowed from Song iv. 8. He had used this allusion before in his Grace abounding. Addressing his children in the faith he says, "I now once again, as before from the top of Shenir and Hermon, so now from the Lion's Den, and from the mountain of the Leopards, look yet after you all, greatly longing to see your safe arrival into the desired haven." The author's mind was so suddenly and powerfully arrested and carried away by his subject, that he with great propriety represents the working of his imagination as a pleasing and instructive dream. "And thus it was: I writing of the way And race of saints in this our gospel day, About their journey and the way to glory, In more than twenty things, which I set down: Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly." We also learn from the Author's Life, that he had many dreams, which made impressions on his mind never to be forgotten, and which were probably connected in some way with that allegorical turn of mind which his writings show him to have possessed. B |