Pleases the Understanding, makes the Will
Submit; The Memory too it doth fill
With what doth our Imaginations please;
Likewise, it tends our Troubles to appease.
Sound words I know Timothy is to use,
And old Wives Fables he is to refuse;
But yet grave Paul him no where did forbid
The use of Parables: in which lay hid

That gold, those pearls, and precious stones that were
Worth digging for, and that with greatest care.
Let me add one word more, O Man of God:
Art thou offended? Dost thou wish I had
Put forth my Matter in another dress,
Or that I had in things been more express?
To those that are my betters, (as is fit)
Three things let me propound, then I submit.
I. I find not that I am deny'd the use
Of this my Method, so I none abuse.
Put on the Words, Things, Readers, or be rude
In handling Figure or Similitude,

In application; but all that I may,

Seek the advance of Truth, this or that way:
Denyed, did I say? Nay, I have leave,
(Examples too, and that from them that have
God better pleased by their Words or Ways,
Than any Man that breatheth now adays)
Thus to express my mind, thus to declare
Things unto thee that Excellentest are.

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
To that intent; but yet let Truth be free
To make her Sallys upon Thee, and Me,
Which way it pleases God: for who knows how,
Better than he that taught us first to Plow,
To Guide our Mind 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
Truths 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 shew the profit of my Book, and then
Commit both thee 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 shews you whence he comes, whither he goes;
What he leaves undone; also what he does:
It also shews you how he runs, and runs,
Till be unto the Gate of Glory comes.

It shews too, who sets out for Life amain,
As if the lasting Crown they would attain:
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 directions understand:
Yea, it will make the slothful active be
The blind also delightful things to see.
Art thou for something rare, and profitable?
Wouldest thou see a Truth within a Fable?
Art thou forgetful? wouldest thou remember
From New-years day to the last of December?
Then read my Fancies, they will stick like Burrs,
And maybe to the helpless Comforters.

This Book is writ in such a Dialect,
As may the minds of listless Men affect:
It seems a Novelty, and yet contains
Nothing but sound and honest Gospel strains.
Wouldst thou divert thy self 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'th' 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?
Wouldst thou lose thy self, and catch no harm?
And find thy self again without a charm?
Wouldst read thy self, and read thou knowest 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.

As!

THE

Pilgrim's Progress:

In the Similitude of a

DREAM.

S I walked through the Wilderness of this World, I lighted on a certain Place where was a *Den: and I *The Goal. laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a Man cloathed 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, 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

+ Isa. 64. 6. Luke 14. 33. Ps. 38. 4. Hab. 2. 2. Acts 16. 31.

His Out-cry.

* Acts 2. 27.

with a lamentable Cry, saying,* What shall I do? In this plight therefore he went home, and refrained 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 my self undone, by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me: moreover I am for certain informed, that this our City will be burned with *This World. Fire from Heaven, in which fearful overthrow, both

d;

He knows no way of escape as yet.

my self, with thee my Wife, and you my sweet Babes, shall miserably come to ruin; except (the which yet I see not) some way of 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 hardned. They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages 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.

* Carnal Physick 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 this Book, and greatly distressed in his Mind; and as he read he burst out, as he had done before, crying, *What shall I do to be Acts 16. 30,

saved?

#

31.

I saw also that he looked this way, and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because (as I perceived) he could not tell which way to go, I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist, coming to him, and asked, Wherefore dost thou cry? He answered, Sir, I perceive by the Book, in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to Judgment, and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor table to do the second.

*

22.

Heb. 9. 27.
Job 26. 21,

+ Exod. 22.

14.

Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die; since this Life is attended with so many Evils? The Man answered, because I fear that this burden that is upon my back, will sink me lower than the Grave; and I