Works of John Bunyan Volume III Part 164

'Twill also show what is upon it writ, Be it wisely, or nonsense for want of wit, Each blot and blur it also will expose To thy next readers, be they friends or foes.

Comparison.

Some souls are like unto this blank or sheet, Though not in whiteness. The next man they meet, If wise or fool, debauched or deluder, Or what you will, the dangerous intruder May write thereon, to cause that man to err In doctrine or in life, with blot and blur.

Nor will that soul conceal from who observes, But show how foul it is, wherein it swerves.

A reading man may know who was the writer, And, by the h.e.l.lish nonsense, the inditer.

XLIX.

UPON FIRE.

Who falls into the fire shall burn with heat; While those remote scorn from it to retreat.

Yea, while those in it, cry out, O! I burn, Some farther off those cries to laughter turn.

Comparison.

While some tormented are in h.e.l.l for sin; On earth some greatly do delight therein.

Yea, while some make it echo with their cry, Others count it a fable and a lie.[38]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Bunyan's poem in the Holy War.

[2] On the leaf following the t.i.tle to One Thing is Needful, &c., by John Bunyan, 1688. A rare little 32mo, published by the author, in possession of the Editor.

[3] At the end of Grace Abounding, the sixth edition, and also in The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, by Bunyan, 1688.

[4] Advertised in the eighth edition of Solomon's Temple Spiritualized.

[5] In Youth Directed and Instructed--a curious little book for children.

[6] Square 24mo., by Bennet, Gurney, and others, without date.

[7] Sturt engraved the Book of Common Prayer; some French artists elegantly etched two of their devotional books; and Pyne engraved the texts of Horace and Virgil with beautiful vignettes.

[8] Altered to 'huge' in the Emblems, 1724.

[9] A familiar phrase, denoting persons who have been always frivolous and childish, or those who have pa.s.sed into second childhood. 'On the shelf' is a common saying of ladies when they are too old to get married.--Ed.

[10] The name of a bird that mimics gestures.--Ed.

[11] Indelible, as when raw material is dyed before it is wove, every grain receives the dye.--Ed.

[12] For this use of the word 'handle,' see Jeremiah 2:8. 'They that handle the law.'--Ed.

[13] This word, with pismire and emmet, has become obsolete. 'Ant'

is the term now universally used.--Ed.

[14] See Psalm 84:3; Leviticus 11:16; Numbers 20.

[15] A machine used in the manufacture of cloth, on which it is stretched.--Ed.

[16] Spiders being venomous was a vulgar error, universally believed, until modern discoveries have proved the contrary, excepting a few foreign species.--Ed.

[17] This is a scriptural idea of the inhabitants of heaven.

Revelation 11:8, saints 'small and great.' Matthew 19:28: 'The Son of man on his throne, and the twelve apostles on their thrones.'

Revelation 4:10: 'Four and twenty elders on their thrones.'

Revelation 5:11: 'An innumerable company of worshippers.'--Ed.

[18] In an ancient battledore or horn-book, and in one of Henry VIII's primers, both in the editor's possession, this sentence is translated--'And let us not be led into temptation.'--Ed.

[19] When divine light first dawns upon the soul, and reveals sin, O how difficult is it to conclude that sin is pardoned, and the sinner blest!--Ed.

[20] The swallow is remarkably swift in flight; 'their note is a slight twittering, which they seldom if ever exert but upon the wing.'--Goldsmith's Natural History.--Ed.

[21] 'Be in print'; a proverbial expression, to show order and regularity; like type in print.--Ed.

[22] 'Ley'; barren or fallow, uncultivated, generally spelt lea.--Ed.

[23] This riddle is solved in the fourth line following. The light of the fear and love of G.o.d begins in the middle of our bodily frame, with the heart. Bunyan's love of religious riddles is seen in the second part of the Pilgrimage, when Christian is resting at the house of Gaius.--Ed.

[24] Convictions of sin make the soul turn from sin.--Ed.

[25] This character is admirably drawn in the second part of the Pilgrim's Progress--Mr. Brisk, a suitor to Mercy.--Ed.

[26] Preterite of the verb 'to save,' from the Saxon agan, to be held or bound by moral obligation.--Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.

[27] What folly, nay, madness, for man to pretend to make G.o.d of a little flour, or to rely for forgiveness of sin on a wafer, a bit of bread, or a little wine or water. How degraded is he that pretends to believe such palpable absurdities.--Ed.

[28] This is one of Bunyan's keen, shrewd, home thrusts. Clothes professedly made to hide what they studiously display!!--Ed.

[29] Possessed me with, or has given me possession of.--Ed.

[30] Man's sinfulness, by nature and practice, justly, but awfully described.--Mason.

[31] See Proverbs 30:20, and Pilgrim's Progress. There is also a very striking allusion to the subject of this emblem, in Bunyan's Light in Darkness.

[32] He who, in riper years, seeks happiness in sensual gratification, is a child in understanding: he only changes his toys.--Ed.

[33] 'To the one, a savour of death unto death; and to the other, a savour of life unto life' (2 Cor 2:16).

[34] 'Trapan' is the Saxon verb to ensnare, modernized to trap.--Ed.

[35] How agonizing will be the cry of the lost soul--'The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved' (Jer 8:20).--Ed.

Upon the brittle thread of life hang everlasting things.--Mason.

[36] When the Word of G.o.d dwells in us richly in all wisdom, then will the peace of G.o.d rule in our hearts, and we shall be sweetly inclined to every good thought, word, and work.--Ed.