BY JOHN BUNYAN, AUTHOR OF THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, AND THE HOLY WAR. PHILADELPHIA: AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 118 ARCH STREET. C 1136.2.10 1852 Feb 27 life of the American Baptist Publication Societ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by the In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, INTRODUCTION. JOHN BUNYAN is preeminently a man of the people. He sprang from, represents, and speaks to, the masses; though destined by his writings to become the teacher of nobles and kings, and nowhere more than in this free land, where every man is at once a citizen and a sovereign. Here, even more than elsewhere, will the poor sympathize with his origin, and the rich with his wrongs, the honest with his upright spirit, and the humane with his long unjust imprisonment, the intelligent with the attractions of his genius, and the pious with the deep struggles of his evangelical experience. No class can doubt his entire sincerity. None can deny his benevolent spirit. All must feel his peculiar and inimitable power. In the notices prefixed to his Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War, volumes previously issued by our Society, perhaps enough has been said on the leading incidents of his Life. The present Introduction will therefore be limited to an outline of his character as a Preacher, and as a Writer. As a PREACHER, probably Bunyan has had few superiors. It is needless to speak of the qualities which made him popular. The effects are sufficient. However loudly Church and State officials might "open upon him," scholars marvelled at his wisdom, and "the common people heard him gladly." Besides the "hundreds from all parts" that flocked to his preaching, in Bedford and other shires, Dr. Southey tells us his reputation was so great in London, "that if a day's |