Be not too forward, therefore, to conclude The prophets used much by metaphors Which for its style and phrase puts down all wit, To his poor one I dare adventure ten, That they will take my meaning in these lines Come, truth, although in swaddling clouts, I find, That gold, those pearls, and precious stones that were 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? I. I find not that I am denied the use The Author's Apology. Put on the words, things, readers; or be rude In application; but, all that I may, 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, Hath semblance with this method, where the cases That pulls the strong down, and makes weak ones stand. The man that seeks the everlasting prize; It shows you whence he comes, whither he goes; It also shows you how he runs and runs, Till he unto the gate of glory comes. It shows, too, who set out for life amain, 5 Art thou for something rare and profitable? This book is writ in such a dialect As may the minds of listless men affect : Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains. Wouldst thou divert thyself from melancholy? Dost thou love picking meat? Or wouldst thou see Wouldest read thyself, and read thou knowest not what, By reading the same lines? Oh, then come hither, And lay my book, thy head, and heart together. JOHN BUNYAN. S I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I The Jail. 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 his back (Isa. lxiv. 6; Luke xiv. 33; Ps. xxxviii. 4; Hab. ii. 2; Acts xvi. 31). 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 upon contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, His outery. saying, "What shall I do?" (Acts` ii. 37). 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 This world. He knows no way of escape as yet. dear wife, said he, and you the children of my bowels, I, your dear friend, am in myself 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 fire from heaven, in which fearful overthrow both myself, 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 hardened. They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages to him; sometimes they would deride, Carnal physic sometimes they would chide, and sometimes for a sick soul. 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. Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he |