John Bunyan

“ Barren soul, how many showers of grace, how many dews from heaven, how many times have the silver streams of the city of God run gliding by thy roots, to cause thee to bring forth fruit! These showers and streams, and the drops that hang upon thy boughs, will all be accounted for; and will they not testify against thee that thou oughtest, of right, to be burned? Hear and tremble, O thou barren professor! Fruits that become thy profession of the gospel, the God of heaven expecteth. The gospel hath in it the forgiveness of sins, the kingdom of heaven, and eternal life ”

“ Heaven is a place, also a state, It doth all things excel, No man can fully it relate, Nor of its glory tell. 2. God made it for his residence, To sit on as a throne, Which shows to us the excellence Whereby it may be known. 3. Doubtless the fabric that was built For this so great a king, Must needs surprise thee, if thou wilt But duly mind the thing. 4. If all that build do build to suit The glory of their state, What orator, though most acute, Can fully heaven relate? 5. If palaces that princes build, Which yet are made of clay, Do so amaze when much beheld, Of heaven what shall we say? ”

“ It is the duty of those that can to cry out against this deadly plague, yea, to lift up their voice as with a trumpet against it, that men may be awakened about it, fly from it, as from that which is the greatest of evils. Sin pulled angels out of heaven, pulls men down to hell, and overthroweth kingdoms. Who, that sees a house on fire, will not give the alarm to them that dwell therein? Who, that sees the land invaded, will not set the beacons on a flame. Who, that sees the devils as roaring lions, continually devouring souls, will not make an out-cry? ”

“ Never were kind and seasonable showers more profitable to the tender new-mown grass than will this city at this day be, to the inhabitants of the world; they will come as a blessing from heaven upon them. As the prophet saith, 'The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, as a dew from the Lord; as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men' (Micah 5:7) . O the grace, the light and glory that will strike with spangling beams from this city, as from a sun, into the farthest parts of the world! ”

“ Vanity Fair is the City of Destruction in its gala dress, in its most seductive and sensual allurements. It is this world in miniature, with its various temptations. Hitherto we have observed the pilgrims by themselves, in loneliness, in obscurity, in the hidden life and experience of the people of God. The allegory thus far has been that of the soul, amidst its spiritual enemies, toiling towards Heaven; now there comes a scene more open, tangible, external; the allurements of the world are to be presented, with the manner in which the true pilgrim conducts himself amidst them. ”

“ ATTEN. Fools are mostly most wise in their own eyes.
WISE. True; but I was a saying, that if it be a sign that a man is a fool, when anger rests in his bosom; then what is it a sign of, think you, when malice and envy rests there? For, to my knowledge Mr. Badman was as malicious and as envious a man as commonly you can hear of.
ATTEN. Certainly, malice and envy flow from pride and arrogancy, and they again from ignorance, and ignorance from the devil. And I thought, that since you spake of the pride of Mr. Badman before, we should have something of these before we had done. ”

“ Unto a dreadful burning lake, All on a fiery flame, Hell is compared, for to make All understand the same. 11. A burning lake, a furnace hot, A burning oven, too, Must be the portion, share, and lot, Of those which evil sow. 12. This plainly shows the burning heat With which it will oppress All hearts, and will like burnings eat Their souls with sore distress. 13. This burning lake, it is God's wrath Incensed by the sin Of those who do reject his path, And wicked ways walk in. 14. Which wrath will so perplex all parts Of body and of soul, As if up to the very hearts In burnings they did roll. ”

“ What! dost thou think to run fast enough with the world, thy sins and lusts in thy heart? I tell thee, soul, they that have laid all aside, every weight, every sin, and are got into the nimblest posture, they find work enough to run; so to run as to hold out. To run through all that opposition, all these jostles, all these rubs, over all these stumbling-blocks, over all the snares from all these entanglements, that the devil, sin, the world, and their own hearts, lay before them; I tell thee, if thou art agoing heavenward, thou wilt find it no small or easy matter. ”

“ The prisoners went down all in mourning; they put ropes upon themselves; they went on smiting themselves on the breasts, but durst not lift up their eyes to heaven. Thus they went out at the gate of Mansoul, till they came into the midst of the Prince's army, the sight and glory of which did greatly heighten their affliction. Nor could they now longer forbear, but cry out aloud, O unhappy men! O wretched men of Mansoul! Their chains still mixing their dolorous notes with the cries of the prisoners, made noise more lamentable. ”

“ It is one of the strongest proofs that the human mind is disordered by sin, that man is by nature senseless to the sublime truths of Christianity—the beam, the truth which saves the world from utter moral desolation. What wonders open before the eyes of the young convert, stretching far away into that heavenly and eternal felicity which had been shut out from his vision by the gloom of death! Life and immortality is brought to light. ”

“ Is there a Slough of Despond to be passed, and a hill Difficulty to be overcome? Here the footman is reminded of 'many a dirty step, many a high hill, a long and tedious journey through a vast howling wilderness'; but he is encouraged, 'the land of promise is at the end of the way.' Must the man that would win eternal glory draw his sword, put on his helmet, and fight his way into the temple—the heavenly footman must press, crowd, and thrust through all that stand between heaven and his soul. ”

“ The opinion universally prevails, although the voice of infinite wisdom has declared it false, that miracles, or a messenger from the invisible world could awake the dead in sin. The world's eyes are shut, and its ears are stopped from seeing and hearing that most illustrious celestial messenger of mercy—'God manifest in the flesh'—who still speaks to us in his words. He revealed, and he alone could have revealed, these solemn, these heart-stirring facts—He performed the most astonishing miracles—His doctrines were truth—He required holiness of life to fit the soul for heaven ”

“ Let the sun of this day be set before this work be done, and an everlasting night of darkness will close thee in, wherein thou, thou shalt have time enough indeed to bemoan thy folly, but none to learn to grow wiser. It is a sad thing, especially in soul concernments, to be wise too late, and to cry out when time is past, O that I had improved it when it was present. Then will the remembrance of thy former misspent time, and thy despair of ever gaining more, be like poisoned arrows drinking up they spirit. ”

“ In what glory will they appear? They will be even as a wall of fire round about Jerusalem; and will not be, as now, in the mind and thought of the people as the white of an egg in the mouth, without taste; but shall be, and appear in their own brightness, sweetness, and grace. 'For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty? corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids' (Zech 9:10) . 'In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation ”

“ A river of water of life is much, but a deep river is more. Why, soul-sick sinner, sin-sick sinner, thou that art sick of that disease that nothing can cure but a potion of this river of the water of life, here is a river for thee, a deep river for thee. Those that at first are coming to God by Christ for life, are of nothing so inquisitive as of whether there is grace enough in him to save them. But, for their comfort, here is abundance, abundance of grace, a river, a deep river of the water of life, for them to drink of. ”

“ Imagination walks tremblingly behind her, and they pass through the open gate of the Scriptures into the eternal world-for thither all things in man's being naturally and irresistibly tend-and there, imagination draws the judgment, the soul is presented at the bar of God, and the eye of the Judge is on it, and a hand of fire writes, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting!" ”

“ To say nothing of what a reformation is like to be set up in Mansoul, when the devil is become corrector of vice. Thou knowest that all that thou hast now said in this matter is nothing but guile and deceit; and is, as it was the first, so is it the last card that thou hast to play. Many there be that do soon discern thee when thou showest them thy cloven foot; but in thy white, thy light, and in thy transformation thou art seen but of a few. But thou shalt not do thus with my Mansoul, O Diabolus, for I do still love my Mansoul. ”

“ God brings his lambs and sheep into the fold by such means as are agreeable to his infinite wisdom and grace. Some surrender at the first summons; others hold out during a long and distressing siege. 'God's ways are not our ways.' All our anxious inquiries should be, Is Emmanuel in Heart-castle? is he 'formed in me the hope of glory?' do I live and believe in him who has immutably decreed that 'whosoever'—be he rich or poor, learned or unlearned—if he 'liveth and believeth in me, shall never die?' It matters not, as to my salvation, whether the siege was long or short. ”

“ Doth he entreat you, for fear of you? Do you think that you are stronger than he? Look to the heavens, and behold, and consider the stars, how high are they? Can you stop the sun from running his course, and hinder the moon from giving her light? Can you count the number of the stars, or stay the bottles of heaven? Can you call for the waters of the sea, and cause them to cover the face of the ground? Can you behold every one that he is proud, and abase him, and bind their faces in secret? ”