Works of John Bunyan Volume III Part 136

[29] The remorse and stings of conscience seducers will feel in the next life, for being the instruments of so much wickedness and desolation in others, will prove to them a thousand h.e.l.ls.--Mason.

[30] UnG.o.dly, Christless, prayerless families are little h.e.l.ls--filthy fountains, whose waters cast up mire and dirt; they are the blind and willing captives of sin and Satan, going down to the chambers of death and endless despair.--Ed.

[31] 'In grain,' material dyed before it is manufactured, so that every grain receives the colour, which becomes indelible.--Ed.

[32] By 'a piece of money' is here meant two hundred pounds. It probably means a portion or piece of his fortune.--Ed.

[33] From the Anglo-Saxon 'Eggian,' to incite, urge.--Ed.

[34] The Genevan or Puritan version of this pa.s.sage is very striking: 'he that feedeth the gluttons, shameth his father.'--Ed.

[35] This is one of the numerous pa.s.sages of Holy Writ which are more expressive without than with the words supplied in italics: women are not exempt from the 'rags' which must ever follow drowsiness.--Ed.

[36] 'Glout,' to pout or look sulky; obsolete.--Ed.

[37] This is one of the hardest lessons a disciple has to learn in the school of Christ; not to hate the sinner, but the sin; especially under circ.u.mstances of such cruel deception.--Ed.

[38] Mixed, impure.

''Tis true, the cause is in the lurch Between the right and mongrel church.'--Hudibras.--Ed.

[39] Such were the sound reasons which animated the martyrs to resist unjust human laws, interfering with or directing the mode of divine wors.h.i.+p; and such are the reasons which prevent conformity to national religions, to the payment of church rates, and similar unG.o.dly impositions.--Ed.

[40] The Quakers braved the storm, met in public, and appeared to court persecution. Not so the Baptists; they met in woods and caves, and with such secrecy that it was not possible to detect them, unless by an informer. William Penn taunted them in these words: 'they resolve to keep their old haunt of creeping into garrets, cheese-lofts, coalholes, and such like nice walks.' And so would I, rather than be disturbed by constables.--Ed.

[41] Sink them is an unusual kind of oath, wis.h.i.+ng that body or mind might be depressed. Shakespeare uses the word in reference to mental suffering: 'If I have a conscience, let it sink me.'--Ed.

[42] Noddy, a simpleton; see Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.

[43] Fraudulent bankruptcy is a sore and prevailing evil. It is thieving under the protection of the law. How many live in state, until their creditors get a few s.h.i.+llings in the pound, and the bankrupt gets the curse of G.o.d upon his soul!--Ed.

[44] Quean, a s.l.u.t, a strumpet; see Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.

[45] Witness the shepherd boy's song in the Pilgrim:--

He that is down need fear no fall, He that is low, no pride; He that is humble ever shall Have G.o.d to be his guide.

This poor boy, in his very mean clothes, carried more heart's ease in his bosom, than he that was clad in silk and velvet.--Ed.

[46] For this use of the word lap, see Proverbs 16:33.--Ed.

[47] In the reign of Edward II, the price of provisions was regulated by Act of Parliament. Twenty-four eggs were ordered to be sold for one penny, but the penny of that period contained as much silver as the threepenny piece of Bunyan's, and of our time.

I have bought, within the last forty years, the finest eggs at four a penny in Normandy.--Ed.

[48] 'Slither,' slippery, deceitful; obsolete, except in Lincolns.h.i.+re.--Ed.

[49] Purses were worn, in Bunyan's time, hanging to the girdle, or slung over the shoulder, as they now are in some parts of Germany.

A pickpocket was then called 'a cut-purse.'--Ed.

[50] Many ecclesiastical instruments of terror, spoliation, and death, began with, 'In the name of G.o.d. Amen.' That sacred name has been, and now is, awfully profaned and prost.i.tuted to the vilest purposes.--Ed.

[51] This is a sad mistake; such getting is a curse: 'Cursed is the deceiver': 'I will curse your blessings,' saith Jehovah by his prophet Malachi.--Ed.

[52] Modern editors, not so well aware as Bunyan of the value of tar as a medicine for sheep, altered the word to s.h.i.+p. A halfpenny worth of tar will serve a sheep, but not a s.h.i.+p.--Ed.

[53] This was attempted when Bunyan was released from his cruel imprisonment by the King's pardon, which one instrument included the names of nearly five hundred suffers; and because the fees upon a pardon were twenty pounds, 'the covetous clerks did strive to exact upon us,' says Whitehead, 'by demanding that sum upon every name.' Further application to the King put an end to this exaction.--Ed.

[54] When the labourer's wages were eightpence or tenpence per day, in 1683, wheat averaged forty-five s.h.i.+llings per quarter.

How comparatively happy is the present state of our agricultural labourers; and so would be that of the farmer, if rent was as low now as it was at that period.--Ed.

[55] To lie at catch, to watch for an opportunity to take an unfair advantage. See the conversation between Faithful and Talkative in the Pilgrim's Progress.--Ed.

[56] Augustine had so strong a sense of fair dealing, that when a bookseller asked for a book far less than it was worth, he, of his own accord, gave him the full value thereof!! See Clark's Looking-gla.s.s, edit. 1657.--Ed.

[57] 'Fondness,' an inordinate desire to possess. 'I have such a fond fantasy of my own.'--Sir. T. More.--Ed.

[58] Cheating, either in quality, weight, or price of commodities, is not common in Mahometan countries, where the punishment is very severe; that of nailing the dealer's ears to his door-posts. It is a foul disgrace to Christian countries that these crimes are so common.--Ed.

[59] Malapert, dexterous in evil-speaking. 'It is blasphemous to say that G.o.d will not hear us for our presumptuous malapertness unless we invoke the saints.'--Tyndale.

[60] This is a phrase in heraldry to signify that the armorial bearings are marked with some sign of disgrace. Thus John de Aveones having reviled his mother in the King's presence, he ordered that the tongue and claw of the lion which he bore in his arms should be defaced. In many cases a baton is inserted as a mark of illegitimacy.--Ed.

[61] From a fine Persian drawing in the editor's cabinet, it appears that the nose jewel lies on the right cheek, and is fixed by a ring cut through to form a spring; one edge of the cut going inside, and the other meeting outside the nostril, so as to be readily removed as occasion required.--Ed.

[62] An attempt at something new, a foolish innovation, generally used with the word new; as, 'In holiday gown, and my new fangled hat.'--Cunningham.--Ed.

[63] A tuft of hair worn on a man's forehead, or a projecting conspicuous part of the women's caps worn by the fas.h.i.+onables of that time.--Ed.

[64] No one, except he has blown a ram's horn, or attended the Jewish ceremony of the New-year, Tizri 1 (Sept.), can imagine the miserable sounding of a ram's horn. Bunyan, with all his powers and popularity, was, to an extraordinarily degree, 'a humble man.'--Ed.

[65] A professor of Christianity who indulges in sin, is the worst of Atheists. Such conduct is practical hypocrisy and Atheism.--Ed.

[66] The general opinion, to a late period, was, that the frog or toad was poisonous. Bartolomeus calls the frog 'venomous,' and that in proportion to the number of his spots. Bunyan, who was far in advance of his age, throws a doubt upon it, by the words 'as we say.'--Ed.

[67] Outward reformation without inward grace is like was.h.i.+ng a sow, which you may make clean, but never can make cleanly; it will soon return to the mire, and delight in filth more than ever.--Mason.

[68] Mr. Clark relates this singular story on the authority of 'Disci de Temp.' The writers in the Middle Ages are full of such narrations; see especially the first English book of homilies called The Festival.--Ed.

[69] Clark's authority for this account is Beard's Theatre of G.o.d's Judgments.--Ed.

[70] See the account of an Atheist in his pride in Pilgrim's Progress and notes.

[71] To let, prevent, or hinder. See Isaiah 43:13.--Ed.

[72] Terms of endearment: thus Shakespeare, in Henry IV, represents the hostess calling her maid, Doll Tear-sheet, sweet-heart. It is now more restricted to lovers while courting.--Ed.