the Father. But forasmuch as the passage was wonderful narrow, even so narrow, that I could not but with great difficulty enter in thereat, it showed me that none could enter into life but those that were in downright earnest; and unless also they left that wicked world behind them, for here was only room for body and soul, but not for body and soul and sin. ""—P. xix.

Doubts, qualms, fears, returned upon him, notwithstanding the metaphorical assurance which this vision had conveyed to his mind. Whatever wild and wayward shadow streamed across the restless region of his thoughts, was arrested like a suspicious-looking person in a besieged city, brought to account for itself, and treated with an attention which the mere suggestion of casual fancy could hardly deserve. It is perhaps in this sense that the human heart is said in scripture to be abominably wicked, since not only without our will, but in positive opposition to our best exertions, sinful suggestions profane the thoughts of the wisest, and foul emotions sully the heart of the most pure. The wise and well-informed shrink with horror from the phantoms of guilt which thus intrude themselves, and pray to Heaven for strength to enable them to reject such pollution from their thoughts, and for power to fix their attention upon better objects. But the dark dread of his possible exclusion from the pale of the righteous rushed ever and anon with such vivid force on the mind of the unfortunate Bunyan, as to make him accept for fatal arguments against himself, the wildest and most transitory coinage of his own fancy, while, to fill up every pause, he was tortured by the equally terrible suspicion that he was guilty of the most

unpardonable of crimes, as an habitual doubter of the efficacy of divine grace.

"In an evil hour (says Southey) were the doctrines of the Gospel sophisticated with questions which should have been left in the schools for those who are unwise enough to employ them. selves in excogitations of useless subtlety! Many are the poor creatures whom such questions have driven to despair and madness, and suicide; and no one ever more narrowly escaped from such a catastrophe than Bunyan."

In this state of anxiety and agony, the victim of his own ingenuity in self-torment, unable to escape from the idea that he was forsaken of God-that he was predestined to eternal reprobation—that the scriptures, the source of joy and comfort to others, were to him only as a roll like that seen by Ezekiel, full of curses and denunciations of evilJohn Bunyan was at length induced to lay his case open to the teacher of the anabaptist congregation -Gifford by name, a good man, we doubt not, but little qualified to give sound advice to such a mind so tortured. He had been a soldier among the royalists, and a sad profligate, and was now settled down into about as wild an enthusiastic as our tinker himself. He advised his proselyte to receive no religious conviction or calling as indisputable, which had not been confirmed to his individual self by evidence from Heaven!

Bunyan had ere now formed to himself an hypothesis accounting for the blasphemous thoughts which distracted his mind, imputing them, in short, to the immediate suggestion of the devil; and how he clung to it we may discover from one striking passage in Christian's progress through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

"One thing I would not let slip: I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded, that he did not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stepped up softly to him, and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind. This put Christian more to it than any thing that he met with before, even to think that he should now blaspheme him that he loved so much before yet, if he could have helped it, he would not have done it; but he had not the discretion either to stop his ears, or to know from whence these blasphemies came."-P. 83.

Thus furnished with a theory to account for the black suggestions which (as he says) he dared not to utter, either with word or pen, Bunyan was now taught by his mistaken pastor to look for a counterbalance in the equally direct inspirations of Heaven. So strong is the power of the human imagination, that he who seriously expects to see miracles, does not long expect them in vain. He spent hours in debating whether, in the strength of newly adopted faith, he should not command the puddles on the highway to be dry, and the dry places to be wet; and if he shrunk from so presumptuous an experiment, it was only because he had not courage to think of facing the despair which must have ensued, if the sign, which he would fain have demanded, had been refused to his prayer. Mr Southey thus describes his condition, while engaged in balancing the support and comfort which he received from Heaven with the discountenance and criminal suggestions inspired by the enemy of mankind :

"Shaken continually thus by the hot and cold fits of a spiritual ague, his imagination was wrought to a state of excitement in VOL. XVIII.

F

which its own shapings became vivid as realities, and affected him more forcibly than impressions from the external world. He heard sounds as in a dream; and as in a dream held conversa. tions which were inwardly audible, though no sounds were uttered, and had all the connexion and coherency of an actual dialogue. Real they were to him in the impression which they made, and in their lasting effect; and even afterwards, when his soul was at peace, he believed them, in cool and sober reflection, to have been more than natural. Some days he was much followed,' he says, by these words of the Gospel, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you!' He knew that it was a voice from within,—and yet it was so articulately distinct, so loud, and called, as he says, so strongly after him, that once in particular, when the words Simon! Simon! rung in his ears, he verily thought some man had called to him from a distance behind, and though it was not his name, supposed nevertheless that it was addressed to him, and looked round suddenly to see by whom. As this had been the loudest, so it was the last time that the call sounded in his ears; and he imputes it to his ignorance and foolishness at that time, that he knew not the reason of it; for soon, he says, he was feelingly convinced that it was sent from heaven, as an alarm, for him to provide against the coming storm,—a storm which handled him twenty times worse than all he had met with before.'"-P. 25.

The hideous apprehensions of unpardonable crimes committed, and eternal judgment incurred, were from time to time dispelled by texts and promises of scripture, borne in upon the mind of the sufferer with a force so totally irresistible, as, to him at least, had the appearance of undoubted inspiration; and in these violent alternations of mood passed nearly three years of Bunyan's life. He attained at length a more tranquil state of spirit from the practice which he finally adopted, of reading over his Bible with the utmost care and attention, observing how the different passages bore upon and explained each other; and, to use his own expression," with careful heart and watchful eye,

with great fearfulness to turn over every leaf, and with much diligence, mixed with trembling, to consider every sentence with its natural force and latitude." The result of this minute and systematic investigation of the scriptures could not but have had a tranquillizing and composing effect on the mind of a man, whose sum of guilt consisted rather in the involuntary intrusion of wicked thoughts, than in the breaking of any known laws or desertion of any acknowledged duty; for his youthful sins of ignorance had been long ere now renounced. He now looked upon the gospel system with more comprehensive views-" he saw that it was good ;" and although he retained highly enthusiastic opinions concerning the earlier part of his religious career, the same doubts and difficulties do not seem to have disturbed his more advanced or his closing life.

Mr Scott, a former editor of the Pilgrim's Progress, thought it not advisable to dwell upon the fanaticism which characterises the first part of Bunyan's religious life. Mr Southey, on the contrary, is of opinion, that

"His character would be imperfectly understood, and could not be justly appreciated, if this part of his history were kept out of sight. To respect him as he deserves to admire him as he ought to be admired-it is necessary that we should be informed, not only of the coarseness and brutality of his youth, but of the extreme ignorance out of which he worked his way, and the stage of burning enthusiasm through which he passed-a passage not less terrible than that of his own Pilgrim in the Valley of the Shadow of Death."-P. xiv.

We are much of the opinion thus forcibly expressed. The history of a man so distinguished by