1. How awful the thought that persons should sit under so faithful and searching a ministry, and still remain in their sins. Is it so to the present day under a faithful ministry? then, Oh my soul, how is it with thee?—Ed.
2. A painful recollection of his long and cruel imprisonment for conscience sake led Bunyan to feel the value of liberty. Still he forcibly appeals to his reader on the necessity of private judgment in divine things. His twelve years' converse with God and his word in prison had confirmed his principles; while divine love had swallowed up the fear of man.—Ed.
3. Faith is the only principle that, by the power of the Holy Ghost, can purify the heart. It leads the soul into holy communion with a pure and holy God, and thus cleanses the heart.—Ed.
4. All mankind, as born into the world, show, as soon as the mental powers open, aversion to God, to his purity, his law, his gospel; the doctrines of grace and the work of the Spirit upon the heart. A solemn proof of the universal taint given by original sin.—Ed.
5. By the word 'public' is to be understood a federal head, or the representative of all his posterity. Adam's faith can only save his own soul; his sin taints all his seed.—Ed.
6. A state of hostility to God plunges the soul into mental darkness, rage, horror, anguish, despair, and endless and unutterable misery and woe. How ought we to love the Lord Jesus for his GREAT salvation!—Ed.
7. It is a very modern custom to have the place of execution within a city—formerly they were always without—their position being still noted by the name 'Gallow Knowe,' the knoll or mound of the gallows; 'Gallowgate,' the gate or way leading to the gallows; and so on. Happily for the well-being of society, these exhibitions are less frequent than they formerly were.
8. 'That servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes' (Luke 12:47)—Ed.
9. Which is the greatest sinner; he who invents scandal, or he who encourages the inventor to retail it? If there were no receivers, there would be no thieves.—Ed.
10. The terms in which this question is put, shows that the little children here intended were capable of repentance and faith. That Bunyan believed, as Toplady did, the salvation of all that die in infancy by the atonement of Christ, there can be no doubt. 'In my remarks on Dr. Rowell, I testified my firm belief that the souls of all departed infants are with God in glory.' See the Introduction to Toplady's Historic Proof.—Ed.