12 In Ireland, whole provinces were desolated, both by Protestants and Papists, with a ferocity scarcely credible. In England, the state awfully tormented its pious Christian subjects, to whom their Lord's words must have been peculiarly consoling: "Fear not them which kill the body." Did they suffer? How holy were their enjoyments!—Ed.
13 An awful instance occurred soon after the publication of this "Advice." John Child, a Baptist minister, one of Bunyan's friends, to escape persecution, conformed, and became terrified with awful compunction of conscience. His cries were fearful: "I shall go to hell"; "I am broken in judgment"; "I am as it were in a flame." In a fit of desperation he destroyed himself on the 15th October, 1684.—Ed.
14 "What bottom"; what ground or foundation.—Ed.
15 This identical stone is said to be in the chair on which our monarchs are crowned in Westminster Abbey.—Ed.
16 In so unbounded, eternal and magnificent a mansion, well might he exclaim, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Where God meets us with his special presence, we ought to meet him with the most humble reverence; remembering his justice and holiness, and our own meanness and vileness.—Ed.
17 The only way of driving sin out of the world is to make known the Saviour. Reader, can you solve Mr. Bunyan's riddle? When fierce persecution rages—when the saints are tormented with burning, hanging, and imprisonment—then, like Stephen, to fix our eyes upon Jesus, and the gates of heaven open to receive us, submitting with patience to the will of God. This is the way to drive out sin.—Ed.
18 How indescribably blessed is the Christian. It is true that he has to perform his pilgrimage through an enemy's country, beset with snares, pit-falls, and temptations; but in all his buffetings and storms of sorrow, his soul is safe; God is a wall of fire round about it, and the glory in the midst of it. He will guide us by his counsel, and then receive us to his glory.—Ed.
19 "Looser sort of Christians"; among Christians there are gradations of character. Some are fixed upon the Saviour, and can say, "For me to live is Christ." Such decision ensures safety and happiness; while the looser sort are subject to many sorrows and continual danger. May we press on towards the mark. "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief."—Ed.
20 This truth ought to be imprinted on every heart. As the absence of darkness is light, so liberty from the thraldom of sin, and from the slavery of Satan, essentially induces holiness of life. Thus holiness and liberty are joined together.—Ed.
21 The whole of this beautiful passage is worthy our careful study and prayerful obedience. Are we ambitious to govern: be it our honour to rule our own spirits and tongues. Are we for war? let it be levied upon our unruly passions. This is laudable ambition. This is honourable war, producing the peace and happiness of man. This is real glory to God and man, the very opposite to those horrors of desolation which gives joy among the devils of hell—the burning cities, the garments rolled in blood, the shrieks of the wounded, and the sickening miseries of the widows and orphans of the slain.—Ed.