42 Bunyan's familiarity with these illustrious men was obtained by reading Fox's Acts and Monuments, when in prison.—Ed.
43 "Quail"; to overpower. Well might the abettors of Antichrist wonder at the Christian's support under the most cruel tortures. While "looking unto Jesus" and the bright visions of eternal glory, like Stephen, he can pray of his enemies, and tranquilly fall asleep while undergoing the most frightful sufferings.—Ed.
44 "A naked man"; unarmed, or defenceless. "Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies." Shakespeare's Wolsey.—Ed.
45 How impossible is it for a natural man to understand this new creation—a new heart, a new birth. How different is regeneration to water-baptism. How awful the delusion to be mistaken in this, the foundation of all hope of a blessed immortality. "Create in me a clean heart, O God!" How consoling the fact: "Now a creation none can destroy but a Creator!" and "changes not, therefore we are not consumed."—Ed.
46 "O happie he who doth possesse
Christ for his fellow-prisoner, who doth gladde
With heavenly sunbeames jails that are most sad."
Written on the prison walls of the Tower of London by William
Prynne.—Ed.
47 "Sore temptations" poor Bunyan found them. When dragged from his home to prison, he speaks of his poor blind daughter in language of impassioned solicitude: "Poor child, thought I, what sorrow art thou like to have for thy portion in this world! Thou must be beaten, must beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities, though I cannot now endure the wind shall blow upon thee! Oh! the hardships I thought my blind one might go under would break my heart to pieces."—"The parting with my wife and poor children hath oft been to me in this place as the pulling my flesh from my bones."—Grace Abounding, 327, 328.—Ed.
48 "Thodes"; whirlwinds. This word does not occur in any English dictionary or glossary. It gave me much trouble, and a walk of seven miles, to discover its meaning. It is the Saxon for noise, whirlwind, turbulence. This provincial word was probably derived from some Saxon tribe that settled in Bedfordshire.—Ed.
49 "To shuck"; to shake violently—from which is the noun, "a pea-shuck," the shell from which peas have been shaken.—Ed.
50 How correct, but how dismal a picture is here drawn of the persecutor! God has wise and holy ends in protecting and prolonging the lives even of very wicked men. "Slay them not, lest my people forget; scatter them by thy power." Compare Ecclessiastes 8:10. Pity the persecutor—pray for him; but if he repent not, stand off; "God will have his full blow at him in his time," and crush him down into misery and despair.—Ed.
51 Like a multitude of passages in Bunyan's writings, this passage is exceedingly striking. It illustrates our Lord's words in Matthew 5:44,45: "Love your enemies—that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."—Ed.