[46] "Rack." Driven violently by the wind-(ED).
[47] We go about the world in the day time, and are absorbed in earthly schemes; the world is as bright as a rainbow, and it bears for us no marks or predictions of the judgment, or of our sins; and conscience is retired, as it were, within a far inner circle of the soul. But when it comes night, and the pall of sleep is drawn over the senses, then conscience comes out solemnly, and walks about in the silent chambers of the soul, and makes her survey and her comments, and sometimes sits down and sternly reads the record of a life that the waking man would never look into, and the catalogue of crimes that are gathering for the judgment. Imagination walks tremblingly behind her, and they pass through the open gate of the Scriptures into the eternal world-for thither all things in man's being naturally and irresistibly tend-and there, imagination draws the judgment, the soul is presented at the bar of God, and the eye of the Judge is on it, and a hand of fire writes, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting!" Our dreams sometimes reveal our character, our sins, our destinies, more clearly than our waking thoughts; for by day the energies of our being are turned into artificial channels, by night our thoughts follow the bent that is most natural to them; and as man is both an immortal and a sinful being, the consequences both of his immortality and his sinfulness will sometimes be made to stand out in overpowering light, when the busy pursuits of day are not able to turn the soul from wandering towards eternity-(Cheever). Bunyan profited much by dreams and visions. "Even in my childhood the Lord did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me with dreadful visions." That is a striking vision of church fellowship in the Grace Abounding, (Nos. 53-56); and an awful dream is narrated in the Greatness of the Soul-"Once I dreamed that I saw two persons, whom I knew, in hell; and methought I saw a continual dropping from Heaven, as of great drops of fire lighting upon them, to their sore distress" (vol. 1, p. 148)-(ED).
[48] Our safety consists in a due proportion of hope and fear. When devoid of hope, we resemble a ship without an anchor; when unrestrained by fear, we are like the same vessel under full sail without ballast. True comfort is the effect of watchfulness, diligence, and circumspection. What lessons could possibly have been selected of greater importance or more suited to establish the new convert, than these are which our author has most ingeniously and agreeably inculcated, under the emblem of the Interpreter's curiosities?-(Scott).
[49] This is an important lesson, that a person may be in Christ and yet have a deep sense of the burden of sin upon the soul-(Cheever). So also Bunyan-"Every height is a difficulty to him that is loaden; with a burden, how shall we attain the Heaven of heavens?"-(Knowledge of Christ's Love).
[50] This efficacious sight of the cross is thus narrated in Grace Abounding, (No. 115)-"Traveling in the country, and musing on the wickedness and blasphemy of my heart, that scripture came in my mind-"Having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Col. 1:20). I saw that day again and again, that God and my soul were friends by His blood; yea, that the justice of God and my soul could embrace and kiss each other. This was a good day to me; I hope I shall not forget it." He was glad and lightsome, and had a merry heart; he was before inspired with hope, but now he is a happy believer-(ED).
[51] None but those who have felt such bliss, can imagine the joy with which this heavenly visitation fills the soul. The Father receives the poor penitent with, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." The Son clothes him with a spotless righteousness. "The prodigal when he returned to his father was clothed with rags; but the best robe is brought out, also the gold ring and the shoes; yea, they are put upon him to his rejoicing" (Come and Welcome, vol. 1, p. 265). The Holy Spirit gives him a certificate; thus described by Bunyan in the House of God—"But bring with thee a certificate, To show thou seest thyself most desolate; Writ by the Master, with repentance seal'd; To show also, that here thou would'st be healed By those fair leaves of that most blessed tree By which alone poor sinners healed be: And that thou dost abhor thee for thy ways, And would'st in holiness spend all thy days; And here be entertained; or thou wilt find To entertain thee here are none inclined!" (Vol. 2, p. 680). Such a certificate, written upon the heart by the Holy Spirit, may be lost for a season, as in the arbour on the hill, but cannot be stolen even by Faith-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt. For the mark in his forehead, see 2 Corinthians 3:2, 3; "not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, known and read of all men"-(ED).
[52] He that has come to Christ, has cast his burden upon Him. By faith he hath seen himself released thereof; but he that is but coming, hath it yet, as to sense and feeling, upon his own shoulders-(Come and Welcome, vol. 1, p. 264).
[53] "Fat"; a vessel in which things are put to be soaked, or to ferment; a vat-(ED).
[54] No sooner has Christian "received Christ" than he at once preaches to the sleeping sinners the great salvation. He stays not for human calls or ordination, but attempts to awaken them to a sense of their danger, and presently exhorts with authority the formalist and hypocrite. So it was in the personal experience of Bunyan; after which, when his brethren discovered his talent, they invited him to preach openly and constantly. Dare anyone find fault with that conduct, which proved so extensively useful?-(ED).
[55] The formalist has only the shell of religion; he is hot for forms because it is all that he has to contend for. The hypocrite is for God and Baal too; he can throw stones with both hands. He carries fire in one hand, and water in the other-(Strait Gate, vol. 1, p. 389). These men range from sect to sect, like wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. They are barren trees; and the axe, whetted by sin and the law, will make deep gashes. Death sends Guilt, his first-born, to bring them to the King of terrors-(Barren Fig-tree).