32. As this is Satan's temptation in the time of poverty, so the time of prosperity is equally dangerous—the love of gain, when it possesses the soul, is insatiable. Satan whispers into the ear, and the heart too readily entertains the wicked thought—'Get money; if you cannot do it honestly, still get money.' The most contemptible meannesses have been practised by the wealthy. O beware of that ruinous idolatry, covetousness.—Ed.
33. Query, is this that part of a Christian's experience referred to in the Pilgrim's Progress, the second part of the Valley of the Shadow of Death?—Ed.
34. No man could speak more experimentally on the pain inflicted by slander, although utterly unfounded, than John Bunyan. So eminent a man became a mark for Satan and his emissaries to shoot at. He was charged with witchcraft, called a highwayman, and every slander that malice could invent was heaped upon him. His remedy, his consolation, was the throne of grace—a specific that never did, nor ever will fail.—Ed.
35. The late Rev. John Newton, who lived to a good old age, in his latter days used to tell his friends—'I am like a parcel, packed up and directed, only waiting the carrier to take me to my destination'; blessed tranquility under such solemn circumstances.—Ed.
36. This is illustrated by the account of Hopeful's experience in the Pilgrim's Progress; he says, 'If I look narrowly into the best of what I do now, I still see sin, new sin, mixing itself with the best of that I do; so that now I am forced to conclude, that, notwithstanding my former fond conceits of myself and duties, I have committed sin enough IN ONE DUTY to send me to hell, though my former life had been faultless.'—Ed.
37. Grace, mercy, peace, justification, sanctification, and glorification, all flow from Christ the propitiatory sacrifice, in whom, as his beloved, the Father accepts us graciously, and loves us freely.—Mason.
38. Spiritual strength, like bodily food, must be renewed day by day. The necessity of daily food for our bodies should remind us of that bread that cometh down from heaven, and that water of life which, as a river, maketh glad the city of our God. 'As oft as ye do this,' eat and drink, 'ye do show the Lord's death.' O that such a recollection may have an abiding influence upon our souls!—Ed.
39. In those days travellers did well to advance as far in a day as we now do in an hour. To make a country tour, required then the same precautions, as to supplies, as it now does to make the grand tour of Europe. To have carried coin would have been a great encumbrance, as well as risk from robbers. How accurately Bunyan knew the mode used in such cases to secure supplies, and with what beautiful simplicity it is spiritualized.—Ed.
40. How truly and solemnly is the downward road of a sinner here portrayed. 1. Drawn aside by lust. 2. A lie to conceal his wicked folly. 3. Intoxication, to drown his convictions and harden his conscience. 4. The consequent ruin of his worldly prospects; and, 5. A vain effort by fraud to keep up his credit!!!—Ed.
41. It was in Bunyan's time the universally received opinion that Satan appeared in the shape of animals to allure poor wretches into sin—Shakespeare, Judge Hale, Cotton Mather, Baxter, with all our eminent men, believed in these supernatural appearances.—Ed.