15. Tip cat, or cat, is an ancient English game, thus described in Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes:—The game of cat is played with a cudgel. Its denomination is derived from a piece of wood, about six inches long and two thick, diminished from the middle to form a double cone. When the cat is placed on the ground, the player strikes it smartly—it matters not at which end—and it will rise with a rotatory motion high enough for him to strike it; if he misses, another player takes his place; if he hits, he calls for a number to be scored to his game; if that number is more than as many lengths of his cudgel, he is out; if not, they are scored, and he plays again.—Ed.
16. This wish looks as if Bunyan’s father had not checked him for this wicked propensity; if so, he could not have pretended to piety or religion.—Ed.
17. ‘Tom of Bedlam’; a byword for an inveterate drunkard, alluding to an old interesting song describing the feelings of a poor maniac whose frenzy had been induced by intoxication, and who escaped from Bedlam.
‘Poore naked Tom is very drye
A little drinke for charitye!’
It ends with this verse—
‘The man in the moone drinkes claret,
Eates powder’d beef, turnip, and carret,
But a cup of old Malaga sacke
Will fire the bushe at his backe.’
Probably the tale is connected with the drummer’s tune, ‘Drunk or sober, go to bed Tom.’—Ed.
18. When the Lord, in his blessed work upon the soul, illuminated the mind, he opens to it a new world; he leads the blind by a way that they know not, crooked things become straight, rough places plain, and he never forsakes his charge.—Mason.
19. ‘Their talk went with me; my heart would tarry with them’; nothing is so powerfully attractive as a community of feeling under the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Bunyan’s wish to be ‘tried and searched,’ reminds me of one who, when alarmed for his soul’s safety, earnestly prayed that he might be made increasingly wretched, until he had found safety in Jesus, and knew him, whom to know is joy unspeakable in this life, and felicity in the eternal world.—Ed.
20. That bitter fanatic, Ross, calls the ranters ‘a sort of beasts,’ who practiced sin that grace might abound. Many under that name were openly profligate; they denied the sacraments, but were disowned by the Quakers. It seems, from Bunyan, that they were infatuated with some idea that the grossest sins of the flesh did not injure the sanctity of the spirit!—Ed.