[17] So dress as to pass without being noticed; neither precise nor formal, slovenly nor dandyish; dress like a man or woman. Conduct yourself as one that fears God.—Ed.
[18] The head having been crowned with thorns, it is unsuitable that the feet should tread on rose leaves.—Mason.
[19] How very striking is this expression. O! that it may assist in riveting upon our souls a vivid remembrance of the Saviour’s sufferings.—Ed.
[20] Some Pharisees, falsely called by the Romish churches ‘saints,’ have claimed merit from associating with dirt and filth, and vermin, beggars, and vagabonds, upon dunghills, to show their contempt of the world! All this was to gain the applause of the world. God’s saints will associate with the salt of the earth, with God’s fearers, who whether rich or poor, are equally despised by the world.—Ed.
[21] Reader, do not mistake this to mean a piece of wood shaped as a cross. It means cherish, love, be conformed to the conduct or image of Christ, follow him in reproaches and revilings, and count it your honour to suffer for his sake. ‘Kiss it,’ has the same meaning as the words of the Psalmist, ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish.’ It is the soul mentally kissing the Saviour, and not a bit of wood, which would then be an idol, inflicting the deep guilt of idolatry.—Ed.
[22] Upon the opening of the sixth seal in the book of Revelation, there was ‘a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon as blood.’ A preternatural and awful darkness broods over nature, preparatory to its final dissolution. Thus Satan darkens the things above to the natural man, so that he cannot discern spiritual things, while those of time and sense are magnified and multiplied in his estimation.—Ed.
[23] This refers to the phylacteries worn by every Jew while in his daily prayers. These are long strips of leather, having small boxes containing the law minutely written in Hebrew, worn upon the forehead and wrist, and bound round the fingers. A custom founded on Exodus 13:9, 16; Proverbs 7:3. That the Divine law should direct the head and fingers, as representing the mind and conduct, so would Bunyan have all Christians carry, at all times, in the mind and conduct, the riches and righteousness of Christ.—Ed.
[24] There are no idlers in God’s Israel, every one has his appointed work to fulfil against his appointed day. Christian, watch against idleness.
‘For Satan has some mischief still
For idle hands to do.’—Ed.
[25] Godliness, saith Paul, has the ‘promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’ This should be more dwelt upon by our ministers, as Bunyan sets the example. The mind of a Christian has the richest enjoyments, however his body may be persecuted, for over that only the enemy has power. A prison may be the gate of heaven. With God as our Father, a wall of fire round about, and the glory in our midst, ‘what can we want beside?’—Ed.