I remember he alleged many a scripture, but those I valued not; the
scriptures, thought I, what are they? A dead letter, a little ink and
paper, of three or four shillings price. Alas! What is the scripture?
Give me a ballad, a news-book, George on horseback, or Bevis of
Southampton; give me some book that teaches curious arts, that tells of
old fables; but for the holy scriptures I cared not.--J. BUNYAN. _Sighs
from Hell._
'THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS'
I know of no book, the Bible excepted, as above all comparison, which I,
according to my judgement and experience, could so safely recommend as
teaching and enforcing the whole saving truth according to the mind that
was in Christ Jesus, as the _Pilgrim's Progress_. It is, in my
conviction, incomparably the best _summa theologiae evangelicae_ ever
produced by a writer not miraculously inspired.
This wonderful work is one of the few books which may be read repeatedly
at different times, and each time with a new and different pleasure. I
read it once as a theologian--and let me assure you that there is great
theological acumen in the work--once with devotional feelings--and once
as a poet. I could not have believed beforehand that Calvinism could be
painted in such exquisitely delightful colours....
The _Pilgrim's Progress_ is composed in the lowest style of English,
without slang or false grammar. If you were to polish it, you would at
once destroy the reality of the vision. For works of imagination should
be written in very plain language; the more imaginative they are the
more necessary it is to be plain.--S. T. COLERIDGE. _Table Talk._