By John Bunyan, in Prison, 1665
PRISON MEDIATIONS
PRISON MEDIATIONS
1.
Friend, I salute thee in the Lord,
And wish thou may'st abound
In faith, and have a good regard
To keep on holy ground.
2.
Thou dost encourage me to hold
My head above the flood,
Thy counsel better is than gold,
In need thereof I stood.
3.
Good counsel's good at any time,
The wise will it receive,
Though fools count he commits a crime
Who doth good counsel give.
4.
I take it kindly at thy hand
Thou didst unto me write,
My feet upon Mount Zion stand,
In that take thou delight.
5.
I am, indeed, in prison now
In body, but my mind
Is free to study Christ, and how
Unto me he is kind.
6.
For though men keep my outward man
Within their locks and bars,
Yet by the faith of Christ I can
Mount higher than the stars.
7.
Their fetters cannot spirits tame,
Nor tie up God from me;
My faith and hope they cannot lame,
Above them I shall be.
8.
I here am very much refreshed
To think when I was out,
I preached life, and peace, and rest
To sinners round about.
9.
My business then was souls to save,
By preaching grace and faith;
Of which the comfort now I have,
And have it shall till death.
10.
They were no fables that I taught,
Devised by cunning men,
But God's own Word, by which were caught
Some sinners now and then.
11.
Whose souls by it were made to see
The evil of their sin;
And need of Christ to make them free
From death which they were in.
12.
And now those very hearts that then
Were foes unto the Lord,
Embrace his Christ and truth, like men
Conquered by his word.
13.
I hear them sigh and groan, and cry
For grace, to God above;
They loathe their sin, and to it die,
'Tis holiness they love.
14.
This was the work I was about
When hands on me they laid,
'Twas this from which they pluck'd me out,
And vilely to me said,
15.
You heretic, deceiver, come,
To prison you must go;
You preach abroad, and keep not home,
You are the church's foe.
16.
But having peace within my soul,
And truth on every side,
I could with comfort them control,
And at their charge deride.
17.
Wherefore to prison they me sent,
Where to this day I lie,
And can with very much content
For my profession die.
18.
The prison very sweet to me
Hath been since I came here,
And so would also hanging be,
If God would there appear.
19.
Here dwells good conscience, also peace
Here be my garments white;
Here, though in bonds, I have release
From guilt, which else would bite.
20.
When they do talk of banishment,
Of death, or such-like things;
Then to me God sends heart's content,
That like a fountain springs.
21.
Alas! they little think what peace
They help me to, for by
Their rage my comforts do increase;
Bless God therefore do I.
22.
If they do give me gall to drink,
Then God doth sweetn'ning cast
So much thereto, that they can't think
How bravely it doth taste.
23.
For, as the devil sets before
Me heaviness and grief,
So God sets Christ and grace much more,
Whereby I take relief.
24.
Though they say then that we are fools
Because we here do lie,
I answer, goals are Christ his schools,
In them we learn to die.
25.
'Tis not the baseness of this state
Doth hide us from God's face,
He frequently, both soon and late,
Doth visit us with grace.
26.
Here come the angels, here come saints,
Here comes the Spirit of God,
To comfort us in our restraints
Under the wicked's rod.
27.
God sometimes visits prisons more
Than lordly palaces,
He often knocketh at our door,
When he their houses miss.
28.
The truth and life of heavenly things
Lift up our hearts on high,
And carry us on eagles' wings,
Beyond carnality.
29.
It take away those clogs that hold
The hearts of other men,
And makes us lively, strong and bold
Thus to oppose their sin.
30.
By which means God doth frustrate
That which our foes expect;
Namely, our turning th' Apostate,
Like those of Judas' sect.
31.
Here comes to our rememberance
The troubles good men had
Of old, and for our furtherance,
Their joys when they were sad.
32.
To them that here for evil lie
The place is comfortless,
But not to me, because that I
Lie here for righteousness.
33.
The truth and I were both here cast
Together, and we do
Lie arm in arm, and so hold fast
Each other; this is true.
34.
This goal to us is as a hill,
From whence we plainly see
Beyond this world, and take our fill
Of things that lasting be.
35.
From hence we see the emptiness
Of all this world contains;
And here we feel the blessedness
That for us yet remains.
36.
Here we can see how all men play
Their parts, as on a stage,
How good men suffer for God's way,
And bad men at them rage.
37.
Here we can see who holds that ground
Which they in Scripture find;
Here we see also who turns round
Like weathercocks with wind.
38.
We can also from hence behold
How seeming friends appear
But hypocrites, as we are told
In Scripture every where.
39. When we did walk at
liberty,
We were deceiv'd by them,
Who we from hence do clearly see
Are vile deceitful men.
