At another time he
dreamed that he was in a pleasant place, jovial and rioting, banqueting and
feasting his senses, when a mighty earthquake suddenly rent the earth, and made
a wide gap, out of which came bloody flames, and the figures of men tossed up
in globes of fire, and falling down again with horrible cries, shrieks, and
execrations, whilst some devils that were mingled with them, laughed aloud at
their torments; and whilst he stood trembling at this sight, he thought the
earth sunk under him, and a circle of flame enclosed him; but when he fancied
he was just at the point to perish, one in white shining raiment descended, and
plucked him out of that dreadful place; whilst the devils cried after him, to
leave him with them, to take the just punishment his sins had deserved, yet he
escaped the danger and leaped for joy when he awoke and found it was a dream.'
Such dreams as these
fitted him in after life to be the glorious dreamer of the Pilgrim's Progress,
in which a dream is told which doubtless embodies some of those which terrified
him in the night visions of his youth.
In the interpreter's house he is 'led into a chamber where there was one rising out of bed, and as he put on his raiment he shook and trembled. Then said Christian, Why doth this man thus tremble? The Interpreter then bid him tell to Christian the reason of his so doing. So he began and said, This night, as I was in my sleep I dreamed, and behold the heavens grew exceeding black; also it thundered and lightened in most fearful wise, that it put me into an agony. So I looked up in my dream, and saw the clouds rack at an unusual rate, upon which I heard a great sound of a trumpet, and saw also a man sit upon a cloud, attended with the thousands of heaven—they were all in flaming fire; also the heavens were in a burning flame. I heard then a voice saying,
"Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment;"
and with that the rocks rent, the graves opened, and the dead that were therein
came forth. Some of them were exceeding glad, and looked upward; and some
sought to hide themselves under the mountains. Then I saw the man that sat upon
the cloud open the book, and bid the world draw near. Yet there was, by reason
of a fierce flame which issued out and came from before him, a convenient
distance betwixt him and them, as betwixt the judge and prisoners at the bar. I
heard it also proclaimed, "Gather together the tares, the chaff, and
stubble, and cast them into the burning lake"; and with that the
bottomless pit opened just whereabout I stood, out of the mouth of which there
came, in an abundant manner, smoke and coals of fire, with hideous noises. It
was also said, "Gather my wheat into the garner"; and with that, I saw
many caught up and carried away into the clouds, but I was left behind. I also
sought to hide, but I could not, for the man that sat upon the cloud
still kept his eye upon me; my sins also came into my mind, and my conscience
did accuse me on every side. Upon that I awoke from my sleep.'
No laboured
composition could have produced such a dream as this. It flows in such
dream-like order as would lead us to infer, that the author who narrates it
had, when a boy, heard the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew read at church, and
the solemn impression following him at night assisted in producing a dream
which stands, and perhaps will ever stand, unrivaled.
Awful as must have
been these impressions upon his imagination, they were soon thrown off, and the
mad youth rushed on in his desperate career of vice and folly. Is he then left
to fill up the measure of his iniquities? No, the Lord has a great work for him
to do. HIS hand is not shortened that he cannot save. Bunyan has to be prepared
for his work; and if terrors will not stop him, manifested mercies in judgments
are to be tried.
'God did not utterly
leave me, but followed me still, not now with convictions, but judgments; yet
such as were mixed with mercy. For once I fell into a creek of the sea and
hardly escaped drowning. Another time I fell out of a boat into Bedford river,
but mercy yet preserved me alive. Besides, another time, being in the field
with one of my companions, it chanced that an adder passed over the highway, so
I, having a stick in my hand, struck her over the back; and having stunned her,
I forced to open her mouth with my stick, and plucked her sting out with my
fingers; by which act, had not God been merciful unto me, I might by my
desperateness have brought myself to my end.
'This also have I
taken notice of, with thanksgiving. When I was a soldier, I, with others, were
drawn out to go to such a place to besiege it; but when I was just ready to go,
one of the company desired to go in my room, to which, when I had consented, he
took my place; and coming to the siege, as he stood sentinel, he was shot into
the head with a musket bullet, and died.'
