could be applied to Titus Oates or Mrs Brownrigg. It is quite
certain that Bunyan was, at eighteen, what, in any but the most
austerely puritanical circles, would have been considered as a
young man of singular gravity and innocence. Indeed, it may be
remarked that he, like many other penitents who, in general
terms, acknowledged themselves to have been the worst of mankind,
fired up and stood vigorously on his defence, whenever any
particular charge was brought against him by others. He
declares, it is true, that he had let loose the reins on the neck
of his lusts, that he had delighted in all transgressions against
the divine law, and that he had been the ringleader of the youth
of Elstow in all manner of vice. But, when those who wished him
ill accused him of licentious amours, he called on God and the
angels to attest his purity. No woman, he said, in heaven,
earth, or hell, could charge him with having ever made any
improper advances to her. Not only had he been strictly faithful
to his wife; but he had even before his marriage, been perfectly
spotless. It does not appear from his own confessions, or from
the railings of his enemies, that he ever was drunk in his life.
One bad habit he contracted, that of using profane language; but
he tells us that a single reproof cured him so effectually that
he never offended again. The worst that can be laid to the
charge of this poor youth, whom it has been the fashion to
represent as the most desperate of reprobates, as a village
Rochester, is that he had a great liking for some diversions,
quite harmless in themselves, but condemned by the rigid
precisians among whom he lived, and for whose opinion he had a
great respect. The four chief sins of which he was guilty were
dancing, ringing the bells of the parish church, playing at
tipcat, and reading the history of Sir Bevis of Southampton. A