prudence thus to start the question: for that the elect only obtained
eternal life; that I without scruple did heartily close withal;
but that myself was one of them, there lay all the question.'[81]

Thus was he for many weeks oppressed and cast down, and near
to 'giving up the ghost of all his hopes of ever attaining life,'
when a sentence fell with weight upon his spirit--'Look at the
generations of old and see; did ever any trust in the Lord and was
confounded' (Ecclesiasticus 2:10). This encouraged him to a diligent
search from Genesis to Revelation, which lasted for above a year,
and although he could not find that sentence, yet he was amply
rewarded for this diligent examination of the Holy Oracles, and
thus he obtained 'yet more experience of the love and kindness of
God.' At length he found it in the Apocrypha, and, although not the
language of inspiration, yet as it contained the sum and substance
of the promises, he took the comfort of it, and it shone before his
face for years. The fear that the day of grace had passed pressed
heavily upon him; he was humbled, and bemoaned the time that he
had wasted. Now he was confronted with that 'grim-faced one, the
Captain Past-hope, with his terrible standard,' carried by Ensign
Despair, red colours, with a hot iron and a hard heart, and
exhibited at Eye-gate.[82] At length these words broke in upon his
mind, 'compel them to come in, that my house may be filled--and yet
there is room.' This Scripture powerfully affected him with hope,
that there was room in the bosom and in the house of Jesus for his
afflicted soul.

His next temptation was to return to the world. This was that
terrible battle with Apollyon, depicted in the Pilgrim's Progress,
and it is also described at some length in the Jerusalem Sinner