once thrown down by a shout and the tiny blast of rams'-horns (Josh
6:20); and in this instance, the foundations of Heart Castle,
fortified by Satan, are shaken by the voice of one of his own
emissaries. Mortified and convicted, the foul-mouthed blasphemer
swore no more; an outward reformation in words and conduct took
place, but without inward spiritual life. Thus was he making vows
to God and breaking them, repenting and promising to do better next
time; so, to use his own homely phrase, he was 'feeding God with
chapters, and prayers, and promises, and vows, and a great many
more such dainty dishes, and thinks that he serveth God as well as
any man in England can, while he has only got into a cleaner way
to hell than the rest of his neighbours are in.'[60]

Such a conversion, as he himself calls it, was 'from prodigious
profaneness to something like moral life.'[61] 'Now I was, as they
said, become godly, and their words pleased me well, though as yet
I was nothing but a poor painted hypocrite.' These are hard words,
but, in the most important sense, they were true. He was pointed
out as a miracle of mercy--the great convert--a wonder to the world.
He could now suffer opprobrium and cavils--play with errors--entangle
himself and drink in flattery. No one can suppose that this outward
reform was put on hypocritically, as a disguise to attain some
sinister object; it was real, but it arose from a desire to shine
before his neighbours, from shame and from the fear of future
punishment, and not from that love to God which leads the Christian
to the fear of offending him. It did not arise from a change
of heart; the secret springs of action remained polluted; it was
outside show, and therefore he called himself a painted hypocrite.
He became less a despiser of religion, but more awfully a destroyer
of his own soul.