celestial city; or like Adam the first, who offered Faithful his
three daughters to wife[71]--the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life--if he would dwell with him in the
town of Deceit. 'These temptations,' he says, 'were suitable to my
flesh,'[72] I being but a young man, and my nature in its prime;
and, with his characteristic humility, he adds, 'God, who had, as
I hope, designed me for better things, kept me in the fear of his
name, and did not suffer me to accept such cursed principles.' Prayer
opened the door of escape; it led him to the fountain of truth.
'I began to look into the Bible with new eyes. Prayer preserved me
from Ranting errors. The Bible was precious to me in those days.'[73]
His study of the Holy Oracles now became a daily habit, and that
with intense earnestness and prayer. In the mist of the multitude
of sects with which he was on all sides surrounded, he felt the
need of a standard for the opinions which were each of them eagerly
followed by votaries, who proclaimed them to be THE TRUTH, the
way, and the life. He was like a man, feeling that if he erred
in the way, it would be attended with misery, and, but for Divine
interference, with unutterable ruin--possessed of a correct map,
but surrounded with those who, by flattery, or threats, or deceit,
and armed with all human eloquence, strove to mislead him. With an
enemy within to urge him to accept their wily guidance, that they
might lead him to perdition--inspired by Divine grace, like Christian
in his Pilgrim, he 'put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying
Life, life, eternal life.' He felt utter dependence upon Divine
guidance, leading him to most earnest prayer, and an implicit obedience
to Holy Writ, which followed him all through the remainder of his
pilgrimage. 'The Bible' he calls 'the scaffold, or stage, that
God has builded for hope to play his part upon in this world.'[74]
Hence the Word was precious in his eyes; and with so immense