John Bunyan (1628 – 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher. At sixteen years of age he joined the Parliamentary Army to fight in the English Civil War. Three years later he returned to his home in Elstow and worked as a tinker. He soon became interested in religion and, at the request of others, began preaching. Following the restoration of the monarch, Bunyan and many other nonconformist preachers were arrested. His imprisonment lasted twelve years because of his refusal to stop preaching. During this time he wrote Grace Abounding and began working on the most famous of his numerous writings, The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Quotes by John Bunyan…
There is an endless Kingdom to be inhabited.
Some sleep when they should keep awake, and some forget when they should remember. And this is the very cause why often at the resting-places some pilgrims, in some things, come off losers. Pilgrims should watch, and remember what they have already received.
There are, by the direction of the Lawgiver, certain good and substantial steps, placed even through the very midst of this Slough… these steps are hardly seen… notwithstanding, the steps be there; but the ground is good when they are once got in at the Gate.
Here a man shall be free from the noise and from the hurryings of this life: all states are full of noise and confusion; only the Valley of Humiliation is that empty and solitary place. Here a man shall not be so let and hindered in his contemplation as in other places he is apt to be. This is a valley that nobody walks in but those that love a pilgrim’s life… in former times men have met with angels here; have found pearls here; and have in this place found the words of life.