into the country, musing on
the wickedness of my heart, and considering the enmity that was in me
to God, the Scripture came into my mind, "He hath made peace through
the blood of His cross." I saw that the justice of God and my sinful
soul could embrace and kiss each other. I was ready to swoon, not with
grief and trouble, but with solid joy and peace.' Everything became
clear: the Gospel history, the birth, the life, the death of the
Saviour; how gently he gave himself to be nailed on the cross for his
(Bunyan's) sins. 'I saw Him in the spirit,' he goes on, 'a Man on the
right hand of the Father, pleading for me, and have seen the manner of
His coming from Heaven to judge the world with glory.'

The sense of guilt which had so oppressed him was now a key to the
mystery. 'God,' he says, 'suffered me to be afflicted with temptations
concerning these things, and then revealed them to me.' He was crushed
to the ground by the thought of his wickedness; 'the Lord showed him
the death of Christ, and lifted the weight away.'

Now he thought he had a personal evidence from Heaven that he was
really saved. Before this, he had lain trembling at the mouth of hell;
now he was so far away from it that he could scarce tell where it was.
He fell in at this time with a copy of Luther's commentary on the
Epistle to the Galatians, 'so old that it was like to fall to pieces.'
Bunyan found in it the exact counterpart of his own experience: 'of
all the books that he had ever met with, it seemed to him the most fit
for a wounded conscience.'

Everything was supernatural with him: when a bad thought came into his
mind, it was the devil that put it there. These breathings of peace he
regarded as the immediate voice of his Saviour. Alas! the respite was
but short. He had hoped that his troubles were over, when the tempter
came back upon him in the most extraordinary form which he had yet
assumed, Bunyan had himself left the door open; the evil spirits could
only enter 'Mansoul' through the owner's negligence, but once in, they
could work their own wicked will. How it happened will be told
afterwards. The temptation itself must be described first. Never was a
nature more perversely ingenious in torturing itself.

He had gained Christ, as he called it. He was now tempted 'to sell and
part with this most blessed Christ, to exchange Him for the things of
this life--for anything.' If there had been any real prospect of
worldly advantage before