The Works of John Bunyan, vol 3 by John Bunyan (summer books .TXT) 📕

‘Tis death and judgment, and a clear

Discourse of heaven and hell.

OF DEATH

1. Death, as a king rampant and stout

The world he dare engage;

He conquers all, yea, and doth rout

The great, strong, wise, and sage.

2. No king so great, nor prince so strong, But death can make to yield,

Yea, bind and lay them all along,

And make them quit the field.

3. Where are the victors of the world,

With all their men of might?

Those that together kingdoms hurl’d,

By death are put to flight.

4. How feeble is the strongest hand,

When death begins to gripe!

The giant now leaves off to stand,

Much less withstand and fight.

5. The man that hath a lion’s face

Must here give place and bend,

Yea, though his bones were bars of brass, ‘Tis vain here to contend.

6. Submit he must to feeble ones,

To worms who will enclose

His skin and flesh, sinews and bones,

And will thereof dispose

7. Among themselves, as merchants do

The prizes they have got;

Or as the soldiers give unto

Each man the share and lot,

8. Which they by dint of sword have won, From their most daring foe;

While he lies by as still as stone,

Not knowing what they do.

9. Beauty death turns to rottenness,

And youth to wrinkled face;

The witty he brings to distress,

And wantons to disgrace.

10. The wild he tames, and spoils the mirth Of all that wanton are,

He takes the worldling from his worth,

And poor man from his care.

11. Death favours none, he lays at all,

Of all sorts and degree;

Both old and young, both great and small, Rich, poor, and bound, and free.

12. No fawning words will flatter him,

Nor threat’nings make him start;

He favours none for worth or kin,

All must taste of his dart.

13. What shall I say? the graves declare That death shall conquer all;

There lie the skulls, dust, bones, and there The mighty daily fall.

14. The very looks of death are grim

And ghastly to behold;

Yea, though but in a dead man’s skin,

When he is gone and cold.

15. How ‘fraid are some of dead men’s beds, And others of their bones;

They neither care to see their heads,

Nor yet to hear their groans.

16. Now all these things are but the shade And badges of his coat;[3]

The glass that runs, the scythe and spade, Though weapons more remote:

17. Yet such as make poor mortals shrink And fear, when they are told,

These things are signs that they must drink With death; O then how cold.

18. It strikes them to the heart! how do They study it to shun!

Indeed who can bear up, and who

Can from these shakings run?

19. But how much more then when he comes To grapple with thy heart;

To bind with thread thy toes and thumbs,[4]

And fetch thee in his cart?

20. Then will he cut thy silver cord,

And break thy golden bowl;

Yea, break that pitcher which the Lord

Made cabin for thy soul.

21. Thine eyes, that now are quick of sight, Shall then no way espy

How to escape this doleful plight,

For death will make thee die.

22. Those legs that now can nimbly run,

Shall then with faintness fail

To take one step, death’s dart to shun,

When he doth thee assail.

23. That tongue that now can boast and brag Shall then by death be tied

So fast, as not to speak or wag,

Though death lies by thy side.

24. Thou that didst once incline thine ear Unto the song and tale,

Shall only now death’s message hear,

While he, with face most pale,

25. Doth reason with thee how thy days

Hath hitherto been spent;

And what have been thy deeds and ways,

Since God thee time hath lent.

26. Then will he so begin to tear

Thy body from thy soul,

And both from life, if now thy care

Be not on grace to roll.

27. Death puts on things another face

Than we in health do see:

Sin, Satan, hell, death, life and grace

Now great and weighty be.

28. Yea, now the sick man’s eye is set

Upon a world to come:

He also knows too without let5

That there must be his home.

29. Either in joy, in bliss and light,

Or sorrow, woe, and grief;

Either with Christ and saints in white,

Or fiends, without relief.

30. But, O! the sad estate that then

They will be in that die

Both void of grace and life! poor men!

How will they fear and cry.

31. Ha! live I may not, though I would

For life give more than all;

And die I dare not, though I should

The world gain by my fall.

32. No, here he must no longer stay,

He feels his life run out,

His night is come, also the day

That makes him fear and doubt.

33. He feels his very vitals die,

All waxeth pale and wan;

Nay, worse, he fears to misery

He shortly must be gone.

34. Death doth already strike his heart

With his most fearful sting

Of guilt, which makes his conscience start, And quake at every thing.

35. Yea, as his body doth decay

By a contagious grief,

So his poor soul doth faint away

Without hope or relief.

36. Thus while the man is in this scare, Death doth still at him lay;

Live, die, sink, swim, fall foul or fair,[6]

Death still holds on his way.

37. Still pulling of him from his place, Full sore against his mind;

Death like a sprite stares in his face,

And doth with links him bind.

38. And carries him into his den,

In darkness there to lie,

Among the swarms of wicked men

In grief eternally.

39. For only he that God doth fear

Will now be counted wise:

Yea, he that feareth him while here,

He only wins the prize.

40. ‘Tis he that shall by angels be

Attended to that bliss

That angels have; for he, O he,

Of glory shall not miss.

41. Those weapons and those instruments

Of death, that others fright:

Those dreadful fears and discontents

That brings on some that night.

42. That never more shall have a day,

Brings this man to that rest

Which none can win but only they

Whom God hath called and blest

43. With the first fruits of saving grace, With faith, hope, love, and fear

Him to offend; this man his face

In visions high and clear,

44. Shall in that light which no eye can Approach unto, behold

The rays and beams of glory, and

Find there his name enroll’d,

45. Among those glittering starts of light That Christ still holdeth fast

In his right hand with all his might,

Until that danger’s past,

46. That shakes the world, and most hath dropt Into grief and distress,

O blessed then is he that’s wrapt

In Christ his righteousness.

47. This is the man death cannot kill,

For he hath put on arms;

Him sin nor Satan hath not skill

To hurt with all their charms.

48. A helmet on his head doth stand,

A breastplate on his heart:

A shield also is in his hand,

That blunteth every dart.

49. Truth girds him round the reins, also His sword is on his thigh;

His feet in shoes of peace do go

The ways of purity.

50. His heart it groaneth to the Lord,

Who hears him at his call,

And doth him help and strength afford,

Wherewith he conquers all.

51. Thus fortified, he keeps the field

While death is gone and fled;

And then lies down upon his shield

Till Christ doth raise the dead.

OF JUDGMENT.

1. As ‘tis appointed men should die,

So judgment is the next

That meets them most assuredly;

For so saith holy text.

2. Wherefore of judgment I shall now

Inform you what I may,

That you may see what ‘tis, and how

‘Twill be with men that day.

3. This world it hath a time to stand,

Which time when ended, then

Will issue judgment out of hand

Upon all sorts of men.

4. The Judge we find, in God’s record,

The Son of man, for he

By God’s appointment is made Lord

And Judge of all that be.

5. Wherefore this Son of man shall come

At last to count with all,

And unto them shall give just doom,

Whether they stand or fall.

6. Behold ye now the majesty

And state that shall attend

This Lord, this Judge, and Justice high

When he doth now descend.

7. He comes with head as white as snow,

With eyes like flames of fire;

In justice clad from top to toe,

Most glorious in attire.

8. His face is filled with gravity;

His tongue is like a sword;

His presence awes both stout and high,

The world shakes at his word.

9. He comes in flaming fire, and

With angels clear and bright,

Each with a trumpet in his hand,

Clothed in shining white.

10. The trump of God sounds in the air,

The dead do hear his voice;

The living too run here and there,

Who made not him their choice.

11. Thus to his place he doth repair,

Appointed for his throne,

Where he will sit to judge, and where

He’ll count with every one.

12. Angels attending on his hand

By thousands on a row;

Yea, thousand thousands by him stand,

And at his beck do go.

13. Thus being set, the books do ope

In which all crimes are writ.

All virtues, too, of faith and hope,

Of love; and every whit

14. Of all that man hath done or said,

Or did intend to do;

Whether they sinn’d, or were afraid

Evil to come into.

15. Before this bar each sinner now

In person must appear;

Under his judgment there to bow

With trembling and with fear:

16. Within whose breast a witness then

Will certainly arise,

That to each charge will say Amen,

While they seek and devise

17. To shun the sentence which the Lord

Against them then will read,

Out of the books of God’s record,

With majesty and dread.

18. But every heart shall opened be

Before this judge most high;

Yea, every thought to judgment he

Will bring assuredly.

19. And every word and action, too,

He there will manifest;

Yea, all that ever thou didst do,

Or keep within thy breast,

20. Shall then be seen and laid before

The world, that then will stand

To see thy judge open ev’ry sore,

And all thy evils scann’d.

21. Weighing each sin and wickedness

With so much equity,

Proportioning of thy distress

And woful misery.

22. With so much justice, doing right,

That thou thyself shalt say,

My sins have brought me to this plight,

I threw myself away.

23. Into that gulph my sins have brought Me justly to possess,

For which I blame not Christ, I wrought

It out by wickedness.

24. But O! how willingly would these

That thus in judgment be,

If that they might have help or ease,

Unto the mountains flee.

25. They would rejoice if that they might But underneath them creep,

To hide them from revenging right,

For fear of which they weep.

26. But all in vain, the mountains then

Will all be fled and gone;

No shelter will be found for men

That now are left alone.

27. For succour they did not regard

When Christ by grace did call

To them, therefore they are not heard,

No mountains on them fall.

28. Before this Judge no one shall shroud Himself, under pretence

Of knowledge, which hath made him proud,