For by grace are ye saved

The words of John Bunyan an unspecified number of years before his soul was comforted with the witness of the Holy Spirit: "Sometimes I would tell my condition to the people of God; which, when they heard, they would pity me, and would tell me of the promises; but they had as good have told me, that I must reach the sun with my finger, as have bidden me receive or rely upon the promises: and as soon I should have done it. All my sense and feeling were against me; and I saw I had an heart that would sin, and that lay under a law that would condemn." ~ John Bunyan in Grace Abounding

The strait gate and narrow way

"And though I was much troubled, and tossed, and afflicted, with the sight and sense and terror of my own wickedness, yet I was afraid to let this sight and sense go quite off my mind . . . I had seen some, who . . . seeking rather present ease from their trouble . . . cared not how they lost their guilt, so they got it out of their mind . . . but they grew harder and blinder . . . This made me afraid, and made me cry to God the more, that it might not be so with me.

In this condition I went a great while but when comforting time was come . . . I began to give place to the word which with power, did over and over make this joyful sound within my soul ... And with that my heart was filled full of comfort and hope, and now I could believe that my sins should be forgiven me." ~ John Bunyan in Grace Abounding

A seeking heart

"But all this while, as to the act of sinning, I was never more tender than now . . . But my original and inward pollution; That, that was my plague and affliction . . .

Sin and corruption, I said, would as naturally bubble out of my heart, as water would bubble out of a fountain: I thought now, that every one had a better heart than I had . . . and thus I continued a long while, even for some years together.

My soul is dying, my soul is damning. Were my soul but in a good condition, and were I but sure of it, ah! how rich should I esteem myself, though blessed but with bread and water!" ~ John Bunyan in Grace Abounding

Bedrock Christianity

"Gold! could it have been gotten for gold, what would I have given for it? Had I had a whole world, it had all gone ten thousand times over for this, that my soul might have been in a converted state. How lovely now was every one in my eyes, that I thought to be converted men and women. They shone, they walked like a people that carried the broad seal of heaven about them." ~ John Bunyan in Grace Abounding