'My original and
inward pollution,' says Bunyan himself in his autobiography, 'that, that
was my plague and my affliction; that, I say, at a dreadful rate was
always putting itself forth within me; that I had the guilt of to
amazement; by reason of that I was more loathsome in my own eyes than a
toad; and I thought I was so in God's eyes also. Sin and corruption
would bubble up out of my heart as naturally as water bubbles up out of a
fountain. I thought now that every one had a better heart than I had. I
could have changed heart with anybody. I thought none but the devil
himself could equalise me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind. I
fell, therefore, at the sight of my own vileness, deeply into despair,
for I concluded that this condition in which I was in could not stand
with a life of grace. Sure, thought I, I am forsaken of God; sure I am
given up to the devil, and to a reprobate mind.'
'Let no man, then, count me a fable maker,
Nor made my name and credit a partaker
Of their derision: what is here in view,
Of mine own knowledge I dare say is true.
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