corporation, called Mansoul: a town for its building so curious, for its
situation so commodious, for its privileges so advantageous, that I may
say of it, there is not its equal under the whole heaven. Also, there
was reared up in the midst of this town a most famous and stately palace:
for strength, it might be called a castle; for pleasantness, a paradise;
and for largeness, a place so copious as to contain all the world. This
place the King intended for Himself alone, and not for another with Him,
so great was His delight in it.' Thus far, our excellent allegorical
author. But there are other authors that treat of this great matter now
in hand besides the allegorical authors. You will hear tell sometimes
about a class of authors called the Mystics. Well, listen at this stage
to one of them, and one of the best of them, on this present matter--the
human heart, that is. 'Our heart,' he says, 'is our manner of existence,
or the state in which we feel ourselves to be; it is an inward life, a
vital sensibility, which contains our manner of feeling what and how we
are; it is the state of our desires and tendencies, of inwardly seeing,
tasting, relishing, and feeling that which passes within us; our heart is
that to us inwardly with regard to ourselves which our senses of seeing,
hearing, feeling, and such like are with regard to things that are
without or external to us. Your heart is the best and greatest gift of
God to you. It is the highest, greatest, strongest, and noblest power of
your nature. It forms your whole life, be it what it will. All evil and
all good come from your heart. Your heart alone has the key of life and
death for you.' I was just about to ask you at this point which of our
two authors, our allegorical or our mystical author upon the heart, you
like best. But that would be a stupid and a wayward question since you
have them both before you, and both at their best, to possess and to
enjoy. To go back then to John Bunyan, and to his allegory of the human
heart.