John Bunyan was one of the formost of the 17th. century Purtians. Born in November, 1628, he was taught the Scriptures from a small child, but the impressions made upon him faded away in his teenage years. By his own admission, in his mid-teens he had become "the ringleader of the youths and he led them, "into all manner of vice and ungodliness." When he was sixteen, his mother died; and shortly there after John left home and joined the army. God providentially spared his life on several occasions: once when he nearly drowned, and when he was supposed to stand sentinel duty – another took his place and was killed as he stood guard.
Sometime in the late 1640's, the Lord began to deal with his heart. He had seen some women who were worshiping the Lord. They spoke of rejoicing in the Lord, of mysterious conflicts, of heart experiences, all of which were foreign to him. The contrast of what he saw in those ladies and what he felt himself to be, brought distress to his heart. He envied the lower creation, wishing himself to be a dog or a horse. "For I knew," he said, "that they had no souls to perish under the everlasting weight of sin in hell."
At last, however, he entered into peace as he was brought to rest in Christ. I will paraphrase a part of his testimony. "One day this thought came into my soul: your righteousness is in heaven; and I saw with the eyes of my soul that Jesus Christ stood as my righteousness at the right hand of God, so that wherever I was or whatever I was doing, God could never say of me, 'He lacks My righteousness, for my righteousness was in the Person on His right hand, even my Savior. I also saw," he said, "that my goodness did not make my righteous standing any better, nor did my sinfulness make my righteous standing worse, for my righeousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, today and forever. That was when my chains fell off and I rejoiced in the love and grace of God to me. There was none but Christ before the eyes of my soul. I saw that I was made whole through Him. I saw His blood, burial, resurrection, and exalation and now, because I could look from myseff to Him, I saw I was rich in Him. Now Christ was my all!"