Note 42 — Chapter III
Reading edition
'Works,' iii. 379. Compare, or contrast, this scene of the three poor women with another recorded by a still greater master of English. The tinker had gone on business one day to Bedford:
'In one of the streets of that town, I came where there were three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun, and talking about the things of God.... But they were far above, out of my reach; for their talk was about a new birth, the work of God on their hearts, also how they were convinced of their miserable state.... And methought they spake as if joy did make them speak; they spake with such pleasantness of Scripture language, and with such appearance of grace in all they said, that they were to me as if they had found a new world, as if they were people that dwelt alone, and were not to be reckoned among their neighbours.'—Bunyan's Grace Abounding.