THE

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS,

FROM THIS WORLD

ΤΟ

THAT WHICH IS TO COME,

BY

JOHN BUNYAN,

LATE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT BEdford.

PART II.

WITH ORIGINAL HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,

BY THE LATE

REV. JOSEPH IVIMEY.

THE

AUTHOR'S WAY

OF SENDING FORTH

HIS SECOND PART

OF THE

Pilgrim.

Go now, my little Book, to every place
Where my first Pilgrim has but shown his face
Call at their door: if any say, Who's there?
Then answer thou, Christiana is here.
If they bid thee come in, then enter thou,
With all thy boys; and then, thou knowest how,
Tell who they are, also from whence they came:
Perhaps they know them by their looks or name:
But if they should not, ask them yet again,
If formerly they did not entertain

One Christian, a Pilgrim? If they say
They did, and were delighted in his way;

Then let them know, that those related were

Unto him; yea, his wife and children are.

Tell them that they have left their house and home
Are turned Pilgrims; seek a world to come :
That they have met with hardships in the way
That they do meet with troubles night and day:
That they have trod on serpents, fought with devila,
Have also overcome as many evils :

Yea, tell them also of the next who have,
Of love to pilgrimage, been stout and brave
Defenders of that way; and how they still
Refuse this world, to do their Father's will.
Go tell them also of those dainty things
That pilgrimage unto the Pilgrims brings.
Let them acquainted be too, how they are
Beloved of their King, under his care;
What goodly mansions he for them provides,

Though they meet with rough winds and ewelling tides;

How brave a calm they will enjoy at last,
Who to the Lord, and to his ways, hold fast

Perhaps with heart and hand they will embrace
Thee as they did my firstling, and will grace
Thee and thy fellows with good cheer and fare
As show well they of Pilgrims lovers are.

OBJECTION I.

But how if they will not believe of me
That I am truly thine? 'cause some there be
That counterfeit the Pilgrim and his name,
Seek, by disguise, to seem the very same;
And by that means, have brought themselves into

The hands and houses of I know not who.

ANSWER

Tis true, some have of late, to counterfeit
My Pilgrim, to their own my title set;
Yea, others half my name, and title too,
Have stitched to their books to make them do:
But yet they, by their features, do declare
Themselves not mine to be, whose e'er they are.

If such thou meet'st with, then thine only way,
Before them all, is to say out thy say

In thine own native language, which no man
Now useth, or with ease dissemble can.
If, after all, they still of you shall doubt,
Thinking that you like gipsies go about,
In naughty ways the country to defile;
Or that you seek good people to beguile
With things unwarrantable-send for me,
And I will testify you Pilgrims be;
Yea, I will testify that only you
My Pilgrims are, and that alone will do.

OBJECTION II,

But yet, perhaps, I may enquire for hin
Of those that wish him damned life and limb:
What shall I do, when I at such a door

a

For Pilgrims ask, and they shall rage the more a ?

ANSWER.

Fright not thyself, my Book; for such bugbears
Are nothing else but ground for groundless fears.

The book seems here to be represented as fearing, lest it should inquire for a vilgrim of him, that is to say, lest it should invite him to be a pilgrim, who would be only provoked by the invitation to " rage the more" against religion and religious persons.