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Apollyon terupts Christian.

willing to pass by all, if now thou wilt yet turn and go back.

CHR. What I promised thee was in my nonage: and besides, I count that the Prince, under whose banner I now stand, is able to absolve me; yea, and to pardon also what I did as to my compliance with thee. And besides, O thou destroying Apollyon, to speak truth, I like his service, his wages, his servants, his government, his company, and his country, better than thine; therefore leave off to persuade me farther; I am his servant, and I will follow him.

APOL. Consider again, when thou art in cool blood, what thou art like to meet with in the way that thou goest. Thou knowest that for the most part his servants come to an ill end, because they are transgressors against me and my ways. How many of them

have been put to shameful deaths! And besides, thou countest his service better than mine; whereas he never came yet from the place where he is, to deliver any that served him out of their enemies' hands: but as for me, how many times, as all the world very well know, have I delivered, either by power or fraud, those that have faithfully served me, from him and his, though taken by them! And so will I deliver thee.

CHR. His forbearing at present to deliver them, is on purpose to try their love, whether they will cleave to him to the end: and as for the ill end thou sayest they come to, that is most glorious in their account. But, for present deliverance, they do not much expect it; for they stay for their glory, and then they shall have it, when their Prince comes in his, and the glory of the angels.

APOL. Thou hast already been unfaithful in thy ser vice to him; and how dost thou think to receive wages of him?

CHR. Wherein, O Apollyon, have I been unfaithful to him?

APOL. Thou didst faint at first setting out, when

Apollyon defies Christian.

hou wast almost choked in the Slough of Despond. Thou didst attempt wrong ways to be rid of thy bur den, whereas thou shouldst have staid till thy Prince had taken it off. Thou didst sinfully sleep, and lose thy choice things. Thou wast also almost persuaded to go back at the sight of the lions. And when thou talkest of thy journey, and of what thou hast heard and seen, thou art inwardly desirous of vainglory in all that thou sayest or doest.

CHR. All this is true, and much more which thou hast left out; but the Prince whom I serve and honour, is merciful and ready to forgive. Besides, these infirmities came upon me in thy country; for there I sucked them in, and I have groaned under them, been sorry for them, and have obtained pardon of my Prince."

APOL. Then Apollyon broke out into a grievous rage, saying, I am an enemy to this Prince; I hate his person, his laws, and his people; I am come out on purpose to withstand thee.

CHR. Apollyon, beware what you do; for I am in the king's highway, the way of holiness; therefore take heed to yourself.

APOL. Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way, and said, I am void of fear

The firm and settled purpose of a believer to serve Christ at all hazards, is shown in the answers of Christian to the artful questions of Apollyon. When Apollyon cannot succeed in his attempts to make Christian think little of Christ, and to doubt his love and faithfulness to his followers, he tries to overwhelm him with a consciousness of his own unworthiness and unfaithfulness. The ingenuousness of Christian is well described, by his confessing, that Satan could not say more against him than, nor so much as, he was willing to admit he had been guilty of since his professed attach.. ment to the Saviour; but he at the same time declares, that he had deeply repented, and had been freely pardoned. In Luther's "Table Task" there is a similar representation. The devil is said to have exhibited a long list of charges against Luther, to which the reformer replied, "This is all true, and much more that thou hast not mentioned; but write another line at the bottom, 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,'" 1 John i. 10.

Their Combat.

in this matter. Prepare thyself to die; for I swear by my infernal den, that thou shalt go no further: bere will I spill thy soul.-And with that threw a flaming dart at his breast; but Christian had a shield in his hand, with which he caught it, and so prevented the danger.

Then did Christian draw, for he saw it was time to bestir him; and Apollyon as fast made at him, throwing darts as thick as hail; by the which, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand, and foot. This made Christian give a little back: Apollyon, therefore, followed his work amain, and Christian again took courage, and resisted as manfully as he could. This sore combat lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was almost spent. For you must know, that Christian, by reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and weaker.

Then Apollyon, espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and wrestling with him, gave him a dreadful fall; and with that Christian's sword flew out of his hand. Then said Apollyon, “I am sure of thee now." And with that he almost pressed him to death; so that Christian began to despair of life. But, as God would have it, while Apollyon was fetching his last blow, thereby to make a full end of this good man, Christian nimbly reached out his hand for his sword, and caught it, saying, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise;" (Mic. vii. 8.) and with that he gave him a deadly thrust, which made him give back, as one that had received his mortal wound. Christian perceiving that, made at him again; saying, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Rom. viii. 37. And with that Apollyon spread forth his dragon's wings, and sped him away, that Christian saw him no more. Jam. iv. 7.

In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what yelling and hideous

Christian's Victory.

roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight; he spake like a dragon; and on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian's heart. I never saw him all the while give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he had wounded Apollyon, with his two edged sword; then, indeed, he did smile, and look upward; but it was the dreadfullest sight that ever I saw. ор

"Below the picture of the battle between Christian and Apollyon :-
A more unequal match can hardly be;
Christian must fight an angel: but you see,

The valiant man, by handling sword and shield,
Doth make him, though a dragon, quit the field.

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? It is very evident that Mr. Bunyan had his own grievous temptations in view when he wrote this account;-"No man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what yelling," &c. In his LIFE, page 54, he says, the temptation that lay upon him for a whole year was to sell and part with Christ, and to exchange him for the things of this life, for any thing." The "dreadful fall” which Christian got in his wrestling with Apollyon, and the falling of his sword out of his hand, are thus explained in his LIFE, p. 55. "One morning, as I did lie in my bed, I was, as at other times, most fiercely assaulted with this temptation, to sell and part with Christ; the wicked suggestion still running in my mind, 'Sell him, sell him, sell him,' as fast as a man could speak: against which also, in my mind, as at other times, I answered, 'No, no, not for thousands, thousands, thousands,' at least twenty times together but at last, after much striving, even until I was almost out of breath, I felt this thought pass through my heart, Let him go if he will;' and I thought also, that I felt my heart freely consent thereto. Oh the diligence of Satan! Oh the desperateness of man's heart! Now was the battle won, and down fell I, as, a bird that is shot from the top of a tree, into great guilt, and fearful despair." Thus was he wounded, as the margin interprets it, in his "understanding, faith, and conversation."

By" the sword's falling out of Christian's hand," he intended to show the despair of his mind, when the Scriptures only increased his distress, instead of administering to his relief. Christian's reaching out nimbly, and taking hold of his sword, "when he was almos pressed to death," is thus explained. "As I was walking under a hedge, (full of sorrow and guilt, God knows,) and bemoaning myself for this hard hap, that such a sentence should arise within me, suddenly this sentence rushed in upon me, 'The blood of Christ remits all guilt. At this I made a stand in my spirit; with that this word took hold upon me, 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth as from all sin. Now I began to conceive peace in my soul, and

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The Tree of Life.

So when the battle was over, Christian said, "I will Jere give thanks to him that hath delivered me out of the mouth of the lion; to him that did help me against Apollyon." And so he did; saying,

Great Beelzebub, the captain of this fiend,

Design'd my ruin; therefore to this end
He sent him harness'd out, and he with rage,
That hellish, was, did fiercely me engage:
But blessed Michael helped me, and I,
By dint of sword, did quickly make him fly:
Therefore to him let me give lasting praise

And thanks, and bless his holy name always.'l

Then there came to him a hand with some of the leaves of the tree of life, the which Christian took, and applied to the wounds that he had received in the battle, and was healed immediately. He also sat

methought I saw, as if the tempter did leer and steal away from me, as being ashamed of what he had done." The distressing exercises of Mr. Bunyan's mind for a period of more than two years, fully justify the assertion, "It was the dreadfullest sight that ever I saw." He did not enjoy peace for a moment, except when he was enabled to depend upon some good and comfortable word of Scripture, which wounded Apollyon as with a "two-edged sword." The whole account is full of instruction to tempted christians; and though but few perhaps "know the depths of Satan" to an equal degree with Mr. Bunyan, yet there are many tried christians who will find traces of their own painful feelings on some evil day in the course of their pilgrimage; and all may learn, that the only way to overcome the devil is to use, with faith in the promises, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." It was well that Christian had been previously prepared for this battle at the house of the Interpreter.

No one can enter into these grateful feelings of Christian, but they who have, like him, been delivered from those horrors which the fear of being rejected of God brings upon the mind. Christian ascribes his deliverance to supernatural assistance, and gives the whole glory to "him who had kept him from falling." Mr. Bunyan says in his LIFE, p. 89. "Ilad two or three times, at or about my deliverance from this tempta-ion, such strange apprehensions of the grace of God, that I could hardly bear up under it: it was so out of measure amazing, when I thought it could reach me, that I do think if that sense of it had bode long upon me, it would have made me incapable of business." Upon this subject read Dr Watts, Ps. xiii. Book i. Hymn exx and Book ii. Hymns lxxvii and clvi. Also Dr. Rippon, Hymns ccciii. and cccxxviii.

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