PIETY DIS

COURSES HIM.

Piety. Come, good Christian, since we have been so loving to you to receive you into our house this night,

let us, if perhaps we may better ourselves thereby, talk with you of all things that have happened to you in your pilgrimage.

Chr. With a very good will; and I am glad that you are so well disposed.

Piety. What moved you at first to betake yourself to a Pilgrim's life?

HOW CHRISTIAN
WAS DRIVEN OUT
OF HIS OWN
COUNTRY.

Chr. I was driven out of my native country by a dreadful sound that was in mine ears, to wit, that unavoidable destruction did attend me, if I abode

in that place where I was.

Piety. But how did it happen that you came out of your country this way?

Chr. It was as God would have it; for when I was under the fears of destruction, I did not know whither to go: but by chance there came a

HOW HE GOT INTO
THE WAY TO ZION.

man, even to me, as I was trembling and weeping, whose name is Evangelist, and he directed me to the Wicket-Gate, which else I should never have found, and so set me into the way that hath led me directly to this house.

Piety. But did you not come by the house of the Interpreter ?

A REHEARSAL OF

Chr. Yes, and did see such things there, the remembrance of which will stick by me as long as I live; especially three things, to wit, WHAT HE SAW IN How Christ, in despite of Satan, maintains his work of grace in the heart; how the man had sinned himself quite out of hopes of

THE WAY.

God's mercy; and also the dream of him that thought in his sleep the Day of Judgment was come.

Piety. Why, did you hear him tell his dream?

Chr. Yes, and a dreadful one it was, I thought; it made my heart ache as he was telling of it; but yet I am glad I heard it.

Piety. Was this all you saw at the house of the Interpreter?

Chr. No, he took me, and had me where he shewed me a stately palace, and how the people were clad in gold that were in it; and how there came a venturous man, and cut his way through the armed men that stood in the door to keep him out; and how he was bid to come in and win eternal glory. Methought those things did ravish my heart! I would have staid at that good man's house a twelvemonth, but that I knew I had farther to go.

Piety. And what saw you else in the way.

Chr. Saw! Why, I went but a little farther, and I saw one, as I thought in my mind, hang bleeding upon a Tree; and the very sight of him made my burden fall off my back; for I groaned under a very heavy burden, but then it fell down from off me. 'Twas a strange thing to me, for I never saw such a thing before; yea, and while I stood looking up, (for then I could not forbear looking,) three Shining Ones came to me; one of them testified that my sins were forgiven me; another stripped me of my rags, and gave me this broidered coat which you see; and the third set the mark which you see in my forehead, and gave me this sealed Roll (and with that he plucked it out of his bosom).

Piety. But you saw more than this, did you not?

Chr. The things that I have told you were the best; yet some other matters I saw; as namely, I saw three men, Simple, Sloth, and Presumption, lie asleep a little out of the way as I came, with irons upon their heels ; but do you think I could awake them? I also saw Formality and Hypocrisy come tumbling over the wall, to go, as they pretended, to Zion; but they were quickly lost, even as I myself did tell them, but they would not believe. But, above all, I found it hard work to get up this hill, and as hard to come by the Lions' mouths; and truly, if it had not been for the good man the porter, that stands at the gate, I do not know but that, after all, I might have gone back again; but, I thank God, I am here, and thank you for receiving me.

Then Prudence thought good to ask him a few questions, and desired his answer to them.

PRUDENCE DIS-
COURSES HIM.

CHRISTIAN'S

THOUGHTS OF
HIS NATIVE

COUNTRY,

Prud. Do you not think sometimes of the country from whence you came?

Chr. Yes, but with much shame and detestation: truly, if I had been mindful of that country from whence I came out, I might have had opportunity to

have returned; but now I desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.1

Prud. Do you not yet bear away with you some of the things that then you were conversant withal?

CHRISTIAN DIS

TASTED WITH

CARNAL COGI

TATIONS.

Chr. Yes, but greatly against my will; especially my inward and carnal

cogitations, with which all my countrymen, as well as myself, were delighted:

but now all those things are my grief; and might I but

Heb. xi. 15, 16.

choose mine own things, I would choose never to think of those things more;

CHRISTIAN'S

CHOICE.

but when I would be a-doing of that

which is best, that which is worst is with me.*

Prud. Do you not find sometimes as if those things were vanquished, which at other times are your perplexity?

Chr. Yes, but that is seldom; but they are to me golden hours in which such things happen to me.

CHRISTIAN'S

GOLDEN HOURS.

HOW CHRISTIAN
GETS POWER
AGAINST HIS

Prud. Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances at times, as if they were vanquished? Chr. Yes, when I think what I saw at the Cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it; and when I look into the Roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it.

CORRUPTIONS.

Prud. And what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount Zion?

WHY CHRISTIAN

MOUNT ZION.

Chr. Why, there I hope to see Him alive that did hang dead on the Cross; WOULD be at and there I hope to be rid of all those things, that, to this day, are in me an annoyance to me; there they say there is no death, and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best. For, to tell you truth, I love Him, because I was by Him eased of my burden. And I am weary of my inward sickness : I would fain be where I shall die no more, and with the company that shall continually cry, Holy, holy, holy.3

2 Rom. vii. 15.

3 Isa. xxv. 8. Rev. xxi. 4.

CHARITY DIS

COURSES HIM.

Then said Charity to Christian, Have you a family? Are you a married man ?

Chr. I have a wife and four small children.
Char. And why did not you bring them along with you?

CHRISTIAN'S LOVE
TO HIS WIFE AND
CHILDREN.

Then Christian wept, and said, Oh!

how willingly would I have done it! but they were all of them utterly averse to

my going on pilgrimage.

Char. But you should have talked with them, and have endeavoured to have shewn them the danger of staying behind.

Chr. So I did; and told them also what God had shewn to me of the destruction of our city; but I seemed to them as one that mocked, and they believed me not. 4

Char. And did you pray to God, that he would bless your counsel to them?

Chr. Yes, and that with much affection; for you must think that my wife and poor children were very dear to me.

Char. But did you tell them of your own sorrow, and fear of destruction? for I suppose that destruction was visible enough to you.

CHRISTIAN'S FEAR

OF PERISHING
MIGHT BE READ
IN HIS VERY

Chr. Yes, over, and over, and over. They might also see my fears in my countenance, in my tears, and also in my trembling under the apprehension of the judgment that did hang over our heads; but all was not sufficient to prevail with them to come with me.

COUNTENANCE.

4 Gen. xix. 14.