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.

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?

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 choose mine own things, I would choose never to think of those things more; but when I would be a-doing of that which is best, that which is worst is with me.2

Heb. xi. 15, 16.

2 Rom. vii. 15.

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.

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.

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

Chr. Why, there I hope to see Him alive that did hang dead on the Cross; 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 the 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

Then said Charity to Christian, "Have you a family? Are you a married man? Why did you not bring them with you?" Then Christian wept, and said, "Oh how willingly would I have done it."

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?

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.*

your

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

3 Isa. vi. 3; Rev. iv. 8.

4 Gen. xix. 14.

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.

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.

Char. But what could they say for themselves why they came not? Chr. Why, my wife was afraid of losing this world; and my children were given to the foolish delights of youth; so, what by one thing, and what by another, they left me to wander in this manner alone.

Char. But did you not, with your vain life, damp all that words used by way of persuasion to bring them away with you?

you by Chr. Indeed I cannot commend my life, for I am conscious to myself of many failings therein: I know also, that a man by his conversation may soon overthrow what, by argument or persuasion, he doth labour to fasten upon others for their good. Yet this I can say, I was very wary of giving them occasion, by any unseemly action, to make them averse to going on pilgrimage. Yea, for this very thing, they would tell me I was too precise, and that I denied myself of things, for their sakes, in which they saw no evil. Nay, I think I may say, that if what they saw in me did hinder them, it was my great tenderness in sinning against God, or of doing any wrong to my neighbour.

Char. Indeed Cain hated his brother, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous; and if thy wife and children have

been offended with thee for this, they thereby shew themselves to be implacable to good: thou hast delivered thy soul from their blood.5

Now I saw in my dream, that thus they sat talking together until supper was ready. So, when they had made ready, they sat down to meat. Now the table was furnished with fat things, and wine that was well refined;

They sat talking together until supper was ready.-So when they had made ready, they sat down to meat.

5 1 John iii. 12; Ezek. iii. 19.

and all their talk at the table was about the Lord of the hill; as namely, about what He had done, and wherefore He did what He did, and why He had builded that house; and, by what they said, I perceived that He had been a great warrior, and had fought with and slain him that had the power of death, but not without great danger to Himself, which made me love Him the more.6

For, as they said, and as I believe, said Christian, He did it with the loss of much blood; but that which put the glory of grace into all He did, was, that He did it out of pure love to His country. And, besides, there were some of them of the household that said they had been and spoken with Him since He did die on the Cross; and they have attested that they had it from His own lips, that He is such a lover of poor Pilgrims, that the like is not to be found from the east to the west.

They moreover gave an instance of what they affirmed; and that was, He had stripped Himself of His glory, that He might do this for the poor: and that they heard Him say and affirm, that He would not dwell in the mountain of Zion alone. They said, moreover, that He had made many Pilgrims Princes, though by nature they were beggars born, and their original had been the dunghill.7

Thus they discoursed together till late at night; and, after they had

They betook themselves to rest.-The Pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber, whose window opened towards the sun-rising.--The name of the chamber was Peace.

committed themselves to their Lord for protection, they betook themselves to rest; the Pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber, whose window opened towards the sun-rising: the name of the chamber was Peace, where he slept till break of day, and then he awoke and sang,

Where am I now? Is this the love and care

Of Jesus, for the men that Pilgrims are,
Thus to provide? that I should be forgiven;

And dwell already the next door to heaven!

So in the morning they all got up; and after some more discourse, they told him that he should not depart till they had shewn him the rarities of that place. And, first, they had him into the study, where they shewed him records of the greatest antiquity; in which, 7 1 Sam. ii. 8; Psal. cxiii. 7.

as I remember my dream, they shewed him first the pedigree of the

Lord of the hill, that he was the Son of the Ancient of Days, and came by an eternal generation. Here also were more fully recorded the acts that he had done, and the names of many hundreds that he had taken into his service; and how he had placed them in such habitations that could, neither by length

of days, nor decays of nature, be dissolved.

Then they read to him some of the worthy acts that some of his servants had done; as how they had subdued kingdoms, (Josh. vi.5, " And the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him,") wrought right

eousness, (2 Peter

ii. 5,
"And spared not the old world, but
saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon
the world of the ungodly,") obtained pro-

mises, (Gen. xviii. 15-33, ".... And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?.... And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake,") stopped the mouths

of lions, (Dan. vi. 21,

"Then said Daniel unto the king,.... My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found

in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt," .....) quenched the violence of fire,

(Judg. vii. and 2 Chron. xx. 17, 18, "And they blew the trumpets, and