The Pilgrims congratulate Great-Heart on his Victory.

Until that I, Great-Heart, arose

The pilgrims' guide to be;
Until that I did him oppose
That was their enemy."

Now I saw that they went to the ascent that was a little way off cast up to be a prospect for pilgrims (that was the place from whence Christian had the first sight of Faithful his brother.) Wherefore here they sat down and rested; they also here did eat and drink, and make merry, for that they had gotten deliverance from this so dangerous an enemy. As they sat thus and did eat, Christiana asked the guide if he had got no hurt in the battle. Then said he, No, save a little on my flesh; yet that also shall be so far from being to my detriment, that it is at present a proof of my love to my Master and you, and shall be a means, by grace, to increase my reward at last.

CHR. But were you not afraid, good Sir, when you saw him come with his club"?

It is my duty, said he, to distrust my own ability, that I may have reliance on Him that is stronger than all".

CHR. But what did you think when he fetched you down to the ground at the first blow?

Why, I thought, quoth he, that so my Master himself was served; yet he it was that conquered at last.

MAT. When you all have thought what you please, I think God has been wonderful good unto us, both

7 This club we may suppose to mean human power, under which many godly ministers in the last century but one suffered greatly. Blessed be God, we have nothing of this to fear in our day therefore the more shame for those professors who desert Christ, when they have nothing to fear but the breath of reproach, a nick-name, or a by-word of contempt.

They meet with Honest.

in bringing us out of this valley, and in delivering us out of the hand of this enemy; for my part, I see no reason why we should distrust our God any more, since he has now, and in such a place as this, given us such testimony of his love.

Then they got up and went forward. Now a little before them stood an oak: and under it, when they came to it, they found an old pilgrim fast asleep: they knew that he was a pilgrim by his clothes, and his staff, and his girdle.

So the guide, Mr. Great-Heart, awaked him; and the old gentleman, as he lifted up his eyes, cried out, "What's the matter? who are you? and what is your business here?"

GREAT. Come, man, be not so hot, here are none but friends. Yet the old man gets up, and stands upon his guard, and will know of them what they were. Then said the guide, My name is GreatHeart; I am the guide of these pilgrims, which are going to the celestial country.

HON. Then said Mr. Honest, I cry you mercy; I feared that you had been of the company of those that some time did rob Little-Faith of his money; but now I look better about me, I perceive you are honester people.

ago

GREAT. Why, what would or could you have done, or helped yourself, if we indeed had been of that company?

HON. Done! why I would have fought as long as breath had been in me; and had I so done, I am sure you could never have given me the worst on't; for a Christian can never be overcome, unless he should yield of himself".

A blessed sign of a watchful heart, ever alarmed at the fear of danger. Though he was found sleeping, yet he could say with the church, "My heart waketh." Song v. 2.

9 Mind this. A Christian can never be overcome unless he

Honest gives an Account of himself.

GREAT. Well said, father Honest, quoth the guide; for by this I know thou art a cock of the right kind, for thou hast said the truth.

HON. And by this I also know, that thou knowest what true pilgrimage is: for all others do think, that we are the soonest overcome of any.

GREAT. Well, now we are happily met, let me crave your name, and the name of the place you came from?

HON. My name I cannot: but I came from the town of Stupidity; it lieth about four degrees beyond the City of Destruction.

GREAT. Oh! are you that countryman then? I deem I have half a guess of you; your name is old Honesty, is it not?-So the old gentleman blushed, and said, Not honesty in the abstract': but Honesty is my name, and I wish my nature may agree to what I am called.

But, Sir, said the old gentleman, how could you guess that I am such a man, since I came from such a place?

GREAT. I have heard of you before, by my Master; for he knows all things that are done on the

yields of himself. Then be most jealous of yourselves, and most watchful against giving way to sinful reasonings, natural fears, and fleshly lusts. Look to yourselves, and be humble. Look to God's word for courage.

1 By "honesty in the abstract," he means to distinguish between himself and a perfect character. Every Christian is the subject of honesty or justice, uprightness and sincerity; yet when we come to describe these virtues in the abstract, or what they really are in their strict purity and utmost perfection, where is the Christian but must wear the conscious blush, as Honesty did, under a sense of his great defects? There is no absolutely perfect character that God can delight in, but his own beloved Son, in our nature. God is ever well pleased with him; and with us only as he views us in him, and hath made us accepted in him, to the praise of the glory of his own grace, Eph. i. 6. This is the view of divine grace, and the glory of precious faith.

Honest converses with Christiana's Sons.

earth: but I have often wondered that any should come from your place, for your town is worse than is the City of Destruction itself.

HON. Yes, we lie more off from the sun, and so are more cold and senseless; but was a man in a mountain of ice, yet if the Sun of Righteousness will arise upon him, his frozen heart shall feel a thaw. And thus it has been with me".

GREAT. I believe it, father Honesty, I believe it; for I know that the thing is true.

Then the old gentleman saluted all the pilgrims with a holy kiss of charity; and asked them of their names, and how they had fared since they had set out on their pilgrimage.

CHR. Then said Christiana, My name, I suppose, you have heard of: good Christian was my husband, and these four were his children.-But can you think how the old gentleman was taken, when she told him who she was! He skipped, he smiled, and blessed them with a thousand good wishes; saying, I have heard much of your husband, and of his travels and wars, which he underwent in his days. Be it spoken to your comfort, the name of your husband rings all over these parts of the world; his faith, his courage, his enduring, and his sincerity under all, has made his name famous.

Then he turned him to the boys, and asked of them their names, which they told him. And then said he unto them, Matthew, be thou like Matthew the publican, not in vice but in virtue. Samuel, said he, be thou like Samuel the prophet, a man of faith and prayer. Joseph, said he, be thou like Jo

This is the confession of an honest heart. It is never afraid of ascribing too much to the grace of God; nor of giving all the glory to the Sun of Righteousness, for shining upon, and melting down, its hard frozen soul. Here is no trimming between grace and nature; ǹo halting between two pernicious opinions.

Honest describes the character of Mr. Fearing.

seph in Potiphar's house, chaste, and one that flees from temptation. And, James, be thou like James the Just, and like James the brother of our Lord. Then they told him of Mercy, and how she had left her town and her kindred to come along with Christiana and with her sons. At that the old honest man said, Mercy is thy name; by mercy shalt thou be sustained, and carried through all those difficulties that may assault thee in thy way, till thou shalt come thither, where thou shalt look the Fountain of mercy in the face with comfort.

All this while the guide, Mr. Great-Heart, was very well pleased, and smiled upon his companions. Now, as they walked together, the guide asked the old gentleman, if he did not know one Mr. Fearing, that came on pilgrimage out of his parts.

HON. Yes, very well, said he he was a man that had the root of the matter in him; but he was one of the most troublesome pilgrims that I ever met with in all my days3.

GREAT. I perceive you knew him; given a very right character of him.

for you

have

HON. Knew him! I was a great companion of his: I was with him most an end; when he first began to think of what would come upon us hereafter, I was with him.

GREAT. I was his guide from my master's house to the gate of the Celestial City.

HON. Then you knew him to be a troublesome

one.

Fearing pilgrims, though perplexed in themselves and troublesome to others, are yet to be cherished and encouraged, if they have the root of the matter in them-faith in Jesus, hope towards God, fear of offending him, and a desire to walk in his ways, and constantly to please him. We must bear the burdens of such, and so fulfil the law of Christ, Gal. vi. 2.

e

* Matt. x. 3. Psal. xeix. 6. Gen. xxxix. Acts i. 13, 14.