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CHRISTIAN AT THE CROSS.

Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
The man that there was put to shame for me!

OXFORD:

Printed and Published by Bartlett and Hinton.

Christian loses his Burden.

be always with thee, good Christian, to guide thee in the way that leads to the City." So Christian went on his way, saying,

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Here I have seen things rare and profitable,

Things pleasant, dreadful things, to make me stable
In what I have began to take in hand:

Then let me think on them, and understand
Wherefore they shew'd me were, and let me be
Thankful, O good Interpreter, to thee."

Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on each side with a wall, which was called Salvation. (Isa. xxvi. 1.) Up this way therefore did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.

He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, "He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death." Then he stood still a while to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. (Zech. xii. 10.) Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three Shining Ones came to him, and saluted him with "Peace be to thee;" The first said to him, "Thy sins be forgiven thee;" (Mark ii. 5.) the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment; (Zech. iii. 4.) the third set a mark on his forehead, (Ephes. i. 13.) and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate: so they went

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Christian meets with Simple, Sloth, and Presumption.

their way'. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy3, and went on, singing,

"Thus far did I come laden with my sin;
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
"Till I came hither: what a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss ?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bind it to me crack?
Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
The man that there was put to shame for me!".

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I saw then in my dream, that he went on, even until he came to the bottom, where he saw, a little out of the way, three men fast asleep, with fetters upon their heels. The name of the one was Simple, of another Sloth, and of the third Presumption.

Christian then seeing them lie in this case, went to them, if peradventure he might awake them, and cried, "You are like them that sleep on the top of a mast; (Prov. xxiii. 34.) for the dead sea is under you, a gulph that hath no bottom: awake, therefore, and come away; be willing also, and I will help you off with your irons." He also said, " If he that goeth about like a roaring lion (1 Pet. v. 8.) come by, you will certainly become a prey to his teeth." With that they looked upon him, and began to reply in this sort: Simple said," I see no danger;" Sloth said, "Yet a little more sleep ;" and Presumption said, "Every tub must stand upon its own bottom." And so they lay down to sleep again, and Christian went on his way".

Yet was he troubled to think, that men in that danger should so little esteem the kindness of him that so

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Under the picture of Christian clothed with change of raiment :-
Who's this? the Pilgrim. How? 'Tis very true;

Old things are pass'd away;` all's become new.
Strange! He's another man, upon my word;
They be fine feathers that make a fine bird.

& Where God releases us of our guilt and burden, we are as those that leap for joy.

'A christian can sing, though alone, when God doth give him the joy of his heart.

"No persuasion will do, if God open not the eyes.

Formality and Hypocrisy.

freely offered to help them, both by the awakening of them, the counselling of them, and the proferring to help them off with their irons. And as he was troubled thereabout, he espied two men come tumbling over the wall on the left hand of the narrow way; and they made up apace to him. The name of the one was Formality, and the name of the other Hypocrisy. So, as I said, they drew up unto him, who thus entered with them into discourse.

CHR. Gentlemen, whence come you, and whither do you go?

FORM. and HYP. We were born in the land of Vain-glory, and are going for praise to Mount Zion. ›

CHR. Why came you not in at the gate which standeth at the beginning of the way? Know you not that it is written, that "he that entereth not by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber?" (John x. 1.)

FORM. and HYP. They said, that to go to the gate for entrance was by all their countrymen counted too far about; and therefore their usual way was to make a short cut of it, and to climb over the wall as they had done.

CHR. But will it not be counted a trespass against the Lord of the city whither we are bound, thus to violate his revealed will?.

FORM. and HYP. They told him, that as for that, he needed not to trouble his head thereabout: for what they did they had custom for, and could produce, if need were, testimony that would witness it more than a thousand years.

CHR, But, said Christian, will your practice stand a trial at law?

FORM, and HYP. They told him,, that custom, it being of so long standing as above a thousand years, would doubtless now be admitted as a thing legal by

They that come into the way, though not by the door, think tha they can say something in vindication of their own practice,

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