The Pilgrim's Progress - Part One
The Author's Apology for His Book | Introduction
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
| 11 | 12 | 13
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17
| 18 | 19 | 20
| 21 | 22 | 23
| 24 | 25 | 26
| 27 | 28 | 29
| 30 | 31 | 32
| 33 | 34 | 35
| Conclusion
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Prudence
Then PRUDENCE thought it good to ask him a few questions, and desired his answer
to them.
Prudence. 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.
"And truly, if they had been mindful of
that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to
have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly:
wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them
a city."
~ Hebrews 11:15, 16 ~
Pru. 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 thinking,
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 doing of that which is best, that
which is worst is with me.
"Was then that which is good made death
unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that
which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we
know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I
do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then
I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that
is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how
to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but
the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would
do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward
man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man
that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with
the flesh the law of sin."
~ Romans 7:13-25 ~
Pru. Do you not find sometimes, as if those things were vanquished, which
at other times are your perplexity?
Chr. Yes, but that is but seldom; but they are to me golden hours in which
such things happen to me.
Pru. Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances at times, as
if they were vanquished?
Chr. Yes, when I think of what I saw at the cross, that will do it; and when
I look upon my embroidered coat, that will do it; also 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.
Pru. 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 and annoyances
to me; there they say there is no death,
"He will swallow up death in victory; and
the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it."
~ Isaiah 25:8 ~
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the
former things are passed away."
~ Revelation 21:4 ~
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."
Charity
Charity. Then said CHARITY to CHRISTIAN, "Have you a family? Are you
a married man?"
Chr. I have a wife and four small children.
Cha. And why did you not bring them along with you?
Chr. 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."
Cha. But you should have talked to them, and have endeavoured to show them
the danger of being behind.
Chr. So I did, and told them also what God had showed to me of the destruction
of our city; but I seemed to them as one that mocked, and they believed me not.
"And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons
in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for
the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in
law."
~ Genesis 19:14 ~
Cha. 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 unto me.
Cha. 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 again. 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.
Cha. 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.
Cha. But did you not with your vain life damp all that you by words used by
way of persuasion to bring them away with you?
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 sins (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.
Cha. Indeed, Cain hated his brother because his own works were evil, and his
brother's righteous;
"Not as Cain, who was of that wicked
one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were
evil, and his brother's righteous."
~ 1 John 3:12 ~
and if thy wife and children have been offended with thee for this, they thereby
show themselves to be implacable to good; and thou hast delivered thy soul from their
blood.
"Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn
not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but
thou hast delivered thy soul."
~ Ezekiel 3:19 ~
About the Lord of the Hill
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 eat. Now the table was furnished with
fat things, and with wine that was well refined; and all their talk at the table
was about the Lord of the hill: 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;
"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
~ Hebrews 2:14, 15 ~
but not without great danger to himself, which made me love him the more.
For, as they said, and as I believe (said CHRISTIAN), he did it with the loss of
much blood; but that which put glory of grace into all he did, was, that he did it
out of pure love for his country. And besides, there were some of them of the household
that said they had seen and spoke 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.
"He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes,
and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are
the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them."
~ 1 Samuel 2:8 ~
"He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of
the dunghill;"
~ Psalm 113:7 ~
Thus they discoursed together till late at night; and after they had 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!"
The Pilgrim's Progress - Part One
The Author's Apology for His Book | Introduction
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
| 11 | 12 | 13
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17
| 18 | 19 | 20
| 21 | 22 | 23
| 24 | 25 | 26
| 27 | 28 | 29
| 30 | 31 | 32
| 33 | 34 | 35
| Conclusion
Back to Pilgrim's Homepage