Great. Then said Great-heart to Mr. Valiant-for-truth, Thou hast worthily behaved thyself. Let me see thy Sword. So he shewed it him.

When he had taken it in his Hand, and looked thereon a while, he said, Ha! It is a right Jerusalem Blade. Isa. 2. 3. Valiant. It is so. Let a man have one of these Ephes. 6. 12,

17.

Blades, with a Hand to wield it, and skill to use it, and 13, 14, 15, 16, he may venture upon an Angel with it. He need not fear its holding, if he can but tell how to lay on. Edges will never blunt. It will cut Flesh, and Bones, Heb. 4. 12. and Soul, and Spirit, and all.

Its

Great. But you fought a great while, I wonder you were not weary?

10.

Valiant. I fought till my sword did cleave to my 2 Sam. 23. Hand, and when they were joined together, as if a Sword The Word. grew out of my Arm, and when the Blood ran through Blood. my Fingers, then I fought with most Courage.

Great. Thou hast done well, thou hast resisted unto Blood, striving against Sin. Thou shalt abide by us, come in, and go out with us; for we are thy Companions.

Then they took him and washed his Wounds, and gave him of what they had, to refresh him, and so they went on together. Now as they went on, because Mr. Greatheart was delighted in him (for he loved one greatly that he found to be a man of his Hands) and because there were with his Company, them that were feeble and weak; Therefore he questioned with him about many things; as first, what Country-man he was?

Valiant. I am of Dark-land, for there I was born, and there my Father and Mother are still.

Great. Dark-land, said the Guide, Doth not that lie upon the same Coast with the City of Destruction?

The Faith.

Valiant. Yes it doth. Now that which caused me to come on Pilgrimage was this; We had one Mr. Tell-true came into our parts, and he told it about, what Christian had done, that went from the City of Destruction. Namely, how he had forsaken his Wife and Children, and had betaken himself to a Pilgrim's Life. It was also confidently reported how he had killed a Serpent that did come out to resist him in his Journey, and how he got through to whither he intended. It was also told what Welcome he had at all his Lord's Lodgings; specially when he came to the Gates of the Celestial City. For there, said the man, He was received with sound of Trumpet, by a company of shining ones. told it also, how all the Bells in the City did ring for Joy at his Reception, and what Golden Garments he was cloathed with; with many other things that now I shall forbear to relate. In a word, that man so told the Story of Christian and his Travels, that my Heart fell into a burning haste to be gone after him, nor could Father or Mother stay me, so I got from them, and am come thus far on my Way.

Great. You came in at the Gate, did you not?

Valiant. Yes, yes.

He

For the same man also told us, that all would be nothing, if we did not begin to enter this way at the Gate.

Great. Look you, said the Guide, to Christiana, The Pilgrimage of your Husband, and what he has gotten thereby, is spread abroad far and near.

Valiant. Why, is this Christian's Wife?

Great. Yes, That it is, and these are also her four Sons.

Valiant. What! and going on Pilgrimage too?

Great. Yes, verily they are following after.

Valiant. It glads me at Heart! Good man! How He is much rejoiced to see joyful will he be, when he shall see them that would not Christian's

go with him, yet to enter after him, in at the Gates into the City?

Great. Without doubt it will be a Comfort to him; For next to the Joy of seeing himself there, it will be a Joy to meet there his Wife and his Children.

Valiant. But now you are upon that, pray let me hear your Opinion about it. Some make a Question whether we shall know one another when we are there? Great. Do they think they shall know themselves then? Or that they shall rejoice to see themselves in that Bliss? And if they think they shall know and do these, why not know others, and rejoice in their Welfare also?

Again, Since Relations are our second self, tho' that state will be dissolved there, yet why may it not be rationally concluded that we shall be more glad to see them there, than to see they are wanting?

Valiant. Well, I perceive whereabouts you are as to this. Have you any more things to ask me about my beginning to come on Pilgrimage?

Great. Yes. Were your Father and Mother willing that you should become a Pilgrim ?

Valiant. Oh, no. They used all means imaginable to

perswade me to stay at Home.

Great. Why, what could they say against it?

Wife.

Valiant. They said it was an idle life, and if I myself The great

stumbling

were not inclined to Sloth and Laziness, I would never Blocks that by

countenance a Pilgrim's condition.

Great. And what did they say else?

Valiant. Why, They told me, that it was a dangerous Way, yea the most dangerous Way in the World, said they, is that which the Pilgrims go.

his Friends

were laid in

his way.

The First

Block.

Great. Did they show wherein this way is so dangerous?
Valiant. Yes. And that in many Particulars.

Great. Name some of them.

Valiant, They told me of the Slough of Dispond, Stumbling where Christian was well-nigh smothered. They told me that there were Archers standing ready in BeelzebubCastle, to shoot them that should knock at the WicketGate for Entrance. They told me also of the Wood, and dark Mountains, of the Hill Difficulty, of the Lions, and also of the three Giants, Bloody-man, Maul, and Slaygood. They said moreover, that there was a foul Fiend haunted the Valley of Humiliation, and that Christian was, by him, almost bereft of Life. Besides, said they, You must go over the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where the Hobgoblins are, where the Light is Darkness, where the Way is full of Snares, Pits, Traps, and Ginns. They told me also of Giant Despair, of Doubting-Castle, and of the Ruins that the Pilgrims met with there. Further, they said, I must go over the Inchanted Ground, which was dangerous. And that after all this, I should find a River, over which I should find no Bridge, and that that River did lie betwixt me and the Celestial Country.

The Second.

The Third.

Great. And was this all?

Valiant. No, they also told me that this way was full of Deceivers, and of persons that laid await there, to turn good men out of the Path.

Great. But how did they make that out?

Valiant. They told me that Mr. Worldly Wiseman did there lie in wait to deceive. They also said that there was Formality and Hypocrisy continually on the Road. They said also that By-ends, Talkative, or Demas, would go near to gather me up; That the Flatterer would catch

me in his Net, or that with green-headed Ignorance I would presume to go on to the Gate, from whence he always was sent back to the Hole that was in the side of the Hill, and made to go the By-way to Hell.

Great. I promise you, this was enough to discourage. But did they make an end here?

Valiant. No, stay. They told me also of many that The Fourth. had tried that way of old, and that had gone a great way therein, to see if they could find something of the Glory there, that so many had so much talked of from time to time; and how they came back again, and befooled themselves for setting a foot out of doors in that Path, to the satisfaction of all the Country. And they named several that did so, as Obstinate and Pliable, Mistrust, and Timorous, Turn-away, and old Atheist, with several more; who, they said, had, some of them, gone far to see if they could find, but not one of them found so much Advantage by going, as amounted to the weight of a Feather.

Great. Said they anything more to discourage you?

Valiant. Yes, they told me of one Mr. Fearing, who The Fifth. was a Pilgrim, and how he found this way so Solitary, that he never had comfortable hour therein, also that Mr. Dispondency had like to have been starved therein; Yea, and also, which I had almost forgot, that Christian himself, about whom there has been such a noise, after all his ventures for a Celestial Crown, was certainly drowned in the black River, and never went foot further, however it was smothered up.

Great. And did none of these things discourage you?
Valiant. No. They seemed but as so many Nothings

to me.

Great. How came that about?